The Wrong Side Of Love: A Hood Love Story

by Charmanie Saquea

  “I guess you thought I was playing with you,” Coco said as he walked her off the porch.

  “Let that bitch go, Tariq!” Chanel said as she tried to get to Coco.

  Ignoring her, Tariq walked Coco to her car and made sure she got in. Once she was in, he leaned in and couldn’t contain it any longer. He had to laugh.

  “Don’t be out here fighting, Coco,” he laughed.

  “I’m not but I told her washed up ass not to call me out my name but she just insisted. I hate females like her; don’t be mad at me, be mad at your so called nigga. Shit like that pisses me off. I ain’t did shit to you,” Coco huffed.

  “I hear you, Coco,” Tariq continued to laughed as Chanel yelled all that she was going to do to Coco when she caught up to her.

  “Anyways, enough about me,” Coco said. “Tariq, please call my sister. A wise man once said believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see. If you don’t want to talk to her, at least call and talk to Quaid, he loves you and at the end of the day he’s innocent in all this.”

  Tariq nodded his head as he kissed Coco’s cheek.

  “I got you,” he told her.

  “Mhm, but let me get on out of here. Here come your stupid ass cousin and I don’t have shit to say to him right now,” Coco told Tariq.

  As Zeek was walking to her car, Coco sped off.

  “Coco!” he yelled after her.

  Coco stuck her middle finger out the window as she kept it moving down the street.

  Chapter Ten

  Jayliah had been walking around with a conflicted heart. It had been two weeks since Tariq walked in on her and Quadir. She had been blowing his phone up ever since but he refused to answer or talk to her. He even went as far as to block her number, no text that said, “Bitch, stop calling,” or nothing. He just straight up blocked her.

  The only thing she was happy about was the fact that he was still talking to Quaid. He called him on the phone he’d bought him in case of emergencies and they talked everyday despite Quadir’s protest. He hated the fact that another man was close to his son and was a father figure in his life but Jayliah had to remind him that he was the one who had abandoned him before he was even born.

  “Hello?” Jayliah answered her phone.

  “Uh, I’m at your house. Where you at?” Coco asked.

  “I’m here.”

  “Oh, okay. Open the door, I got food.”

  Jayliah hung up the phone and went to answer the door for her sister. Walking past the living room, she shook her head at Quaid and Quadir who were watching the game and yelling at the TV.

  “Where is your car?” Coco asked as soon as she walked in the house.

  “Long story,” Jayliah sighed.

  “Good thing I have nothing but time.” Coco smirked. “Y’all do know they can’t hear you, right?” she told the fellas.

  “Hey, auntie,” Quaid spoke.

  “What up, girl,” Quadir said with a head nod.

  “Let’s go to your room, I need answers,” Coco whispered to her sister.

  “I need answers, too,” Jayliah mumbled.

  When they reached Jayliah’s room, Coco did a quick inspection and shook her head. She could easily tell her sister is sharing her room with Quadir and she didn’t understand why when she had an extra bedroom he could be sleeping in. She wasn’t going to jump the gun and assume that they were sleeping together again even though she hoped like hell they weren’t.

  “First things first,” Coco said as she took the food out of the bag. “Where’s your car?”

  “Tariq had them come and get it,” Jayliah sighed.

  “Jay, stop playing with me,” Coco said with her mouth wide open.

  “I’m dead serious, Co. I woke up one morning and they were lifting it up on the back of the truck saying they had orders from a Mister Tariq Clay to come and get it. It was in his name so there was nothing I could do about it. He also called and switched all the bills back in my name.”

  “That black bastard. I just talked to him last week and he didn’t say nothing about none of this. He has gone too far.” Coco shook her head.

  “I guess he figured wasn’t no dude that wasn’t Quaid about to be laid up in a house he paying the bills in.” Jayliah shrugged.

  “That’s another thing, Jay. Why is Q here? Don’t get me wrong, he was like a brother to me and everything, but that was eight years ago. When you two were together. And you were pregnant. Before he left you. A long time ago. You get my drift?” Coco questioned.

  “I hear you, Coco, but it’s a difficult situation. One minute, you think you’re over someone until they show up out of nowhere.”

  “No, Jayliah, you’re making it a difficult situation. Just the other week you were gushing about how happy you were with Tariq and how you’ve never been that happy before. Why would you mess that up over something, or should I say, someone who couldn’t even be true to you?”

  “You wouldn’t understand,” Jayliah told her little sister.

  “I guess not.” Coco shrugged. “But hey, if you would rather be with someone who you’re not sure if they’re going to run out on you again than to be with someone who you know makes you happy and will be there for you and your son no matter what, then that’s on you.”

  With that being said, Coco left the subject alone. She didn’t agree with the choices her sister was making, but she was a grown woman and there was nothing that she could really say to her. She honestly really couldn’t say that she was surprised either, Jayliah never thought logically when it came to Quadir. It was like whenever Jayliah was with him, she was stuck on stupid.

  ___

  “Santiago, how’s it going with that Clay case?”

  “It’s going, Chief,” Elias answered. “I’m just making sure I have enough information to take him down.”

  “Don’t take forever on this. The only reason I let you on this case is because you were a key factor is taking that Chico son of a bitch down. I don’t want Ezekiel to go out like that, though; I actually want that bastard behind bars. Soon, Santiago!” Chief Liep exclaimed as he walked away.

  Elias sat back in his seat as he pulled out a wallet and there was a picture of him and his brother Orlondo when they were younger. Orlondo, or Chico, as the streets called him, had a different mother and was older than Elias by five years. Due to them having different mothers, they grew up completely different.

  Elias, or Red, as his brother called him, grew up sheltered and in the suburbs. He didn’t have it hard like Chico and his mother did. Their dad wasn’t shit and wasn’t in either of their lives until he was killed drunk driving when the boys were in their teens. While Elias was living behind the picket fences, Chico had to hustle just to help his mom put food on the table. Intrigued by the street life, Elias begged Chico to let him on his team. Finally giving in, Chico allowed his brother to be his right hand man; that was, until he took Zeek under his wing.

  From the moment he laid eyes on Zeek, Elias couldn’t stand him. He saw the potential in him just like his brother did and he knew Chico was going to pass the crown down to him. The moment the police approached him on some bullshit, he was all in to help take his brother down. In his eyes, he felt his brother had betrayed him by putting Zeek before him so he had no problems with putting him away. He never would have thought they would have killed Chico but that was one less problem for him to worry about.

  Putting his wallet up, Elias removed his phone from his holster to make a call. As he was scrolling through his contacts, he ran across Jacole’s name and a big smile formed on his face. He had been meaning to give her a call but he had been caught up with trying to take Zeek down. Making a mental note to call her when he had the free time, he continued with what he was about to do.

  “Hello? Why are you calling me?”

  “Do you have any information for me?” Elias retorted.

  “I don’t have shit for you, Red! I told you not to call me,” the caller yelled.

  “You
have one week to get me something.”

  “Go to hell.”

  “One week. How do you think Zeek would feel if he found out you’re not loyal?” Elias taunted.

  Chapter Eleven

  Coco was getting out of her car when she heard footsteps rushing towards her. Opening her mouth to scream, Trae quickly covered her mouth with his hand.

  “I don’t wanna hurt you, Coco. I just wanna talk,” he told her.

  She was so scared that her whole body was trembling. It had been two and a half months since the rape but seeing his face made it seem as if it had happened yesterday. Tears fell from her eyes as he took her keys from her, turned her around and wrapped his arm around her as he walked her to her front door.

  “Trae, you…you don’t have to do this,” Coco stammered.

  She didn’t know what he had up his sleeve but she did know that she was petrified of being alone in her house with him again. Bad memories of what had happened the last time they were alone came rushing back, causing her body to tense up.

  “Calm down, Jacole. I told you I just wanted to talk,” Trae told her as he opened the door.

  As soon as the door opened, Zeek was sitting on the couch chilling with his feet up, eating a sandwich and watching TV.

  “Oh shit, it must be my birthday or something,” Zeek said as he sat up on the couch.

  For two months straight, Zeek had been looking for a location on Trae but the nigga never popped up. It was just his luck that he was chilling at Coco’s house waiting for her to get home so he could light into her about ignoring him when the devil himself walked through the door. Trae almost shit bricks when he saw Zeek sitting there, he was the last person he was expecting to see.

  ‘Help me,’ Coco mouthed to Zeek as she stood there in fear of what Trae might try to do to her.

  Swiftly grabbing his gun from between the cushions of the couch, Zeek stood up and pointed it at Trae’s head while he still had his arm wrapped around Coco.

  “Let her go, bitch.”

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Trae smirked as he moved Coco in front of him.

  “No matter what you do, you’re not leaving out of here alive. I don’t shoot to miss,” Zeek told Trae with ice dripping from his voice.

  Coco closed her eyes to say a prayer. She didn’t know what the outcome of this situation was about to be but she knew she needed God to work a miracle right now. Feeling Trae’s arms fall from around her and a loud thud behind her, Coco turned around to find him lying on the floor with a bullet in the middle of his forehead. Looking back in Zeek’s direction, she saw that he was putting his gun up while pulling his phone out and walking in her direction.

  “Pack a bag,” he told her before placing the phone up to her ear.

  Not needing to be told twice, Coco took off for the stairs. When she reached her room, she rushed to the closet and started snatching clothes off the hangers while pulling out a suitcase. She couldn’t believe that Trae was dead and that Zeek had actually killed him.

  Why didn’t I hear the gun go off? she thought as she threw clothes in the suitcase.

  “Aye,” Zeek said as he walked in the room.

  “Huh?”

  “You good?” he asked as he took her face into his hands.

  “Ye—yea. I’m fine.” Her voice shook.

  “You’re coming home with me,” Zeek told her as he zipped her suitcase up and snatched it off the bed.

  “No, that’s cool. I’ll stay at a hotel or stay at Jayl—”

  “I wasn’t asking you. Make sure you got everything you need because you’ll be gone for a minute, and let’s go,” he said before leaving the room.

  Coco just snapped her mouth shut. She knew she should have known better than to try to argue with a man that was going to end up having his way in the end anyways. Going around the room and grabbing a few more things, Coco was ready to go. When she got downstairs, she was surprised to see that Trae’s body was already gone. Going outside, she found Zeek talking to a man who was driving a black van.

  “You can get in my truck, I’ll be a quick second,” Zeek told her as he nodded his head across the street.

  Coco was so busy trying to rush in the house that she never noticed Zeek’s truck parked across the street or Trae’s car that was now being occupied by someone whom she was assuming worked for Zeek. As she walked to the truck, he hit her with a head nod and Coco gave him a small as smile. As soon as she got settled in her seat, Zeek was headed in her direction.

  “You’re not going to have any PTSD symptoms, are you?” he asked as he got in.

  “I should be good. Even though I don’t like your black ass right now, I’m happy you were there. Ain’t no telling what his crazy ass would have done to me this time,” Coco sighed.

  “Good you brought that up, why you been ignoring me and shit? Had I not been so busy, I would’ve popped up sooner,” Zeek told her.

  “I don’t have time for games, Zeek. I—“

  “Who playing games?” he cut her off.

  “Shut up and let me finish.” Coco rolled her eyes. “I’m too grown to be out here in these streets fighting over a nigga, especially a nigga that’s playing the both of us like a game of 2k15. Telling me one thing but telling her another thing. No, that shit is childish and if you can’t do right by me, it’s plenty of real men out there that can.”

  “Respect.” Zeek nodded his head. “But let me put you up on something. One thing Zeek doesn’t do and never had to do is lie. Chanel knows her place in my life just like I made it very clear to you what I want your place in my life to be. Ain’t shit between me and that girl but sex, period. And until you feel you’re ready to own up to you spot, that’s what it’s going to continue to be,” he told her straight up.

  Coco couldn’t do anything but accept and respect his honesty. Besides, she wasn’t dumb. She knew she damn sure wasn’t giving it up, so he had to be getting it from somewhere and Chanel’s washed up ass seemed eager to be the one giving it up.

  While she was stuck in her thoughts, her phone started ringing.

  “What kind of friend are you?” she answered.

  “Coco, you good?”

  “Yea, Marco. I’m fine,” she told him.

  “No, I mean like, are you really good?” Marco questioned.

  “Yes, your cousin got to him before he could do anything to me but thank you for calling me. It’s nice to know you still love me since you went all MIA on me and everything,” Coco joked.

  “Man, Co, I’m not even gon lie to you. I been fucked up ever since that nigga did that shit to you. All that time I was hanging with that nigga, introduced him to Zeek and put him on and everything, and the whole time this nigga was a fraud. Not only was this nigga a bitch but he was getting high off the shit we was supposed to be pushing,” Marco expressed.

  “Getting high?” Coco asked, confused, as she looked at Zeek who was staring straight ahead but nodded his head to clarify what Marco just said.

  “Yea, that nigga was an undercover cokehead.”

  “Wow, I never would have knew but you don’t have to feel bad, Marco. It’s not your fault. You’re not the only one Trae had fooled. I’m the one who fell for him, so just imagine how I feel,” Coco told him.

  “Aye, y’all need to wrap that shit up!” Zeek yelled.

  “Tell that nigga to shut his ol jealous ass up,” Marco laughed.

  “He so irritating. Like, I don’t know where he came from.” Coco rolled her eyes.

  “Imma go ahead and let you go before I be the next nigga with a bullet in my head,” Marco half-joked.

  “Y’all are blood, he wouldn’t do that,” Coco told him.

  “Shit.”

  “Whatever. Love you, Marco.”

  “I love you, too, girl.”

  As she hung up the phone, Coco cut her eyes at Zeek as he pulled up to a house in Royal Oak. She knew good and damn well this was not where Zeek lived. He was way too cocky to live in something this modes
t.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Oh, so you don’t trust me to take me to your house so I get the house you take all your jump offs to?” Coco questioned.

  “Man, shut the fuck up with that bullshit and get out the fucking car,” Zeek told her as he got out his truck.

  Being stubborn, Coco stayed in the truck with her arms folded as Zeek unlocked the door. When he looked behind him and realized Coco wasn’t behind him, he marched over to the truck and snatched the door.

  “Childish ass,” he mumbled as he unbuckled her seatbelt. Zeek grabbed Coco out of the truck and threw her over his shoulder before he slapped her on the ass hard.

  “Ouch!” she yelped.

  “Yo wanna act like a child, I’m going to treat you like one,” Zeek said as he shut the door and walked her into the house.

  He wasn’t in the mood to play these games with Coco right now. All he wanted to do was go in the house, take a shower and get some sleep, and she was holding him up.

  “What about my bag?” Coco asked.

  “Fuck that shit!”

  Chapter Twelve

  Jayliah had just finished washing the breakfast dishes when she heard a car pull up. Before she could move to see who it was, Quaid happily bounced in the kitchen dressed and ready to go.

  “Mom, I’m gone.”

  “Gone where and with who?” she asked just as Quadir walked past.

  “With Riq, I’m hanging with him and Uncle Zeek today,” Quaid said as he tried to rush to the door.

  “Wait,” she said stopping him. “When were you going to ask me if it was okay?” she questioned him.

  It wasn’t that Jayliah had a problem with Quaid hanging with Tariq or Zeek, she just wanted her son to get in the habit of asking her permission to do things instead of just assuming she would let him do it.

  “Riq said you said it was okay,” Quaid said like he was confused.

  “Humph,” was all she said.

  “Well, it ain’t and you’re not going so you can go right back on up them stairs,” Quadir spat as he marched for the living room.