Project Dreamz

by Natavia

  “Ma, where are you going? School is about to start and Naya needs help with school shopping. I don’t have enough money for the both of us. I just came home.”

  “You two are grown. You’ll be nineteen in a few months and Naya is sixteen. What do you want me to do? Miss out on happiness because you two are grown enough to take care of yourselves? The rent is only two-hundred dollars. I’ll keep my name on everything, just pay the bills, they aren’t that much. I have been working these stupid-ass jobs for years with blisters on my feet, arthritis in my back and wrist. I’ll still come here but I don’t need to babysit you two anymore. I’m tired, Dream! I used all my money to get you a lawyer because they were going to let you sit away for two years. I’ve done everything I can for you two and now it’s time for you to grow up,” she said.

  “Are you mad with me because you spent money on a lawyer? I’ll pay you back. I can go without, but you know Naya needs some things that I don’t have the money for!”

  “You’ll be alright, Dream. You still have a roof over your head and food in the fridge!” she said…

  That was the last time I saw her, and it seemed like forever ago. I pulled myself out of my daydream while the truck filled with smoke. I almost forgot I was in the truck with two of Chrome’s sons. I knew who Tryst was before I even met him. He was in the newspaper a few times when I was looking for jobs. Tryst was a popular teenager from what I knew about him.

  “You want to hit this?” Naya asked, passing me a blunt.

  “No, thanks,” I replied.

  I looked over at Tryst and he was leaned back in the driver’s seat with bloodshot red eyes. He was tall and had a nice physique. Tryst was only seventeen, but he had a man’s hands, maybe because he was athletic. He was indeed handsome and had healthy locs. We were the only silent ones, maybe he had a lot on his mind, too.

  “Let’s go back to our apartment. Me and Dream have our own spot,” Naya said.

  “I’m down,” Trell said.

  “What about you, Tryst?” Naya asked.

  “He has a different life than ours. He can’t just hang out all hours of the night and miss school,” I replied.

  “I can speak for myself,” Tryst said with an attitude.

  “You don’t want to come near where we live wit’ yah good boy image. Just drop us off here and we can catch a cab to my neighborhood,” I replied.

  “Yo, you don’t even know me for you to be tellin’ me what I should do,” he replied.

  “You must be havin’ rich boy issues. Go ahead and hangout in the projects so you can prove a point to your bad-ass brother, Trell,” I replied.

  “You sound stupid. I don’t have to prove shit! You think because you probably read an article about me or somethin’ you got my life all mapped out? Just sit back and ride!” Tryst said.

  This muthafucka got a nasty attitude.

  “Yo, chill on Tryst. Our father left his mother, so now he’s going through some shit,” Trell teased.

  Tryst pulled up into a parking lot and slammed on the brakes. He got out and opened the back door, dragging Trell out by his hoodie. I didn’t want the police to roll up on us because we were all under twenty-one with an open bottle in the truck. I didn’t need any more dealings with the police.

  “Y’all get the hell back in here!” I shouted.

  I jumped out the truck and Tryst was swinging on Trell while Naya was trying to pull Trell away. I grabbed onto Tryst’s hoodie and he was way taller than me, so I had to pull on his pants.

  “The security guards might see y’all stupid asses and call somebody!” I screamed. Trell got a good punch in but Tryst swung back, knocking Trell into the truck.

  “Aight, nigga, damn! I can’t breathe with all that weed I smoked,” Trell said, trying to catch his breath.

  “You had that one coming now hopefully you’ll learn to stop fuckin’ with me. You don’t have to tell the damn world David left my mother because he felt sorry for your crack-baby ass, muthafucka! I bet you don’t like that, huh? Yeah, I know!” Tryst yelled at Trell.

  “Y’all jumped me anyway,” Trell said and got back into the truck, still talking mess.

  “He needed that. He’s like that over the phone when talking to Naya,” I said to Tryst. He looked down at me and I chuckled.

  “You are tooo short,” he replied.

  “Why you have to say it like that?” I asked with my arms crossed.

  “It’s cute,” he smirked.

  “Nigga, fuck you!” I shouted over my shoulder while walking towards his truck.

  Tryst got back in, looked over the seat and asked Trell if he was good. Trell told Tryst to go fuck himself. Trell was embarrassed by getting his ass whipped but it shut him up. Maybe we all should stop sleeping on the catholic school kids.

  *********

  We were finally in my neighborhood. Not too many people were outside which was a good thing.

  “This neighborhood is right near my father’s stores,” Tryst said, looking around.

  “Are you scared?”

  “You think I’m lame, don’t you? What do I gotta do to show you none of this fazes me? I gotta rob a nigga or somethin’?” he asked.

  “If I had your life, I would never come through this place. Maybe I’m lookin’ out for you,” I said.

  “I’m good,” he replied.

  I got out of his truck, and just when I thought the coast was clear, my ex-boyfriend, Rizzo, came walking up the sidewalk. He must didn’t see me because he turned the corner. I breathed a sigh of relief then rushed to my building where we lived on the second floor. Naya unlocked the door and a fresh smell of bleach still lingered in the air from when we cleaned up earlier.

  I turned the light on by the door and I was embarrassed by the roach on the wall. Luckily, I was able to knock it off and step on it without anyone catching on. The building was infested with roaches regardless of if you were clean or not. Naya went into the kitchen to make Trell a sandwich and Tryst was just staring at me.

  “What?” I asked Tryst.

  “I can’t get a sandwich?” he replied.

  “Do you have butlers in your house?”

  “No, we don’t,” he said.

  “And we don’t have them here. Fix it yourself.”

  “But I gave your buffalo wings smellin’ ass a ride home and I can’t get a lil’ hospitality?” he asked with a smirk on his face.

  “I’ll fix it, Tryst! Dream can be complicated,” Naya yelled from the kitchen.

  “Appreciate it,” Tryst said.

  He sat on the couch and turned the TV on, making himself comfortable. Maybe I was being a bitch, but the last thing I needed was someone putting their nose up in my home.

  “Do you want somethin’ to drink?” I asked him.

  “Naw, Naya can bring it,” he said before answering his cellphone.

  “I’m busy, Jonna. Why do you keep calling me? We can talk in school tomorrow,” Tryst said into the phone.

  Aww, he has a little girlfriend in school. I figured that.

  Naya and Trell went into the living room with their sandwiches. It was actually nice to see Naya laughing. Since our mother’s been gone, Naya has sorta been moping around. I went into my bedroom to get my things for the shower because I smelled like pizza and chicken. Someone out in the living room turned the music on and all I wanted to do was sleep. Naya worked part-time but most days I worked from the time Chuckie Cheese opened to the time it closed.

  While I was in the shower, I thought about intimacy. It had been a while since I had sex and I was damn-near craving it. I know most people come home from jail and get some the same night, but I was too beat down and stressed out.

  Maybe I can buy a bullet or somethin’.

  I spent thirty minutes in the shower before I stepped out and dried off. At night I used shea butter for my skin. Usually I walked around in underwear and a tank-top, but I opted for a robe.

  “What are you doing?” I asked Tryst.

  He was i
n my bedroom looking at pictures on my dresser.

  “I had to use the bathroom, but I saw your name on this door,” he said.

  I tossed my clothes in the hamper in my closet then slammed it shut. Tryst sat on my bed then turned the TV on.

  “Why aren’t you out there?”

  “I’m not a third wheel type of person and Naya was doin’ some stupid-ass dance that almost injured my ankle. I got a big game coming up Friday,” he said, looking around.

  “So, you feel entitled to everything, huh? This is my personal space!”

  “Shut up, you don’t care fo’ real. I know where I’m wanted at,” he replied.

  I sat on my bed and crossed my arms. Tryst sat on the end flipping through my college books.

  “You going to school to be a nurse?” he asked.

  “LPN more so. It’s just something to do so me and Naya can move to a better place.”

  “How did you fail this paper?” he asked, and I snatched it from him.

  “You are makin’ me soooo damn mad!”

  “Calm down, I’m just looking out for you as you did for me. You can say whatever you want to me, but I can’t tell you that you don’t know Anatomy?” he asked.

  Tryst swung his legs on the bed with his back against the wall.

  “I’m really in here because Trell went in Naya’s room. Where is your mother?” he asked.

  “Where is your mother?”

  “Probably home,” he replied.

  “My mother left us. She said we’re grown now so we can fend for ourselves which is why I failed my test. I work a lot and sometimes miss school. We have those type of problems.”

  “Yeah, ain’t nothing worse than lyin’ parents. At least your mother told you what it was instead of pretending shit was all perfect,” Tryst said.

  “After I thought about it, I think my mother was fed up with us. Me and Naya was always caught up in the wrong crowd. What kind of people do you hang around?”

  “Rich kids,” he said blatantly.

  “That’s a good thing.”

  “We’re not rich. We just got money and they aren’t the same. I’m constantly being criticized everywhere I go. At school, I’m some type of thug then here I’m this preppy-ass nigga. Truth is, nobody knows me at all,” he said.

  “What about your girlfriend? She knows you—”

  “No, she doesn’t,” he said.

  Instead of watching TV, the TV watched us. We were talking for hours. Yes, we were strangers but that’s what made our conversation better. Tryst was nothing like what we thought about him. I was feeling our conversations, despite the two-year age difference between us. We talked for hours while he ignored his cellphone.

  Four o’clock in the morning…

  Tryst was sleeping on his back at the end of my full-sized bed when I woke up to a loud banging noise. I don’t even remember us falling asleep. The banging was getting louder and I tried to wake up Tryst, but he was knocked out.

  “Open the fuckin’ door before I shoot the knob off!” I heard a familiar voice.

  Chrome was from my hood and I knew a lot about him because my ex-boyfriend worked for him.

  When I opened the door, two of his homeboys was with him, June Bug and Raoul.

  “My sons up here?” Chrome asked, stepping into my apartment. Raoul stayed behind, and June Bug wanted to come inside but I slammed the door in his face. I hated the way he looked at my sister and many other young girls—he was a creep. June Bug actually looks like a bug. He had a bald head with big poppy eyes and black lips. His money attracted many women, I even heard he knocked a fifteen-year-old girl up. He needed to die for that.

  “Someone told me they saw Trell with your sister and another boy that looks like him and I know that’s my other son,” Chrome said, looking at Trell's shoes on the living room floor.

  “Hold on,” I replied.

  I was ready to walk down the hall to get his sons, but he stopped me. He looked at me with hate-filled eyes. Chrome was usually a calm person until someone fucked him over.

  “Someone stole my son’s truck and I bet he doesn’t know shit about it. If I find out you and your sister set my sons up, it’s going to be murder. I know you Dream, and I know what type of niggas you like. My son ain’t one of them and you should’ve known better than to bring him up here knowing that niggas don’t know who he is! Rizzo is my nigga, what kind of position you trying to put me in by seducing my son, huh?” Chrome gritted.

  “You know I’d never do anything like that! Don’t come at me about Rizzo, fuck Rizzo!”

  Tryst walked down the hallway into the living room wiping his eyes. The fight between him and Trell was starting to show because his lip was slightly swollen. Chrome rushed to Tryst, pushing him into the wall.

  “You think you grown, huh? Who told you to come to this side of town, huh? And who stole yo’ shit? Your mother called me this morning tellin’ me the police called her and told her your truck was in a ditch! Nigga, I should beat your ass!” Chrome yelled at Tryst. Trell came out of Naya’s bedroom with a gun. Chrome slapped Trell in the back of his head then took the gun away from him.

  “How many times have I told you to stay away from around here? Y’all muthafuckas getting ass whippings soon as we get home. What, you been fuckin’?” Chrome asked Trell.

  “Why you gotta ask us this shit right here?” Tryst asked.

  “What happened to y’all’s faces?” Chrome asked.

  “Me and Tryst fought each other yesterday. It’s not that serious, Chrome, now can I go back to sleep?” Trell asked. Chrome punched Trell in his arm and he fell into the kitchen table.

  “I’m tryin’ to do the right thing and this is what y’all do to me, huh? Y’all ain’t tough! What in the fuck are y’all going to do if niggas run up on you with choppas? I know a few niggas whose kids were kidnapped and held for ransom and y’all are a walking bank. I didn’t grind this hard for my sons to be booed up with some hoodrats!” Chrome said to his sons.

  “Nigga, who you callin’ a hoodrat? You better take that shit outside!” I said to Chrome.

  “If I catch them up here again my next visit won’t be nice. The last thing I need is my sons getting trapped. Tell your sister the same thing!” Chrome said.

  Tryst went into my bedroom and came back out with his hoodie and shoes. Trell grabbed his things off the couch. They left out of the door with their father still yelling at them. I went inside Naya’s room and she was knocked out with her work clothes on. Her and Trell wasn’t doing anything but smoking. I closed her door and went back into my bedroom. There was a note left on my bed and it was from Tryst…

  I apologize for what he said to you. I’ll get at you soon…

  The note was written sloppily because he was in a rush, but I couldn’t stop smiling. Soon as I laid down, my cellphone rang. It was my cousin, Kabella. She was three years older than me and she stayed in the streets. I finally answered the phone and music was blasting in my ear.

  “Bitch, open the door!” she screamed into the phone.

  “Where you at?”

  “In front your building I’m too tired to drive to D.C.,” she said.

  I loved my cousin to death, but she annoyed me. I hung up the phone and went to open the door for her. Kabella strutted into my apartment wearing a two-thousand-dollar outfit with a pair of Jimmy Choos on her feet. Her weave was silky straight, and it reached her hips. Kabella was light-skinned with a slim but shapely frame, the same as Naya’s. She was also tall, standing around five-nine. Kabella was a straight-up dime piece.

  “Heyyy cousin!” she screamed then hugged me.

  “You see what time it is?” I asked.

  “Yeah, but I needed to talk to you since you don’t want to take the money from me,” she said, placing her purse on the coffee table.

  “I don’t like how this sounds,” I replied.

  “Bitch, have a seat and listen. You want money, don’t you?” she asked.

  “It’s almost
five o’clock in the morning. I have to start breakfast for Naya before she goes to school.”

  “Just listen to me. I know a way you can make easy cash, I mean thousands of dollars in a week,” she said.

  “I’m not strippin’.”

  “This is better. How about being an escort?” she asked.

  “Naw, fuck NO!”

  “Don’t knock it,” she said.

  “I’m not selling pussy.”

  “Escort isn’t about that but if that’s what you choose to do then no judgement here. All I do is go places with men, rich men. I go on trips and all of that. I’ve been doing this for four months now and I have a brownstone in D.C. You look like Nia Long, Dream; do you know how bomb that is? Hell, you look better than her. You’re like a fetish, just think about all that bank you can make. Fuck school, you can save money and have your own business. Do you know how many people fall into school debt? You can always go back to school later on, but this money is more important. It’s not like you’re a prostitute,” she said.

  Kabella went into her purse and pulled out a card.

  “Just try it,” she said.

  Kabella kicked off her heels and jean jacket. She grabbed a blanket from off the sofa to cover herself up. Seconds later, she was sound asleep. I stared at the card she gave me. There was no way in hell I could do it.

  I’ll find another way very soon.

  Tryst

  An hour later…

  Trell was in the back seat snoring while I sat in the passenger seat of my father’s truck. His jaw was tight while clutching the steering wheel. We were pulling up to our house and the front door light came on.

  “Get the fuck out of my truck, Tryst,” he said, looking forward.

  “Dream told me not to come through her hood, so you didn’t have to say all of that to her. We didn’t touch each other, I fell asleep because I was smoking and had a few drinks. All we did was talk,” I replied.

  “What can you and Dream talk about? Y’all don’t have a damn thing in common. You got all of this and you don’t appreciate it. Go to school and be something, that’s all I ask,” he said.