by L. E. Newell
“My nigga, later for that there; this biz here is a lot more important than slinging some cards. Hmm, by the time you catch back up with little Miss Slant Eyes, she’ll be ready and eager for some heavy boosting tips and adventures with your old gal Violet. Besides, you already know you got a gold mine in your legend standing over there. So show her some respect for her station with you.” He maneuvered his face to block out Mercedes’ burning eyes and lowered his voice. “At the same time, you’ll be having shortie know what she got to work at to be. Play ya cards, nigga. They right in your face, ya feel me?”
Sparkle blinked a couple of times, cleared his throat and said gruffly, “You mean pit them against each other without saying a word?”
“Exactly.” Enough said, he got up and swaggered back toward the girls. Following suit, Sparkle walked straight past Mercedes, snapping his game into full effect in resistance to the warm sexy smile she was creaming him with as she wiggled on the edge of the bed. The smile disappeared when he ignored her and stood in front of Violet with a stoic face. “Where your keys at?”
Being the veteran she was, Violet didn’t say a word. She reached into her bra and handed them to him. He took them and walked to the door, saying over his shoulder. “Let’s roll.”
Violet hunched her shoulders and got up to follow him. Mercedes pranced after them but quickly stopped in her tracks when he said on his way out the door, “Not you, shortie, I’ll see you later.” She frowned and sat back down on the bed, disappointed and puzzled.
As they were pulling out of the parking lot, he looked across the seat and smiled. “Call your boy in Buttermilk Bottom and tell him to fix us up a nice ball of the killer boy he be slanging.”
She pulled her cell phone out and hit the digits. Some thirty minutes later, after they had copped the dope, they pulled into a BP gas station a few blocks from her crib. While he was pumping the gas, they saw her niece Joyce coming out of the Long John Silver in the adjacent building with a box of food. She broke out into a brilliant smile. “What y’all two slick-ass old-timers up to?”
They very last thing I need right now is this shit-talking-ass ho showing up, he thought as Joyce plopped into the back seat while he was still pumping the gas.
“Whatcha think ya doing, bitch?” He frowned after he screwed the cap back on.
She rolled her eyes in disgust and spat sassily, “Shit, why I got to answer your ass? This here’s my auntie car; ain’t that right, Auntie V?” She emphasized “auntie” and it worked.
Sparkle caught the expression on Violet’s face from the corner of his eye. Blood was a lot thicker than cum, he had to admit. It didn’t mean he had to like it and he didn’t. Nor did he try to hide his disgust for whatever good it did, which he quickly realized meant nothing.
He parked in the small parking lot and waited until Violet was heading for the door before he turned to growl at Joyce. She’d already gotten out and slammed the door. But not before making sure he saw the fire darts shooting from her eyes roaming up and down his body with her lips turned down in disgust. She knew she’d already gotten on his nerves but that wasn’t enough, so she rolled her eyes. “You coming in too, playa?” he spat with such venom that it caused his blood to boil.
“Ugh, I’m gonna fix your little red, nasty-mouth ass one of these days, bitch,” he muttered under his breath as he got out of the car.
He could barely control the laugh stirring in his gut when he saw her do the snake roll thing that snazzy bitches do when they really want to get you riled. “Whaddafuck you say, nigga?”
He felt no need to give her any more ammunition for she had enough attitude. Even if he wanted to hit her with another sarcastic remark, she didn’t give him the chance. She spun around and sashayed toward the door and slammed it behind her.
He had caught the sway of her slim hips, knowing she was throwing some extra pop to mess with him. ‘Bitch, dirty-ass little red bitch, her ho ass trying to entice a nigga and that shit working, too.” She sho make a nigga wanna get all up her narrow little ass. The thoughts tortured him and his libido as he rounded the car. He shook his head, trying to will himself not to let the little slut get to him like that, but those little sexy hips were fucking with him. “Naw, her little teasing ass don’t go for a nigga like that,” he muttered under his breath as he picked up the pace to catch them.
When she slammed the door, he grunted. “Uggggh, I’m gonna kill this ho before long.” he growled as he kicked it back open, hoping to catch the back of her ankle or something.
No such luck, as they disappeared down the hall to Violet’s room. Exasperated, he headed for the refrigerator to get something cool and wet to curtail his anger. That little red bitch definitely knew how to get under his skin.
After taking a few sips of the Cherry Coke, he walked leisurely to the bedroom, trying to play it cool. But he couldn’t hold back from rapping hard on the door. The only response he got was a pair of muffled replies, which lit an instant fire under his skin, so he hit the door again and started rattling the doorknob. “Girl, open this damn door!” he shouted loudly. “Why you got the muthafucka locked anyways?”
Before he started to kick it in, he heard a shuffling of feet, and Joyce snatched open the door. She had an irritated look on her scowling face.
He couldn’t stop from growling. “Bitch, who da fuck you think you gritting on like that there?”
His angry expression didn’t faze her in the least as she wrinkled her nose and ran her fiery eyes up and down his body like he was some kind of insect or something. “Hmmph, you, nigga, knocking on the damn door like that, like you ain’t got no sense or done lost your mind or something.”
He gritted his teeth and growled, “You should’ve opened the door when I knocked on it the first time. You could’ve at least said something, damn. Why the fuck you got it locked anyhow? Ain’t nobody here but us.”
She turned her mouth down in a nasty sneer and stepped to the side. “Come on in, fool, ain’t nobody doing nothing but getting a fucking hit, damn.”
“Bitch, I know what y’all doing. I brought the shit, but your sassy ass wouldn’t know that, would you?”
“Hoop, hoop, harrah, so you spent a little dough, Mr. Big Spender. Humph, is that what you want to hear, nigga?” she spat angrily before turning away. She headed to the bed where Violet was busy spreading the heroin into three piles on a small mirror. She followed by sprinkling nearly the same amount of coke on top of each pile.
He stood at the door shaking his head with his eyes narrowed lustfully admiring the way Joyce was putting that little extra sway to her hips. Her smirk made it quite evident that she knew he was watching. And he had to admit that for her to be such a petite woman, she certainly had some jelly roll in that ass of hers, very enticing.
I’m gonna deep dick dat dere bitch. Just let her keep on with that teasing-a-nigga shit. Uh-huh. Yep, gonna fix her ass up sumthing real good one of dese days. His mini sexual fantasy was abruptly interrupted by a grunt from Violet. Like any man with his hand caught in the cookie jar, he tried to look all innocent, but that was quickly given up when he saw the look in her eyes. A look that told him that he’d definitely been busted eyeing her niece’s assets. And in case he thought that it was all on him she rolled her eyes at Joyce, too.
He pushed her display of jealousy to the side, sat on the edge of the bed and reached over to hug her around the neck smiling. “Whatz cooking, star?” He beamed.
She flinched away, rolled her eyes, grunted and shrugged her shoulders pouting.
“Aw, bitch, you can cut out the dumb shit, for real, yo.” He grimaced and pushed her.
She gave him a snake roll which caused him to brace himself for one of her nasty retorts. But to his surprise she smiled, reached under the mattress to pull out a large blue and gold Crown Royal tie bag and dumped the contents on the bed. A bag of about an ounce of powder cocaine and three others with a ounce brick of ready rock tumbled onto the blanket. Her icky frown disappeared in
to a mild smile as she nodded towards Joyce, who was now leaning against the drawer. “Baby, look in that closet and get that shoe box wrapped in the red scarf.”
A knowing smile dimpled Joyce’s cheeks as she sprung up like a jack-in-the-box and sashayed to the closet. After first raising up on her tiptoes to look on the top shelf, she spotted the box in the corner on the floor and squatted to pick it up.
Sparkle sat there admiring the way her ass spread across her red spandex biker shorts. Then he flinched from the sharp elbow that Violet nudged sharply in his rib cage. He hated to admit it but honey had a donkey butt that demanded attention; one that couldn’t be ignored easily.
“Ugh.” He frowned from the blow and tried to look as innocent as he could manage. “What I do?”
“Nigga, you looking at her ass all googly-eyed and shit like I ain’t even sitting here, that’s what.” She grimaced.
“I wasn’t, I was just…” he started to say before her look silenced his oh so obvious lie.
“You was just, what? Aw, nigga, shut the fuck up. My God, a man can’t help but to be a muthafucking dog, I swear.”
He leaned away far enough to avoid any further blows. “Aw, girl, get real.”
She reared back on the bed. “I am real. You was watching her ass, nigga.”
He smirked before reaching over to pin her arms to her side, avoiding the swing he was sure would come at his head. Instead she pressed her lips together and rolled her eyes up to the ceiling. “Aw, fuck it, you ain’t being nothing but a man. Come on, let’s do this. Joyce, bring me that stuff on over here before dis nigga’s eyes pop out of his muthafucking head.”
Joyce placed the goods in front of Violet and whirled on him. “Muthafucka, I know damn well you wasn’t.”
He froze her with an outstretched palm. “Aw, bitch, please, you wish.” He frowned in her direction like she was some kind of nasty vermin.
“Wish my ass, nigga, you are definitely too far up in yourself, that’s for real, yo.” She smacked her lips and looked down her nose at him.
Violet pushed her arm between them. “Aw, forget it. Come on, girl, let’s handle this here before that phone starts to screeching and shit.”
They got off one final grit toward each other before Joyce handed her the box and sat on the other side of the bed.
Violet took a deep breath, opened the box and took out a small digital scale and Ziploc bags of various colors and sizes. They commenced to cutting, weighing and bagging up fifties, twenties and dime rocks. Working at a steady pace and mumbling silently, it only took them about a half-hour to complete the task. After-ward, Sparkle reached under the bed and retrieved a black Adidas tote bag and removed a shaving kit and three sets of hypos and a cola cap. Violet quickly sprinkled the coke and heroin into the cap. He carefully measured and added water before stirring the mixture until all the powder had dissolved in the water. He could tell they were overanxious to see how he reacted to the potency of the speed ball first.
Damn dirty-ass hoes wanna see if my ass die first, he thought as he unlooped his belt to use as a tie to make his veins pop up. Violet knew he had the strongest resistance from the other times they had oiled. And scary-ass Joyce never had the nerve to hit herself.
He had started to jack the hypo for the third time when the big rush hit him. “Whew, dis here be dat shit, y’all,” he mumbled as he snatched the needle out of his armpit and broke out into a sweat that quickly started to soak his shirt.
Joyce leaned forward over the bed with a quizzical look on her face wondering if the nigga was going to go out. No way she wanted to be around some stupid nigga who had overdosed. When he didn’t fall over, she reached across the bed and shook his shoulder. “Owee, dat shit must sho nuff be the bomb, auntie. Look, Violet, this nigga’s slobbering all over himself, hmm-hmmm.”
When he didn’t respond, she shook him again. “Nigga, you done broke out like you under a fucking shower. Damn, you sure you aight?”
He tried to wipe the sweat off of his forehead with the back of his hand and forearm. She was definitely right; it was like he was standing under a shower. He had all but forgotten about the hypo pressed between his fingers when she pulled it away and placed it on the mirror on the bed. He hardly noticed the blood that had started to stream down his arm when she began to dab at it with a face cloth before it could drip all over the bed. They hadn’t noticed Violet’s absence until she came rushing back with some ice wrapped in a rag and paper towels, then began wiping his forehead and neck.
When he came out of it, Joyce looked him up and down and spat sassily, “Shiiit, nigga, tain’t no need to be looking stupid. Yo ass, aight. Fix me up some of that.”
Sparkle blinked a few times to get himself together and cocked an eye at Violet, who nodded with her mouth twisted down. He wiped his mouth, then took a deep breath. “Bitch, give me a second. That shit there ain’t no joke, yo.”
“Sec my ass, nigga, come on, yo ass feeling good. I wanna feel that good, too.” She practically screamed as she picked up one of the hypos, drew up some of the mixture, plucked it on the side and licked her lips in anticipation. He squinted at what she’d drawn up and thought, I should let her loud-mouth ass do all of that there so she can shut her muthafucking mouth. “Greedy-ass ho, you know damn well yo ass can’t handle that much. I should go ahead and hit yo ass and watch you crawl all over the floor before your stupid ass dies. But I feel too good right now to have to clean the piss and shit that’s gonna come out of your stanky ass.”
He could’ve never faced Violet knowing he’d let it happen. Plus, he still had ideals of banging that ass. He took one last good nod and snatched the hypo out of her hand and squirted some of it back into the cap. She wasn’t even paying attention, too busy tying his belt around her upper arm.
Ignoring the wide-eyed look on her face, he pressed the needle up against her vein. As the needle started sliding in, she noticed that the tube was only half of what she’d drawn up; less than a third of what he’d shot himself. Deep in her heart she knew that she couldn’t stand it. She felt like he was trying to beat her for her shot. “What the fuck you call yourself doing, man?”
He looked at her and shook his head. “Bitch, shut the fuck up. I don’t want your silly ass dying and throwing all up on me with your stupid ass.”
“Aw, man, that’s fucked up, yo.” She frowned angrily.
“Aw, my ass.” He gritted as he reached for her arm. She yanked it away like she was really pissed off.
Violet lost patience with both of them. “Y’all bastards wanna stop with the dumb shit so I can get me a fucking blast? Damn.”
“Hell, baby, this bitch knows damn well that she can’t handle dat,” Sparkle said. “Hell, I’m fighting not to throw up my damn self.”
Joyce, left holding the belt wrapped tightly around her forearm, balled her face up. “Who you calling a bitch, punk-ass nigga?”
“You bitch, because that’s exactly how your low-tolerance ass be acting.” He growled and hit her with a stare that shut her mouth. She pouted and stuck her arm out. For a pure redbone, her veins were really hard to see. She yelped from the sting of the needle prick. “Ow, muthafucka.”
He wasn’t hearing it. “Shut up, tender-ass bitch.”
“I…” she tried to complain.
“Bitch, I said shut the fuck up and keep your bony-ass arm still.”
Despite her angry grit, she complied. He had to stick her three times before he finally was able to register a hit, with her wincing like he was killing her the whole time. After jacking the plunger for the third time and seeing the beads of sweat pop out around her hairline, he said sarcastically, “Yo, jaw-jacking ass be acting like you all tough and shit. You ain’t nothing but a soft wimp; can’t even take a little needle pinch without going through all that mushy girly stuff. Bitch, I swear.”
The rush hit her so hard that she wasn’t able to say a thing, couldn’t even muster up a swallow. Sweat started pouring down her face. “Whew.” She
wheezed and moaned softly.
Sparkle leaned away and smiled. “Yeah, whew, aight, I told ya da shit was the bomb. And your sassy ass wanted the whole shot like you could carry it like that. You’d be kicking and rolling on the floor foaming out the mouth if I hadn’t squirted some out.”
He was really enjoying the I-told-you-so when he felt a slight nudge at his elbow and Violet’s voice ringing in his ear. “Okay, baby boy, get me fixed up before dat crazy-ass ho start to puking all over the place.”
Her flip remark must have triggered it. Joyce rose off of the bed with her hand covering her mouth and staggered toward the bathroom. She didn’t quite make it to the toilet before the sound of her puking echoed throughout the room. He smiled and leaned sideways on his elbow, then shouted over the noise. “Dat’s whatcha greedy ass get! I tried to tell yo hard-headed ass.”
Violet held out the hypo for him to hit her with and he smiled when he noticed she had squirted some back in the cap. “That’s right, baby. I knew you wasn’t gonna be acting all stupid like sister girl in there heaving her guts out.”
She smacked the pit of her arm and rubbed it up and down vigorously. “Take your time and make sure that you be careful with that needle. You nearly tore my skin off the last time.” He drew a hit on the first try and injected the dope into her vein. As he started to jack for the second time, she grabbed his hand and jerked from his grip. She jumped up and rushed to the bathroom.
When she disappeared through the door, he heard two grunts. He rushed over and fell back laughing at the sight of Violet. She was hanging over the tub with her feet dangling over Joyce’s legs, whose head was stuck down in the toilet bowl, Her body was still heaving and gagging.
He bent over holding his side for several seconds before he was finally able to speak. “See there, I told both of y’all greedy-ass hoes that shit was the bomb.” A series of more gags and coughing answered him.
Before he could go help them, the phone started ringing. Sparkle rushed back into the room in time to catch it on the third ring.
