Girls From da Hood 8 Page 2

  I froze. It wasn’t like I hadn’t had crushes before or even had a boy touch my hand; it just had never felt like this. This had electricity.

  “Walk me to the door. I could stay here all day with you but I can’t.” He grabbed his things and moved to leave. I held the door open but he pushed it closed again. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

  “No.” I suddenly got all shy and self-conscious.

  “Look at you.” D-Waite caressed my cheek. “I don’t have your number.” After we exchanged information it was his turn to become unsure. “Is it okay if I call you?”

  “Sure, I’d like that,” I said, and after I said the words I realized how much I wanted to see him again.

  “And if you need anything—anything, a friend, a hug—call me.”

  My phone rang almost as soon as he left. I really didn’t want to talk to anyone. I wanted to just lie down and think about D-Waite but I answered it anyway. “Hello!”

  “Do you miss me yet?” D-Waite’s cocky tone made me blush.

  “No, do you miss me?” I shot back.

  “Why you think I’m calling you? Wanna have lunch tomorrow? After school?”

  “Sure.” I knew he could see my grin through the phone.

  “Good. A brotha needs something to look forward to. Now I’m sure you got homework to do.”

  “Ugh! Yes,” I admitted.

  “Get to it then.”

  By the time I hung up my cheeks were hurting from cheesing so hard. If you had told me a day ago that I would ever smile again I would not have believed you and now I couldn’t stop myself.

  3

  “Wow, I didn’t expect you to be cooking. You been holed up in that room since you moved in.” My aunt was ten years younger than my mother and ten years older than me. For a family of black sheep she’d been the darkest. My mother had been the first person in her family to go to college, and even after she got pregnant with me she still managed to graduate on time. She gave me a pretty good life without much input from her family, until she died. She made a point to keep them out of my life since most of my relatives had gone to “camp,” which was how they referred to prison life.

  A couple of years ago my mother reconnected with her younger, wilder sister. Kim had been strung out on crack and worked at a strip club, and it wasn’t hard to figure out that she had done a lot more than that to support her habit. She too had spent time in camp, came back to Brooklyn, and started to repair the damage to her life. I knew it wasn’t easy but after my mom got sick Kim stepped up, taking care of both of us. She promised my mother than she would stay clean but I could tell it was hard, especially living so close to the crack infestation. She attended twelve-step meetings almost every day to keep her strong and sober.

  “You get your homework done?” she grilled me. Even though she had never finished school she made it her mission to make sure I went to college. “Preston’s on his way over. You want anything from the store?” she asked me, being sweet.

  Ugh! If there was one thing I hated more than living in the projects it had to be Kim’s new boyfriend, Preston. He reminded me of one of those snakes, always looking for the right moment to pounce on me. He didn’t think I noticed the way his eyes always found some shit to do in my direction but of course I did. Why my aunt liked him I had no idea, but I couldn’t come in here and make problems so I usually made a point to be somewhere else when he showed up. He worked as a security guard at a department store in Manhattan but he acted like he was police chief or something. It took a certain kind of person to need a job that gave them power over other people. Well, he was one of those people. I’d just finished cooking dinner when I heard the door.

  “Hey, Gabby.” Preston let himself into the apartment. I made a mental note that this asshole now had a key. Before he could reach where I was standing my aunt came out of her bedroom all excited to see Mr. Nothing.

  “Hi. I’m gonna go into my room. Let you two have some privacy. I have some reading to do for homework,” I lied.

  “Stay and eat with us,” Preston insisted. “Tell us what you’ve been up to.”

  “Yeah, honey, join us,” my aunt chimed in.

  The last thing I wanted was to sit with this jerk as he leered at me every time my aunt turned her head. My phone rang, saving me from having to plead my case.

  “Hey,” I spoke into the phone. “Hold on. I have to take this,” I said as I excused myself.

  “Does she have a boyfriend? ’Cause she seems too young to date.” He gave my aunt his fake paternal concern. Like he needed to be all up in my business.

  “No, she’s a good girl. I don’t think she’s even thinking about boys yet.”

  “Good,” the asshole added. “But I’m starting to think she don’t like me. It’s making me feel uncomfortable coming around.” It was the last thing I heard before going in my room and closing the door.

  Maddie and I used to talk every night but lately she’d been checking up on me more than usual. “Hey, girl,” I gushed into the phone.

  “Whoa, who the hell took over my best friend? Who is this?” she joked.

  “It’s me. I’m good.”

  “And who is Damon Braithwaite and can I please get one?”

  “Well since he doesn’t have a twin I’m gonna have to say no.”

  “Oh my God. You met a guy?”

  “Yes!” I screamed out, giggling into the phone just as my door swung wide open.

  “Gab, come join us for dinner.” My aunt stood there hand on her hip. She didn’t make it sound like a request.

  “Maddie, I’ll call you back.” I hung up, feeling like a trapped animal as I followed her into the dining area and sat down.

  “So glad you changed your mind.” Preston tried to act like he hadn’t made this happen. I fixed on a fake-ass smile.

  “Yeah, I want the two people I love the most to get to know each other better.” Kim was so busy grinning up in his face she didn’t notice he hadn’t taken his eyes off me.

  “Your aunt and I are thinking of taking it to the next level,” he boasted.

  “Oh, you proposed?” I smiled as his beady eyes got all nervous darting around the room.

  “Nah, that’s the next next level. The two of you need a man to take care of you.” He sounded all Joe Smooth but even if my aunt didn’t I had his number and it was wrong. When I turned fourteen a friend’s uncle gave us alcohol and tried to get us into a threesome. Ugh! Men!

  “So you gonna let him move in here without getting married?” I chastised my aunt, who actually had the nerve to look shocked.

  “Baby, we could use the help.”

  “I’m only here for six months at the most. Can’t you wait until then?” I pleaded with her.

  “Baby girl, don’t I deserve to be happy?’

  “If it’s so real what difference is six months?”

  “We’re the adults and you’re the child. You don’t get a vote,” he said in a threatening voice.

  I jumped up and stormed into my room. I was pissed and just wanted to be left alone. But of course that too proved impossible.

  “Hey, baby girl.” Preston opened my door without bothering to knock. “I know you been through a lot lately so I’m gonna excuse your bad attitude this time. We just need to get to know each other a little better. You’ll see that I’ll be real good to you and to your aunt.” He came over to the bed and stared down at me.

  “Gabby, the nicer you are to me the nicer I can be to you.” He turned and walked out, leaving my door wide open.

  4

  Maddie grabbed me as soon as I got to my locker. Clearly she’d been waiting for me to show up. Of course in six years of friendship we’d rarely kept anything from each other, even her mother’s affair two years ago, which had threatened her parents’ marriage.

  “So tell me.”

  “Nothing to really tell. Yet.” I grinned not able to contain myself.

  “That don’t look like nothing on your face.”


  “Fine. He’s this guy that I guess lives near my aunt.”

  “So what school does he go to?’

  “I don’t know.”

  “He does go to school?”

  “Why does that matter?” I snapped.

  “Gab, the plan was that you were going to live with your aunt, and wait for our acceptance letters from Harvard so we can be roommates. You can’t go getting involved with those people.”

  “What people?”

  “People who don’t have a plan. Those who aren’t interested in forward movement and changing the world. People like us.”

  “Like us how? Maddie, we’re not so alike. You live in a multimillion-dollar brownstone with two parents—one’s an attorney—an unlimited credit card, country homes, winter ski trips, and vacations abroad. How are we alike?”

  “Ouch! So what? Now you’re playing the underprivileged card, Gab?”

  “I’m not playing anything. I’m just speaking the truth.”

  “Well I don’t like this guy already.”

  “Yeah, I’m not so sure he’d be a big fan of yours either.” We stared at each other for way too long. Neither of us was budging. Finally she broke the silence.

  “I know you’re going through some stuff but I’m not the enemy.”

  “Shit, I know. It’s just . . .” I didn’t have to finish. That’s the way it had always been with us but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her that our differences had gotten a whole lot bigger than money and location.

  I managed to avoid Maddie the rest of the day by working on my science paper in the library at lunch. I hurried out of school when the bell rang. All I wanted was to see D-Waite and, well, I didn’t know what but I was sure that just being with him would make me feel better. He hadn’t called me or mentioned where we would meet so I was surprised to see him waiting at my bus stop when I stepped off the B54.

  “Hey, pretty.” He came up to me with the biggest grin on his face.

  “Hey.” I suddenly felt shy.

  “Let me have that.” He reached for my heavy backpack, slinging it over one shoulder. “What they teaching you in that school? Everything?”

  “More. You’re not trying to hide any more of your stuff in my bag are you?”

  “Nope, I’m all clean.” He grabbed my hand, leading me across the Fort Green Park to the nicer neighborhood of Clinton Hill. D-Waite took me to a small café a few blocks but worlds away from the hood. They seemed to know him when they took our order.

  “So what? This is where you bring your dates?”

  “No. I don’t usually date.”

  “Wow! Now that’s a line.”

  “Let me get something straight: I’m not above lying. I have done it plenty, especially to save my ass, but I like you and I haven’t lied to you and I’m not planning on lying to you.” He pierced me with those beautiful eyes and I felt myself going all jelly.

  “So I can ask you anything and you’ll tell me the truth?”

  “Just be careful you want the answers.”

  “Why are you dealing drugs and not in school?”

  “’Cause I learned early that you have to play the hand you been dealt. I had to have my back early and, well, that meant figuring out how to survive and I did.”

  “You ever think about getting out?”

  “Every day!” He had an expression on his face that I couldn’t quite read.

  “What?”

  “I reserve the right to be more than a stereotype.”

  “Me too,” I added.

  By the time we finished eating and he walked me back across the park it seemed like we’d known each other a lot longer than twenty-four hours. I was so distracted by the easy time we were having that I hadn’t noticed the police car stopped in front of us. D-Waite dropping my hand was the first sign that something was up. One short Italian guy and a big black guy policeman got out of the car and approached us. D-Waite stood in front of me protectively.

  “D-Waite. I see you been busy.” The black cop stared menacingly at him.

  “Young lady, you need to be more careful about the company you keep.” His partner focused on me.

  “What’s in the bag?”

  “Books, my laptop, homework,” I chimed in.

  “Humph, using a schoolgirl to transport your drugs. Hand over the bag.”

  “On what grounds?” I stepped in. “This seems like harassment. We weren’t doing anything that would give you cause to search my bag.”

  “You’re conspiring with a known drug dealer.”

  “Thompson, leave her alone. She’s innocent.”

  “Until proven guilty? Just being with you makes her guilty.”

  “Just let her go.” D-Waite handed me my bag. “You can mess with me but leave her out of it.”

  “Whoa! And they say chivalry is dead. Guess we found it alive and well in Brooklyn.” A sound on their radio got their attention. The Italian cop nodded to the other one toward their car.

  “We’re gonna let this one pass; but if I were you, young lady, I’d stick to the books.” The cops got back in their car and headed off.

  This time I was the one who grabbed D-Waite’s hand. We were silent as we walked the rest of the way to my building. Outside my building D-Waite stopped and turned to me.

  “Remember I said that I don’t date? Now do you understand why?”

  “So you do want to date me?” I joked but he looked serious. Really serious.

  “Gabby?”

  “Fine. If you don’t like me then good to know now,” I snapped, and then stormed away before he could see the tears welling up in my eyes. Only instead of him leaving he followed me. He took hold of my hand.

  “D-Waite!”

  I turned to see Mika and her girls stomping toward us. Shit, this was all I needed. I wanted to run but with him holding my hand it was impossible.

  “Mika, I’m kind of busy right now.”

  “You weren’t too busy two nights ago when you were all up inside of me. What you tryin’a get you, a little bit of that uptight schoolgirl?”

  “Mika, I said I’m busy.” He dismissed her.

  “Yeah, well the next time you want your dick sucked I’ma be too busy too. Go on with that little bitch then.” She shot me a look that caused me to groan inwardly. If I thought that girl hated me before, I was now in total enemy territory.

  “Get off me.” I snatched my arm away from D-Waite and ran into the building. But by the time I reached my front door he was waiting for me, breathing heavy, like he had run all the way up five flights of stairs.

  “Why are you here? You already told me that you didn’t want to date me and now that I know you’re fucking that girl I don’t want to date you either.” I sneered at him.

  “Gabby, come on. You know I like you.”

  “Whatever! I don’t like you.” I folded my arms over my chest.

  “I asked you not to do that. We promised not to lie to each other.”

  “I’m not lying to you,” I lied.

  “So you don’t like me as much as I like you?” He got so close I swore he could hear my heartbeat.

  “So what? You’re sleeping with Mika? She hates me.”

  “She hates everybody.”

  “Not you apparently.”

  “Ugh!” He let out a growl, slapping his hands against the wall. “Mika is different. She’s not like you. To her, sex and men, it’s all casual and no big deal.”

  “And you believe that? It’s a big deal to everybody. I got friends who hook up and then call me crying ’cause they really like the guy. Sex is always a big deal.”

  “And you know that personally?” He looked wounded just asking me the question.

  “It’s none of your business!” I glared at him, and before I knew it he was pressed against me, pinning my body to the wall.

  “Yes, it is my business because you are my business.” And then his lips were on me, crushing me, and before I could stop myself I was kissing him back; and it wasn’t no PG kiss
like I’d had with other boys. This was a grown-ass passionate kiss. My first. I felt a hunger and longing shoot all the way down to my vagina. I couldn’t stop it and I didn’t want to. Finally he wrenched himself back, grabbing his hair in his hands.

  “I can’t afford to feel this way!” he raged, staring at me with undisguised angst.

  “Then fine. Leave. If that’s what you want. Leave.”

  He turned and pounced on me again, kissing me all over my face and lips and letting me know that this was real and that I wasn’t alone with my feelings.

  “I can’t, Gabby. Fuck! I can’t,” he cried.

  “Then what are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know. I just don’t know. You may not lie but I don’t play games.”

  I pushed him away, struggling to locate my keys in my bag. “Then leave me alone until you know.” I grabbed my keys and put them in the door just as someone snatched it open. Preston stood there, staring at the both of us.

  “What’s going on?” He shot D-Waite a hostile glare.

  “Nothing,” I shot out as I raced past him into my room.

  Preston slammed the door and followed me.

  “Who was that guy?”

  “Nobody.” I opened my bag and pulled out my books and my computer.

  “You wanna have a drink? Talk?”

  “I have homework and I need to study for a test.” I picked up my phone. “It’s a project with a friend.”

  “Well your aunt is working late so I told her I would cook dinner.”

  “I just ate.” I started pushing buttons, pretending to call someone, but my phone started ringing. I answered on the first ring. “Hello?”

  Preston stood there like he was waiting for something.

  “Hold on,” I spoke into the phone. “Yes?” I glanced up at Preston. “Anything else?”

  “Nah, I’ll be out here if you need anything.” He looked disappointed as he left. I got up and closed the door, making a mental note to put a lock on it.

  5

  I was so busy hurrying through that morning fog to get to the bus stop that I hadn’t noticed the four girls coming straight at me until it was too late.