6. Off Guard #3
“Oracle. He’s been playing me this whole time.” Niva dropped her hand at her side and stopped. “I gave up everything for him. He made me believe he was really the only one I could trust! And I walk in on him and his trout mouth ass baby mama fucking in the same bed where we sleep every night!”
Crystal listened, blowing smoke through her lips before she puffed again and squinted through the cloud in front of her. Niva lowered herself to the wooden coffee table, gripping the bottle in both hands between her legs.
“The worst part is, he made me believe Eazy wasn’t what was best for me, when all I wanted to do was call him.” Niva sniffled. “Now he’s living the life we were supposed to have with somebody else!”
“Get it all out, baby.” Crystal leaned forward and grabbed Niva’s knee as her chin hit her chest, and she sobbed.
“I can’t even have babies now because of the shooting, but the man I love… the love of my life made one with another woman. He’s about to be a daddy, Ma!”
“Take another shot.” Crystal nodded to the bottle and leaned back in the old-fashioned wingback chair.
She reached behind her for a small tray with a sliding cover. A pile of cocaine sat on one side, with a razor and a third of a straw arranged on the other. “While you’re at it, take a hit. It’ll give you some clarity.”
Niva studied the drug then looked into her mother’s eyes. Why the hell not?
It wasn’t like she had anything to lose at this point.
She needed something to take the edge off and clear her hed anyway.
Sucking her teeth, she tossed back another shot.
She set the bottle down on the table beside her and grabbed the tray from Crystal.
With the blade in hand, she divided enough for a line and grabbed the straw.
Niva had tried coke before. Her mother was the first to offer it then too.
She was fourteen. Crystal was a finesser.
She’d been running game for as long as Niva had been alive.
Probably before that. Clearly someone had violated her in her life, and all the bullshit she pulled was simply a reaction to it.
She didn’t have anything else to pass on to Niva but bad habits and hoe behavior.
“What have I always told you?” Crystal questioned, reaching for a new cigarette as soon as she put the one in her hand out.
Niva tipped her head back, letting the euphoria spread through her, calming the blood in her veins. She was still hot as fish grease, but she knew she couldn’t react in anger or fear. It’s what got her in this mess to begin with.
“When they go low, you go lower,” Niva recited, arranging another line for herself.
“That’s right.” Crystal grinned and brought the filtered tip of her cigarette between her lips. After she lit it, she took a pull and sat in her thoughts as Niva let hers spiral.
“You know what you have to do, right?”
“What’s that?” her daughter asked, looking up at her.
“You have to go get your man back.”
Pausing, Niva thought about Eazy. So fine.
So charismatic and funny. A protector, a provider.
The kind of nigga to keep it real with you whether you wanted him to or not.
How had she ever let Oracle get in her head about that man?
He’d never been nothing but solid, even when she got on his nerves.
The beginning of their relationship was rocky because Eazy wanted to fuck different women every other night.
It took a lot of growing up and Niva crashing out on his random hoes for him to wake up.
“How am I supposed to do that when he’s over there building a whole family?”
“Fuck that girl! Y’all got history! Use it!” Crystal encouraged.
“I can’t give him babies. The fucking irony when I asked him for that exact thing, and he hesitated, now he’s giving it to the next bitch.” Niva set the tray aside and stood.
“So, what? You gon’ sit around here crying about two niggas? Or you gon’ do something about it. Oracle? Eazy? Make the choice. Or, fix your face and go find the next pocket. They didn’t stop making niggas with money with neither one of them.”
“I need to stay here for a minute. I’ll go grab some shit from Oracle’s for now. Let his mind wander. I can’t deal with him or the disrespect right now. As for Eazy, it’s about the right place, right time, and right moment with him. I know he still feels something for me.”
“That’s right!” Crystal rallied, grabbing the bottle of gin and raising it in the air. “You just gotta remind him of it. This girl might be having his baby. So what? You can play stepmama. She ain’t got shit on you and what you had with Eazy.”
“We’ve both changed, Ma—”
“Girl, fuck some change! Unless it’s money changing from your hand to mine. Speaking of… I’m gonna need a little something in exchange for you staying here.”
Niva scoffed and went into her purse's side pocket. She tossed a wad of cash at her mother, maybe three grand she had left from shopping, and marched to the door. Crystal’s eyes bugged, but she damn sure scrambled to catch every bill.
“Consider that my down payment. Should cover me for the next three months. I got somewhere I need to be.”
Niva was never one to sit around waiting for some shit to happen.
Before she even met Eazy, she had ways of taking care of herself.
Being her mother’s only child, she became her partner in crime as a toddler, used to being a decoy.
Crystal was a savage, and as rough as they had it, she tried to provide as much of a normal life for Niva as she could.
School, nice clothes, and whatever else her little heart desired.
She made it clear to her at the same time, that while she worked hard to give her these things, she would have to figure out how to get what she wanted in life.
Essence still lived in the townhouse Eazy bought her across town in the Ravenswood Heights district near the hospital and plaza.
It was one of his first purchases, and he was proud to be able to do it for is sister.
She worked hard and he wanted her to have her own shit so a nigga could never hold shit over her.
That was just the kind of man Eazy was. Unselfish, but selfish as hell.