Brenton Brown (12 page)

After ten minutes of aching pain in her right big toe, Juliet just about composed herself. She gripped the steering wheel tight, indicated and pulled away.

MYA’S
AFTER THE RAIN
trilled from Breanna’s new car stereo. Sitting in the passenger seat, Malakai was nodding. Checking herself in the rear-view mirror, Breanna pulled up and parked outside her house. With her hands still tense on the steering wheel she looked at her boyfriend. ‘I hate this deceit, Malakai, lying to my boss and my mum.’

‘How else are we gonna get
our
time?’ asked Malakai. ‘And you told me since you started at your place you’ve never taken a sickie. Everyone gets sick sometime.’

‘Yeah but they don’t lie about it.’

‘Bree, if you’re having second thoughts about this then you can drop me back to my yard and you can still go to work
half-day
… I can wait.’

Breanna thought about it. She stared through the windscreen with her hands still holding onto the steering wheel. It was an overcast day with the promise of rain in the skies. A
white-haired
woman wearing sunglasses was crossing the road with a white Labrador. Breanna glanced at Malakai whom she thought seemed too relaxed. She then pressed a button on the car stereo and the music stopped. She looked at him once more before opening the car door. ‘Come on.’

She climbed out of the car and made her way to her front door. Spots of rain dampened her hair. Malakai watched her before he got out of the car. Breanna was turning the key into the lock when he reached her. ‘You sure your mum and paps are at work?’

‘Yeah, I watched them leave this morning. Stop fretting, man. My paps ain’t laying in wait with an axe.’

Malakai scanned the hallway before crossing the threshold. Breanna led him to the kitchen. She opened a drinks cabinet and took out a bottle of Baileys. ‘What do you want?’ she asked.

‘Er, don’t mind. Whisky, rum or vodka and Coke. Thanks.’

Grabbing a bottle of Appleton Special rum, she poured it into a whisky glass and filled it with four cubes of ice before topping it up with Coca-Cola. ‘This is pap’s,’ grinned Breanna. ‘He never notices. But if I trouble even a capful of my mum’s wine she’ll kill me.’

‘I didn’t want the ice,’ laughed Malakai.

‘Well take it out and fling it in the sink if you don’t want it,’ snapped Breanna.

‘Just joking! Why you getting so touchy?’

‘I’m not getting touchy. Sorry I didn’t ask you if you wanted ice. It’s not a biggie for fuck’s sake.’

‘Alright, Bree. Seems like you need a next ice cube in your drink!’

Breanna kissed her teeth before leading Malakai into the lounge. They both sat on the black leather sofa. Breanna watched Malakai admiring the framed family photographs hanging from the walls. Suspended from a wall above the sofa was a framed picture of Martin Luther King. There was a mini-stereo on a shelf. Within a glass wall cabinet were crystal champagne glasses, two crystal decanters and flower-patterned china plates. Resting on a solid redwood coffee table were framed photographs of Breanna at various ages. Malakai settled his gaze on a photo of Breanna, aged eleven, in her school uniform complete with hat. She was sticking her tongue out at whoever took the picture.

‘Hated school,’ she said.

‘You wore a
hat
?’

‘Let’s not go into it.’

‘What school was that then?’ Malakai pressed.

‘One that had a strict uniform policy. Didn’t really mind but they wouldn’t even let us wear earrings … what school did you go to?’

‘Charles Edward Brooke. In between Camberwell and Bricky. Started there with Sean. He was always getting into … teachers there were well happy if you just got entered for any GCSEs.’

‘How’s it going with the plumbing training?’

‘Alright, you know,’ Malakai sipped his rum. He gently shook the glass before he took another sip. ‘Can be a nasty job though. We were learning yesterday how to unblock toilets. I think I could unblock my own shit, maybe even my mum’s shit but other people’s? Not sure if I can do that, Bree, blatantly. My older brother has done some fucked-up nasty shits in his day when he was living at home and I wouldn’t unblock any of them monsters, blatantly!’

‘You’ll have to do it when you’re a pro,’ giggled Breanna. ‘Stick with it, man. A plumber my paps knows charges fifty sheets just to look at a job before he does anything.’

‘I know. Trust me, I ain’t gonna mess this up.’

‘So you met Sean at school. You was gonna say he’s always inna trouble?’

Malakai took his time in answering and took a generous sip of his rum before he did so. ‘Yeah … you could say that. He had a lot of … shit at home to deal with, blatantly. It’s just him and his mum. I don’t know who his paps is.’

‘What kinda shit?’ Breanna wanted to know, ignoring her drink.

‘You know … the same old road t’ing, walking with brothers man ain’t s’posed to walk with. That kinda t’ing. Doing t’ings you ain’t s’posed to do. Terrorising peeps and shit.’

‘Like who or what?’ Breanna pressed.

Malakai gave Breanna a cautious glance before he continued. ‘This is between me and you, right.’

‘Course.’

Placing his glass down by his feet, Malakai turned to face Breanna. ‘While we were in Year Nine Sean had some issues with his mum. He left his yard. For a while he slept on my couch but my mum didn’t like him burning spliff late at night and stinking up her front room. To say sorry Sean even bought some incense sticks for her but she weren’t listening. She fling him out.’

‘If that was my dad he would’ve probably dragged him to the police station,’ Breanna chuckled.

Malakai didn’t laugh. He continued. ‘He left my yard and started to walk with the P.I.K.’

‘P.I.K? What does that stand for? Who are they?’

‘Poverty Inspired Kids. A crew that started from Angel Town estate.’

‘Wait a sec,’ thought Breanna. ‘I’ve heard Mum talk about them once. Weren’t they involved with that …’

‘Yep. The murder of that thirteen-year-old boy in Flaxman Sports Centre.’

Breanna leant back into the sofa. She stared straight ahead. ‘Shit!’

Malakai took another gulp. ‘Sean got messed up in all that.’

‘You’re joking.’

‘I ain’t joking, Bree. He didn’t do the shanking though. He thought they were just gonna rough him up, slap him up and shit. It was all over some girl this boy was s’posed to have dissed. Sean didn’t expect the yout’ to get shanked, blatantly.’

Breanna nodded, her expression serious.

‘It was all over the news and shit,’ continued Malakai.

‘I know,’ said Breanna. ‘I remember now, Mum sent the boy’s mum her condolences. She asked if she could do anything to help. Mum’s like that. She’s always getting involved with other people’s business but she ignores what’s going on in her own home.’

‘Sean was going on all weird and messed up.’

‘What happened?’ Breanna pressed.

‘We saw some news conference with the boy’s older sister. She was all crying and shit, begging anyone with information to step forward. We were watching it at my yard and Sean left my room to take a piss. He took some long time so I got up to find out what happened to him.’

‘And?’

‘… he was sitting on my stairs, just staring into space.
Something
was messed up. I asked him if he knew who shanked the boy. For the longest time he didn’t answer and then he nodded.’

‘What did you do? Go to the police?’

‘We had this argument,’ Malakai admitted. ‘I was saying to him that he’s gotta say somet’ing. Even if it was an anonymous phone call. Sean was saying he wasn’t no snitch and if he did say somet’ing he would get shanked. We were firing off on each other, we almost bruk out in a fight. I left his yard cursing him. I ran back up to him and started to chant Buju’s
Murderer
in his face. You know the tune, right?
Murderer, blood upon ya shoulder, kill I today you cannot kill I
…’

‘Yeah, yeah, I know the tune,’ nodded Breanna. ‘Uncle Brenton is a big Buju fan …what happened after that?’

‘Can’t this wait for another time?’ protested Malakai. ‘I kinda come here for another reason. You know. And you
asked
me to reach.’

‘Just finish off, man. What happened after you chanted
Murderer
in his face?’

Malakai shook his head. ‘Sean
t’umped
me! Blatantly! Then ran back inside his yard. He wouldn’t come out so I had to walk home. But I was switching.
Mad
. I felt like going to the police station myself. When I got home I was gonna tell my mum.’

‘What stopped you?’

‘To be honest, Bree, I was kinda afraid. Blatantly! I have to
admit that. I was thinking that the P.I.K. crew would come looking for me. I was thinking about what might happen to my mum, my sis and my older brother. While all this was going on I could hardly look into my mum’s face … she thought I was sick.’

Leaning in closer to Malakai, she kissed him on the cheek and gave him a hug. He responded by kissing her on her neck. His left hand slipped under her beige crewneck sweater. Kicking off his trainers, he placed his right leg over her left thigh.

‘Hold on, man!’ Breanna protested, pulling herself away. ‘Hold on … what went down after your mum thought you were sick?’

Malakai continued to kiss Breanna on her forehead down to her cheeks and finally on her mouth. His left hand was trying to unclip her bra.

‘Malakai!’

‘Alright! Man! You invite me around here and now you’re changing your mind.’

‘I’m not changing my mind … tell me what happened with the Sean, P.I.K. crew situation. Did Sean confess to his mum?’

‘No … But after he t’ump me I was trying to call him. I was leaving messages on his voicemail saying I was gonna bruk him up when I see him. He didn’t answer for a week. Then he came around my yard. He was all quiet and shit, not his usual self.’

‘And?’

‘He told me what happened. It was over stupidness. The boy was only running up his mout’ and boasting at school that he was going out with this girl. He was even saying that he fucked her and shit. The girl get upset now, she tells her man who happens to be Nasher, one of the P.I.K. crew. So the boy was set up. He was only s’posed to be beaten up, you know, as a warning t’ing. But Nasher took out his blade and shank the boy. It turned out that sometime before the shanking the P.I.K. crew was jacking somebody and Nasher froze. The rest of the crew was all taking
the piss outta him. They were calling him a pussy and chicken and t’ing. Peer pressure, blatantly!’

‘Shit!’

‘After Sean told me what happened he made an anonymous call to the police. Nasher, Sean and everyone else messed up in the whole shit was arrested in a dawn raid the next day. ’Cos Sean helped the police he got time taken off his sentence. He went to some secret prison for three years. Most of the others got life. Some went to Feltham, some started their sentences in Ashfield, some country place near Bristol.’

Breanna drew in a long breath.

‘You can’t spill this, Bree, blatantly.’

‘I won’t Malakai. What do you take me for?’

‘Anyway, Sean and his mum were offered a new life, new names, everyt’ing. They offered to set them up somewhere far.’

‘And they turned it down?’

‘Yep,’ answered Malakai, taking another sip of rum. ‘Sean wanted to go. He was fucked off with Bricky and south London. He wanted to go to America but they weren’t gonna pay for that shit. They offered places only in the UK. But his mum didn’t wanna go anywhere. She said she ain’t going nowhere where white people look at you weird, where only one bus comes once an hour and where the people chat some strange fucked-up accent.’

‘But the guys who did it are all still inside, right?’

‘Yeah, but they know Sean snitched.’

‘Shit!’

‘Exactly.’

Breanna finally took a sip of her Baileys. When she gulped it down, Malakai took the glass from her, placed it on the floor and started to kiss her on the forehead, her cheeks and then her neck.

‘Malakai!’

‘Yes, Bree.’

‘Not here … stop it! You got a condom, right?’

‘Course. Man is prepared.’

Malakai’s right hand slipped beneath the front of Breanna’s jeans. Breanna closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation of it all.

‘Not here!
’ she protested as Malakai fumbled with the zip of her jeans. ‘Get off, you maniac!’

Breanna shoved Malakai off her and ran laughing out of the room and up the stairs. Malakai regained his footing and set off in pursuit, knocking over Breanna’s glass of Baileys on his way. He reached Breanna’s bedroom door but it was locked.

‘Stop fucking about, Bree, let me in.’

‘Not until you control that boner I just felt,’ chuckled Breanna.

‘What do you expect? At least your man’s in working order, innit.’

‘You kissed my forehead and I felt it.’

‘Take it as a compliment, Bree.’

‘I’m
not
letting you in.’

‘For fuck’s sake, Bree! This was
your
idea. You know what, stay in your room! I’m going downstairs and I’m gonna trouble your mum’s wine before I step home, blatantly!’

The door opened. Breanna yanked Malakai’s right arm and pulled him inside. Before he knew what was going on Breanna kissed him. She then pulled away and locked the door. Malakai looked at the leopard-print blanket covering the double bed. There was a menagerie of cuddly tiger cubs, leopard cubs and cheetah cubs resting on the bed. Malakai couldn’t count the number of beauty products on the dressing table. Stuck with Blu-Tack to the walls were posters of Omar Epps, Tupac Shakur and Tyrese. He pulled Breanna to him and kissed her. They fell onto the bed.

‘Careful,’ Breanna said softly. ‘I want this to mean something … you got a condom, right?’

‘Course, Bree … man prepared.’

‘Is this your first time?’

‘Er, not really.’

‘So who was she? For your first time?’

‘Bree!’

‘Sorry.’

They resumed kissing and Malakai began to take off Breanna’s clothes. She sprung up in just her bra and knickers and pulled the curtains closed. She then dived under her bed covers, her fingers gripping the duvet. Malakai joined her and caressed her forehead and cheeks. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘We’re gonna be doing this for untold years.’