It is What it is: A Hood Love Story

by B. , Ivory

  Lucky lunged at Los like a raging bull. He jumped up from his chair on natural reflexes trying to put some space between them but Lucky didn’t stop coming until she made contact. She reached up grabbing the front of his shirt and let off two hard slaps to his face back to back. Bystanders gasped as the confrontation turned violent. Carlos grabbed her right wrist and tried to grab her left but she was able to take her fingernails and scratch the side of his face first. Once he felt her claw his face he quickly grabbed both of her wrists in an attempt to calm her down.

  “Let me go! Carlos let me fuckin go!” Lucky screamed breathlessly. She was breathing hard as a dragon and her chest was heaving up and down as she tried to catch her breath. Carlos had never seen Lucky like this before, and he could’ve sworn on everything he saw the devil himself in her eyes. He decided to restrain her until she calmed her little crazy ass down. Was it crazy for him to admit that he was kinda scared? “Muthafucka let me go! Urrrrrhhh!” she gritted with anger trying to pull her wrists free with all her might, to no avail. “Nah not until you calm down ma. Lucky please just be easy yo,” Los begged. Lucky began to rotate her wrist in circular motions trying to use the sweat that built up from Carlos’s nervous palms as lubricate to slide her wrists free. “Nigga I’m telling you let go, cause if you don’t when I get my hands free I’ma really fuck you up!” Lucky threatened meaning every word. She knew she couldn’t really beat Carlos but right now her rage had her feeling like Mike Tyson in his prime. Lucky’s anger was at its boiling point and the longer Carlos held her wrists the angrier she got, especially since she couldn’t get free. Lucky spazed out even harder frustrated that Carlos wouldn’t let her go; she leaned forward and bit him in the chest breaking skin through his shirt and drawing a little blood. “Awww! Shit! Lucky what da fuck is wrong wit you?!” Just as he was trying to come to grips with the fact she bit him, she lifted her foot and tried to kick him in his dick. Carlos having quick reflexes jumped back letting one of her wrists go to shield his prize possession. Bad move; as soon as he let her right wrist go she swung angrily with a closed fist hitting him in the side of his face close to his eye, and then followed it up with a hard slap.

  Ty who was half way across the street heard the slap from where she was and so did everyone else. People started to run from their tables to get clear from the ruckus that was going on. “You dog ass muthafucka! You must think I’m playing wit you! You think this a fuckin game, I will kill you!” Lucky screamed. Ty moved with lightening speed trying to grab a hold of Lucky from behind, not knowing just how much more of a beaten Los was willing to take before he started hitting back. Ty feared if he did, her and Lucky would have to kill his crazy ass. Carlos righted himself and grabbed the wrist he let go of.

  “Bitch don’t put ya hands on him again!” Lissette screamed. It was as if Lucky was in some crazed trance, and when Lissette made that comment Lucky snapped out of it, then fixed an angry glare on Lissette. “Carlito you don’t have to put up with this shit from that black bitch, you can come with me, fuck her,” Lissette told Los in Spanish. Carlos jaw clenched in anger. “Ayo, Lissette fall the fuck back and stay in ya place!” Los fumed looking at Lissette like she had truly lost her mind. Ty couldn’t help but pick up on how shook Los sounded. “Carlos ain’t going a muthafuckin place unless I say so, he belongs to me!” Lucky screamed sounding crazed and possessive. She could see the shocked look on Lissette’s face. “Yeah bitch, you ain’t think I understood that gwala, gwala shit you was talkin,” Lucky shot back in fluent Spanish. “I wasn’t even gonna take it to your ass, or say shit to you, my issue is with him. But since you got so much fuckin mouth and seem to wanna take this ass whoopin for him then bitch so be it!” Suddenly Lucky got the strength of ten men as she yanked her arms from Los’s grasp unexpectedly, ran up on Lissette and snuffed her. Lucky got the best of Lissette quickly by punching her in the face a second time then slamming the little round table Lissette was just sitting at into her stomach. Lissette stumbled backwards before Lucky pounced on her like a rabid dog. Both women toppled to the ground swinging on one another. Los was shocked at how hard Lucky was going, she was beating Lissette’s ass up underneath the table, you could actually hear the blows Lucky was landing on Lissette. Hell yeah Luck; go hard for your man. Carlos thought before quickly grabbing Lucky off of Lissette. He didn’t want his woman hurt or fighting in the streets like some common hoodrat. Lucky let out a loud wail as if she were a wounded animal then started sobbing hard.

  “Carlos let me go! This the trash you cheating on me with? Is she the reason you don’t come home every time you go to New York? Ha? Is this cumbucket the reason you puttin ya hands on me all of a sudden. For this bitch! The same bitch standing here calling me a black bitch, don’t she know ya mama black?!” Lucky’s words were stabbing Los in the heart like a dagger. She couldn’t possibly think he had slapped her that one time over some random chick. Lissette tried to scramble from the ground holding her head with blood running from her nose but fell back down. Los held Lucky in a bear hug from behind with her arms pinned to her sides. He had her up in the air where her feet were off the ground and she was throwing a big tantrum kicking wildly trying to get him to put her down. “Carlos let me go! I’m not fuckin wit you no more, it’s over. I hate you! Just let me go. Let me go!” Lucky cried while trying to wiggle out of his hold. “You know I can’t let you go, I love you too much. I told you from the beginning that I didn’t want to hear that let me go bullshit.” His omission of love only made Lucky try to wiggle from his arms harder, she didn’t want him to ever utter those words to her again.

  Carlos could hear sirens from the distance coming closer. “Ty! Come here.” Ty looked over at Los with disgust, she didn’t want to come over to him but the tone in his voice said she had better. “Lucky be easy, I got close to two milli in my fuckin trunk. And you out here acting up,” Los gritted in Lucky’s ear. “Bitch! I don’t give a fuck what you got, put me down.” Los chose to ignore Lucky, he had bigger fish to fry like making sure his car didn’t get confiscated or towed after he got arrested. “Ayo Ty reach in my pocket and grab the keys to my truck that’s parked in the garage, go sit in it and don’t pull off till the cops leave. I don’t care what happens stay in that truck. Call Nice and tell him I’ma bout to go down for a domestic.” Los hadn’t put his hands on Lucky, but he was a black man trying to restrain a woman, it didn’t take a genius to know he was going down. The only thing he was hoping for was that they didn’t take Lucky down with him. He didn’t fuck with the police under any circumstances so he would never ever say she hit him even though, it was probably evident from the way the right side of his face was throbbing.

  “No Ty, don’t do shit for him!” Ty could tell it was something much deeper going on when Los told her to go sit in his car. Los heard the sirens getting louder as they neared. “Ty hurry up yo,” Los said. Ty rushed off and as soon as she made it to the parking garage two cop cruisers swarmed on the scene. “You see what you did? You got a nigga about to get bagged over ya ass, Damn I love you ma.” Los said into her ear before letting her go. She could hear the sincerity and emotion in his voice and her eyes started to water. It took all of Lucky’s self restraint not to turn around and clock his ass one last time in front of those cops. It was becoming painfully clear he was no good for her.

  “What seems to be the problem?” One officer asked as he jumped out his cruiser with his hand over his gun. Lissette jumped up from the ground sobbing and ran over to an officer holding her head. She was crying hysterically and pointing to Lucky. Carlos couldn’t believe it, that punk bitch went running and tellin. Los’s breathing started to shorten as he watched two cops approach him and Lucky. “Ma’am we’re going to have to ask you to place your hands behind your back,” one redneck looking cop said. Once Lucky felt the cold steel being placed around her wrists reality kicked in, and she began to cry. “Baby I’m going to jail,” Lucky cried to Los in disbelief.

  Lucky had never been in trouble w
ith the law before, never in her life and she couldn’t believe this was happening. Carlos heart broke as he tried to assure her everything would be alright. “Luck its a’ight, it’s a bullshit charge you’ll be alright.” By then two more cruisers had arrived. Los couldn’t believe that these bored ass suburban cops were being this extra about a little ass fight. This seemed to be the most action they got out in these parts in a long while.

  “Sir, Sir do you need a medic?” One of the officers’s asked interrupting Carlos. “What? Fuck outta my face wit that bullshit. No I don’t need a medic.” Los responded nastily. “Alright you heard him, he doesn’t need a medic, cuff him. He was involved in a scuffle with one of the females when I first arrived on the scene.” The cops sized Carlos up and quickly determined it would take more than one of them to arrest him. Without warning or provocation three cops charged at Carlos tackling him down to the ground roughly. Lucky screamed at the top of her lungs, she couldn’t understand why they were being so forceful when he wasn’t putting up any fight or resisting. Carlos stayed calm, he knew how these cops played and he didn’t want another trumped up charge of resisting arrest added to the bullshit charges they would already pen on him.

  “Carlos!” Lucky screamed with tears streaming down her face. Everything she was mad about erased from her mental. Her love for Carlos still ran deeper than any sea, and higher than any cloud, to see them cops doing him dirty broke her. “Ma’am let’s go.” The officer who had cuffed her ordered. Lucky wouldn’t move, she couldn’t move, not until she knew Carlos was alright. “Stop resisting, stop resisting!” the officer screamed while pulling Lucky’s handcuffed arms up towards her head, causing her shoulders to feel as if they would snap out of their sockets. As two officers pulled Los up from the ground he saw how the officer had Lucky’s arms and he flipped. “Yo what the fuck is you doin!” He barked angrily and charged at the cop with his hands still handcuffed behind his back, another overzealous and nervous officer pulled a gun out and pointed it at Carlos while the other two officers who had pulled him from the ground grabbed him backwards by his arms. Lucky really lost it when she saw the gun. She thought for sure she would pass out; she couldn’t see through her tears or hear anything but her own cries. Bystanders who were watching and filming with their phones started to protest the treatment the officers were giving Lucky and Los. “For heaven’s sake! He has his hands cuffed behind his back, you can’t shoot him,” one bystander said. The crowd around the scene began to get antsy so the cops demanded they get back while police business was being conducted.

  Out of nowhere a man who looked as if he were the commanding officer appeared shooting off orders. “Hey put that gotdamn gun away,” He told the officer with the gun. “Let her arms go,” he told the cop who was holding Lucky’s arms damn near to her head. Lucky looked on as officers shoved Los towards a cop cruiser to put him in. All Los could hear was her cries and his blood started boiling more and more. Just as he was being shoved pass the rare of the cruiser they were putting him in he angrily soccer kicked the tail light out. “Gotdammit! Don’t make us taze you!” One of the officers escorting him to the cop car yelled while aiming the tazer gun at Carlos. “Stooop! Stop it! Stop it!” Lucky cried hysterically jumping up and down as two other officers violently shoved him into the cruiser. “Hey! Hey! Do you see what you’re doing? You’re getting your boyfriend over there all rawled up; you’re not making this situation any better. Calm down, you hear me? You need to calm down.” The commanding officer said sternly. Lucky was trying to stop crying but she couldn’t stop seeing the image of that cop point a gun at Carlos. Fearing they would kill him right there in front of her nearly killed her on the spot.

  Lucky’s breathing was erratic and she looked faint. The officer suggested that she take a seat on the curb afraid they might have to call an ambulance for her. “Do you have any identification on you?” the officer asked. Lucky shook her head no. “Well you’ll have to give me your name, date of birth and social, can you do that?” Lucky shook her head yes and waited a few minutes to calm down before she gave all of her info through quivering lips and hiccups. Once the officers ran her info it was as if their attitude towards her changed immediately. The Scottsdale address was a dead giveaway that she had money, not to mention the fact she was squeaky clean, not even a speeding ticket. Carlos was clean as well, the only record he had was a motor vehicle record for speeding tickets but no criminal offenses. This fact scared the hell out of the officers. They would be perfect candidates to file and win a suit against the department for excessive force or police brutality, especially Lucky.

  “Ma’am I’m going to loosen these cuffs around your wrists,” the commanding officer said while pushing the officer who had been treating Lucky roughly to the side. “Would you like me to let one of your arms free for a second so you can wipe your face?” Lucky shook her head yes knowing her face probably looked a mess. Another officer came over and handed Lucky a Kleenex which surprised her. She didn’t know what the hell was going on with these cops; all she wanted was to make sure Carlos was okay. Lucky watched with a heavy heart as the cruiser he was in drove away from the scene.

  Carlos looked back at Lucky through the caged back window of the cop car. He couldn’t believe it In all the years he’d been in the game, all the hot shit he done, all the work he put in, bodies he caught, even though he’d never hurt anyone who hadn’t tried to come at him sideways or posed a threat to him or his fam. He had been in a lot of hot shit escaping jail every time and the one thing he finally goes down for was a fucking domestic. He sighed heavily shaking his head back and forth with a slight chuckle. Isn’t this shit ironic? I guess love will do that to you, get you caught up in some stupid shit. Now I can only hope and pray my prints don’t come up in no deeper shit.

  Author would Love to hear your feedback. Contact with book club discussion questions or comments. At ivoryb321@gmail.com

  Book Club Questions?

  1.) Which couple was your favorite?

  2.) Who was your favorite male or female character?

  3.) If you were Lucky would you have forgiven Carlos for his cheating?

  4.) Do you think Ty was wrong for messing with Nice after her cousin?

  5.) If you were Keema would you have given Jah a second chance after your past relationship? Why or Why not?

  6.) What’s your impression of Mia?

  7.) Did you feel bad for Douglas and the way things turned out for him?

  8.) What’s your impression of Los’s Aunt Vera?