Two months later,
I was so falling hard for Christian. We seemed inseparable since the incident, as I liked to call it. He treated me like a queen, always buying me stuff and taking me out. I did not know where he got money from. He definitely didn't have a job. I figured he hustled, but I didn't ask. Everything was going great. He was now known on the block for being my guy and I was his girl. Even more crazy was that he hadn't even done anything, and everybody just respected him. I mean, other guys around here had done some dirt to earn their stripes, but he seemed to naturally take command. Or he had a lot of shit he wasn't telling me.
My mama loved that I had found someone who cared about me. It was so plain to see. My curfew for company was midnight, but she would let me sit outside with him till the sun came up and when we weren't outside, we were on the phone until I heard his snores, or he heard mine. We would even wake each other up sometimes, still on the phone from the night before.
On the downside, we had new neighbors in our building, and they were bad news. I knew it from when they moved in about a week ago. They just kind of came overnight. They didn't bother to introduce themselves and were way antisocial.
I didn't know their names, but there was a woman, a man, and two boys. One boy around my age and one around my brother's age. We only saw them coming and going and since we sat on the porch so much, we would speak to them, but they never spoke back, so we ignored them back if that's how they felt.
I knew some shit was about to hit the fan when I noticed some of my clothes were coming up missing from the laundry room, all the tenants shared in the basement. I was just sitting on the front telling Ciara about it when the lady came up the stairs wearing a grey skirt. My grey skirt. I knew it was mine because I had put that split in the side on my own. So, a few threads were hanging off with a ripped look.
I could tell Ciara was peeping the same thing because she was looking at me with our universal language. 'That's your skirt girl,' her look said. I nodded my head and stood in the doorway, blocking the lady's path. She was looking down as she came up and didn't see me until I put out my hand to stop her before she bumped into me.
"What?" she practically yelled. What the fuck, was she a drill Sargent or something.
"I was just wondering where you got that skirt from," I asked. "It sure looks familiar."
"Look little girl, I don't know what you trying to say but you need to get out of my way." She spat.
Now my mama hated, I mean hated, for me to disrespect my elders. But I didn't know her, and she damn well didn't know me. Plus, she was a loudmouth thief, in short fuck her.
"That's my skirt, lady. What's wrong with you that you got to go stealing other people's clothes? You haven't been here a good month and you already fucking up." I yelled back.
"Yeah, Bitch." Ciara threw in getting up. I had to give it to her. She was a pro at starting shit, and she just wasn't good at following through.
"Get out of my way, before I tell your mother." She spoke.
"Oh, don't worry, expect a visit from my mother. I'm sure once I tell her you been stealing the clothes she paid for, you gone hear from her." Then I did something I didn't want to do. I let her pass.
So later I told everybody what she was up to, and my brother Charlie got the idea to steal some of their clothes too. So that's what we did. It was brilliant. We didn't wear them, or anything just burned them on a vacant lot. It was the prettiest fire ever.
Three days later, I woke up hearing yelling and cursing. I immediately recognized my mama's voice and another one I didn't know. I jumped out of bed and untangled myself from the phone cord. I walked to the living room and saw the door open and the yelling coming from the hall. I grabbed my Louie-Ville aka my baseball bad and headed down the steps and stopped when I saw the commotion.
That bitch aka the new chic was all up in Ciara's doorway yelling at her mom. Miss Carrie was trying to close the door, but the lady had her foot in the way. My moms were standing right behind the lady, also yelling at Miss Carrie. It all would have been funny if it wasn't so serious. Someone might get hurt.
"Bitch, I know you got my clothes in here. I saw your daughter taking them from the basement." The new lady kept repeating.
While Carrie just kept saying, "I don't know what you talking about." "I ain't got no clothes in here."
While my mama was behind said bitch yelling, "Carrie hit this bitch, just one time, bop this hoe. She's all in your doorway, yelling and shit. Just hit her, and I got the rest."
Carrie was still just standing there and now the lady was hitting on the wall and kicking the door.
"Oh, hell naw," My mama yelled. "Come on, bitch, step outside. She might not want to beat your ass, but I will. You have been stealing my baby shit, anyway."
I'm surprised she didn't just go upside old girl head. She and Carrie were like sisters, especially since my mama was dating her brother, but he was locked up, so they were more like pens right now.
Just when old girl was about to get a double dose, one from my mama and one from my friend Louie, Pam came to the door. Pam was Carrie's roommate slash girlfriend, yeah Carrie got down like that. Pam was more man than a woman and when she came to the door, the lady stepped back to her door across the hall.
"Now look here, you psycho bitch. Get the hell away from this door or I will leave this hallway looking like a crime scene. You feel me. And if you ever feel the need to come back, I won't talk, I'm just going to commence to beating your ass." That said, Pam slammed the door and closed the curtain.
"You lucky hoe, I wish you would come to my door tripping," Mama said, walking back to our apartment. The lady just slammed her door. So, being the great children we are, we are planning to get back at the lady. Your beef with our mothers, we beef with your kids.
Two days later, Ciara, Christian, Charlie, and Carrie's nephew Whizzy sat on the porch making our plan. It was brilliant as usual. We were just waiting for the mother to leave, and we were going to make a move. Right on cue, she came walking out. She tilted up her nose at us and kept walking to her car.
"Ugly hoe," Ciara called.
Christian turned to me and grabbed my hand, "Look, Ann, whatever happens, stay back, we got this okay, you just be lookout."
I nodded my head and heard Wiz telling Ciara the same thing. We took our place on the steps, out of sight as the three boys approached their door and knocked. The older boy answered, looking confused.
"What's up, yawl?" he asked in a low voice.
"Nothing much," Christian said. "We were wondering if yawl wants to come to play some basketball at the park."
"Well," The boy started scratching his head, "We not supposed to leave when our parents aren't home."
"It's cool," Wiz said, stepping up. "We just wanted you to open the door, so we didn't have to break in." And then he punched dude right in the face.
The next five minutes were agonizing as we listened to sounds of tussling and stuff breaking, a few screams, and more tussling. Then it got quiet. I was about to go in. I had Louie with me, so I wasn't worried. All I knew was that my brother was in there, so were my cousin and my man. Then, out of nowhere, Charlie came running out, then Wiz. Did the boy have a gun or something and where was Christian?
Then he came out, running to and laughing. Behind him was the little brother a big knife in his hand. So, I cocked Louie back and cracked his ribs. He fell hard. I laughed, while running and met the boys on the block. They were all laughing like crazy.
"Anna, you should have seen his face, right before Wiz bucked off on him," Charlie said.
"And Christian floored his ass. I mean, he knocked him out. Dude was down for the count." Wiz said.
"Okay, so what did yawl get?" I asked.
Christian stopped laughing and pulled out some jewelry and some car keys. "These too they ride, I'm on that tomorrow."
"If they aren't gone by then," I said, laughing too.
"If this doesn't make them shake the spot, we just have to get more creative," Christian said, hugging me.
Later that night, I was surprised that they didn't call the police or even tell our parents. But I was no fool. Ciara thought they were just scared, but I knew something was about to go down. All that night I couldn't sleep, and the next day, promptly at eight am, I knew why.
*****
Christian
I went outside, I couldn't sleep. I had a bad feeling about what we did yesterday. I wasn't so much worried for me. They didn't even know me, but they knew Anna and her moms, and Ciara and her mom.
Something told me, they would not leave as easily as we hoped.
I pulled out my cigarillo and my greens and got rolling, wondering in the back of my mind if I should call in my real goon squad from around the way. They would make their preppy ass people shake for show.
I saw a shadow come to stand next to me and looked up to see a cat I had never seen before. I was already on red alert, from the stuff from yesterday, so I looked around, and seeing he was alone I asked what's up.
"Nothing much, you got a cigarette, bruh." Dude said.
"Naw," I said, shaking my head, "I don't smoke them cancer sticks."
The dude just grunted and nodded one time, looking behind me. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was old boy from down the street, still bruised up from me kicking his ass. He was smiling. And then I felt a splitting pain in my head, and everything went dark.
*****
Annette
I heard laughing, rude awakening laughter coming from the gangway on the side of the apartment building. Who was that? I inched closer, listening, but not looking out.
"We got his ass good." One boy said.
"Yeah, stupid ass dude, he thought I was some punk from the burbs. He better know now, I got goons too." I recognized the voice of the boy downstairs, and I knew they were talking about Christian.
"Now we going to wait on that little shit from upstairs. He was in on it too, I don't know the other dude but if I see him, it's like that for him."
My heart dropped. I couldn't even breathe. They had done something to Christian and now they were looking for my brother. I had to warn Charlie and then we had to get deep and get at old boy, he was clearly underestimating our hood.
I quickly pulled on a tank top and some shorts and ran downstairs, straight to the block. I ran to one house after another, looking for my brother, finally finding him at his partner's house.
"Charlie," I said, hugging him.
"Yo, what's up, sis?" he said. He grabbed my arms to stop me from pulling him out of the house.
"They jumped Christian and they looking for you. I haven't even seen him yet. I was so busy looking for you. Come on, we got to go see if he was okay."
"Who?" The homeboy Static asked.
I looked around and noticed I had a crowd. The whole hood was there, wanting to know what happened. I quickly explained and started towards home. Oh, it was about to go down for show now. When I headed home, many people said they were coming. This hood was like the musketeers, all for one and one for all.
"Ma," I called, bursting through the doors.
"What? Anna, what's wrong?" she asked.
"No time to explain. Get Tony and get outside."
She already had my baby brother in her arms, and I guess I got my point across because she headed for the door. I stopped by Ciara's and told them to and made my way outside.
As soon as I got out there, I saw Christian's brother walking calmly towards our building.
"If anybody in there you care about, Ann, get them out now." He said deadly calm.
"We already out," I said, getting behind him.
"That's all I need to know," He said and pulled out the same gun from the 'incident' and proceeded to fire at the apartment downstairs. "Come outside now bitch, you want to jump my brother? Yawl caught him slipping. Bring your bitch ass out or your whole family going to get it."
I heard more shots and looked to my left to see Christian walking up, also holding a pistol. He looked mad as hell. His whole face was red, his hair neatly braided from when I did it yesterday. He had a fire in his eyes and a gun in his hands. His shirt was off. Was this a bad time for me to zero in on how sexy he looked? He was shooting away, and when he stopped to reload, he looked at me. For a moment, his eyes softened, and he almost smiled.
Then, as something came flying out the window, his eyes hardened again. They had set the front yard on fire, it was quickly consuming the front yard. I ran right, trying to get closer to my mama, and saw Charlie coming down the street with the whole hood behind him. On some real shit, this was getting serious. Someone might not make it from this spot today.
Just as the hood was getting closer and the fire more out of control, the police arrived, along with a fire truck. I took in the paddy wagons. There were two as if they were ready to lock us all up. I saw all the guys from the hood head in different directions. I saw Christian being pulled down the street by his brother the whole time, his eyes on me.
I wanted to go with him, but I knew it would be best if I got lost in case I was named during the break-in. So, I headed to the block with everyone else.
An hour later, I made my way back, carefully hiding behind some buildings. The police were there, along with the father of the family downstairs, my mom, Christian, and his aunt. They were all talking. Well, the man downstairs was talking, and I could tell by Christian's body language he wasn't liking what he was saying.
His shirt was still off, every muscle was tight as the strings on a guitar, and his fist was bald tight. He was staring at the ground, and he seemed to fight something within himself. Suddenly, a police officer moved behind him and started to put him in cuffs.
I moved forward yelling stop before I even knew what I was doing. Suddenly Christian broke free of the cop and molly whopped the father. He fell almost in slow motion. Just as Christian straightened up, he was hit in the face with a spray of mace.
His scream cut off the circulation to my heart. I dropped to the ground where he was at. I looked up at my mother from his side, where I was kneeling. "What can we do?"
"He needs water, lots of it." My mama said.
"He's going to jail," Cop one said.
"At least let me get this out of his eyes," I screamed.
He started to protest but cop two said, "Go ahead."
I started calling names and told them to bring big cups of water. In a matter of minutes, I had an assembly line coming from my house to Christian, who was laying in my lap, eyes closed.
"It's okay baby, I got you," I said.
"They going to lock me up Ann, I'm so sorry. My temper..."
"Sh, it's okay babe, just try to relax,"
"He said he was going to press charges on me. He was even laughing. I clucked his ass, didn't I boo."
"Christian, will you be quiet and let me help you. You know the police are here right, you don't need to talk about this in front of them."
"Okay, babe."
Once the mace was out, they loaded him into the paddy wagon. His aunt said his mother was on her way and the police agreed to wait for her. They could release him into her custody.
Suddenly I was shaken. His mom was coming. I was going to meet his mother under these circumstances. I just hoped that she wasn't too mad at him. Christian had talked little about his mom. I had never even thought to ask about her. I pictured a lady version of him with an attitude like my mom's.
That was squashed, however, when she arrived. She was pissed once he was released from the cops, and we all stood outside. She smacked him twice in the face. I hid behind my mother, not wanting to say anything to disrespect his mama, but it was on the tip of my tongue.
"You out here clowning, boy. Got the law on your ass. Fucking up again, I should send you juvenile for this. I had to get out of my bed and come here to get you to cause you tripping, over some skanky ass hoe Lil girl. Go get your shit, you coming home now."
I watched as he walked into his aunt's apartment, head down, shoulders slumped. Damn, it was even worse than I thought she was blaming me. In part, she was right.
"Excuse me," My mama said, coming forward. "Can I ask your name?"
"Linda."
"Well Linda, let's get something straight. My daughter is not a hoe or a skank. What Christian did was his choice and his alone. Do take heed and watch who you talking around. The only reason I'm not kicking your ass is that you are his mother, so you get a pass. Just one, don't fuck up again."
"My son was a good boy until he met your daughter. He has never been in trouble with the law."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," My mama said, "I met your son, and he is not a good boy, and you know it. Don't sugarcoat it now."
"Whatever, believe he will never see your daughter again. I forbid it." His mother yelled, breaking my heart.
"You are his mother," mama said.
I watched him come out looking hurt and angry. He didn't even look at me. I was seeing him for what I thought was the last time, and he wouldn't even look at me. Life sucked sometimes.