Later That Night

After The Banquet

“Uh… uh…uh…uh… ahhhh! Harder… Harder… I said fuck me harder!”

pa/ta

pa/ta

Two loud slaps rang out inside the bedroom and there was a pause but the rocking of the bed resumed with an even greater intensity.

“Yeah… right there… do it better! Fuck, I said do it better!”

pa/ta

Another slap rang out but there was no pause this time, only the squeals of a woman about to reach her peak … followed by the painful grunts of a young man who was experiencing the opposite of pleasure.

“Go deeper! A little deeper… yes! yes… yes… ahhhhhhh!” The woman exhaled a deep breath as she climaxed and slid off the large dick that had previously filled her insides.

“That was the best so far Ty…” The woman, Malisha Gao, said teasingly as she quickly got dressed after having her ‘fill’.

Tyrone didn’t grace the vixen with a reply, only silently wearing his clothing hoping for time to pass as quickly as possible.

Malisha seemed unhappy with this “Aren’t you going to say anything? It’s our third time doing this…”

“You made sure your nephew made a scene that would force me to intervene… you know The Outreach Center needed more money to send the kids to good schools… you wanted me to disrespect your nephew so that I would owe you a favor… and you came to collect tonight…”

Malisha clapped her hands approvingly “You almost had everything right… but it’s cute that you think that you only owe me one favor… a couple of months ago when you beat my drug runners around the block, I let you be… but when you continued to protect the kids, I started admiring you a bit…

I made the kids off-limits as mules and donated more money to this shitty place full of lies and false hopes… so far, twelve spaces have been added due to my money… and that means twelve more kids saved as a favor to you… so you owe me twelve favors, and you have only repaid three so far…”

Tyrone frowned sadly and raised his voice in anger “Then why did he need to hit the kid? It’s traumatic for kids to experience stuff like that!”

Malisha shrugged “I didn’t tell him to do that part… he goes off script sometimes… but… I love the way you look at someone who hurts the kids… full of hate and darkness that just made me so wet that I had to fuck you tonight even if everyone noticed.”

“As long as you keep your promise, we’re good,” Tyrone stated, finished with his clothing and opening his room door for Malisha to exit.

“This place is under my protection… I always stay true to my promises Ty!... The funds for a new building have already been deposited into the Executive’s accounts… I added a little something extra so you could buy yourself some new clothes… I am not a fan of SpongeBob.”

With her mind at ease, Malisha exited the room, walked down the stairs, and dipped through the back parking lot of the Outreach Center to avoid being seen by anyone.

With Malisha gone, Tyrone spent the next couple of minutes nursing his wounds and shedding silent tears just outside his door, waiting patiently for Jessica to reveal herself from her hiding spot.

“Are you gonna come out or can I go back to sleep?” Tyrone shouted down the hall but was surprised when he felt two hands wrap around his waist from behind.

There was the wet sensation of tears and the sniffs of sobbing on his back before Tyrone understood what happened “You were inside the entire time?”

Jessica released Tyrone, maneuvering herself to stand in front of him, showing off her new negligee “A teenage girl wearing skimpy clothing while hiding in the room of the boy she likes isn’t that farfetched of a thought right?”

Though she smiled sweetly, Tyrone could see the pain hidden behind Jessica’s smile “If there is anything you want to ask me… you can. I can hide things from the kids but I never tried to hide anything from you… you’re my best friend after all.”

“Best friend huh?” Jessica murmured, dropping to a seated position on the floor as Tyrone did the same “When did it start?”

“About six months ago when we were having a little food shortage… even before then, she was extra-generous to the Outreach center after I beat her guys for dealing to the kids… Back in the hood, dealers never gave kids drugs and it’s the same rules around here so she didn’t mind that I thought her guys a lesson…”

Jessica paused Tyrone “You’re saying she is…?”

Tyrone laughed “Yeah… she is the Drug Lord around here… I think her business goes as far as the entire Romania…”

“And she didn’t mind you beating on her guys?” Jessica asked again for confirmation.

“You won’t understand since you didn’t grow up on the streets… but the streets are like a complex society of its own and some things you just don’t do in certain neighborhoods… the streets are pretty civilized… if someone new wanna buy drugs, the dealer is responsible for teaching the newbie how to smoke or sniff the shit… if that person dies doing his drugs, then the dealer would probably be moved to some other back alley where business is less lucrative…”

Jessica leaned her head against Tyrone’s shoulder “That’s pretty complex shit.”

“Tell me about it…” Tyrone laughed, recalling when Billy gave him the same speech “Her name is Malisha Gao… six months ago, she called me over to her place and donated some cash to the Center… in exchange, she wanted a story and I told her a story about my life back in Boston…

She fell in love with the story and called me back three months ago for another story but I just fucked her instead… then about a week ago, I rejected her call so she made that fiasco tonight to show me who is the boss… so we fucked again and she left a happy customer…”

“Tell me.” Jessica whispered as she slowly kissed the scratches on Tyrone’s neck and right shoulder “Tell me about the story you told her… I feel like it’s important for me to know you better…”

Tyrone scooted a bit away from Jessica, once again demonstrating that he saw her as nothing more than a best friend.

Tyrone nodded his head and agreed with Jessica “You do need to know me better… and maybe then you’ll understand why I love you so much as a best friend but I could never love you as anything more… my heart is filled with darkness and I can’t let the same poison that runs through my veins… get into your body as well.”

“Ty… I don’t car-”

Jessica started to speak but Tyrone’s aggressive shout quickly forced her into a passive position “Just listen for once in your life Jessica!”

“I am sorry but you just need to listen…” Tyrone stressed and jumped right into the story “Her name was Patricia… Patricia Nowels… she used to role with us back in the day… Me, my brother, all our basketball bros, and the dancing girls around the block… Patricia was cool with errybody in the hood…

But like everyone else in the hood, her parents didn’t have it like that… cash was short, meals were missing from the table and Patricia noticed that her little sister started to be bullied at school because there was no soap to wash the clothes and she would go to school smelling like feet…

Of course, everybody pitched in where they could to help her out but compared to a lot of people in the hood, Patricia could be considered blessed… everybody had their own struggle to deal with so you couldn’t help someone while you were drownin’…

Back then, my mom was just getting her attorney shit together… still running around getting coffee and staying up late nights working for the white folks that got richer and richer… my dad was still a bouncer trying to get his new club opened…

My brother, Billy, and I also did our own hustling by gambling on basketball games when everyone played ball at the court… that was three years ago so I was thirteen at the time and Billy was about sixteen… It was at that time that Patricia came to Billy and asked him to be her ‘handler’.

Patricia was a go-getter so she wasn’t just gonna stand back and watch her sister not eat… so she started working for a local PIMP or as we like to call them ‘Lucrative Business Men of the Flesh’… Before you judge what a PIMP is, I just want to say that they nothing like you see in movies.

A PIMP takes care of his girls… buys them shit, keeps them fed, spots them when they hungry, and even got doctors on the pay-list to keep his girls healthy. Good PIMPs even keep records of who the girls sleep with and take notes of fetishes and what girls are willing to do what…

Which girls like anal, which girls don’t… which girls just do casual sex, and which girls can do hardcore… The PIMP knows it all and never sends a newbie girl to a customer who wants to do BDSM or some shit…

Timothy was the best PIMP in our neighborhood at the time and Patricia started working for him… he took care of her and ‘stuntin’ or prostitution as you call it, wasn’t exactly a bad thing in the hood. It was just one of those things you did because you had to stay fed or your kids had to stay fed…

When Patricia came and asked Billy to be her ‘handler’, she had already been working for a week and making enough money to support her family… A handler is someone who gets 10% of what the girl makes every night.

The handler picks the girl up from the PIMP's house, takes her to the job, and waits outside the house or outside the door until the girl is finished with her ‘business’ and makes sure she gets back safely to the PIMP. The handler keeps the time if the girl takes too long or beats down guys if they push the girl too far…

Billy and Patricia worked together for two weeks and sometimes, Billy would bring me on the job to give me a cut of the cash so I could buy some new sneakers for basketball. Billy, Patricia, and me were tight… we were a family and always looked out for each other…

One night Patricia got a call from her PIMP and it was business as usual. Me and Billy were right outside the door when she entered and we made sure to listen as she did her business. We made sure everything was fine like usual, and then we saw the basketball court right next to the house.

It was about ten feet away from the house so we went to shoot some hoops… We could still hear Patricia and everything but we were also distracted shooting hoops. The job had been so easy so far that we forgot that we lived in the hood… everything was just easy money for us.

You see, nine out of ten times the guys that pay for prostitutes just want a good, kinky fuck and respect the prostitutes more than they respect their own girlfriends. But there is always that one guy that won’t take no for an answer…

Billy and I didn’t even notice when the noise stopped… when the time was coming to an end, we got concerned and knocked but there was no answer… so we bust the door open and there was no one inside, just papers all over the place with everything chaotic…

We ran around the block looking for her but found nothing. We called the PIMP and soon, everyone in the neighborhood was looking for her! Everyone on the block, in the gang, and even the police were looking for her but nobody found anything.

The next day, it was on the news – The Dead Body of Patricia Nowels found at the Riverside… raped, beaten, and her face disfigured beyond recognition… Police Investigations later showed that she screamed and struggled and begged and yelled for help but Billy and I didn’t hear anything…

They even had a recording of her shouting for us but we were too busy balling to pay attention. Timothy, the PIMP, kept our names out of the police report so there was no backlash. Timothy later died and took the secret to the grave with him … Patricia’s murderer was never found and Billy and I never worked on the streets again…

Ever since then I’ve been playing basketball to try and prove that Patricia didn’t die for nothing… If I could make it big in basketball and take care of her family, then maybe she could smile down on me from Heaven but I never made it… I will never make it!!!”

Jessica’s tears had already dried by the time Tyrone finished his story. Now, only one question lingered inside Jessica’s mind “Why did you tell me that story?”

Tyrone leaned forward and gave Jessica a kiss on the forehead “Because some people don’t want to be pitied… I’ve been waiting my entire life for karma to come back around for what I did to Patricia, and it did come back around… and I lost everything. Now, I just hope it’s over.”

Jessica desperately tried to think of something comforting to say but couldn’t formulate any words in her mind.

shuffle

shuffle

Then came a noise from down the hall that caused both Tyrone and Jessica to flinch. They heard small steps running away and then a door down the hall slamming shut.

“How much of that do you think she heard?” Tyrone asked, already having an idea of the person that had so skillfully eavesdropped on them.

Jessica shrugged “Xandra Reid huh? She must feel guilty for getting you in trouble just because that guy attacked her at the party… you should probably go and talk to her tomorrow…”

Tyrone nodded, knowing that it was important for Xandra to know that Timmy’s situation wasn’t her fault “Yeah, I wouldn’t want her to carry around that type of poison in her veins…”

“You always say poison in your veins but not every poison is meant to kill you… some variants can make you stronger and some can even make vaccines…” Jessica commented, rising from the floor, giving Tyrone a peck on the cheek, and walking down the hallway to her room “I’m not giving up on the possibility that you’ll date me someday… but I see that right now you need a best friend more than a lover…”

Tyrone smiled a bit giddily after Jessica had entered her room but the smile was immediately wiped away when the pain of the scratches from Malisha reminded Tyrone of who he was – definitely not someone good enough for a pure and feisty girl like Jessica to invest time in.

That night was yet another sleepless night for Tyrone; the only upside being the dreams of darkness didn’t come at all for the first time in months.

--------

Near Midday

Tyrone felt a pinch that jolted him awake, only to be blinded by the bright sunlight that illuminated the room as Jessica pulled apart the curtains as fast as she could.

Jessica scolded “Today is the farewell ceremony for the benefactors that came from America!”

“Wasn’t the banquet yesterday supposed to be for all of that stuff?” Tyrone asked, groggily rising from the comfort of his bed and falling to the floor as soon as he took a step.

“That ‘injury from a muscle strain’ excuse can only work one time and you have already used it up!” Jessica reminded angrily “Fifteen minutes and I expect to see you outside… we’ll be distributing the farewell packages…”

“What do we possibly have that we can give those people?”

Jessica shrugged “Arts and Crafts that the children worked on… homemade jewelry… and those kinds of things…”

Tyrone grumbled and exactly fifteen minutes later, both he and Jessica were back at the counter distributing Farewell Packages, forcing Tyrone to wear his most amiable smile.

“Your smile looks like you’re taking a really long shit.” Jessica joked.

Tyrone smiled slyly “I thought it looked like the pain of a man who has this really annoying friend that won’t let him sleep at all.”

Jessica looked at Tyrone confused “What do you mean annoying? To me, it sounds like this friend is an angel and potential future wife… bad girls like bum boyfriends who sleep all day… a good girl pushes her boyfriend to wake up in the mornings… or midday in this case.”

Tyrone looked at Jessica and she returned his stare, after a couple seconds of staring at each other, they both burst out laughing, garnering smiles from the children and adults of The Outreach Center.

Amid their happy time together, Jessica saw someone she had met the previous day and formed a quick friendship with so she wanted to introduce Tyrone to the girl.

Jessica dodged through the crowd to get her new friend and introduce the girl to Tyrone.

Likewise, Tyrone saw Xandra and walked in her direction, following a little way behind Jessica until she went in another direction entirely.

“You good?” Tyrone asked, taking a seat next to the puffy-eyed Xandra who sat alone on a bench at the corner.

sniff

sniff

Xandra’s tears fell like a waterfall and she jumped into Tyrone’s embrace “I’m sorry Ty… I didn’t mean to cause trouble for everyone… I was just so scared of the big guy and how he looked at me...”

“Hey… hey…” Tyrone comforted, patting Xandra’s back gently “You did the right thing… you made me and everyone else proud by standing up for yourself… You’re beautiful and you’re gonna do a lot of good things for this world we live in…

Then someday, when you’re all grown up, you’re gonna look kids in the eyes and tell them about the time you cried and stood back up onto your own two feet to fight for what you believed was right!

And those kids are going to admire you for it, the same way that I admire you now… Last night when you stood up for yourself, you became my hero...”

Xandra dried her eyes of the falling tears, looked into Tyrone’s eyes to find the belief she needed, and then she smiled brilliantly and nodded “Thanks, Ty… I feel embarrassed now for thinking that you would hate me for it…”

Tyrone shrugged “Just remember it’s not good to eavesdrop on people…”

“eavesdrop?” Xandra asked confused, not knowing what Tyrone was referring to.

‘So she wasn’t the one eavesdropping huh?” Tyrone thought.

“Go on!” Tyrone urged, pushing Xandra up off her seat “Get outta here and go find the others… make sure to brag about how I used a new compliment with my new vocabulary!”

Xandra laughed and disappeared into the crowd, searching for the other kids her age to brag about all the awesome things Tyrone told her about herself.

“Hey, Ty!” Jessica waved and quickly walked over to Tyrone, pulling someone along with her “I wanted to introduce you to this girl a met yesterday…”

“Nice to meet you!” Tyrone reached his hand out, already used to shaking everyone’s hands since yesterday, but the moment he felt his skin brush against the female hand in his grasp, a shudder ran through Tyrone’s body and he felt the darkness inside him become balanced.

“Hello, Ty…” Tandy whispered, looking down guiltily but also gripping Tyrone’s hand so hard that she dug her fingernails into his skin.

Jessica watched Tyrone’s face become surprised and then twist into a grimace… and for some reason, Jessica felt threatened by the pale-skinned, blonde that became her friend yesterday.

Jessica could tell something was up just by observing the way Tandy held Tyrone’s hand… it was like how Jessica always wanted to hold his hand but never dared to – Tandy held Tyrone’s hand with such a grip that demonstrated that she would never let go!