Down With the King of the South

by Diamond Johnson

  “If you don’t leave here with anything after this service tonight, Jashae, leave knowing that you did your part. God has him now, so let him rest. He’s going to be okay, alright?” he was speaking directly to me.

  My face was soaked, and all I could do was nod my head, letting him know that I understood. Vonte would always say that he couldn’t wait to get to the NBA, so that he could take care of his family, but I never knew that he felt like he had to do it because he felt like he was a mistake, and he wanted to prove to me that he wasn’t. Yes, I was young when I found out that I was pregnant but aborting him was never even an option for me. I had the mentality that I was grown enough to have unprotected sex, so I had to be grown enough to take care of a baby.”

  After coach finished, a few others came up and spoke. Throughout the entire service, there was someone in the back hysterically crying, and when I finally turned around to see who it was, it was Taylor. I still hadn’t gotten a chance to speak with her, but I planned to. The moment I could get out of my bed and go through a day without breaking down, she and I needed to have a conversation.

  My son’s funeral was the longest, most beautiful funeral that I’d ever attended in my life. Once the services were over, we were back outside waiting to get back into the limo and go to the gravesite.

  “Choc?” I heard his deep voice call out my name.

  I turned around, and it was Miami. Like always, he looked handsome. The fact that he wore a black suit with a green dress shirt underneath made me smile. It was no secret that green was Vonte’s favorite color. He was holding the Vonte’s obituary in his hands, and just like me, big frames covered his eyes. He held his arms out for me, and I ended up walking closer to him, and I accepted his hug. I rested my head on his chest while his hands were on the small of my back.

  “I didn’t want you to leave without me speaking. How you feeling?” he asked me after we pulled apart.

  “Numb. I feel numb. Right now, it’s like my body cannot produce any more tears, but I know the moment I get back home tonight, it’s back to the floodgates. It’s not getting any easier,” I let him know.

  “You know I got you, right? Like, for anything, I got you. I’m pretty sure you got a lot of people telling you that they got you, but on some real shit, Choc, I got you with whatever you need. So when you get back home today and you just feeling like you need someone to talk to, I’m here, alright?” he asked me, and I nodded while we came together one last time for a hug.

  “You good, nigga?” I heard someone say from behind me.

  I turned around, and it was members of the Miami Boyz, which were all Trip’s friends. It was about five of them, and even Trip’s mother was standing alongside them. I didn’t too much deal with Trip’s mother like that these days. Our relationship kind of faded years ago when Trip went in. Her and Vonte weren’t as close as a grandmother and a grandson should be, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t love each other. She looked nice in her black dress. She didn’t even look like she had a thirty-two-year-old son.

  “I’m good, nigga. Is you good?” Miami barked back.

  “I’m saying, though, you from the hood. You know who shorty belong to. You know that’s Trip’s girl, so I’m asking you if you good before you lose your life over something that don’t even belong to you!” Dino, Trip’s used to be right hand man said.

  I couldn’t stand Dino’s ass. How was he the hothead of the group, but it was Trip doing life in prison.

  “Who the fuck going to make me lose my life? You silly, schoolboy bully looking ass niggas? I got guns just like how y’all pussies got guns! I don’t take threats lightly, fuck boy, so take me for a joke if you want to because I’m in this thousand dollar suit. I’ll get this bitch dirty for you or for any other motha fucka that wants to talk to me like I’m fuckin’ crazy. Out of respect for Jashae, who’s about to bury her only son six-foot-deep into the ground, I suggest you motha fuckas get the fuck up out of our face and find a stump to sit on and sell five-dollar dime bags!” Miami barked.

  I knew he was mad. I could see it in the way the veins in his neck were protruding. I wasn’t sure if they left out of respect for me, or if Miami really had them shook, but they left and didn’t say anything else. I looked over at Miami, and he was pulling down on his beard, watching them as they walked away. His facial expression was so angry. I sighed, knowing that I was getting cursed out tonight by Trip because Dino was going to run and tell what happened like the little bitch of Trip’s that he was.

  As soon as I made it back home tonight, I was turning my phone off because I wanted this time to myself without any interruptions.

  Mahogany Williams

  “I don’t like girls who smoke weed,” Jabari’s shit talking ass said.

  It was going on two in the morning, and we were in my bed smoking from the same blunt, just taking turns as we did it. I was ass naked, sitting Indian style beside him, taking a long pull from the blunt. We’d just finished fuckin’ not even five minutes ago, and my hair had sweated out, so it was pulled up in a ponytail on the top of my head. Jabari was sitting up, naked too, with his back against the headboard.

  He kept staring at my perky titties, in awe of my nipples that I had tattooed into little hearts and piercings on them. The diamond belly button ring that I was wearing flashed in the dark except for the lamp that was on. My pussy juices lingered in Jabari’s beard, and the dried up juices were on the corners of his mouth. I swear I could only stand him when I was riding his face or when he was bending my body like I was a pretzel and giving me that dope dick.

  I came home tonight because Jashae’s grandmother had taken her out today and told me that she would keep her at her house tonight. I loved my best friend as if we had the same blood running through our body, but I was thankful for this break. I didn’t want to leave Shae at the house by herself because, truthfully, she wasn’t in her right state of mind, and I didn’t want her to do anything crazy.

  My best friend had just lost her son, so that had to take away some of her sanity. I came home, and the first thing I did was send Jabari a text message of an eggplant emoji, basically letting him know that I was in the mood to ride some dick. Losing Vonte had me sick in the head too. That was my godson, someone that I helped Shae raise, and I’ll never come to grips with how a good boy like him could just die like that.

  I wasn’t crying in front of Shae because I had to be strong for her, but mannn when I got alone, I swear I broke down. Everyone thought that I was so tough and that I didn’t have a weak bone in my body, but dealing with something like this can make the biggest person fold. Vonte was like the son that I never had, and just like that, he was gone. He and I had a great relationship. Whenever the two of us were around each other, it was always laughter between the two of us. “Auntie Mahogany” is what he used to call me, and it sucked that I’d never hear him say it again.

  “Too bad I’m not a girl. I’m a whole ass woman. Besides, I don’t want you to like me, nigga. It’s not like I like your ass,” I said, blowing the smoke out and passing it to him.

  “How you letting someone fuck you, yet you don’t like them? How the fuck that even make sense?” he asked with the blunt between his lips.

  “It makes the perfect amount of sense. I like your dick and your mouth,” I shot back with a smile on my face.

  “Where do heartless bitches like you come from, shorty? You gotta be from Mars or some shit,” he said, and his dumb ass started choking on the weed.

  I don’t know why, but I found myself laughing at the stupid shit he’d just said.

  “The same place where disrespectful niggas like you come from. Why you think I’m heartless, though? I’m mean, but I wouldn’t say I’m heartless,” I asked, curious to know.

  “You different from any other broad that I done fucked with. I fuck these bitches, and before the nut can even leave my dick, they already hitting me with that ‘so what are we,’ bullshit. This my second time fuckin’ you and, not that I’m
keeping count, but I’ve made you cum a total of six times, I eat your pussy from the front to the back, I even slipped my tongue in your ass, shorty. I don’t even think about busting until you get yours off, yet you still talking about you don’t like me. Am I missing something here?” he asked.

  I looked at him with a serious expression on my face, and I shook my head.

  “Because I’m not that bitch that’s going to be on your dick like these other broads that you mess around with. I’m just doing to you what niggas do to bitches all the time. Besides me doing it tonight, when the last time a bitch sucked your dick good?” I asked.

  “Shit, like two nights ago,” he said.

  “And do you like her?” I asked.

  “Hell nah.”

  “My fuckin’ point! You niggas do it all the time! So why when a woman does it, the shit gets questioned?” I asked, raising an eyebrow because I seriously wanted to know.

  “Because you’re a woman. You can’t do the shit that men do. Women are supposed to be the gentle ones, the ones with feelings, the ones who fall in love. We not supposed to be neck and neck when it comes to how many bodies we got up under our belt,” he said, and I shook my head because he sounded like a typical man.

  “Are people still living with the impression that women can’t do the same shit that men do? My nigga, did you forget that last election term, we had a woman trying to run for president? There are women football players, construction workers, all that. Us women can do anything that a man can do and probably do the shit ten times better, if you ask me,” I said and rolled my eyes at him.

  He tried to hand me back the blunt, but I slapped it away. I could already tell by me talking so damn much that I was damn near high already. Jabari came with the weed and the dick, and this weed was powerful, just like the dick.

  “Swear your ass should have been a lawyer,” he went on to say.

  “Yeah, whatever. When are you leaving? I got what I needed from you,” I said then picked up my phone that was on the nightstand to look at the time. It was late, and I was so damn tired.

  “Cook me something. I’m hungry. I been running the streets all day, exploring new business ventures, and I just realized I didn’t eat anything today. Your pussy is the only meal I had today,” he said, and it turned me on to hear him say that.

  I’ll be the first to admit that Jabari was fine. His body was so big and cocky sitting against the headboard of my bed. He had beautiful caramel skin, and because his shirt was off, I could see the tattoos that took up most of his upper chest. His skin was smooth like silk. The nice grade of hair that made you fall in love with his jet black waves. I loved a man with a beard. A real beard, not that shit with the black spray and all of that other shit. Jabari’s was long, full, and thick.

  I paid attention to every detail when it came to a man. Therefore I noticed his nice teeth, with his good smelling breath, his fingernails looked as if he got manicures, plus he had nice feet. Because I could see the side of him, I even peeked in his ears, just to see if he had any ear wax, and his ears were free of that as well. Jabari was that dude, but I would lose every single piece of my sanity if I were to take him seriously. I could just tell from the few times that we’ve been with each other that we were toxic as hell for one another.

  “Running the streets? What is it that you do again? Please don’t tell me that you're trying to become a rapper or you sell drugs, and you’re trying to become the next Nino Brown,” I said because I’ve dealt with too many niggas like that.

  I couldn’t stand when a nigga tried to play his mixtape when he would get around me.

  Jabari laughed at what I said, and I had to admit that he had a beautiful laugh.

  “None of that, shorty. I own shoe stores. The shit started in Atlanta because that’s where I’m from. My ole girl raised me, and she was a real estate agent out there. The job paid well, so growing up, I didn’t really want for shit. I was into sneakers, all types of sneakers, but my favorite was Jordan’s. There wasn’t a pair of Jordan’s that I didn’t have. When I would outgrow my shoes, I would sell them. Niggas were willing to pay top dollar for Jordan’s because a lot of the ones that I had were exclusive. I was a hustler at heart, so I started selling my shoes that I could no longer wear, my clothes, all of that. My ole girl was cool with it because at least I wasn’t asking her for much.

  “I always had the streets smarts, but my ole girl had talked to me about the importance of having book smarts as well. After high school, I took my ass to college, and I learned about the business side of shit. It took me about six years to have an understanding of all that shit. Once I graduated, I set up shop at this plaza that wasn’t too far from my apartment at the time. I went out there with a big ass tent and a truckload of shoe boxes. Sold all that shit in one day. Months later, I had enough to upgrade from selling under that tent, so I rented out a little office space, and I named my spot Kickz.

  Months later, I outgrew that shit too, and I purchased a little store in that same plaza where I had my tent originally because it had gone up for sale. Outgrew that shit, and finally, I had my own store. Later on, came another. I let Miami get into my head and tell me that I needed to open a store out here in Miami. I have two, and right now, I’m working on a third one. Miami and I work alongside each other from time to time, especially when it’s time for the kids to go back to school. I give away almost a thousand pair of shoes every year just for back to school alone. I know you may think of a nigga as an asshole or what not, but I’m not that bad. I do alright for myself if you ask me,” he said.

  I had judged the hell out of Jabari. Never would I have guessed that his shit talking ass was a business man. That right there made him even more attractive to me.

  “Hearing that I got money, did it make your pussy wet?” he asked, going right back to being an asshole.

  “Nope because I have my own money,” I said and jumped up from the bed.

  I walked over to my closet door and retrieved my silk robe then put it on my body and tied the strings together. Once my house shoes were on my feet, I walked out of the room and went downstairs to the kitchen. I hadn’t been home in so long, that there really wasn’t much for me to cook for Jabari.

  I’ve never in my life cooked for a man. Well, I’ve cooked for Vonte, but that was my godson. I’m talking a man that I was having relations with; I’ve never done that. Looking inside my fridge, I saw that I only had food to make breakfast, so that’s what I planned to make him. I pulled out the pack of Garcia sausages and put two in the pan then placed it in the oven. That wouldn’t take long to make, so while that cooked, I started on the French toast. I made four for him, some cheesy scrambled eggs, and I even made a small pot of grits.

  I wasn’t hungry, so I just made enough for him. By the time I was fixing his plate, he’d come into the kitchen and took a seat at the island. I set a plate in front of him that was big enough for a king, and he looked at me with his eyebrows raised.

  “Where your plate at?” he asked.

  “I’m not hungry. Only you are. What do you want to drink? I have water, ummm juice, soda, wine, what you want?” I asked.

  “I don’t trust you yet, shorty. You gotta sample everything that’s on this plate, so I’ll know that you not trying to poison a nigga,” he said in all seriousness.

  I checked to see if there was just a small smirk on his face that would prove that he was just fuckin’ around, but I didn’t find one. He was serious.

  “Really? Why would I poison you?” I asked, standing in front of him and looking up at him like he was crazy.

  “Why wouldn’t you? Taste it for me, shorty,” he said again.

  I rolled my eyes and snatched the fork from his hands. I tasted the eggs, the grits, the sausages, even ate one of the French toasts that I’d cut into a triangular shape.

  “Thank you. Now, let me see if your food is as good as your pussy. You can bring me two bottles of water,” he said.

  I walked over to the fri
dge and retrieved the water bottles for him. When I came back, I had to hide my smile because he was tearing the food up that I’d made for him, which only meant that he liked it.

  “It’s good, shorty. You did your thing. I meant to ask you how your girl doing? Jashae, how she holding up?” he sincerely asked me.

  “She got out the house today to go with her grandma, so that’s some type of progress. It’s going to take time, but Shae is strong, so I know that she’s going to pull through,” I said.

  “I went to the funeral, but I sat way in the back. When it was over, I wanted to say something to her, but it’s like I didn’t even have the words. Besides, I knew that it wasn’t shit that I could say to make it any less stressful on her, so I chose to just keep shorty in my prayers. I never personally met her son, but Miami would talk about him, and I saw clips of him playing. He was good. It always be the good ones that leave too early,” he said, and I nodded my head to that.

  “I just feel so bad for Shae, you know? We’re talking about someone who never even got the chance to meet her mother because she died giving birth to her. Then, the one man that she loves more than anything, her only boyfriend that she ever had is in prison doing a life sentence. Then, there’s Vonte, the love of her life. I can’t imagine what that type of pain even feels like. I imagine carrying a baby for nine months, already forming a bond with that child before it even gets here, and then when they do get here, you learn to love that baby more than yourself. She only had seventeen years with Vonte. That’s nothing, Jabari.