by S. L. Walker
“Okay.” That meant dinner would either be fast food or whatever I decided to make. I took her check, she hugged me and shooed me out the store. I got on my bike and headed straight to the light company.
I passed by a small part of the town. It was a tourist town filled with restaurants, gift stores, and places to buy tickets to go bike riding. I didn’t mind running errands for my mom because it got me a chance to see the better parts of Baltimore. I was tired of seeing liquor stores and homeless people for once. I pulled up to the light company and walked in. Of course there was a long line. I got in line behind a chubby white guy who almost reminded me of Santa Clause. His beard wasn’t grey enough but he had that salt and pepper look going on. He must’ve heard my thoughts because he looked at me and smiled. I smiled in return and shivered at the same time. My eyes wandered outside and I noticed a familiar face. That slut Jamie was about to walk in. Out of all the places. She popped through those doors smiling and talking on the phone loud as hell. And the way she was smacking her gum. I rolled my eyes and scooted up in line. She got in line behind the lady after me. I heard her say something about her next big come up and started listening in to her conversation.
“Girl yes, I am going back to him. He been making mad money and talking about getting married or whateva,” she said still out loud. She didn’t even see me yet, too busy yapping her mouth and staring at the Western Union brochures.
“Naw he’ll be fine. I saw Vanessa looking at him anyway. She can have his dumb ass.” She smacked her lips.
I know she wasn’t talking about Deon.
She must’ve read my thoughts, too, because she finally looked up and caught me staring. She gave me the ugliest look, too.
“Girl let me call you back. People up in my business in here,” she smacked her teeth again and hung up the phone.
This bitch. I rolled my eyes and scooted up in line.
“Ey,” she said to me. I turned around. “You Raven’s friend huh? Yall just started at Mission High with us,” she stated with an attitude and I knew where this was going. She knew exactly who I was, I was at Raven’s house more than enough and she knew we didn’t like her. I nodded my head and turned back around. She laughed.
“Y’all got a long way to go,” she said. I looked at her. I was glad she was with that other dude and stopped coming over. But whatever dude she was talking about on the phone didn’t sound like Tommy.
Could she be getting back with Deon?
“Next in line!” The lady yelled from the counter to me. I walked up and gave the check and account number. I could feel Jamie’s eyes burning in the back of my head. The lady did some clicking, gave me my receipt, and wished me a good day. I walked past Jamie not looking at her, but she was looking at me. I rushed out the door. I couldn’t wait to tell Raven this shit.
The shooting was on the news that night. I laid out on the couch and watched as the news lady explained how no one got seriously injured and they were searching for a suspect. They showed his picture and everything. I hadn’t seen him before. My mom walked in from the bedroom smacking her teeth.
“Thank God you were okay,” she said as she stopped and shook her head at the TV. “These people don’t care about anything anymore.” She walked back in the kitchen. My pager buzzed on the coffee table. I got up and it read the pager code: Call Me Vee (1133). My mom got me a pager over the summer. She said it would make her feel better now that I am in High School. I got up and called Raven back.
“Wat sup?” I asked, leaning on the bar table.
“You watching the news?” She asked.
“Yea, it’s crazy. They shutting down Taco Bell now,” I told her.
“I know, man. Listen we meeting up at the spot tomorrow after school,” she said.
“Okay,” I confirmed.
“Aight. Laterrr,” she hung up. My mom came back out of the kitchen with a bowl of grapes.
“I want you to be careful over there. Lord knows if them fools come back. I don’t understand why they don’t close down the school this week,” she complained.
“Because mom, they don’t care about us, even I know that. Plus, it’s not like it happened in school,” I walked over and plopped back on the couch.
“Exactly what I mean. Maybe you should stay home, tomorrow,” she said.
“Stay home?” I asked for reassurance.
“Yea you are staying home tomorrow, just to be safe. You should tell your friends, too.”
“Okay,” I grinned. I knew their parents wouldn’t let them stay home. They knew how these streets could be. My mom still lived in her little suburb world from when we all lived together. She had to face reality that we weren’t going to be able to afford that nice house anymore in Annapolis living off boutique money. I called Raven back and told her so she wouldn’t come over to ride with me in the morning.
“You lucky bitch,” she laughed. My dad told me to stay the hell away from there and threw some mace at me, but I still gotta go to school tomorrow,” she complained.
“Yea well I’ll see y'all at the spot,” I teased.
“Yup! I got a surprise for y’aaaall,” she chimed. I laughed and got off the phone. Every time she had a surprise, it was some shit she stole that I get questioned about. I went back to sitting and seeing another shooting on the news.
CHARM CITY
People were rioting outside of the local park that the two kids were shot at. Cops said it was gang related but one kid was thirteen years old and the other was sixteen years old. People were holding signs demanding peace and for the government to do more about the constant killing of kids. They didn’t call it mob town for nothing.
Victoria rode her bike past the protesters and through the woods next to a nearby creek, dodging tree branches and newly changing leaves. The Baltimore air was crisp and just the right amount of cool. The sun was shining so bright thanks to the clear skies.
The meet up place was an old shack Raven found randomly one day fishing with her dad. No one ever occupied it, not even the homeless. Probably because of how dark it got at night; it was creepy. As she rode up to the run down shack, the girls were all waiting on the old raggedy bench that sat in front of the shack.
“Bout time!” Eva hopped up from the bench.
“Yea, how are you late and you didn’t even come to school today?” Raven said, dumping her bottle of beer on the ground.
“Whatever, only reason y’all got here so soon is cus y’all was at school together,” Victoria put the stand down on her bike to park it.
“Whatever, come on, I wanna show y’all something,” Raven grabbed her backpack and we walked inside the shack.
The shack wasn’t a clubhouse. It was just as fucked up inside as it was outside. Only thing that had really been done with it was a couple posters of cute singers, pillows and blankets. The shack had a little fireplace in it but it was too old and they were too scared to burn it. Instead, they used blankets, candles, and an old metal bucket to create a small fire. Angel lit up some candles and they all surrounded Raven at an old wooden table. Raven picked up her backpack and pulled out a medium sized sandwich bag of marijuana.
“Oh shit, Raven!” said Eva. They all had the same surprised look on their faces.
“Where did you get that?” asked Angel.
“Deon,” she said taking some out of the bag, along with some wrappers and matches.
“You’re about to smoke that?” asked Angel.
“Hell yea I am. I got it from his stash,” Raven started to split up the pieces.
“He’s going to kill you,” Victoria said shaking her head and sitting on an overturned paint bucket.
“Slowly and painfully,” Angel agreed.
“I’m down,” said Eva.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Raven continued to roll.
“You don’t even know what you’re doing,” Victoria laughed as Raven tried to roll the weed in the paper wrapper.
“I’ve practiced this a billion times,
” she said.
When she finished her half ass roll, she lit the match and took a big puff. They all look in awe, waiting for Raven’s reaction. She lets out the smoke slowly and then coughs loudly.
“Whoo!” she yelled taking a deep breath.
All the girls start laughing.
“Let me try,” Eva took the joint from Raven.
“Don’t hit it so hard and hold it in for a second so it can affect you better,” Raven told Eva.
“Whateva,” Eva brushed her off and took a tiny puff and held it in.
“You can do better than that!” Raven teased. They all teased. Eva let out the smoke and coughed.
“Fuck,” Eva choked coughing some more. “It burns,” she told them, her eyes becoming glossy and low. She then handed it over to Angel.
Angel shook her head, “I’m not smoking no drugs.” She backed up and sat down in an old wooden chair next to Victoria.
Eva shrugged her shoulders and handed it back to Raven. Raven took a hit or two and started laughing.
“These aren’t drugs, it’s a plant,” said Raven. She handed it to Victoria.
“Try it, Tori. It’s almost gone,” Eva handed it to Victoria. Victoria shook her head and gave in.
She took a puff and felt the relaxing aroma go down her throat and into her chest. Better than any alcohol she had tried. She took another puff and closed her eyes and blew out towards the shack ceiling.
“That’s it,” Raven grinned. Victoria handed it to Raven who took the last puff and put it out. She then grabbed more and started to break it into pieces and into the wrapper.
“I think I’m high,” said Eva as she grabbed one of the fleece blankets they kept at the shack for colder days. She wrapped it around her and found her an old rolling chair to sit on.
“I see why your brother does this so much,” Victoria smiled.
Raven laughed.
“Your brother still gonna kill you when he find out,” said Eva.
“Shut up, I only took a little bit, he won’t even know it’s missing. He had plenty of it,” Raven lit up another joint and they began to chain smoke in rotation.
$$$$
Between talking and smoking, they didn’t even realize it was past 5 pm. All the parents would be home soon if they weren’t already and on top of that, it was getting dark. Angel was the only one that noticed.
“Shit!” She said freaking out as she noticed the sun setting out the small shack window. “I gotta go!” She hopped up.
“Oh fuck,” Eva jumped up, looking at her pager. “I didn’t do the dishes.”
Victoria’s pager went off at the exact moment.
“Mom’s paging,” they all hopped up, both realizing how high they were once they stood on their feet.
Raven stored what little was left back into her back pack.
“I think I’m too high to ride my bike,” Eva said getting up laughing.
All the girls laughed in agreement, but it didn’t stop them from running out to their bikes.
“Wait yall,” Raven said. She grabbed body spray from her bag and sprayed herself and then handed it to the girls to spray.
“Lifesaver,” Eva said as they all laughed again.
“The air from the ride home should air us out,” Raven assured them.
Each girl sprayed a quick dose of cotton candy perfume and dashed home before the sun went down.
ANGEL MOREAU
I got in the house just before mom did. Dad was never there before 7 o’clock anyway. I couldn’t help but feel the tension between them two lately. My mom used to come home happy, then about a year ago, she slowly started becoming quiet around my dad or they would bicker about little things. Then, there was dad not coming come home for days and she would secretly cry, thinking I couldn’t hear her sobs in her room. Whatever was really going on was tearing them apart and I knew eventually I’d find out.
I hopped in the shower so it looked as if I had been home the whole time. She did her usual, keys on the kitchen counter, open refrigerator for wine, then straight to her room. I got out the shower, put on some old sweats and a thermal shirt and walked to her room. She had already stripped to her robe and was pouring her wine into her skinny wine glass.
“Hey,” I startled her.
“Oh, hey honey, I thought you were in the shower still. I brought Chinese.” She said as she finished pouring her wine.
“I’m not really that hungry.” Truth was I was starving I was so high, but didn’t want her to see my eyes.
“Okay, well it’s there. Have you talked to your dad?” She asked, sitting on the bed. I came closer to her, leaning on her vanity chair.
“No, why?” I asked.
“No reason,” she said irritated. I used that moment to leave.
“Well, goodnight.” I said, walking out.
“Goodnight, honey,” she smiled.
I walked into my room as I heard my dad coming in the front door. I could hear him walk past my door and shut theirs. I heard angry mumbles from my mom. I shivered and walked in my room slamming the door.
I did volunteer work at the City Center because it was going to look good on my college applications. That’s all mom and dad stress about is college, and to be honest, I want to go, too. I want to do something great with myself. I have no real interest, though. Most people have a passion for something whether it’s music or art, but me, the only thing I’ve always had going for me was my looks. The girls always said I should be the next Tyra Banks, but I wanted more than that.
Raven had her tomboy skills; she was good with cars, guns, she had even taken some martial art classes when she was little. Victoria was slowly following in her mother’s fashion footsteps and Eva was smart; she could speak three languages; English, Spanish and a little Portuguese from her mother side.
I was thinking maybe I could be a teacher, but whatever it was, I wanted a future and to get the hell out of Baltimore. The City Center is a place that kids can play sports and activities. I mostly did a lot of the volunteer work, helping them get into programs and a little receptionist work.
This one kid, Sam, who was my age, comes in a couple times a week to play basketball or paint at the workshop. He didn’t know it, but he was a favorite of mine. Sam was tall, dark skinned, like the chocolate chips, really cute smile and had short curly hair that he kept covered under a baseball hat all of the time. His parents were going through this huge divorce, and he told me he liked to come to the center to get his stress out. He did really good paintings, though, especially when they had nature day.
The City Center was my escape, too.
“Hey Angel,” my thoughts were interrupted as I filed papers at the front desk. It was usually me and one older teen, but she was out sick today.
Sam was leaning on the desk with his famous smile, “You going to the Halloween fair?”
“Hey, Sam. Me and the girls are going. We have curfews, though, so we can’t stay till it closes,” I told him.
“Yea that sucks it’s a school night,” he said.
“Yea, I know,” I agreed.
“Oh and here, made something for you,” he handed me a rolled up paper. I opened it to a beautiful painting of one of our local parks.
“Is that Caton Park?” I smiled, impressed.
“Yeah. I know how much you like the scenic pictures I make,” he said. I felt myself blush as my eyes left the paper and returned to his. “Well, see you later?” He smirked knowing he had just made my day.
“I love it. Thanks Sam!” I called out as he walked towards the basketball courts. I rolled the painting back up and put it in my backpack but not before giving him another glance and smile.
RAVEN JOHNSON
I skipped third period to buy some weed from Kaitlin, a senior like my brother, Deon, who come to find out, sells to my brother, too. I looked at that as a plus and that it could eventually work in my favor. She was a small time seller, just enough to make sure she had lunch money everyday. I walked up to Avondale
Park where a few people sat on benches underneath a cover area where people BBQ’d. Despite the small baseball field in the park and the church across the street, this was a high traffic drug area. I noticed Kaitlin by herself wearing a pink puff coat jacket and pink Timbaland boots.
“Wassup?” She said, hopping off the bench when she noticed me. Kaitlin was a cute girl. Brown skinned, long lashes, dark brown eyes and wore her hair in small cornrows. She pulled out a small purple dime bag and handed it to me quickly. I did the same with my money. “Don’t tell D I am selling to you. You know he’d kill me,” she warned.
“Ya right, neva. You don’t gotta worry about me,” I said stuffing my purchased product in my jacket pocket.
“Enjoy,” she threw up the peace sign and immediately left.
Kaitlin and I met when some dummy senior tried to talk to me last year. I was alone and he surrounded me with his friends. I tried to warn him that my brother was the quarter back at the High School, but he said he didn’t care. I was in the middle of about to kick his ass when she showed up. But ever since then, we would do a nod or two in the hallway.
Later that day, my brother finished his ass kicking.
One day, while I was at this exact park, I caught her selling. She tried to play it off, but she became my new connect.
I walked in the house on my dad and brother arguing in the kitchen. I rolled my eyes, throwing my backpack against the living room wall.
“Deon, I am telling you to stop this shit or get the fuck out of my house,” my dad yelled.
I stood in the hallway, debating if I wanted to turn into the kitchen or go straight to my room. My dad was pissed at whatever it was that Deon did. My dad was a security guard for this high tech company about an hour from here. His work schedule kept him pretty distant from us. We see our dad maybe twice out of the week; he barely made it to any of Deon’s games. Sometimes he would be so tired from working an overnighter he would just get a hotel room out wherever he was.
