5. Harli
Harli
Wrapping the towel around me, I walked into my room to get dressed.
Just as I slid my shorts up, there was a knock on my door.
Snatching the door open, I became face-to-face with Ryda.
Her ass usually slept until noon, so I wondered what had my girl up at the ass crack of dawn.
When I first moved to Golden Shores at eighteen, she was the first person I interacted with.
Her ass was only being nosy, but once we started talking, I realized we were more alike than I assumed.
We clicked instantly, and she moved in with me shortly after, and we’d been locked in ever since.
At a young age, I was forced to grow up and fend for myself due to my parents being hooked on drugs.
Those same drugs claimed their lives months apart from each other when I was just fifteen years old.
With no family to take me in and me refusing to go into the system, that left me living in a motel room and stealing to pay for my next night.
I’d gotten good at picking pockets, hitting stores for food, and making sure that I was good despite my situation.
Once I turned eighteen, I used my savings to get my spot in Golden Shores for more stability.
“Why yo’ ass up this early?” I questioned Ryda as I followed her into the living room.
“Girl, have you heard anything from Dice yet?” She countered.
“No, I haven’t. Is that what you’re sweatin’?”
“Hell yeah. I didn’t expect that those bikes belong to those crazy bitches. What if they come run down on us and kill us?”
“I ain’t never seen yo’ ass concerned ‘bout no bitches no matter how big or small you always stand ten toes down.”
“These ain’t some hoes in the club or bitches around here, these are fuckin’ professionals.”
“Look, we just gotta let this shit play out, but I need you not to be loosin’ no damn sleep over it. Dice said she sees the potential in us, so we gonna see what she meant by that.”
“Alright, we gonna see what happens, but I’m keepin’ my gun on me so I ain’t caught slippin’.”
“As you should just remember that so yo’ ass don’t get no charge and end up back in jail.”
“You right ‘bout that but speakin’ of jail. You heard anything ‘bout Doughboy?”
“Oh, yeah, that nigga got five years for that shit.”
“Damn. You talked to him?”
“Nawl, blocked that nigga off everything. His lil’ side bitch posted and tagged him on Instagram before I blocked both their asses. She gonna clearly be the fool to wait for him, but I’m not sticking beside his fat back ass.”
“Well, you know what they say. The quickest way to get over an old nigga is to get under a new one.”
“And what I say is ‘a dolla a day will keep them fuck niggas away.’ I got my mind on gettin’ to the money, not a nigga.”
“Ooh, but you had time for Trench’s ass the other day.”
“We just chopped it up, nothin’ serious, so don’t even do that.”
“Uh huh. If you say so, Harli.”
“Anyways, speakin’ of Trench, it’s his fault that my damn bike down and I can’t race right now. Got me missin’ out on money and shit because he wanna rematch. I’m ‘bout to go check on it, I’ll text you when I make it to the shop.”
“Alright, Twinn. Be safe.”
Getting into my black 2013 Honda Accord, I thought about the bike job on my way to the shop.
Ryda scoped out the spot where the bikes were, and it was supposed to be an easy snatch and grab.
With us doing more races, we thought it would be a good idea to upgrade our bikes.
It went from us walking up on the bikes to being surrounded by Dice and her girls.
That shit had me thinking it was the end for me and my girl, but we were spared, to my surprise.
Now we’re playing the waiting game to see exactly what we were spared for.
My phone vibrated in my pocket as I fished it out and noticed an unknown number on my screen.
“Hello,” I spoke into the phone with a voice deeper than usual.
“Where’s Harli?” the voice questioned me.
“Who this?”
“Dice.”
“Oh, my bad. That was me. Ryda just asked me if I’d talked to you yet. Is this the call ‘bout the potential you saw in us?”
“Y’all potential is limited. Y’all need a third.”
“A third?”
“Yes, didn’t stutter so there shouldn’t be any confusion. Find a third and call me back, and we’ll see if y’all have the potential or not.”
“Bet.”
When the call ended, I immediately started racking my brain to figure out who the fuck was going to be the third.
It had just been me and Ryda and with our past, we hardly trusted anybody that wasn’t each other.
Plus, I refused somebody who wasn’t beneficial to our group.
With my role as the mastermind, I made sure that there were a plan A, B, and C, and everything was executed to perfection.
Ryda was the wildcard, which allowed her to float between doing reconnaissance and manipulating male targets to her will.
Now we needed a third, and I had to figure out what we were missing.
Pulling up to the shop, I sat in the car as I tried to figure out who to bring into the fold.
After twenty minutes, I stepped out of my car feeling a little defeated.
I pride myself on coming up with a solution or always finding a way out of no way.
When I stepped into the office of the shop, I noticed Kruz behind the computer.
“Hey, Harli,” Kruz greeted.
“Wassup, Kruz,” I acknowledged as I refocused my attention. “Just stopped in to check on my bike.”
“Last I checked, I was still waitin’ on the part to come in. Let me check the track on it real quick.”
As she typed away at the computer, I grew even more agitated because now I was going to have to wait even longer for my bike to be finished.
I needed to get back on the racing scene to make money while I tried to figure out a damn third.
From the looks on the way Dice and her girls were living and those expensive-ass bikes they were riding, they had to be touching real money.
Me and Ryda had goals of getting a condo together, and working with those women would help us get there a lot quicker than on our own.
“It’s saying here but should be delivered tomorrow,” Kruz informed.
“Fuck, I was tryna do a race tonight,” I huffed. “Alright, bet. Just text me when it’s ready.”
“Wait, hold on. Since you’ve been loyal to me, let me see what I can do.”
“What you mean, see what you can do?”
“I’ma hack into their system and put it for delivery today. It won’t take me long to put the part on, so you could race tonight.”
“Hack? Kruz, you’re a hacker too?”
“I mean I dibble and dabble.”
“Shit, that’s more than enough.”
“Enough for what?”
“A money makin’ opportunity.”
“I’m all for makin’ money.”
“And just like that, I think I just found our third we need.”