Raunchy 2 (9 page)

The Next Morning

The next morning the boys were still hungry. By now two days had gone by and they hadn’t eaten.
Normally Madjesty would be sleep but worrying that his brother hated him because he didn’t speak to him last night, he got up before Jayden did.
“Jayden,” Madjesty said pushing him softly. “It’s time to get up.” Jayden stirred a little but eventually opened his eyes. “You mad at me?”
Jayden rubbed his eyes and said, “Naw. I’m not mad. Just hungry.”
“Cool!” He smiled happy to have his brother back. The world could be against him if it wanted but he needed his twin and that really was the bottom line. Without him by his side he would go crazy. “Let’s go find something to eat.”
Doing what they did often, they looked for Pimp Fast Tony, but when they couldn’t find him they decided before going to school to go door to door to get the ingredients necessary to make a sandwich. Back in the day it worked but because most of the neighbors hated their mother and her whorish behavior, they shunned the boys. Harmony managed to fuck half of the husbands on their block and was working on the husbands of the block over from theirs. So as far as the women neighbors were concerned, her children could keel over from hunger for all they gave a fuck. They were her responsibility not theirs.
Still starved and without a plan, the boys trudged on the way to school. They were almost there when they saw Antwan and a group of his friends standing in an alley. Waiting. They had a loaf of bread and a jar of mayonnaise with them.
“There they go.” One of them said.
When the twins saw the pack of children their hearts dropped and they tried to run.
“Go get ‘em!” Antwan ordered.
Madjesty and Jayden were caught and brought back to Antwan in the alley. Pushing them on the ground Antwan said, “So I hear ya’ll came by my cousin’s house begging for food.”
“Ughh, I smell them already!” One of the boys said holding his nose.
“Shut up!” Antwan yelled. “You messing up my concentration.” Turning his attention back to the boys he said, “Is that true? Did you go begging for food at my cousin’s house?”
“Yeah.” Madjesty said. “We hungry.”
“That’s all you had to say. We got some stuff for ya’ll to eat right here.” Madjesty and Jayden’s eyes roamed to the bread and the mayo. Their stomachs growled and their mouths began to salivate. “What you waiting on? Make the sandwiches.”
Madjesty and Jayden tried to pretend as if they didn’t want the food at first but their stomachs told them otherwise. Running to the spread, they made mayonnaise sandwiches using the ingredients Antwan and his goons gave them. But right before they put the food in their mouth’s Antwan stopped them.
“Wait!” he said holding up his hand. “Ya’ll forgot one thing.”
“What?” Madjesty asked.
“You gotta sit down and eat.” Both of them sat down and leaned against the wall. They were about to finish their meals until he said, “You forgot something else.”
Antwan walked up to them, pulled down his pants and pissed on the sandwiches as they held them in their hands. They tried to jump up but the kids pushed them back down. When he was done the sandwiches and their clothes were drenched with his urine. His friends laughed so hard they couldn’t hold their composure.
“Now eat it!” Antwan demanded.
“NO!” Jayden yelled, dropping the sandwich. “You gotta hit me! I ain’t doing it!”
“Then your brother betta do it!”
“No!” Madjesty said trying to be brave like his brother.
Antwan frowned. “If you don’t eat it,” he said looking at Madjesty. “We gonna jump you.”
“So what! I don’t care no more. I’m not eating it!”
“Then we gonna tell Tisa how you ate pissy sandwiches anyway.”
“But I didn’t.”
“But we gonna tell her and she gonna believe me over you. And she ain’t gonna like you no more either.”
Being afraid of losing Tisa’s friendship, Madjesty put the soggy sandwich in his mouth and everyone laughed. “I knew you were a punk.” Antwan said before he and his friends punched him in the chest and arms and ran away.
When they were gone Madjesty opened his mouth and spit out the wet bread. “I HATE THEM!” He yelled! “I FUCKING HATE EVERYBODY!”
“Me too!” Jayden replied. “Why don’t people like us? What did we do to them?”
“I DON’T KNOW BUT I’M SICK OF EVERYTHING!” He could still taste the urine in his mouth. “I’M SICK OF PEOPLE PICKING ON US!”
“What we gonna do for food?” Jayden asked. Having gotten only a few chews of the bread he said, “I’m still hungry.”
“Maybe we can go to that store again. And take stuff.”
“Without paying?” Jayden inquired.
“I guess.” He shrugged.
Before going to school, they stole some chips from the store to feed their hunger. It temporarily fulfilled their pangs and they were able to make it to school on time. Once there, the entire school was buzzing about the pissy sandwiches Madjesty ate. Life was horrible and it didn’t seem to let up. All the twins wanted to do was run away from it all but they had nowhere to go. However, hard times were causing them to be tougher and to see life differently.
As if that wasn’t enough, being born to an alcoholic mother caused them to have learning disabilities and often they couldn’t think straight. Still, they did the best they could, given their circumstances in school. They weren’t adults and they couldn’t make decisions for themselves. They had to endure and hoped they came out alive.
Sitting at his desk in class as always, Madjesty stiffened his neck and balled up his fists. He waited for what he knew was coming, and just like he did the many times before, Antwan whacked him on the back of his head with the heavy book, temporarily causing him to see stars.