Authors: T Styles
Tags: #Fiction, #Literary, #Urban, #African American, #General
MAD
SCRIPT FLIPPED
I was looking at three bitches pop their pussies on the floor in Wokie’s apartment in DC. He was having another one of his fly by night parties and his house was jammed packed with family and friends. The best part was most of us was under the age of 21.
As always his parents were in Vegas and left the spot to him. I was on my second bottle of Hennessey and my mind was all over the place as I watched the strippers dance. Although they were hot, I couldn’t really see what people got out of watching dancers. It just wasn’t my thing but I was bored so its whatever.
Jace was on my mind heavy since he took me against my will that night. Especially after he told me that my father was possibly fucking his own mother. I couldn’t believe it was true and couldn’t get a hold of Kali to ask him. I was missing my pops a lot and hoped he didn’t write me off or that Jace got to him.
“You heard about Glitter’s mom?” Wokie asked.
“Naw.” My heartbeat sped up. This was the news I was waiting on. “She dead. Somebody slumped her at her crib.”
I smiled. “That’s fucked up.”
“Why you smiling then?”
I wiped the smile away. “No reason. So many people died that I
don’t even care no more.”
“I feel you.” He paused. “Damn, look at that bitch right there,” Wo
kie sat next to me on the couch. “She fine as shit.”
“Not as fine as my girl.” I said thinking of Denise.
I hadn’t talked to Denise in days and every time I thought about it,
my stomach flipped. Where was she and why was she ignoring my calls?
I couldn’t even check up on her because I didn’t know where she was
staying. So I kept calling, hoping eventually she’d answer the phone and
that she didn’t leave town. Today alone I called over fifty times. Maybe
she thought I was obsessed and dumped me. Or maybe she found out I
was born a chick and couldn’t deal. This shit was driving me crazy. “She might not be as fine as your girl, but she finer than mine.” Wokie said putting his hand on my shoulder eyeing the pink of the girl’s pussy as she spread her ass cheeks apart. I threw her a single dollar bill
but she wasn’t getting shit else.
I looked at him and said, “Nigga, you don’t have no girl!” “I know! So she finer than my bitch.”
We both laughed. The girls were sexy but I was the type of nigga
who liked a chick I could grow old with. Somebody to love me and
somebody I could be with no matter what. Not a slut showing her pussy
to a room full of niggas.
“Wokie, what happened that night on the metro? When we crashed
that truck out VA?”
“Oh snap! We never did tell you.”
“Naw.”
“We got fucked up as usual and all four of us was in the drunk zone.
And you started talking about trust, and that you needed to feel like we’d
do anything for you. So you made us step to this man on the train and
demand he give us his wallet.” He laughed. “This nigga looked at us like
we was crazy until I stole him in the face and Kid and Krazy started kicking him and shit.”
“Are you serious?”
“All the way live!” He laughed. “He kept talking about how stupid
kids act on the train and how he gonna kill the next dumb kid who steps
up to him and all that kind of shit.” He laughed. “But get this, the nigga
was saying it from the floor.”
“Nobody helped him out?”
“Fuck no! They ain’t do shit but watch.”
“Damn.”
“He was talking out the side of his neck but he gave us his wallet.” “What happened then?”
“We got off the train and took the money out. He had about two hundred dollars in cash. But what really fucked us up was that he had the key
to his Range Rover tucked in one of the pockets. We had his ID so we
knew where he lived. We caught a cab to his crib and stole his truck.” He
paused. “Man we had so much fucking fun that night. After that we went
to the movies and got kicked out because you was arguing with this dude
who kept telling you to shut the fuck up. We was all about to bank his ass
but the cops showed up. So, we just left, jumped back in our ride and got
something to eat. But we was drinking non-stop, man. That was the most
fun I ever had in my life until your ass went to sleep behind the wheel
and almost killed us.”
I shook my head. “Damn. And I don’t remember none of it.” “It’s cool.” Wokie said patting me on my back. “If you don’t go to
Texas, there will be plenty more fun where that came from.” When Wokie got up to put some money in the girl’s g-string, Sugar
sat next to me. It was kind of chilly outside but she was dressed like one
of the dancers. Sugar was still coming at me full speed. It was making
shit uncomfortable because our crew wasn’t about that type of shit. “When you gonna give me a chance?” She asked. “I mean, if you
were mine, you wouldn’t have to pretend that you a boy. You wouldn’t
have to pretend to be anybody you don’t want to be.”
“What you talking about?” I frowned. “I’m not pretending to be
shit.”
She frowned. “You know I didn’t mean it like that. I’m not saying
you fake or nothing. I just see how bad shit be with these girls out here.
Give me a chance is all I’m saying…to see if I can be the one.” “You’re not my fucking type, Sugar! I fucks with you but that’s
about it. We could never be more than friends.”
“That hurts.”
“I know. And I’m sorry I shot you down like that but I gotta keep
shit real. Had I not been going through so much it might not have come
out like that. But you caught me at a bad time because I got a lot on my
mind.”
When I said that she sat on the top of the couch behind me. The wall
was directly behind her back so she rested against it as her fishnet covered legs hung on the right and the left of me. The red-strapped shoes she
wore brushed my arms and the strippers frowned thinking she was trying
to make some cash. I can’t say that I blamed them. After all she was
dressed, in this little itty-bitty black dress. This had been the warmest
October ever but at night shit still got cold.
“Dirty bitches.” Sugar said watching them crawl to another victim.
“They not making no money no way.”
She took my jacket off and the only thing I had under it was a black
wife beater and my chains. I pulled my cap over my eyes. I didn’t bind
my breasts because I didn’t care about shit at the moment…plus I hadn’t
been to my house because Mrs. Sheers was after me.
Sugar tried to take my hat off but I stopped her and said, “You know
I never take my cap off.”
“Why? You so pretty!”
“Sugar, please!” I felt like pushing her away. “This the type of shit
I’m talking about. You don’t understand me because you only hear yourself. I don’t want to be told I’m pretty. You got it?”
“Sorry.”
After pissing me off, she started massaging my shoulders and it felt
good to fall under a woman’s touch. I know how it felt to want somebody
who didn’t want you back and I tried to remember that every time she came at me sideways. Still, at the end of the day she simply wasn’t my
type.
“Give me a chance, Mad.” she said massaging my shoulders harder,
“I’m telling you I can make you feel so good if you let me.” I rolled my eyes. She wasn’t listening. “Sugar, you my homie.” “I don’t want to be your homie! I want to be your girl!” I was just about to respond when my phone rang. It was my sister.
“Hello.”
“Mad, you can’t come home for awhile. Stay away as long as you
can.”
“Jayden, what the fuck you want with me? We haven’t even been
talking, and now you call me talking about don’t come home.” I hung up on her without waiting on a response. I called her a lot
lately and all my calls were ignored. Now she hit me up with some bullshit. We hadn’t talked since we were supposed to spend time together
some days back.
“Is everything cool?” Sugar asked.
“Naw…my sister tripping.” I said as I swigged my Henny. “She talking crazy.”
When she called back, I started to ignore her but decided to unleash
on her ass. Who the fuck did her and Jace think they were? I’m sick of
people trying to control my life. “What, Jayden?”
“He found some ring in your room when he was over here yesterday.” She said quickly. “He said he’s going to have another conversation
with you. And that you might not like what he got to say this time.” My heart dropped. “What…what ring?” I asked as Sugar’s touch
grew annoying.
“He said it’s the ring of his missing fiancé. And I’m not sure, Mad,
but I think he might hurt you this time…maybe even kill you.” She
paused. “Do you know what he’s talking about? Did Kali do something
to his friend? And did you have her ring?”
“I gotta go. Bye.”
When I hung up on her the room started to spin. I never once thought
he would hurt me because he went out of his way to protect me. And I
never thought he’d go into my room either.
Needing another buzz, when I went to swig some more of my liquor
it was gone. So me and Mad Max caught a cab to the liquor store leaving
the party going without us. Although Wokie was with us too, his cousins
were at his crib and would make sure shit didn’t get too far out of hand. Walking into the liquor store, Sugar and Wokie got into a fight about
America’s Next Top Model. We loved picking the most ridiculous fights
so we’d have something to joke about later. Sugar said the winner should be one person and Wokie sounding gay said it should’ve been another model. The rest of us were stealing all kinds of liquor courtesy of the diversion they were causing in the front of the store. When we finally made it to the door something went wrong. The storeowner just finished up with a customer and saw Krazy stash a bottle of beer in his jacket. We tried to tell him to be more careful but he was drunk and not thinking
straight.
“STOP!!” He yelled going under the counter to grab something.
“THIEF!”
The next thing we knew this nigga started busting his gun at us. Shit
wasn’t funny no more. Bottles crashed and shit splashed everywhere. My
heart was racing and I felt I was definitely going to die tonight. Luckily
we all made it out of the store but ran as fast as we could to get away
from him. We didn’t know if he was going to call the cops or keep busting until he hit one of us.
When we were sure he was nowhere near us, we fell out on the
ground to catch our breath.
“I still got the beer, mothafucka!” Krazy laughed from the ground.
“After all that shit he ain’t touch us!”
“Man, I though I was going to shit on myself.” Kid said. “Ya’ll wild as shit!” I added holding my stomach from all the laughing.
“Hold up!” Kid said standing up laughing harder. “Were ya‘ll really
in there fighting about America’s Next Top Model?”
“That shit was Sugar’s idea.” Wokie laughed. “I know we looked so
fuckin’ stupid.”
“Let’s keep walking,” We all stood up. “We don’t want this fool rolling up on us in a car.”
“Let me piss first.” Wokie said.
“Yeah…I got to go too.” Krazy added.
Both of them pissed in the bushes and we waited hoping this fool
wouldn’t come around the corner. I’m not going to lie, I had to go too but
couldn’t bring myself to bend over and pee in front of them. My shit
would have to wait. After they finished, we walked down the street drinking and talking.
“You ain’t serious about leaving are you?” Kid asked. “ “After all that fun we had back there.” Krazy added.
“Right, ‘cause ain’t shit for you in Texas no more.” Kid replied. “I don’t know.” I paused, “But my social worker might try to put me
in one of them foster care joints if I don’t go to school. Maybe I’ll just
keep running away in Maryland.” I paused. “For real I don’t know what
I’m gonna do.”
“Yeah…runaway until you eighteen.” Wokie said. “You know you
could always stay at my crib. My peoples fuck wit’ you.”
“For real?”
“Dead ass serious! Don’t go to Texas unless you know for sure she
the one man.”
“Right! And we ain’t even met this bitch yet!” Sugar added. “Easy,” Krazy said to Sugar. “Why you getting hype?”
Sugar rolled her eyes.
“Let me see first,” I said thinking about Denise. “Because it was
supposed to be me and her but now I don’t know what she gonna do.” “Fuck that, bitch!” Sugar said.
“I can’t believe you really got it in for, Mad.” Krazy said. “Yeah, this nigga gets all the bitches.” Kid added. “Including the
ones he don’t want.”
“So you could never see yourself being with me?” Sugar said in a sad
tone.
We all did the Mad Max drop and as always somebody went too far
and fell on the ground. It was Wokie.
“Sugar, you my peoples, but I can’t get down with you like that. I
told you already. I’m sorry.”
Wokie stood up and brushed himself off. “Look, I don’t want you to
leave,” Wokie said. “You my nigga.”
“Me either.” Krazy said.
“Yeah, man, don’t go.” Kid laughed.
“And you already know how I feel.” Sugar added.
“Let me think.” I said looking at all of them. “For real that’s all I can
say right now.”
Everybody was quiet after that as we walked down the street at night,
drinking and thinking. Since they were starting to get me down, I figured
it was time to bounce.
“Look, I’m bout to go to my pop’s crib. I got to put him down on
some shit. I’ll catch a cab and get up with ya’ll later.”
“Aight, then we all gonna share a cab.” Sugar said. “And ya’ll niggas
bet not fake!”
We gave each other dap and set out to catch separate cabs home. And
since I’d given away most of my money to Denise I was broke and just
like my friends would have to jump out and run without paying. As always I got away without a problem and carefully walked up to Bernie’s
house.
When I knocked on the door, Bernie opened it. Kali was sitting on
the sofa with one hand in his pants and the other hand wrapped around a
beer. I looked at them for a moment, trying to see the family resemblance. The harder I looked the more it became clear, this was his mother.
Bernie sat back down and I stood in front of them both. Her gold wig rested on the glass table. “Is this my grandmother?”
Kali looked at me strangely before smiling. “Who got to you? Jace?” “You not answering the question, pops?”
“Boy, what you talking crazy like that for in my house?” Bernie said. She lit a cigarette and inhaled smoke. “If you can’t handle your liquor don’t drink. Cause I ain’t got no kids alive.”
“I keep telling you this is a girl, not a boy, Bernie.” Kali said with an attitude. “I’m not gonna tell you again.”
“Whatever it is, it’s lost its mind if it thinks I’m its grandmother!” I knew then that either Jace was right about her not knowing, or she was a pretty good liar. “Pops, is this my grandmother?”
He looked at Bernie and then at me and said, “Yes.”
Bernie looked like she was about to pass out. “But…that’s…that’s impossible.”
Kali reached into his pocket and pulled out a picture. Now I see why she was never allowed to go into his pockets. He handed it to her and put his hand back in his pants as he sipped beer. None of this seemed to phase him and I hoped eventually I could be the same way. Where I didn’t give a fuck about anything or anybody. It seemed freeing to me. “What is this?” She said, the picture shaking in her hand. “How did you get a picture of me when I was younger?”
“You don’t even remember it do you?” He asked. “You don’t remember your brother taking this picture of you? Of us?”
“No.” She said, tears rolling down her face. “I…I don’t remember, but it looks like me.”
“It was taken in DC, a few days before you left me in the house by myself to die. With dogs.” Then he lifted his shirt to show her the dog bites. I looked too, unable to take my eyes off of the whole scene. “You didn’t care whether I lived or died and I guess you must’ve forgotten all about me.”
“I remember I had dogs.” She smiled. “Pretty dogs.”