Raunchy (38 page)

Her love for her sister might be the thing I could use to keep her in line. Both of them for that matter. “You bring me back five hundred, and she’s out.”

She looked disappointed but said, “Okay… I’ma see what I can do.”

“Either you do or you don’t, it don’t make me no never mind. But I will tell you this, she won’t see the light of day until I’m ready to pull her out if you don’t. That my dear is a promise.” I paused grabbing my glass again. “And don’t forget my onions.”

Like Me

Jayden

Jayden sat in her room nervous about her first date with Shaggy. Had she had some nice clothes to wear, things would not have been so bad. But as it stood every article of clothing in her house was made for a boy. Her jeans were too baggy, her shirts were masculine and all she had was a comb to do her hair.

She tried to find the smallest T-shirt she had available in her closet so that it would show her budding breasts. Eventually she found a white Nightmare on Elm Street T-shirt, but it wasn’t as fitting as she would have liked it to be. With her shirt on, she looked through her nothingness until she found the pair of high waist jeans she wore in middle school. Afterwards, she slipped on her only pair of shoes, a pair of dirty white K-Swiss tennis shoes. She hated how she looked and started to tell him not to come, but he was already on his way.

“
Madjesty, you have company,” Cherry screamed from the foyer.

Cherry didn’t say much to the girls or to Harmony. She was ashamed for what she’d done to Harmony when she was pregnant. But expressing emotion, in her mind, would be disloyal to Kali. However there was kindness in her eyes and Jayden liked her, despite them not saying much to one another.

“
Thank you,” Jayden said.

Cherry was looking down at her legs and said, “No problem. Be safe.”

Nobody ever told her to be safe, ever and she appreciated her words.

When Shaggy saw her come from behind Cherry, he focused on her clothing. But wouldn’t allow her to see his displeasure. “You don’t want me to meet your moms before we leave?”

“Not if I can help it.” She said getting into his truck.

They drove a few moments in silence and Jayden tried to look at her reflection in the window. “You aight? You seemed fucked up about somethin’.” He asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she told him. “I hate always having bad news when I see you.” She paused. “Tonight, she turned around, “I kinda wanna escape from it all. You know?”

“I feel you, but if we gonna be cool, I’ma need you to rap with me about what you thinkin’. I’m a big boy…I can handle it.”

She laughed.

“I do have a question for you…”

“Go ‘head.”

“What is that smell?”

Jayden had smelled it too but tried to ignore it. “My mother made me cut five onions before leaving the house.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t even think about it, until I went upstairs to tell her they were done, and she was in her usual drunken sleep.” She paused. “Told me to throw them in the trash…Turns out she didn’t even need them.”

“She knew you were going on a date?”

“Yes.”

“She cold!”

“Tell me about it.”

“You aight?”

“Why? I’d thought you wouldn’t have time for shit like this.”

“I don’t know why, but before somethin’ changes you might as well take advantage of it. I’m not normally like this with people.”

Jayden sighed and said, “My mother is a monster,” she shared in a low voice. “And for whatever reason I still love her. Although I wish I understood why. She makes me do stuff, that mothers shouldn’t make their kids do.”

“Wow…I ain’t ever heard somebody sayin’ some shit like that about their moms. Maybe she had a fucked up life when she was younger, too. I mean, it don’t make it right but did she ever tell you somethin’ about her past?”

“She never really goes into her past,” Jayden said. “Just that she had a nice life before she had us.” Then she looked over at him. “Anyway, I’m just happy to be getting away with you, even if this doesn’t last too long.”

“What you mean last too long?”

“Look at me…And look at you. Come on, Shaggy. I know you don’t like how I look. And smell,” she laughed. “You just trying to be nice.”

“I don’t know what you talkin’ ‘bout.”

She smiled and figured she was being immature, although growing up with a mother as neglectful as Harmony forced her to be more mature than a lot of girls her age.

“Back to your mother, what’s her price tonight?”

Jayden was shocked and embarrassed that he knew her already.
“What do you mean?”

“
If she lettin’ you leave the crib, she must want somethin’. So what is it?”

“
Five hundred dollars.” She whispered.

“What the fuck?”

“
I don’t expect you to give me that much money, Shaggy. I’m just telling you what she wants because you asked.”

“
Where else you gonna get it from?”

“
I don’t know, I guess I gotta do what I gotta do,” she said remembering the lessons her mother taught here earlier.

“
Man, fuckin’ with you gonna have a nigga broke,” he laughed. “But I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you,” she said hopefully.

She felt like a party pooper. But so many things were going on in her young mind. She wondered if Madjesty was hurt, or if her mother would wake up out of her drunken stupor and beat her again.

“Now what’s on your mind?” He asked. “I said I’ma work that money shit out for you. I ain’t got no love for dope money. It comes and goes so for real, it ain’t a problem.”

“It’s not that.”

“What is it? Your clothes?”

“
Come on now, Shaggy. You can’t tell me you don’t think I look like a mess.”

“Then what you wanna do?” He said electing not to keep it too real with her at this time. He did notice her clothing but understood her situation enough to let shit slide.

“I can wait in the car for you until you finish your party. And then maybe we can go somewhere where people don’t know you.”

“People know me everywhere I go,” he told her. “But how ‘bout we do this, my home girl got a rack of clothes and she ‘bout your size. I’ma call her up and see if she can hook us up. What size shoe you wear?”

“No! That’s too embarrassing.”

“Trust me, my home girl cool as shit. She ain’t that type person. So let me call her. What’s your shoe size?”

“I’m a size eight and a half.”

“She a size eight. But I’ma see what I can do”.

After Shaggy made the call, they pulled up to Greenbelt Apartments in Greenbelt Maryland. When they arrived at her door Jayden was surprised at how pretty and nice Olive seemed.

“Hey, Shaggy! Come on in,” she said hugging him. “And this must be Jayden! You didn’t tell me she was so pretty.”

Olive wore her hair in natural curly red fro and her natural eyelashes were so long and pretty they almost looked fake.

“Thank you,” Jayden said. “But I can say the same thing about you.”

“Well we talkin’ about you now, girl.” She said smiling so wide. “A face like that can get you anything you want in life.”

“
Okay…Okay,” Shaggy interrupted. “Both of ya’ll pretty so let’s stop with the girly shit. I can’t be late for my peeps joint tonight.”

They both laughed.

“
I’m serious, Shaggy. Where you find her from? I ain’t never seen her around the way before.”

“Olive, I need you to hook her up right quick. Cut the small talk.”

“You know I got you, boy.” She said taking Jayden by the hand. Jayden liked her immediately and hoped they could be friends. “I was just picking something to wear for your party tonight myself.” She continued. “Give us a few minutes, we’ll be back and I’ll have her real pretty for you.”

When they walked into Olive’s room, Jayden took note at how neat everything was. She had a screen TV that took up a lot of space and a large oak dresser and matching bed. You had to use a step stool next to Olive’s bed just to climb onto the mattress.

“Before we go any further,” Olive said. “What is that smell?”

“Onions. My mother made me cut them before I left tonight. She was trying to ruin my night.”

“Humph. Well you’re mother don’t know me. I got some baking soda in my bathroom that will do the trick.”

“Thanks.”

“Okay, let me see what we have in here,” Olive said opening her closet. Jayden was amazed at how many clothes she had, many of them still had the tags on them. “I like this for you,” she said pulling out a cute red dress with a low cut in the front, “or this”, she said pulling out a teal color one piece short set. “Which one you like, Jayden?”

“Anyone would be fine for me,” Jayden said still embarrassed she had to go through someone else’s closet.

“Do you like either of them?” Olive said turning around to her.

Silence.

Walking over to the bed she said, “Okay let’s get rid of the elephant in the room. I know you may be embarrassed about havin’ to do this, but I’m not that kind of person and neither is Shaggy. He don’t do this kind of shit for anybody so he must be really feelin’ you. But you gotta relax and go with the flow, Jayden.”

“I know…But if you knew how fucked up my life was, you would see why it’s so hard for me to trust people and take kindness. You wouldn’t believe the type of shit I had to do today before even coming here. My life is some shit, Olive.”

“I can look in your eyes and tell you have a hard life. But why let whoever’s contributing to your unhappiness make things worse? Don’t give them tonight, girl. Escape from all that bullshit and have fun.”

“I wish it was that easy.”

“Jayden, let me tell you a little something about life. People hate weak and whiny people. Not that your problems aren’t real. It’s just that you have the see the stars through the storm even when no one else does. You have to see the vision, even when there is no board. Other people won’t do it for you. They’ll just write you out of their lives and won’t even tell you why. You get it?”

“I think so.”

“Let me help you.” She said opening her dresser drawer pulling out a bag of weed and some pills. “You smoke or pop?”

“Smoke or pop?”

Olive laughed and said, “I’ma start you off with smoke tonight. You need to relax.”

Olive rolled a quick blunt and taught Jayden how to inhale and exhale and before she knew it, she was a pro. Within minutes Jayden was relaxed and hungry.

“Now…Which outfit do you want to wear?” Olive repeated.

“The red one.” Olive smiled. “I think I’ll look sexy in that one.”

“I knew you would come around.” Olive winked.

After Jayden got dressed, Olive straightened Jayden’s slightly curly long hair and put some make up on her face. Then she stepped back to look at her work.

“Damn, Jayden, you look cuter than me in that dress!” She complimented. “Consider it yours.”

“No…I can’t take your dress.”

“What I tell you?” Olive said seriously. “Relax. If somebody offers you a gift, accept it. That way doors will be open for more blessings.”

“
More blessings, huh? We getting high and you talkin’ about blessings?” Jayden laughed.

“
I’m talkin’ the truth.” She said walking up to her. “And I talk the truth whether I’m high or not. Now…Look at how pretty you look in my mirror on the door.”

Jayden looked at herself in the door length mirror. The red dress hugged her tiny waist and presented her with a fat ass. Jayden looked like a rock star and finally she looked like the girl she always felt like inside. Even before her mother told her she was not a boy.

“Here, your feet are just a little bigger than mine, but I bought these Jimmy Choo sandals too big and I never was able to wear them. Try ‘em on.”