Chapter 15
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
RICH
“B wanted me to tell you the chili done.” I tap one of the wooden posts on the deck behind Beatrice’s house and drag my fingers along the wood I still need to stain while walking down the steps.
A cloud of smoke dances around Wendell’s shiny head as he looks out toward the gazebo in the backyard.
He flicks his cigarette to the ground. “Mhmm. I take it you already ate, huh?”
“If I did, is something wrong with that?”
“If it was, I’d say somethin about it.”
“Oh, you would?”
“Right…I forgot what street I’m on,” he mutters when I get to the last step. “I guess it’d be stupid of me to feel offended that another man eats first in my girlfriend’s house.”
He swipes his bald head, turning it from side to side like he’s surveying the long blades of grass in the backyard. I ease up behind him right when he snorts.
I was always taught to sneak a man if I needed to because there’s no real rules in life.
Smitty always said they were all made up—created by white men to keep dumb niggas under their thumb.
I don’t wanna sneak Wendell, though. I don’t even wanna fight him because I always told Beatrice I’d do my best to not disrespect her house, and I kept promising Arnez I’d stop disrupting Melo’s “ecosystem” even though he disrupted mine first. And just like that, I had turned into one of those dumb niggas me and Smitty laughed at—the ones that follow made-up rules.
He said Kenny would rub off on me eventually.
“Girlfriend?” I ask. “Oh, you and B made it official?”
“I thought we did something like that—thought I’d finally be able to get you to stop sniffin around here.” Wendell snorts.
“I don’t know what you talking about man.”
“Right…” He puffs out his cheeks. “So this how it goes, huh?”
“How what goes?”
“You know, I always hear niggas talking about what it’s like to get out in the field with you—either in the pit at Lucky’s or in the street. They all say the same thing. They say that first hit is a haymaker—like a fuckin two-ton rock ramming into your jaw at full speed.”
“I don’t know about all that. B just told me she thought it was best you left, so that’s what I came to tell you. She said she’ll even fix you some food to go.”
He laughs hard. “My last meal, huh?”
I walk up beside him, shrugging. “Your last one here.”
“Bitch ain’t even cook what I like. Even niggas in the pen get what they like for their last meal.”
“Don’t do that.”
He turns to me and jerks his head back. “Do what?”
“Call B out her name.”
“Nigga, don’t act like you don’t go around here calling these bitches what they are.
As many as you dropping your dick off in, I’m surprised you don’t call ‘em bitch one, bitch two, bitch three…all of Pup’s bitches.
” He pokes his finger up, like he’s pointing them all out in a lineup. “You really are a fuckin dog.”
I snort out a laugh, swiping the side of my nose. “Man, you trippin…”
He widens his eyes and slaps his chest. “I’m trippin? Me? A motherfucka walking around my house calling the shots and fuckin my lady and I’m the one trippin?”
“This ain’t your house, Wendell.”
“What you mean it ain’t my house?”
I hold my hands up. “I’m just stating the facts.”
“What? You think it’s yours ‘cause of your daddy? He ain’t the king around here or down at Lucky’s no more.
There’s order for all you dumb niggas now.
” He tsks. “I heard you down at Worthing now, boxing with Kenny Fairchild and a bunch of kids ‘cause you can’t control yourself. Your ole’ man must be real disappointed. ”
It’s the first time anybody said what everybody’s been whispering directly to my face. Thanks to Senior, I’ve always been a “sticks and stones” type of man, but hearing Wendell throw dirt on my name makes my stomach turn.
He curls his scarred lip, looking down at his balled fist. “You know what… I don’t believe what they say about you. Ain’t no way you throwing no haymakers. Ain’t no way you did what you did with your bare hands.”
“Listen…you ain’t got to believe shit, but what you can do is lea—”
He shoves his fist right in the center of my jawbone that Dr. Borrowitz put a screw in. My teeth clank together, then cinch down on the soft tissue inside my mouth.
He steps back, breathing in and out, and staring at his busted fist with his lips hanging open. The taste of metal dribbles into my mouth, and a warm trickle of blood flows over my bottom lip.
I swipe at it, holding my red-stained fingers in front of my eyes. “Man, all you had to do was leave.”
He shuffles back, but I grab him by his faded shirt before he can step onto the grass.
“Now…now wait a minute…” He pushes his arms out while I wind the fabric around my hand. “Wait…wai—”
I slam my fist into the side of his face.
His eyes roll back, and he falls into me.
I don’t even know shit about throwing haymakers, but I know how to push all 245 pounds of myself into a punch.
Senior and Smitty always told me if I do it right the first time, I won’t have to do it again, but I’m tryna respect Beatrice’s house and not fuck up Melo’s ecosystem any more than I already have.
Wendell gasps and his eyes roll forward.
He pushes against my chest, throwing another sloppy punch that bounces off my chin.
I push his pudgy body to the ground. “All you had to do was leave like I told you to. We ain’t even have to do all this.”
He breathes hard. “Tell Beatrice to come tell me to leave to my face! Tell that bitch to come tell me what the problem is! It’s…it’s that shit about her granddaughter, ain’t it? I told her I ain’t want that lil’ bitc—”
I shove my foot into his side, and he hollers so loud that his voice echoes into the night and gets swallowed by the sounds of the city.
I try to blink away Tamryn and Aisha’s faces from my mind, but they’re a constant, just like Arnez’s …and now Slim’s. Senior always said that’s what made me soft. I was always consumed with women and their problems. I couldn’t take care of them then let them go like he did. I always stick around.
“Pussy problems,” he always said, shaking his head. “They’ll ruin you quicker than them niggas down at Lucky’s.”
I lift my foot over Wendell’s face to shut him and Senior up.
“Rich?” a baby-soft voice murmurs.
But for the first time in my life, I hear somebody other than Arnez while I’m standing over another man. It shocks my nervous system so bad that my foot trembles.
Wendell rolls over onto his side, hawking up a glob of spit with his bloody face scrunched. He glances toward the back deck. I follow his line of vision, and my eyes collide with whiskey-colored brown ones.
“Slim,” I grit out.
She doesn’t move and I don’t either. It’s like I’ve been caught red-handed.
Wendell chokes. “You see this? Right? You see what he did to me?”
She opens her mouth.
“If anybody ask what happened to me, you tell ‘em what you saw! You hear me? You tell them how Pup attacked Melo Barnes’ brother because he’s a dumb motherfucka! He ain’t learned his lesson yet!”
Her fingers tremble against the banister.
“You hear me, you dumb bitch? You bitches gon’ get enough of fuckin with this—”
“Man, shut the fuck up.” I breathe out, slamming my foot onto his face.
A nasty crack pierces the night air.
I ain’t mean to do it in front of Slim, but there’s certain shit that’s ingrained in me that she doesn’t know about.
Thick globs of blood slide down Wendell’s cheeks, and he rolls over, groaning.
Loud moans flubber out his mouth while he pulls himself to his knees. “Fuck you, Pup.”
“You need to leave,” I murmur.
“Let me get my shit. I wanna…I wanna…get my clothes and shoes—”
I huff, glancing past Slim where Tamryn’s face hovers behind the screen door. “Nah…don’t you go in that house.”
“I want my shit!”
I lift my foot out of instinct until a ragged gasp makes me drop it and glance back at the deck.
It’s Slim again.
She’s still stuck and staring at me standing over Wendell.
She steps back, stumbling over the top step. I look between her and Wendell while he tries to push off the ground.
She’s gonna run.
She steps back again, but her heel gets caught on the step and leaves her rocking backward with her arms waving in circles. I take long strides toward her until I’m close enough to reach out and grip her waist. I tug her until she steadies herself, and she looks at me.
Her eyes aren’t brown anymore. They’re like dark pools of nothingness.
“C’mere.” I try to pull her stiff body to me, but she won’t move.
She shakes her head with her mouth hanging open.
“Didn’t I tell you to stay in the house? Huh?” I swipe away another trickle of blood that sneaks out of the side of my mouth while trying to catch my breath.
“If you were smart you’d stay away from him!” Wendell hollers from behind me.
I turn my head toward him. “Nigga, didn’t I tell you to leav—”
“He ain’t no fuckin savior like all these motherfuckas around here want you to think. Look at what he did to me! He a ki—”
“Get!” I hiss at him, yanking Slim.
She yelps, staggering close to me.
I lift her until she hooks her arms around my neck. She’s as light as she looks, and her smell almost makes me forget everything that just happened.
“Gimme my shit!” Wendell yells. “I want my clothes! I…I want all the money I spent on her and her fast-ass granddaughter!”
Slim squeals out another shriek as I stomp toward him with her dangling from my neck.
“Is you crazy?” I hiss out. “What the fuck you making all this noise for? Huh? You tryna scare B’s baby?”
And mine too.
I slide my hand under Slim’s ass, forcing her legs around my waist as I stoop down next to him. Her warm pussy smashes against my side and I can’t even enjoy the way it feels because I’m too consumed with my other pussy problems.
Wendell moves his mouth, but I can’t hear anything he says while Slim whimpers in my ear.
Fuck, I knew better.
I knew she wouldn’t listen and stay, just like I knew Tamryn wouldn’t stay on the front porch like I told her to before I followed Wendell into the backyard.
I fuckin knew.
I shove Slim’s head into my neck, then push my finger into Wendell’s face. “Listen, motherfucka.”
A smirk dances across his puffy mouth, but Slim’s too busy trying to crawl inside of me to see what I need her to see in Wendell.
This is why she didn’t need to be smiling at men like him.
This is why she needed to question everything that came out of a man’s mouth.
This is why she needed to hate stupid ass men—me included.
This.
I swipe away another speck of blood trickling from my mouth with my tongue. “You need to pick your head up and get the fuck on. You want your shit so bad? I’ll tell B to pack it up and put it on the curb outside the gate. Don’t bring your ass back over here.”