Flyy Girl (29 page)

“Not anymore. That was just
you
in our way!” Raheema shut her door on Bruce's crushed face, feeling avenged.

Bruce got up to leave, inflamed, with pulsating nerves. He spotted Tracy heading home from school, and he calmed himself as he waited for her on the sidewalk. Tracy wore a dark-blue, velour sweat suit with red trimming running up the sides and accentuating her curves. Bruce wanted desperately to be loved by her, but Tracy tried to ignore him and walk on by.

“Ay, you not gon' even say ‘hi'?”

“Hi, Bruce,” she answered blandly.

Bruce cheered up with the sound of her voice. “That's a nice sweat suit,” he commented, following her.

“Thanks. My boyfriend bought it for me.”

Bruce swallowed his rage. “Who is he?” he asked.

“Don't worry about it,” Tracy flared.

Bruce thought about snatching her arm, but Tracy marched ahead too quickly for him to react.

Tracy continued to her house, thinking about her situation with Timmy. He was too compulsive. She opened her door and tossed herself on the couch. Victor appeared in her daydream. She never stopped wanting
him. She felt like going to the playground just to see if he was them, playing ball or hanging out.

Tracy went to pick up her brother from the day-care center and saw Victor anyway. He stood out in the sun in a blue, terry-cloth, Fila sweat suit. A small gold V hung on a link chain around his neck, and his hair was freshly cut, as always. Yet, as usual, he was spending time with another girl.

Tracy met his eyes, still feeling controlled by him. Victor was still her first love, but he had not spoken to her for nearly a year.

Victor was there again, in Tracy's eyesight view, on her way home with her brother. And his companion had left him. Once he spotted Tracy walking back with Jason, he walked over to their side of the street and sat on the hood of a red Dodge Omni, holding an unlit cigarette. He played with it in his smooth black hands, flipping it over in circles between his fingers, waiting for her as she approached him. He then smiled at her and said, “I heard you go wit' punk-ass Timmy now.”

“Yeah,” Tracy answered, beaming helplessly.

Victor leaped off of the car and moved toward her. “Come here, Tracy.”

“I can't,” she responded. She wanted to talk to him, but could not allow her hormones to get her into trouble with Timmy, who was crazy with jealous rage.

“So it's like that now, hunh?” Victor asked her as she continued on her way.

Tracy turned back to face him. “No, I just can't.”

“Are you sure?” Victor asked, giving her his winning smile. He simply wanted to see how much Tracy liked her new guy.

Tracy looked him over and shook her head. “I can't.” She then turned and took a deep breath as she continued home with her brother, happy to have spoken to Victor again.

Victor stared at her back and muttered, “Damn. She's still loyal to a nigga. I like that. But I could still have her if I really wanted to. I can tell by how she looks at me.”

•    •    •

“So Tracy, are you and Timmy going out this weekend?” Patti asked her daughter. They were watching
Dynasty
together in the living room.

Jason interjected, “No, 'cause she gotta watch me.”

“Shet up, boy,” Tracy told him. “I don't know what we gon' do, mom,” she answered.

“Yeah, well that's a nice suit he bought you there. And I can never get over those gigantic earrings.”

Tracy laughed as she played with the huge earring in her ear. Patti didn't seem to mind her having little boyfriends and going out on dates at fourteen. Why should she? She and her sisters had done it when they were young and growing up in North Philly. Patti didn't mind her daughter wearing expensive clothing and accessories either. After all, she had always wanted her daughter to look her best. She wanted to look fabulous when she was young, too. A lot of young girls wanted to be “flyy.” It was the next best thing to being a movie star.

Tracy said, “He was gonna buy me a big nugget ring, too, but I acted like it was ugly, and he changed his mind.”

“Well don't get too much into letting him buy you things, because you'll end up in the same boat that I'm in with your father. He thinks that just because he pays the bills here, he can do what he wants to do, but I got news for his ass.”

Here she goes again,
Tracy thought.
She compares everything to
him now.

“That's just how they are, honey,” her mother added. “They just wanna do whatever pleases them.”

And what about us?
Tracy wanted to ask.
I know I want what I want,
and you do too, mom.
But she decided to keep her thoughts to herself as they continued to watch
Dynasty's
Carrington family.

“Mom, guess who was up here today,” she asked.

“Bruce.”

“How you know?”

“I seen him in the supermarket last night with his mother, and he told me to tell you he said ‘hi.' ”

“Well, how come you didn't tell me?”

“To tell you the truth, it slipped my mind. But what are you worried about it for anyway? You don't like the poor boy.”

Tracy laughed. “I know, but I just like to know stuff like that.”

“It's a shame, how you did that boy,” Patti said, walking to the kitchen. “I should have married myself a nice little boy like him,” she mumbled.

Tracy watched Blake arguing with Alexis. She smiled, thinking about Bruce's childish temper. That was the only exciting thing about him, except for his money. Yet Timmy bought her more expensive things.

“Yo, man, you know some dude named Timmy?” asked a lemon-skinned boy on Timmy's block of row-houses. He was eighteen, wearing a plain blue baseball cap.

“Naw, why?” a tall, dark brown neighbor asked.

“I mean, if you don't know him, what you worried about it for?”

“Yeah, I know him. So what's the problem?” another resident said from the patio. He walked down to the pavement and stared. He was thick built, and nineteen.

Lemon-skin said, “Well, I heard that this is his block, and I wanna speak to 'im about somethin'.”

“About what?”

More neighbors gathered as Lemon-skin backed up and pulled out a gun. They all wanted to scatter but remained calm, scared of becoming a statistic in the
Daily News.

“Y'all tell that pussy that I'm gon' kill his ass,” the boy responded. He jammed his gun back inside of his jacket and dashed around the corner. A few of the neighbors ran into their houses to get their guns. They all ran around the corner after him, but the quick-footed boy was long gone.

Only two minutes after the incident, Timmy walked around the opposite corner with Tracy. All eyes were glued to them.

“Yo, man, come here for a minute,” the thick-built neighbor said privately. He didn't want to alarm Tracy.

“What's up?” Timmy asked him.

“Some dude just came around here and pulled a gun out, looking for you.”

“A light-skinned dude?”

“Yeah, why? You stole some shit from 'im?”

“Aw, man, that was Doug. He a
nut.
He probably didn't have bullets in the gun,” Timmy responded with a chuckle.

Tracy waited for him at his door.

“Ay Tim, man, you better watch yourself, boy,” Thick-built warned.

Timmy had just turned sixteen, and he was headed for jail or the morgue.

He entered his house with Tracy.

Tracy asked, “What was that about?”

“Oh, don't worry about that, girl. Everything is taken care of.” Timmy hugged her and snatched her firmly by the backside. Tracy threw her arms around him. They kissed, and Timmy hastily led her to his room, where they undressed, going at it again.

Tracy walked to the avenue to get some morning cereal for Jason. Wayne Avenue was empty. Tracy looked around, feeling peculiar and decided to walk ahead to the supermarket. Summer had just begun; all the public schools had let out two days earlier. It was hot and sunny, and Tracy figured that there should have been a crowd of people out on the avenue.

Tracy came out from the store and noticed a lanky boy wearing a red hat with a C on it. She paid him no mind. The boy then glanced at her and turned his head quickly away. Tracy thought about it, wanting to take another look. She turned in his direction just as the boy ran past and grabbed the chains from around her neck, pulling a few of them off. It happened too fast for her to even let out a cry for help.

Tracy cursed him, feeling helpless. He had dropped the two smaller chains, but he had gotten away with the larger, more expensive ones, a Gucci link that Timmy had bought for her and the herringbone that she had saved to buy only a year ago.

•    •    •

“Mom, I just got my chains snatched,” Tracy mumbled, walking into her mother's room with tears in her eyes.

Patti jumped up from her bed. “Oh no, girl. Look at these scratches on your neck.” She took her daughter to the bathroom and poured some rubbing alcohol into her hands to apply to Tracy's neck.

“OOOWWW!” Tracy squealed, tensing from the sting.

“Did you see what he looked like?”

Tracy sucked in air to take in the pain. “Yeah, he had on this red Cincinnati baseball hat. He was about my height, and skinny.” Tears streamed down her face.

“Which chains did he get? He didn't get all of them, did he?”

“No, but he got my herringbone and the Gucci link that Timmy bought for me,” Tracy whined, showing her mother the smaller chains in her hand.

“Hmm,” Patti grunted. “How much did that Gucci thing cost?”

“Like three hundred,” Tracy admitted.

“Three hundred dollars?” Patti responded, expecting as much. “He didn't have any business buying you no three-hundred-dollar chain anyway,” she commented protectively. She figured that any young man would act like a fool about losing something that he had bought for his girlfriend. But it wasn't Tracy's fault. “So you're gonna tell Timmy about this?” she asked, knowing that he would worry her about it.

“I wish I didn't have to, 'cause he gon' get all out of shape about it. Watch. I know he is.”

“Well, maybe you should stay away from him for a while,” Patti suggested.

Only hours later, Tracy ended up on the avenue explaining to Timmy a blow by blow of what happened.

Timmy grimaced. “So where was he standing at?”

“I told you, right here,” Tracy said, pointing to the spot.

Timmy shook his head, frowning. He was nagging the hell out of her. “You gon' tell me that nobody was out here?”

Tracy sighed. “Jantel said that it was a fight that everybody went to see, down the hill.”

“Get the fuck out of here, girl! What I look like? You tellin' me that the whole avenue went to see a fight?”

“Yeah, Timmy. DAG!”

He angrily grabbed Tracy by the neck and pushed her toward the corner.

“Won't you stop, Timmy?” she pleaded.

“What you gon' do if I don't?”

Tracy's voice cracked. “It's not my fault.”

“Why was you down here wearing your chains in the first place? You probably just wanted to see some nigga.”

Timmy dragged her off of the avenue by her arm.

“GET OFF OF ME!” Tracy screamed, as he pulled her along.

“Shet up, before I punch you in your fuckin' mouth!”

A silver Mercedes Benz pulled up to the curb. The door swung open, and Victor Hinson jumped out from the passenger side. “YO! What the fuck is your problem, man?” he yelled at Timmy.

Tracy was stunned.

“What?” Timmy responded hesitantly.

Victor approached him as if he was ready to fight. “You got a problem with her, man?” he asked.

Timmy backed away, still holding on to Tracy's arm. “This ain't got nothin' to do with you,” he told him.

Victor clenched his hands together and said, “Cuz', I'm gon' tell you one time to let her fuckin' go. And after that, you gon' wish you never heard of me.”

Timmy gave Victor an evil eye and let go of Tracy's arm. He then trotted down the street away from them, ready to kill. He had been embarrassed beyond belief.
She gon' pay for this shit!
he told himself.
Fuck that nigga, and his brother!

“You want a ride home?” Victor asked Tracy.

She looked toward the car and shook her head as she began to walk away. Victor had only made her situation worse.

“Yo, you need to pick a new friend,” he told her as he climbed back into the car. “That's the young-girl that I was telling you about, Todd,” he said to his brother.

Todd shifted his Mercedes back into drive and said, “She got a lot of growing up to do.”

Victor nodded. “Yeah, I know. But she gon' be aw'ight.”

Todd looked at his younger brother and smirked. “Sounds like she got your nose open.”

Victor smiled and shook his head. “Naw, never that. I'm just lookin' out for her, that's all.”

Even though Tracy felt much admiration and respect for Victor's actions, she was still dedicated to Timmy, but he did not speak to her for three days. Each event made her feel strangely closer to him, yet further apart. She was learning him, his pain and his loneliness. She understood that violence and crime were Timmy's means of letting out his frustrations.

Tracy remained loyal and at his command at the ball games, the parties, the movies and every other place he took her to be showcased. Timmy no longer allowed her to hang out with girlfriends like Carmen, who had a reputation for being loose, nor with Raheema, whom he hated simply for acting snotty and spreading gossip about him. And as far as Victor was concerned,
He's too busy for me anyway,
Tracy thought.
I'm not gonna be one of his girls,
she told herself. She preferred to be with Timmy, despite his attitudes. At least he was consistent.