After they left Daddy’s House, Shai let Swann talk him into hitting up a local bar. Shai’s good mind told him to take his ass home, but after about twenty-minutes of Swann giving him grief over it, he relented. He told himself that he was only going to have one drink and spend no more than an hour out with the fellas, but a half bottle of tequila and three hours later, he was still perched on the same bar stool.
Just hanging around the bar, drinking and trading war stories was no big deal to Swann, but to Shai it represented the most fun he had in months. Over the last few years, he had spent so much time trying to figure out how to be a good and fair king, that he had forgotten how to be just a regular kid. If only for a few hours it felt good to not be a boss, but just an average twenty-something-year-old getting drunk at a bar.
He looked around the room curiously, watching the people in the spot. The crowd had damn near doubled since from the time they walked in. At a table near the back, he noticed some guys sitting with their girls. One in particular, a brown-skinned girl in a blue dress, was slyly watching Shai for most of the night. He shook his head sadly. Even though she was obviously with someone, she was still checking Shai out. It just went to show how trifling some women were. This made him thankful that he had a good one at home.
“Slim, I’m glad you decided to come out with us tonight,” Swann said as he draped his arm around Shai’s shoulder. From the way his words were beginning to slur, he was obviously drunk. “I miss this kinda shit.”
“Me too,” Shai said honestly.
“Yo, from here I’m gonna shoot to this spot in Midtown. My homegirl is the bartender so we can drink for free all night,” Swann told him.
Shai looked at his watch. “Nah, it’s getting late. I should probably be getting home.”
“Shai, it ain’t even midnight. Come fuck with me, bro!” Swann tried to convince him.
“Another time, Swann. I’m still in the doghouse for the shit I pulled at the baby shower. Best I get back before it gets too late.”
Swann wasn’t happy, but he understood. “Aight. I gotta go take a leak before we jet.”
“Cool, I’ll meet you outside.” Shai slid off the barstool. “I need to get some air before I jump on the road to take that drive back to Jersey.”
“I’ll be out in a second.” Swann staggered off to the bathroom while Shai walked out.
The night air helped to clear some of the fog from Shai’s head. He was buzzed but not quite drunk, which is why he decided to quit while he was ahead. The last thing he needed was a DUI on his record. All he wanted to do was get home and snuggle up under his lady. Thinking of Honey made him remember that he hadn’t spoken to her since he’d left the house. He’d been so caught up with his boys that it had slipped his mind. He whipped out his cell phone and hit speed dial.
“Oh, so you finally remembered you had a woman at home?” Honey started right in.
“My fault, babe. I was caught up handling business,” Shai told her.
“Seems like you’re caught up a lot these days,” she said with an attitude.
“Look, I didn’t call to argue. I was just trying to see if you needed anything when I come in?”
“What I need is my man to start spending more time at home than in the streets, chasing pussy with his dumb ass friends,” Honey barked.
“First of all, I ain’t chasing no pussy. And second of all, when is the last time I hung out? That pregnancy got you bugging the fuck out lately.” Shai was starting to get frustrated. He was having a good night and she was blowing his mood.
“How am I bugging because I want you to be more attentive to me than your friends?” she asked.
As Honey was going in on him, Shai noticed the girl in the blue dress come out of the bar with one of her friends. From the way they were giggling, he could tell they were tipsy. Blue Dress’ eyes landed on Shai, and she whispered something to her friend before heading in his direction. He could smell trouble coming.
“You got a light, handsome?” Blue Dress asked. She had a joint pinched between her painted lips.
“Who the fuck was that?” Honey demanded to know on the other end of the phone.
“Nobody…just some girl. I don’t know…” Shai tried to explain.
“Shai, you are so full of shit.” She didn’t believe him. “You know what, I hope that bitch has got somewhere for you to lay your head tonight, because your ass ain’t welcomed here!”
“Honey? Honey?” Shai spoke into the phone, but she had already ended the call. “Fuck!”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get you into trouble.” Blue Dress said.
“It ain’t your fault.” Shai fished a lighter from his pocket and lit the cigarette for her.
“I know you from somewhere, don’t I?” Blue Dress exhaled a cloud of smoke.
“Nah, baby. I don’t think so.”
“I’m pretty sure I do.” She studied his face. “Didn’t you used to play ball for N.C. State?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?” Shai was surprised.
“I’m an alum; graduated last year,” she told him. “Nice to bump into a fellow Wolf.” She extended the joint to Shai.
“Nice indeed,” he said as he accepted it.
Shai and Blue Dress hadn’t even been chatting for two minutes when the dudes her and her girls had been sitting with came spilling out of the bar. They were drunk and rowdy. The loudest of them was a short, squat dude rocking his hair in cornrows. When he saw that Blue Dress wasn’t amongst the girls, a scowl came over his face.
“I think your boyfriend is looking for you,” Shai told her.
Blue Dress sucked her teeth. “He ain’t my boyfriend, just a nigga who was buying me drinks thinking it would help him get into my panties.”
“Still, maybe it’s best we part ways.” Shai handed her the joint back.
“Yo, what the fuck?” the squat man cursed. Shai had been right when he smelled trouble earlier. “Who this nigga you all over here all cozy with?” he questioned as he walked over.
“Ain’t nobody getting cozy, we just talking,” Blue Dress said with an attitude.
“I’m in there blowing my cash on drinks and you trying to slide with this nigga?” The squat man was becoming hostile.
“And so what if I was? It’s my pussy and I can give it to whoever I want.” Blue Dress snaked her neck.
“Dig this, my man - I ain’t trying to step on your toes. As a matter of fact, I’m gonna leave y’all to work out your issues.” Shai tried to walk off, but Blue Dress grabbed his arm.
“You ain’t gotta leave, baby. This nigga is just talking. He ain’t gonna do shit,” Blue Dress taunted her date.
“Damn, he stole ya bitch, kid!” one of the squat man’s friends instigated from the sidelines.
“What? You trying to play me?” the squat man took the bait and got in Shai’s face.
“I don’t want any trouble.” Shai told him.
“Too bad, because you got it,” the squat man replied, before punching Shai in the face.
Shai staggered from the blow, with spots dancing in front of his eyes. He touched his hand to his lip and his fingers came away bloody.
“Yeah, pretty boy. Do something!” the squat man challenged. Shai happily accepted.
Shai had never been much of a fighter, but that didn’t mean he was incapable of defending himself. He fired off a lightning fast combination, tagging the squat man in his face several times. The squat man tried to retaliate, but Shai moved like the wind, raining blows on his face. The squat man went down, and Shai moved in to finish him off when someone sucker punched him. Instead of a one-on-one fight, it was now a three-on-one. Shai slipped on something and lost his balance, falling on his hands and knees. Before he could get up, the three men were on him, punching and kicking him. Shai thought it was over for him until he heard the unmistakable BOOM of a gun being fired. The attackers hurriedly backed away from Shai, allowing him to regain his wits. When he looked up, he saw Swann holding a smoking pistol.
“You good?” Swann asked Shai.
“Yeah, I’m straight.” Shai picked himself up off the ground and assessed the damage. He had a busted lip and his knuckles were scraped, but he was otherwise unharmed.
When Swann saw the blood on Shai, he became irate. “Oh, you niggas is going night-night for this shit!” He drew on the terrified attackers, intending to kill all three of them, but Shai stopped him.
“I said I’m good!” Shai assured him. “Let’s just get out of here.”
“Only reason niggas talking tough is because they strapped,” Shai heard someone mumble as they were walking away, followed by a chorus of snickers. They were only words, but they hit Shai in the back like a physical shove. He had always been Poppa’s good son, the one who always turned the other cheek, but he was getting tired of trying to be diplomatic in a society of people who only understood one thing. A storm began to build in Shai’s gut and pushed its way into his heart. Without warning, he snatched the gun from Swann and turned back.
“One of y’all got something you need to say?” Shai approached the three men, who were no longer snickering. No one said anything, but the squat man was glaring at Shai like he wanted to keep the issue going. “You a tough guy, huh?”
“You got it.” The squat man raised his hands in surrender.
“You know what? I don’t want it,” Shai said, before cracking him in the head with the gun. When the squat man hit the ground, Shai straddled his chest. “I’m sick of muthafuckas like you thinking shit sweet!” He began hitting him over and over. “I ain’t no fucking sucka!” he kept repeating while bashing the squat man in the face. Long after he had stopped moving, Shai continued to hit him.
Swann was on the sidelines laughing at the whole scene. It wasn’t until he realized that Shai intended to kill the man that he stepped in. “Aight, that’s enough. He’s learned his lesson,” he said as he pulled Shai off him.
Shai stood over the fallen man, chest heaving and heart full of rage, the squat man’s smug face now a mess of bruises and blood. Though he was no longer moving, Shai still wanted to keep pummeling him. Shai had never lost control like that, and much to his surprise, it felt good. He could have very well killed the man and doubted he’d have lost a wink of sleep over it. Something about this unexplored side of his brain he’d just tapped into filled him with something that made his heart swell with a feeling that strangely felt like joy. He turned to Blue Dress, and the look of adoration she’d been giving him earlier was gone, replaced by one of fear.
“Come on before we catch a case.” Swann pulled Shai down the block towards where the car was parked. “What was that all about?” he asked when they reached the Lexus.
“Nothing,” Shai said, hitting the door locks. “That was more than nothing, Shai. You checked out back there.”
“Them fools tried to kick my ass, what the fuck was I supposed to do?” Shai snapped.
Swann raised his hands in surrender. “Hey man, I ain’t complaining. I’m just a little shocked, that’s all.”
“Sometimes you just gotta get it out of your system,” Shai said, opening the driver’s side door. “I’m sorry for fucking the night up.”
“You didn’t fuck it up, Slim, just made it more interesting. So what’s up, we gonna keep the party going or what? We still got time to catch my homegirl’s spot downtown.”
“Nah, I don’t too much feel like it. I’m gonna go for a drive and clear my head,” Shai told him.
“You need me to roll with you?” Swann asked.
“I’m cool. Do ya thing. You need me to drop you off at your car?” Shai slid behind the wheel.
“Nah, I’m too drunk to be driving all the way back from Jersey. I’ll jump in a cab and pick my whip up in the morning. Call me when you get home.” Swann tapped the hood of the car.
*
Shai rode around New York for a while, windows down and music blasting. He wasn’t sure where he was headed, but he felt like he just had to keep moving. All the adrenaline from the fight had burned through the alcohol, so he wasn’t drunk anymore; just wired and frustrated. He thought about going home, then remembered that Honey was on some bullshit. The last thing he needed was to walk into her bullshit after all he’d been through, so he just kept coasting until a better idea struck him.
He pulled over at a bodega and hopped out to get a bottle of water, and as he was patting his pockets for his money, he came across Monet’s business card.