Wren
“Stop all that camping, bitch!” I yelled at my pink curved monitor screen and sat straight up in my chair as I watched my Call of Duty character load back up on the screen. “They camping in that room,” I spoke through my microphone.
“What room?” Lexiwave’s voice came through my headset.
“The one upstairs to the right. Be careful going in there. I’m on my way back up there now.”
“Sniper!” Boytoy yelled, gaining everyone’s attention.
For the last hour or so, I’d been playing Call of Duty Warzone to unwind for the night.
Playing video games is something that I love to do outside of reading books.
It’s actually something that I’m extremely good at.
Sometimes I’d stream on Twitch, Youtube or TikTok.
Really depends on how I’m feeling at the time.
I never be on there too much, because I just can’t get with so many people keeping up with my life, but whenever I do get on, I have at least five hundred or more people watching me.
A lot of the men just be wanting to look at me because they find me attractive.
Taking a sip of my water from my tumbler, I placed it down on the desk and Smoke jumped up there and walked straight across my keyboard. Grabbing him, I planted him on the floor and went back to my game.
By the time the game was over, my team lost. Of course, we did when the other team was camping and had three snipers. Stuff like that pisses me off.
My ear quirked at the sound of my doorbell.
Gripping my desk, I pushed my chair back and got up.
Picking up my phone, I pulled up the Ring application to see who was at the door.
The only thing I saw was my Chipotle sitting on the porch.
The grumbling of my stomach helped remind me that I’d ordered food before I hopped in the shower.
When I got off work, I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to eat, so I just decided to order something when I made it home and got settled.
Unlocking the door, I pulled it open and reached down to grab my food.
Shutting the door behind me, I slid my phone onto the counter and set the bag down alongside it.
Ripping the bag open, I removed my bowl and set it on the counter. Soon as I grabbed my fork out the bag, my doorbell rang again. “Yeah?” I yelled, sticking my fork down into my food.
“Open the door,” I heard Tyree’s voice coming from the other side.
My brows furrowed. Him popping up at my house is rare. I unlocked the door and pulled it open to see him and Uncle Trayvon standing on the porch.
“Did somebody die?” Was my first thought.
Tyree brushed past me into the house, and he went straight for my food on the counter. Uncle Trayvon entered behind him and took a seat on my gray couch. “I hope you weren’t busy,” Uncle Trayvon said as I shut the door.
I snatched my food from Tyree and replied, “Not really. Was just about to have dinner.”
“I need to talk to you ’bout something important.”
“Someone really did die?”
“No, Wren!” Tyree yelled, and I frowned.
“C’mere.” Uncle Trayvon patted the empty space on the sofa alongside him.
I eased over and sat down. They were scaring me. I’m not sure what’s going on right now, but it has to be something major if both of them were in my living room right now.
“Tyree got us in a bit of trouble.” I cut my eyes in his direction.
“How much?” Hearing something like that wasn’t new to me.
Tyree has been fucking up ever since Uncle Trayvon allowed him into the “family business”.
Every time I turn around, Tyree needed to borrow money.
He’s borrowed so much money from me that I don’t even know how much he owes at this point.
I really need to start putting my foot down when it comes to him, because if I don’t set up boundaries, he’s only going to continue to bleed me dry.
“More than you’ll be able to help with,” Uncle Trayvon responded.
“I’m confused. If it’s nothing that I can help with, why are you here?”
“He sold you!” Tyree yelled and Uncle Trayvon’s head whipped in his direction.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say I sold you.”
“What do you call it then?” Tyree questioned him.
My lips parted, but nothing seemed to leave them. I don’t understand. Sold me?
“I’m not a piece of property that can be sold. What is he talking about?” I asked, placing my food on the coffee table. I’d lost my appetite.
“The people that Tyree owes are some dangerous people. If we didn’t pay up, they would’ve killed all of us. I just offered you to one of their sons.”
“You did what!”
I rose to my feet and rapidly blinked.
“Calm down, Wren, it’s not that deep,” Uncle Trayvon said, but he’s not the one who just got news that he belongs to another human being. This is fucking crazy!
“Not that deep!” My eyes bucked as I stared at him. Reality set in and I stepped over him, heading straight for my front door. “Get out.”
“Wren, just hear me out.”
“Told you she wasn’t gon’ go for it.”
“Shut up, Tyree.” Uncle Trayvon mugged him and turned his attention back to me.
“If you want to sell someone, how about you sell his ass. He’s the that keeps getting us into shit.” I folded my arms over my chest.
“They weren’t gon’ take him.”
“How you know?” I snapped. My blood boiled. I wanted both of them out of my house, and I wanted them out of my house now.
“Please, Wren.” Uncle Trayvon lifted to his feet. He stopped in front of me with pleading eyes. “All you have to do is date him for a while. You don’t even have to marry him if you don’t want to.”
“Marry?” Lifting my hands in the air, I shook my head. “Y’all really need to leave my house, now.”
“Let’s go,” Tyree said, brushing past me out the door. Of course he was willing to get on out of here. He’s the reason why I’m in this mess. They want to pawn me off to some ruthless ass strangers while they go on about their lives. They really lost their minds.
Uncle Trayvon stared at me with moisture in his eyes. “Please, Wren. Just think about it.”
My eyes lowered. I couldn’t even look him in the face right now. Gripping me by the back of the head, he pecked me on the temple and left out the house behind Tyree. I shoved the door shut behind him and released a sigh.
The following morning
It was Saturday, and I didn’t really have any plans. Since I didn’t feel like cooking breakfast this morning, I decided that I’d go out and grab me something. Waffle House was on my mind, so I ended up there, sitting in one of the booths, eating alone.
There were couples in there, families and friends, enjoying their Saturday morning breakfast while I sat here alone with almost empty plates scattered all over the table in front of me. Picking up my orange juice, I took a sip from it.
“Can I get you anything else?” my waitress asked me.
I shook my head, and replied, “No. I’m good,” and offered her a smile.
“Okay. Just let me know if you need anything,” she said and bounced away from the table.
Picking up my phone, I dialed Aria’s phone number. I figured that she’d be up by now. The night before, she had this work thing, and I didn’t want to bother her after I put Uncle Trayvon and Tyree out my house.
The call connected to my AirPods, and I set the phone back down on the table. It rang for a few and then her voice came through.
“What time is it?” her groggily voice asked.
Looking down at my phone, I said, “Nine.”
“Dang,” was all that left her lips.
“I’ma need for you to wake all the way up for this,” I told her, eyes scanning my surroundings. I wanted to make sure no one was listening on before I continued my conversation.
“What done happened now?”
“Can you believe that Uncle Trayvon and Tyree call themselves selling me?”
“Wait, what?” From the tone of her voice, I can tell that woke her all the way up. Aria was just as protective of me as Uncle Trayvon, if not even more. It surprised me to hear that he’d sold me to someone like that. It didn’t sound like something he’d do. They must really be in some deep shit.
“You heard me right.” Getting up from my seat, I collected my things and went to the cash register to pay my tab and leave. There were a lot of prying ears in here, and I didn’t want them to hear the wrong thing. “Give me a minute. I’m leaving out of Waffle House.”
I swiped my card and the waitress said, “Enjoy the rest of your day.”
“You too.” I headed for the door and this older guy held it open for me. “Thank you,” I said and continued on to my truck. Hitting the fob, I climbed inside and sighed.
“They really sold me, Aria. They came in there last night talking about all I have to do is date the guy for a while. Who accepts humans as a form of trade for drugs?” Aria knew all about Uncle Trayvon and Tyree’s illegal activities.
“Yo’ family from the looks of it.”
“I really don’t know what to do. I’m scared that if I don’t help them out, they’ll get killed. I got their lives in my hands.”
“Wren, you can’t let them manipulate you into thinking that. They chose that life, not you.”
“I know.” My eyes lowered, and I fiddled with the dangling thread from my sweater. “Aside from you, they’re all that I have left.”
“Who are these people?”
“That’s the thing, I don’t know.”
“You need to be finding out. If you’re going to go through with this, which I’m pretty sure that you are, we need to do our own research on them to keep you safe. I can’t believe these niggas.”
I started up my truck and backed out the space. “What you got planned for the day?” I asked her as I headed back toward the house.
“I don’t know. After hearing that, I think I need to go get me a drink.”
“I gotta go home and wash, but after that, I don’t have anything to do. We can probably meet up at a bar or something.” I wasn’t a heavy drinker, but I’d go get me a lil mixed drinky drink and some wings and I’d be in the game.
“I’ll let you know when I finally roll out of bed. In the meantime, try not to get sold to anyone else.”
“Yeah. Yeah. Bye.” I pressed the end button and immediately heard sirens shrill behind me. Looking in the rearview, I saw a police car. “Damn,” I mumbled and pulled over to the side of the road.
Leaning over, I grabbed my registration out of the glove compartment. As I straightened my posture, I heard a knock on the window.
Letting the window down, I said, “I’m sorry, officer.
Can you tell me what I got pulled…” My eyes connected with a pair of familiar ones.
He wasn’t dressed in a police uniform—he wore a black t-shirt with a platinum chain dangling from around his neck with Maniac on the charm dancing in diamonds.
“Over,” finally escaped my lips and I licked the dryness from them.
“Wren.” The diamonds in his grill blinded me.
“H-how do you know my name?” I cleared my throat. Turning around, I looked out the back window in search of the police officer that pulled me over. The car was still back there, lights brighter than ever, but there’s no officer in sight.
“Why wouldn’t I know the name of my future wife?”
“W-wife?”
“I was just trying to see when you were coming home?”
“Excuse me? Where’s the officer?” At this point, I’d rather take the risk of getting a ticket than to deal with this lunatic.
“They didn’t tell you?” He rested his forearm against the top of my door and leaned his face down toward the window. Tonka bean and cedar wood floated into the truck. It wasn’t overbearing, but it’s strong enough.
“What are you talking about?”
“You belong to me. You got twenty-four hours to find yo’ way home or else I’m coming to get you,” he said and removed himself from my truck.
I sat there, watching him in the rearview mirror as he opened the driver’s door of the police cruiser and climbed inside.
The Charger sped past me and the lights turned off.