Still Candy Shopping

by Swinson, Kiki

  “No. No. The last time I paid a prostitute my money first, she jumped out of my car and ran off. So you gon have to take care of me before I give you anything.”

  Frustrated by his stubbornness, I almost blew my top. “Look man, where the fuck am I going to run to? You can lock the fucking door if you like. I’m not gonna try to run off with your damn money. Now do us both a favor and pay up so I can get down to business.”

  I guessed this idiot wasn’t in the mood to bargain with me. He noticed how he’d gotten more agitated than me. “Bitch just get out of my car.” he snapped as he reached over my lap and grabbed a hold of the door handle.

  I was appalled. “Wait. Hold up.” I said hoping he would reason with me. I needed that money he had in his hands. So, I wasn’t about to get out of his car until I got it.

  “Nah, I ain’t waiting on you. Get the hell out of my car right now.” He spat and pushed the passenger side door open. And before I could persuade him to give me a chance to work with him, he planted both of his hands on the left side of my hip area and pushed me as hard as he could. The force behind his hands knocked me half way out of his car. I honestly had to catch myself. I grabbed a hold of the door handle to balance myself. “What the fuck is your problem?” I roared.

  “Get out of my car!” he screamed and then he shifted his gear in drive. His car started moving when he let his feet off the brake pedal. I was utterly shocked. I was hanging halfway out the passenger side door while this asshole’s car was moving.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you. Stop the car so I can get out!” I yelled. But he didn’t listen. As a matter of fact, he pressed down on the accelerator and the car picked up more speed. I knew right then and there that he had no intentions on stopping his car so I turned my body around facing the curb and forced myself out onto the ground. BOOM! My body hit the pavement hard. I tried to break my fall with my hands but it didn’t work. I scratched my hands and knees up pretty bad. But it wasn’t that bad that some peroxide and warm water wouldn’t help.

  Now as I helped myself up from the ground I looked down the street and watched that asshole as he sped out of the neighborhood. I shook my head and wondered to myself, how in the hell am I always getting into one thing after the next? My luck was fucked up. And if I’d got into another crazy incident, I would just fall dead on the spot.

  Once I brushed myself off, I looked around me noticed how a few people where whispering and talking. I knew they were talking about me because their eyes were glued to me. I sucked my teeth and rolled my damn eyes at them. I had to give them the impression that I didn’t care less what they were saying about me. And right after I turned my ass to them, I grabbed my duffle bag from the ground and continued up Washington Street.

  As I traveled down Washington I crossed over Proscher Street, and as soon as I hit the next block this guy approached me. Now I was already fucked up and didn’t feel like being bothered, so I tried to pass him, but he stood directly in the path I was walking.

  “Do you know me?” I asked him.

  “Nah, I don’t know you, but I did see you get thrown out that car a few minutes ago so I was just wanted to know if you were all right,” he replied. His voice was deep and masculine.

  I looked at him from head to toe and noticed how much taller he was than me. He had to be about six feet one, weighing every bit of one hundred ninety pounds. He was a skinny guy for his height. At first glance he looked to be in his late twenties, but something inside me told me he was older. He was wearing jean shorts, sneakers, and a white T-shirt. He looked like he had just left the barbershop because his hairlines were razor sharp. The only jewelry he had on was a gold watch, so to me that meant that he wasn’t the flashy type, and whatever he was doing out in these streets wasn’t anything to call home to mama about.

  “I got banged up a little bit. But I’ll be all right.”

  “What’s your name?” he asked.

  I was not in the mood to be holding a conversation with this cat, but I stood there and tried my best. “It’s Faith,” I finally told him.

  “So, where you going, Faith?”

  “I can’t tell you right now, because I’m not sure myself.”

  “Where is your man?” His questions continued as he folded his arms across his chest.

  “I don’t have one.”

  “Why not?”

  “Hey, look, you are asking me too many questions for me not to know who you are.”

  He smiled. “Oh, I’m sorry. My name is Slim,” he replied, and then he extended his hand for me to shake.

  I shook his hand. “Nice meeting you,” I told him and then I tried to step off.

  He moved in front of me once again to block me from walking away. I looked up at him and asked, “Are you lonely? Need some companionship?”

  He chuckled. “That’s funny. I like that.”

  “Listen, Slim, I gotta go so I can find something to clean these cuts and bruises I got on my hands and knees.”

  “I can help you with that if you like.”

  “If you’re looking for me to give you some pussy, then you’re talking to the wrong chick.”

  “Look, shorty, I ain’t trying to fuck you. If I wanted some pussy, I could make a phone call right now.”

  “So what is it that you want from me?”

  “Look, Faith, you said you needed to clean yourself off. So, all I was doing was trying to help you out. That was it.”

  Before I took Slim up on his offer, I looked into his eyes to see if I could see through all his nice gestures. Normally cats from this part of town didn’t have a nice bone in their bodies. They were full of ulterior motives. But for some reason, I couldn’t see any bullshit from this guy. If he was hiding something, then he was doing a damn good job of it.

  I let down my guard. “Where you live at?” I asked him.

  He turned around and faced the Okeefe Apartments. “I stay right there,” he told me.

  “Do you live alone?” I asked.

  “I got a couple of roommates. But they’re out right now.”

  I sighed. “Well all right. I guess I use your place until your roommates come back.”

  “A’ight, well let’s go then,” he said and escorted me toward the apartment building.

  I followed him to the second floor of the apartment building. He lived in apartment 2-C. All the lights were on in the apartment, so I could see everything from the front door. I immediately took inventory of the entire living room and noticed that everyone who lived there seemed to have problems with tidiness. I set my duffel bag on the floor next to the couch while Slim started cleaning up. Plates, cups, forks, women’s clothing, and shoes were all over the living room. There was barely any space for me to sit on the sofa, but I made the best of it. The main thing was that I was out of that hot night air and inside soaking up some good AC that was pumping through the vents. Slim left the room and returned a few minutes later with a couple of paper towels and a bottle of peroxide. After he handed them both to me I applied the liquid to the paper towels and then I proceeded to clean the effected area around the cuts and scraps. It didn’t take me long to clean myself up and when I was finally done, I sat the bottle of peroxide down on the floor next to my feet and laid my head back on the sofa.

  Before I could fully relax in the coolness, I heard a knock on Slim’s front door. I sat up on the sofa while Slim answered the door. He looked through the peephole and then he opened the door. Two young girls walked into the apartment dressed in short, skimpy dresses and high-heeled sandals. Their hairdos were jacked up. One of the girls wore red extensions hanging down her back while the other girl had purple fucking hair extensions pulled back into a ponytail. I assumed that they were in their early twenties because their immaturity showed big time.

  As soon as they stepped into the house, Slim closed the door behind them. The girl with the red hair spoke first.

  “Slim, me and Jennifer ain’t getting no play on Goff Street. So can we go on Church Str
eet down there by C Avenue with Sabrina and Tacora?”

  “Yeah, go ’head. But don’t come back here an hour from now talking about y’all ain’t getting no play down there either, because there’s gonna be some consequences,” he threatened.

  My eyes popped when I heard this young girl ask this cat’s permission for her and the other young girl to go down on Church Street. The cat was out of the bag. These chicks were fucking prostitutes. And Slim was their pimp. Now all the clutter of women’s clothing and shoes made sense.

  As the girls were about to head back out onto the streets, I politely got up from the couch, grabbed my duffel bag, and walked toward the door to leave. “Hey, Slim, I gotta make a run,” I told him as I began to leave.

  Slim turned around. “Where you going?” he asked.

  “I gotta make a run,” I said again.

  “You ain’t going nowhere, so sit your ass down!” he roared.

  I looked at Slim’s face and could see that his whole demeanor had changed. He literally looked like he was possessed with a demon. I couldn’t fucking believe my eyes. I tried to run for the door, but he reached over and grabbed me by my hair. If I’d moved one more inch, he would have snatched every strand of hair from my head. That was how tight his grip was.

  Caught completely off guard, I screamed, “Get off me!” Both girls looked at me as I struggled to get him to loosen his grip.

  “Shut the fuck up, bitch!” he snapped and yanked me backward, causing me to lose my balance and fall to the floor.

  Lying on my back, I looked up at Slim, who by this time was standing over me. “What is wrong with you?” I screamed. “Are you crazy or something?”

  I had to let this bastard know that I wasn’t his fucking property, so he needed to recognize that. Unfortunately he had some other shit on his mind, because as soon as I expressed how I felt about him putting his hands on me, he reached down and wrapped his entire hand around my throat. I tried to prevent him from choking me, but everything I tried just would not work. I thought that maybe one of the young girls would get up the nerve to help me, but I found out the hard way that I had to deal with this psycho on my own.

  While I gasped for air and struggled to get his hand from around my neck, he started lifting me up from the floor. Where in the hell was he getting his strength from? I tried to cry out, but the only sound I could belt out was a choking sound. And from the looks of things, my situation did not look like it was going to get any better unless I stopped resisting. So that was what I did. And guess what? The asshole loosened his grip and eventually released his hand from my neck altogether.

  When Slim let me go, I fell back onto the sofa. I sat there and tried to re-group. The high from the dope I had just injected into my arm was long gone and replaced by a feeling of fear. While I was coughing and massaging my throat, Slim grabbed my duffel bag from the floor and threw it down the hallway toward the back of the apartment. His actions immediately told me that he had no intention of letting me go anywhere. Both girls must’ve known that too, because after they witnessed him toss my bag, they turned around and quickly made their exit.

  After they left the apartment, a million things ran through my mind. Watching Slim walk back and forth from the kitchen area to where I was made me feel really uneasy. I knew that it was only a matter of time before he tried to rape me. I didn’t know whether to play his game or go against the grain. But I did know that I didn’t want to be there, and if I didn’t think of an escape plan really soon, then I was going to end up being one of his bitches just like those young girls.

  “You know you made me do that to you, right?” Slim asked as he continued to pace from the kitchen to the living room. “I was trying to warn you, but you didn’t wanna listen.”

  I just sat there and looked at him. I couldn’t believe what the fuck I had just gotten myself into. Not even thirty minutes ago I was walking down Washington minding my own business. And then Slim approached me and convinced me to come and chill with him at this apartment. I realized too late that he was a fucking pimp and I was his next recruit. How was I going to get out of there without him ripping me to shreds?

  I sat there clueless. I finally decided to strike up a conversation with him. I needed to get inside his head so I could figure out what kind of cat I was really dealing with.

  Still massaging my neck to ease the pain, I asked, “Slim, did I do something to upset you?”

  He stopped pacing and stood directly in the middle of the floor. “What the fuck you think?” he roared. “When I tell you to do something, you do it!”

  The more this guy spoke, the more afraid I got. All I could think about was why me? But then I had to remind myself how karma worked. I had just left the rehab center with money I stole from Denise. And on top of that, I didn’t want to share my dope with Brenda. So was I now being punished for being selfish?

  “Look, Slim, I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. I see that all of this is just a big misunderstanding. Now if you let me get my bag and leave, I will forget all about this whole incident.”

  Slim took a couple steps toward me. The closer he got, the scarier he looked. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he yelled. “Are you retarded? You are my bitch now! You chose me by coming into my house. Now you gon’ go out there on them streets and get me some money. So that means you ain’t going nowhere. And if you ever try to run away, I’m gon’ kill your motherfucking ass! Do you understand me?”

  I tried to digest what he’d just said, but I couldn’t swallow it. How the fuck could he tell me that I was his bitch and that I wasn’t going anywhere? What part of the game was this? Now for the life of me, I knew I’d done some fucked up shit to people, but I’d be damned if I was going to sit there and take this shit from him.

  I stood from the sofa, but before I could utter one word from my mouth, Slim took another step toward me. “What the fuck you gon’ do?” he asked, his teeth grinding together like he was waiting for me to make the first move. His voice intimidated me to the point that I reconsidered busting my way out of there.

  “I need to use the bathroom,” I lied.

  “It’s down the end of the hall.” He pointed out as he looked down the hall.

  I stepped by him very casually and made my way down the hall. Once I was in the bathroom, I looked for a window and was truly devastated when I realized that this bathroom did not have one. “I don’t hear you using the bathroom,” I heard him yell from the other side of the door.

  Knowing that he was standing on the outside of the bathroom door listening to me got me spooked. I immediately pulled down my shorts, slid down my panties, and sat on the toilet seat. My bladder wasn’t that full, but there was enough for me to let off that tinkle sound. Afterward I wiped myself and flushed the toilet.

  As soon as Slim heard the toilet flush, he opened the bathroom door. He stood at the entryway and instructed me to wash my hands. “Hurry up! ’Cause I got some rules I need to lay down for you,” he told me.

  I had no idea what rules he had for me, but I was certain that whatever they were, he was going to shove them down my throat, and it didn’t matter to him if I liked them or not. I was in his world, and it was going to take an act of God to get me out.

  The Candy Shop part 2 Kiki Swinson

  Tricking 4 Nothing

  Slim made me strip down to nothing so he could take inventory of my body. I stood there in front of him stark naked. After all the tricking I’d done since I’d been on drugs, I’d never felt so violated. Once he got an eyeful, he made me get into the shower. Immediately after I finished showering, he pushed me down on the edge of his bed and forced his dick into my face.

  “Show me how you suck dick,” he demanded.

  The only dick I’d ever sucked for free was my ex-husband’s, so I hesitated. I had to get my mind right. Every man I’d encountered since I’d been on drugs paid me at least five dollars to get some head. I couldn’t fathom why I would give it up for free now.

 
; “Whatcha think I’m playing with you?” he snapped and grabbed me by the back of my hair. He literally shoved his dick into my mouth. I was half an inch from scrapping the skin off his penis with my teeth.

  I immediately gained control of the situation since I knew my life depended on it. I repositioned my mouth so I wouldn’t gag, and I quickly tightened my mouth around the base of the head and began to take his entire dick in and out of my mouth. Instead of holding a tight grip on my hair, he loosened up a bit, which gave me more leverage to move my head back and forth.

  “Yeah, suck this dick, bitch!” he instructed as he joined in the rhythm of my strokes.

  Although I was not enjoying this at all, it seemed to please him, so I was all for it.

  “Ahh, shit, girl! You got my dick rock hard,” he commented as he pumped his dick into my mouth even harder. It seemed like the further we got into the rhythm, the harder and faster his strokes got. Unfortunately for me I couldn’t control this situation because he wouldn’t give me any room to hold the shaft of his dick. He just wanted me to sit down and hold my mouth open just enough so he could push his penis back and forth into my mouth. So I had to go through the motions and keep my teeth as far away from his dick as possible. I found myself gagging a couple of times, but I held it together.

  “Yeah, bitch! You better suck daddy’s dick!” he said. The only sound I could make as a response was a slurping sound. Saliva from a mouth and a man’s dick were the ingredients for some loud slurping noises. And I was sucking on him for dear life.