Raunchy 2 (63 page)

“You’re about to leave?”
“Yeah. I have something to take care of.” She paused. “But I’ma be back everyday until they let you go.”
“How did you get here?”
“Daddy, brought me.” I looked at him but he was smiling at her.
“Give me a few seconds alone with your mother.” Jace said. “Then we’ll leave.”
When she left he stepped into the room and said, “I could kill you, bitch. For everything you put me through over the years.”
My heart rate sped up and I hoped he wouldn’t hit me. “What are you talking about?”
“You kept me away from my kid for fourteen fucking years. I been searching the world high and low for your ass, even had to kill a few niggas in the process! And then you rob me the night of my party. The only reason you still alive is because when I look into my daughter’s eyes, I know she’s mine.”
“I heard you did more than just look into her eyes, Jace.” I paused. “I heard about the paternity test.”
He walked up, grabbed my neck and squeezed my throat. “Don’t fucking play with me, bitch.”
I put my hand over his and whispered, “I still love you.”
“What?” He squeezed harder.
“And you still love me.” I said softer.
“Fuck you.”
“You’re hurting me, Jace. Please let me go.”
He released me and I coughed several times. “I don’t fucking love you!” He said. “Probably never have.”
That hurt. “Jace, I just been through hell. Now I might not have been the best mother, but Jayden is alive, and she has all of her limbs.”
“She may got all her limbs but she can barely read. I’ve had to help her pick what to eat on menus and sometimes when I give her money, if it’s a lot, she can’t count it.”
“It’s not my fault she wasn’t doing well in school.”
“Something else is wrong with her, Harmony. She doesn’t seem like everything is all together sometimes.” He paused. “I know she’s gone through a lot because she finds it hard to talk about her childhood, but if I find out you abused my kid or some shit like that, I’ma add that to my reasons to kill you. And I wouldn’t give a fuck if you was in a coma.”
When he said that Jayden walked back into the room. “Is everything okay?” She asked looking at me and Jace.
“Yeah. Everything’s fine.”
“Okay, well we’re about to go, ma.” She paused. “I’ma call the doctor to see when we can come get you. And then I’ma help you get better.”
Out of Jayden’s sight, Jace stared me and leaned up against the doorway. The thing about Jayden helping me was this, I was just as irritated with this bitch as he was with the whole situation. Why she fake love me so much if I did her so wrong? If I was such a bad mother she wouldn’t be here doing all of this for me. It’s obvious I had to do something right.
“Thank you, Jayden.” She was about to walk out with Jace when I said, “Can you do me a favor?”
“Yeah, ma. What you need?”
“Call, Mad. Tell her I need to see her as soon as possible. We have a lot of talking to do.”

MAD
WICKED

I was a few blocks away from Kali’s house. The back of this cab stunk and whenever I moved my feet on the mat under my sneakers, it sounded sticky. The grey vinyl seats were worn out and holes were everywhere. He didn’t give a fuck about this cab and I wouldn’t give a fuck about not paying him either.

I was sitting back, drunk out of my mind. Losing Glitter…I mean…losing my bitch killed me. I felt like everything I did from here on out, anything at all, didn’t matter anymore. I had a mother who hated me who I hated back and I had a father who didn’t want me as a daughter. I felt alone. I didn’t even know what I wanted to do in my life and lately all I had to look forward to was getting the news that Harmony was dead. I left her in the crawl space days ago, and stayed with a girl I met the day I rolled out. She had her own place and a part time job at the Laundromat. I wasn’t feeling her because she reminded me of my mother…kept wanting me to eat her out and shit like that. Every time I’d do it, I would have to be drunk. That’s when I knew she wasn’t the one.

But the days flew by and every time someone would knock on her door, I thought the police were coming to arrest me. That they found out I killed my mother and were about to put me in jail. At some point I thought about going to the place in Texas, the one that kept runaways. The one Rocket told me about, but it didn’t seem worth it since Glitter was gone. So I just roamed. Around. Not giving a fuck.

When my phone vibrated in my pocket, I took it out and saw Wokie’s number. My friends kept calling me but I wasn’t ready to talk about what happened with Glitter. She was dead. She was gone and thinking about it still made me angry. When was shit gonna start looking up in my life? I didn’t ask for shit, not even to be born, yet I constantly felt like I was being punished.

WHAM!

I didn’t even know I hit the back of his seat that hard until I heard his voice.
“What the fuck?!” The African cab driver said after my fist crashed into the back of his seat. I eyed his license on the visor and saw the letters T H A B O. I can’t read too well but I think it said Thabo. He looked at me in his rearview mirror with a screw face. “Why you do that?”
My head wobbled a little due to feeling my buzz. “I’m…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that shit.” My voice was deep and hoarse from all the screaming and crying I had been doing over the past few days.
“Look, do you have money for the cab?” He asked. “Because I don’t have time for games.”
I sat up and said, “I got your fucking money, nigga! Just drive!”
“Don’t fuck with me! I want my money!” He said shaking his finger.
“And I said I got your shit!”
My heart was banging in my chest because he seemed rougher than the other cab drivers and I knew what I was about to do…run. I ain’t have no money on me and the little cash I did have I spent on the liquor in the bag I was carrying.
“You are sad, son! Really sad!”
“Fuck you talking about?”
“A young man shouldn’t have such a terrible mouth like that. It’s really pretty pathetic if you ask me.” He was staring at me through the rearview, like he was better than me.
“Well I ain’t ask you shit now did I?”
At least he got something right by calling me a young man. I tugged on my baseball cap to cover my eyes even more. Then I drank the entire bottle of liquor, put my book bag on my back and prepared to dip.
When we reached three blocks from where Kali was staying I said, “Right here.”
He stopped the cab and I opened the door and bailed. I got two blocks up but when I turned around to see where he was I was surprised to see him still chasing me. What the fuck? Normally they couldn’t catch up when we hopped out of cabs but this driver wasn’t giving up.
“I’M SICK OF YOU NIGGAS RUNNING OUT MY CAB!” he yelled as he gave chase.
I couldn’t believe how hard he was going! He was actually chasing me and left the door to his cab open just to try and catch me. Because of the Henny I wasn’t my normal self and couldn’t run as fast. After awhile, I felt like I was moving slower and slower. I guess my body was giving out on me at the wrong time. I was just about to give up and fall on the ground when a girl in a black Ford bucket pulled up on me.
She rolled down her window and said, “Get in!”
“What?!” I asked looking over at her.
“Boy, you gonna get in or get caught?”
Without thinking twice I jumped into her car and the cab driver kicked the back door so hard I heard the metal dent. She took off and my head snapped back.
“BITCH!” She yelled hitting her steering wheel. “HE FUCKING KICKED MY CAR!!!!”
“Sorry about that!” I looked behind me to see Thabo in the middle of the street yelling and throwing up his middle finger.
“I BETTER NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN!”
“I can’t believe his ass almost caught me!” I said as she sped down the road. She looked behind her repeatedly and I could tell this whole thing made her uneasy. It kinda fucked me up that I put her in this predicament. “I can’t believe you stopped.”
It wasn’t until two minutes in the drive that I really looked at her. My adrenaline must’ve been pumping or something. When I looked over at the girl who probably saved my life I noticed she was so pretty. Her skin was brown, like a new paper bag and her lips were very pink. I was immediately relaxed around her. She was wearing tight jeans and I could see the fullness of her thighs as her foot moved from the brake to gas peddle. Her face was innocent and she had the longest eyelashes I’d ever seen before on a girl. Were they real? It ain’t matter. Fuck it! She was definitely my type.
“I don’t know why I stopped either.” She said.
“I’m glad you did.” I told her tugging at my cap again.
“Boy, what are you doing ditching cabs? He could have killed you.”
“What he gonna kill me with, his hands?”
She laughed. “You must be use to jumping out of cabs and shit. You don’t even seem like this shit bothered you.”
“Naw, I got money. I just ain’t wanna give it to him.” I lied. “I ain’t like how he was talking to me in the cab. That’s why I rolled out.”
“You wild as shit. But I like that.” She looked out at the road as she drove down the street. “So where you going?”
I didn’t want to tell her to drop me off at Kali’s yet, besides we past his crib a long time ago. For some reason, I was feeling her and I wanted to spend a few more minutes kicking it. Even if I had to walk a long way back to Kali’s spot, it was cool with me. If I had money, I would’ve taken her out to eat, but as it stood now I was flat broke.
“Uh…I’m going five more blocks up the street. You can let me out here if you want.” I said.
“Why, so you can jump out of another cab?” She laughed.
“I’m through with that shit.”
She giggled. I swear this bitch was so fucking pretty. “So what’s your name?” She asked me.
“Mad. What’s your name?”
“Amber.”
“Amber, you got a man?”
“No. I mean, I had one but I’m single now.” She smiled. “But I know you got somebody.” She laughed. “As cute as you are.”
“Naw…I don’t.” I thought about Glitter and felt bad. Like I was cheating on her or something. “I’m single.”
“Stop playing. How many baby mothers you got? Two, three?”
She really thought I was a dude, and it felt good to talk to her. Then it dawned on me, God had fucked up by taking my girl and he sent me her to make shit right. So I decided at that time to forgive him and accept Amber as a gift.
“I ain’t got no kids. I want some though.”
“I don’t have no kids either. I guess I’m looking for the right person.” She looked at me real sexy.
“Maybe you found that person.” I said.
“Not if you get locked up.”
“I told you I’m done with that cab shit. It was my first and only time.”
She brought the car to a slow roll and said, “Which house you live in?”
I pointed to the first one I saw. “That one right there. With the blue Honda in the driveway.”
She stopped the car and popped open her glove compartment. Then she took out a pen and paper and wrote a number down. “This my cell number. You got one?”
I wrote down my number but changed the last digit because I needed to change my voicemail first. I didn’t want her calling and hearing a change in my voice. I knew I probably sounded more masculine to her now because my voice was hoarse from all the crying. And even though I didn’t sound like a bitch on a regular, my voice wasn’t as deep as it was right now.
“Here. Call me when you can.”
“Aight, boy! This ain’t no blank though is it?”
“Why would I give you a blank when you just saved my life?”
She smiled again. “Saved your life? You the one who told me he couldn’t do anything to you with his hands.”
“You remember everything.” I smiled, tugging at my cap even more.
“Naw. I got a bad memory. I just remember the stuff about people I like.” Then she paused. “You real cute though. I hope you not playing games with me.”
“I don’t play games.” I told her. “What you see is what you get.” “How old are you?” She asked.
Figuring if she was driving she had to be at least sixteen I said, “Sixteen. You?”
“I’m seventeen.” She smiled again and said, “Okay…uh…well…if you wanna hang out later, call me.”
“Aight, if I finish what I have to do early, I’ma do that.”
When I got out of the car I waved at her and she smiled. She smiled a lot and I liked that about her. She reminded me of Tisa. The first girl I ever loved. She was definitely somebody I wanted to get up with when shit settled down for me. For now I had to go to Kali’s crib to break the news to him that I left his truck with my dead girlfriend’s body. And to make matters worse I didn’t give a fuck.