Chapter 7
Charly
ONE WEEK LATER
“That’s one fine muthafucka.” The girl flipped her blonde braids over her shoulder and smirked.
“I know. He can drive me hard the way he drives that damn car,” her friend with the pixie cut replied.
“Shiiid. He ain’t gotta drive nothing. When he wins this race, and you know he will, I’ll drop to my knees in this parking lot and suck him off,” a third girl with a red sew-in chimed in.
The three girls slapped hands, and I rolled my eyes. Loud cheers erupted from the crowd as JP, the DP man, told Dom and Excalibur to do their burnouts.
“He got a girl?” Pixie-cut asked loudly over the noise of the cars.
“Nah, he hangs with some raggedy bitch,” Blondie-ain’t-a-bombshell shouted in reply. “She races too.”
“You’re talking about that big forehead chick with the big lips and all those tats?” Pixie-cut asked.
“Yeah,” Blondie replied.
“I think I know who you’re talking about. Does she drive that old raggedy Dodge Challenger?” Dirty Red asked.
“Mm-hmm,” Blondie replied.
“The hell he see in her?” Dirty Red asked.
“I don’t think he’s fucking with her like that. She gets passed around by all these niggas out here. She’s nothing more than a lot lizard,” Pixie-cut replied.
“And just remember when you’re on his knees sucking his dick, you’ll be sucking my pussy juices off of it, nasty bitch, with ya old crunchy ass, tired ass sew-in,” I replied, coming up from behind them.
All three of their asses jumped as I pushed through them with Tunisia and Avriella following behind me.
“Scared asses,” Avriella stated, laughing.
“I know, right. Bitches who talk a lot need to be quick with it. ’Bout to get ya asses dragged all over this concrete,” I declared, turning to mug all three of them.
“The last thing Dom wants is a buck-toothed, big-eyed heffa,” Tunisia added.
“Don’t be jealous because your man wants me,” Blondie-ain’t-a-bombshell declared, glaring at me.
I walked up to her face and got so close that her eyes widened, and she staggered back a couple of steps.
“If Dom wanted you, you wouldn’t be out here talking shit because you’d know that he doesn’t like bitches who can’t keep their trap shut, and definitely not ones who don’t wash their asses.
Out here smelling like your uterus about to fall out,” I snapped.
Avriella sniffed, and Tunisia laughed. I turned and walked away with my girls beside me.
“Girl, breathe,” Tunisia warned.
“I’m cool, TT. Swear that I am, but I get tired of bitches speaking on me when they don’t know a damn thing. I’m not Dom’s woman, and I don’t try to position myself like I am.”
“Charly, quit worrying about them. Their opinion ain’t worth a two-dollar bill,” Avriella declared.
“Yeah, Char, they’re just jealous of his friendship with you. Don’t give them your energy, because they’re not worth it.”
“Somebody’s gonna get their asses beat,” I grumbled.
“Yeah, and I’ll be right behind you, bestie.”
“Me too, cuz.”
“Okay, Avriella, yes, you can be. But TT, no ma’am. I’m not about to have Karter pissed at me because his wifey slash baby mama was out on these tracks fighting.”
Tunisia sucked her teeth. “Girl, please. He’ll get over it.”
“In what lifetime?” Avriella asked with a chuckle.
I watched as PJ made sure Dominic and Excalibur were even before he turned on the flashlight.
Both cars shot forward out of the warehouse parking lot.
My heart tightened in my chest as Dominic’s red Plymouth and the army-green Challenger went neck and neck from the start.
The roar of their engines scared the birds out of the trees, and they took flight.
Their headlights cut through the darkness of the road ahead, and the light blue lights underneath Dominic’s car lit up the night.
I kept my gaze trained on them until they were no longer visible.
We walked down the strip a little further to my car and hopped inside after waving goodbye to Avriella. Since Dom’s race was the last one of the night, everyone was heading out. I would be dropping Tunisia off at home since Karter stayed in with KJ tonight.
“What’s been going on with the two of you since you moved in with him?”
“I haven’t moved in, TT. I’m simply staying with him temporarily until I find a place of my own.”
“Girl, that man considers you as having moved in. He refers to you jokingly to Karter as his roommate quite often and talks about how cool it is to have one. He says that he never thought he would.”
“I know. I remember when he first moved out of his parents’ place, and I asked if he was getting a roommate; he almost cussed me out.
He said that he’d never share his space with another nigga, not even his brothers, and he definitely wasn’t living with a chick because he wasn’t about to settle down like that. ”
“And yet, here y’all are.”
I glanced away from the street and looked at my best friend. “Not quite, honey. I’m just staying with him until I get on my feet. Dom felt bad for me, that’s all.”
“That wasn’t feeling bad for you, bestie. He could’ve felt bad and left you in KJ’s room. But that man took you out of my place and back to his place. Not to mention, a couple of days after his fight with his brother, he escorted you and me to Ramon’s place to get your things.”
I sighed, thinking about how tense that day had been.
I was so afraid that Ramon would be working from home.
Dominic didn’t have to work, and we had dropped KJ off with Tunisia’s mom while we went back to my old place.
She had helped me pack my things and put them in her SUV and his car while he watched over the house to make sure nothing happened to us.
It was one of the rare days that Ramon had gone into the office, and we hadn’t had to encounter him.
“Yeah, I know. But that’s what friends do for each other, right? We have each other’s back when our backs are against the wall, and we ain’t got a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
“So you’re saying that you wouldn’t do the same thing for me?” I asked as I took a left on Gordon Parks Memorial Parkway.
“I would do that and more. Don’t try me,” she replied, side-eyeing me and twisting her lips.
“Just checking because . . . I’m not feeling the love right now.”
She laughed and shoved my shoulder playfully with hers.
“You know I love you, broke bestie.”
I turned my lips down and rolled my eyes. “Damn, I mean, I know it’s true and all right now, . . . but you gotta rub it in a bitch’s face when she’s down on her luck?”
She laughed and wrapped an arm around my shoulders and squeezed.
“This is just for a little while. I’ll be standing beside you when you experience your meteoric rise to stardom,” she declared and kissed me on the cheek.
“Thank you, boo.”
“Mm-hmm,” she murmured as she checked her phone. “Oohh!”
“What?”
“Karter just texted and said he’s meeting me with KJ at Sweet Milk. Everyone’s heading there.”
“Sweet Milk it is,” I replied, busting a right on Cherokee Springs Avenue.
I sighed happily as we walked through the door of Dominic’s apartment after returning home from Sweet Milk. When Tunisia and I arrived, Dominic had already bought me a tub of my favorite homemade ice cream.
Dominic and I both dropped our keys into the bowl on the foyer table as we walked into the house. I washed my hands in the kitchen sink and then headed straight for the living room to plop onto the sofa.
Dominic pulled my ice cream out of the bag and handed it to me, before he sat down beside me and grabbed his out of the bag. I turned sideways onto the couch and rested my feet on his lap.
“I’m tired.”
“Ya ass ain’t did nothing but sit out there and argue with a bunch of randoms.”
“You should’ve heard the way they were thirsting after you. I love to break a girl’s heart when she ain’t got no skin in the game.”
“How do you know I didn’t plan on hooking up with one of them at their place or a hotel later tonight?”
“You’d better not be thinking about leaving me here all alone,” I replied, scooping some ice cream out of the bowl.
Dominic chuckled and licked the back of his spoon. That long, thick tongue seemed to be teasing me, but I knew he wasn’t paying me attention. “You’re a grown woman. You can stay here on your own for a little bit.”
I rolled my eyes. “The fact that you said a little bit tells me you’re not into making love.”
“Why’re we talking about how I fuck?”
“Do you have to be so crass?”
He shrugged. “Mind the bizness that pays you, Shortcake.”
I ate my ice cream in silence until I finished it. He had already finished his, and he grabbed my container from my hands. I watched as he stood and took the ice cream containers to the kitchen to trash them.
When he returned, he lifted my legs, dropped onto the couch again, and then placed my feet in his lap. He removed my sock and then massaged my foot. My head dropped back, and I moaned.
“Mmm, . . . that’s it. Right there. Feels so good.”
Dominic stopped long enough for me to pop my eyes open to find him staring at me.
“Stop that shit.”
“What?”
He mugged me and resumed massaging my foot.
“Dom?”
“Hmm.”
“Why didn’t you ever let me write or visit you while you were locked up?”
“I didn’t need the distractions. People get caught up in what folks back home are going through, and it tends to weaken you, and you let your guard down.
There was no way that I could fight against that shit.
The minute a nigga sees an ounce of vulnerability in you, they take advantage of your weakness.
There was no space or room for me to worry about what y’all were going through outside of them walls because I couldn’t do shit about it.
And you know how I am about my family. I’ll kill a nigga over y’all. ”
“I know. I just . . . I just missed you so badly.”
“I missed you, too, Shortcake. You know that. But sometimes you gotta sacrifice for the greater good of others. If I had let you write or visit me, you would’ve had an even harder time than you already did.”
“No, I wouldn’t have. I would’ve felt good, because at least I knew that you were safe.”
He chuckled and pressed deeper into the sole of my foot.
“Mm,” I moaned. “Feels so damn good.”
My foot rested in his lap, and I felt it the moment that his dick jerked. My eyes flew open, and I looked at him. He chewed his bottom lip slowly, and a full smirk was on those sexy, confident lips of his.
“Told ya ass about making them noises.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re just nasty.”
“Yeah. Whatever.”
“Why did you have to get caught up in that fight in the first place? I mean, it was just some random niggas arguing. If you knew you had that weed on you and that gun, you should’ve just left. You’ve never done anything like that before, and it never made sense to me.”
Dominic’s jaw worked overtime as he stared at my foot and exchanged it for the other one.
“Why did you pull out the gun?”
He glanced at me and then looked away. But he remained silent.
“You never told me about the details of that day.”
“I did what needed to be done, and that’s all you need to know.”
I closed my eyes and rested my head on the arm of the couch.
My eyes flew open after several seconds, and it dawned on me.
I recalled the area of town that he got locked up in, and it was near the college, the university apartments to be exact.
That wasn’t a place where Dominic usually hung out, but Ramon did because he had a girlfriend in that area.
I remembered that because we had gone to a party at her apartment once before.
I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t figured it out before now.
“Did you take the rap for Ramon?” I asked, sitting up.
His jaw clenched as he removed my legs from his lap. He got up and headed toward his bedroom. I jumped up to follow him.
“Dominic, don’t walk away from me. Answer my question.”
“I told ya nosy li’l ass to leave shit alone. It ain’t got nothing to do with you.”
“It’s got everything to do with me. I’m the one you left behind. I’m the one who didn’t have you here to protect me and to guide me anymore. You were my best friend, and you left me in the dust. And for what? Why did you do something so stupid, Dom? How could you throw away your freedom like that?”
“I did what I needed to do!” he shouted.
I hit him in the chest repeatedly and screamed at him.
“That was the dumbest shit you could’ve ever done.
And now look at you. You can’t get the jobs that you’re qualified for or even a damn loan because you threw it away on his ass.
And he doesn’t give a shit. He went on with his merry little life.
How could you do it? And why did you lie to me?
Why didn’t you tell me the truth!” The tears flew from my eyes as I continued hitting him.
Dominic grabbed my arms and pushed me against the hall wall. He pinned my hands above my head and glared down at me. His jaw was clenched, eyes narrowed, and lips pinched together. Anger radiated from every fiber of his being, and fire shot from his eyes, penetrating my soul.
My heart ached for him, for all the sacrifices he had made, the disappointment he had endured, and the lost opportunities.
I wanted to hold and kiss him, but I knew that he wouldn’t receive it.
I wanted to lavish all the love on him that I had always held in my heart.
But the dominant feeling that I experienced was shame.
I was ashamed at how I’d allowed myself to be pulled into his brother’s lure and make myself believe that I needed Ramon when I hadn’t.
The only thing I needed was to wait for my friend’s return.
No matter how lonely I had been back then, I now knew that it paled in comparison to Dominic’s loneliness through the years.
“I did what the fuck I needed to do for my family! I ain’t got a single ounce of regret. I’m a loyal ass muthafucka, and the rest of y’all need to figure out how to be the same!”
The way that he screamed at me shook me to my core.
I trembled underneath his fury until he finally released me.
It reminded me of the way things had gone down between Ramon and me, but I knew that I was safe with Dominic.
We’d had arguments in the past, but he had never raised a hand at me to harm me.
I knew he would protect me with his last breath before he harmed me.
My body shook as tears continued to pour from my eyes.
Dominic shook his head with a look of disgust before he walked away and into his bedroom.
He slammed the door so hard that the apartment shook, and I hugged myself, searching for a measure of comfort.