by Styles, T.
Farah looked into her sister’s eyes, and saw she was deathly serious. Turning back around, she stepped up to Shannon, and smacked the dog shit out of her like it was nothing. She hit the floor so hard, the heel of her cheap boot broke and hung to the right. “I told you I ain’t wanna play.” Farah pointed down at Shannon before looking at Coconut. “This is your fault, not mine, so you can put this on YouTube if you want to ... I don’t give a fuck.”
“Damn, Shannon, I ain’t know you bought cheap shoes,” one of the girls said.
Shannon was enraged, and took her anger out on Farah. “Bitch, that’s why I got something you want, and his name is Slade Baker!” She continued ranting from the floor like a mad woman. “He chose wisely because you could never be better than me.” She was so mad spit was popping out of her mouth like a sprinkler. “Plus, you’re too fucking weird.” She looked at everybody. “Watch out for her, she’s claiming to be a vampire.”
Mia marched toward Shannon, preparing to knock her out, when Farah stopped her and said, “I got it, Mia.” Then she looked down at Shannon. “What you just say to me?”
Shannon stood up and tried to balance herself on uneven shoes, although her heel had given out. “You heard me.”
Farah was about to hit her again when Shannon reached into her jacket and pulled out a bottle of perfume to spray in her face. Farah immediately felt burning sensations throughout her skin, and it felt like she was on fire. Her eyes were inflamed, and her face itched so badly she was about to cry. Enraged, she started swinging wildly in Shannon’s direction, but she hit Rhonda instead. Rhonda was punched so hard that she fell to the floor, and her head flung back and hit the edge of the living room table. Farah couldn’t see what she’d done, or who she hit, but she heard everyone’s reaction. Before she could ask any questions, Mia rushed behind her and led her toward the front door.
“I’ma handle this, Farah!”
“What happened?” she yelled, trying to see. “What did I do?” Farah could hear the angry voices geared toward her. Just as she expected, the day didn’t end well and she was sure it would get worse.
“You need to get out of here!” Mia continued. “That’s the only thing you need to be worried about right now.”
“What about my coat? It’s in my room!”
“You want your coat or do you want to go to jail?” Mia opened the door, and pushed her out without a response, before slamming it shut.
Chapter 66
“I ain’t one of them niggas you can talk to any kind of way.”
—Slade
Slade was about to pull off to handle some business when he saw Farah stumble out of the building without a coat, as she repeatedly rubbed her eyes. He hopped out of his truck, took his jacket off, and wrapped it around her body. At first she fought with him, not knowing who he was, but when she heard his voice she relaxed and gave in. “It’s me, Farah. It’s Slade.” No longer fighting, she allowed him to usher her inside of his truck. “What the fuck happened to you?” he asked, looking at her red face.
“I need to wash my eyes out,” she cried, rubbing her face. “I can barely see. You got some water or something in here?”
Slade reached in the back and grabbed from the holder the cup that Major was drinking out of yesterday. He walked around to her side of the truck and opened her door before carefully helping her out. “Okay, I’ma throw this water in your face, okay?”
“Yes ... do it now! Please!” She kept moving in place. “Please ... my eyes are killing me!”
Slade took the lid off the cup and threw the water in her face. A few ice cubes bounced off of the edge of her nose, and crashed to the ground. “Ow!” she yelled. “What the fuck was that?”
“Oh, shit!” He laughed. “I didn’t know ice was still in the cup. My truck must’ve been cold as shit all night.” He helped her back inside and pulled off. “You okay over there?”
Although her face was still inflamed, Farah slowly began to open her eyes. “I’m okay ...” She started laughing hysterically. “Even though you threw a block of ice in my face.” She was grateful she didn’t suffer an outbreak.
He grabbed a napkin from his console and handed it to her. “Sorry, babes. Use this to dry off.” She patted the water off her face. “I don’t know what happened, but you smell good.” He smelled the fragrance that Shannon sprayed on her.
“Don’t get used to it. I’m not a perfume type of girl.”
Slade drove down the street and said, “What happened?”
She rubbed her eyes a few more times and said, “Your girlfriend sprayed perfume in my face. That’s what happened, Slade. I wish you told me you fucked with her like that. I would not have wasted my time.”
He felt Shannon’s move was ugly and had plans to check her later. “What girl?”
“Slade, cut the shit. I’m talking about the bitch I saw with you at the club last night. She came to my friend’s shower, and sprayed some shit in my face because she knows I’m allergic to it.”
Slade remembered Shannon talking about the disease, so he decided to ask her about it. “What is porphyria?”
Farah felt her head spinning and she wondered how he knew. She opened her eyes and although her vision was blurry, she could see him better. “It’s an illness. That I was born with. It’s a blood disorder.” He decided to spare her the vampire details, because of everything she was going through. Skipping the subject she said, “I can’t believe you would even associate yourself with that bitch. She ain’t nothing but a whore.”
Slade felt bad about Farah seeing him in the club, and he was fucked up by it all night. He felt so guilty that he dropped Shannon off home, even though they had plans to get a room. At the same time had Farah never disrespected him, he would have never seen her again. “I’m sorry about what you saw in the club, but I didn’t know you were there. But you were wrong for disrespecting me, Farah, and I told you I meant what I said. I ain’t one of them niggas you can talk to any kind of way. And until you apologize, me and you could never be like that.”
Farah was silent. “I’m sorry.” She looked at him. “I just got mad that you weren’t willing to stay with me once you found Knox. I guess I took shit the wrong way. Slade, I don’t want you to be with her; you belong to me.”
“How did you know my brother’s name?”
She made a great mistake that she was just realizing. “You told me.”
“No ... I didn’t. I would never have said his name. We got too much shit going on.”
“Well, you did. How else would I know?” She looked at him, and blinked a few times because the perfume was drying her eyes out.
“I saw on the news that dude you were with last night was murdered. What happened?”
She was grateful they were past the Knox situation. “I think Randy tried to kill me, and he got them instead.” She adjusted her seat so she could sit back more. “I know he not gonna stop until he kills me though.” Slade didn’t like that she was going through so many struggles, but if she acted right, he had intentions of giving her a serious role in his life. “Where we going?”
“I gotta see this lady about my brother Knox. Her name is Eleanor. You know her?”
Chapter 67
“When I was younger, I used to take care of people better than I did myself.”
—Eleanor
Eleanor was sitting down in her favorite corner in her house. The drugs rushed through her veins, giving her the sensation of a constant orgasm. She was in dope bitch heaven. The brown tourniquet used to enlarge her broken veins remained tightly on her arm, as the needle dangled from her skin. She was just about to nod off and deal with the world later when there was a knock on her door. Wiping the spit strings from the sides of her mouth, she removed the syringe, hopped up, and answered it. When she saw Slade and Farah, she tried to slam it shut. But Slade was able to block this move by wedging his foot in the door.
When she tried to run, he pushed her to the floor. “Farah, go lock the door.”
Farah did as she was told, and stood at his side. When he saw the dog tags belonging to his brother hanging around Eleanor’s neck, he prowled toward her. “Where is my brother?” he asked through clenched teeth. “Don’t fucking lie to me.”
“I don’t know who you talking about.”
“Eleanor, where ... the ... fuck ... is ... my ... brother?” He gripped the tags hanging around her neck. “If you knew how much he means to me, you wouldn’t fuck with my head. Start talking.”
“I know him as D.B. I got it from the tattoo on his arm.”
“It stands for Della Baker. My mother.”
Wiping the sweat off her head she said, “He left here last night.” In the middle of talking, the drug gods called her name, and she nodded off until he said, “Farah, slap her.”
Without hesitation she went in, and slapped her awake. “I’m sorry... I dozed off.”
“I’m growing impatient with you, and I don’t wanna do that,” Slade said. “Now where is he?”
“Okay ... He said he was going to see his brothers. He said he remembered who he was and had to find his family. That’s all I know.”
“What do you mean, remember who he was? Why would he forget?”
Eleanor looked at Farah. “He was involved in a car accident. A hit and run. But he said the person who hit him tried to kill him by covering his nose and mouth.”
“Slade, this bitch is a dopehead,” Farah said, trying to shake them off her trail. She could tell Eleanor knew more than she was letting on. That explained why she looked at her funny the day she was sitting in her car outside of this building. “You can’t listen to shit she say.”
“She’s right. Don’t listen to me,” she responded. She didn’t want to die behind what she said while high. “I’ve been shooting dope in my veins most of my life. I’m half out of my mind most times.”
“My brother said you saved his life. So for now I trust you. So please, tell me what happened. How did he end up here?”
She swallowed and said, “When he was left for dead, on the side of the road, I saw him lying in the street. He was bleeding everywhere, and had a few broken bones in his body. I bought him back here and nursed him to health. When I was younger, I used to take care of people better than I did myself... I guess I still do today.” She smiled. “If you can believe it, I was a nurse before I married heroin.”
“Did he say if he was coming back?”
“No ... but I got the impression he wasn’t, because he gave me this chain and told me thanks for everything.”
Slade couldn’t believe he missed Knox again, and he was starting to fear the worst. “Thank you, and I’m sorry if I scared you.” Eleanor looked at Farah once more, who was staring her down. “I gotta get my family back together. Spotting a late notice on the table, he grabbed a pen and jotted down his number. “I want you to have him call me there.”
She took the letter and placed it in her lap. The high was wearing off, and she needed another hit. “I can do a dance for you. You got any money?” she asked. “I really need some money.”
Slade handed her fifty bucks, and ignored everything else. “I don’t care what you have to do, Eleanor. If my brother comes back here you make him call me. If you do, there’s a little something more where that came from.”
Chapter 68
“You no more better than me. You just got more money to hide your shit.”
—Farah
Farah was sitting in Slade’s truck, mentally shaken. At some point she was going to have to pay Eleanor a visit, because something told her she knew more than she was letting on. How could she be so careless? She should’ve finished Knox off the moment she ran into him with her Benz, and none of this would be happening. Her fuckup meant she had a lot of loose ends to clear up. While driving down the road Slade said, “When Knox was home last night, he asked Markee about you.” He looked over at her. “Do you know why?”
She was trying to think of the best way to weasel out of the situation. “How would I know him? If you haven’t been able to find him, how would I?”
Slade seemed disappointed. “I never asked you this before, about what happened that night. When you were with that dude in the basement. The one who was about to hit you the day we first met.”
She looked out the window. “Talking about Kirk?”
“I guess.” He shrugged. “I don’t know the nigga’s name.”
She avoided his eyes. “Why you wanna know? Because for one thing, he tried to rape me,” she snapped. “If that’s what you talking about.”
“I’m not judging you, babes. I just want to know what happened, that’s all.” He touched her leg. “Because even though his body was partially hidden on the side of the washing machine, because he was lying on the floor I noticed that blood-stained boot. And I saw you crouched over him. What were you doing?”
Farah turned away from him. She was so sure that after all this time, he didn’t know, even though at first she swore he saw her. Now she realized she was wrong. “I don’t know what happened to him, Slade. Maybe we should just leave it at that.”
Standing outside of Randy’s house, she knocked on his door. A minute later, he opened it up and it was obvious that he wasn’t happy to see her. “What do you want, Farah? I’m surprised you’re still alive. I must have to give niggas more money.”
“I want to talk to you, Randy. Can I come in?”
He frowned. “I got company.” When he opened the door wider, she saw Lesa, Courtney, and Lady sitting on the couch. “So now ain’t the best time.”
“She can come in,” Lesa said. “We were just leaving. Plus I have to meet somebody later tonight.” Looking at Farah she said, “I’ll be over tomorrow to get the last of my things.” Farah watched them laugh all the way to Courtney’s car before pulling out of sight.
“What were they doing here, Randy?”
He trudged away from the door and sat on the couch. “You coming in or out?” Farah walked inside, and closed the door behind her. “The real question is, what the fuck are you doing here? I was on my way out, and don’t have time to talk to you about shit.”
“So you fucking one of them now?”
“Again ... none of your business.”
She walked over to him. “I wanted to say I’m sorry, Randy. I was mad at you for killing my puppies, so I just started tripping and shit. You gave them to me, and I loved them dogs so much.” She remembered how they always seemed to be happy when she came home, and was consumed with sadness. “So, after you dropped them, I been trying to get back at you ever since. I wanted to hurt your feelings, like you did mine.”
“I don’t believe shit you say to me anymore, especially after speaking to your friends.”
“They’re not my fucking friends. Stop believing everything you hear from random bitches.” It was obvious that she wasn’t as frightened as she should’ve been of him, and this bothered him. “And what did they say about me anyway?”
He laughed. “For starters, you don’t live with your mother anymore, which I know about already. And secondly, that you’re fucking with Slade, a nigga I was about to put on. Thinking about her being with him enraged him even more. “Now why are you here?”
“Because I miss you.”
He laughed and shook his head. He wanted to believe her so badly, but he hated being played for a fool. “You must be here for money. Because you and me both know that’s the only time you call my name. The worst part about all of this is, you put Slade in a deadly situation, and you don’t even know it. How you gonna smile in my face and take my bitch?”
“Slade was smiling in your face?”
His forehead crinkled a bit and he screamed, “You know what the fuck I mean!” He paused. “But out of everything they told me, there’s one thing that I really can’t believe. Are you really drinking blood?”
She knew in a few days, everybody would take her for a sick, crazy bitch now. “All you gonna do is laugh and not believe me if I tell y
ou anyway.”
“Try me.” He crossed his legs and clasped his hands together. “Tell me you’re not the crazy-ass broad they made you out to be.”
Farah grew angry. “What if I do drink blood?” she said flatly. “What difference does it make to you?”
He looked up at her. “You serious?”
“What if I am? What if I love the feeling of holding someone’s life in my hands? Ain’t that the same thing you do? I watched you kill an old lady after you stashed some shit in her coat pocket. You no more better than me. You just got more money to hide your shit.”
For the first time, he realized he didn’t know her like he thought he did. When his phone rang, he looked at her once more before getting up to answer the call. “Hello?” He paused. “What you mean they got us?” Randy was covered in a veil of fury as he paced the floor. “Tell everybody to meet me at my house in twenty minutes. Don’t be late!” He scowled. “And I want you to find my father, too. I got fifty grand on anybody who brings him to me, because I know he was involved.” Randy hung up and looked at Farah. “Before you came over here, I was going to have you killed tonight. Lucky for you something else came up that requires my full attention. I’ll be over to get my ring tomorrow.”
“Did you have Juice killed?” she interrupted.
“What you think? The nigga DeWayne put a call in to me, and told me you were in the club with Juice.”
Her jaw dropped. “DeWayne? But he was killed too!”
“He was a casualty of war. My only complaint is that he didn’t finish the job, because you’re here.” He pointed at her. “You got three days to disappear. If you don’t I’m gonna murder everyone in your family, starting with your father. And when it’s all said and done, I’m gonna murder you.”
Farah’s heart dropped. “My father? What the fuck you talking about?”
