Scandalous Heroes Box Set (60 page)

Everybody turned to the sound of footsteps on the stairs and Scotty suddenly appeared, pulling on a t-shirt. He froze when he saw Vanessa and Jalissa in his house. He slowly continued pulling on the shirt as he tried to ignore the girl’s puffy half shirts and short-shorts which showcased their exposed flesh.

“What happened?” He asked, pretty sure that they could not have been outside dressed in such a fashion without something terrible going down.

“Nothing.” Vanessa responded. “We just wanted to ask you if you wouldn’t mind walking with us to the store. We didn’t want guys messing with us.” She added quickly, now feeling stupid for asking this teenager to walk with them. Her face heated.

It was Tino who responded. “Hell yeah he’ll walk you to the store. You two are looking too cute to be out there without protection.” He winked at them playfully, which drew smiles on the girl’s faces.

Scotty was surprised by the interaction. He had thought it was G coming to pick him up. His mother had a car and allowed him to drive as long as he went grocery shopping for her. So as they went cruising they always ended up at the store grocery shopping afterwards.

After slipping on his new High Top Converse, Scotty led them out of the apartment.

“I hope we didn’t interrupt your day-“ Vanessa began shyly.

“No, I wasn’t doing anything.” He looked at the girls. “But I thought we had an agreement that you two wouldn’t go out dressed like…well…under-dressed.” His face reddened but he wasn’t going to hold his tongue on the matter.

“That’s why we came and got you.” Jalissa replied.

Vanessa did not recall agreeing to any such thing. “Uh…we didn’t make any agreement like that.”

Scotty smiled. “Okay can we make the agreement now?”

Vanessa liked his smile and returned it feeling suddenly bold and confident. “How about we make the agreement that we’ll come and get you.”

He cocked his head while they continued to walk to the store. “And what if I’m not around to keep an eye on you?”

“Then we’ll get Tino.” Jalissa replied.

Scotty scowled and looked away.

Chapter 17

Vanessa had the best summer of her life. Every few days she would knock on Scotty’s door and ask him to walk them to the store. It got to be such a pattern that Scotty began looking for them once it got to be ten o’clock. He even kept the apartment straightened up and admonished his brothers and sisters to do the same.

After they went to the store, Scotty didn’t always part ways and that was the best for Vanessa. Sometimes he would invite them to the basketball court and after the first few times Jalissa got bored with it and stayed down the hill to play with her friends or in the apartment to watch cartoons all afternoon.

However Jalissa had an ulterior motive. She knew that Vanessa liked Scotty—and was happy about that because then it kept her sights off Alphonso Tremont, which is who she liked. She figured that if Scotty and Vanessa hooked up then they could hook her up with the popular boy.

“Why don’t girls ever play basketball?” Vanessa asked Scotty one day as they walked up to the court with G. “The guys always dominate the court.”

G scowled. “Girls don’t know how to ball.”

“We could teach her.” Scotty stated. He didn’t like for anyone to place limitations on Vanessa. She could do or be whatever she wanted, as far as he was concerned.

G stopped walking to look at Scotty incredulously. “There is only one court. Nobody’s going to like it being tied up so that we can play hoops with a girl.”

Vanessa placed her hands on her hips. “I’ll have you two know that we girls play basketball in gym class.”

Scotty smiled at her sassiness but G flat out began to laugh. “Gal, that ain’t what we play. We play street hoops!” The older boy spun the basketball on his fingertip, balancing it expertly. “Can you do this?”

She grabbed the ball and tried to balance it on her fingertip but couldn’t. Scotty took it from her and balanced it on his, showing her how he did it. After a few unsuccessful tries they resumed their walk to the basketball court. Scotty glanced at her.

“I’ll teach you.” G opened his mouth to protest but Scotty continued. “Not at the court, just in the parking lot somewhere.”

G shrugged. “Well as long as it’s not right now. Right now we’re about to ball!” He took the basketball and dribbled it professionally, passing it between his legs and around his back before passing it to Scotty who didn’t show boat as much while he did the same tricks. He passed the ball to Vanessa who accepted it in surprise. She bounced the ball a few times, much too high, causing her to look clumsy in her attempts to mimic the boys.

Scotty snatched the ball without telling her what she was doing wrong and began to crouch, dribbling low. He looked at her and passed the ball back to her, which caused G to moan in annoyance. This time Vanessa crouched the way Scotty had and she dribbled the ball with complete control and passed it with once bounce to G. He raised a surprised brow as he accepted it.

“You’re not a lost cause.” Which was the biggest compliment that he could give to the girl that had bogarted so much of his friend’s time. G didn’t particularly dislike Vanessa but found her to be too young to capture his interest. While undeniably pretty her breasts weren’t big enough for his likes and her booty was not by far the biggest he’d seen. But his friend’s nose was wide opened over the girl even though he wouldn’t admit it. G couldn’t figure it out since so many sexy chicks were sniffing around him every since that movie Saturday Night Fever was released. Scotty didn’t look anything like that actor John Travolta except for maybe his hairstyle. But white dudes were in style right now. He was happy because pretty soon Scotty would be sixteen and he still hadn’t gone further then second base.

Scotty had explained why this was but G didn’t believe him and thought it was because the girls had backed out leaving him with blue balls and he was just too ashamed to admit it. But Scotty was honest. His response was, “What if the condom broke?” Maybe he cared so much about who had been up inside of a girl before him due to his mother’s occupation and the number of siblings he had. Or maybe it was because he now knew that Tino had two kids by two different women. But all Scotty knew is that he wasn’t into the girls that sexed everybody that they were vaguely interested in.

G figured he was lying. What male could resist the draw of a big booty?

~***~

“Vanessa, I saw Scotty showing you how to play basketball from the front window.” Leelah said as they sat down for dinner. Vanessa tried to recount if she had done anything stupid while her mother was watching and although she couldn’t think of anything she still blushed. “It’s okay if you want to bring Scotty inside the house, but only when I’m home. Do you understand?”

The blush in her cheeks deepened as she recounted the number of times Scotty had already been inside of her house without her mother’s knowledge.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Leelah regarded her daughter. “Is he your boyfriend?”

Vanessa’s eyes grew big in astonishment. “No! He’s just my friend and…uh…that’s all.”

Leelah hid a grin. “Who do you think you’re fooling, little girl. I’ve had a crush on a boy before-“

“Mama!” Vanessa covered her face with her palms in embarrassment.

“It’s okay.” Leelah continued. “You just remember what we talked about.”

Oh my God, her mother was referring to that embarrassing conversation where she had told her where babies came from—as if she hadn’t figured that one out a million years ago. But she explained how a baby got in there in the first place which clarified the details although she was already aware of the mechanics. The noises Aunt Callista made up in her bedroom with Mr. Johnny or whichever guy she was interested in was testament to the fact that women enjoyed doing ‘it’ even when they weren’t trying to make a baby. Hell, she was the product of the ghetto and knew a lot about sex taught to her by the taunts and actions of bad little boys, curious little girls, graffiti and the movies that she and her friends watched at The Regal Theater.

“Mama, it’s not even like that,” she lied. In actuality she would give her right hand to kiss Scotty Tremont like the ladies in the movies did. And as far as those embarrassing sounds that auntie made—well if she was making them with Scotty she was willing to sound foolish. That thought made her turn even brighter red.

Leelah eyed her daughter in a knowing way. “I’m not saying that it’s not normal to have urges-“

“Ugh!!!”

“Hush up and listen! I’m just saying that the urges are normal. What you do about them is what might get your butt into a whole lot of trouble. You got me?”

“Yes.” Her eyes were filled with embarrassment as she looked at her plate. “Can we talk about something else now?”

Leelah laughed. “Bring Scotty around sometime. I miss that kid.”

~***~

Scotty was holding a paper bag as he walked around the living room, picking up trash. His siblings were pigs. That was the only way he could say it. Ginger was the only other kid that willingly cleaned and that was mostly due to her autism, which made it uncomfortable for her to see things out of place. One day he wondered if she would want to live in filth because she had become so accustomed to it that the sight of order would bring her discomfort. 

The front door opened and Phonso came in wheeling the ten speed that he had pretty much taken possession of. He ran up the stares, looking a little too suspicious and a moment later Scotty stood at the bottom of the stares listening. What was he doing up there? Scotty crept up the stairs. His mother was in her room asleep, the second bedroom was empty as was the bathroom. He continued down the hall until he got to the bedroom he shared with Tino and saw Phonso passing Tino some money. Not just some money; a lot of money.

They both turned in time to see Scotty watching. Phonso blanched and Tino scowled.

“Yeah, well it’s about time you knew.” Tino proclaimed loudly. “Little brother here is good at selling and I didn’t have to twist his arm like I had to with you.”

Scotty made a sound like a raging bull and then he lunged at the older boy, this time catching him off guard. Phonso pinwheeled backward, barely avoiding the punching fists that erupted from his older brothers.

“I told you to leave him alone!” Scotty smashed his fist into Tino’s face, hearing the satisfying thud of impact moments before the pain of it radiated through his knuckles.

Tino’s head rocked back but a moment later he wrestled the younger boy to the floor landing on top of him and leaving Scotty at a disadvantage.

“I’m going to kick your ass good, this time!” Tino’s fist slammed into Scotty’s face but just once and then he got his hands up enough to knock his brother off balance and was able to get him onto his back. This time Scotty rained down punches on his brother until Tino grabbed a fistful of his hair and dragged him off balance.

The brothers wrestled on the floor, lunging at each other, slamming against walls. Tino’s shoulder cracked the plaster and Scotty’s head broke the cheap bedside table that held an alarm clock.

Tino’s nose was bleeding and his hands tightly gripped Scotty around the throat. Phonso was crying and yelling for them to stop. He jumped on Tino but the older boy was too enraged to feel his brother’s ineffective punches.

Scotty couldn’t breath and he knew that if he didn’t act now he would black out—and who knew if Tino would stop strangling him. He might be so far gone that he would kill him. The idea didn’t scare him, because a strange thought entered his mind.
What doesn’t kill me will just make me stronger…
 

There was a sudden sound of something crashing and Tino abruptly released him. Scotty rolled over and coughed, trying to catch his breath. He looked up in time to see Tino rubbing his head. Their mother was standing there in just panties and a bra holding a piece of a broken lamp. The other pieces of the lamp were on the floor beside Tino who had apparently gotten hit by it.

“What in the hell is wrong with you?” Tina Tremont glared at the boys. “You trying to kill each other? You trying to get the cops up in here?” This time her eyes trained on Tino who was still sitting on the floor holding his head. “There’s enough drugs in this house to have me put away for years! And I know your ass is holding, too, Tino! You get busted this time it ain’t going to be juvie, it’s prison boy. Then you can say hi to your Daddy!”

Tino lowered his hands and examined the blood smeared on his fingertips. He looked at his mother in surprise. “You crazy bitch…” He came to his feet and Phonso jumped in front of his mother in a protective manner. Tino looked at him in surprise. He suddenly looked around the destroyed room and at Scotty who was propped up on his side still trying to catch his breath. Tino ran both hands through his messy hair and then he stormed out of the room and out the front door, slamming it loudly behind him.

Later Scotty and Phonso were putting the room back together. “How long have you been doing it?” Scotty said, his throat raw and his voice barely audible.

Phonso sighed. “I never stopped.” He gave Scotty an apologetic look. “I don’t care Scotty, selling doesn’t bother me.”

“But it should!” He stared at Phonso. “I’ve been in Juvenile Detention for possession twice already. Tino’s been there more than five times! That’s why he’s been on us so heavy to push his drugs. He’s over eighteen and next time he’s busted he’s going down for a felony drug conviction. That’s prison.”

“I know Scotty! But without that money we wouldn’t have anything!” He pointed out the door to his mother’s bedroom where she had retreated after making sure that Scotty wouldn’t die of his injuries. “She doesn’t do shit for us! She don’t buy us clothes or give us lunch money. If it wasn’t for what Tino does-“

“Tino brings in thousands and what he gives us is nothing compared to that. Tino uses that money for himself, bro! He’s not doing it for us. He’s doing it for himself!” Scotty walked out the room and then out the door.

Scotty wanted to yell and explode and punch something. He was tired of Tino and tired of his life. He needed to find a place where he could be all alone so that he could just explore his feelings and let them play out before he did something stupid. He thought about Vanessa and hurried up to her house.