Take it All (Blinded by Love) (13 page)

“I prefer the term unique.”

“Whatever you say, bro.”

The line went silent for a few seconds before he said, “Uh, Lennox?”

“Yeah?”

“You can call me anything you want, sweet lips, sugar drop, sweet pea or even your little Raine drop, I don’t care, just don’t
ever
call me bro.” His tone sounded serious but she really didn’t know if he was, in fact, being serious or kidding around.

“Okay?” she questioned, hesitantly.

“I hate it, being called
bro
; it’s like nails on a chalk board to me.” Lennox, trying to hold back on laughing, covered the receiver as her laugh broke out. “Laugh it up,
sweet lips
,” he mocked, her laugh instantly fading.

“I won’t call you bro if you don’t call me anything related to food, deal?”

“Deal.”

“Alright, well I should go, I need to get over to Londyn’s and then get ready for my date.”

“Have fun with that, I’ll talk to you later.”

After saying bye, Lennox hung up and started gathering her things she was taking over to Londyn’s. Looking at the clock, she saw it was almost three, and being that it was Monday afternoon, both of her parents were still down at the station doing paperwork and getting payroll ready. Sticking by her decision, she hadn’t told them about her date with Caleb. Instead, she told them she was staying over at Londyn’s for the night to have a girl’s night watching movies and eating pizza, and neither questioned her on it.

Lennox then spent twenty minutes going through her closet looking for something to wear on her date. Having no idea where they were going or what Caleb had planned, she settled on a pair of jeans and a nice top hoping it would be enough. She grabbed her things then made her way down to her jeep and took off down the street to Londyn’s.

Caleb sat in his Sunfire in front of the white, run down house. It looked like every other house in the area; broken window shutters, front lawns full of weeds and broken appliances, cracked fences with boards missing, and the screen door either ripped or completely missing. It was a bad neighbourhood; there was no denying it. If the houses weren’t a sign then the spray painted gang signs on the side panel a couple houses away with a group of guys sitting on the front porch was enough to clarify it. But none of it fazed Caleb, as he regularly visited the neighbourhood at least once a week, either alone or with one of his buddies.

He’d been sitting in front of the house for almost an hour, waiting, when the screen door finally creaked open then banged close. Caleb watched the guy with the cropped hair and large snake tattoo on the side of his neck as he jogged down the cracked sidewalk and towards the passenger door. He pulled it open and hopped inside.

“Let’s move, yo,” he said to Caleb as he pulled the seat belt across his waist and clicked it into place.

Caleb, not saying anything, nodded his head and put his car in drive, and took off down the street. “You drop everything, we cool?”

“Yeah man, we’re good, my guy’s a happy man now,” Andrew said with a sly grin as he rubbed his hand over his jaw.

“Good, listen, I need to drop ya then head. I got a thing tonight,” Caleb said as he turned the corner, off the busy street, and headed down to the highway exit.

Andrew looked at him with narrowed eyes, “Nah man, I need ya tonight.”

“I can’t.”

“King, man, I said I. Fuckin’. Need. You
tonight.”

Caleb looked at Andrew and saw the fury in his eyes, the fury he knew not to argue with, the fury that he had known not to test. He met Andrew ‘Snake’ Boyd at a party he checked out with Emerson after they moved into their place. Back then he didn’t know Andrew or what his reputation was like and by the time he found out, it was too late; he was already part of his crew. To say Andrew was a bad guy, would be an understatement. He was a snake. A snake who slithered around you, scaring you, putting you on edge, and making you anticipate his wrath only to linger and wait for when you least expected it. He attacked without thought and poisoned you right down to your core. Caleb had seen firsthand what Andrew was capable of, what he’d do to someone who crossed him; therefore, he stayed on his good side.

Caleb signalled over, into the far right lane to take the south side exit when it came up. His eyes glanced quickly at the clock on his dashboard, and his jaw clenched; it was already six and he was supposed to be picking up Lennox in an hour and a half, but he knew that wasn’t going to happen. “Fuck,” he muttered to himself, knowing there was no way out of what Andrew wanted of him, “fine.”

“Damn, King, the fucks your prob, you’re usually willin’ for these nights,” Andrew said, eyeing him curiously. “Got somethin’ you wanna tell me man?”

“Nope,” he said through clenched teeth, “We’re good, just a date thing, that’s all.”

“Fuck it man,” he waved his hand in the air, “There’s other pieces of ass out there, you can tap one after we’re done tonight. Tank and Slim Jim are throwing tonight, we’ll head over later and chill,” Andrew told him, but Caleb had no interest.
There was only one place he wanted to be later on, and that was with Lennox, but he knew it wasn’t going to happen. Though he knew he should tell her he wouldn’t be picking her up, he couldn’t. That meant two things: one, he would have to hear the disappointment in her voice (he felt guilty enough) and two, it would all be a lie
. And he just couldn’t do it, not with Snake sitting next to him.

Contemplating what to do next, Caleb grabbed one of his smokes; lighting it as he placed it between his lips. He knew what he was doing in regards to not only Lennox, but with Andrew. It was a bad idea but he had no other choice. Doing what he did was easy to get into, getting out was the difficult part, considering it was something he didn’t want to get away from.

“King, man, there’s a guy in the west dealin’ an ice and snow mix, the perfect balance of both for that fuckin’ extra somethin’ somethin’. Slim says it’s tight; he and Tank tried it on Saturday at the party. So we’re pickin’ up tonight, and takin’ it to one of my buyers whose interested; shit costs man, I mean it
costs
,” Andrew paused as he blew out a breath of smoke from a cigarette Caleb hadn’t seen him light. “How fuckin’ dope would that be, yo. Think about it, King, an eight ball of snow or ice, the good fuckin’ shit, sells for about two fifty to three; rocks sell at one fifty to two, so imagine what snow and ice mixed is gonna get us. I’m saying around three fifty maybe four to four fifty maybe five.”

Caleb’s head turned quickly in Andrew’s direction, “Serious?”

“Ya man, Slim said he paid four for an eighth and it was fuckin’ worth it, said he woulda paid more if he needed to.”

“And one of your guys wants it?”

“Yeah, he heard about it and wants to try it. He’s paying me a grand to pick up and drop off,” Andrew said, matter-of-factly. “I was also thinking of trying it out, see what it’s like then maybe start getting it out there. Think of the money we make if we sell the shit outta it.”

“We’ll be pushing everything on our ends, making a bigger profit,” Caleb said catching on, pondering the idea more.

“Fuckin’ got it bro, we’re meeting a guy tonight, name’s Dragon; get it from him and take it back to my guy then hit the party.”

It would be a nice cash jump for Caleb and not that he was overly hard up for cash or anything, he liked the idea of more cash. It was that selfish part of him, thinking of what it would do for him and what he could get with his cut; it was the only thing on his mind before Lennox appeared, “I’m in but, I can’t go with you tonight,” he said, apologizing.

“Fuck man, I need you there,” he said roughly, unhappy, “tell ya what, you come we’ll split the grand fifty fifty.”

Caleb knew he should have said no and be done with it but all he was thinking about was the money at that moment. He nodded his head and was about to open his mouth to tell him yeah but was cut off when his cell phone beeped and vibrated in the cup holder, gaining his and Andrew’s full attention. He reached down to grab it, knowing who it was, but before he could grab it, Andrew’s hand grabbed it. Looking at the screen and reading the message displayed, Andrew looked at him with a smirk, and asked, “Who the fuck is Lox?”

Caleb reached across and snatched his phone
, “No one you need to know about, Snake.”

“Who the fuck names their kid Lox–wait, is it a chick or a dude,” he paused, rolling his window down and tossing the butt of his smoke out, “and they good with locks?”

Caleb glared at Andrew, “Fuck off man, I’m not talking to you about Lennox,” he said through gritted teeth.

Andrew raised his hands in the air, defensively, “Whoa man, fuckin’ chill, sorry I asked.”

“Just drop it,” Caleb told him, as he looked down at the screen of his phone to see Lennox’s text message telling him she couldn’t wait for their date and the address of where to pick her up.

Caleb, eyeing the message for a second longer, closed the message and powered his phone off, knowing when he didn’t show up she’d call and he knew he wouldn’t be able to ignore her calls. Guilt filled his conscious as he dropped his phone back into the cup holder. He knew tonight was going to hurt Lennox and that it was a risk that jeopardized the possibility of anything happening between them, but there was a part of him that was hopeful she would give him a chance to somehow make it up to her; one way or another.

Lennox looked at the clock on Londyn’s nightstand. The red numbers flashed seven thirty five and Caleb still hadn’t shown up. She was ready and waiting in the outfit she had picked out, one that caused an argument between her and Tatum on how hot she didn’t look until Londyn stepped in; telling them to cool it.

She sat in the chair by the window with her purse on the floor next to her feet, her cell phone settled on the nightstand an arm’s length away, and her coat resting across her lap. Car headlights flashing drew her attention out the window, only to watch the car continue down the street and disappear around the corner.

“Anything yet?” Lennox turned her head at the sound of Londyn’s voice and was met by both hers and Tatum’s matching stare. They looked nervous, as nervous as she felt, and their eyes were swimming with a mix of confusion and worry.

Lennox shook her head and turned her attention back to the window before saying, “He’s only five minutes late, plus he’s a guy and they’re never on time, right?”

“Wouldn’t know,” “Yeah, of course,” they both said at the same time, not making Lennox feel any better.

Lennox sat in the chair with her eyes glued on the window and the street below. It was dark and not a cloud was in sight.
There were white billows coming from various neighbours as large, fluffy snowflakes fell from the sky. You could see a faint haze hovering around under the street lamps in the cold, crisp air; a sign that the temperature was slowly decreasing and that a decent amount of snow would be on the ground in the morning
. She wasn’t sure how long she sat there before she felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned to see Londyn crouched down in front of her.

“Lennox, you should call him,” she said in a comforting voice, her eyes a mix of pity and somewhat anger.

Lennox reached for her phone and looked at the time on the screen to see it was ten to eight and he was still a no show. Scrolling through, she found his number and dialed; having a feeling she was only wasting her time in making the call. She listened as the line clicked, going straight to voicemail, and his voice sounded into her ear, “Yo, you reached Caleb; obviously I missed your call so leave me a message. Peace.”

Hesitating, she debated on whether to leave a message or not, unsure if it was worth it or like the call, a waste of time and energy. Deciding to leave a message she spoke, “Hi Caleb, it’s me, Lennox. Just calling to see where you are, it’s almost eight and you’re not here yet, so I... uh, thought I’d give you call. Call me back or whatever, okay, bye.”

She ended the call and tossed her cell phone back on the nightstand and sat back in her chair. Not knowing what else to do, she got up and grabbed her overnight bag, then made her way towards the bathroom when Londyn spoke, “What’re you doing, Dollface?”