Nobody Can Love You Like Them Roughnecks Do

by Shvonne Latrice

  “Whatever, Jelani.”

  “Baby, I’m ready to be right. I wanna be with you.”

  “No, you go be with Tahani or Liza.”

  “Nah, I wanna be with you.” He slid closer to me, so I tried to move, but he was able to position himself on top of me. “I haven’t touched you in years.” He went for my mouth, but I turned away, so it landed on my cheek.

  “Move, Jelani!” I shoved and pushed on him, but he wouldn’t budge, pinning my hands to the couch. Hearing me scream, Island started walking over to us.

  “Tell me you love me,” Five-Star whispered, kissing down my neck and on my collarbone.

  “Stop, Jelani, Island is right he—” I tried to speak, but he cut me off with a hard kiss. My baby was right up on us.

  “Mommy,” she called my name in her small voice.

  “Go back and play, Island,” Five-Star told her, still holding me hostage against the couch.

  “Mommy,” she said my name again. This time her tone had a tinge of worry within it.

  “I said get yo’ ass over there, Island!” Five-Star roared, making her cry loudly.

  “Jelani, get the fuck off of me!” I screamed.

  “You my bitch, and that’s gon’ be forever. That’s why I’m the only nigga that ever got you pregnant. You know what it is.” His words were somewhat drowned out by Island’s cries, and all I could think about was getting from up under him to console her.

  “Jelani, please, not right now. She’s crying.” I began sobbing myself.

  “Shut yo’ ass up!”

  WHAM!

  He let my wrist go to grab my face and talk shit, so I took the opportunity to punch his ass. It landed on his eye by mistake, but that was enough to get him to clutch his face. Rolling from under him, I hurriedly scooped up Island and rushed out of the room with Five-Star right behind us, squinting and blinking because his eye was in pain.

  I made it out of the door, and once I got to my car, I buckled Island into her seat. As soon as I shut the back door, Five-Star was right up on me, wrapping his big hand around my neck.

  “Jelani,” I whimpered since he was hurting me. His eye was already bruising and bloodshot red.

  “You gon’ forever be mine, Blaise. No matter what nigga you kick it with, that shit ain’t ever gon’ last because ya baby daddy is the man. I run Los Angeles, and whatever the fuck I want, I get, including you. I already put a baby in you. Stopped yo’ ass from working for a good while with that one.” He chuckled, letting my neck go.

  I shoved him and then went to the driver’s side of my car to get inside. Just as Five-Star backed into his home, my phone started to ring, and I saw it was Belly. I hit ignore, but he started calling right back as I was pulling out.

  “Hello?”

  “Why you ignore my fucking call?”

  “It was an accident… I’m so—sorry.”

  “What’s wrong with you?” His tone was still full of irritation, but I could tell he was concerned.

  “Nothing. I just didn’t get this other role I wanted so I’m bothered.”

  “I’m training right now; should be done in a few hours, but I can cook you some food then eat yo’ pussy.”

  I burst into laughter, even though I wasn’t in the mood for it.

  “Okay, your place or mine?”

  “Yours so I can see baby girl. Or you can bring her to the hood, I just didn’t think you wanted to.”

  “She can come; we’ll be safe.”

  “Always.”

  Priscilla

  Same time… different location…

  “Okay, ladies, go ahead and take a break. We’re gonna get back to it in about fifteen minutes!” the choreographer, Zyla, called out with a clap of her hands. “Nice job.” She gave me a wink, and I nodded only, since I was too out of breath to respond.

  We were rehearsing for this singer named Reddi, who was doing a couple shows around LA. She was recently signed and getting her name out there, so her label wanted her to take advantage by doing a club tour in Los Angeles. This was huge, especially because outside of me, it was only two other girls, so I’d get even more exposure.

  Before this, I’d been getting out there a lot, and booking jobs much more frequently. I’d done a couple award shows for a few big artists, and my following on social media continued to grow. I didn’t have two million followers like Blaise, but I was at a cool 800,000, which was still a lot. I was just happy to finally be at a point where I could live off of my dance career and buy myself nice things occasionally. It meant a lot because for the past few years, I’d been with a man who constantly threw in my face how what I did didn’t pay the bills. That wasn’t so true anymore.

  I went to have a seat in front of the large mirror where my bag was, and took my phone and water from it. As I gulped down some water, one of the girls dancing in the shows with me named Dionne, came to sit.

  “These routines are rough, huh?” She chuckled.

  “Yeah, they are. I like a challenge though, and it’s a damn good workout.”

  “So how long have you been dancing? I’ve seen you dance a few times on Instagram. The blogs post you occasionally.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been doing it for forever. I started in preschool; they had a ballet class.” We laughed in unison. “So yeah, about twenty years; I’m twenty-four now.”

  “Nice. Damn, I’m twenty-six, but I started when I was fifteen, in high school. I’ve been trying to get out there, build my following like you, but it’s not working.”

  “Well you got this gig.”

  “Yeah, but I think I only got it because my man knows people. He’s shot a lot of the rich and famous, so he gets favors for me sometimes.”

  I was kind of annoyed to hear that because I’d busted my ass for this opportunity and this bitch got it easily. Hell, my man was Rafi, one of the biggest rappers out right now, but I didn’t use him for anything in dancing.

  “Oh, you said shot, he’s a photographer?”

  “Yep, he is. He’s really good. Do you have a man?” she quizzed, and like every time someone asked me that, I got irritated.

  People should know off the bat who my man was and that I had one, but Rafi’s low-key ass had it to where everywhere I went, someone was asking.

  “Yeah, I do. You’ve heard of Rafi?”

  “Hell yeah! That’s your nigga?” Her eyes widened.

  “Yeah, he is. We have two kids together. We like to stay under the radar though so no one really knows.”

  “You know what, I actually did hear through the grapevine that he had a baby mama and two kids.”

  “Well, that’s good, I guess.”

  “Yeah. We should maybe hang out sometime. You can give me some tips on how to get on your level, but the right way.”

  “Okay, sure.”

  Dionne and I chatted for a little bit longer until Zyla and the other girl dancing with us, Brittany, came back into the room. We got right back to work for the next three hours, and I knew my knees were bruised as usual.

  “Bye, girl, I’ll text you!” Dionne called out just before I opened the door to my Mercedes truck.

  “Okay.”

  I hopped in and massaged my aching knees for a few seconds, before checking my iPhone to make sure my Aunt Vivian hadn’t called about my babies.

  Vivian was like my mother, since my own had passed away from cancer when I was in eighth grade. It was one of the worst times of my life, and because I was so young, I had no idea how to deal with so much pain.

  My mother was the greatest parent I could have ever asked for, so to lose her at one of the most important times in my life, becoming a teenager, was devastating. Thankfully, my Aunt Vivian and mom were close, so close that she was my God parent too, so she immediately took me in and treated me like her own daughter, since she didn’t have one of her own. I appreciated and loved her so much.

  Once Vivian let me know my kids were good, I decided to go home and take a hot bubble bath. I was sore already, so she a
greed to keep my children for the night.

  My bath was just what I needed, and after rubbing lotion all over my body, I slipped into a thin nightgown then laid out on the couch to catch up on some TV.

  Halfway through, I saw I got an Instagram notification. It was just a follower of mine, posting one of my dancing videos to her story, so I just sent her a heart.

  Since I was in the app, I decided to look around and ended up on one of those blogs. Not interested, I was about to leave until I saw an image that looked like Rafi. Tapping it to enlarge, I saw the headline which read Are Rappers Rafi and Yesenia a Couple? I blinked repeatedly at the picture, which was just her standing awfully close to him in the studio. Swiping over, I saw she was near him by his tour bus, then a few more photos of her being around him in a different area.

  I knew he’d worked with her on a couple songs, but this bitch was with him in different states according to these pictures.

  I immediately went into my recent calls to hit his ass up, but I heard the front door alarm ding, letting me know he was finally home. Hopping up, I met his ass in the foyer, unable to contain my anger.

  “Are you fucking this hoe?” I asked, showing him the pictures.

  He looked with his lids low and replied, “Nah, Prissy, come on now. I worked with her and that’s it.”

  “You worked with her in LA! This photo is in Philly!” I swiped over to show him the one of her backstage at his show.

  “She showed up.” He shrugged.

  I couldn’t do anything but shake my head as I felt tears welling up. I’d been with this man for years and had sacrificed everything from my free time, to my body, and my damn career, yet here he was, possibly fucking some other bitch while I played the good wife.

  “Fine, Rafi.” I turned away, but he hugged me from behind, kissing my neck after pushing my long hair to the side.

  “Baby, I promise you, it’s just a coincidence. She travels and shit too for her music, and it just so happens she was in the same city as a couple of my shows. We on the same label, so it’s not that farfetched.

  I love you. I wouldn’t cheat, and not with her of all people.” He turned me to face him.

  “I’m tired of being low-key, Rafi. It was fine before we had a family, and when you needed to have a certain persona, but the industry isn’t the same. You can have female fans and be a family man. Plenty of rappers do it.”

  “Nah, I know. I just wanna protect you, Baby Rafi, and Penni. Once people find out who my girl is and who my kids are, they’re gonna be on your shit.”

  “I—”

  “Prissy, I love you more than anything, baby girl. If I knew for sure that you’d be straight if everyone found out about you and me, then I’d let the world know. And what does that shit matter anyway? We know we’re together, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “All that extra shit is just extra shit.”

  I said nothing and just nodded my head, so he picked me up, wrapping my legs around him. Carrying me up the stairs, we went right into the bedroom, with him climbing on top of me.

  “You’re not going to shower?” I asked.

  “I was, but I ain’t want you thinking it was because I was out sleeping with Yesenia’s ass.” He half smiled, making me giggle.

  “No, you can shower.”

  “Okay.” He pecked my lips a couple times.

  As I waited for him to get clean, my mind kept going back and forth, wondering if he was hiding something or being honest.

  For the six years that I’d been with Rafi, he’d always been honest and about me. I’d never found him texting other girls, or had women approaching me about sleeping with my man. It was one of the things that made me fall so hard for him; the fact that I knew he would never do anything involving being unfaithful. Even when we broke up for a hot second, after I had our daughter, Penni, he stayed single while I dated this music producer for a few months; it was how I met Blaise.

  By saying that, I needed to trust him and remember the man that he was. It was easy to let these blogs and social media overall get into your head and make you believe every little thing. A lot of times, things appeared to be one way, but in reality, it wasn’t even close to the truth.

  “All clean.” Rafi returned, smiling. His caramel complexion was so clear and smooth, his body was lean but not too skinny, and he kept his hair short. His mustache was very thin, but I liked that. Too much facial hair wasn’t my thing.

  Dropping his towel, he got on the bed and helped me out of my gown and panties. Lowering himself, he positioned his dick at my opening before pushing inside of me while sucking my nipples.

  “Damn,” I moaned, not realizing how horny I was.

  His slow strokes soon turned to fast ones, making me cum minutes later. We began kissing hungrily as he continued hammering my middle, causing me to release yet again, with him following suit moments later.

  “Shit. I love you, Prissy.”

  A few nights later… Saturday…

  Tonight, I was able to convince Rafi to let me out. That sounded horrible, and it was. I just played nice by making him some food and giving him head like a bitch that worked the streets nightly. Right after he came, I asked, and he gladly agreed to let me have some fun.

  It was so embarrassing having to literally get permission from him, but I didn’t want to lose my man over something as simple as wanting to go out with my friends.

  “You look so pretty.” Blaise nudged me as we walked into the club, with the bouncer holding the door.

  “Thanks, so do you. I’m happy I’m not the only one in a short ass dress tonight.”

  Don’t need money, got my own. I got bags, bags to blow. Hold up, boy, I don’t need your dough… But you could spend it on me if you want…

  Mya’s “G.M.O.” was currently playing, so Blaise and I began to bounce a little to the beat as we headed to the section where Belly and all his boys were. They were deep as hell, and you could tell all of them had a little money. I wasn’t quite sure what them ContraBandz niggas did, but Blaise gave me the impression that they didn’t do shit; they were just Belly’s gang banging friends that he refused to leave behind. I guess that was admirable, but where I’m from, we called that a moocher. Niggas always had a few of them in their circle, including Rafi.

  When we got to the top, Blaise had the biggest grin on her face when Belly turned to greet her with a drink in his hand. He wasted no time kissing her in the mouth and grabbing her ass so roughly that I even felt it, so I turned to let the hostess know I wanted a drink from the bar.

  “All the shit is on one tab,” Belly let her know, and she nodded at him with a flirty smile.

  “Thank you,” I told him.

  “Ayyyyeee!” Everyone in the whole section and seemingly the whole club hollered out in excitement when “Same Squad” by P-Lo came through the speakers.

  The hostess brought my drink along with Blaise’s a couple moments later, so after getting them from her, we began to dance to the upbeat track along with everyone else.

  I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been able to have fun like this, so I was already happy that I’d come. Blaise and I ordered two more cocktails, as we danced to a couple more songs, and then Belly pulled her down into his lap. When I saw his hand go between her legs before they started kissing, I turned away yet again.

  As I looked around, I spotted that guy Will again. He looked nice, and didn’t appear to be irritated like last time. He was even wearing a little bit of ice.

  Tonight was a celebration for his birthday, so I guess he had reason to be chill. His curly hair was shining like crazy, and his light skin was bright as hell up here in this dark section. I was staring so long that he eventually looked up from his phone and caught me, nodding his head upward to say ‘hello’.

  Feeling bold, I went over to his side of the couch and sat down to say, “How are you enjoying your birthday?”

  “It’s cool. I’m just waiting for my girl to get here.”

/>   “Oh, okay.” I felt some type of way, but I couldn’t describe what I felt. I didn’t like him or even know him to like him but I did think he was a cute guy; prettier than I preferred, but still fine. “Is she working or something?”

  “Nah, she just takes forever and a damn day to get ready sometimes,” he replied sadly. “You look nice though. I saw you having a good time with ya homegirl.”

  “Oh yeah, Blaise. She brings it out of me.” I giggled, taking another sip of my drink. “And thank you for the compliment.”

  “Anytime. You said you had two kids, is it with that rapper Rafi?”

  “Ye—yeah, how’d you know?”

  “I hear things. But—”

  “Aye, where all the Hennessy go?” the one named Manny quizzed.

  “Cole taking that shit down like water. Y’all gotta chill. We ain’t even been here long.” Will sucked his teeth.

  “Fuck all that, nigga. We giving out Henny dick tonight, on some real shit,” Belly replied, making everyone burst into laughter, even Will, which was surprising. Belly was the only one with a cool expression, and I guess that was because he was being… serious.

  “Hell yeah,” Manny replied, still chuckling.

  “Baby! Happy Birthday!” someone screeched, and when I looked to see who it was, I saw Dionne, the girl who was gonna be dancing in the shows with me. What are the odds that this would be his girlfriend?

  Will hopped up with an angry expression on his face, before storming over to her. I saw him going off but couldn’t hear because of the music.

  “Damn, Will, chill the fuck out, man. It’s a party!” Manny yelled out in reference to him going in on Dionne.

  “This my one night, and you had to be late!” Will called after Dionne since she’d slipped around him.

  “You’re so extra, Will.” Dionne ignored his antics and started toward us to have a seat. When she walked by Belly, she spat, “Move, nigga!”

  “Bitch, I’m twisted as a muthafucka. I’ll fuck around and punch you in that bee’s nest you call a wig, you keep fucking with me.”