All Or Nothing (15 page)

Due to her involvement in the drug trade, Shantell stopped stripping. She didn’t have to; Mike took care of her every need.

More and more, she was becoming complacent; Shantell was relying heavily on Mike. That’s how Mike wanted it,; he was a control freak. He loved to have his ladies be totally dependent on him. Literally, he made it hard for them to live without him.

Mike inserted the keys in lock and opened the door. When he entered the apartment, the sudden sight of Brenda, who was sitting in the living room watching television, startled him. Shantell had told him that her mother would be staying with her for a little while, but seeing Brenda was something totally different. Mike was used to having total privacy and the run of the house. After all, he paid all the bills there.

“Oh, hi. How you doin’?” Mike greeted her.

Brenda looked Mike over suspiciously. She hadn’t heard him come in. Then it dawned on her; this must be Shantell’s “friend.”

“Good morning,” Brenda politely replied.

Not that Mike was trying to hide it, but Brenda detected his strong New York accent. That, coupled with the way he was dressed in an expensive Wissam leather jacket and long platinum chain with a diamond entrusted crucifix, and Brenda knew he was a dope boy.

Before Brenda could say another word Mike had blown past the living room and entered Shantell’s room. Shantell handed him his drugs, he said a few words to her, then left the apartment as fast as he had come. On the way out, he acted like he didn’t even see Brenda.

As soon as Mike left, Brenda marched to her daughter’s room. Shantell was just about to get back into bed when her mother knocked on the door.

“Come in,” she said.

“Shantell, was that your friend?” Brenda questioned her. “Why you didn’t introduce us?”

Here comes twenty-one questions, Shantell thought.

“Look, Ma,” she began. “He had somewhere to go. He locked his keys in his car and he came over to pick up da spare.”

“Oh?” Brenda commented. “Maybe I’ll get a chance to meet him next time.”

“Maybe,” Shantell repeated.

Brenda began to leave the room. Suddenly she stopped in the doorway.

“I know you grown, and this might not be my place to tell you, but I wouldn’t be a parent if I didn’t tell you this. Leave that boy alone. He got trouble written all over him. I don’t know what it is, but somethin’ ain’t right about him.”

Brenda realized that she had just stuck her neck out there, but she didn’t care. When it came to her daughter, her job was to protect her at all costs. Brenda may have been guilty of not doing that in the past but the same couldn’t be said now.

She knew Shantell might not like her assessment of her friend, but that was the chance she took.

Totally ignoring her mother, Shantell just threw the covers over her head. She didn’t bother to reply. She totally disregarded her mother’s opinion. She thought Brenda was just being old fashioned.

After all this was her life, she could see whomever she pleased. She was glad her mother had gotten her life together, but now she felt her mother was going too far. Shantell was starting to feel like she couldn’t be a woman in her own house.

Side Chick

The Hyatt Hotel, located in South Charlotte, was jampacked, due to heavy promotion from Power 98 morning show, No Limit Larry and Tone X. Anybody who was somebody was there, and the women and men were dressed to impress. This was the party of the year, by far. This party was thrown by Adolph Shiver, the number one party promoter. When Adolph threw a party it was more like an event, anticipated by all, for weeks ahead of time.

Even though Shantell wasn’t in that party-going crowd, she had heard of Adolph. She was surprised when Mike had come by earlier and given her a VIP pass to the party. Mike had never taken her anywhere but the hotel so when he extended her this invitation, Shantell jumped at the opportunity to go out on a real date with him.

Standing in the full-length mirror, Shantell thoroughly inspected herself. She turned from side to side, then she looked front to back. She was quite satisfied with her appearance. Her black, form-fitting corset dress from BeBe, complimented her hourglass figure. In this dress, she had hips and ass for days. The dress also pushed up her breasts, making them look bigger than they were. The four-and-half-inch studded heels gave Shantell even more sex appeal. She topped the outfit off with a beautiful black mink stole. After donning her Gucci sunglasses, Shantell was just about set.

She walked into the bathroom to apply a little makeup. Shantell wasn’t the type who needed to apply tons of makeup. She was naturally beautiful.

“Shantell, you look so nice,” Brenda complimented her.

“Thanks,” she replied.

Shantell had spent half the day shopping, getting a manicure and pedicure, and getting her hair done. She planned to do more than just turn heads. Tonight, after she was finished, Mike wouldn’t ever look at her the same.

“C’mere, Jordan,.” Shantell yelled.

Jordan came running out of her room into the bathroom. Shantell was applying eyeliner when she arrived. She finished placing her MAC makeup back in her purse.

“Give Mommy a kiss,” she commanded.

Jordan got up on her tiptoes and Shantell leaned over. They met at a halfway point and exchanged kisses, then quickly Shantell hugged her.

“Be good for Grandma, alright? Don’t be a bad girl.”

“I won’t,” Jordan promised.

“Okay. I gotta go. I love you.”

“I love you,” Jordan repeated.

Shantell put her daughter down and headed for the front door. As she passed the living room she saw her mother channel surfing with the remote control. Brenda paused for a moment and looked at Shantell.

“Shantell, what time you think you’ll be back in?”

Here we go again, Shantell thought.

“I don’t know. “Why?”

“Oh, I was just asking,” Brenda said defensively.

Shantell promised herself she was going to have a talk with her mother about getting a job. Her mother had way too much time on her hands and she was using most of it to get in her business. Shantell felt that her mother needed to get a life, maybe find a boyfriend or something. She was really beginning to irk the hell out of her. It was sad to say, but the apartment was becoming too small for the both of them.

“Don’t wait up,” Shantell suggested.

Brenda brushed aside her daughter’s snide remark. She went back to watching television. Unfortunately for her, there wasn’t a decent movie on cable, so Brenda got up and began cleaning up the house. This was one of the good habits she picked up while incarcerated.

One thing about Brenda, she didn’t mind cleaning up around her daughter’s apartment. She had been a domestic most of her life. She figured it was the least she could do to earn her keep.

First she straightened up the living room. She dusted the ceiling fan, then she cleaned off the glass tables, and the big screen television. Finally she worked her way to the kitchen, and then to Shantell’s room.

“Jordan go watch TV in the living room, Let Grandma clean up in here.”

“Okay,” Jordan answered.

Watching her granddaughter bounce out the room, Brenda couldn’t help but wonder what the child was doing up this late at night. In her day, children were placed on schedules, even forced to go to sleep. But not now; now, kids had more rights than a little bit. Brenda dared not interfere with her daughter’s raising of her child. She knew from experience that people were funny about their kids, even family.

Starting with the bed, Brenda began systematically fixing up the room. She took the clothes that had been thrown on the floor and put them in the hamper. She put fresh sheets on the bed and made it up. Then she hung up all the outfits that Shantell had tried on tonight and discarded around the room.

Before Brenda knew it, her work was complete. She stood at her daughter’s closet, admiring her clothes. She had to admit that Shantell sure had some bad outfits. In the back of the closet, a long black leather trench coat caught her eye. Brenda pulled it from back, desperate to try it on.

Brenda attempted to put the coat on; she got one arm in the sleeve but when she tried to place the other arm in, it wouldn’t go all the way down. Immediately she took off the coat to find out what was preventing her from putting her arm all the way in it. She never expected to find anything of significance. But she did.

Reaching her hand in the sleeve, Brenda pulled out three large zip-locked bags filled with several ounces of crack cocaine. Brenda stared at the boulders of crack in amazement. She had never seen this much cocaine in her life. Now Brenda was face to face with her nemesis, her weakness, her Achilles heel.

First Brenda valiantly fought the temptation. She immediately replaced all the drugs back in the sleeve, threw the coat on the bed and walked out of the room. Internally her mind waged a tug-of–war; it sent her body conflicting messages. It said, Take a little a hit for old times sake. Then it warned, don’t do it! You‘ve come too far to throw it all away.

Those old demons resurfaced and the addict in Brenda reared its ugly head. Drawn like a magnet, she walked back into the room and retrieved the drugs. Quickly but neatly she tore into one of the bags, pinching off a sizeable chunk of crack cocaine. Then she hung the coat back up in the closet, just as she had found it.

Momentarily, Brenda was overcome by a bad sensation; still, that didn’t stop her from looking high and low for any household item she could use to assist in getting high. Nothing short of divine intervention was going to stop Brenda from smoking. She was about to re-enter those deep, dark waters of drug abuse. From this point on, there was no way back.

With one hand, Brenda placed the broken radio antenna to her lips, careful not to drop the small piece of crack cocaine that was lodged in the other end. Using her free hand, she slowly raised the lit cigarette lighter and set the crack cocaine ablaze. She inhaled deeply as the drug rushed into her lungs. Within seconds it took effect and she was overcome by a euphoric feeling. Brenda’s heart began to beat wildly against her

chest, and she exhaled a large cloud of crack smoke. If Brenda died right now, she would have died happy.

As Shantell drove to the party, she noticed a pair of bright strobe lights that seemed to the illuminate the sky. The closer she got to the party, the stronger they became. When Shantell pulled up to the Hyatt hotel, she discovered the source of the lights. This was one of the promoter’s signature moves. Adolph rolled out the red carpet like this was a movie premiere. By the large amounts of people in line, one would have thought it was.

Shantell had a hard time finding parking. She had to park off the hotel premises and walk a short distance to the party.

The line to enter the party seemed to extend down the block and around the corner. Luckily, she had a VIP pass and after only a few moments, she breezed right pass the security checkpoint and gained entrance to the party.

From the moment she stepped in the place, Shantell felt like it was all eyes on her. She turned the heads of men and women alike. They all seemed to wonder the exact same thing” ”Who was that?” Shantell caught all the stares of admiration, even the venomous stares of hate. She took them both in stride.

A lot of partygoers immediately assumed that Shantell was from out of town. Her face wasn’t that recognizable with her Gucci shades on and also because she had just came of age to party with the older crowd.

Inside the party was like a large traffic jam. There was a sea of human bodies that didn’t seem to budge. Shantell figured it would take her forever to find Mike in here. So instead of wasting her time looking for him, Shantell stepped into the ladies’ room to make a call.

Mike was standing along the wall, politicking with some local thugs, when he got the call. He placed one finger in his ear then shouted, “Yo, what’s up? You in here?”

Shantell replied, “Yeah, I just got here. I’m in the bathroom.”

“Huh?” Mike hollered. “Speak up, I can’t hear you!”

“I said I’m in the bathroom!” she barked. “Where you at?”

When Shantell raised her voice, she drew the ear of most of the women in the bathroom. They didn’t think it was necessary to be talking that loud. They figured Shantell was trying to draw attention to herself to be seen. A few of them sucked their teeth loudly, to show their disapproval.

Shantell continued, “Yo, walk to the front and come get me.”

“A’ight, stay right there. I’m on my way up there right now.”

Mike aggressively weaved his way through the crowd. He bumped into dudes and brushed up on women. He found himself repeatedly saying, ”Pardon me, fam. Excuse me, Miss.” Never the less he made it to his destination.

Standing by the public pay phones, Mike whipped out his cell phone and dialed Shantell’s number. “I’m out here! Yo, step outside the bathroom. I’m waitin’ for you.”.

“I’m comin’ out right now!”

Mike directed his attention to the door. He was not prepared to see what he saw when it opened. Shantell sashayed out, looking good enough to eat. Mike had never seen her get her grown and sexy look on. To him, she had to be one of the best looking chicks in the entire party. Mike began lusting for her like he never had before.

“Goddamn!” he exclaimed. “Dat’s crazy right there. All dat you?”

Shantell blushed. She loved all the attention Mike was now showering on her. It seemed like she had been waiting a long time for Mike to start feeling her like this. All this attention, however, would be short-lived.

“Hey, Mike,” one woman said.

“Mike, you handsome motherfucker, you!” another woman commented.

Once it started it didn’t seem to stop. Mike was a popular guy, but Shantell didn’t know he was this popular. It seemed like chicks were just lining up to say hello, as if Mike was the mayor of Charlotte. She felt like all these outside diversions were taking away from her time. Still, she said nothing; she just stood to the side, looking real glamorous.

Mike could feel Shantell’s tension from all the attention he was receiving. He was glad when he spotted a few of his other home boys from New York. They walked over and chilled for a while.