That East Side Love

  That East Side Love

  By: Lucinda John

  That Eastside Love

  Copyright © 2015 by Lucinda John

  Published by Shan Presents

  www.shanpresents.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the author.

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  Chapter 1

  Diamond

  April 3rd 1999, I burst out of my mama’s slimy pussy and entered this grimy ass world. As a child, life for me wasn’t really that bad. I was born into a well-off family; my mother was a Social Worker and my father, an Accountant. We lived in a beautiful house that sat right on Fort Lauderdale Beach. I remember when I would have a bad dream my father would always take me outside on the balcony and sway me in his arms, until the soothing sounds of the waves crashing against the shore put me to sleep.

  Boy how shit has changed! My father was no longer an Accountant; he was now a full time flak head. We no longer lived in that beautiful house on the beach; we now lived in a small family home in the East Side of Fort Lauderdale. My mother still worked as a Social Worker and was the only source of income we had. The only fucked up thing was my little sister Kay and I no longer existed to my mother. She was so busy working her ass off to support that monkey that was on my father’s back, that our needs were no longer her priority.

  It was real ironic how a woman could walk into someone’s home and take their children away, knowing she was an unfit mother herself. At the age of fifteen I had to play the mother role to my five-year-old sister. Everything she needed I had to get for her. I remember one school year I made the mistake of asking my mother for help purchasing her school clothes and the response I got made me want to body that hoe. How could a mother put her druggie husband before her innocent children? Hell, we ain’t asked to be here. We were better off still sitting in my father’s nut sack.

  “Kay, wake up for school,” I said gently shaking her.

  Although we lived in a three bedroom, I didn’t trust Kay having her own room so I moved all of her things into mine. I’ve been around my father when he was high and he acted as if he lost the little mind he had. I didn’t want to risk anything happening to her so I kept her with me everywhere I went. She wasn’t allowed to stay home if I wasn’t there with her, parents or not. Kay was my heart and I’ll be damned if I allowed anything to happen to her.

  “I’m still tired, DeeDee,” she whined, wiping the cold out of the corner of her eyes.

  “I know Kay, but you have to get up so you won’t be late for school,” I replied, fishing through the closet for her uniform.

  Kay attended the Charter School of Excellence which was on the other side of town. If she missed the school bus, I would have to catch three busses to get her to school. I really had to hit the block and make some money before I had to attend school, so I wasn’t trying to have that set back.

  I ironed her blue uniform jumper dress, and white dress shirt. Laying her clothes on the bed, I went to go make her breakfast and pack her lunch. Pulling out the eggs, bacon, and sausage, I leaned my body against the counter, chewing on my nails, while waiting on the oil to get hot. Once the grease started to pop, I poured the egg mix in the pan and fried them. I then cooked the bacon and sausage and made some toast. I made us both a plate, poured us some orange juice and brought the food back to my room.

  “Hurry and eat,” I said placing the food on the Frozen table she had in the corner of my room.

  We rarely ate in the family room. The majority of our days home were spent in my room. I did everything I could to avoid our deadbeat ass parents. As far as I was concerned, I was Kay’s mother and father. She didn’t need those bums. I had her front and back.

  “I know you gon’ wash these fucking dishes!” my so called mother snapped, barging into my room without knocking. “Oh, this how y’all motherfuckers do it? Y’all fix breakfast and don’t make enough for the house? Greedy ass hoes! Using up my damn electricity cooking and shit but don’t even have the decency to make enough for everyone to eat,” she ranted, waving her chubby hands in the air.

  My mother was a beautiful, full-figured woman. She stood about 5’0, 175lbs which was well proportioned on her. She wasn’t slim nor was she sloppy fat. Her skin tone was a smooth high yellow with no traces of any blemishes or pimples. Kay took after her; they had the same chunkiness and the same high yellow color. Unlike them, I was a deep, dark chocolate color. My father wasn’t that dark so I often wondered where I got my skin complexion from.

  “Kay, hurry and eat so I can get you ready for school,” I said ignoring the dumb bitch that decided to come disturb our peace.

  “So you don’t hear me talking to your little ass?”

  “I see your lips moving but I don’t hear anything,” I sassed walking in my bathroom with Kay, slamming the door behind us.

  I made sure the water was nice and warm before placing Kay in it and giving her, her bath. I had one hour until her school bus came, so I was trying to hurry and get her dressed. Drying her body off, I applied the Cocoa Butter Vaseline lotion all over her body, polishing her skin so it could glow.

  “What are the No-No’s?” I asked Kay as I dressed her in her undergarments.

  “DeeDee, you ask me this every morning.”

  “I know but it’s important that you know them, so what are the No-No’s?”

  “It is a No No to speak to strangers, take candy from strangers, go anywhere with strangers. It’s a No No for anyone other than you and mommy to give me a bath. It is also a No No for anyone to touch my privates.”

  “And what do you do if anyone touches your privates?”

  “I tell you, DeeDee!”

  “Good girl.” I smiled, giving her a kiss on her forehead.

  It was important that she knew these things. I watched “Law & Order SVU” and it was a shame how the predators made the young victims feel like what they were doing to them was okay. I made sure to educate my little sister; I wanted her to be able to speak up if God forbids anything like that was to ever happen to her.

  Parting her hair in a zig-zag design down the middle, I put her hair in two pony tails, braided the ends and clipped barrettes on them. I used white and blue ribbons to tie her two nice pretty bows. Spraying her hair with the Just for Me oil sheen, I finished dressing her for school.

  “You look so pretty Kay,” I said putting the teddy bear earrings I bought her in her ears.

  “Thank you DeeDee!” she beamed, spinning in the mirror.

  Looking at my little sister my heart began to fill with so much love. That little girl made me feel a whole new type of love. I imagined if this was the type of love that mothers are supposed to feel towards their children; if so, I couldn’t understand why our mother didn’t feel that way towards us. Like the old lady that lived across the street would say, ‘there’s no use in crying over spilled milk’ so I made a vow to show and give my little sister all my love. We were all we needed.

  The horn of her school bus started to violently beep letting me know that her impatient driver was outside. I grabbed her lunch box, clipped it to the back of her book bag and placed it on her back. Giving her a hug and kiss, I watched her get on the bus and continued to watch until the bus disappeared down the block.

  I walked back into the house and went to clean up the kitchen. I was hoping to hurry up and get out of the house before I had another run in with my mother. After wiping down the counters with bleach, I went to my bathroom to take a shower.

  Standing under the running warm water, I began to feel on my curves. I was only fifteen but I had the body of
a goddess. I studied the bodies of the women on the music videos and I could have been mistaken for one of them. I really didn’t like the attention that my fat ass, thick thighs, and double-D breasts got me, so I hid my body under baggy clothes.

  I used the Olay cleansing brush to wash my face. I took pride in my beautiful, smooth, dark skin and I did everything in my power to keep it radiant. After moisturizing my face, I rinsed off and got out of the shower.

  The iPhone default ringtone blared through my room, letting me know that someone was trying to get in contact with me.

  “Hello!” I yelled into the phone that I had on speaker.

  “Yo Diamond, where you at?” Bobby’s voice echoed through my room.

  “I’m home. Give me a few minutes to get dressed, I’ll be out.”

  “Hurry up D, time is money baby!”

  “I’m coming,” I said before ending the call.

  Bobby was the only block nigga that took me seriously. When I finally realized that my mother really wasn’t going to take care of us, I had to find a way to make money. That bullshit job I had at McDonald’s wasn’t giving me enough hours, so my checks couldn’t support us. I only had two options: sell ass or hustle. I wasn’t the type to fuck for money so I decided to bleed the block.

  No one would take me seriously because I was a female but that didn’t stop me. Every day I would stand on the corner with the corner boys and I would learn. I studied them closely, finding flaws in the way they conducted things. Bobby saw the determination in me so he decided to put me on. Ever since then I’ve been making mad money. Majority of my money went in the safe that I had built underneath a floor board in my closet.

  I was saving up for my eighteenth birthday. The day I turned eighteen, Kay and I were out of here. I planned on copping me a nice little spot near downtown Fort Lauderdale and finally getting out of this hell hole. Three more years of hustling then I would be out the game. This was only temporary for me; this wasn’t a lifestyle I planned on living for long.

  Dressed in an oversized pair of blue and white Fort Lauderdale’s High School sweat suit, I laced up my blue and white Jordans. I used the brush to pull my hair back into a long ponytail. I wasn’t really a girly girl, but I did make it my business to go to the Dominicans every two weeks to have my hair treated. I wasn’t trying to walk around with sprayed on edges like half the bitches that were in the hood.

  Grabbing Kay’s iPad and all of our other valuable things, I locked them up in the safe. I didn’t want to risk my father stealing and pawning any of our shit. After making sure that the room was cleaned and our things were locked up, I grabbed my black Jansport book bag, and slung it on my back. Locking my room door, I walked across the street where Bobby was waiting for me.

  “For once I’d like to see you dressed like a girl,” Bobby said as soon as I took a seat in his all black Chevy Impala.

  “Don’t hold your breath nigga.”

  “You a butch or some shit?”

  “Why the fuck would you ask me that?”

  “I never see you with no nigga, plus look how your ass dresses,” he said passing me a bag of weed and a grape Swisher Sweet.

  “I ain’t focused on a nigga right now. I’m just trying to get this money.”

  “I feel you. Aye, but check me out, roll that shit,” he nodded towards the weed.

  I rolled the blunts with Bobby’s words dancing in my head. It’s not that I wasn’t interested in men. The one that I was in love with didn’t feel the same way about me. I was madly in love with Bobby but I knew there was no chance that we could be together. I wasn’t the type of girl he went for, plus he made it clear that I was his right hand. I was already in the homie category and there was no recovering from that.

  I sealed the blunt, stealing glances at his sexy face. Bobby was personally made by God, that’s how handsome he was. His deep, dark chocolate skin was as smooth as silk. He had some dreamy hazel eyes, and deep dimples that I desperately wanted to stick my tongue in. His body was ripe and cut in all the right places. He turned the steering wheel to the right causing his muscles to flex and my panties to get wet. Although I haven’t been sexually active, I was aware of my body. I spent countless of hours in the bathroom exploring myself while watching porn.

  “Pass that shit,” Bobby said stirring me away from my thoughts. I was so deep in my thoughts that I didn’t realize that the blunt was halfway gone.

  “What’s so heavy on your mind?” Bobby asked choking on that Stanky.

  Stanky was some new weed that hit the streets from Haiti. It burned real smooth and had a strong odor to it. We copped from some Haitian boys on 13th street. They were the only ones that had this good weed. Countless of times I tried to convince Bobby into doing business with them, but he always declined. Bobby’s uncle, our connect held him by the balls, so even if he wanted to make a move like that wouldn’t be able to.

  “Nothing, why you asked?”

  “You damn near smoked the whole joint!”

  “My bad boy, that’s some good shit though,” I said trying to change the subject.

  “I know it,” he replied pulling up to the trap.

  We walked inside the run-down apartment and immediately got to work. To make the money counting process go faster, we used a money counter. After putting rubber bands around stacks of money, I neatly placed them in the duffle bags that were on the floor. Bobby locked the bags up in the safe for the drop off with his uncle later on, while I re-upped on some work.

  It was 11:15 when I served my last fiend before heading to school. I was trying to make in time for third period. My teacher, Ms. Bell was a bitch and she would do anything in her power to make my life a living hell. Stuffing some weed bags in my pencil case, I put it in my book bag and made my way to the car.

  Bobby and I rode to Fort Lauderdale High School in silence. The only sounds that could be heard were Ricky Smiley cutting up on the radio. Bobby pulled up in the circular bus loop and sat and waited for me to get out.

  “You’re not coming to school?” I asked when I noticed Bobby wasn’t getting out the car.

  “Imma go handle something. I’ll be back later.”

  “Aight cool,” I replied trying to disguise my disappointment.

  As soon as I made it through the gate, the warning bell rang. I rushed to my locker, grabbed my things and tried to make it to class before the late bell. Ms. Bell was standing at the door and saw me rushing to get to her class on time. I walked in a second after the late bell and was about to take my seat, until the evil bitch decided to fuck with me.

  “Diamond you are late.”

  “How am I late when I made it inside right at the late bell?”

  “My classroom rules are you have to be seated before the late bell or you’re considered late. Now take this pass and go down to Lockout.”

  “Today is a test day though!” I yelled feeling myself about to snap. According to Ms. Bell’s grading scale, tests were 60% of our grade so I couldn’t afford to fail.

  “Next time learn how to come to class on time. Now dismiss yourself before I call security.”

  “MAN FUCK THIS SHIT!!” I yelled, flipping the desk over, storming out of the class. I could feel the tears began to build up in my eyes. I couldn’t afford to fail an advanced class; that would put me in jeopardy of taking another one and I was too smart to be sitting in regular classes. Plus advanced classes looked way better on a transcript. Colleges paid attention to those types of things.

  “Ms. Bell got yo ass?” Cookie asked as I took a seat next to her in lockout. I swear Cookie’s ass lived in lockout. She stayed in this bitch like it was Club Walmart or some shit.

  Lockout was a place where they sent late students. We had to sit in this cold ass room until next period. Good thing I decided to wear sweats today, I thought trying to make myself comfortable in the hard ass orange chair the public school system provided us with. I often wondered where all the tax money went. Sholl nuff wasn’t spent in this damn school;
everything was raggedy.

  “Where’s Bobby’s fine ass?” Cookie said filing her nails.

  “I don’t know, I’m not his keeper.” I sucked my teeth.

  “You always with him; y’all like best friends.”

  “Okay, and?”

  “When you gon’ put me down with him?” she eagerly asked.

  The thought of Cookie and Bobby dating made me cringe. Cookie was the only female friend that I had. No other chick would hang with me because they all thought I was a dyke. Even Cookie low-key thought that I was into eating pussy. I never shared with her my feelings for Bobby, out of fear of losing her friendship.

  Cookie was definitely Bobby’s type. Her shapely body didn’t hold a candle to mine, but she always had it on display causing guys’ mouths to drool. Cookie was a high-maintenance hood chick. She was the type that only fucked with niggas that had money. Every month she was looking for a new nigga to upgrade her. She claimed Bobby was the love of her life and that she would change her ways if he ever gave her a chance; but I saw right through that shit.