“What’s going on, young blood?” one of the smokers asked as he approached Trent and Nicole.
“You know. Same ol’ same. Just trying to make a dollar or two,” Trent replied.
The guy shook his head. “Come here and let an old head learn you something real quick,” the smoker suggested. Trent stepped to the side where only he was in earshot.
“What’s going on?” Trent asked, not sure of what the smoker wanted or if he was trying to buy dope on credit.
“Yeah, they found that young boy shot up in the dumpster, and people are tagging your name to it, so I’m just letting you know to watch yourself out here because Brody and his team been hot out here for a minute. Thing is there were no witnesses, but I’m just giving you a heads up,” the smoker stated.
“Nah, I don’t know nothing about that,” Trent responded, “but good looking out, though.”
Trent handed the guy a dub sack.
“Well, just keep your eyes and ears glued. You know the streets are talking,” the man said before he walked away. That little bit of information was all that Trent needed to hear. Now, he really had to watch his back. Trent wasn’t paranoid, but he liked to stay two steps ahead of everyone. He gave half the sack to Nicole and stated, “You know what to do, baby girl.”
He didn’t wait for a response. He just walked off, and she went the other way. That night in the park was moving too slow for Trent. He didn’t plan to stay any longer than two hours at the most. Trent, at times, kept watching over his shoulders for a just in case moment. He didn’t want to be caught slipping, and he wasn’t trying to go out like a sucker.
On the other hand, the fiends were loving Nicole. Each one she stepped to made sure they copped a nickel or a dime from her. One thought he was slick when he asked her for a dub and handed her a lot of ones, so she would be thrown off, but Nicole was much smarter than that.
“Aye! Hold up, my nigga. Make sure you count that before you put it my hand,” Nicole said harshly. The smoker looked a little nervous, but then he began to count.
“I only have seventeen,” the smoker said, but Nicole wasn’t buying into it.
“Come back when you have the full dub. I’m not taking no shorts or losses,” Nicole said, leaving the man to stand there to marinate on what she had just said.
Trent thought his eyes were deceiving him when he looked up and saw Wiz talking to a lady across the street. It had been five years since Trent had killed his cousin. He made sure to stand out of Wiz’s view, but he made sure he could see him. He had thought Marcos was lying earlier, but seeing him in the flesh put him on high alert. Trent checked his waistband, but his glock wasn’t on him.
“Shit,” Trent cursed to himself. Now, he had to make an exit out the park without being noticed.
Nicole walked up behind him and said, “Are you ready? I’m hungry, and I have a class in the morning.”
“Yeah. Yeah. We can roll out,” Trent replied, making eye contact with Wiz.
Nicole sensed that Trent was shaken up about something, but, when she asked, he cut her off, saying, “I ain’t never spooked.”
Trent wasn’t sure if Wiz noticed him because, after making eye contact, he turned his back and kept right on talking.
A smile spread across Wiz’s face when he saw Trent. He acted as if he was talking to a lady just to make sure it was really him. His plan was to look like he was conversing with this white lady, but the only thing she was talking about was herself. He turned to meet Trent’s stare for a moment. Then, he turned back to throw him off, to make it look like he really hadn’t seen him. Wiz thought, Pay back is a mutha, bitch! Then, he, too, headed to his car to go back home. He knew what his next move would be. Wiz figured, since he couldn’t get the one he wanted, that he might as well take the one Trent loved.
Wiz wanted to make sure that Trent suffered the same pain he had suffered when he took out his younger cousin. Wiz wasn’t able to attend the funeral because he and his family had to flee the U.S., but, now, he was back. Wiz had his mind on his target, and he was ready for it to play out. His trigger finger was itching, and he knew he had to act fast.
When Trent arrived back at Nicole’s apartment, Ms. Johnson was on Nicole as soon as they entered. She was on her hard. With her hands on her hips and her mouth twitching, she demanded, “Bitch, where the fuck you been?”
“Mom, calm down. You don’t need to know where I’ve been,” Nicole answered, embarrassed by her mother’s actions.
“What the fuck you mean ‘you don’t need to know where I’ve been’? You don’t pay a dime in this house, so I have every right to know your every move. I’m not going to ask you again. Where the fuck were you?” Ms. Johnson was growing impatient by the second.
“You must be high cuz you’re showing out in front of your friends. Please leave me alone?” Nicole asked, walking towards her room with Trent in tow.
Ms. Johnson lashed out at her daughter and pushed her down the hall. “You’re a big, bad-ass shit talker, huh? Don’t make me beat your ass,” she yelled.
Nicole laughed at her mother’s failed attempt to get her mad. She continued to her room, slamming the door in her mom’s face. Nicole wasn’t trying to let her mother get under her skin, but, sometimes, she knew which buttons to push. Her mother stood outside of her door, cursing. Nicole turned on her stereo and turned the volume high to drown her mother out. While all of this was happening, Trent took off his shirt, jeans, and shoes, and got under the covers.
“Aye! Turn that shit down, man,” Trent said.
Nicole did as she was told. “I’m sorry about that. My momma can be so damn annoying. I swear she does this stupid shit all the time,” Nicole said, sounding sorry for herself.
“No need to apologize. Your mom is gonna be who she is. Don’t beat yourself up over it. There’s nothing you can do about it,” Trent sympathized as Nicole stared at the ground with tears in her eyes.
As he massaged her shoulder, he said, “It will be okay. You don’t have to cry.”
Truth of the matter was she was crying because she didn’t know how to tell Trent that she was carrying his child. Although she should have been happy, she wasn’t because she wasn’t his woman, and it hurt like hell. Nicole became lost in a trance as she contemplated whether she should keep it a secret or not. When she came out of her deep thought, Nicole saw that Trent was sound asleep. She didn’t even bother to wake him. She quietly exited her room and went to the bathroom, so she could take a shower. As she showered, she thought about how displeased she was with herself and the outcome of her life. She didn’t know why she had chosen a life of destruction. After her shower, Nicole wrapped up in a towel. When she entered her room, she didn’t see Trent lying down in the bed. She called out for him, but he didn’t respond. She noticed that his belongings were still where he had left them. Nicole walked around the apartment. She walked into the kitchen, but he wasn’t there. She looked outside, but she still didn’t see Trent anywhere, but his truck was there. While she was walking back towards her room, she noticed the door to her mother’s room was cracked. he could hear low moans. Nicole’s heart skipped a beat, and her head started spinning.
“I know this is not happening to me?” Nicole told herself as she opened the door to her mother’s room and confirmed that it was Trent’s voice she had heard.
“Mmm. Yeah. Slurp on this dick, ma,” Trent said as his moans grew louder.
An uncontrollable rage grew in Nicole. How could she be betrayed like this? She burst into the room and charged at her mother. “You nasty ass bitch!” Nicole grabbed the back of her mother’s head and slammed her head against the wall.