by Earl Sewell
“She’s nice-looking. She’s light-skinned, with long black hair. Nice breasts and a juicy booty.”
“Okay, so what’s the catch?” asked Marlon. “There has to be something up with this girl. Is she slow or something?”
“No, she’s not slow,” I said.
“Then how did you meet her?” asked Marlon
“She’s a friend of Keysha’s. I met her when we had to drop Keysha off to visit with her mom. Shorty saw me standing in the hallway and just walked all up on me talking noise.”
“She must have a baby,” Marlon said.
“Yeah. How did you know that?” I asked.
“Okay, that explains it. Shorty is going to try and open up your nose real quick. You be careful with Toya,” Marlon said. “I’m serious. When you get down with her make sure you’re protected. I don’t want to hear any excuses about her being pregnant with your baby.”
“Man, I’m not even going out like that. I keep a raincoat with me,” I boasted.
“Yo, turn that song up,” Romeo said to Marlon. Marlon turned up the song and we cruised down the highway listing to the song “Lollipop” by Lil’ Wayne.
When we arrived at 5th City, we drove past the building and saw a massive crowd of people standing outside waiting to get in.
“Oh, man. Look at that line!” said Romeo. “We’re not going to get in,” he complained.
“We’re going to get in. My cousin is the bouncer,” said Marlon who’d pulled out his cell phone and made a call. “Yo, Pee Wee,” Marlon greeted his cousin on the phone. “It’s Marlon. We just got here. I’m about to park. Okay. Come to the front door and you’ll walk us in? Cool,” Marlon said and then hung up the phone. “No problem, guys. We’re in.”
Once we parked the car, we walked back toward the building with a crowd of other partygoers. The line literally snaked around the building. People were standing outside in their coats bundled up trying to stay warm while they waited. Marlon, Romeo and I walked past the crowds and right up to the door where Pee Wee was standing.
“That’s Pee Wee?” I asked. Marlon’s cousin was a goliath of a man. He was massive. He stood about six-foot-eight, weighed at least three hundred pounds and looked meaner than the devil himself.
“What’s up, boy?” Pee Wee greeted Marlon.
“Nothing, man. Just hoping to get a little lucky tonight,” Marlon answered.
“Did you park your daddy’s Navigator in the parking lot around back like I told you to?” asked Pee Wee.
“Yeah, I did,” answered Marlon.
“Cool. Come on. I’ll walk ya’ll in.” Pee Wee turned around and led us through the massive crowds of people. As soon as we stepped inside, we walked forward and up a few stairs. There was even a line of people on the inside waiting to pay the entrance fee.
“Look at all of the honeys in here tonight.” Romeo checked all of the ladies who were waiting in line. “Woo, it’s going to be a good night,” he said as he clapped his hands together.
“Yeah, there are some hot-looking girls in here,” I agreed with Romeo.
“I seriously hope that you learn a little lesson from this. Don’t ever, ever, ever bring sand to the beach,” Romeo said as he began laughing.
“Forget you, man. Your luck may not be so good tonight,” I said.
“Dude, you’d have to be a complete idiot if you came in here tonight and didn’t get lucky,” said Romeo.
We walked through a set of brown doors and past several girls who were standing around talking on their cell phones. We walked through another set of doors that had a No Smoking sign posted above it and into a very large dance hall. The place was jam-packed. The music was loud and all I could see was a sea of people gyrating with wild abandon to the music of Missy Elliott. I couldn’t help but get caught up in the rhythm of the music.
“This is what I’m talking about!” Marlon yelled out over the loud noise of the music and the choirs of voices shouting and singing along. A moment later, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and saw Sabrina and Katina.
“Hey, baby!” Sabrina wasted no time wrapping her arms around me and planting a kiss on me. I took her into my embrace and enjoyed our moment together.
“I’ve been waiting on you,” she said as she took my hand and led me out to the crowded dance floor.
“Yo, I’ll catch up with y’all later,” I said to Marlon and Romeo who were standing around admiring all the girls who were working their behinds. I thought that Sabrina was the only girl with me but once I started dancing I realized that Katina had also joined us. We danced and sweated until our backs and knees ached. We jumped around, bounced around and tossed our hands in the air as the chorus of voices sang along with the music. At one point, Sabrina once again shook her behind like a pair of pom-poms and got me worked up. But this time I didn’t have any expectations so I was cool with it, especially since there were other girls standing next to us shaking their behinds just as hard. It wasn’t long before the girls had sweated out every curl on their head. Sabrina, Katina and I danced and jumped around for about an hour without taking a break. Then, just as the party was kicking into high gear, the DJ made an announcement.
“The Chicago Police are here and they’re shutting us down, y’all.”
Everyone in the place started booing.
“I know. I know,” said the DJ. “They say we have too many people in here and it’s a fire-code violation. On top of that, there are even more people outside waiting to get in. So, that’s just the way it goes, y’all. We’ve been told to shut the music off and send everyone home.”
At that moment everyone started yelling out. “We’re not leaving! We’re not leaving!” It was a coordinated act of pure defiance.
“We’d better get out of here,” I said. “This is going to turn ugly.” Sabrina, Katina and I made our way to the front door and outside. Once outside, we saw police there with squad-car lights flashing everywhere. They’d blocked off the street and had paddy wagons lined up to arrest anyone who got out of hand.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” said Marlon, who’d just exited the club with Romeo.
“Wait a minute. Do you guys need a ride back?” I asked Sabrina.
“Katina is on the phone with her sister now,” she said. We waited for a moment for Katina to finish her call.
“Can you give us a ride back?” asked Katina. “My sister is on the other side of town and won’t be back this way for at least an hour.” All of a sudden out of nowhere people started yelling about a fight inside the dance hall.
“Come on, it’s time to go,” said Marlon.
We all rushed around the building toward the parking lot but were stopped cold in our tracks when a massive wave of people came running toward us crying out, “They’ve pulled out the police dogs! The police dogs are out!” My natural instinct told me to turn around and run with the crowd but Marlon said, “Come on. Let’s get to the car!” We all rushed against the crowd toward the parking lot. There were so many people running toward us that I got separated from Marlon, Sabrina, Katina and Romeo. As I struggled against a mob of people, I came face to face with an officer and a barking police dog.
“Ah!” I yelled out as the dog lunged for my manhood and attempted to bite it off. The police held the dog back but the large German shepherd kept lunging for me.
“Get that dog, man!” I yelled at the officer.
“Go home!” the officer ordered.
“I’m trying to, man! Call that dog off!” I pleaded with him. The officer calmed the dog down and I continued on my way trying to maneuver through the crowd. I caught up with the group and got into the car.
“Where did you go?” asked Sabrina.
“A complaint should be filed against the police department for turning those dogs lose on people,” I said with an angry voice.
“Baby, what happened?” Sabrina began rubbing my back in an effort to calm me down.
“Nothing,” I said. “I just hate the police. I ne
ver want to get in trouble with the police.” Not long after that, all kinds of mayhem between the police and the crowd broke lose. The police shot tear gas into the mob to help disperse them. At that point, Marlon cranked up the car and drove through an exit at the rear of the parking.
The sound of my cell phone ringing startled me. I quickly searched through my bed sheets to see who was calling me so early in the morning. Once I found my phone I saw that Toya was trying to reach me.
“Hello,” I said.
“Hey, baby. I haven’t seen you in a while and I wanted to know if you’d come see me today,” Toya said seductively. I smiled as I lay down on my bed and rubbed on my stomach.
“You want me to roll through today?” I asked, knowing full well that she’d said that.
“I’ve been thinking about you every day, Mike. I can’t wait anymore.”
“I don’t know if I can make it down there today. I didn’t plan on it.”
“Mike, I’m wearing the purple panties that you brought for me right now. Just come on down real quick. Please.”
“Dang, girl, you sound like you’re on fire,” I said, liking the idea that she was begging me to come see her.
“What if I am?”
“Are you?” I asked.
“Come on down and I’ll show you,” she said.
“It’s going to take me at least two hours to get down there, Toya.” I said as I walked over to my computer and began looking up the train schedule.
“Can’t you just drive the Trans Am down? You’ll get here much quicker. My grandmother has already left with my son and she’ll be gone for at least five hours. And I know your parents are gone because I saw them drop Keysha off and overheard them talking about going to the auto show all day. So Mike. Are you going to come see me so that I can give you my sweet love? Or are you going to chicken out?” Toya asked.
Something came over me when she said that. Something inside told me that sometimes you just got to do what you’ve to do and deal with the consequences later. Then I thought, I’d already driven the Trans Am once and got away with it. Jordan didn’t even notice. Then I thought. If I pulled it off once, I could most certainly pull it off twice.
“No.” I said. “I’m not going to chicken out on you. I’ll be there in about thirty minutes,” I said.
“Good. I’ll be in my bed waiting on you,” she said and then hung up the phone. I quickly sprung into action. I called my parents to confirm that they were going to be at the auto show all day. Once that was confirmed I took a shower, put on some clothes and grabbed seventy-five dollars from my stash of cash. I grabbed four condoms, I didn’t know how many opportunities I’d get, and rushed downstairs. I grabbed the keys for the Trans Am, went out to the garage, fired it up and pulled off. I made sure that I obeyed every rule of the road because the last thing I wanted or needed was to be pulled over by the police who would love nothing more than to beat my black behind for driving without a driver’s license or permit.
When I arrived at Toya’s apartment building, I parked the car in the vacant lot on the side of the building so that Jordan wouldn’t see it in case he returned early or something to pick up Keysha. I walked inside the building with another tenant and rushed down the hallway to Toya’s door. I drummed against the door with my knuckles. True to her word, when Toya opened the door, she was wearing nothing but a robe and the purple panty-and-bra set which I’d purchased for her. I stood with my mouth open for a moment because it marked the very first time I’d ever seen a girl that naked outside of a video clip on YouTube.
“Do you like it?” Toya asked.
“Oh yeah,” I said as I stepped inside the apartment. I was about to take off my coat and get right down to business but Toya stopped me.
“Where’s the car?” she asked innocently.
“Out back,” I said.
“Well, can I see it?” she asked.
“There’s nothing to see. It’s just a car. You can see it later after we—”
“Come on. Just let me see it, baby. It will only take five minutes. What’s five minutes when we have five hours? Don’t worry. You’re going to get everything you’ve got coming to you,” she said. “See?” Toya removed her robe and turned around so that I could get a better look. “Touch my body,” she said. I placed my hand on her voluptuous behind, closed my eyes and exhaled loudly.
“See. It’s not going anywhere and you’re going to have it all to yourself in a minute. Now, just wait here while I put on some jeans and a top real quick.”
“Okay,” I said. Toya returned a few moments later fully dressed. When we stepped into the hallway, I heard Keysha yelling and shouting at her mother.
“Come on. We’ll go out the back way,” Toya said. We walked out of the rear exit that let out at an alley. We walked around to the vacant lot where the car was parked.
“Oh, my god. It’s a beautiful car!” Toya said aloud as we approached. I opened up the door so that she could see the inside of it.
“Oh, this is so nice, Mike.” She seemed more excited about the car than she did about seeing me. “Promise you’ll take me for a spin in it before you leave?”
“Yeah. I promise,” I said smiling at Toya.
“Good. You can drive me past my girlfriend’s house. I’m going to call her real quick to let her know that I’ll be dropping by later.” Toya pulled out her cell phone and made a quick call.
“Yeah, he has the classic Trans Am. I’m going to roll by in it later,” I heard her say before she hung up the phone.
“Okay, Mike. Let’s go back inside and do this,” said Toya. I locked the car back up and walked back inside with Toya. Once we were inside her apartment again, we walked back to her bedroom.
“Get completely undressed,” she said as she turned on a small radio situated next to her bed. She turned the music up kind of loud.
“We don’t want the neighbors to hear us. These walls are very thin,” she said.
I didn’t waste any time stripping down to my underwear or leaping into her bed. Toya picked up my clothes off the floor.
“I’m going to set your clothes up front on the sofa and then I’ll be right in,” she said.
“I have some condoms in my front pants pocket. Bring them with you when you come back,” I said.
“I found the car keys,” she said.
“Look in the other pocket for the condoms,” I yelled out.
“Okay,” she answered back.
I laid on the bed with my eyes closed. Excited to be there and filled with wild anticipation. I threaded my fingers behind my head and smiled at the thought of losing my virginity today.
“Toya, where you at, girl? What’s taking so long?” I called out but didn’t get a response.
“Toya?” I called out her name again but still got no response. Something didn’t feel right, so I got out of the bed and walked back to the front of the apartment.
“Toya?” I called out again. I thought she might have stepped out into the hallway so I opened the door. I could still hear Keysha down the hall yelling and shouting. I looked in the direction of her mother’s apartment and saw the door opening.
“She’s right these walls are thin,” I whispered as I ducked back inside the apartment and shut the door.
“Toya?” I called her again thinking that she was perhaps in the bathroom. As I stood there looking at my clothes on the sofa, I was perplexed until I heard the motor of the Trans Am being fired up.
“No!” I shouted out as I rushed over to the sofa to put my pants on
“No! Toya!” I screamed out as I stuffed my feet into my shoes, put on my shirt, grabbed my coat and rushed out of the building.
“Toya, no!” I ran down the back stairs and out of the rear exit. I rushed around to the side of the building and I yelled out “Come back!” as Toya and some man sped away in Jordan’s car. I ran after them but it was too late. They were gone.
seventeen
KEYSHA
Saturday, March 1st
I was a nervous wreck after Justine flipped on me. I couldn’t believe she’d set me up like this. I called Jordan but the phone went directly to voice mail again. I figured that he probably couldn’t get a signal inside the massive convention center. I paced the floor of the apartment for a minute and then finally mustered up enough courage to go with my original plan and take the money back to the Currency Exchange and explain my story. I’d explain how my mother had just robbed them and how I stopped her from getting away with their money. It was the best plan that I could think of in my frazzled state of mind. I found a black trash bag nestled between the refrigerator and the countertop. I opened up the trash bag and placed the bank pouch inside. I tied a knot in the bag then rushed out of the apartment building. As I was coming out of the building, I saw Mike sprinting out from the vacant lot of land next to the building. He looked completely disoriented.
“Mike?” I called out his name. He glanced in the direction of my voice. There was a wild look in his eyes that I’d never seen before.
“Keysha!” He called out to me as if he’d just been shot or something. The terror in his voice shook my soul. Mike ran over to me, out of breath, confused, bewildered and unsettled.
“Something horrible has happened,” he said as he crumbled to his knees.
“Mike, what’s wrong, are you hurt?” I asked as I quickly checked him for any sign of trauma. Mike started tearing up.
“She stole it from me, Keysha,” he cried out in emotional pain.
“Stole what? What are doing down here, Mike?” I fired off a series of questions at him once I realized he wasn’t bleeding to death.
“Oh, God, I’ve messed up. I’ve messed up big time. Jordan and Barbara are going to kill me.” Mike just burst into tears.
“Mike! Pull yourself together, boy, and tell me what happened.”
Mike smeared away the tears from his face and sucked down his pain. “That bitch Toya stole Jordan’s car! She took the Trans Am,” Mike said.
“Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. Have you been secretly doing Toya?” I asked.
“Yeah, Keysha. That’s why I’m down here,” he admitted.
