5. Uzi Reaves #3
I could tell that she didn’t like my choice of words, but this was something that I was serious about.
I was invested in this. I was passionate about it.
She better be lucky that she got me up here to respond to that ignorant statement, and that it wasn’t Wesson because he would have laid her ass out to pieces.
From there, I went around the room, starting from the second row, since all the staff was in the front, and I made the women introduce themselves, and say a little something about themselves.
We were now at the third row, and a beautiful heavyset woman stood up.
I noticed her when I walked in, but I didn’t speak on what stood out to me.
There was a scarf that was around her head, and she had it so far down, as if she was trying to cover something on her forehead.
When she stood up, I noticed the way it took her awhile, and the entire time that she stood, you could tell that she was in some kind of pain. Every part of her body was covered. It was a warm day out this morning, yet she was in full armor of clothing. Again, as if she was hiding something.
Her name was Tamera, and when she spoke, you could see the pain in her eyes.
She was 36 years old, and she let us know that she was a stay-at-home mom.
When I asked her what she liked to do for fun, she couldn’t tell me.
I could feel her sadness radiating all the way to the front of the classroom.
You could tell that she lacked so much confidence because as she spoke, she did it with her head down the entire time.
I wanted to talk to her after class, just to see if she was okay.
From there, we moved on, and the next person went after her.
We finally made it to the last student. It was Ms. “scope the scenery out”.
She stood, still with the fitted cap on her head, hands in her pockets, and she looked ahead of her.
Because she was in the back, everyone had turned in their seats, so that they could look over at her.
“Hey. I’m Riot,” she voiced, loud enough for all of us to hear her, and just like out front, her voice held a lot of confidence in it.
This damn girl saw 39 people go ahead of her, heard them say what made them sign up for the class, and naming what they liked to do for fun, and some even talked about their jobs, yet she only stood up, said her name, and you could tell that that was all she was going to say.
She tried to take her seat, but I cleared my throat, stopping her from sitting.
“What made you sign up for the class, Riot?” I asked, my eyes focused on her.
I loved her name. I’ve never met anyone else with that name.
“I didn’t. My cousin signed me up for it,” her ass had the nerve to say, looking me deep into my eyes as she said it.
“Your grown, right? How come you couldn’t sign up for the class yourself?” I shot back at her.
“Because I was in jail. I just got out Friday,” she said, and that’s when I took a deeper look at her, and it hit me that I remembered her face from the viral mugshot. Crazy because she was just as beautiful in that mugshot as she was in person.
Her response made some of the women in the room laugh at her.
You really would have thought that she told a joke by the way they were chuckling.
You could see it in her eyes that if she really wanted to, she could attack, but she allowed the laughs to bounce off her shoulders, and she continued to stand confidently.
“Well, welcome home, and we’re glad to have you. Answer the last part. What do you like to do for fun?” I asked because this was a three-part introductory, and she’d only answered two so far.
“I like to read,” she said, and her response made me smile because I was the same way. I’ll read anything. I loved to educate myself on anything.
She eventually took her seat, and then I thanked the class for coming, and let them know that we would meet again Saturday morning.
Some had questions for me after the class ended, so they stuck around.
I hated that Tamera had gotten out of here so fast, so I didn’t get the chance to speak to her privately.
You know Riot’s ass was gone too. Literally, the second that I told them that they were dismissed, she was already out of the door.
I answered all the questions that the women had come up to ask me, and from there, I thanked my staff for coming out, and everyone started spilling out.
Moments later, it just left Benelli and I in the room.
We went over to the table, and we sat in the chairs.
I was right next to her, head just spinning, thinking about so many things.
“I know you wanted to tackle that bitch that raised her hand, saying how she didn’t expect the class to be structured like this,” Benelli spoke first, and I rolled my eyes at that, as I threw myself against the chair, and I folded my arms.
I turned my head to look at her for a second.
“Girl! Did I? What you think about Tamera?” I asked her, just wanting to learn from her if she got the same vibes that I was getting.
“Which one was that again? Shit, it’s so many of them, that it was hard to keep up,” she responded.
“The heavy set one. She had the scarf on her head and was talking with her head down the entire time,” I let her know, and when she started nodding, I knew then that she knew who I was talking about.
“She going through some shit at home. Some deep shit. Then, you heard her say that she’s a stay-at-home mom. Shit, them kids probably driving her the fuck crazy,” she went on.
“I don’t think it’s that though. I feel like it’s deeper. I hope that nigga not at home beating her ass,” I shared with her what I really thought it was.
“Well, if he is, she’s come to the right place to learn self-defense, and how to shoot a gun.
If that nigga put his hands on her again, she better blow his fuckin brains out.
See, Phantom better not ever in his fuckin life raise his hand to hit me.
I been telling that nigga for years that if he even look like he was going to hit me, that I would shoot his ass in his legs, and make it where he could never walk again.
These women gotta show these men up front that they crazy, and he won’t try you,” she talked shit, and I rolled my eyes up in my head, listening to her.
“You be talking so much shit. If Phantom walked his ass in here right now, and told your ass to shut the fuck up, you would do it,” I joked, making her laugh, while rolling her neck, telling me that I was wrong, but I knew I was right.
My sister was a hot head, just as I was, and her mouth was crazy, but her husband didn’t play that shit with her, and she knew it.
Same way with my husband though. That was the only person in the world that could get me to stand down.
I’ll get quiet as a church mouse when Loco gets to putting me in check.
It wasn’t that I feared him because Lord knows that I didn’t fear anyone.
I just respected him as a man, so on those instances when he has to get on me about something, I receive it and allow him to tell me where I had him fucked up at.
“Overall, I feel like you got some good girls on your hands. How you feel about Riot? I feel like she’s going to be hard to crack. That’s how the fuck you used to act. Mean as fuck,” she told me.
I wasn’t shocked that Benelli had chosen to bring up Riot. She stood out today in class with the very little that she did. She was worth having a conversation about afterwards though.
“I see that shit in her eyes, Benelli. The shit behind her eyes tells me that she’s just an inch away from fuckin up.
I know because I had a temper just like that when I was her age.
When she mentioned that she had been in jail, and those girls laughed at her, I saw the way she wanted to jump across that table and do damage, but she kept her cool.
I can see the tug in her eyes, where she’s trying to stay on the right path, but that anger, that survival mentality that she’s probably used to living by is tugging her in another direction,” I spoke on how I truly felt about her, and Benelli nodded her head, as if she could agree with what I was saying.
“You know what she does, right?” Benelli questioned me. Shocked, I looked at her.
“She moving weight?” I wanted to know.
I was only shocked about it because after Benelli and I got out the game years ago, you never really heard many stories about other women in Miami in the drug game.
I mean, I’m sure you had some women that were working in the traps, cooking up and shit, but real heavy hitters, running shit the way that me, and my sister were, you don’t hear about that too much.
“Yeah. She ain’t big time yet, but I know that she was working up under Gold at one point.
Just little shit that I’ve heard about her in the street, probably around the time that her mugshot went viral.
Her daddy used to be a king pin. His name was Grim.
Police killed him years ago. I feel like I remember daddy telling us about that years ago, but I’m not sure.
She lost her brother too. From what they say, the two of them were really close.
Her brother’s name was Roman. If she is in the streets, me and you no longer live that life, so we can’t help her out with that, but I do hope that this class is beneficial for her.
She looks like she needs the outlet, and hopefully this can be that.
Come on. Let’s go get breakfast,” she ended it, and stood up.
The shit she just put on me was heavy. I knew what it felt like to be young, mad at the world for losing people that were close to you.
Man, years ago, in my younger years, when I was living without my mom, I was a different kind of monster.
You could look at me wrong, and I was ready to kill you.
That same monster that was living in me, I saw it living in Riot.
I don’t know if I found comfort in saying that though.
I was able to shake out of it. I’m only hoping that she could do the same.