Chapter Seventeen
Mouse
I couldn’t help but to notice how good and stylish Crystal looked as she climbed out of her boyfriend’s burgundy Benz that sat on twenty-two-inch chrome rims. She was Gucci the fuck down from her shoes to her expensive handbag and looked like she was ready to hit the red carpet at a Hollywood event. Hair done up, nails done, Crystal was my bitch, EBV for life. But now she moved on to better things. She was dating Dodo, a major muthafucka with the YGC. He was a heavy hitter moving serious weight in the Bronx and making a name for himself. She was in love with him. I wanted to be in her position, being with a man who was financially stable and in love, but I refused to deal with that hustler’s lifestyle. It came with too much drama. Tango and I were sort of working out, but we both were still struggling and learning about each other. The good thing though, he told me he had gotten the construction job, so things were starting to look up.
Crystal spotted me exiting the bodega and we both became jovial. “What up, bitch,” she screamed happily my way.
“Crystal, what up,” I hollered with a smile from ear to ear. I hurried her way and we hugged each other like sisters. It was so good to see her again. “Look at you, looking like a star,” I said.
“My man takes really good care of me,” she replied.
Dodo climbed out from the driver’s side and walked our way. He was tall, at least six foot one with a lean build, narrow face, and intense hazel eyes. He was light-skinned with no facial hair and a pretty boy who was tatted up with gang literature and bejeweled in gold and diamonds indicating his wealthy status. It was all street money.
He looked me up and down and then said to Crystal, “I’ll be in the store, babe. You need sumthin’?”
“Yeah, get me a pack of Newports and some chips.”
He nodded and left her side. He was very attractive, I admitted that, but he reminded me of Rico all over again: trouble. However, I kept my feelings about Crystal’s man all to myself. It wasn’t my business to let her know how I felt about him. We all had to learn on our own. I sure did. It was about reconnecting with an old friend and not creating any drama with a friend. I already was not speaking to Sammy; I didn’t want to burn any more bridges.
“So what you been up to, Mouse?” Crystal asked.
I wasn’t ready to tell her my business. My life was harsh. Her life was peaches and cream, for now anyway. “You know, just tryin’ to do me and make it happen.”
“How’s ya daughter?”
“Eliza is doin’ good,” I replied pleasantly. “She’s getting big.”
“I bet she is. I gotta see her.”
“You do.”
“You look good though, Mouse. I see you gaining some weight, and in the right places. Look at you, bitch, all thick and shit,” Crystal said, eyeing me up and down. “Damn, ya booty got big, too.”
“Me, I see you all styled up and shit. Gucci.”
“Mouse, you always knew I loved my Gucci, and my man is taking very good care of me. He’s spoiling me and I’m spoiling him, if you know what I mean.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, I know what ya mean.”
“You still beefin’ wit’ Sammy?” she out of the blue asked me.
It was a question I didn’t want to hear or answer. My facial expression told her the truth: we weren’t speaking still. I hadn’t seen Sammy in months.
“Damn,” Crystal uttered. “I hate to see y’all not talkin’. Both of y’all were tight like sisters.”
“Yeah, we were,” I chimed. “But everything comes to an end.”
“Y’all didn’t though.”
I started to get upset that Crystal brought the bitch up. I didn’t know what she was trying to resolve, but it wasn’t going to work. And if she continued bringing Sammy up, then we weren’t going to be friends anymore either.
“Sammy is yesteryear,” I said. “I’m tryin’ to move forward and do me.”
“I feel you, Mouse. I got a good man and we got a nice spot of our own in Yonkers and he gonna buy me my first car soon. I’m doin’ good, yo. I feel good, I look good and me and my boo comin’ up,” she proclaimed affably.
“That’s good to hear, Crystal. I’m so glad to see you happy.”
“I am happy.”
I wished we all could say the same. Seeing Crystal looking like a million bucks reminded me of the time Rico had me looking like that. It was all a dream nevertheless, an illusion, something very transient, smoke and mirrors, because when it comes to an end, crashing down, which it will eventually, the wifey, the girlfriend of that hustler, gets hit the hardest. Really hard. It almost felt like I was underneath the Twin Towers when they collapsed and I became trapped underneath the rubble. Yeah, it sounded like I was hating on my girl, but I wasn’t. I knew the future and I wanted to warn her, but I knew she wasn’t going to listen. We never do.
Crystal and I talked briefly, catching up on old or lost time. Her smile was golden and the bling she wore could purchase a small house. Dodo had his woman shining like a gem. She was riding around the hood in his chariot and feeling like royalty. It’s what hustlers do: make their woman feel supreme so we could be blinded by the bullshit coming soon.
Dodo stepped out of the bodega with his lips pulling on a Black & Mild. He looked around his surroundings briefly and I could tell he was packing heat underneath his jacket. He screamed danger. He looked our way and hollered to Crystal, “Babe, let’s go.”
Crystal jumped to his command. She quickly said to me, “Mouse, we need to definitely link up and talk. I’ll call you.”
I watched Crystal accelerate her way toward the parked Benz and get into the passenger side. Dodo gazed at me briefly and climbed into the driver’s side. I wondered why he was looking at me like that. Did he think I was telling his woman something? I wasn’t. But I wasn’t about to worry myself. I had problems of my own.
The Benz ignited and Dodo slowly pulled away from the curb with Crystal looking my way, waving magnanimously at me. It was the end of a generation, the EBV girls: Edenwald Blood Vixens. We were nothing to play with back in the days; now it felt like we were a dying breed. Tina dead. Meme and La-La locked up, and a few others dead too. I felt like the last bitch standing.
I walked away feeling nostalgic. What happened to all of us? We used to be tight like a mayonnaise jar. Now we were all scattered in different directions, most of us struggling, surviving while few of us were making it.
I really hoped to see Crystal again.
I had this rhyme inside my head that I was ready to spit. It was about old times:
There was a time when we used to shine like Chicago crime
Thought we were gonna age together like fine wine, we were so lifted
Too high to ever come down, the stratosphere was our mile high
BX we rule, the streets we moved . . . any beef comin’ through
We devoured like cooked food, we were the five points on a crown
It’s hard to see time split us by, when we were solid like concrete
Unbreakable like Alicia, platinum like Keyshia.
Tina was the beast; La-La and Meme were dynamic in these streets,
Crystal was the prettiest to be, and Sammy and me,
We ran like kings, fuck queens . . . now things are no longer what they used to be
Time made us enemies; distance made us a memory, damn,
I want things to go back the way they used to be
When EBV was forever on the scene.