Damaged (23 page)

Nut ain’t know we went to the club tonight. He thought we went heavy-duty grocery shopping at Shopper’s Food Warehouse and
then to the Laundromat. That was all Shakira’s idea. The dude I was dancing with was all right looking, and I could feel his
dick growing hard as he pressed up against me. He thought he was slick trying to raise my miniskirt up higher, but there was
no such thing as
free pussy,
so I kept moving his hand away even though we was still grooving. When Backyard started another song, I leaned in and shouted
into the guy’s ear, “Thanks, cutie, but I’m about to get a drink.”

He nodded and let my waist go.
Cheap-ass muthafucka. Why he ain’t offer to buy me one?
I walked over to Jayson, who was standing near the bar, as usual.

“Buy me a drink, big brother,” I said, smiling and fluttering my eyelashes.

“Now, bitch, you should know by now that flirting shit don’t work for me,” he teased. “But I’ll get you one anyway. What you
want?”

“Grey Goose and cranberry juice.”

He ordered it and got him a Midori sour. “Ain’t that dude fine as shit,” he said, staring at a light-skin guy with curly hair.
“I just love me some Puerto Ricans and Dominicans.”

“He
is
cute,” I said, admiring the guy wearing a colorful embroidered Coogi T-shirt. “I hope he straight.”

“Why you hating, Camille? I’m calling dibs.”

I laughed and sipped my drink.

“Camille! Oh, my God. Guess who up here?” Trina Boo squealed and grabbed my arm.

“You goin’ knock my drink over, though?” I asked, wiping the spill off my arm. “Damn.”

“Guess who? Guess who?” She was looking too excited, like a child on opening day at Six Flags.

“Who Trina Boo, damn?”

“Walt Wilson.”

“Who the hell is that?”

“For real? Where?” Jayson asked, looking around.

“Right there with the white hoodie and the aviator shades,” Trina Boo said, nodding in his direction.

“Oh shit,” Jayson said. “I ain’t know he was that short.”

“Who the fuck is Walt Wilson?” I asked, taking another sip.

“Girl, he be producing all those songs that got the Go Go beats mixed in it. You know who we talking about,” Jayson said.
“I think he did a song with Beyoncé and Mary J.”

“Amerie, Eve, and Gwen Stefani, too,” Trina Boo shouted.

“Oh, okay,” I said, still not sure.

“Bitch, you don’t know who we talking about,” Trina Boo said, salty.

“Why you geeking, though?” I asked.

“I’m about to go over there and talk to him. Shit, I told your ass I’m going to New York,” she said, fixing her silver top
and grinning from ear to ear. “See y’all later.”

“That girl,” I said, shaking my head and taking another sip. I watched Shakira hugged up on the dance floor with some tall
dude. The way they was all bunned up, I knew she knew him before tonight and she wasn’t treating him like a trick. As soon
as she came up for air, I was going to snatch her up and get in her business.

Just as Back started singing “Last Call for Alcohol,” Shakira came over with the tall guy she was dancing with, smiling from
ear to ear.

“You remember Kareem?” she asked, cheesing.

I shook my head.

“He used to go to Tech with us. He was a couple years older, though.”

I shook my head. “Nah, I don’t remember. But hi,
Kareem.”

“What’s up?” he said.

“Umm… I’m about to go home. You goin’ be all right with Trina Boo?”

I tried not to look surprised and nodded. “Yeah, have fun, but be careful.”

She winked and led Kareem away.

I shook my head and sipped my drink. “Wow. That girl is playing with fire.”

“All right, girl, we about to dip, too. Where Trina Boo at?” Jayson asked.

“I don’t know. She in here somewhere. Call me later,” I said.

“You sure she ain’t leave with Walt?” he said, teasing.

“You never know with her trick ass. You right, let me call her cell phone.” I dialed her up, and of course the phone just
kept ringing. “All right, I’m riding home with you. I’ll leave her a message, in case she decides to look for me.”

“All right, I’ll meet you at the car,” Jayson said. Two of his guy friends followed him.

I looked around the club one more time, since the crowd was dwindling. But I ain’t see her, so I left.

T
he next morning, I woke up to Trina Boo bouncing on my bed and shaking me and screaming, “Camille!”

“What the… how you get in here?” I asked, wiping my face.

“I got a key. You don’t have one to my apartment?” she asked, confused.

“No.”

“Oh? Nut gave it to me.”

I shook my head and sat up. “Well, why you using it?”

“Guess what?”

“What?”

“Walt Wilson told me about a model casting call for his next video with Young P! He said all I had to do was show up and I’m
in it!”

“For real?”

“Yeah, girl! Oh, my God. Help me pack.”

“Pack?”

“Where the casting call at?”

“New York!”

“For real?”

“Yeah. He told me I could ride up there with him. He leaving tonight.”

“Tonight? Leaving?” I asked, sitting all the way up. “Bitch, what you gonna tell Nut?”

She rolled her eyes and headed for the door. “Not a damn thing.”

“What you mean, not a damn thing? He gonna go crazy on us! He still mad about Peaches and Wynika leaving… then Joy, and now
you?”

“I’m saying, I can’t pass this up. I’m sorry, Camille,” she said, looking convinced.

“So you basically saying fuck us?”

“Listen, y’all my girls, but this is my dream,” she said, disappearing behind the door.

I got up and put my slippers on and then went downstairs. Trina Boo turned up her radio and started trying on different outfits,
some she had bought from this cute boutique in Baltimore called the Dollhouse. A lot of celebrities shopped there. It was
some real fly shit, too, nothing she would wear working the streets, but something she was saving for a special occasion.

I sat on the edge of her bed and watched her pack. I still talked to Peaches, every now and then. She told me how Nut had
begged her to come back, but she told him not until after she had their son. But for some reason, I knew that she still wouldn’t
get back with him. Things had changed since she left the streets. I knew she wasn’t going to want his crazy ass around her
baby.

Wynika was in jail, cuz she got three years. The judge wanted to make an example out of her. Ra-Ra and Meko was still in foster
care. Neither one of her brothers wanted to take them. Andre was in jail for child molestation. They tried him as an adult,
and he got eight years.

“Don’t forget about us when your ass blow up,” I said, picking up one of the dresses she tossed on the bed.

“Girl, please. How the hell am I gonna forget about any of y’all? Shit, I’m your muthafuckin’ wife-in-law. Till death do us
part, bitch.”

I smiled.

“Okay,” she said, holding up a dress and pressing it against her in front of the mirror. “What about this one?”

“Promise me something else,” I said, standing in front of her.

“What? Why you so serious all of a sudden?”

“Just promise me, when you roll out, you don’t ever come back here.”

Her smile disappeared.

“Not to this building, not with Nut. You got a chance to do something different, take it.”

Her smile came back and lit up her face. She reached over and gave me a hug. She squeezed tight and said, “Girl, I’ma be all
right. You will, too, watch.”

I heard a lot of footsteps coming down the stairs and turned in the direction of the noise. Shakira was pushing it. Her ass
was just now walking Kareem to the door.

“Who is that with her?” Trina Boo asked, peeking out the window.

“Bitch, get ya ass in here!” I said, opening Trina Boo’s door and yanking Shakira’s arm to snatch her inside the apartment.
“Are you losing your mind?”

“What?” she asked, grinning.

I rolled my eyes and sat on the couch. Marcha must’ve heard all the noise cuz she was tapping on the door and opening it at
the same time.

“Y’all up early as hell,” she said as she plopped down on the couch. “I’m so glad we ain’t have to work last night.”

“Me, too,” Trina Boo said.

“You packing?” Shakira asked.

“Yep.”

“Why?”

Trina Boo flashed a sinister smile and started dropping her booty like it was hot.

“Uggh, freak!” Shakira squealed.

We all laughed.

N
ut ain’t get as irate as I thought he was going to get when Trina Boo disappeared. I mean, he bitched about it for a while,
but I guess he thought he could replace her easily or something, cuz he ain’t pop off on nobody like he did when Peaches disappeared.
Lately, he had been staying to hisself and not causing that much trouble. I had a feeling something was up his sleeve.

I was standing on Fourteenth Street smoking a jack when a gold Camry pulled up. It was a pale-face white dude, missing two
teeth on the side of his mouth.

“Hey, baby,” I said, walking over to the car.

“Hey, um… Can I get a date?”

“What kind of date?”

“Half and half.”

“Are you a cop?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head.

“Okay,” I said, tossing the cigarette and then climbing in his car.

“How much?”

“Two hundred.”

“Two hundred? Sheesh. Inflation for the recession, huh?” he said, digging in his pocket.

I nodded. Something about the dude seemed mighty suspect. I put my hand on the latch to open the door.

“Where you goin’ honey?” he asked, handing me the money.

I stared at the money but then decided to climb back out the car.

“Where you goin’, honey? Here’s your money!” he shouted behind me. “Here’s your money!”

“I don’t know what you talking about!” I shouted and walked down the block and flagged down a cab. I text Nut as soon as I
was inside:
Block hot. Cop in gold Camry.
I rode around the block and waited for a while before paying the cab driver.

My phone rang a few minutes later. It was Peaches.

“Hey, girl!” I said. “What’s up?”

“Camille, I think I’m going into labor,” she groaned.

“Ain’t you early?”

“Yeah, but this baby coming. Can you meet me at Howard Hospital?”

She wanted me to be there? I felt important and special. I ain’t get to go when Danica went into labor. I begged to, but just
Mrs. Brinkley and Mr. Big went. I wanted to be there for her.

“Okay,” I said, smiling. “I’ll be there in like twenty minutes. Oh, my God, Peaches! Are you excited?”

Peaches groaned and took a few quick breaths. “Hurry up, Camille.”

I quickly flagged down another cab and rushed over to Georgia Avenue. Peaches was in a wheelchair in the lobby when I got
there. She was all bloated and tired looking, but I kissed her on her sweaty forehead and said, “It’s gonna be okay.”

“I called Nut up here, too,” she said. “I hope he act decent.”

I blinked back my surprise. After all she was saying about wanting better for her and her baby, she gave in to him anyway.
“You did?”

“I know what you’re thinking, but”—she groaned and held her belly—“I wanna give him a chance to prove hisself now that the
baby almost here.”

Peaches needed support right now, not my opinion, no matter how on point it was. So I said, “That man gonna wanna see his
son. Trust.”

“I hope so. You know, I ain’t seen him since that day I left,” she said, looking worried. “I hope he stays cool.”

I felt for her. This was her first child and labor, and on top of everything else, she had to be concerned if Nut would show
up as Lucifer or if he would be Sean Crawford. I wanted to ease her fear and keep her as calm as possible. “Don’t be scared.
It’ll be okay.”

“Look at you,” she said, smiling. “I should’ve brought your ass a change of clothes.”

I looked down at my black outfit and smiled. “Hell, maybe I can get a date while I’m in here, too. Doctors got cake!”

She cracked up laughing until her stomach hurt and she had to rub it.

After Peaches was given a room, the nurse said she wasn’t dilated enough yet and that she should start walking around the
hospital. I helped her big butt out of her wheelchair and walked with her. She looked so happy, even though I could tell she
was in pain.

“You nervous?” I asked. “You about to be somebody’s mother, girl!”

“A little, but it’s like a good nervous,” she said, smiling. She was dragging her swollen feet as we shuffled down the hall.

“Have you ever worried that it might not be Nut’s baby, Peaches?” I just had to ask her, since she never mentioned it.

“No. Not once,” she said, and then she stopped. “Okay, I lie. Maybe once or twice.”

I smiled.

“But I know in my heart it’s his. This baby was made out of love, even if Nut wants to forget.”

“No, that nigga loves you. Just a weird kind of love. You should’ve seen how pissed off he was after you left,” I said, rolling
my eyes. “Girl.”

I told her how he went off on Marcha that night and how he started getting all strict on us. I ain’t tell her about Ms. Joy’s
arrival and departure. For a minute, I forgot I was supposed to be keeping her calm, I was so busy catching her up on all
the drama. I thought I made Peaches get fully dilated since I ended up making her nerves worse, cuz by the time we got back
to her room, she clutched her stomach real tight and moaned. But when I turned around to see what she was looking at, Nut
was sitting in a chair reading a baby magazine. His cane leaned up against the wall.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” she said, still holding her belly. I could tell she was jumpy, cuz her eyes darted around.

“You fat as shit, girl,” Nut said, standing up.

“I know that,
and?
” she said with an attitude. She was the only person he let talk to him like that, without going off.

“And… you look good,” he said, and he smiled. “Real good.”

She smiled and Nut walked over to hug her. I knew then that she felt better.