Chapter Twenty One
Living It
Last night, Precious had gotten all the attention she craved from Melquan. Things were back to reality when she awoke the next morning. She was alone and Melquan was with his main chick, doing only God knows what.
Precious checked the time on her cable box. It was 11:30 a.m. Her next move was to check her cellphone to see if she had missed any calls from Melquan, Mike Copeland, or any of the workers. There were none. Slowly she began suspecting something was wrong.
She began wondering what Mike Copeland was really doing in her house last night. Precious looked where the stash used to be and that was gone, so were the guns. It finally dawned on Precious. Melquan had clearly left and shitted on her. she quickly dialed his digits and he picked up.
“Melquan that shit ain’t funny. What you did last night was really fucked up! Hold up, I can’t hear you,” Precious screamed into her cellphone.
“What ya talkin’ ’bout…?” he asked still chuckling.
“How could you pull some bullshit stunt like what you fucking did..?”
“I don’t know—”
“Melquan don’t play stupid with me. You know exactly what I’m talking about! You had Mike Copeland take all da guns and drugs out of the apartment while me and you were in the bathroom. Then I’m sitting there wondering why nobody ain’t call me all day…? Why you do that?”
“A’ight Precious, ya want da truth? Ya violated. Like I told ya before, anybody but him...”
“Oh, so I’m not down no more, Melquan?”
“Ya ass his-story now!”
“Mel, Nashawn and I didn’t even do nothing. He took me to the movies and then we went and got sumthin to eat. Ain’t nothin’ happen, Melquan… Please believe me. I only did it to make you jealous.”
“Yeah, you really expect me to believe that shit, huh? A bitch like ya could easily set a nigga up.”
“Melquan, after all this time we been dealin’ with each other, you just gonna cut me out of your life like that, huh?”
“Bitch, ya shouldn’t have put yaself in this position. So ya only got ya ass to thank.”
“After all I did? This how you reward me, huh? I held you down. Kept your stash, I sucked your dick when you need me to, fucked you whenever, wherever you wanted. And you straight shitted on me, Melquan!”
There was a moment of silence, but Precious heard what she thought was laughter coming from the other end. It made her furious.
“You dirty muthafucka!”
“Chill with all da name callin’, just go see Mike Copeland. Tell him to give you a couple a dollars for ya pockets. It’s your severance pay, bitch! After that we even.”
There was a long pause between them. It was as if the line had gone dead. Precious swallowed back the tears.
“You there?” he asked.
“You know Melquan, you can’t be possibly serious. You can’t just fuck me over like that! I don’t deserve it. All I was doin’ was tryin’ to get your attention.”
“That you did… Precious, ya can take it how ya wanna take it. Our business is over for now, and that’s all I got to say.”
“What!”
“At the end of day, I still got mad love for ya, but I certainly ain’t in love with ya ass!”
“Melquan, fuck you alright! Fuck you! You can take that shit and shove it up your fuckin’ ass! You’re gonna get yours, Melquan! You hear me, muthafucka!” Precious screamed loudly.
Standing and gazing out of the window of his project building, Melquan and Mike Copeland gave each other daps on the execution of their plan.
“I told you, Melquan, I knew she knew sumthin when I seen da bitch earlier today. She just rolled her eyes at me.”
“Yeah, she was tight. When I told her she wasn’t down anymore, she fuckin’ screamed her fuckin’ head off. She sound like she might do sumthin stupid…” Melquan’s voice trailed.
Mike Copeland eyes were trained on him, anxiously awaiting his doubts to be revealed. Melquan was thinking too long.
“Whatcha talkin’ ’bout, my dude? She gon’ do sump’n? Like what?”
“Call po-po… I mean she still knows a lot—”
“I wish da bitch would. I’ll murder her ass so fast!”
“Mike, did put that stash where I told you to?”
“You know I did. Don’t worry about that, we good.”
“Now you see why I told you to put everything up, right? You were careful so that nobody followed you, right? I mean you made sure, right?”
“Yeah, what you think my dude? I’m a security risk? I got this.”
A sudden knock on the door alerted Melquan. Mike Copeland grabbed his gun. He had it cocked and ready before Melquan peeped out. Smiling, Melquan opened the door.
“What’s good, shorty?”
“Melquan,” Sheron greeted, walking into the apartment.
He gave Mike Copeland dap and walked over to Melquan, embracing him and showing him much love.
“Yeah shorty, that’s da fuck I’m talkin’ ’bout right there! How you?”
“I’m okay…”
“Yeah, that’s good. So where you comin’ from?”
“School…”
“How was school?”
“It’s good. But today, my friend almost got me in trouble.”
“Word…? What happened?”
“Well, he threw a paper at me. I threw it back. The teacher saw me and not him.”
“So, did you tell on your friend?”
“No,” Sheron immediately said. “That’s my friend. Why would I do that for?”
“That’s good. Never tell, especially on your friends. You hear me, shorty?”
“Yeah, but I already knew that. I ain’t no snitch, Melquan. I wasn’t gonna tell.”
“Yeah, and you better keep it like that, feel me, shorty!” Mike said, intervening.
“Be easy, Mike…” Melquan’s voice trailed.
Mike walked to the kitchen, leaving Melquan beaming from what the kid told him. He was that proud of what Sheron did, and admired the quality he deemed good in Sheron. Melquan pulled out a knot, and peeled off a couple of bills.
“Get some new sneaks and jeans with that. Keep the rest on the low. You hear me, right?”
“Thanks, Melquan.
“Lemme ask you sumthin shorty, you don’t give your mom any of that money I give you, right?”
“No, you gave it to me. So that means only I’m the one who’s supposed to have it.”
“That’s right. Do not give your mother nothing, you hear me? Not even one dime…” Melquan’s voice trailed and he sunk deep into his thoughts. After a few beats he spoke. “I don’t know if it’s my place to tell you this, but I will. Your mother’s on drugs.”
“I know,” Sheron said, nodding his head.
“What…? How do you know?”
“Whenever she comes in from outside… She goes straight in her room. And when she comes out, she be actin’ all funny. Like somebody is chasin’ her. She makes me stay in my room and cut off the TV.”
“Word…?”
“Word up…”
“How does that make you feel, shorty?”
“I feel bad sometimes, especially when there’s no food. And she keep tellin’ me she’s goin’ to the store to get something to eat… I feel bad when she starts walkin’ around the apartment naked like she going crazy…”
“Sheron, when you get hungry and she ain’t around, just come knock on my door, like you did today,” Melquan said in a saddened tone.
“Okay…”
“I’m a leave word with my mother to take care of you. Whatever you want, you let her know.”
“Yep…”
“I mean if you need a place to sleep, you got that too, right?”
“Okay…”
Melquan gave Sheron dap. By the time Mike Copeland returned to the room, Sheron was already out the door. Mike Copeland glanced around the living room before speaking.
“I know you think it real cool. But really, I don’t think it’s a good idea to have shorty up here. You be too trustin’ my dude. See what we had to do with Precious, huh? We runnin’ out a places.”
“Nah, shorty’s good. You heard what he said, right?”
“Yeah, but you never know who his so-called good ass be talkin’ innocently with.”
Melquan and Mike Copeland walked down the stairs and stood outside the building. Across the avenue, Justice and his dreadlocks friend were sitting in a late model tinted window Cadillac, observing them.
“There goes that nigga, Melquan right there. He wearing the blue Yankee fitted and the other dude in the black Yankee is Mike Copeland, the shooter,” Justice said, pointing out the window of the Caddy.
“That’s him, huh?” the dread asked. “You sure ‘bout dat…?”
“Positive…”
“How we gonna bag that nigga? Him and his man always together and shit.”
“Yeah they are, except when they’re home. I’m sure they don’t sleep together. Divide and conquer,” Justice smiled.
