by S. L. Walker
Charm City
Pt. 1
S. L. Walker
Copyright © 2018 Sarita Walker
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 1724879685
ISBN-13: 978-1724879684
DEDICATION
My Guardian Angels:
Mary Louise Mohead and Lawrence Alvin Walker
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To my Family and Friends,
God has blessed me with the best of friends and family. Jeff and Evelia Davis, thank you for the unconditional support you have given me throughout my life. Jamar Collins, thank you for your continued creativity and help to make this book happen. Thank you to my proofreaders and draft readers Jerome Riley, Champagne Crews, and Latoya Spears. My brother Lydell, all my aunts who have become second mothers to me; Aunt Dee, Aunt Pookie, Aunt Ann, Aunt Hazel, Aunty Sarah. Thank you to my cousin Kiniya (Shortee) for always being a shoulder to lean on when I wanted to give up. My nieces and my nephews, who I love to death and will do anything for. To my girls in my life, you know who you are. I love the constant love and support you give to me. LOVE YOU ALL!
PROLOGUE
Lila’s sneer and sweet perfume took over the musty and mildew smell of the shed. This was the first time Raven had ever seen Lila in jeans. They were designer, high-waisted and fit her petite behind, her legs were skinny, but followed perfectly with her black studded red bottoms dancing across the cold concrete ground. Lila put her arm around Raven’s neck, revealing the smell of her new leather jacket and signature perfume.
“Look at him. He’s just another nigga on these streets, now,” Lila chuckled. “All you have to do now is end it, Raven. He took your brother from you. And tried to take your man,” she took her arm from around Raven and handed her the AR-15 from her bag.
“When he’s gone, you can be a ghost in the city. Nobody will know who you are. You can take over Baltimore. I’ll even teach you. After all, this is charm city,” Lila pressured Raven.
She stared at Treach teetering on the chair; dying but very aware of his surroundings. They had his hands strapped tight. She looked at the AR-15 in her hand.
Wasn’t this a bit much?
She then looked at Lila who gave her a nod. Raven couldn’t understand what Lila had against him. Last time she heard they were business partners. But Lila showed so much angst that Raven wasn’t sure if she was getting the revenge or Lila.
What was really in it for her?
Raven watched Treach’s head swing from side to side in a daze as he tried to force himself to stay awake, but he was slowly fading.
“Finish him, Vee,” Tori pushed. She looked over at Tori, Angie, and Eva. The girls that had been there from the very beginning. They had seen it all and had her back through it all. Angel had her eyes covered with her hands. Eva stood over Treach with her bloody gun from her own transgressions. Tori gave her a head nod of support. DJ stood next to Raven, sensing that she wasn’t ready. He took the gun from her and she slowly released it in his hands. He had got her here, but she didn’t need to finish it. He unlocked his own gun and pointed it to Treach.
“Any last words you sorry muthafucka?” He asked Treach. Treach struggled to look at him and his eyes had said enough.
BANG!
Baltimore, Maryland
VICTORIA SPRINGS
“Tori!” That was my mom yelling from the kitchen. It was the first day of school. I was just putting on my stolen all white basketball shoes and stolen gold earrings.
“Tori! You got five minutes!” She continued yelling. I checked my hair one last time in the mirror, making sure I had no stray hairs in my slick ponytail. I was fly, my reddish brown curly hair laid just right to form a perfect bun at the top of my head. My lip gloss was popping and my caramel baby face didn’t need a drop of makeup.
This was our second year of High School and 9th grade was not all that great. Seniors treated Freshman like the fish and they were the sharks. Lucky for us, we did’t get bullied, mostly due to Raven’s brother being on the Senior football team; he was a junior. Popularity definitely was a thing at our school, but we were jut some average teenage girls.
I smiled at my blue and white tie-dye tee that hugged my body and displayed my developing breast and then turned to make sure my small behind looked right in my light blue jeans.
Yeah.
I grabbed my yellow backpack and ran into the kitchen where my mom was pouring her a veggie smoothie.
“Now, you, miss, take something to go. You’re going to be late,” she pointed to some old fruit on the table that looked like it had seen its last days.
I’ll pass.
She started rushing around in the kitchen which was nothing new. She always rushed in the morning. My mom is gorgeous and a really sweet person. Her name is Patricia, or Patty is what a lot of people call her. It hurt my heart to know how much she was struggling, working her nine to five every day, dealing with unappreciative rich customers at the boutique she worked at.
She loved to do it. Fashion was her thing, but when she had me and then the separation with my dad, all that went out of the door. However, she always remained stylish, with her makeup, hair and nails done and she also kept her figure. Everyone said I looked just like my mom. We had the same caramel complexion, same big brown doe eyes, brown hair, and soft cheek bones. I was a little taller than her, but that was probably because of my dad. I’m not even sure what my dad was thinking losing her.
“Aye!” Raven Johnson, my best friend, yelled from the front screen door. Raven stayed only a few blocks from me and she always popped up at my house, but this day we were riding our bikes to school together. She only had her dad and older brother. It was probably why Raven was such a tomb boy; into sports cars, sports, and all of that. Only thing she wasn’t into was girls. Raven is also half Jamaican and half black; Jamaican on her mom’s side. She’s 5’8, has long, thick, curly black hair that she never wore down; always in a bun or ponytail. But now she had them braided in long singles for the school year. She had soft, dark eyes, a button nose and full lips. Raven was beautiful.
We had been friends since 6th grade. I had moved to Baltimore, Maryland when I was nine years old after my mom and dad fully divorced. It was hard making friends halfway through my 5th grade year and then I met Raven at the local open house for school. She had walked up to me and told me we were going to be friends and we had been inseparable ever since.
I opened the screen door for her. She was also fly in her newly stolen tennis shoes.
“Oh yeah, them tough!” She said, pointing at my shoes. “So you did take them!” She then pointed at my gold earrings, laughing.
“Shhhhh foo, my mama in the kitchen!” I closed the screen door and she followed me into the kitchen.
“Good Morning Miss Patty,” she said as she walks in the kitchen grabbing one of the old apples.
“Hey Sweety, y’all ready for y’all first day of tenth grade? It’s going to be a great experience,” my mom smiled revealing her big white straight teeth.
“At Mission Rock? Yea I guess,” Raven laughed. Mission Rock was probably a five on the scale from one to ten of high schools to go to. There wasn’t any murders or things like that, like there were at Washington High, but drug solicitation to teacher sexual assaults happened a lot.
“Okay, let’s dip,” I kissed my mom and turned to walk out.
“Um, hold on. Where did you get those?” She pointed at my shoes. Raven and I make instant eye contact.
“I been saving for these,” I lied.
“You don’t have a job to save little girl. I better not find out you stealing. As a matter of fact, t
hey better be fake!” She yelled. I tapped Raven to go.
“Okay, mom! We’re going to be late! Love ya! Bye!” We hurried up out the door. I could hear my mom cursing to herself about me. I do get an allowance a couple times a month, but not enough to afford these.
I grabbed my bicycle and Raven grabbed hers. She stopped to zip up her black jacket over her baggy black Baltimore t-shirt and baggy jeans. Raven was born in Baltimore and represented her city hard. She was Baltimore Ravens fan and even a fan of the Baltimore Hawks. Her brother, Deon, played on the Varsity Football team at Mission Rock as the Mission Rock Eagles. Raven was definitely dateable, but none of the guys really took her serious and I don’t think she even cared.
“Why you wearing that Jacket, you know it’s gonna be warm today?” I told her shaking my head.
“Don’t worry about me,” she brushed me off. We both hopped on our bikes and headed on the two-mile ride to school.
We passed by other kids and their parents dropping them off to different schools. We even passed by our old middle school on the way.
“Are we meeting Eva and Angel or what?” Raven asked as we got closer to the school.
“In the front,” I answered.
Eva, Angel, Raven and I all became good friends in 8th grade. Eva and Raven had been friends way before me, though, and Angel sort of gravitated towards us the end of our 7th grade year. Angel Moreau was the quiet one of us and she was mixed with a whole lot of stuff; her mother had French and Italian in her Caucasian blood and her dad was African American. What made Angel stick out was her loyalty. She lived as an only child with her mom and dad. She was about 5’5, her hair was curly jet black which made her green eyes pop even more, she had thick eyebrows, and a pointy nose, that she got from her mom’s side of the family.
Eva Sanchez was super smart but very careless. She always had this I will try it at least once attitude. Eva is full-blown Mexican and has this really long black hair that went down to her behind, that she had been growing since second grade. Her mom refused to cut it. She had thick eyelashes, dark brown eyes and lips that stayed glossed up. For her 15th birthday that just passed at the end of July, her mom let her get her left eyebrow pierced. It actually looked good on her and matched her spunky attitude. She has a little step sister that lives up north with her dad and step mom that she doesn’t like to talk about.
“There go Eva right there!” Raven pointed as we rolled up to the front of the school. I wasn’t surprised she was already brushing away a guy, who looked like a senior. Angel was also being smothered. I could see the irritation already building up in Raven’s face. Her temper was already flaring.
“Look at these thirsty motha….” She peddled faster over to the girls. I sighed and peddled after her. Eva and Angel saw us before the boys did. They excused themselves and quickly walked away from them disappointing the boys. Raven stopped in her tracks.
“Hey y’all,” said Eva. She had a flowered head band wrapped around her head leaving her long hair to dance in the warm wind. She was wearing a light blue jean jacket over a white tee, black jeans, and black sandals.
“The bell is almost about to ring, you guys just made it,” said Angel. She wore a loose fitting pink short sleeve shirt, black leggings and some black and white Adidas tennis shoes. Her hair was tied back with a pink flower bowtie leaving out most of her curly hair at the bottom.
“These dudes here are idiots,” Eva said.
“How old were they?” I hopped off my bike and started walking towards the bike rack with them.
“17 and 18!” Angel said disgusted.
“Yea, they acted like freshmen, though. You know he had the nerve to walk up to me and say, on a scale from one to ten, you’re a nine and I’m the one you need? Got me mad bent!” Eva laughed. We all burst out laughing.
“Hey, what you guys got for your first class?” Angel asked as she took out her class schedule. “I got Mrs. Grady in Math.”
“Sucks for you, I got Art!” Raven laughed.
“Yea, I got Art, too,” I said folding my paper back up.
“Y’all suck,” Eva joked.
“What you get?” I asked.
“Mr. Duncan. English,” Eva sighed.
“Ugh Mr. Duncan sounds like one of those perverted English Professor names,” I laughed.
“Let’s meet back out here at lunch,” Raven said. We agreed and both headed to class right as the bell rang.
During lunchtime, kids have the choice to go off campus or stay on campus. On the first day we chose to eat off campus and check out the scenery outside. We hadn’t been in any other classes together so we had a lot to talk about when we met up in front of the gym.
“So where y’all wanna eat?” Angel asked, pulling out about a hundred dollars, counting how much cash she had.
“Damn where you get all that?” Raven teased.
“Your treat,” I added.
“My dad’s been real generous the past week,” Angel laughed. She took out a five-dollar bill and stuffed the rest back into her purse.
“Taco Bell is right around the corner,” Raven said. We all agreed and hopped on our bikes to Taco Bell.
We turned the corner to the restaurant and there were a ton of other students doing the same thing. Some kids even followed behind us on bikes. The students that took up most of the parking lot were all Juniors and Seniors who had cars. More than likely they had skipped class and had been there. It was definitely intimidating. The girls dressed different and acted different from us. They all hung around the boys with money and nice cars. We all had the same look on our face when we parked our bikes.
“It’s thick than a mug,” Eva complained.
“And we have to go through that,” Angel pointed to all the older students who were basically blocking the door of the Taco Bell. I looked around and some people were smoking and drinking, blasting their music, girls flirting with guys and vice versa. I noticed one older girl, Jamie. Jaimie had long thin single braids that went down to her ass, a lip piercing, way too much eyeliner and a tight dress that basically showed her ass when she leaned over. She used to date Raven’s brother, Deon. She was always over when Raven’s dad wasn’t there. Soon as I noticed her, Raven must’ve noticed, too.
“Who let the hoes out?” Raven nodded towards Jamie. Jamie was a junior, very pretty, but very flamboyant. She always went after the next big thing or shall we say popular guy. This time it looked like it was Tommy, a football player with a hell of a red sports car that she was leaning all over. I only knew of Tommy through word of mouth. I heard he got set back a year and should’ve graduated last year. I watched him as he leaned on the glossy red paint and she leaned right back, laughing and touching his face.
“So what are we eating, y’all?” asked Angel. “I’m not going in there.”
“You scared?” Raven teased.
Out of nowhere, a bunch of commotion comes out of Taco Bell. People start running out in flocks. No one outside really budged but more concerned about what was going on. I see Deon run up to us. We hadn’t seen him all day.
“What y’all doing out here? Go back towards that way,” he yelled pointing back toward the school as he came towards us. Raven’s brother was attractive, too, and surprisingly kept decent grades. His Jamaican features stood out the more than Ravens’. He had bushy eyebrows and short beginner dreads. His lips were full complimenting his early mustache that was forming. It was no surprise Jamie was all over him at one point. But they don’t call them hoes for nothing.
“What the hell, Deon? We can be here,” Raven yelled back.
“All the seniors hang out over here,” He told us.
Just as he said that, two gunshots from inside the Taco Bell go off. Everyone screamed and ran. Juniors and Seniors hop in their cars, some people run out of the Taco Bell, and we get pushed on our bikes from Deon before he runs to his own car. We ride our bikes all the way down the street to Mcdonalds. Some people followed right behind us. None of us looked back. We
would hear about it soon. Gunshots were anything but new.
My mom worked in the heart of Baltimore at an upscale boutique called The Parlor. If you ask me all of the stuff was way too expensive for what it looked like. I had to meet her there after school so I could turn in the light bill before it closed, because she didn’t get off till later on.
I pulled up to the clear-glassed boutique. I could see my mom at the register with a customer. I parked my bike and walked in. There were a couple of older ladies in the store looking at accessories. I looked at my mom and she looked agitated. I could hear the lady complaining about a return and she didn’t have the receipt. My mom kept trying to tell the lady she couldn’t make the return and there weren’t any exceptions without the owner present other than store credit. Knowing the owner, Betty, she would flip if there was some kind of unauthorized return. I remember my mom telling me one college girl got fired because she returned a $300 pair of shoes without a receipt. My mom couldn’t afford that and jobs weren’t so easy to get right now.
“I’m sorry, mam, I just can’t do it,” she had her hands up.
“I will be speaking to your boss about this! I am a loyal customer. I shop here all the time,” the lady turned her nose up, grabbed her bag and stormed out. My mom did a sigh of relief and noticed me.
“Oh, Tori I almost forgot. Hold on.” She hustled to the back of the store. I looked around some more at all the clothes. Fur coats and long sweater dresses hung for the winter season. One of the ladies held a gold choker in her hand, putting it up to her neck in the mirror. I was pretty sure that necklace was overpriced and ugly.
“Okay, here, make sure you get there before it closes, I’m already behind.” My mom handed me a check. “I’m definitely going to have to close the store since Sandra’s out sick.”
