The Dopefiend

by JaQuavis Coleman

  “Shit, let’s go,” Hazel said, as she didn’t want to waste any time. A twenty-minute bus ride to the south side was worth it to get some good dope.

  “I think the nigga name was . . . Mouse.”

  Chapter Ten

  Mouse sat in his Lexus that was pulled on the curb, observing his trap spot making money. His goon sat to the right of him in the passenger seat with a notebook on his lap. Three lines of coke were lined up as the goon dipped his head quickly and immediately used his nose as a vacuum, sucking up the first line. He quickly rose up and threw his head back to prevent it from running. He made sniffing noises and wiped his nose clean.

  “So what you wanna do about that nigga Seven,” the goon asked as his trigger finger began to itch. Mouse had told his crew that Seven had shorted him and then acted like nothing was wrong with doing so. The fact that Seven wasn’t trying to make up the shortage of dope made Mouse even more irate. The way that Seven blew him off was a blow to Mouse’s pride and that made for chaos.

  “The nigga was on some boss shit . . . like he wasn’t trying to give me what I paid for. Some nerve! I got him though. I’ma show that nigga what’s up,” Mouse said confidently and he slowly nodded his head up and down, plotting on revenge. “Do that nigga know who the fuck I am?” Mouse asked rhetorically, getting angrier the more he thought about it as he grabbed the notebook and hit a line. Just as he lifted his head, a knock on the window startled him and he and his goon went for their guns. The woman on the outside knocking couldn’t see through the tint so she was squinting her eyes and put her hands against the glass, over her eyes, trying to see if someone was in the running car. Mouse saw who it was and put his gun back onto his waist and his goon followed suit.

  “Don’t be running up on my shit like that! I almost popped yo’ ass,” Mouse said as he rolled down his window, slowly exposing his face.

  “Chill out, baby boy. My bad,” Millie said as she smiled, trying to ease the mood as she stepped away from the car.

  “This that bitch I was telling you about,” Mouse whispered to his goon as he briefly glanced at him and looked back at Millie. Mouse had been telling him about a dopefiend who had some bomb pussy. The tripped-out part about it was that she didn’t even look like a dopefiend, and Mouse found that amusing. A week earlier Millie rode his dick so good, he bust in thirty seconds flat and it only cost him a twenty pack of Lady Luck. Mouse had been thinking about her all week and there she was, standing right in front of him looking desperate.

  “You got some?” Millie asked as she blew in her hand, trying to stay warm while ducking so that she could be eye level with Mouse.

  “You know I keep that,” Mouse said arrogantly. “You got some money?” he said, knowing that she didn’t.

  “Naw, I’m hurting right now, but I got something better than that,” Millie said as she ran her tongue over her top lip, trying to entice him.

  “Oh, yeah?” Mouse asked while grinning. He already felt his pole growing in his jeans and his mind was on getting another shot of Millie’s bomb sex.

  “Yep,” Millie said as she turned around and let Mouse get a glimpse of her ass that seemed to stay with her regardless of her addiction. The ass was usually the first to go when dealing with drugs, but not Millie’s.

  Without hesitation, Mouse turned off his car and stepped out. His goon got out too, anticipating a train on Millie. “Yo’, let’s step in the spot,” Mouse said as he licked his lips and smacked Millie’s ass. He then noticed another girl standing a couple of feet away, obviously waiting on Millie. “She with you?” Mouse asked as he checked her out.

  “Yeah, she cool,” Millie confirmed. They all headed into one of the apartments that Mouse rented for distribution. Millie and Hazel were happy to be in some heat; they had been outside for more than an hour looking for Mouse’s car.

  “The more the merrier,” Mouse said as he headed into the apartment. Hazel grew uncomfortable because of the way the goon was looking at her. He smacked her ass as they made their way into the spot, which made her feel like the scum of the Earth.

  As soon as they entered, Mouse’s hands began to grope Millie. “Let’s go to the back,” he suggested.

  “All right, cool,” Millie said as she pulled off her coat and began to unbuckle her pants, already knowing the deal. She hated trading sex for drugs, but when heroin called for her, it was a craving like no other. Mouse faded into the back room, sparking a blunt, wanting to get high before he blew Millie’s back out.

  “Hazelnut, I’ll be right back,” Millie said as she watched Hazel sit on the couch. The goon was standing by the door, standing a couple of feet away from Hazel.

  “Okay,” Hazel answered, seeming very uptight. Mouse’s goon began to look at Hazel like a lion looked at a piece of meat and his pipe began to grow as he thought about sexing her. Her thick thighs and pretty face had him fantasizing. With his big eyes and big lips he wasn’t exactly the ladies’ man, so paying for sex wasn’t new to him. He was prepared to give Hazel whatever she wanted in exchange for him sliding inside of her.

  “So, what you want, ma? Dope, blow . . . money?” he asked as he pulled out a large bundle of heroin and waved it from side to side; Hazel’s eyes followed.

  “Uh-uh. Don’t even think about it, playboy,” Millie cut in just before she stepped entirely into the back bedroom where Mouse was waiting. “She doesn’t get down. I will take care of you. Just come in the back,” Millie said as she stopped in her tracks and walked over to the goon.

  “I think she’s a big girl. She can talk for herself,” the goon said as he didn’t take his eyes off of Hazel. He licked his lips and was getting horny. “So what you gon’ do?” he asked again, seeing her eyes light up at the sight of the Lady Luck he was holding.

  “I said . . . I got you. Just come back and get some of this. I can handle the both of you,” Millie said, being overprotective of Hazel as she stormed over to the goon and grabbed his dick. Millie began to stroke it while it was growing in his jeans.

  “I’m grown. I can handle this,” Hazel said as she stood up. She wanted that bag to herself so she wanted to earn it by herself. Millie looked at Hazel as if she was crazy and then pulled the goon toward the back room, but not before Hazel grabbed his hand. “I got this,” she said again.

  Millie looked at Hazel as an adult and not a little girl. At that moment, she knew that Hazel was not a teen anymore and was about to open Pandora’s box. Millie quickly decided to let Hazel take care of her own business, and went into the back with Mouse not wanting to keep him waiting any longer. If Millie was in her right mind and not yearning for the drug so badly, she would have protested more, but the only thing on her mind was making Mouse have a good nut so that he would reward her with a large pack of Lady Luck. She left Hazel alone with the goon and went into the back.

  “Handle this for me, ma,” the goon said as he pulled out his slightly erect penis. Hazel’s heart was beating so fast and hard, it seemed as if she had a baboon inside of her chest trying to get out. Hazel walked over to him, dropped on her knees, and closed her eyes.

  What the hell am I doing? I’m just like my damn mama, she thought as she froze for a second. Just as she thought about getting up and backing out, the pains in her stomach reminded her who the boss was. She was a slave to her own addiction and it seemed like an out-of-body experience as she took him into her mouth and began sucking, only thinking about the high that she would experience afterward. Tears streamed down her face as she let him thrust into her mouth while grabbing her hair roughly, not caring about how he treated her. Hazel had just crossed a line that she had promised herself she would never.

  Thirty minutes had passed and Millie came out of the back room, followed by the smell of sex and weed, to find Hazel waiting on the couch anxiously. Hazel was waiting so she and Millie could go and shoot the dope up together. Hazel had only had the dope for fifteen minutes but in dopefiend time it was an eternity.

  “Damn, Millie, you took long e
nough! Let’s go,” Hazel said as she had her coat on, ready to leave. The goon was in the corner sitting in the chair, while smoking a Newport cigarette, feeling good off the orgasm that he had just had in Hazel’s mouth. Mouse came out seconds later, buttoning up his jeans, also feeling good. Millie had just ridden his pipe like an award-winning cowgirl and she earned every bit of the dope he had just given her.

  “Okay, we out,” Millie said as she headed to the door. Millie and Hazel stepped outside and the cold air hit them like a bus. Chills ran up both of their bodies as they both dipped their heads into the coats.

  “You know any spots on this side of town?” Hazel asked, not trying to wait until they reached Millie house to shoot up.

  “Hell naw. Damn!” Millie said, feeling the same urgency as Hazel was. Mille began to look around, trying to think of a place they could go. “Wait, yeah I do! It’s a spot around the way. The only thing is, I don’t really know homeboy like that. But he has a shooting gallery in his basement. He charges five dollars at the door.” Millie said, using a nickname fiends gave houses that people shot their dope at. “I went there awhile back, but it’s nasty as hell in there,” Millie said, sounding like she didn’t want to go.

  “So, fuck it, let’s go there. We need somewhere warm where we can get high. Your house is at least thirty, forty minutes away. We will leave right after we done,” Hazel said, anxiously trying to hurry to her first shot of the day.

  Ten minutes had passed and Millie and Hazel were at the back door at the spot anxiously waiting to get in. Millie knocked on the door and then rubbed her hands together, trying to keep warm. “These mufuckas need to hurry up. It’s colder than a bitch out here.”

  “Who dat?” a man’s voice yelled from the inside.

  “Lady Luck,” Millie yelled back, giving him the code word to let him know what she was coming to do. The sounds of locks being clicked and then a chain being slid sounded. The door opened and an older man with spaced-out teeth stood before them.

  “Ten dollars,” he said as he held his palm out and wiggled his fingers. Millie dug into her bra and pulled out a crumpled-up ten-dollar bill that she had gotten from Mouse. She put it in the man’s hand and the man stepped aside, giving them a path to enter the dope house. Hazel followed Millie into the dark house and they walked down the creaky steps that lead to the basement. The big basement was dimly lit with a jukebox that sat in the corner, giving it a look of a 1970s speakeasy. There was a mixed crowd of men and women as they were in various places shooting their dope. The jukebox played a slow melody by Marvin Gaye, and Hazel felt like she was in an old-time movie. Everyone was cool and laidback as they bobbed their heads to the tunes. Millie quickly found a table that sat in the corner and began to do their thing. The first shot was always the best. Hazel quickly got comfortable and she let Millie set up as she took her coat off and hurriedly rolled up her sleeve. “This is about to feel so good,” she whispered as she watched Millie fill the syringe.

  Chapter Eleven

  Hazel woke up and quickly wiped the slobber that dribbled from the corner of her mouth. She looked over at Millie who was sitting in the chair, nodding, slowly letting her chin touch her chest, just before she quickly popped back up, trying keep herself from falling.

  “Millie . . . Millie,” Hazel whispered harshly as she watched Millie pop up for the second time. Millie still had her eyes closed, so Hazel pulled her arm, finally waking her.

  “Hey, Hazelnut,” Millie mumbled as she barely opened her eyes and looked at Hazel with a smile. Millie had shot up twice the amount of Hazel, so she was twice as high off Lady Luck.

  “Let’s go . . . I got to get back to the rehab center,” Hazel said, not knowing how long she had been nodding. Hazel looked around the room and noticed that it had cleared out and they were the only two left down there. “Millie!” Hazel yelled, nervous about what time it was. She didn’t want Seven to come pick her up at Insight and she wasn’t there. Millie slowly came to and began to lick her chapped lips. Millie glanced at her wristwatch and then took a deep breath.

  “Relax, Hazelnut, its only two o’clock,” Millie confirmed as she sat up from her slouched position.

  “Oh,” Hazel said as she relaxed, knowing that she had plenty of time to get back. “You got some more?” Hazel asked, not remembering how much they had used earlier.

  “Yeah, I got about a tenth left,” Millie confirmed, which was more than enough to have them leaning for the rest of the evening. All of a sudden, the sound of someone moving in the corner of the room echoed throughout the basement. Millie and Hazel eyes shot over to the dark corner and they saw a man sitting there who was just waking from a nod. He still had the needle in his arm and a belt wrapped tightly around his forearm.

  “Can I hit that with y’all?” he asked after overhearing what Millie said about her having a tenth left. Millie instantly smacked her lips and rolled her eyes, not giving the man a second thought.

  “Negro, please!” she said as she whipped out the bag with the Lady Luck symbol stamped on it. Hazel’s eyes instantly followed the bag as she anticipated hitting it again. Hazel picked up the syringe while feeling her heart pound as her adrenaline began to pump. Millie and Hazel both were so focused on setting up, they didn’t see the six–foot three man stand up and approach them while they sat at the table.

  “Is that Lady Luck?” he asked as he hovered over them. He could smell the strong vinegar aroma from where he was standing and he knew that it was the best thing Flint had to offer as far as dope was concerned. He wanted in.

  ”Uh-uh, homeboy! You betta back the fuck up!” Millie said as she looked up and snapped her neck back, not believing that the man was all in their business. Hazel eyes were on the dope, so she never saw the surprise coming. The man struck Millie square in the eye, causing her to fly out of the chair.

  “Millie,” Hazel screamed as watched her hold her eye and ball up into fetal position. The man was crazed and in need of dope, so he decided he would take what Millie wasn’t trying to share. The man repeatedly began to kick Millie in the midsection, catching her square in her stomach with every blow. It seemed as if Hazel’s high had instantly been ripped from her and the feeling of fear overcame her. Hazel immediately rose up and lunged onto the man’s back while scratching and biting him.

  “Get the hell off of her!” Hazel demanded as she held on for dear life.

  “Aghhh! Bitch!” the man yelled in pain as he twisted wildly, trying to get a feisty Hazel off of his back. He staggered backward, reached over his shoulder, and grabbed Hazel’s hair violently. He got a good grip and flung her to across the room with all his brute strength, making her bump her head violently on the hard, cement floor. He then grabbed the dope off of the table, but Millie wasn’t giving up her dope that easy. She whipped out a switchblade knife that she always kept in her bra, flicked it open, and stabbed the man in his foot with all of her might as he tried to gather the heroin off of the table.

  “You li’l bitch!” the man screamed as he watched Millie raise her hand again, attempting to give him another stab. But before she could poke him, he kicked the knife out of her hand, causing it to skid across the floor near Hazel who was on all fours trying to regain her focus. The man began to beat Millie, giving her punch after punch to the face and her body. Millie couldn’t defend herself and began blacking out because of the man’s violent rampage on her. Hazel grabbed the knife and ran up on the man, and without even thinking twice she plunged the knife into the side of his neck with all of her might, causing blood to shoot out instantaneously. The man, right away, grabbed his neck and began to gasp for air. Hazel, crying hysterically, watched as the man fell over and onto his back as he struggled to breathe. Blood oozed from his mouth and his eyes began to roll into the back of his head.

  Hazel knelt down and propped up Millie’s head as she was fading in and out of consciousness. “Millie . . . Millie,” Hazel cried. Moments later, the man who originally let them in came down the stairs to se
e what all of the commotion was about.

  “What the hell is going . . .” he started to ask just before he stopped mid-sentence. He saw the battered women and his get-high buddy laid out on the floor in his own blood. “Oh my God,” he whispered as he put his hand over his mouth and looked on in disbelief.

  Millie began to come to and looked over at the man who was lying there dead with his eyes wide open and a knife sticking out the side of his neck. She sat up and asked Hazel if she was okay. Hazel was crying so hard that she couldn’t talk. She just nodded her head and she stood on her knees, rocking back and forth. Millie crawled over to the man and spit in his face boldly as she took the dope that was balled up in his hands.

  “What the fuck have y’all done?” the man asked as he sat down on the steps and put his hands on his head. “I already got two strikes! I can’t deal with this shit. Y’all bitches got to get this nigga outta here! This some crazy shit right here,” he admitted as he shook his head from side to side, not believing what had just happened in the basement of his own house.

  Hazel didn’t know what to do. She looked to Millie, but she was still disoriented from the attack. Hazel only had one option. She had to call Seven. “Where’s the phone?” Hazel asked the man as she began to wipe her tears away.

  About an hour later Seven and Ra were walking into the house, Rah having a chrome nine millimeter in his hand. “Lock that door,” Seven ordered to Rah as he stepped in and looked around, scanning the entire room.

  “We’re down here!” the man yelled from the basement. Seven had gotten a call from Hazel and immediately went to her. Seven looked around suspiciously to locate where the voice was coming from. The man repeated himself but that time louder, and then Seven and Rah followed the voice that led them to the basement.

  Seven slowly walked down the basement stairs, followed closely by Rah. When he reached the bottom step, the familiar smell of heroine and the stink stench of the basement invaded his nostrils. The first thing Seven saw was the dead body on the floor. He then looked at Hazel, Millie, and the man who the house belonged to, standing over the body. Hazel was crying when she had called Seven, so he didn’t know the extent the problem. She refused to tell him over the phone and begged him to come to the house. After giving him the address, he headed over.