by D D Bridges
I didn’t think I was ever going to get used to Terry talking about having three kids. I couldn’t even imagine what that was like, but I still didn’t like seeing him living by the game.
“All I’m sayin’ is that I know that there’s something better out there for you,” I said, trying to stay positive.
“Like what? You gon’ give me one of them office jobs at your company?” he said, but we both knew the answer to that question. “Nigga, this is just who I am: the game, the streets, the money. Everybody can’t be you. We all can’t inherit millions from our dead-beat daddies.”
“Come on man, you know I didn’t even mean it like that,” I said.
“I know, but I’m just keeping it real,” Terry said just as one of his buyers walked up to him.
While he took care of his transaction, my attention was arrested by something else. This fine girl was crossing the street and heading in our direction. Her beauty was stunning and I knew that she couldn’t be from this neighborhood. She was way classier than the women in these parts. She was rocking some Gucci shades and had long curly hair. Her high-yellow skin color seemed to glow in the sunlight. All the niggas were staring and she was definitely worth the attention.
“What’s up, Nat,” Terry nodded and said to her as she arrived at our side of the street.
“Hey, Terry,” she said casually. She was about to keep walking like she didn’t see me standing there but I wasn’t about to have that. I stepped into her path, stopping her stride.
“You’re just gonna walk by me and not speak,” I said after I looked her up and down.
She looked me up and down as well and tried to act like she wasn’t impressed, but I could tell that she was. I was the only nigga on the block rocking a designer suit.
“Oh, I’m sorry, but I don’t think I know you,” she said with a little bit of an attitude. “You must not be from around here.”
“No, I am from around here. I grew up right around the corner,” I told her. “But I work downtown now.”
“Oh… That must be nice,” she said and tried to walk past me but I blocked her path again.
“My name is Darius. What’s your name?” I asked.
“My name is Natalie, and I really don’t have time to play hop-scotch with you, sir,” she said annoyed.
“Well, Natalie, I’m not into playing games. I just like to keep it real.”
“Sure you do. Just like every other nigga on the block, right,” she said as I allowed her to walk past me.
“Damn! Yo, who is that, T? I ain’t never seen her around here before,” I said to Terry after I watched Natalie walk away.
“That’s because you haven’t been around that much. Everybody knows Natalie. That’s KaRon’s girl,” Terry told me.
“What? That’s KaRon’s girl?”
“Well, his ex-girl. She broke up with him months ago, but if you ask KaRon, she still belongs to him.” Terry informed me.
“Nah. That girl is way too fine to be with a nigga like KaRon,” I said.
“Oh, I guess you feel like she need to be wit’ a nigga like you, huh?” Terry said.
“Hell yeah,” I told him. “I’m tellin’ you, that’s wifey right there. Wait and see.”
“Trust me, ain’t no pussy worth crossing KaRon,” Terry told me. “He gets crazy when it comes to Natalie. Niggas can’t even talk to her without him going off.”
“Yeah, well he will just have to get over it because I don’t stop until I get what I want.”
*******
Later on that night I went back to that part of town to see my boy, Derek. Out of all of my friends, Derek and I had the most in common, which was ironic since me and my crew didn’t even like him when we first met him. Derek transferred to our school in the middle of our freshmen year at Grady High. To say that he was a nerd was an understatement. Derek used to where some of the biggest, thickest glasses that I had ever seen in my life. To make matters worse, he used to wear plaid shirts and pants that actually fit. Me and my boys used to have fun jumping him almost every day.
In spite of how un-cool he was, nobody could deny the fact that Derek was the smartest person in the school. He was even smarter than the principal. He always had this thing with computers. If anything went wrong with any computer on campus, they would call Derek to fix it. He started earning cool points when he showed us his hacking skills. But we were really impressed when we saw his skills on the basketball court. Me, Terry, and my boys Kenny and Mike knew that we all were guaranteed spots on the varsity squad when our junior year rolled around. When Derek made the squad too we knew that he was officially one of us and we were tight with him from that day on.
We were like brothers on and off the court. We helped Derek with his image and he helped us pass most of our tougher classes. By the time we graduated Derek had transformed into a real ladies man. Derek and I were the only two out of the crew that went to college. We both ended up going to Georgia Tech. Derek, of course, received a full academic scholarship, majored in artificial intelligence, and graduated at the top of his class. He was still the smartest person that I knew, but over the years he had also become my best friend.
I went to his apartment which was in the new complex that they recently built a few blocks away from the old neighborhood. He was the only one of my boys that I could visit at night and leave my gun in the car. I jogged up the stairs of his building, still wearing the same shirt and tie that I had worn all day, found his apartment door and began to knock. I knocked non-stop until he finally opened the door. I knew shit like that got on his nerves.
“Why you knocking on my door like you the damn police?” he said as he stepped aside and let me enter. We slapped hands as he closed the door.
“You know I gotta mess wit’ you,” I told him as I began to move toward his couch.
“Yeah, I know,” he said as he went over to his computer.
“What you over there working on,” I asked him as I flipped through the channels on his TV. Derek was always working on some top-secret project just for fun.
“Nothing. Just hacking into the government’s homeland security files,” he said nonchalantly and then began to laugh when he saw the lopsided look on my face.
“Alright, keep playing. You gon’ end up getting locked up one of these days,” I said as I shook my head at him.
“Speaking of getting arrested, thanks for taking care of that situation today,” he said as he got up from his computer and came and sat on the opposite end of the couch. “I would’ve handled it, but you know how it is.”
“Don’t mention it, man. You know I always got y’all when y’all need me. We’re like family,” I told him sincerely. “How’s that job going?” I asked him.
“Not good,” he said with a sigh. “I’ve been on the job for six months but I’m bored already, and you know how I get when I’m bored,” he told me. “It was hard enough trying to find a job when I graduated, but the job that I have doesn’t even allow me to use a third of what I know. I don’t mean to sound cocky, but computer repair is beneath me.”
“I don’t think that’s cocky, because it’s true,” I told him. “I mean, you are way too intelligent to be sitting in an office all day waiting for somebody’s computer to break.”
“That’s what I’m saying!” Derek said as he jumped up and began to pace the floor. “I can’t spend my life like this. I feel like I’m just wasting time. There’s no excitement or intrigue… I mean, damn, if I’m gonna do some boring-ass shit for a living then I might as well get paid good for it,” he said before turning to me. “Are y’all hiring?”
“Oh, so what we do is boring now?” I asked with a laugh.
“Do you really want me to answer that?” Derek replied. “But for real though, at least I know that y’all pay good. And having you as my boss would be sweet. Come on, I know y’all gotta have a good position open, bruh.”
“Well, the CFO position did just open up,” I told him.
“That’s
perfect. Hook your boy up,” Derek said.
“Sorry man, but you’re not qualified. You gotta have at least five years of experience before you can even train for that position.”
Derek looked disappointed, but not for long. “That’s cool man. I guess I shouldn’t complain. At least I’m doing better than Mike.”
“I haven’t seen him since he’s been out. How’s he doin’?” I asked. Mike had done eighteen months in the pen for armed robbery. I knew that he was trying to live an honest life now, but it was hard for people with a criminal past to get the type of money that they needed to live.
“He’s doing okay, but he said he thinks that they’re gonna fire him soon from that repair shop that he’s been working at.”
“Why? What did he do?” I asked.
“Nothing. It’s a family owned business and Mike is the odd man out. And it’s rumored that the owner is talking about giving his nephew a job. They only been giving Mike like fifteen hours a week, bruh. Can’t nobody live off of that,” Derek said.
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “I might could loan him some cash. I just don’t want him to go back to that old life.”
“Yeah, I feel you, but you know how it is,” Derek said. “Like I told you before, we don’t like asking you for help. Just because you got money now don’t mean that we can just ask every time we in need. We gotta figure shit out on our own.”
“I know man, but it’s hard to see my boys struggling,” I told him. “Y’all are the brother’s that I never had.”
“Fo’ sho’, man. And one of these days we might just be able to show you that we got your back just like you got ours.”
Chapter III
It was the weekend and for once I had plans. These past few months had been all work and no play for me. Actually, aside from a few business conferences in the Bahamas, the past five years had pretty much been all work. Even though I was a prominent businessman, I think that most people would agree that I still needed leisure time. The best part of being in my shoes was that I didn’t have to answer to anybody. So tonight I was meeting up with my boys at the popular night club, Compound. I left the mansion, hopped in my Denali, and headed to the other side of town.
When I arrived at Compound it was just as I remembered it being. It had been awhile since I had been there, but not much had changed. The crowd was live and the music was loud. Terry texted me and told me that he and the rest of the guys were already in the private room that I reserved for us so I headed in that direction. When I got over there my boys already had a whole bunch of chicks flaunting around the room in their heels and tight dresses. The room was pretty much packed with people that I remembered from the old neighborhood. The drinks were already flowing and everyone seemed to be having a good time.
I spotted Mike and Kenny over in the corner and I went over to them. Mike was a big, tall guy; 6’6” and about 275 pounds. He was definitely the type of nigga that you wanted around you in case something went down. Kenny was a small dude, but he wasn’t a punk by any stretch of the imagination. I hadn’t seen either of them in a while so it was good to catch up with them. Whenever I got with my boys it was just like old times no matter how long it had been since I last saw them.
“Where Derek and Terry at?” I asked after we talked for a while.
“I’m right here,” Derek said as he walked up on me from behind. “Terry is over there talking to some guy.” We all looked in the direction Derek had come from and saw Terry talking to a guy who looked out of place. He was wearing dress-slacks with a shirt and tie, and it looked like they were having a pretty serious conversation.
“Who’s he?” Mike asked.
“I don’t know. He just came up to Terry and said that they needed to talk business,” Derek told us. As I continued to watch Terry, I saw KaRon join the conversation. There seemed to be a lot tension between the two of them and the other guy. You could tell that the guy in the tie feared KaRon and I wasn’t surprised. KaRon was a scary looking nigga. He was big and tall and always seemed to have a deranged look in his bulgy eyes. If KaRon was in the building, there was no telling what would go down.
I diverted my attention away from the three of them and was mingling with some of the other people in the room. I was in a good flow until I realized that Kenya was there. She was sitting over on one of the sofas with a group her friends. I could tell by the way that she was sitting that she was feeling herself.
I pulled Kenny to the side and asked, “Did you invite her?” Kenny looked directly at Kenya who was trying to act like she wasn’t looking at me.
“Man, nah. She just saw us chillin’ and she came over here with her friends. I thought y’all were cool,” Kenny said.
“We’re not. I’m not fucking with that bitch no more,” I told him.
“Damn. You must’ve talked to her about what I told you.”
“Yeah, I did,” I said. “And it’s fucked up too because Kenya used to be my baby. But that girl has changed.”
“Well, that’s what people do; they change. You’ve changed too,” Kenny said, causing me to look at him sideways. “What I mean is that you’re smarter now; too smart to be wasting your time with a girl like Kenya.”
After I thought on it, I realized that Kenny was right. I had outgrown Kenya and it was time for me to let that go and move on to something better.
As soon as Kenya saw Kenny walk away from me she stood up and headed in my direction. I weaved through the crowd that was beginning to grow in our private room and headed for the door. Once I was in the club’s main area I went to the bar and sat on one of the stools.
“Let me get a shot of Hennessy,” I told the cute bartender who couldn’t stop herself from smiling at me before going to get my drink. I threw back my first drink of the night and was about to ask for another one when I saw someone at the other end of the bar. I looked a little longer until I was sure that I was seeing who I thought I was seeing.
“Hey, send her an apple martini,” I told the bartender. She looked down at the other end of the bar and she knew exactly who I was talking about. Natalie was surrounded by a few of her friends, but anyone could see that she was the prettiest woman in the whole club.
The bartender fixed the drink and took it over to Natalie. Reading the bartender’s lips I could see that she told Natalie that the gentleman at the end of the bar had bought her a drink. Natalie didn’t even look in my direction. Instead she pushed the drink away and said “no thank you.” The bartender took the drink away and shrugged her shoulders as she walked back over to me.
“Maybe she’s not a drinker,” she said as she watched me while I stared at Natalie.
“Yeah… maybe,” I said with a slightly confused expression on my face. I watched Natalie get up and head to the dance floor with her friends. She was wearing this short, skin-tight leather halter dress that was squeezing her curves just right. I watched her until she became lost in the crowd.
“Thanks,” I told the bartender as I dropped a fifty on the counter top.
I got up and went in search of Natalie. I weaved through the crowded dance floor until I found myself in the middle. A couple of girls tried to walk up to me and dance, but I wasn’t out there for any of them. I was looking for one person, but she had somehow disappeared on me. I looked around until finally I saw her long curly hair and that dress. I approached her from behind and got right in her ear.
“So you don’t like apple martini’s,” I said, trying to project my voice over the music.
She turned to face me and at first she seemed annoyed, but when she saw that it was me her expression softened a little.
“So what’s up with that?” I asked her.
“I drove for my girls, so no drinking for me tonight,” she told me.
“Okay, so why don’t you come chill wit’ me upstairs. I rented a private room for the night for me and my crew,” I said as I draped my arm around her waist and tried to guide her in that direction. She pushed off on my shoulder, causing
my arm to drop.
“Uh, I don’t know you,” she said, folding her arms.
“What you mean you don’t know me? You spoke to me and my boy when we were standing on the corner a couple of weeks ago.”
“Yeah, I remember seeing you that day, but that doesn’t mean that I know you,” she replied.
“Okay, Natalie,” I said, pronouncing her name as if they were the lyrics to a song. “So maybe you don’t know me. Do you at least remember my name?”
“Isn’t it David or something like that,” she said, almost mockingly.
“It’s Darius,” I corrected her and the grin that came to her face made it impossible for me to know if she had really forgotten my name or if she were just messing with me.
“Oh, that’s right; Darius,” she said. “So what exactly is it that you want with me upstairs, Darius?”
“I just wanna talk to you. I think you are fine as hell, baby, you know what I’m saying.”
“Your colleagues downtown didn’t teach you any better lines than that,” she said causing me to laugh.
“I was just being real wit’ you,” I said as I took a step toward her. “Better yet, we can stay out here if you want to.”
Before I knew it, we were bumping and grinding just like everybody else on the floor. We were keeping it clean compared to what some of those other people were doing, but you still couldn’t squeeze a dime between us. My hands had found their sweet-spot on Natalie’s hips and I had no intentions of removing them anytime soon.
By the end of the third song we were both out of breath and ready for a break.
“I think me and my girls are about to leave,” Natalie told me in my ear.
“Why? It’s still early,” I replied.
“I know, but they’re ready to leave.”
“A’ight. Let me get your number.”
“Why don’t you give me yours,” she said smiling at me. I pulled out my wallet and gave her one of my business cards. She took a moment to read it before looking at me and saying, “Okay. I might just give you a call.”
