by Shan
"Imran, please. Baby, please! I really need your help. Please?"
Once I made it to the bottom of the staircase, Jahzara was at the top of them screaming my name. I turned around and looked at the pathetic frown she was making and the tears she was wasting.
"Where are you?" I said into the phone.
9 Quin
"How you doing? Is Tamar home?" I asked the beauty standing on the other side of the door. She looked me up and down before flicking her hair out of her face.
"He's in the back with the boys. You have to walk around," she said.
Then, he slammed the door in my face. I frowned but stepped away from the door and walked around to the back of the house. The backyard was huge as hell, with a pool, that was setup like a mini island. I always knew from the very day that I met Tamar that he would one day be set for life, but I never knew how true it would become.
"Tamar! What's good, my nigga?" I asked as I shook his hand and gave him a brotherly hug.
"Just spending a lil' time with my shorties. What's good? How's this free air taste?" he said, observing my body language.
"Bitter as fuck. I just got out the hospital a couple of days ago. Ate four bullets."
"Damn, bruh! You good?"
"As good as I'm gonna get. I'm trying to get back on, though. I'm hungry and need to eat… bad."
"You just got out of jail. Don't you think you should be chilling out?"
"Man, you know that's impossible. Chill out and do what? Not like I can get a job."
"I hear ya, bruh, but shit I can't fuck with it. I heard it’s some niggas really getting it in Dallas. Why you ain't see them before you came here?"
"I know you dealing with Imran now. Him and my ex hooked up and took my shit and now that nigga walking around like he’s the king of Dallas."
"Seems like y'all have a problem. One that has nothing to do with me," Tamar said arrogantly.
I had to stare at him for a few moments and really wonder if it was the money or the little street fame he had that had gotten to him. I had been running with Tamar since his days in Atlanta when the cash flow was nothing major. I'd sent a lot of business his way and even done several favors for him.
"It's like that?" I asked defensively. "Damn! As much business as I gave you and as many favors as I've done… you can't fuck with me no more?”
"Marion! Twins… y'all go in the house!" Tamar yelled.
He stood and waited for his kids to go into the house before he turned his attention back to my direction. "Business and favors? Nigga, you hot right now. You just got out the pen and then you tell me you just got out the hospital after being shot. I guarantee you. It's some laws on your tail right now, and you wanna shoot some shit about business and favors. Fuck outta here. Imran has given me more business in the past few months than you ever have, and, if you wanna speak on favors, nigga. Pay me for them last seven bricks I fronted your ass that I never got paid for because you got locked up, locked up for trying to place one of those bricks on another nigga while trying to set him up! Fuck outta here with that bullshit!"
I nodded my head. Then, I turned to walk away. It was obvious that Imran was paying Tamar to stay away from me. Either that or the money had really made that cat forget about everything. I saw that I would have to make him remember though and, also, teach him how to respect his muthafuckin’ elders.
****
The whole ride from Houston to Dallas, I wondered just how I would deal with Imran. His bad attitude and the fact that he believed he couldn't be touched as the reason we couldn't get along the first time around. Because of who his uncles were, he parade through Dallas like hell didn't have enough room for him. My position, my woman, street creed were all gone because of Imran. He had niggas thinking that I had tried to set him up, like I was some kind of hoe. Between the two of us, history ran deep, back to when we were just little boys trying to make a name for ourselves in the streets. I guess you could say egos got in the way as well as the greed of money, and, eventually, we went our separate ways and became enemies.
Once I pulled into the driveway of my house, I noticed Jahzara sitting outside on the front porch shivering from the cold air. Her presence was completely unwarranted and had me wondering if Imran was somewhere lurking nearby. I reached beneath the seat, grabbed my .9mm handgun, and tucked it into my waistband before getting out.
"What are you doing here?" I asked as I put my key into the lock to open the door.
“I called the hospital to check on you and they told me that you had been released. I really need to talk to you about some things, and I, also, needed to get some of my stuff out of here. I see you changed the locks,” she said as she stood to her feet. I looked her over and immediately took in her appearance, instantly seeing the woman that I had married years ago. As much as I wanted to be mad at her right then for the way she had completely dissed me for the next nigga, I couldn’t. Checking her out at that very moment made me remember all the good times we had and that alone softened my heart.
“Did you expect me to leave it the same just so you could come and go as you pleased?” I questioned as I pushed the door open for her to enter. Before going inside, I checked up and down the block for anything out of the ordinary, and then walked in behind her.
“I don’t know what to expect. I just never thought that when you came home things would be like this, but… I’m ready to listen now.”
“Oh, because you’re ready to listen, I’m supposed to just speak now.”
“Quin, things were still fresh weeks ago… it’s still fresh now, but I can’t move on without knowing what happened to us,” Jahzara said as she placed her hand over her chest.
I laughed, “You want closure, so you can go on and live happy with that fuckin’ nigga Imran, huh?”
“No, I wanna ensure that I made the right fucking choice, Quin! I wanna know if you fucked my best friend behind my damn back!”
I chuckled and let the question linger in my head. I knew that the subject of Honey and I would come up sooner or later, but— Damn!— why did it have to be today? I didn’t feel like talking about Honey’s conniving ass, knowing that I was down to one damn brick and had a limited amount of funds.
“Quin, answer the damn question!”
“Everybody has fucked Honey! You didn’t know? She’s been doing the same shit since y’all were in high school, so what the fuck is the problem?” I asked with a shrug of my shoulders because, to me, it was no big deal.
“Everybody? So that everybody includes you, Quin?” Jahzara probed as she crossed her arms over her chest. I could see the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes and, suddenly, got a weird feeling in my gut. I hated to see her cry, especially over some shit that I’d done.
“I mean… yeah, Jahzara. I did a couple of times back when y’all were in high school. The shit happened before me and you even got serious.”
“I can’t believe you! You fucked my best damn friend, Quin! You were my husband… is she the reason why we are divorced now? Is it because of her?”
“Nah, you’re the reason why we are divorced now! Out there shaking your ass in a damn strip club and prostituting for money! What the fuck is up with that?” I yelled and began to remember all the gruesome details that Honey wrote me about when I was locked up. That shit was hard to read behind that damn cage.
“You left me with no choice, Quin! You didn’t leave me with any damn thing. I had to hustle to pay our bills… not my bills, but our bills. You sent me some fucking papers over some false-ass rumors that you heard. Yeah, I was a stripper. Yeah, I worked over at Wet Dreams… and, nigga, I bet your bills stayed paid, though! I kept this raggedy-ass house from going under! Yeah, I took my clothes off for money, but I never fucked around for it!”
“It’s plenty of shit you could’ve done besides shake your ass in front of a bunch of men… my fucking homeboys, at that! How you think I feel? I gotta hear about the shit up in there and then come and see the looks on niggas f
aces whenever your name is mentioned. Every nigga in Dallas has seen your ass! Or fucked you!”
“No nigga has fucked me! I held you down for years! Never let anyone touch me inappropriately. What the fuck are we talking about right now? Don’t try and throw your trash my way! You fucked up! You’re the one that fucked Honey and let that bitch come between us with all of her manipulating ass lies! This is your fault!” Jahzara shook her head and went towards the door.
I grabbed her arm to stop her. I had to apologize for that shit back then, but Honey was just a fuck. She would come through the trap all the time and fool around with me and my niggas for a sack of weed or a couple of dollars for lunch money. That bitch was throwed off, and nobody gave a fuck about her. We used to sit back and laugh at Cedric because we all knew what she was doing, and he seemed to be the only nigga that didn’t know. Honey was a tossup, a bitch that would let us gang bang the pussy. Bitches like her were irrelevant.
“Look, I’m sorry. You’re right. I should’ve never fucked with your girl like that, but— Damn!— I was young and everybody was doing the shit. It only happened a few times before me and you got serious.”
“Did you have sex with her while we were married? Tell the truth,” Jahzara eagerly peeped into my eyes in anticipation of my answer. I thought about it a moment before saying anything. What will it mean if I tell the truth? What is she going to do? Is she gonna walk out of that door and out of my life forever?
Part of me didn’t want to be with Jahzara because of the fact that she had violated everything. She had given Imran my business, my money, and my pussy. It seemed as if there was no salvaging our relationship after that, but it was the look in her eyes that reminded me of our history. True, Jahzara was a ride or die chick. When I came home, I discovered that there was not one past due bill, food in the fridge, and I had a decent place to call home. She held it down. I will give her that, but, at the end of the day, she fucked up when she stepped out and gave Imran my lifeline. Without my connect, I was nothing. Just another broke-ass nigga in the streets. What the fuck am I supposed to do now? Start robbing cats for their cash now? What she did was highly inappropriate, but— Damn!— I did not want to see her walk out that door. That was the other part of me that loved the hell out of this girl and wanted things to return to normal.
“I’ll be real with you. I want to work on us. I really love you, and I feel like all this shit happened because I was judging you for stripping, doing what you had to do to make money. You never judged me when I was out in these streets, serving up these fiends to make a few dollars. You always stood by my side, and it was wrong for me to send you those damn papers without discussing things with you first. That’s what I should’ve done, but I didn’t want you to know what went down between me and Honey back in the day. I don’t know why I let that grimy bitch get in my head,” I sighed heavily and shook my head from left to right. “I should’ve known that those letters Honey sent to me were phony any damn way. She wanted to break some shit up, and I let her. Honey was always jealous of us getting married, but I didn’t think she would go so far to cause strife between us and—”
“Quin, can you just answer the damn question? Did you fuck Honey while we were married?” Jahzara asked, cutting me off.
I nodded my head. Then, I said, “I did a few times. It was late nights at the trap, gone off that syrup, and she would come through, offering favors. I took her up on a couple of them but it meant nothing. It was nothing,” I said, hoping she could shrug the whole thing off.
“I can’t believe you, Quin. The whole time we were married, and, even while you were locked up, I never once cheated on you! Not until after you sent me those divorce papers was when I was with Imran. I held it down for you, and this is how you do me. That was—”
“That was our past. We both did things wrong. Yeah, I may have cheated and allowed that bitch to get up in my head to where I sent you those damn papers, but—Hell!— you cheated, too! You slept with this fool while we were still married, and that doesn’t make you any better than me. So let’s leave that shit in the past and move on!” I gently grabbed her chin and forced her to look up at me. I stared into her eyes for only a short moment before sucking her bottom lip into my mouth. I slid my hands down the front of her jeans until I reached her clit. I massaged it, causing her legs to get weak. “Can I have my wife back?”
Jahzara nodded her head and slid her tongue into my mouth. The taste of her brought back so many memories. Good, pleasurable memories.
10 Imran
The rainfall pounded against my window and the thunder rumbled loudly in my ears. All the while the sound of it was very relaxing. After the light in the house turned to dark, I nodded my head, knowing that things were over for Jahzara and me. The image of her and Quin kissing and touching each other was unmistakable. The front window of the house didn't hold any blinds so the silhouettes of them were very clear.
"Can we go home please? I'm so tired."
"Yeah, I'ma stop and get you some soup or something, and then we can go home," I said, glancing over at my ex-girlfriend Rain. Strands of her hair stuck to the sweat that dripped down her face. Her clothes were torn and dirty and a strange odor lingered in the air.
Rain and I were together for three years, on the verge of walking down that aisle until she fucked things up. Apparently, before I met her, she was a deep cocaine user. She had been clean for a couple of years. Being around me tempted her back into the life she desperately wanted to escape from. First it was an occasional use of powder but slowly that turned into her smoking that hard, and it wasn't long before she spiraled out of control. I tried to help her, but the things I had witnessed her do in order to get high hurt the fuck out of me. There was always a lie being told, money being stolen, and I just couldn't take it anymore. Before completely washing my hands with her, I checked her into a rehab facility as a last ditch effort to get her life back in order. Only a week went by before I received a call stating that Rain abandoned the facility. That was three years ago and the last time I'd seen her until now. Rain had been my first love and the very reason I loved differently today. I loved harder, and I gave my all to whoever I was involved with, Jahzara was no exception.
I cranked the car up and prepared to pull off when the glass from my window came crashing into my lap. Rain suddenly perked up and reached for the handle of the door when I'm pulled out of the car through my window. Once I tried to get up to my feet, they knocked me in the head with what felt like the butt of a pistol.
"Fuck is… fuck is…" My head became heavy, and the muscles in my body no longer seemed to work. Seconds later, my head hit the pavement, and everything turned dark.
****
I woke up to a couple of slaps and splashes of water to my face. Blinking desperately, I slowly pulled my eyes open and looked into the face of Tamar. Confusion crossed over me, and I looked around to see where I was at. Rain was in the fetal position in the corner trembling from the cold air that circulated through the room.
“What's going on?" I asked. "I know there ain't no issues with my money, so what's up?"
"Somebody ran up into my moms' crib and fucked her and my sister up looking for me!" he yelled. He lit the tip of a blunt and took a quick couple of tokes from it before finishing. "Telling them how they better warn me not to do anymore business out here in Dallas. If they find out I have any more dealings with you, the consequences will be deadly. "
"Woah! I didn’t do that shit. I don't even know where your t-lady lives at, man!" I shook my head repeatedly, hoping he knew that I was telling him the truth.
“I didn’t say that you did anything, but I do wanna know who in the fuck did.”
“I don’t… I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything about no shit like that. Soon as I got my package from you—”
“Besides that nigga Quin, who else has a problem with the business that we do together?” Tamar cut me off and took another toke of his blunt before passing it over to his partn
er.
“Nobody. Ain’t nobody else tripping ‘cause everybody is making money. He the only person that’s salty about the way things happened,” I said, hoping that to be true.
The conversation that I’d had with my Uncle Dom a few weeks ago popped in my head, and I remembered where he had asked me to specifically stop doing business with Tamar. He and his brothers were all about having a union and having everybody in Dallas fall in line with it meaning that I could only deal with whoever they approved of. Unfortunately, Tamar wasn’t on that list but damn did they go after this nigga’s family because of it? My uncles were definitely on the rise to becoming a force to be reckoned with, but I couldn’t see them fucking with no old lady like that.
“I hate when somebody fucks with my money, and I really hate when somebody fucks with my family. Right now, whoever did this shit is doing both, and, until I figure out who, I’ma fuck with your money as well. Next time you contact me, it better be because you got some usable info,” Tamar said with finality.
