Every Thug Needs A Lady (Thugs)

by Clark, Wahida

  “What?”

  “Kyra’s water broke!”

  “Whaaaat!” Tasha gasped. “Don’t play.”

  “I swear! I’m not playin’, and we can scrap our graduation party. Marvin already called it off.”

  “When is she going to the hospital?”

  “Whenever her contractions get unbearable, I guess. I don’t know. Shit. I never had a baby before.”

  “Dang, I know she’s scared.”

  “How long are you going to be at Trae’s?”

  “Not much longer. I gotta pick up my car. Do you want me to meet you at Kyra’s?”

  “We might as well meet her at the hospital.”

  “Well, I’ll pick you up and we can ride together.”

  “Okay,” Angel said. “That’ll work. I’ll see you later.”

  “Wait! You know I gots to be nosy. Kay took you home last night, right?”

  Angel giggled. “Of course, he did. That brotha is a trip. He asked to tie my wrists and ankles to the bedposts so he could lick me up and down.”

  “He asked you that? Oh my God! He looks so innocent! Trae hasn’t even done that for me. Not yet.”

  “He’s far from innocent. He thought because he brought me home and I let him in he was gonna hit it. I was like, ‘nigga, I don’t think so.’ ”

  “So what’s next?”

  “He wants me to be his date for his birthday party. I told him that I’ll let him know.”

  “Hmm, sounds like you like him.”

  “Try like and lust. I can’t help it. It’s something about him.” Angel was giggling like a schoolgirl.

  “What about Najee?”

  “What about him?”

  “I see. Okay, I’ll call you when I get to the house. Somebody’s clicking through.” She clicked over. “Hello?”

  “What up, big sis?”

  “Trina! What’s up with you?”

  “I’m tryin’a get directions to the graduation party.”

  “It’s a good thing you called because Kyra’s water broke. It’s cancelled.”

  “Aww, man! I was ready to get my party on with the big ballers. Trae and his peeps was gonna be there, right?”

  “Trina, you need to slow your roll. I thought you was so into Damian? Ain’t no shame in your game, is it?”

  “Puhleeze! He ain’t the big-ass baller he frontin’ to be. Come to find out he works for someone that works for Trae’s peeps. That’s why a sista has to do what a sista has to do.”

  “Girl, I don’t know where you’re getting your info from. Trae ain’t out there like that. But anyhow you need to handle your own business first. When are you going to enroll at NYU? If them niggas decide to drop you tonight and move on to the next ho at least you would be able to eat. Do you have any loot put away?”

  “Aw shit, here we go,” Trina sighed. “You preachin’ to me and, look at you, you rollin’ with one of the biggest ballers on the fuckin’ East Coast. So what’s the matter with me trying to get mines?”

  “A’ight, Trina. Let me shut up. I forgot I can’t tell you nothing. I don’t even know why I opened my mouth. What’s Kev up to?” she asked, attempting to change the subject.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t heard from him since your graduation.”

  “That’s not surprising. I love y’all. I gotta go.”

  “Me too. I gotta find somethin’ else to get into. I love you too. Peace.”

  “That girl is a mess,” Tash mumbled to herself, folding up her cell phone and turning the blender back on.

  When Trae came back into the kitchen she was guzzling down her strawberry banana milkshake.

  “Baby, what’s up with you and all of these strawberries?” Trae asked, eyebrows raised.

  “Nothing. I’ve just been having a taste for them. You want some?”

  “Nah, I’m straight.”

  “You gotta take me home. Kyra’s water broke.”

  “No shit!”

  “No shit. She’s getting ready to have that baby.”

  “When are you going to give me a baby?”

  She got quiet. “I don’t know. Haven’t thought about it.”

  “As much as we fuck, I don’t see why you haven’t given it any thought.”

  “Trae, you know I take my birth control pills religiously every day. That’s why I haven’t given it any thought. What’s up with you? You seem like you’ve been agitated all morning.”

  “I got some shit I gots to handle, that’s all.”

  “Well, the graduation party is off for the night. I had a strong feeling she wasn’t going to make it past the party.”

  Trae dropped her home to get her Benz, then left. She went to pick up Angel, and they headed for the hospital, Kyra having arrived there not long before. The baby came around 4:30 in the morning and weighed six pounds ten ounces. Angel videotaped the entire delivery even when Marvin became sick and had to leave the delivery room. That was truly a moment.

  After twenty-four hours Kyra and the baby were released. Angel and Tasha spent two nights at Kyra’s, helping her to get situated. They fell in love with their goddaughter, Aisha Nicole, who resembled Marvin a lot.

  Chapter 9

  “Roz, my sista, we gots to get our party on! It’s Friday, and we haven’t even celebrated our graduation,” Angel was hyped. She had called Roz on her cell phone. Roz was just getting off from work.

  “Sounds good to me. I haven’t heard from Trae all week so I guess I’m free tonight. I’m on my way to the salon now. Where we going?”

  “New York. Me, you, Shanna, Mecca, and Sanette.”

  “What time?”

  “Be ready at eight. We’re rollin’ in Mecca’s Rover.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Getting ready to jump on this train. I may catch you at the salon.”

  “A’ight. Peace.”

  By 7:45 Roz was putting on some Baby Phat jeans, a halter, and Jimmy Choo sandals. A little after 8:00 the girls were beeping the horn. She jumped in the Rover, looked around, and asked, “What happened to Sanette?”

  “We gotta pick her up,” Mecca said.

  On the way back from picking up Sanette, they slowed down as they neared Club Crossing Inn.

  “Dayum! Go a little slower. Why are we going all the way to New York? Looks like all the action’s right here,” Sanette yelled in excitement.

  “Looks more like a ballers’ convention. Only peeps who drive a Benz, Lexus, Jeep, or Navigator are in attendance,” Angel observed.

  “Who you tellin’!” Mecca was amazed as she eased the Rover into the parking lot. “It’s only nine o’clock. Must be a show tonight.”

  “I don’t want to stay too many niggas for me. There’ll probably be a shoot-out before the night is over,” Shanna said.

  “Mecca, find a place to park. I see something that belongs to me,” Tasha was doing her best to remain calm.

  “What?” Mecca asked.

  “Chrome. I can recognize those rims anywhere. Give me ten minutes,” she said, popping a breath mint.

  “That’s all you’re getting!” Mecca yelled. “I’m ready to roll.”

  “Ten minutes,” Tash said, jumping out of the car.

  “Trae is getting ready to get busted,” Shanna teased.

  “Puhleeze!” Angel said. “Quiet as it’s kept, Trae is just as sprung as she is.”

  “Bullshit, playas gonna play,” Mecca explained.

  “Well, where is your man?” Angel teased. When she didn’t answer they all burst into laughter.

  “I’m trying to come up,” Mecca humbly stated.

  “Y’all gotta hook a sista up.” They all laughed again.

  “Y’all tryin’a keep them all for your damn selves!”

  Tasha eased her way through the club looking for Trae. As soon as she opened the double doors in the back, the weed smoke hit her in the face. “Bingo!” she mumbled to herself. She glanced at the chickens, who were one too many. Then her eyes shot over to a crap game where about t
welve brothas were involved, hollering, turning up forties, cursing, and smoking blunts. They were all iced up and had bills flashing.

  “You looking for me, beautiful?” a short brotha looking like Cedric the Entertainer asked her.

  “No, I wanna holla at that fine playa with the braids.” Down on one knee with a blunt hanging from the side of his mouth, Trae was watching the dice intently.

  The short brotha looked down at the crowd and said, “Beautiful, there are a couple of playas with braids.”

  “I said the fine one.”

  He looked again and yelled, “Yo, this beautiful lady with all of this ice on wants to holla at a playa with braids! Who’s the lucky nigga?” About half of them looked up, including Trae. He looked her up and down, then smiled.

  “What up, ma?” he yelled, putting some money on the floor.

  “Let me holla at you, playa!” Tash said.

  “You can holla at me anytime!” yelled one of the dudes on the floor.

  “Nigga, shut up or put up!” Trae snapped. “You owe me four hun’ed, or I’ll take that pinkie ring instead.”

  “Fuck you, man!” the dude yelled back at Trae, who was now standing up. “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings.”

  On his way over to Tash, he turned toward the posted up chickens watching the crap game and said, “I told y’all I already had my own Peaches and Cream.”

  “And?” asked the smart-mouth chicken with blond hair, blue contact lenses and ugly feet.

  “And,” Tash emphasized, “take your ass someplace else. He’s taken.”

  Trae took her arms, wrapped them around his neck, and put his hands in the back pockets of her jeans, pulling her close. “Why you always gotta start shit Trae?”

  “I was just fuckin’ with them,” he said, kissing her on the neck.

  “Yo Trae, bring your ass back on over here! I’m taking that Rolex you got on!” yelled Bo.

  Trae ignored him. “How do you always know where to find me?”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “You look real cute and you smell so sweet,” he said, nibbling on her ear. Then he stopped abruptly.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “We just picked up Sanette and we’re on our way to New York. I saw your car so I came in to let you know what was up since I was the only one who is obviously missing somebody.”

  “You can’t go, ma. So tell your little girlfriends to take you back home. Your man is always missing and wanting to be with you and I’m on my way over.”

  “But Trae,” she whined, “I’m out with my girls.”

  “I thought you said you missed me. Plus, your man’s stomach is growling, and I need to bust a nut. Now what is it gonna be?” She kissed him on the lips.

  “Baby, you know it’s all about you.

  Just tell me what you want me to cook and what time you’ll be there so that it’ll be hot.”

  Just then Kay walked up and saw Tasha. “Yo Tasha, who you got with you?”

  She smiled at him and said, “She’s out there in a dark green Rover.”

  With that Kay immediately disappeared through the double doors.

  “So what do you have a taste for?” she asked.

  “Breakfast. A big-ass cheese omelet, turkey sausage, home fries, and peaches with cream for dessert.”

  “So are you gonna call me on your way out of here?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be leavin’ here in about an hour, hour and a half,” he said, smelling her hair. “You love me?”

  “Mmm hmm,” she said, running her tongue up and down his neck.

  “Oh shit! That felt good, ma. I’ll see you in a little while.” He slapped her on the butt, and she turned around and left.

  “Damn, Trae! You put all that ice on her?” this dude named Cali asked.

  “Don’t worry about it, nigga.”

  “She must be good as fuck, dawg.”

  “You’ll never know.”

  “Oh, so you got it locked down that tight?” He teased. “That was Nikayah right?” Cali challenged.

  “Nigga, I thought you knew,” Trae said, throwing two hundred dollars on the floor and snatching up the dice.

  “That bitch look too high maintenance for me.”

  “That’s the only kind I like to fuck. You call her a bitch again, I’ma blow a fuckin’ hole through your neck. I can’t help it be-cause you too fuckin’ cheap. I never saw so many cheap-ass hustlers in my life. You can’t take all that loot with you to the pen or the grave so you might as well spend a lot of it on your woman.”

  “Fuck that!” Cali spat.

  “You just ignorant, man. Go find another crap game to play in. Your ignorant ass is jinxing me,” Trae snapped. Everybody laughed.

  When Angel spotted Kay looking around the parking lot she blurted, “Oh God, I’ma kill Roz for stopping in here.”

  “What’s your problem?” Shanna asked.

  “Kay is gonna find this car. Whatever you do, Mecca, don’t unlock the door. I am not mentally prepared to deal with him tonight.”

  “Where is he?” Mecca asked.

  “Oh my God, he is so fine. Look at those bow legs and check out his lips, y’all. They are so sweet. He kisses so good,” Angel said, swooning. “That bitch set me up. I know she did.”

  “Where is he?” Mecca yelled again.

  “Girl, shut up!” Sanette said.

  “I can’t help myself. I want to do it to him so bad I can taste it. He is so wrong for me. My mom and my aunt who’s a prosecutor will have a hissy fit. Lord, give me strength!” she prayed.

  Angel was sitting in the backseat behind the driver. When Tasha got outside, Kay was leaning on the back door and Angel was cracking the window.

  “Get out the car, ma, so I can talk to you,” Kay said, pulling on the door handle.

  “You can talk to me right here. We’re getting ready to go, Kaylin.” Everybody in the car was trying so hard not to laugh.

  “Why are you scared to get out of the car? Open the window some more! What you scared of?”

  “I’m not scared. We’re getting ready to go.” She rolled the window all the way down.

  “How come you never called me back? I know you got my messages.”

  “I’ve been studying for my bar exam and I didn’t need any distractions.”

  “Oh, so I’m a distraction?”

  “Sort of. Plus, I’m talkin’ to somebody,” she said, in her attempt to play mind games.

  “Who? That lawyer nigga? Fuck him! He can’t love you or take care of you like I will, so stop dreaming.” He ran his fingers through her hair. That was making her nipples hard.

  “How do you know what he can or cannot do?”

  He grabbed her by the neck, pulled her close, and slobbed her down.

  “You know that boy ain’t got nothin’ on me. He don’t make you feel like this, do he?” he asked, kissing her again.

  “Does he?”

  She didn’t say anything.

  “I want to be your man,” he said. “You know I’m diggin’ you.”

  “Kaylin, please. We have a conflict of interest, don’t you think? I’m a lawyer, and you ... you have a very complex occupation.”

  “Red, this occupation has just about run its course. Another month or two and this nigga’ll be a retired man. I don’t have a criminal record. I don’t have AIDS or any STDs. So now what’s up? Why the sudden change of attitude?”

  “I’m talking to somebody, Kaylin.”

  “That lawyer nigga ain’t nobody. You work with him every day and he ain’t lock you down yet? It’s obvious that he can’t, or he would have done so by now. Am I right?”

  “Oh, so you think you can lock me down?”

  “Hell, yeah. I don’t think so, I know so. You know that punk-ass nigga can’t put you on lock.” He leaned over and kissed her again, this time taking her chewing gum. “So where y’all going?”

  “New York.”

  “Where to?”

&n
bsp; “I’m not sure. I’m just hanging.”

  “Hang with me, ma. I’m going that way.”

  “Kaylin, I came with them.”

  Kay went over to Mecca. “Where y’all going?”

  “Queens. Why? You got a better spot?” Mecca asked as Angel kicked the back of Mecca’s seat and then slapped the back of her head.

  “I got a couple that’s better than Queens. What y’all want, hip hop, club, reggae, old school, a little of everything? And Red I see you back there.”

  “We just wanna get ‘crunk’!” Shanna yelled from the backseat.

  “And we don’t want to spend our money,” Sanette chimed in.

  “Well, tonight is your lucky night. Y’all follow me to Manhattan, and everything will be on me. Y’all really don’t need to be going to Queens unescorted. Can you drive?” he asked, look¬ing at Mecca.

  “I can drive. Just don’t be doin’ ninety or a hundred.”

  “I won’t. Unlock the back door.” Mecca popped the lock.

  “C’mon, ma, you ridin’ with me.”

  “Kay,” Tasha hollered, “y’all gotta take me home first. Then y’all can go wherever it is y’all trying to go.”

  “What’s the matter? Trae ain’t lettin’ you out to play tonight?” he asked, grabbing Angel’s hand.

  “No, Kay, I can’t come out to play tonight.”

  Kay lifted Angel out of the Rover and slid her down his dick before her feet could hit the ground. “You look real cute, Red,” he said, caressing her butt.

  “You need to stop playin’ with a nigga. You trying to put me on front street, all in front of your girls?”

  He grabbed her by the waist, walked her to his Mercedes Convertible SL600, and opened the door for her. When she turned to get in the car, he pressed up against her.

  “You ready to be wifey or what?”

  “You ain’t ready for me. I gots to be number one.”

  “I can handle that.”

  “Oh, can you?”

  “Yeah, I can, but what about my party? You gonna be my date, right?” he asked in a whisper, lips touching his ear.

  “Maybe,” she shuddered.

  “What about tonight? Can I lick you up and down?”

  “Nope.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know what kind of party you think this is.” She closed her eyes as he kissed her neck. “Now turn me loose, Kaylin.”