by S. L. Walker
Deon never said anything else after that. My dad sat him down on the couch and gave him a blanket. I brewed some tea and got some wet rags and bandages. I could overhear the cop asking who did this to him and did he need to go to a hospital. But I never heard Deon reply. Even when I gave him the lemon tea, the cop looked irritated and my dad grew angry.
“Tell him what happened, Deon. Were you robbed, what?” My dad asked him. The cop would look back and forth between my dad and Deon. Then they turned to me.
“You know anything, missy?” The cop asked. I shook my head and went into the kitchen to act like I was getting another wet rag. “Well, he maybe in shock right now,” the cop said to my dad.
“Naw, he ain’t in shock,” my dad said angrily. That’s when I heard the banging at the front door. It made me jump. When I saw it was Tori and Eva, I instantly felt guilty for not letting them know I was okay. After all, we were all a part of this nightmare because of me. That’s when my dad got to yelling at Deon, so I had to get rid of them and tell them later.
“Dad, please, can we just let him rest?” I sat down next to Deon and held his hand. Deon’s eyes were cold, and he stared outside of our living room window, never taking one sip of the tea.
“She’s right. He will talk when he feels like it. Here’s my card, you can reach me or anyone else at the police department if you know anything. We will get right on it,” the cop handed my dad a business card, stood up and left. Just like that. My dad was furiously unsatisfied. He took one hard glare at me and then another hair-raising glare at Deon and went to his room, slamming the door.
“Deon,” I started to say before he stood up, sitting the tea on the coffee table and heading to the bathroom. I sat there by myself wondering what happened; wondering if Deon was in the bathroom staring at the bruises all over his face. I heard the shower run and walked to my room and waited.
And here I was sitting in the dark with only the full moonlight shining in my window. I knew Treach would be reaching out again very soon. This debt Deon owed; now my debt, was far from paid.
CHAPTER 17
Raven impatiently waited in the school parking lot the next day for Zara to pull up. The bell was almost about to ring. As soon as Raven gave up and turned to head to class, she saw Zara’s black Mercedes swerve in the lot and park. Zara noticed Raven walking up to the car and smiled. She grabbed her backpack and opened her driver door to get out.
“Man, am I happy to see you, I’ve been worried this whole time,” Zara said, shutting the door. They did a quick hug as Raven got a breeze of Zara’s cotton candy perfume.
“It’s been crazy. I wanted to thank you,” Raven noticed Zara’s all baby blue velour outfit matching her white puff coat. Raven barely had put jeans on that morning. She only rocked some grey sweatpants with her all black Nikes and all black hoody. She didn’t even have any earrings in.
She touched her ears as she thought about that.
“I heard. Are you okay?” Zara also noticed Raven’s outfit and baggy eyes.
“You heard already?” Raven said, shocked. They began walking towards the school.
“Yeah, Daddy’s leak, X. That’s messed up what they did to Deon’s boy. Is Deon okay?” she asked.
“He’s home right now. What you mean? Did what to Deon’s boy?” Raven stopped in their tracks.
“Oh my God, that’s great! How’d you get him out? What did you do?” Zara asked, curiously.
“Zara, what happened to Deon’s friend?” Raven grew irritated. She knew that if something had happened to Deon’s boy, that not only was it not over between her and Treach, it wasn’t over between Deon and Treach. “What boy?!” She asked again.
“Um, that guy Timmy,” Zara tried to remember what her dad had told her. Raven’s stomach sunk. She knew Timmy was a close friend of Deons'. He had been over countless times to play video games. He had even babysat her once.
“What about him?” Raven was afraid to ask.
“He was stealing from Treach. And when Treach found out he was down with Deon’s little plan, he killed him. Shot him in the head. Right in front of Deon and the other guys,” Zara told her.
The first bell rang. Raven backed up in disbelief.
“He ran two of them out of town and one of the guys um, Grenade, no, Canon, is still there. No idea why. But he said he made sure he broke a couple of their bones.”
Raven put her hand over her mouth. Still in shock over Timmy.
“He’s probably using Canon as a toy,” I told her. That’s what she would do. Canon probably begged for his life. Maybe he was the snitch.
“My brother is gonna kill Treach,” Raven said, under her breath.
“I’m so sorry, Raven. It’s so fucked up,” Zara put a hand on her shoulder. “You wanna skip?”
“Naw, my dad will kill me, he’s already a mess,” Raven shook out of her state of mind. “But we definitely need to meet after.”
$$$$
Eva was surprised to see Raven come into class early as she flirted with Professor Heart before all the other students entered. She cut their conversation short and headed over towards their usual seats.
“Vee, what’s up? Everything good?!” Eva asked.
“Yeah, can you meet later?” Raven asked, sitting down in her seat. Eva looked over at Professor Heart who was side eyeing. She had made plans again with him right after school, but she knew she had to be there for Raven.
“Yeah, of course,” she said.
“And not be late,” Raven added. Professor Heart began to close the classroom door as the late bell rang.
“Yes!” Eva rolled her eyes, looking back over at Professor Heart who was now shuffling through papers.
“Good. And stop being so obvious with the professor,” Raven said, rolling her eyes.
“Okay, class turn to your textbooks please to Chapter eleven!” Professor Heart interrupted, giving Eva one final lust look.
$$$$
The girls had all got the same memo during lunch to meet at the shack. Raven had briefed them on what happened but still had not told them the news she had heard from Zara this morning. Raven hadn’t seen Deon all day at school nor was he at practice when she waited around after school. She had paged him but he had never responded.
She began to worry and almost road by the house to see if he was home but didn't want to leave the girls waiting. The daylight was getting shorter now that winter was approaching and being in the woods at night was a bad idea.
“How are you gonna tell me not to be late and you’re late?” Eva complained as Raven walked through the door. They had already had a fire started and even Zara was waiting.
“Sorry y’all. I got this, though,” Raven said pulling out a nice sized bottle of tequila.
“Woo Hoo!” Victoria bounced up from her same chair bundled under a blanket. Angel walked over and hugged Raven tight.
“I’m so glad you’re okay. And Deon’s okay. I was worried out of my mind at work until Eva told me you got him home safe,” Angel said proudly.
“Yeah, just barely. You know they killed Timmy?” Raven told them but more specifically looking at Victoria who knew Timmy had been a long family friend.
“No way, Deon’s Timmy?” Victoria’s mouth dropped.
“Yeah,” Raven threw her backpack on the old raggedy table and took out plastic cups. She didn’t realize her hands were shaking. Angel saw it and took the cups from her and opened the Tequila bottle. Raven looked at her thankfully and grabbed her old Baltimore Ravens blanket and threw it over her.
“I didn’t even know he was into it like that,” Victoria still in shock.
“Apparently he had been stealing from Treach. Planning whatever he was planning with Deon just gave him a reason,” Raven told them.
“What was Deon even planning?” Eva asked, sitting comfortably under a blanket on an old leather ripped chair.
“I don’t know. And he won’t talk to me,” Raven said. Angel began pouring shots. “Whatever it was
, he had a few guys on his side.”
“Yeah, but now they’ve been ran out of town and the only guy that is with Deon is now loyal to Treach and who knows, he may have been a part of turning Deon in, too,” Zara added. Everyone looked at her as if they just noticed she was in the room.
“What does your dad think about all this?” Eva asked, now concerned at who Zara really was. “And why are you even here? You didn’t come with us.”
Eva stood up.
“Stop it Eve, you know why she couldn’t go. She gave us guns and information. She did enough,” Raven defended Zara.
“Naw its cool,” Zara glared at Eva. Eva was beginning to rub her the wrong way. She stood up to Eva. “Whatever you think you know about me, Eva, please think again. I respect you guys 100 percent. And better yet, I respect Raven. She’s my friend too. I didn’t have to tell you guys a damn thing, but I did. So you need to get it through your pretty head that I’m on y’all side,” Zara never took her eyes from Eva and neither did Eva. Raven, Angel and Victoria stood there in silence as Eva and Zara stared each other down.
“Let’s take shots guys,” Angel finally interrupted, grabbing two cups and getting between Zara and Eva. “We are all here for Raven. And whether we like it or not, we are ALL in this together. ALL of us,” Angel said, looking at Zara. Zara and Eva took a cup and downed the shot. Angel, Victoria and Raven did the same.
Raven’s pager buzzed.
“It’s Treach,” she said.
“He gave you that pager?” Victoria asked.
“He gave me a pager when I went to get Deon,” she showed them the lime green pager he had given to her.
“Damn, that’s more vicious than the one you got,” Victoria said, taking the pager from her and examining it.
“What happened to giving out phones? He some big time drug dealer, right?” Eva said, sarcastically.
“I can’t take this,” Angel poured more shots.
“Well, what does it say?” Zara walked up to her. Victoria handed the pager back to Raven.
“It’s just a phone number, I need to get to a phone,” Raven took another shot and grabbed her things.
“Wait, here use mine. Daddy, said I can only use it for emergencies, but it’s cool,” Zara pulled out her blue Motorola flip phone.
“Naw, I don’t need him tracing anything back to you,” Raven waved her away, putting her backpack on.
“He doesn’t know who I am, he won’t care. Go ahead. I don’t care,” Zara handed the phone to Raven. She hesitantly took it and dialed the number on the pager.
“Speak,” a young male voice on the other end of the phone answered.
“This is Raven,” she said.
“Oh, sup, it’s DJ. I got a pick up Thursday, drop off at the office. You got a pen?” He said to her sternly.
“Hold on,” Raven told him shuffling around for a pen in her bag and writing on the back of a McDonalds receipt. “Go,” she said. She jotted some numbers down and got off the phone with not even a bye.
“Well?” Victoria asked, eagerly.
“I have a pick up Thursday and he said to bring one of you. Preferably Angel,” Raven answered looking at Angel. Angel’s face grew pink and she quickly poured another shot and gulped it down.
“Where’s the address?” Zara looked at the receipt Raven had written on. “Wait, this place looks familiar,” she looked more closely at the receipt. “This is in Upton. It’s like the projects around there. Why is Treach doing business over there?” Zara asked, curiously.
“Hell if I know. Somebody buying that bullshit,” Raven answered.
“Making the poor poorer,” Victoria added. “That’s why people can’t have shit. Bringing drugs into the neighborhood, never doing good but making it worse,” she added shaking her head.
“And here we are helping it,” Angel said, drowning her worries in another shot.
EVA
I stumbled into the house upset that I had drunk as much as I did with the girls. Angel was already tipsy so we decided to catch up. Before long, our depression turned into a comic session; us laughing at how Raven even got into the situation and how we think Treach was Angel’s new boyfriend. I shook off the tipsiness the best I could as soon as I saw my mother sitting on the couch arms folded with a glass of red wine. When she saw me come in she instantly finished her wine and stood up.
“Get your ass in here,” she said. Her voice startled me and I had to double check in my head what time it was. It wasn’t even dark yet, so what could possibly be her problem?
“Hi to you too, mom,” I sat my backpack down by the edge of our black suede couch.
“I just spoke with your dad and he told me you have some kind of thing going on with one of your teachers? I hope to God he’s over exaggerating!” She yelled. I stayed by the edge of the couch. I couldn’t move nor answer her, I just stood there guilty as charged. I knew this was the alcohol; I would have been blurted out a lie by now.
“Mom, what are you talking about?” Is all I could say.
“Don’t play stupid! Your step sister told him! You kissed him?! What teacher is this?!” She got in my face and grabbed my arm. “Little girl you better answer me and you better answer me now or I am going straight up to that school tomorrow morning! Are you fucking crazy?!” She yelled some more, gripping my arm tighter and sending chills I’ve never felt before up my spine. All I could see was the spit coming out of her mouth as she yelled and the constant blinking I did didn’t even matter to her.
“You’re hurting me,” I told her trying to pull away but it made her grip harder.
“What is going on, Eva?!” She demanded.
“Nothing! I just have a crush on him, that’s it!” I yelled back. This was definitely the alcohol and it got me slapped. She slapped me so hard my neck popped as my head whipped to the left. I felt the sting and then numbing as I glared back at her. I could tell she surprised herself.
“So you are telling me that girl is lying?” She asked, forcing her voice to be calm.
“It was just a story,” I lied, rubbing my face and backing away from my mother who had just went WW3 on my face.
“And is that alcohol I smell?” Her voice raised again.
Damn, did I really forget to put a breath mint in, too?
“No,” I lied again.
“Get out of my face,” she turned away from me and sat back on the couch, but not before she poured her another glass of wine. I didn’t waste anytime grabbing my backpack and going to my room. I closed my door and sat on my bed, heart pounding. I thought about Professor Heart and what she threatened to do and if she believed me. Then I thought about all the awful things I wanted to do to Lilly. I wanted to kill that bitch. What gave her the right to tell dad after we promised we’d keep it between us? I was wrong. She wasn’t any sister of mine and since she wasn’t a friend, it now made her my enemy. Blood or not.
ANGEL
I walked to my desk to find beautiful bright yellow dozen roses wrapped sitting on my chair. I immediately knew they were from Sam and picked them up and smelled them. They had a fresh scent and were still kind of wet from sitting in water. I looked around to see if Sam would peek out anywhere but instead made eye contact with Nancy who was heading straight to my desk. I sat the flowers on the desk and hung my backpack on the back of the desk chair.
“Hey Angel, how are you today? Gorgeous flowers! Admirer?” She smiled from ear to ear.
“Good Afternoon, Nancy. No, they would be red if they were,” I said jokingly. She leaned over and closed her eyes, taking a whiff of the roses.
“Nothing like fresh flowers to ease the senses. You should put them in some water,” she said. She knew damn well I didn’t have any water to put them in.
“Are they from, Sam?” She bluntly asked. I looked at her shocked. I was expecting her to give me instructions for the day not dig into who got me the flowers.
“I don’t know, there’s no name tag,” I told her, sitting down and turning on the desk
top computer. I fluttered around some mail that had been dropped off already, hoping it would give her a sign to leave.
“Well, it seems like you guys have been really close lately, after seeing you at the movies and what not. I don’t want to get in your business or anything, but we try to tell our workers to steer clear of any relationships with the other students that come in here,” she said. My jaws clinched in aggravation. I stopped fiddling with the mail and looked up at her.
How many workers were having relationships with students.
For all I knew, there were just me and two other people around my age that worked there. Both were boys and they both worked in janitorial. Everyone else were adults.
“I don’t know what you mean by that,” I tried to say professionally as I could.
“Oh, nothing like that, I can tell he likes you and I know you are doing this job to get a good recommendation for college and it just doesn’t and won’t look good to me or other managers if you are having any kind of relationship with your peers,” she added.
“So, you think I’m trying to have a relationship with Sam?” I asked her. I needed validation. She was now threatening my college recommendation and I know I didn’t work here all this time to not get recommended over a boy.
