White Lines (21 page)

There were scores of women in Born’s life. Most of them were merely sex toys for Born, but there were a couple who had managed to hold his
interests even when they weren’t fucking. He had dated one young lady who was a real fly girl. Chanel was from Queens, and she came to see Born at his mother’s house in Staten Island. When she came to see him she was wearing all kinds of jewelry—big rope chains, bamboo earrings, name rings, and all kinds of gold adorned her body. Born brought her around, figuring that all the neighborhood homies would be impressed with his stylish new shorty.

As soon as he brought her to the hood, Martin had sized her up. He noticed that she was one of those light-skinned girls who thought her shit didn’t stink. He also noticed the pricey jewelry that seemed to adorn every inch of her body. Martin pulled Born to the side and said, “Yo, Born. We gonna rob that bitch.” He smiled at Born, and Born cracked up laughing, assuming that his friend was joking around.

“Let me rock her in the hood for a little while first,” Born said, in jest. “Don’t rob shorty yet,” he joked. They laughed among themselves, and then went their separate ways. Days went by, and then Chanel called to tell Born that she was coming to see him again. He was glad, because her sex was out of this world. So he called his boys and explained why he’d be out of the loop for the day, and he took a shower in anticipation of her arrival.

When she got to his crib, he opened the door and saw her standing there looking naked, with absolutely no jewelry on whatsoever. Chanel was in tears, and she couldn’t even speak at first. As soon as he saw her like that, he shook his head. He already knew what had happened.

“Yo, some niggas robbed me in the lobby,” she said. She was shaken and crying as he ushered her into the apartment. “Three big niggas with guns.”

Born shook his head, knowing that Martin, Smitty, and Chance were behind it. He listened as she went on and on about her traumatic experience. “They even took my nose ring!” She was distraught, and Born fought the urge to laugh. “Is this what it’s like in your hood?” she asked, with her face frowned up. “This is the type of shit that goes on out here?” Chanel’s tears had turned into tears of rage.

Born grinned at her prissy ass.
“Anybody
could get it out here,” he
said. “Niggas is hungry, and you come through all shining like that.” Born’s expression was cold and unsympathetic. He shook his head in dismay, called her a cab, and sent her home. As soon as she left, he went to find his friends. As he walked through the lobby, he noticed that the lightbulbs had been shattered, and the building’s entranceway was darker than ever. They had set shorty up real good. He walked outside in search of his crew, and he found them in the back of his building.

Born approached them and shook his head. “I thought I just asked y’all niggas not to rob the bitch.”

All three of his friends broke out in laughter, and Born laughed also, as they all gave each other a pound. “I told y’all to let me rock her in the hood for a little while, and what do y’all niggas do? You rob the bitch the very next time I bring her ass out here!” He was still smiling, and his boys knew that he wasn’t really mad. “Aiight, lemme see. What did y’all muthafuckas get?” He sat there in back of his mother’s building and split up the loot with his boys. This was typical of his nonchalance toward women and his lack of feeling when it came to them.

All that changed on the day that he met Jada Ford.

He saw her standing in front of the group home in Mariner’s Harbor, and was instantly mesmerized by the unfamiliar beauty. Born made it his business to know any and everybody within the borough where he did most of his dirt. Many a hustler had fallen by not recognizing the subtlest changes around them. So when he saw Jada standing there, he wondered who she was and why he’d never seen her before. He drove around the block a few times, trying to catch another glimpse of her. On his third time around the block, he saw her walking, and he had to follow her. Her ass was amazing, and her walk was mean! Born was further intrigued when his attempts to holler at her were immediately shot down. Born wasn’t accustomed to being rejected. He was the man, and women usually fell at his feet. But Jada was hesitant. And she was beautiful. It made him that much more determined to see what she was all about.

When he finally convinced her to go to lunch with him, he wondered what would become of them after this initial encounter. He sat across from her at a table in the back corner of the diner. He thought her eyes
were so alive, almost like they were dancing, as she looked around the place, taking in the decor. Born wondered where she was from, so he asked her.

“Brooklyn,” Jada answered, directly. “Where you from?”

“I’m from here—from Staten Island.” The waitress arrived to take their orders. Born ordered a sandwich. Jada followed his lead and ordered the same. When the waitress was gone, Born looked once more at Jada. “What part of Brooklyn?”

Jada smiled at Born’s not-so-subtle questioning. “Flatbush.”

“So what you doing out here today? You came to visit your man or somethin’?”

Jada smirked. “My sister lives out here, and I’m waiting for her to get home.” She wondered why Born seemed to look at her so intensely. His eyes made her feel see-through.

“So your sister lives in the group home over there?”

“You ask an awful lot of questions.”

“I’m sorry. I just want to make conversation—”

“So then ask me what my favorite color is. Ask me what’s my sign.” Jada was edgy.

Born liked a challenge. Jada definitely seemed to fit the bill. But he sensed that she was only
acting
tough. He could tell that she was vulnerable somewhere deep down inside, and he was curious about it. “Okay, Jada. What’s your favorite color? Huh? What’s your sign? You got any pets? You got any kids? You got a man?”

Jada couldn’t help laughing. She liked his style for some reason. “Now that’s more like it,” she said. “I like yellow.”

“Yellow?”

“Yes, yellow. I’m a Cancer. I don’t have any pets, no kids, no man, nothing.” Jada finished her response just as their food arrived. “Now it’s your turn. Answer those same questions,” she said. She unfolded her napkin and placed it in her lap, still well mannered, despite her otherwise unrefined existence.

Born said grace before he ate, which impressed Jada. That was the last thing she expected him to do. Then he shoveled a mouthful of French
fries into his mouth and proceeded to talk. Jada tried not to look at his chewed-up food as she enjoyed her own. “I don’t really have a favorite color,” Born said. “I know it definitely ain’t yellow.”

Jada pretended to be offended as he poked fun at her color preference. “Shut up,” she said, laughing.

He thought about the answer to the other questions. “I’m a Pisces. I don’t have no kids or none of that shit, either.” He bit into his sandwich. “I got some sharks in a tank in my living room, though. I don’t know if that counts as pets.” He continued gulping down his sandwich as if it was his last meal.

Jada sat, staring at his poor manners. She knew he had some money, judging from the car, the jewelry, and simply his style. But he had very little class. He talked with his mouth full, food flying this way and that. Finally, Jada said, “You don’t get out much, huh?”

Born wiped his mouth with his napkin, and absorbed the sarcastic remark. He knew he was eating with reckless abandon. “I apologize if I’m being rude. I don’t get to sit down and eat too often,” he explained. “Sitting down like this ain’t something I get to do every day. Most of the time, I eat on the go.”

Jada nodded. “So then I feel special. I feel like you took time out of your
busy
schedule to sit down and eat lunch with li’l old me.” Her voice was flat and insincere.

He nodded in agreement. “I think you’re being sarcastic. But that’s alright.”

Jada laughed. “But you need to chew with your mouth closed, you know?” Jada demonstrated, biting into her own sandwich and chewing neatly, with an encouraging grin on her face.

Born shrugged his shoulders as Jada offered her tutorial. “This is how I eat, pretty girl. You’ll learn to love it,” Born said. “So why you don’t have a man? A pretty young lady like yourself, cute little body, nice conversation. Why are you all alone in Staten Island looking for your sister?”

Jada shrugged. “I guess I’m not alone now, right?” She was beginning to wonder if this might lead to something. Born seemed like a likable guy.

Born grinned and took a sip of his soda. He watched Jada chew her food, watched her wipe her mouth with her napkin and sit back. “Nah, you ain’t alone right now,” he agreed. He caught himself staring at her pretty eyes once more. He couldn’t help it.

Born knew that he wanted to spend more time with her than this simple meal. “You should come chill with me at my crib …”

“See? That’s where I knew this was going.” Jada took another bite of her sandwich, and then reached for her pocketbook. She was instantly turned off. Here she was thinking that Born had potential, and all he wanted was some ass. Born grabbed her hand before she could get to it.

“Nah. I’m just saying—”

“Saying what? Nigga, I’m from the streets—”

“You from the streets?” Born was grinning, patronizing her.

“Yeah. That’s right. I’m from the streets, so I recognize bullshit. You pulled up in your Benz, took me to a cute little lunch, flashed your jewels, asked your questions. Now you want something in return, and I ain’t with that.” She made another grab for her purse, but Born pulled it toward him, and smiled at her, tauntingly.

“So you from the streets, huh, little girl? You recognize bullshit? Wow.” Born looked as if he was stunned by her allegations, but he was still smiling. Despite her anger, she couldn’t help falling in love with his dimples. Born kept smiling, tickled by the fact that Jada had been so quick to take offense. “I wasn’t trying to serve you no bullshit. I was just offering you somewhere comfortable to hang out at while you wait for your sister. That’s all. But, I see you’re extra defensive, so I apologize.” His grin turned somewhat sinister. “But why’d you automatically assume I wanted some ass? I didn’t think you were that type.”

Jada looked at the food on her plate, seemingly convicted.

Born continued. “Plus, I would hope that if you
were
that type of girl, you would charge me more than a six-dollar sandwich. ‘Cause you look like you’re worth way more than that.”

“Okay, so give me my bag. Let me pay for what I ate.”

“I ain’t done yet.” Born was amused by Jada’s anger. “Neither are you! You didn’t even finish your food. Stop actin’ like that.” Jada scowled at
him as he held his hands up in surrender. “You should have told me you was from the streets. Then I woulda been prepared to deal with you.” Born’s remark was dripping with sarcasm, and Jada was irked by it.

“Don’t be mad that I can see through your game,” she said. “I know a little bit about a lot. Just remember that.”

“Tell me what you know about, little girl.”

“First of all,” she said, sitting up in her seat. “I ain’t no damn little girl. I’m twenty years old. Second of all, I know about a lot more than some young nigga from Staten Island such as yourself.” Satisfied that she had put him in his place, Jada continued munching on her lunch. This dude had no idea what she knew about. She’d been in the streets for years, been to jail and back. The nerve of him to question what she had seen or been exposed to in her lifetime!

“Okay. You said all that, and what? You still ain’t tell me what you know about. What? What you seen a couple of dice games, some niggas smoking weed? What?” Born resumed eating and talking with his mouth full. “What makes you so gangsta?”

Jada folded her arms across her chest. “I been out in the streets most of my life, so I’ve seen all kinds of shit. You name it. I’ve been in crack houses, seen niggas get shot and stabbed. I know about dirty old men, about silly young men. I know about grimy women and trifling hos, and I know all about your type.” Jada thought about the men she’d come across working with Kelly and Mr. Charlie. She really had seen more than she wished she had, and she didn’t think Born could be much different. Men were men. She didn’t really care how Born received what she was saying. She had nothing to hide from anyone. She was clean, and she wanted to stay that way.

“How long you been on your own?” he asked her.

“Since I was born.”

Born shook his head, and continued to eat his sandwich. Another black girl lost. He’d heard it all before. After successfully gulping down more than half of it, and swigging about a third of his soda, he sat back and looked at Jada. She chewed her own food, and then she sat daintily sipping her Coke through a straw. “I’m from the streets, too,” Born said.
“I’ve been a lot of places, seen a lot of things. I ain’t no slouch. You can trust me on that. And I can see that you ain’t no slouch, either.”

Jada smiled, grateful that he could tell she was no lame, that she was no easy mark. “Okay, well then, I guess we have something in common.” She pulled out a cigarette and lit it. “What do you do?”

Born gazed at her blankly. “I do a little bit.” Born watched Jada’s parted lips as she exhaled smoke from the Newport. “Why don’t you come hang out with me, and I’ll show you what I’m all about.”

Jada was tempted, but still hesitant. “Why should I trust that you won’t do something crazy if I go with you?”

Born’s smile was so sexy that it seemed like it could melt an iceberg. “I wouldn’t hurt you. You can trust that. But if you don’t want to, it’s alright.” He looked around the diner. “Plus, I don’t know if I can trust you. You might be an undercover.” Born said it with a smile, doubting that she could really be a cop.

Jada twisted her mouth contrarily. “I’m offended. I can’t stand the police. That’s one thing you don’t have to worry about.” After her stint in prison, Jada had no love for cops of any kind.

“See? We have something else in common. I can’t stand the police, neither. Look at all the things we have in common.” He smiled again. “So why you don’t wanna talk about your sister? I’m saying, I never saw you around here before. You look good, so I would remember seeing you before. And now you pop up on the scene all sexy and tough at the same time. What’s your story?” He looked at her as if he knew more than he ought to.