Chapter 7

At home, my room doesn't feel the same. I know no one has been in it, not even Paryis, but it doesn't feel like my room anymore. Bedrooms are supposed to be safe spaces. Once upon a time, this room was my own sanctuary. But after getting shot at, and learning that it can happen any time, I no longer feel safe confined in these four walls.

I lay in my bed as long as I can take it, willing sleep to come. It doesn't. The house is full of noise per usual. The only quiet spaces are my room, the bathroom and Daddy's study. I haven't been in there since he blasted his brains on the walls, so I for sure wasn't going to hide there. I decide on the shower, but standing under the warm water only reminds me of all the fucked up shit that's happened on account of me. Matter of fact, being in this house period, reminds me of all the fucked up shit I've done. My brother was laid in a room down the hall recovering because of my careless actions.

I decide right then that I'm not gonna spend the rest of my Saturday inside the house. It's the summer. I'm supposed to be doing hood rat shit with my friends, not moping around the house. I graduated in May. This was supposed to be our summer to turn up. It's not like my friends were headed off to college or no shit like that. All of them hated school just as much as me. It was a miracle we even made it out, all the skipping and fighting we used to do.

Just thinking about the good times, makes me remember that they weren't all that far away. I was texting Chantal to get into something the day that Ace dragged me along to Angel's house. If he hadn't stopped me, who knows. Maybe none of us would be in this shit right now.

I wrap the towel around my naked body. I pick up my phone and scroll to Chantal's snapchat. I skip through her last 24 hours, wishing I was in her memories and not peering at them from the opposite side of the screen. Last night, she went to a club with some of our other bitches. Maxine and Phora, who we called Max and Phor. They were turned all the way up. As I scroll through, I see the last thing she posted was a picture of Phor in handcuffs.

I text Phora to see what was up and she lets me know that it was nothing serious. She was high off Molly so the cops arrested her to scare her or some shit. Just then, my phone starts ringing it's duck ringtone. A picture of Chantal's ass and me cheesing next to it flashes on my phone.

"Bitchhhhh! Where you been?" She starts immediately.

I laugh into the phone. I don't even feel like the same fun Candy I used to be.

"Girl, so much has been happening."

"I know. Max said she heard some hoes at the club talking about Ace riding up on you. Big brother whooped that ass huh?" She does her high-pitched laugh into the phone.

"Aye fuck you. You know Ace ain't stopping shit round here," I whisper.

"Then why the fuck you whispering?"

We both bust out laughing.

"Man, I miss you. I wanna do something today," I say.

"I gotta work today. You know we chase the bag first, but I'm free tonight. Me and Phor was posed to be seeing Max perform at the club tonight," She says.

I hesitate. Ace said Angel knew what club I worked at. I wasn't trying to step back in there, especially not after getting Tony killed.

"Nah, I ain't tryna mess around and beat one of them hoes up for talking shit about me and Ace. What y'all doing after?"

"You know us. Getting into trouble. You down?"

Fucking right I'm down.

...

The hours in the day tick by so slowly, now that I have plans tonight. So far, I've had ample amount of time to plan my escape from not only Mama but Ace too. As far as I could tell, he had been in his room the whole time. I could see Paryis going in and out of his room with food and snacks so she was enjoying playing his little nurse. That was fine and all but Paryis was a lil' snitch. She didn't rat to adults, but she did bid us against each other to get whatever she wanted. She was a snitch, but she was a finesser too. She was Daddy's daughter that way.

Now, I was in my room, staring at the outfits laid on my bed. I didn't know what club they were heading to after Pink Fantasy, so I didn't know how to dress. I decided on being sexy-cute. I choose the hot pink tube top and matching skirt. I spend the extra time rolling my hair with flexi-rods. My hair was naturally curly, but it was unruly curly. I wanted it to be tamed for tonight. Before I knew it, Chantal was texting me letting me know that they were getting ready to leave the club and scoop me up.

I was already dressed. The only thing was getting around Ace's guard dog. I stared into the hall for fifteen minutes, waiting for her to cross. After another five minutes of no movement, I figured she was holed up in the room with Ace.

I ran down the steps as quietly as I could. I was on my way out of the door when her tiny voice came through the darkness loud and clear.

"And where you think you going?"

"Paryis, I hope you remember this when you get older," I say.

"Mhm. Mama know you leaving?"

"Yeah," I lie.

"Ace?"

I roll my eyes at the way she just assumes I have to answer to Ace. He is not my father. The people in this house is going to have to realize that sooner or later.

"Yes," I say.

"Well let me go ask him," She twists her lips to the side and stalks off, ready to ruin my night.

"Alright, damn. What you want?" I ask.

"Fifty."

"Fifty what?"

"Dollars."

I laughed. She turned back to run up the stairs.

"Aight, damn," I reach into my fanny pack and pull out a twenty.

"I'll give you the rest when I come back. I thought us girls were supposed to stick together?"

She rolled her eyes and went on about her business. I silently prayed she wouldn't do no hoe shit and give me up to Ace before I got home. Cause there was no way I planned on giving her the other thirty dollars.

Outside, Chantal raised down the window to her olive green Jeep. The music from her aux flooded the street. It was ironic that she was playing it so loud cause the music was tip-toe music you'd hear off a SpongeBob episode. I stopped in the middle of the street to flick her off and so did the music. When I started walking back to the car, the music started again too. We all laughed as I climbed into the backseat with Max.

They reached around to hug me, but I stopped them.

"Save that shit for later before Ace come outside and whip all our asses," I say.

"Ace can whip my ass any time any place. Say the word!" Chantal cries out from the front seat.

Ew.

"I thought I was getting fucked up with my girls tonight? Why we talking about my brother?"

Chantal laughed, "Say less sis!"

She put the gear into drive. We skirted off down the street, getting ready to get into nothing but trouble. I just hoped that trouble didn't include me winding up on an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. If Angel had eyes around the city to track us to the coffee shop, there was no guarantee that he didn't know where we stayed. So my hopes, were more like prayers that I made it home tonight.

...

"Take another shot, hoe!"

I roll my eyes at Chantal in my ear egging me on. I was barely finish with the shot glass full of brown liquor in my hand. Yet, here she was sliding another glass in front of me.

My girls really knew how to turn up. It was the reason we gravitated towards each other in high school. We were the loud, ghetto, obnoxious ones everybody liked to talk shit about in private but begged to be our friends in public. We turned up every room we was in. It wasn't our fault people couldn't take it. What others called ghetto, we called getting paid. The nightclub we had been posted up in all night was a party hosted by Phora. She got paid just to be herself.

The liquor barely burns going down my throat. I had been drinking since 11 pm. It was now 1 am. I take my last shot of the night, deciding not to get as lit as I usually would. Ace had been ringing my line since we got inside the club. I knew Paryis was gonna snitch but I didn't think she would give me up so early. Lil bastard ain't even give me a chance to show up with the rest of the money. I guess she knew like I knew that she wasn't gonna get another dime out of me. Anyways, Ace was for sure gonna blow a casket when I walked inside later on tonight. I didn't want to be sloppy drunk cause that was just gonna get him more riled up. One lecture was enough for one night.

"This one for my bad bitches in the club tonight! Especially my hotties in the back!" Phor calls from up on stage.

Chantal raises her glass to Phora as the latest bounce song from Drake oozes out of the club's speakers. My body start moving against Max without thinking. The liquor was pushing me into her. Max grinds against me as we both let the music take over us. We were in our own section in the back, but that didn't stop people from drifting over to us. Some girls were standing around embarrassing themselves cause the men they came over here for was only focused on three things and neither of us involved them.

After dancing against Max for what seemed like an entire playlist of songs, I excuse myself to find the bar. I need some water to rid my liver of some of the liquor coursing through my body. I find it way in the back of the club, crowded with people. I try to push my way up, but all the gruff ass niggas aren't trying to show an ounce of decency by letting me through. I start to leave the bar entirely until a guy pulls me back by my waist.

I quickly pull away from him. I hated when slimy ass niggas tried to cop a feel cause we were surrounded by a bunch of people.

"My bad, ma. I just wanted to help you out, that's all," He says.

I stare up at his brown face. He has a face tattoo of "Loyalty" over his eyebrow. Some neck tattoos and more laced on his forearm. He didn't look like a slimy ass nigga under the bar's lights. But still, you could never be too sure.

"Help me out how?" I say.

"Let me buy you a drink," He says.

I stare out at his outstretched hand. I didn't know shit from sugar about him. Yeah, he could have been a regular nigga in the club tryna "Let me buy you a drink" his way into my panties, or he could have been one of Angel's men.

I roll my eyes at myself. Angel's men? How the hell could this be one of Angel's men? All of his men was Spanish last time I checked. But that doesn't mean he didn't hire shootas that looked like us to throw us off our game...

"Nah, I'm good actually. I came over here to get some water, but I think I'll be fine," I say, letting the paranoia get the better of me.

He shrugs his shoulders. I turn to walk away from him, but he grabs my hand before I can step away. I raise my eyebrows at his fingers wrapped around my wrist.

He put his hands up in surrender, "I'm sorry. I just wanted to get ya name before you disappeared back into yo section."

I cross my arms over my chest. "So you was watching me?"

He laughed a quiet laugh. The more he talked, the heavier his New York accent seeped through.

"Call it what you'd like shorty. My name's Ty. What's yours?"

I looked him up and down. He was a nice height. Handsome caramel brown face, with the dimples to match. He had a fresh fade. His outfit was simple but the Gucci shirt and Balenciagas on his feet showed he had more money somewhere else. The stripper in me, picked up on details like this. It was the easiest way to decide who to give attention to, just to be sure I could make enough for one night. But, I was no longer a stripper, Ace made sure of that. And I didn't need the money anyways.

"Come by the section later, Ty. Since you been watching me, I'm sure you know where that is."

And with that, I walked back over to my friends to finish out the night the way that I intended to. I could feel his eyes on me as I sauntered off. I still felt them as I danced on Max, joked with Phora and inevitably took another shot with Chantal. By the time the club's owner started to urge people out, the room was spinning. I had never gotten that water so I had to concentrate really hard not to trip over my own two feet on the way out.

When we walked out of the club's entrance, the humidity of the night made my clothes feel sticky against my skin. I wanted nothing but to take them off of me. I lagged behind on my way to Chantal's car, taking slow steps to keep my balance. I was a lightweight compared to them. They could drink their asses off all night, and still be able to see straight enough to drive.

"Aye, ma. Let me talk to you for a second."

The sound of Ty's voice is ever present free from all the music and chaos in the club. And under the streetlamps in the parking lot, he looks finer than ever. I mean, homie was a walking snack. I couldn't help but to bite my lips as he walked up to me.

"What you wanna talk about Ty?" I slur.

"You never gave me your name." His eyes is lower than they were in the club. He's probably responsible for the blunt smoke that got us kicked out of the club.

"You never came to my section," I laugh.

"No offense, but you don't seem like the type to fuck with niggas chasing after you. I figured you'd change your mind later on."

"You mean when I was more drunk?"

"Nah, I mean when we were alone. If you feel like you too drunk to talk to me now than maybe you should give me your number to talk later."

Behind us, Chantal presses on her horn. I look back at her, weighing my options. It probably wasn't the smartest idea to leave with a random dude in the midst of all of this shit with Angel. But, when have I ever been one to make the right decisions? Besides, Ty was stirring up some parts of me that haven't been touched in awhile. If he was a wrong decision, then I decide I was ready to take that risk for one night of fun.

I wave my hand for them to go ahead without me.

"I'd do you one better. How bout we finish this conversation at your house?" I say.

My insides jump when he licks his lips at me. Damn, this boy looked good. He stepped aside, showing off a beautiful all white Audi.

"After you, ma."