When I Was the Greatest (15 page)

A MoMo party. I was at a freakin' MoMo party. At fifteen. What more could anyone ask for? The party was set up pretty simple. A big open space where people were dancing and grinding on each other; a couch, where people were sitting and making out; a hallway—I assumed the bathroom was down there; a DJ in one corner; and a table with drinks along the back wall. Christmas lights lined the ceiling—the only lights in the whole place. I thought that was pretty cool. I could smell smoke, but it wasn't too strong, and I recognized a few faces from the neighborhood—faces of some friendly folks, and faces of some not-so-friendly folks. As a matter of fact, there were some downright gully, straight-out-the-pen dudes in there, with face scars to go with their gold chains, but I tried not to stare or nothing. Just played it cool. It was the top of the top and the lowest of the lows all in one room, shaking it up.

The women—wow—they were all gorgeous, though. It's like MoMo had some sort of requirement as to what kind of
ladies he let in his parties. They were all beautiful, like models, and they were barely dressed. I mean, revealing. Not a bad thing but nothing I was used to. Not on this level. This ain't no fifteen-year-old party. These girls ain't look like they had to text their daddies to tell them they made it there safe.

I bobbed my head to the music and scoped the room. Keep it cool, I thought to myself. I figured Needles and Noodles were still right with me, but when I turned around, neither of them was. Damn. I looked around. Noodles was back by the front door talking to Tasha. He was showing her the picture he drew for her, and looked like he was really putting in work. For once she seemed to be biting, or at least she didn't look like she was throwing him a bunch of shade, like she usually did. Maybe with no one around, Tasha softened up. I smiled at the fact that with all these girls in here, all these older girls, he still goes for Tasha. What a softy. But I wasn't surprised.

Who I was surprised by, though, was Needles. He was already in the middle of the dance floor, moving like a madman. He still had his yarn and needles in his hand, and was waving them back and forth. I had never seen him dance, and I never would've guessed that he could move the way he was moving, only because he was always so laidback. Maybe music was just his thing. He could rap, and apparently he could dance, too. And by dance, I mean dude was a dancing machine! The crowd started to notice him, started cheering him on. It made me a little nervous, only because I didn't want anyone from the hood to recognize him. They would fly
us out of there so fast, we wouldn't know what hit us. But I couldn't help but watch. I mean, he was good. I wanted to grab Noodles so he could see, but I knew he wouldn't want to leave Tasha, so I didn't bother. It was probably better he didn't see anyway, actually. Knowing Noodles, he probably would've freaked out and ran and snatched Needles up, not even realizing how dope it all was.

A circle formed around Needles as he dropped to the floor and brought it back up again. He did a few spins, and popped and locked his body like he was raised in the eighties. He moved and slid around like he ain't have no bones, with a cool grin on his face the whole time. It was as if this was the first time he had ever heard music, and he just couldn't control himself. A few girls jumped in the circle and started bumping their butts up against him. They laughed, and I could tell that they were giving him some rhythm, but Needles was so caught up in dancing, he wasn't even paying the girls no attention.

“Give it to her!” I yelled, being careful not to say his name out loud. I hoped he would get the message and dance with the girls. I just laughed and laughed, he looked so happy. Then one of the girls came in front of him and faced him. She waved her body and bumped against his. Then she wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him close to her, as close as anyone could get. Close enough for jean zippers to lock on each other.

“Owwwwwww!” someone else yelled as everybody egged him on.

Needles suddenly stiffened. It was like his muscles tensed up, as if he had even more bones in his body than he started with. It was like something clicked, and he froze up. He waved the girl off and stepped away. Thankfully, everybody just jumped in the circle, giving Needles the chance to disappear in the crowd.

“Yo! Yo!” I screamed out and waved so he could see me. He made his way back over, all out of breath.

“That was crazy, man!” I said.

“Thanks, man,” he said, huffing. He slapped me five, then wiped the sweat from his forehead.

“I didn't know you could dance like that! You could be on TV!” I couldn't get a hold of myself—I was just so shocked at Needles doing all those moves. Every girl in the room wanted him. He got the party started. He was the man. Syndrome, what? I wished Noodles had seen.

Needles and I pushed through the crowd to the drink table. I started reaching for a beer at first, but when Needles reached for a soda, I reached for a soda too. Sidenote: There was no bartender, and I didn't see no strippers, neither. I mean, pretty girls, yeah, but not strippers. Matt, my sparring buddy, didn't know what he was talking about.

We had been at the party for about thirty minutes when I spotted the girl with the legs. The one I saw when we were coming in. I checked my shoes. Still clean. I took a sip of my soda and decided it was time to make a move.

“I'm gonna go talk to that girl, man. You gonna be okay?” I asked Needles. I knew he'd be fine, but I still had to ask.

He nodded—“I'm straight, man”—and made his way to a corner on the other side of the room. He leaned against the wall and began to fool with his yarn. It was dark, so nobody could really see him, which was a good thing. It's weird to see a dude with a bunch of fly clothes on standing in a corner of a crazy party, knitting. Most folks just wouldn't understand.

I glanced over at the front door. Noodles was still over there with Tasha. Perfect. Wanted to keep a close eye on my boys. I put on my cool, which wasn't much, but on this night, way more than normal, and strutted over to where the girl with the legs was standing. She was sipping something pink. I think it was the punch they had on the table. I heard someone call it “loose juice,” so I guessed it was spiked. In my mind I ran through a couple of icebreakers. “Dope party, right?” or “You look absolutely beautiful tonight” or “Didn't I see you coming in?” None of them were sticking, so I figured I would do what Doris always tells me to do when her friends come over—just open my mouth and say hello.

“Hey,” I said. She didn't hear me over the music, thankfully, because once “Hey” came out, I realized how lame “Hey” was.

So I tried again.

“How are you?” I asked, a little louder. I knew she heard me because she smiled.

“Fine!” She was yelling, but I could still tell she had a nice voice.

I took a sip of my soda. “You look amazing tonight,” I said. Then I suddenly felt the need to explain myself. “And
I don't mean that in a sleazy way. I just mean you really look nice.”

I lied. I meant it in the usual way, which was sleazy, but I figured that half the men in the party had already tried their hands, probably all saying that she looks amazing. “You look amazing” was probably getting pretty boring to her.

She smiled again and took another sip of the loose juice.

“Thanks,” she said. Then she held out her hand in that soft girly way. If we wasn't at a MoMo party and I was sixty years old, I would've kissed it.

“I'm Candace.”

“Ali. Nice to meet you, Candace.”

Candace shifted her weight from one leg to the other. I took another swig of my soda and tried not to stare at her legs. She smelled fantastic, and I could tell she did that thing Doris does with perfume. A dab on the wrists, a dab on the elbows, and a dab behind the ears.

It got awkward for a moment. I didn't know what to say next. But once she finished her drink, I just offered to go and get her another. It was the only thing I could think of. My only opening. It was just like in the movies. I went over to the drink table. When I got there, MoMo was standing in front of it, all hugged up with some girl who was clearly drunk or high or something. I pulled my hat further down over my face and scooped the punch as fast as I could without making a mess all over the place.

Once I made it back over to Candace, without spilling a drop, which was important to me, her head was being talked
off by some other joker with a fat gold chain on, and big diamond earrings in his ear that I could tell were fake. The reason I knew they were fake is because I looked at his shoes. Busted. Ain't no man with busted shoes can afford no real dime-size diamond earrings. My shoes were spotless, and I couldn't afford them either, but I was only fifteen. Just saying. She was sipping at another cup of punch that I guess “Busted Shoe Dude” had brought to her. I didn't want to make a fuss about it, so I just walked away and went looking for another girl to talk to. Meanwhile, since I'd poured the cup of punch, I decided to have a sip myself. Why not? It tasted just like soda, but I felt a little cooler drinking it.

I knew it was time to check on my boys again. Needles was still in the corner, knitting. The party that he got started was now happening, full-out, but now he was all of a sudden too shy to participate. Noodles was dancing with Tasha in the front area. They weren't too close to each other, but still, MoMo would've flipped if he caught them.

Right when I took the last sip of loose juice, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

“Where did you go?” Candace's voice and sweet breath came down on me like summer heat.

“Oh,” I said, my mind going blank. She was looking for me! “I went to get you a drink, but when I came back over, you were being entertained,” I said. I was pretty proud of myself for saying, “You were being entertained.” That was smooth.

“Yeah, by a clown,” she said, laughing.

I smiled. “Yeah, it looked that way.”

Candace downed what had to be half a cup of loose juice. She twisted her face up as if it tasted nasty, but it didn't.

“You gonna dance with me, or what?” she said, demanding. She put my hands on her hips and started swaying them right to left and back again. I couldn't believe it. And I couldn't believe where my hands were. She kept rocking back and forth, and my hands kept following her, back and forth, to the beat of the music. I couldn't have moved them if I tried.

We started grooving. I won't pretend like I'm some kind of spectacular dancer, but for some reason I was feeling it. I mean, I was really moving, and everything was on rhythm, which is usually pretty tough for me unless I got on boxing gloves, and even then it ain't so easy. It might have been the loose juice. I wasn't drunk or nothing, but I was definitely a lot looser than normal. Candace smiled and gave me all kinds of sexy looks as she danced around me and beside me and behind me. She was everywhere, and all over me, and man, I was loving it, but I acted like it was nothing. I pretended like I was used to older hot girls showing me love. At one point she was in front of me grinding. I moved my hands up around her waist and rested my chin on her neck like a professional. I mean, I've grinded before at other parties, but never with no grown woman at a MoMo party.

I could not believe this was happening. I didn't even have to sneak a feel. She took my hands and put them on her thighs and everywhere, and the whole time I'm trying to keep cool and not be fifteen. I kissed her on her neck. Just a nibble.
I don't know where it came from, but it seemed like the right thing to do. She didn't say nothing, so I kept doing it. My brain was going crazy. All I kept thinking was, This is unbelievable. I tried to back up a few times—I didn't want her to feel me or anything, because that would be embarrassing. But every time I pulled away, she yanked me closer.

I don't know how long we were dancing. It might have been an hour, but it could have been twenty minutes. Both of us were soaked, and Candace had taken off her shirt and just had on a tank top. Her hair started to frizz up. She grabbed my hand and started leading me through the crowd. I had no idea where she was taking me. There was a hallway right by where the DJ was set up. She led me down it. It was dark, but Christmas lights lined the ceiling there, too, so I could see people. Some were making out against the wall. Some were talking. Some were flicking lighters, but I wasn't sure what they were lighting, and didn't want to look long enough to find out.

Halfway down the hallway was a room. Okay, so Matt was right about the room. Candace took me in there, and I realized then that things were getting way more serious than I had expected. She didn't close the door. She just threw herself on me, wrapping her arms around my neck and kissing me. And while my brain was still going, “I can't believe it,” another part of me was starting to get nervous. I mean, I had made out with girls, but something told me we were going to be doing more than kissing and touching and stuff. I wasn't really ready to go all the way. I had never done it before. But
I also didn't want to come across as a stupid kid, so I just went with it and prayed something would happen to distract her. Sort of like how John busted in on Noodles and me when we were about to fight in the kitchen. I needed another one of those random interruptions. A drunk guy, a sick girl. Anything. If not, I was going to have to go all the way. My mother always said that once you start a lie, you gotta keep lying. So if Candace and I were going to go all the way, I was going to have to either pretend like this was no big deal for me, or lie my way out of it. I mean, really, I don't even know how I'm thinking about all this—about anything—with this hot girl all over me.

It seemed like Candace was kissing me forever. I laid back on the bed, and she got right on top of me. She kissed me hard and then looked at me for a second and asked if I was all right.

“Yeah, I'm fine,” I whispered, holding her tighter around the waist. For a second I thought she could tell I was nervous, but I tried to play it off by pulling her back down on top of me to kiss more. I wondered if she knew I was younger, and if she did, how come she didn't care? Maybe she was underage too. Maybe it was too dark for her to really see me. Maybe it was the liquor. She whispered something in my ear, but I couldn't make it out because it was kinda slurred. I think she said I kiss good. Something like that. Then she leaned up again and tried to undo my belt, and I know I should've been crazy amped, and let me tell you, part of me was, but another part of me was thinking that this girl didn't even really know me. She didn't even know my last name. And I just couldn't
shake that thought. I knew that I would probably kick myself later, but I just didn't want to do it. I mean, I did. It's hard to explain. This girl on any other night, maybe would've been my first. But it wasn't the right time. I think I just couldn't get over the fact that it was all happening so fast, and it all was so awesome, but I was too uncomfortable.