The Score

by Kiki Swinson

  “Don’t try to run now. You wanted this dick, now take it,” he rasped. He slapped my left ass cheek roughly. I squealed in response and tried to run away from him again.

  “Oh God!” I blurted out.

  “Nah, you fuckin’ playin’. Don’t call God now, call out your daddy’s name! What’s my fuckin’ name?” Matt growled.

  “Matt,” I said, barely audible.

  “What? I can’t fuckin’ hear you!” he barked. He leaned down and while his dick was still buried deep inside of me he lifted me up and fucked me from behind like we were two dogs in heat.

  “Uh, ah, uh, Maaattt!” I belted out as I reached the most earth-shattering climax I’d ever had. Within seconds Matt was growling from his climax.

  We both collapsed on the bed—me on my back and Matt on his stomach. I rolled onto my side and rubbed his back gently. I was saying a little silent prayer that my pussy would’ve been enough to keep him in the house with me.

  “Just promise me shit is solid with us,” I whispered.

  “You know I don’t make promises, but I will tell you that you my wifey and I love your ass,” Matt affirmed. I closed my eyes and smiled. That was what I wanted to hear.

  Not even an hour after that beautiful lovemaking session, Matt was in and out of the shower and back into his going-out clothes. My heart was crushed. My prayers had fallen on deaf ears.

  I sat on the side of the bed pouting until Matt left. Once he was gone I jumped up and grabbed my cell phone. “Yeah, girl. He’s gone. You ready? I can be ready in thirty minutes.” I called my girl Daysha and she was at my house in no time to get me.

  “Damn, chick, you trying to creep up on Matt or you trying to snag another nigga?” Daysha gushed as she gave me the once-over. “Bitch, you look fucking hot to death in that outfit. I would’ve thought you was going to New York Fashion Week in all of that haute couture shit you rocking.”

  Daysha was the one chick from my old neighborhood who never turned her back on me or threw me any shade. She and I had been down for years.

  “You like it?” I asked, trying to act all modest like I didn’t know I was the shit in my deep purple form-fitting Gucci dress and a pair of purple-and-black pointy-toe python Gucci stilettos. I had pulled my long, dark hair back into a classy chignon and adorned it with a beautiful mother-of-pearl Louis Vuitton hair clip.

  One thing about me, Lauren Kelly, I was a bad bitch and I knew it. I was a slim five feet six inches tall. I had long, slender yet muscular legs, a tight ass that sat up like a donkey booty, and more than a handful of perky C-cup titties. My only complaint about myself was my high yellow complexion. Against my dark hair sometimes my very fair skin made me look too light, even ghostly. Growing up, my cousins always teased me calling me Albino and White Girl so I developed a complex about my skin color. Rumors were always circulating in my family that I was a white trick’s baby. I mean you could tell I was a black girl because of my beautiful mixed features—full lips, high cheekbones, pointed nose, thick luscious hair, and round light brown eyes—but if it was just up to my skin color I could easily pass for white.

  “Do I like it? Bitch, I love that Gucci runway dress and those stilettos are the shit,” Daysha carried on excitedly. I laughed. I loved to get compliments. Daysha was funny as hell too. She didn’t look so shabby herself in a sea-green Donna Karan one-piece flare-leg jumpsuit, a pair of multicolor Brian Atwood sandals, and her green Chanel mini. Daysha kept a hustle so her banging outfit didn’t surprise me.

  “Okay, now when we get in the club I want to hide out for a little bit before Matt sees me. I just want to see what is going down before I let him know I’m there. Plus, I don’t want him to spot me and try to send his people to make my ass leave. You know how possessive and crazy he can be sometimes,” I told Daysha. “He is not going to be happy to see me, but oh well. I guess you can just say that I am hard-headed.” I laughed. I was playing it off in front of my friend, but that ill feeling in my gut was still lingering. My sixth sense was definitely on high alert that night.

  “Bet! I’m with that,” Daysha chimed, clapping her hands like she always did to emphasize her points. “Let’s go bust up a nigga’s party,” she cheered.

  Daysha and I cracked up as we grabbed our pocketbooks and headed for the door.

  I had to pay three different corner boys to finally give up the goods about what club Matt and his crew were hanging at for the night. Niggas was being tight-lipped until I pulled out those stacks that I had taken out of Matt’s safe. Once we found out, Daysha drove her car over to Club Domino. It was in a seedy part of town but I didn’t care. I had a point to prove.

  The inside of Club Domino was lit. It was tightly packed with people from all over Virginia Beach and from the sounds of it the DJ was one of the best in the business. The clubs in the worst neighborhoods were always the best ones.

  “Damn, everybody and they mama up in here tonight,” Daysha screamed over the music. “Shit, I better find a man while I’m up in this piece looking all fine.” I laughed at her. Daysha was constantly on the hunt for a man but she was so wild she never kept one for long.

  Daysha and I could hardly navigate through the sea of bodies so we held on to each other to make sure we didn’t get separated.

  “You ain’t never gonna find that nigga Matt up in this crowd,” Daysha yelled into my ear over the music.

  “All we gotta do is find the VIP. You know how he rolls . . . always showing the fuck off. I’m sure he’s posted up in the VIP section somewhere with mad niggas and mad expensive bottles. You know, Matt-style,” I yelled back into her ear.

  “True! True! Well, we have to find out exactly where it’s at,” she yelled back. “For now, let’s head to the bar and see what simple nigga we can get to trick on our drinks,” she said. I just laughed. I loved her ass.

  Daysha and I headed straight to the bar and ordered our own drinks. I ordered a cosmo and Daysha ordered a Hpnotiq. The simple niggas were swirling around us in no time. It felt real good to be out and it felt even better to know that I could still get attention like that. I didn’t realize it until then that I had been cooped up in the house playing wife and living a boring-ass life. Niggas in the club were loving us and of course Daysha was soaking it all up. She had already gotten us another round of drinks for free.

  I turned from the bar and looked out into the crowd. Of course I wasn’t going to find Matt in that sea of people. But I did peep that there were some real pretty chicks up in the club. Instead of enjoying myself and the attention I was getting, I was preoccupied with taking mental notes on how many of the gorgeous chicks Matt might be attracted to. I immediately started feeling insecure. My gut feeling was back and it was making me feel sick.

  “Yo! I just spotted the fucking VIP ropes,” Daysha said, excitedly elbowing me in the ribs. She tilted her head and nodded toward the far left of the club. As people swayed to the music and opened up tiny gaps I got a quick glimpse of those famous velvet ropes that everybody knows separates VIPs from the general clubgoers.

  “C’mon. Let’s go bust up that nigga’s party,” Daysha said, starting to move. I grabbed the back of her jumpsuit and pulled her back, almost making her fall flat on her ass.

  “Yo! What are you doing? Ain’t this what you came here for?” Daysha screamed at me with her face folded into a frown.

  “Let’s give it a few minutes,” I said nervously. “I have to make sure I’m ready for whatever. Matt might act stupid. I have to be prepared.”

  My nerves were all of a sudden frazzled. I couldn’t tell if I really wanted to know what Matt was doing or not. I started second-guessing myself and feeling guilty, like what if Matt was right about keeping me out of harm’s way.

  “Lauren, I ain’t come out here to play stupid games. We came to party and getting in VIP with Matt and them is where I wanna be,” Daysha snapped, tapping her foot. I knew that meant it would only be a few more minutes before her ass got real impatient with me and stormed over to
the VIP section alone. Daysha was one of those bold chicks who didn’t give a fuck.

  “Okay. Okay. Let me just get one more drink in my system. I might need my liquid courage,” I said.

  I downed my drink and ordered one more.

  “Oh hell no! What you ordering more drinks for? Are you here to creep on Matt or not? Shit, you acting mad scary,” Daysha complained.

  “Let me finish this drink and then we will go,” I placated.

  “Don’t be acting scared. This is why this nigga thinks he can keep your ass under lock and key . . . you always acting like you scared to roll up on his ass,” Daysha said tauntingly.

  “I ain’t never scared,” I snapped back. I guess her words had put the battery in my back. I slammed the empty glass on the bar, threw three twenty-dollar bills up on the bar, and headed in the direction of the VIP section.

  I am not sure why my legs were shaking and my heart thumping, but they were. A cold feeling shot down my spine like something bad was about to happen to me. Even with the dance floor packed with people I felt like I was all alone walking into impending doom.

  Daysha got to the velvet ropes first. The thick, purple velvet ropes were all that separated the VIP section from the rest of the club. A thinly veiled material hung at either side of the entrance, too, but those paper-thin sheers did not obscure my vision of all of the people behind them.

  There was a tall man dressed in a suit standing guard in front of the VIP entrance and he used his body to block our entrance when Daysha approached.

  “Only specially invited guests in this area,” the man growled.

  “We are specially invited guests. This is Matt’s wife,” Daysha said sassily, pointing to me like the man should’ve known that. I was stuck on stupid, unable to even move. I had already peeped what I needed to see. I put my hand against my chest because I felt like I was having a heart attack. My chest literally felt tight like my heart was about to stop.

  “What proof does she have?” I heard the man ask Daysha.

  Daysha turned toward me. I don’t know if she noticed how pale my face had turned or if it mattered to her that my mouth was halfway open in horror.

  “Lauren? Tell him you’re Matt’s wife so he can just let us by,” Daysha said to me. Suddenly, my ears began ringing and I could no longer decipher what song the DJ was playing. I blinked a few times and then all of a sudden I felt an unknown force pushing me forward. I swear it was like a demon had jumped into my body and possessed me. I raced around the tall security guard, kicked over the stand that held the velvet ropes, and rushed into the VIP section so fast that even Daysha was shocked. I was pushing and shoving bitches out of my way and I didn’t give a damn.

  “Oh shit!” I heard some of Matt’s dudes say when they noticed me barreling toward Matt like a madwoman.

  “Lau . . .” Matt started to say my name but he was forced to swallow it. His eyes flew open as wide as saucers and he didn’t even have time to react. Neither did the bitch on his lap. Within seconds I had my hands tangled in her long, wet, and wavy weave.

  “Oh nigga this is why you wanted me to stay home!” I barked as I yanked the girl’s hair like I was trying to take her head off.

  “Ahhh!” she shrieked. It was too late. I had already dragged her off of Matt’s lap and onto the floor. I freed one of my hands, curled it into a fist, and slammed it into her face.

  “Bitch! You wanna fuck with other people’s man!” I growled as I rained punches down on her face.

  “Get off me!” the girl screamed. “Get off me!” Her legs were splayed open as she tried to free herself from my grasp. I took the opportunity to drive my pointed toe heel right into her naked pussy. “Argghghghgh!” she squealed gutturally, like a baby pig being slaughtered. I was able to get one more kick in near her ribs before I felt myself being hoisted in the air and pulled off of her.

  “Yo, Lauren! You fucking crazy!” Matt screamed at me as the security grabbed me up. I kicked my legs and flailed my body wildly. I know I probably looked crazy but that was fine because it was exactly how I felt.

  “Fuck you! Fuck you, Matt! I can’t believe you did this to me!” I screamed with tears running in streams down my face. “You’re a fucking liar! You ain’t got no fucking love for me! Liar!” I screeched. As the security guards carried me away I managed to get my left stiletto off. I hurled it in Matt’s direction. He jumped back and ducked just before the shoe could hit his ass in the head.

  “I fucking hate you! I fucking hate you!” It was a mixture of hurt and devastation that came through in my words. That was just the first of many times I would find Matt cheating and feel so powerless that I would forgive him.

  * * *

  Now, I had to force myself to blink away that crazy memory of the past. “Are you a’ight?” Matt asked me as his eyes squinted into suspicious dashes.

  “Yeah, I’m good. I’m just trying to figure out why Yancy bolted out of here like she did.”

  “How am I supposed to know? Maybe it’s that time of the month,” Matt replied nonchalantly, walking over and kissing me on my cheek. It was the exact same shit he’d done all of the other times he was guilty of being unfaithful.

  My insides were churning. I wanted to tell him so badly that I knew that once again he was being a fucking dog and cheating on me, although I was the one who had been holding him down after he’d lost everything he used to have.

  “Are you ready to plot our next hit?” he continued.

  “Sure, why not?” I said as I kicked off my shoes. “But three million dollars in one account sounds a little suspect. But I’m still willing to take a chance and see if we can get it out by wires,” I told Matt.

  “Think you can call your dude Ryan up north and see if he can crack the account? ’Cause if he can then we can say good-bye to all of this petty fucking stealing and credit card scamming bullshit. And I can finally buy back into the game and get back on my feet. Make money the way I used to do it. Boy it would feel good to be back on my grind. This white-collar shit is a’ight. But it ain’t like that street money. That street money comes with power and respect. Not this shit here. Sometimes I feel like a fucking petty-ass thief after we come off with five and ten grand jobs. That ain’t no real money to a nigga like me. I need to make the kind of dough I used to make when I was in the streets. I wanna feel like the leader I am,” Matt said.

  “Oh really?” My nostrils flared and I bit down into my jaw to keep myself from saying what I really wanted to say to him. How fucking dare he talk about buying back into the game and getting back on his feet when I’d been the one holding us down since the drug raid that had ended his street deals. I was also the one who scammed up the money for the defense attorney that kept his ass out of going to prison for life. And because of all the stress I ended up losing a baby I didn’t know I was pregnant with until it was too late. I went through the loss of the baby by myself because Matt was locked up behind bars. What’s even more fucked up was that I hadn’t been able to get pregnant since. The only reason I could think that this was happening was because Matt was too busy shooting sperm up in all the other bitches. Right now, he was definitely treading on thin ice with me.

  “Yeah, really. I don’t feel like I run this shit. Sometimes it feels like I work for you and that ain’t cool. I want my own shit! I wanna rebuild my empire. So as soon as we get this bread, I’m calling my connects and then I’m gonna branch off.”

  “I see you got everything all planned out. So, I’ll call my dude, but you, me, and Yancy are going to have to talk about percentages,” I said flatly. “Now I know that she found the wallet but that still doesn’t entitle her to the lion’s share of the money. It’s going to come down to who has the resources to get that money into our hands.”

  “I figured that you were going to say that,” Matt replied. “It’s always about who is going to get more and who gets less with you, Lauren. ”

  “You damn right. I started this whole thing. If it weren’t for me, t
hen we wouldn’t be living the life we’re living. Look at this place. Look at the cars we drive. So, of course, I’m gonna say who gets what,” I told him.

  “Look at how quickly we forget who took who out of the fucking hood!” Matt snapped. I could tell that he was becoming very irritated with this conversation of ours.

  “I haven’t forgotten shit. I know what you did for me.”

  “Are you sure? Because right now, you’re acting like you’ve done everything for me. When in fact, I put you up in a house, paid all the bills, and took care of you.”

  “Look, Matt, I already said that I remembered what you did for me before you went away and did time. So I’m not trying to go back and forth with you. All I’m saying is that, you can try to get your hands on the money on your own, or you can agree to my terms and we all walk away happy.”

  “Whatever, Lauren. Just make the phone call and let’s make this shit happen,” Matt folded.

  I smirked and shook my head in the affirmative. “Now that’s the spirit,” I said sarcastically.

  One thing about me, I might have come from the hood but I didn’t have a hood mindset at all. I was going to get mine no matter what. Too bad, I was going to see to it that Matt and Yancy didn’t get shit.

  I left Matt in the room and headed back outside to make the call to my computer geek, Ryan. I needed some privacy so I elected that my car would be the best place for it. As soon as I got into the driver’s seat I started dialing his number but before I could press the send button an incoming call came through. I looked down at the caller ID and noticed that it was my homegirl Daysha so I answered it. “What’s up, girl?” I said.

  “Nothing much. Where you been? I’ve been trying to get up with you.”

  “You know me. I don’t sit in one place too long,” I joked.

  “Think you can get me a couple of five-hundred-dollar American Express gift cards? I got this nigga looking for some and he said he’s got the money now. So, I’m trying to catch me a lick. I got bills piling up my ass and I need to put some money on my baby daddy’s commissary account. Ugh, I just need a break.”