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Authors: Kia DuPree

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BOOK: Damaged
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“Where the hell he just go?” Peaches asked, leaning into me.

“I don’t know, but he’s being real sneaky,” I said and turned to look for him.

“Well, whatever. Let’s just have some fun,” Peaches said while swerving her hips.

We danced for hours. A couple of guys had offered to buy both of us drinks, which we gladly accepted. Peaches rolled her eyes
and told some crazy-looking dude to get off of her after he tried to grind on her butt.

“I can see if the nigga was at least halfway cute,” Peaches said in my ear.

I laughed and then the DJ started playing Lil’ Wayne’s “Go DJ” and the crowd started going wild, pushing closer near the stage
area. A few minutes later, Lil’ Wayne and some of the Cash Money Millionaires came out on the stage and killed it.

I could not believe Jayson was nowhere to be found the whole time. After the DJ made a last call announcement for drinks,
me and Peaches started looking for Jayson and heading toward the door at the same time. When we got outside, we waited for
a while to see if he would come out, but he didn’t. I called him on his cell phone, but there was no answer.

“What you think we should do?” I asked Peaches. “You think we should leave him?”

“Jayson grown. He probably getting his dick wet somewhere,” she said, scanning the crowd.

I sighed and then dialed his number again.

“Hey, Peaches? You have fun?” a voice called from behind us.

We both turned around to see Nut leaning up against his Cadillac STS with his arm wrapped around one of the hooker-looking
girls who was inside the club.

Peaches’ face formed a scowl and then her fingers turned to claws as she pounced on the girl, who had no idea what was coming
next. Peaches pulled and scratched, until the girl’s bra-like shirt was pulled down around her waist like a belt, and a blond
track had been snatched out from the root. I tried to break them up, but two seconds later I felt the hands of someone tugging
at my clothes. When I turned around to see who it was, I felt fingernails scraping my face. I went crazy, throwing punches
and swinging at the girl, who must’ve thought I was jumping into Peaches’ fight. I could hear Nut laughing as the fight went
on, and I could feel the big, strong hands of security guards tearing us apart.

“Hey! You gotta get the fuck off our premises with this shit!” the big security guard yelled. Another big guy with security
on his shirt was standing with pepper spray aimed at us. They ain’t have to tell me twice. Police sirens chirped to break
up the crowd and then Nut said, “Okay, okay. That’s enough. Y’all get the fuck in the car.”

I wobbled on one of my heels and looked for Peaches. She was walking the other way.

“Peaches, what the fuck?! I said get the fuck in the car!” Nut yelled. I ran behind her and jumped in her car when she unlocked
the door.

“Who the fuck that nigga think I am?!” she yelled, wiping her face off. “I don’t have to deal with this shit!”

I tried to call Jayson one more time, but again no answer. I hoped he’d be all right since Peaches was pulling off like a
bat out of hell. Her tires peeled out, and I closed my eyes and held on to the door. We both had calmed down a lot by the
time we got to Rhode Island Avenue.

“You want me to take you home or back to Chu’s?”

“Just take me home,” I said, not sure what I was gonna tell the Brinkleys. I just knew I wasn’t trying to hear her and Nut
fighting all night. I called Chu and told him what happened. He begged me to come stay with him, but I told him I wanted to
find out what happened to Jayson first and to make sure my parents wasn’t gonna be pissed.

We rode in a silent car for a few minutes, before Peaches turned the radio on. I looked out the window, and then I got a text
from Jayson. It read:
I’m bunned up. Call you in the A.M.

“This boy,” I said out loud.

“Jayson?”

“Yep. He’s out being a ho somewhere.”

“I told you so.”

Knowing Jayson, he must’ve been with whoever bought us that first round of drinks.

“All right, girl,” Peaches said, smiling as she pulled up in front of my house. “That was an interesting night. See you Monday?”

I laughed and said, “If not before then.”

She shook her head and laughed, too. She knew and I knew she would be right back over Nut’s in the morning, even though she
had more than enough reasons to leave him alone. Nut had even tried his hand with me on the sly a few times, but I shut him
down. I saw him staring at me when he thought no one else noticed, but I ain’t call it flirting. Since he was only looking,
I ain’t think it was enough to tell Chu.

But one day, when Chu and Rob was out front, I came out the bathroom the same time Nut was walking down the hallway. Instead
of him moving out the way, he made sure to stand right in front of me. He was blocking my path with a smirk on his face, waiting
for me to squeeze by. I rolled my eyes and said, “Excuse me” twice, but he ain’t move one single inch. I tried my best not
to touch him, though I was so close I could smell Hawaiian Punch on his breath. But we never touched as I squeezed by. Nut
just laughed. I could hear his lips smacking together, like he had just blew a kiss behind my back.

That made me know why Peaches had trust issues with his crazy ass and why I knew never to be in his house again without Chu.

8

MARCH 2005

Y
ou not doing it right!” Nissa shouted, standing over me, her hands stretching my arms straight out.

“Look, fuck this shit!” I yelled, twisting away from her. She was plucking my nerves telling me I wasn’t doing the routine
right after I tried to do it three times just the way she showed me. “I quit this silly-ass group!”

“Fine, quit!” Nissa said, turning away. “You act like you don’t want to be here anyway. Ain’t nobody beggin’ your ass to stay!”

“What?” I asked, putting my hand on my hip. A few of the girls rolled their eyes and looked away from me. Shakira made a face
and laughed. “What the fuck ever! Fuck y’all!”

I grabbed my bag and walked to the bus stop. When I got to Chu’s block, I walked over and leaned up against Rob’s Ford Explorer
with the two of them.

“Hey, baby, guess what?” Chu asked after blowing smoke from his Black & Mild. “This nigga got a full scholarship to play ball
for North Carolina A&T!”

I smiled. “For real, Rob?”

He nodded and smiled.

“Congratulations,” I said and gave him a light hug.

“All right, all right. Don’t be all up on my girl, nigga,” Chu said playfully.

“My bad, my bad,” Rob said, grinning. “I’m about to catch up with my folks, though. I’ll holla at y’all later.”

We watched him back his truck out the spot, and then Chu asked if I wanted to go for a ride.

“In what?” I asked, surprised. He smiled and nodded at the navy blue Escalade sitting on big wet tires across the street.

“Baby, that’s you?!” I asked excitedly, jumping up and down. Chu had been leaning on Rob to get around ever since we’d been
together.

He smiled and held my hand as we crossed the street.

We was sitting pretty in his new whip, riding through the city, down U Street, up Adams Morgan, down Connecticut Avenue. We
passed the Lincoln Memorial and the Potomac River, and then Chu took me to Georgetown for dinner at Sequoia. I felt a little
out of place in my practice clothes, but whatever. I got the macadamia crusted chicken and Chu got the New York steak. Delicious.

After dinner, we went for a walk on the waterfront. Chu pulled me to him and said, “You know I love you, right?”

“Of course, I do. I love you, too,” I said, kissing him.

He smiled. “I need you to hold something for me.”

I raised my eyebrows, confused. “What?”

Chu took a deep breath and shook his head. “When we get back to the crib, I’ma give it to you. But you gotta promise me you
won’t look in the bag or nothing.”

I leaned up against the railing that separated us from the river. He was testing me. Chu knew I couldn’t tell him no. “Okay,”
I mumbled.

“Everything’s gonna be all right. I promise,” he said, wrapping his arms around my waist. “Me and Rob gotta make this run
down to Greensboro this weekend.”

“How long you gonna be down there?” I asked.

“Just Saturday. We’ll probably get back late, like after three. You’ll probably be sleep.”

I crossed my arms. He always did this to me. Just up and left, either with Rob or that crazy nigga Nut.

“Come here, girl,” he said, kissing me. “Let’s break in the seats in my new whip.”

I smiled and kissed him back.

S
aturday was going to be a long day without Chu around. As soon as he gave me the Gap bag and I got in my bedroom, I opened
it. Inside was a black plastic bag with a square hard powder wrapped in clear plastic wrap.
Is it coke or heroin?
I had never seen it up close before, since Chu kept all that kind of stuff out of my sight. I counted fifty thousand dollars
in the bag, too.

“Whoa,” I mumbled. I closed the bag up and stuffed it in the back of my closet. I ain’t know he was rolling like that. I thought
he was just selling a little weed on the side.

For the rest of the day, I tried my best not to think about what was in my closet. When Peaches called me up and asked what
I was doing since Nut was nowhere to be found and she was bored, I jumped at the chance to leave the house. Mrs. Brinkley
had been hinting about me cleaning the refrigerator out, but I hated doing that. All that nastiness that was in the cracks
underneath the vegetable tray at the bottom blew me.

“I’m coming to get you,” Peaches said.

I threw on some cute clothes, since I knew Peaches was gonna look cute.

“Where we going?” I asked.

“I just wanna go by this spot I know Nut be at sometimes.”

I rolled my eyes. Peaches was forever hounding that nigga. “Oh, all right. Where it’s at?”

“Out Southeast, over there on Alabama Avenue.”

“Oh, okay. After that can we ride out to Iverson Mall? I want to stop by this little boutique they got in there. Get me something
new.”

“All right,” she said, turning up the volume on Mary J’s latest. We both sang along as she drove down Suitland Parkway.

“Hey, can you make a left right here first? I wanna ride past my old neighborhood. You mind?” I asked.

“Nope, we can do that. I wanna give that nigga plenty of time to get into some trouble,” she said, popping her gum.

When we drove down the dead-end street, I couldn’t believe how much had changed since I been gone. The buildings looked smaller
to me and dirtier. More garbage was on the ground, and some of the apartment windows and doors was boarded up. I felt sad
as we drove down the street, and I looked at the new but old faces. Some I recognized, some I didn’t. My heart ached as I
looked up at Nana’s old apartment and saw another little girl’s face looking out the window.

“You can turn around now,” I said. “Ain’t nobody out here.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

Peaches turned the car around and headed back up the street. I was hoping, for some strange reason, that I would see Mama
doing her usual. Standing on the corner or sitting underneath the big tree where all the old cars used to be with all the
other crackheads. But no one was there.

Peaches drove down Alabama Avenue and slowed the car down in front of a white brick apartment building.

“There go that nigga car right there!” she yelled. “Over this bitch’s house again.”

“What bitch? How you know it’s a girl he fucking with?!”

Peaches rolled her eyes and said, “I know he fucking with her, cuz I followed his ass over here before. That nigga thinks
I’m fucking stupid.”

“You know which apartment he’s in?” I asked, just as Peaches jumped out her car. I climbed out on my side and then watched
as this crazy chick took out a box cutter. She walked over to Nut’s Caddy and slashed all four of his tires. I covered my
mouth as I watched Peaches pick up the piece of a broken cement block near the mailbox on the corner.

“Peaches, no! Girl, don’t do that shit!” I shouted.

“Fuck this nigga! He got me fucked up. I’m not one of these little-ass girls he be fuckin’ with!” She threw the rock through
his front window, making the alarm sing through the night air.

“And I want that motherfucker to come out here and say something to me!” she screamed.

“Oh, my God, girl!” I said.

“Yeah, motherfucker. Bring your trifling ass out here!” Peaches yelled. “Bring that bitch you fucking out, too!”

I saw the blinds raise in a few of the apartments, but one on the second floor fell all the way from the window. I saw Nut
staring at us, and he was pissed, too. He was so mad, I swear I could see flames glowing from his head.

“Yeah, nigga what?” Peaches yelled as Nut came running from out the front door of the building with no shirt on.

“Peaches, what the fuck you do to my car?” he yelled.

“Tell that bitch you fucking to come out here, so I can whip her ass!” Peaches shouted back.

“Look at this shit!” Nut yelled.

A cute brown-skin girl with a short, curly hairstyle stood at the top of the stairs with her arms crossed. She looked like
she was mixed with something like Philippine or Indian.

“Oh, are you his other bitch?” Peaches yelled, running up the stairs. I watched as Nut ran up the stairs two at a time after
her, and then he snatched Peaches and dragged her back down the stairs.

“You better get that crazy bitch ’fore I put one up in her silly ass!” the girl shouted, pointing a silver gun at her.

“Oh, my God,” I mumbled as my body froze in place.

“No, Leta! Put that shit the fuck up!” Nut yelled as he tugged Peaches.

“Get the fuck off me, Nut!” Peaches shouted and tried to twist out of Nut’s grip like she ain’t even see the girl’s gun. “Fuck
you, bitch!”

I shook my head, but words was stuck in my throat and my feet had gotten stuck on the ground somehow.

“You think I’m playin’, bitch!” Leta said, aiming right at Peaches.

BOOK: Damaged
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