He mannishly blushed and licked his lips. “Yeaaaah, I’m kind of a genius.”
That was an understatement. Mello was so smart. The streets of Chicago had raised him. He had hella swag. But he was so smart that he had finished undergrad early. He had majored in Computer Systems Analyst. He was a genius when it came to computers. He could hack anything.
“Are you going back to school to like to get your master’s?” I asked him as we finally made it to the line at the bar.
He frowned and shrugged. “Man, I don’t know. I doubt it. I’m sick of school.”
“That’s cool, but don’t stay here.”
“Why not?” he asked me as Treasure walked up to us with Vegas behind her.
“I don’t want you getting in trouble in Chicago or worse, killed. It’s always the innocent ones who get caught up in the bullshit.”
Mello smirked. “I’m far from innocent. Don’t let the collegiate shit fool you.”
“I know.” I really did know. He had told me so much about his past during our many conversations. “I’m just saying.”
He just shrugged, leaving it at that. Then we finally gave Treasure and Vegas our attention.
“Why the fuck you standing in line?” Vegas asked me. “You bought this shit. You ain’t gotta wait,” he fussed.
I shrugged, saying, “I’m not trying to be rude.”
“Fuck, I will,” he cursed. “What you want?”
Mello and I told Vegas what we wanted, and then he marched towards the bar.
I laughed as Treasure was sure to keep her eyes on Princess.
“Stop it,” I told her as I kept laughing.
“Fuck that. I don’t trust that bitch.” Still, I was giggling. So, she said, “You ain’t gon’ be laughing when Ross gets a hold to your ass.”
I rolled my eyes slightly to the sky. “What I do now?”
“He was glaring at you while Dub was sitting next to you.”
Fuck. Here we go again.
5
Mello
She was so beautiful, even when she was afraid.
I playfully pinched her arm, any excuse to touch her. “What are you scared of?” I asked her. “That old man ain't gonna do nothing to you.”
When she and Treasure exchanged this weird look, I asked them, “What?”
Heaven immediately shook her head and answered, "Nothing."
"Anyway," Treasure said. “I told you that bitch, Princess, be all on my man…”
Their conversation faded out as I stared at Heaven. While I had been away from Chicago, I thought that my attraction to her was just physical. Being raised in Chicago on the South Side, I was attracted to a particular type of female. So, those chicks down at school didn't hold a candle to the ratcha-sophisticated women that I liked. Those chicks in Florida were too boujee, too skinny, and far from hood enough. It was some ghetto shit about a Chicago chick that I liked. I loved the fact that they could pick some greens and fry chicken, then go cook some dope, and at the same time drop the dope off for you, and then come back home and suck your dick until you cum. So, when Heaven was the only Chicago-bred female I had contact with over the years who wasn’t on my nerves, I thought that the connection I felt with her was because she was the only chick around who was familiar. Yeah, I talked to my baby mama, and my girlfriend stayed flying to Florida coming to see me. But their company and conversation was always a headache because those bitches stayed into it with each other, even though I wasn't even in Chicago. But every time I saw Heaven’s face on Facetime or heard her voice, she was telling me something encouraging and telling me how proud she was of me. She was always encouraging me to stay in school. She was the only chick around that felt like home. Not to mention, on top of that, she was beautiful. Her baby face hadn’t aged over the years. But her curves had matured into some mountains that I wanted to climb. Her smooth chocolate skin looked like brown butter. Then she was wearing her hair in those long curls down her back that looked like that expensive hair that all the hood bitches wanted and sold their Link to get. Ever since my mother showed me her Facebook page, talking shit about my father settling down with some young chick, my young ass had been having fantasies about her. But the more we connected while I was away at school, my attraction intensified.
Now, I was a grown-ass man and I could appreciate and envy the submission and loyalty she had for a dude that didn't even deserve it. Heaven had never told me a single bad thing about my father, but the fact that I could talk to her until three in the morning and he was never around, I knew he was on some other shit. Heaven didn’t deserve that. Heaven was a down-ass chick. She was loving and appreciative. She was everything that no woman in my life had ever been. Not even my mother, who was too busy still chasing after my father, who didn't give a shit about her or me when we were younger and still didn’t. Heaven was a fucking breath of fresh air. She was a cool breeze on this scorching summer day. But she was my father's wife. Even though I didn’t fuck with him like that, Heaven was still married to him, which made her off-limits. And looking at my woman stare at me from across the yard, I knew I had my own shit going on. For those two reasons, I knew I would just always have to admire Heaven from afar.
A light push on my shoulder got my attention. “Move your tall ass out the way. I’m trying to get a drink.”
I turned around to see Divine smiling up at me.
“You too young to drink, ain't you?” I asked her.
“Yeah, she is. Stop playing, Divine,” Heaven cut in. “Where you been anyway?”
“I was done swimming, so I went to shower and change my clothes.”
“Where is Sunshine?”
“With Esperanza playing in the water.”
Divine was seventeen and looked a lot like her sister. I would have had better chances crushing on her. I would have at least been able to act on it, but the heart wanted what the fuck it wanted, especially when it couldn’t have it.
“Oh God.” Heaven’s groaning got my attention. Looking at her, I noticed she and Treasure were staring across the yard. Then deep voices could be heard getting loud, which triggered everybody to start running in that direction. Then the music suddenly stopped.
“Ooooohhh shiiiiiit!” I heard some dude chant as I ran towards the mayhem that was unfolding.
“Move! Get out the way!” Treasure fussed as she, Divine, Heaven, and I tried to make it through the crowd.
The closer we got, I heard my mother screaming, “Stop, Ross! Stoooop! What the fuck is wrong with you?!”
Hearing my mother’s voice, I started knocking niggas over to get to the middle of the scene. I was relieved when I was finally able to lay my eyes on my mother. She was fine. She was just standing there with wide eyes and her hands over her mouth as she looked down at my father beating the shit out of the dude that I saw sitting next to Heaven a few minutes ago.
I was ‘bout the only dude in the backyard bold and big enough to stop my father, so I bent down, grabbed his ass around the waist, tossed him to the side, and stood over him. He was reaching for his gun in his waistband until he realized it was me. I bent down, reaching for his hand and helped him stand. He was glaring at the dude he had just whooped as Vegas helped him to his feet too.
“Yo’, Pops, be easy,” I said with my palm on his chest, lightly pushing him back.
“Punk-ass bitch! I’ll kill you!” he barked, still glaring at ol’ boy.
“Man, Ross, you trippin’,” the dude said in return. He was only able to glare back at Ross through his good eyes while holding the other that was leaking blood.
My father tried to get through me to get back at the dude, but I didn’t let him.
“Get him the fuck up outta here!” my father shouted at anyone who would do it.
Treasure walked up on him with the same glare in her eyes that Ross had for ol’ boy.
“Really, Ross?” she snapped. “What he do? Why you fightin’ him and shit?”
My father didn’t even look at her as he t
old her, “Mind your business, Treasure. This is about business. It ain’t got nothing to do with you.”
Treasure sucked her teeth and spat, “Yeah right.”
I think the only other motherfucker in that backyard that didn’t fear my father, besides me, was Treasure.
She stomped off in Heaven’s direction before Ross could say anything else. Luckily, Vegas was walking the dude my father had beaten up out of the backyard.
“Deejay, turn the music back up!” my father yelled. “It’s still a fucking party.”
He started saying something to me, but honestly, every word was going over my head. His back was to Heaven, so I was able to stare in her direction without him seeing me watch her go back and forth with Treasure. She looked irritated and hot as she shook her head, running her fingers through her hair. She still looked good, though...real fucking good.
Heaven
Twenty minutes later, I was upstairs in the master bathroom soaking in the Jacuzzi. Treasure had left the party because Ross had blown her mood. I didn't blame her and I totally agreed with her. Ross had tried to make it seem as if he had hit Dub over some business, yet she and I knew that it was because he felt like Dub had overstepped his boundaries with me again. It was ridiculous, and since Ross was in one of those moods, I had made my exit along with Treasure.
As I sat in the tub soaking off the sweat and smell of outdoors, I smiled, thinking about the words Mello had said to me. He was so sweet. When he finally arrived at the party, even though I was meeting him for the first time physically, it was like I had known him all my life. He wasn't just Ross' son. To me, he was now a close friend. We may have never met physically before today, but we had spent so much time getting to know each other over the phone. He possibly knew more about me than my own husband, because he spent way more intimate moments with me late night on the phone. The only secret between us was his father's abuse and my sister's death. I was too embarrassed to tell anyone outside of my home and Treasure that Ross was beating me. And I never talked to anyone about Angel. Just the thought of her made me sick to my stomach. I missed her so much. It destroyed me every time I thought about her in that grave. She didn't belong there. And a lot of the things that Divine and I suffered when we were kids was because of the motherfucker that had killed her. The rage and sadness were just so unbearable that I never spoke to anyone about her, not even Treasure or Ross.
Just as I was adding shower gel to my loofah, the bathroom door swung open so violently that it hit the wall behind it with a hard bang. Ross came through it, making long strides towards me. I sucked my teeth, rolled my eyes, and instantly started to defend myself. “Ross, don’t start. Dub was only—Aaaah!” I was only able to let out that scream before he came lunging down towards me with the most malicious look in his eyes. My eyes bulged as he grabbed the back of my head and forced my face into the hot bath water.
I hadn’t had the chance to hold my breath very well before the water seeped into my mouth and nose. I fought to loosen his grip as I choked on the water seeping into my lungs. I fought desperately against his tight grip, but it felt like all two hundred and eighty pounds of him were on top of my head. I kicked and swung as much as I could for what felt like minutes.
I just knew that I was dying.
But within seconds, he was pulling me back up, barking at me as I coughed violently and gasped for air. “Stop fucking playing me! I bet’ not ‘eva see you with your hands on another man!”
I was too busy hacking, heaving, and clearing the water from my eyes to see what he was planning to do next. But luckily, through my coughing, I heard the bathroom door slam shut.
Still coughing and gasping, I felt my heart continuously beating frantically.
Ross was losing his mind. Things had gone from bad every now and then, to worse every day. At first, he had only put his hands on me two or three times in the course of a year. But it seemed as if the longer we were together, the more insecure he was becoming. I was starting to think that my loyalty was going to get me killed. I was sure that he wasn’t just trying to kill me with a backyard full of witnesses. He was trying to scare me straight. But what if he had killed me? What if one day, he was so mad that he took my life? I missed Angel, but I didn't want to see her again...not yet.
Mello
By now, the party had started back up again. Heaven had disappeared, and I was disappointed that I didn’t have her beautiful self to look at. I was dipped off on a couch smoking a blunt with Vegas, avoiding the shit outta my woman, Teyanna. She had been trying to be all in my ass since she got to the party. She was trying to make sure I didn’t pay too much attention to all the ass running around this motherfucker.
But what she didn’t know was that I wasn’t paying all this ass no mind. My eyes had been stuck on Heaven. She was the best-looking ass in this bitch.
“So, what you gon’ do for the summer?” Vegas asked me.
I shrugged, blowing a light cloud of loud through my nostrils. “I don’t know. I guess get a job.”
“You gon’ be here all summer?”
“Maybe longer than that. I might stay here for good. I hate being away from my son. So, I might go to grad school here. I don't know. I need a job first, though.”
Vegas looked surprised, and I didn’t blame him. For the years that I had been in school, I had never come back to Chicago, opting to take classes during the summer as well. Teyanna would fly down to see me and Paris would do the same with my son, TJ. I just did not want to come back to “Summertime Chi.” So much shit went down in Chicago in the summer, and at the time, I didn’t have any willpower to keep myself outta the streets, so I stayed in Florida. That’s why I had been able to get my degree in three years instead of four.
My father frowned like I had said some disrespectful shit. He had just joined us, after returning from checking on Heaven, and I was annoyed as fuck by his presence. “A job? You’re too smart for a job.”
I shook my head as I passed the blunt to him. I knew what he was getting at.
“Me and Vegas could use your intelligence and expertise in our organization. Get you some real money.” He stared at me, waiting for an answer as he hit the blunt.
Still shaking my head, I chuckled. “Naaaah, Pops. I’m straight.”
His face was still balled up as he asked, “Straight? On this? This life? Look around you. Don’t you want this for you and your girl?”
“I can get this legally.” I could. Unlike my father, I was street and book smart. I was a genius at this computer shit. These young motherfuckers thought they were doing something with this card-cracking shit. I would have been able to do some things on a whole new level. The only thing keeping me from doing that was my son and the desire to be out of jail being a better father to him than mine was.
“How?” my father tested me. “How much money can you make with a bachelor’s degree? I make all this without a piece of paper.”
“That’s cool for you, but I’m good.”
I didn’t have anything against hustling. I just preferred to make smarter choices for my son. What I did have was something against was my father. I tolerated him whenever he chose to act like a father, but I didn’t fuck with him. He never fucked with me like he should have. As a shorty, I wondered why my pops wasn't there for me like he was for the streets. Then after having my son, I wondered how he couldn't be there for me. I couldn’t imagine never being around for my seed. The only time Ross fucked with me was when he was either shoving some money in my face or getting me into some bullshit. The last time I ever even kicked it with him, he had me in the middle of a shootout. So, nah, the last thing I wanted to do was give him any of my time and intelligence to help him get more money.
Fuck outta here.
6
Mello
After the party, I headed to my crib, took a much-needed shower, and met Teyanna back at her spot.
“Oh my God, Mello,” she breathed. “This dick is so goooood!”
I was drill
ing shorty from the back. She was face down, ass up in her bed. That big ass was spread open wide for me too.
“I want to take aaaaall this dick. Give it all to me. Yessss.”
She was taking it good too. Had my dick rocked up.
“Shit! It’s so fucking deep, baby.” Teyanna then went from resting on her elbows to up on her hands and started to throw that ass back on me.
“Yeah, that’s it,” I encouraged her. Then I reached up, held her shoulders with both of my hands and started to fuck her back just as hard as she was throwing that ass on me.
“Oooooh my Goooood!”
“Yeah, that’s it. Give me that pussy.”
“Shiiiiiit!”
“You ‘bet not fucking stop. Gimme that shit. I’m cumming.”
Holding on to her shoulders tighter, I pounded into that pussy, listening to the sound of me digging in her juicy pussy, similar to the sound of stirring macaroni and cheese.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!” I pumped out the nut and then grabbed the base of my dick as I pulled out, making sure the rubber didn’t come off.
Teyanna collapsed on the bed. Her light booty jiggled as she lay on her stomach. I forced myself to look away from her because had I kept looking at her, my dick would get hard again. I couldn’t afford that since I had somebody waiting for me.
Teyanna rolled over onto her side and had a real-ass mean mug on her face as she noticed I was getting dressed. “You not spending the night?”
“Nah. Not tonight. I promised TJ I would pick him up after the party so we can play video games at my crib.”
Teyana sucked her teeth. “Why can’t y’all do that over here?”
I stopped while pulling up my pants and stared at her. “C’mon now. You know why.”
“I really don’t,” she sassed.
When the Side Nigga Catch Feelings 1 Page 6
