Crackhead II: A Novel (14 page)

“I am.” Laci smiled at him and put her hands on top of his. “Oh Dink, I forgot to tell you, I’m meeting my girls at the mall later.”

“Your girls? What girls?” Dink asked.

“You know, my friends,” she told him matter-of-factly. “Gabby, Randi, and Samantha.”

“What you need at the mall, Laci?”

“Nothing, really. We’re just hanging out.” She looked into her purse and pulled out a fresh stick of cotton-candy lip gloss and coated her lips with the wand as he drove.

“Baby, we haven’t been to the mall in a while,” Dink replied. “Why don’t I take you? Afterward, we can go to dinner, hit a movie or something. Anything you want, boo-boo.”

Dink did notice that Laci had started hanging with a group of girls that he didn’t know, and he felt the need to protect her. Unfortunately, Dink’s protection meant not letting her get too far away from him. His doting attention made Laci feel special, but after a while, it got old and she was beginning to feel smothered.

ALMOST TWO MONTHS
had passed since he left the Bronx, but for Dink, being in a different environment made it seem like an eternity. He made the best of it. Dink was the more sociable of the two, but he was still on guard because the lessons he learned from the streets never left his blood. He knew that people always wanted something and they would go through extremes to get it.

College was a different life for him. Slightly older than the average Boston University student at twenty-two, many students wanted to know more about this controversial young man who
wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. But Dink let only a few students get close to him.

Slim quickly proved to be Dink’s boy on campus. He wasn’t intimidated by his obvious swagger and hood-rich ways. The fact that Dink and Laci had matching Mercedes-Benzes and stayed laced in the latest designer clothes didn’t faze Slim either. Slim was a cool, laid-back cat to kick it with and he had a fresh, carefree spirit. Similarly to Dink, he wasn’t on no bullshit, wasn’t a slug, and spoke what was on his mind, and Dink welcomed that.

Dink had also becomed acquainted with Simone, T.J.’s ex. They shared a class together, and Dink enjoyed her confident demeanor. While her appearance may have resembled Crystal’s, her personality was completely different, and she had an ease about her that Dink immediately took to.

“DINK, CAN
I talk to you for a minute?” Laci shook him briskly, waking him up from a nap.

“Wha . . . what’s wrong baby?” Dink blinked his eyes and tried to stifle a yawn. He realized that he must have dozed off while waiting for Laci to finish her homework. He threw a pillow under his arm, turned toward her, and began to play with a loose ringlet of hair that bounced on her shoulder.

“You,” Laci blurted out. Dink looked at her. “No, me,” she said. “Us,” she finally said.

“What’s up, Laci? You sound confused.” Dink realized that whatever Laci had to say was difficult.

“I’m not confused. I mean, I’m happy being in college and with us together and all, but I need space, Dink.” Laci sighed. “My friends and I want to hang out and do things together.”

“We do those things all the time,” he reminded her.

“Right, Dink. But outside of class, I don’t see my friends at all.”

Dink looked incredulously at Laci. He’d never expected to hear her say anything like this. But after giving it a little more thought, he realized he had become as overbearing as she made it sound.

“Baby,” Dink sat up in the bed, “the shit you went through this summer—you shouldn’t have gone through it,” he said seriously. “Man, nobody should ever have to go through that kind of hell. I promised your mother and uncle that I would protect you, and that’s all I’m trying to do.”

“Dink, baby, you
are
protecting me.” Laci leaned over to kiss him. “You just being here makes me feel that nothing bad could ever happen. But this isn’t the South Bronx and my friends aren’t like Tonette and the girls.” Laci’s face took on another look, thinking of the SBBs. “My friends are a lot like me and we enjoy spending what little time we do have together.”

Dink remembered seeing Laci a few times with the girls she considered her friends. He felt he was a good judge of character, and he’d never got any bad vibes off these girls. They were a little too stuck up for his taste, but considering where they were, it was the norm. Laci had pled her case to the jury; now it was time for the verdict.

“Okay, baby,” Dink responded after a brief silence, “I see what you’re saying, but I’m not going to apologize for protecting you. That’s what a man is supposed to do for his woman; however, I will loosen up some. I didn’t realize you felt this way and I wish you would have told me sooner. I don’t like seeing you stressed out about shit you don’t need to be stressed out about. But if they try some funny shit, they goin’ down too.”

Laci understood why Dink felt that way, because he had seen her at her lowest point and knew how she got there. She promised him that everything would be just fine and reassured him
that the people she chose to hang around with were a lot like her. Some would say bougies, by some standards, but easily embraceable. Laci felt her kind would never treat her like Tonette and her South Bronx Bitches had and for once in her life, she was right.

LACI BEGAN
to take advantage of the extra room Dink gave her, which surprised him. Coming home on a Saturday afternoon, he ran into the girls inside their apartment, waiting for Laci to get ready.

“Hi, Daryl,” Randi said as she sat on the couch with Gabby and Sam. They all had wine coolers in their hands, sipping on them while they waited.

“Hey,” he said as he closed the door behind him. “What’s up with y’all?” he asked cordially.

“Just waiting for Laci,” Gabby answered. “We’re going to Rich and Charlie’s for a quick lunch, then we’re going back to the dorm to watch some movies. What did we get?” she asked Sam.

“I think we got
Lethal Weapon 1
and
2,
“ she answered.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Gabby answered as she got up and threw her cooler bottle into the trash can. Dink noticed that she was very comfortable in their apartment, which told him that they had been there before.

Laci came out of their bedroom wearing a pink L.A. Gear sweat suit along with pink and white Nikes. The girls smiled and got up when they saw her. They grabbed their purses and headed toward the door.

“Hey babe,” Laci said as she hurriedly grabbed her purse and house keys. “I’m hanging out with the girls, but I’ll see you later, okay?” Laci didn’t give Dink a chance to respond. She kissed him on the lips and left.

Dink watched as she left the apartment. This was the Laci he never knew—one who loved life and was sociable.

In the girls’ dorm room, they relaxed on a couple of bean-bag chairs and laid across the small twin beds watching Danny Glover and Mel Gibson as the comical police officers in the
Lethal Weapon
series.

During the first movie, Gabrielle hit the pause button, got up, and went to the bathroom. As she returned, she unpaused the movie and sat cross-legged on her bed. Rustling with something, she distracted Laci, who turned to see what she was doing.

Oh my god!
Laci thought to herself as she watched Gabby open up a small baggie and some papers. She saw her reach into the bag, pull out something that was green and brown, and sprinkle it inside the paper. Gabby looked at Laci, reached back into the bag, and added more, like it was no big deal. Once she got the joint the way she wanted, Gabby rolled it and then licked the edge to seal her work of art.

Laci’s heart raced and she became clammy.
I need to go,
she thought to herself.
Oh my God, not again!
Her fight-or-flight instinct kicked in but she felt paralyzed. Lighting the joint, Gabby took a few tokes, then passed it to Randi. After she took a few pulls, she looked at Laci. “You want some?”

Laci looked at the girls, then at the joint. “Um . . . no. I don’t smoke,” she told her friends.

“Oh, okay. That’s cool,” Samantha said, passing on the joint too.

They turned back and focused on the movie. Laci’s heart rate began to return to normal. She couldn’t believe how easy it was to say no and not be judged or teased because she didn’t smoke, or chose not to.

Just as the first movie went off, Laci looked at her friends and spoke.

“Girls, um . . . I have something to tell you.”

They looked at her. “What’s up?” Randi asked, putting the first movie in the case and retrieving the second.

“Um . . . I’m a recovering addict.”

They all looked at her like she was crazy. “What? An addict?” Sam spoke. “See, girl,” she looked at Gabby, “I told you you can get hooked on that shit.”

“Yes,” Laci said.

They looked at her in amazement. “Damn! You? An addict? You don’t strike me as one,” Randi commented.

“Right,” Laci told her, “but it’s not like you think. I had some friends back home and they tricked me into smoking a joint and they laced it with crack.”

The girls’ eyes got big as saucers. “What? Aw man, that’s lower than low!” The girls got a little closer to Laci, and they put their hands on her back and began to rub her. “Damn, I’m sorry, Laci,” Gabby said, feeling bad that she’d rolled and fired up a joint in front of Laci.

“Well, we won’t smoke around you, Laci,” Randi told her.

“Right, we won’t,” Gabby cosigned.

“Thanks, I appreciate that,” Laci told them. “You don’t have to stop doing it around me, but I appreciate you offering that. I’m clean now, but I just wanted you all to know.”

That night, when she came home smelling of alcohol and the faint hint of marijuana, Dink questioned her about it. “Laci,” he called out to her. Dink noticed that she looked a little disheveled. “Are you smoking weed?”

“Why you ask that?” Laci asked, taking off her clothes, about
to get into the shower. She put her dirty clothes in the hamper and put her robe on.

“Laci.” Dink pulled at her arm, and sniffed her hair and her face. The smell was very faint, but he knew she had to at least have been around it. He looked closely at her. Her eyes weren’t bloodshot and she didn’t look extremely relaxed.

“What you doing?” she asked, pulling away from him.

“Ever since you started hanging out with your so-called friends, whenever you come home, you smell like shit you shouldn’t be doing.”

Laci turned to look at him and gave an exasperated sigh.

“Dink, when I go out with my friends, we go to the mall, the art museums, or just other places we have common interest in. But there are other days we just want to sit back and chill. We go back to someone’s dorm room with a bottle of expensive wine and yes, some of them would hit the herb.”

“Uh-uh,” he said defiantly, shaking his head. “You ain’t going around them anymore. I told you if some funny shit kicked off I—”

“Dink, listen to me.” Laci looked at him seriously. “The first time they lit up, I almost got sick to my stomach. I wanted to run and get the hell out of there, but when I saw that some of them hit it and nobody tweaked, that’s when I realized it was just weed.”

“You don’t need to be around that shit, Laci. I don’t think you’re ready for that.”

“I told them I was a recovering addict.” Dink raised his eyebrows in shock. “Yup, I was surprised I admitted it too and took my chances with how they would react, but I knew they were the real deal when they offered not to smoke around me.”

“Why did you tell them that, Laci?” He still couldn’t believe
she would put her shit out there like that. “Did you tell them anything about me? About where the shit came from?”

“Well, because it’s my truth, and I have to face my demons. The truth is, Dink, I am a recovering addict and admitting this is a part of my recovery.” She looked at him with hurt written on her face. “To answer your other question, no, I didn’t say anything about you. I can’t believe you would even ask that.”

Dink pulled her close and kissed her hair. “I’m sorry, baby. I shouldn’t have asked you that.”

She looked up at him and smiled slightly, although still surprised at what he had just asked.

“Wow, baby,” Dink said. “I’m proud of you.”

What Laci liked most about her newfound friends was that nobody tried to get anyone to do anything she wasn’t comfortable with. That included her talking about her ordeal if she didn’t want to. With the South Bronx Bitches, Laci had felt she never had a choice, and that made her appreciate her new friends even more. Even though Laci was finally able to be where she fit in and she was happy, she still had hatred in her heart for the South Bronx Bitches.

“This is definitely a step in the right direction,” Dink told her. “You know, it’s gonna take some time, but one day you’ll forget about all the shit you went through over the summer.”

Yeah right,
Laci said to herself.
Most people can forgive but can’t forget, but me, I ain’t forgivin’ shit.

W
HILE LACI BRANCHED
out and became her own woman, Dink began to spend more time with people more like him—Slim and Simone. They made him feel more at home in Boston.

“Hey Simone,” Dink called out after their Abnormal Psych class. He walked up to her and helped her gather her things.

“Hey Daryl, what’s up?” She looked at him. “Wow, you’re looking good today.” She admired his dark-wash blue jeans, Timbs, and crisp white oversized T-shirt. Dink appreciated the compliment. Laci hadn’t complimented him in a while.

“Thanks,” he told her. “You’re looking pretty fly yourself.” He admired the black and gold Sassoon sweat suit that Simone wore. It hit her curves in a way that should make any man who crossed her path take a second look. “What you doing later on?”

“From the looks of it,” she said, noticing how he was checking her out, “I’ll be working on this assignment.”

“Yeah, me too,” he said, remembering that they had been given an emormous assignment with a ridiculous deadline. “Hey, he said we could choose a partner. Why don’t we partner up?” Dink suggested.

“I’d like that, Daryl,” Simone replied.