Crackhead II: A Novel (24 page)

The officer looked at her and nodded his head. “And a blind eye doesn’t see.”

I
NSTEAD OF LEAVING
as planned, Laci went back inside the house. She changed into a pair of sweats and pulled her hair up into a ponytail. She washed off her makeup. She wanted to be plain and simple, just like she was before her life was turned upside down.

Laci decided to call Dink. He had been on her mind and she wanted to at least start getting things back on track.

She sat down and dialed their number in Boston. “Hey,” Laci said once Dink picked up the phone. “It’s me.”

“Hey you,” he replied. There was a long, uncomfortable pause before Dink spoke again. “How are you?”

“Missing you,” she told him truthfully. There was silence on the line. “Um . . . Dink, I need to really talk to you about something.”

“Anything, baby, you can talk to me about anything.”

“You know,” Laci paused momentarily, “I came back home to get away and think about things with us. Dink, I know you’re not trying to hurt me and your friendship with Simone could be platonic—”

“It is, Laci. I’ve never touched her and I won’t.”

“But a lot has gone on and we’re going to have to start trusting each other again.”

“I agree,” Dink confirmed, “but I’m sure we’ll get back on track.”

“Dink, I’m angry now. Not only am I angry at myself, I’m angry at Tonette, Crystal, Monique, and Shaunna, and they can’t get away with what they did to me.”

“Laci, I’m not going to stand in your way. You have to do what you have to do, but make sure you have the right people watching you.” He read between the lines.

“I do, but just promise me you’ll stay in Boston.”

Dink got quiet. He inhaled, then exhaled deeply. “Alright baby, I’ll stay in Boston, but if I don’t hear from you on the day it goes down, I’m coming to town.”

“I promise, I’ll call you on Friday.”

The doorbell rang, forcing her to cut her conversation short, but they’d said all they needed to say and promised to speak again soon.

Just as Laci hung up the phone, she opened her front door.

“Ms. Johnson, I—” Monique spoke, then her eyes opened wide. “Laci, it’s you!” Monique was shocked to see her, but equally shocked that even in lounging clothes, she was still radiant. There were no signs of her being a former drug addict, and she was relieved.

“Monique? Is that you?” Laci asked, squinting her eyes, almost not recognizing her. She used to be ghetto-girl thick, but she had lost a lot of weight since she had seen her last.

“Yeah, it’s me.” She turned around in a circle donning designer clothes that fit her properly, proud of her weight loss.

“What are you doing here?” Laci asked.

“Well, I actually stopped by to see your mother a while ago. I was just . . . I don’t know, just coming by to check on her and see if you were around.”

Laci did her best to hide her anger. She didn’t need anyone checking on her mother. She looked around her. “Where’s the girls? Tonette and Crystal? Did Shaunna have her baby?”

Laci had to play her role carefully from here on out. She knew Crystal was dead from meeting with the police and knew Shaunna had had her baby when she saw her in the streets the first time she came back to the South Bronx, but she didn’t want to let on that she knew anything. She still wanted them to believe she was naïve Laci Johnson.

Monique hung her head. “Um . . . Crystal’s dead, Laci.”

“Dead?”

“Yeah, police shot her.”

“Damn!” Laci ran her fingers through her hair. “What about Tonette and Shaunna?”

“They still around, doing that SBB shit.”

“SBB shit? You mean you ain’t one of them anymore?”

“Yes and no.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Actually, I told both of them they were wrong for what we did to you and I left the group.” Laci couldn’t believe what she heard.

“You left because of me?”
Maybe one of them did really like me,
she thought to herself.

“No, I left because what they did was wrong, but I came back, because leaving put my grandmother in danger.”

“Oh,” was all Laci could say. She was hoping Monique would say that she’d left because of her.

“Sometimes you did act stuck up, Laci,” Monique confirmed,
“but just like I told your mother, I apologize for my part in it and I hope that you can forgive me one day.”

Laci’s stomach tightened up into knots before she spoke. “Actually, I do forgive you. I forgive all of you.”

“What?” Monique said, surprised.

“Life is too short to hold grudges, Monique. I’ve moved on.” She got closer to Monique and put her hand on her shoulder and smiled. “You know what I think would be cool?”

“What?”

“If we could all get together tomorrow afternoon or something and hang out, you know, SBB style.” Laci beamed with pride. “Y’all will finally be able to see that I’m not stuck up. I’m just one of the girls.”

Monique looked at Laci as if the crack she’d smoked had done something to her brain, but agreed. “You know Tonette still don’t like you. Actually when I came to see your mother, I was looking for you to tell you that.”

“I don’t understand, Monique.” Laci looked at her with wonder. “If you thought I was stuck up too, why are you here try’na warn me?”

“Because like I said earlier, it was wrong to do that shit to you.” Monique paused momentarily. “I just wanted you to know you need to watch your back because she’s out there, but I’m outta here on Friday anyway.”

“Where you going?” Laci asked.

“Away from the South Bronx. It’s time to start my life now.”

“That’s good,” Laci managed to say.

“Actually, Laci, you’re not the first person who Tonette did some fucked-up shit to.”

“I’m not?” Laci’s eyes got big. She wondered what else that
scandalous bitch could have done. “It can’t be as bad as turning me out, is it?”

Monique’s face twisted in a “don’t go there” expression. “Actually, you remember Angel?”

“Yeah.”

“Tonette had people in the same house using the same needles. It was rumored that a lot of them were HIV-positive, but there were some who weren’t who shared the same needle. I think Angel was one of them.”

“What?” Laci’s eyes got wide. Her mind went back to when she got high with Angel. She remembered her shooting. “Ump ump ump.” Laci shook her head.

“You know Quita used to be a SBB too, right?” Laci nodded her head. “Well you know she was fucking Dame, but when Tonette went after her to jump on her, Dame stopped that shit with a quickness.”

“What he do?”

“He kept Quita close to him, but he also kept a close eye on Tonette. As long as she the top ho, she don’t care. But Dame put Quita before her and she didn’t like that.”

“Figures,” Laci told her.

“Then there were some other girls, you know, just local junkies she fucked with. A girl owed her twenty dollars for a rock and came back to her for another. Tonette thought the girl was trying to play her, so she told the girl to meet her at the subway. Tonette had the girl’s rock, and she threw it on the tracks and pushed the girl off the platform. The train crushed her.”

“Ooh,” Laci cringed at the thought. “Where’s Angel now?”

“She got caught stealing so she locked up, I think. Actually, everyone she fucked with except the dead girl are locked up.”

“So what is she doing now? She don’t have anyone to mess with?”

“Well, besides looking for you, she’s thinkin’ ’bout pushin’ for Smurf.”

This bitch try’na leave with a clean conscience,
Laci thought to herself.

“Monique, why doesn’t she like me?” Laci asked, seriously. She never really understood why the girls hated her so much.

Monique studied Laci’s face. “You really don’t know, do you?”

“No, that’s why I asked you.”

“Laci, the girl is jealous of you. Everything about you, she’s jealous of.”

“Girl, please,” Laci said, ignoring Monique’s claim, “she ain’t got no reason to be jealous of me.”

“Whatever,” Monique said in a disgusted tone. “What can’t you see? Look at all of this, Laci.” Monique pointed to the immediate surroundings. “This is how you live. You got a fly-ass crib, you probably got maids up in this bitch, you stay fly in all of the latest shit, you got cake without having to hustle for it.” She looked around again. “And you wonder why she’s jealous? This is something that none of us will ever have.”

Laci could tell Monique needed to get that off her chest.

“I didn’t look at it like that,” she told Monique. “You know, I can’t help where I came from, but I’m still as down as the rest of you. Actually, I’m going to be leaving soon, but I’d like to see all of y’all before I leave. I don’t know when I’ll be back here again. You know, let bygones be bygones.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Monique asked, looking at Laci, not believing she’d said that to her.

“Yes, I don’t have any animosity toward anyone,” Laci lied
through her teeth. “So do you think you’ll be able to hook that up? I really wanna see all of y’all.”

“Let me see what I can do to make that happen. I can’t make any promises, but I’ll call you and let you know what she says.” Right before Monique walked off the front porch, she turned to Laci and spoke. “You know what? You’re not so bad after all. I’m glad you’re okay and again, I’m sorry for everything that happened.”

She left so she could see if she could get the girls together on short notice. Monique didn’t have a lot of time left. She was leaving the South Bronx on Friday, so she had only five days to honor Laci’s request.

Laci watched as Monique drove away. Her plan was already in motion. She grabbed her keys and headed to the mall. Buying a pair of Jordache jeans, different-colored Reebok sneakers, and a couple of oversized sweatshirts, she couldn’t believe how tacky she would need to be to fit in with her former crew, but she had to do what she had to do. Making a few more stops, she finally got what she needed to help with her plan. While she shopped, Laci thought about all that Monique told her. Even though Monique was trying to clear her conscience, she had to go down with them, and Laci needed to move quickly. Friday wasn’t that far away.

B
ACK AT TONETTE’S,
Monique sprawled across the couch and called Shaunna. She had to tell someone what had just gone down.

“Girl, you got to be kidding me,” Shaunna said to Monique. “You actually saw Laci and talked to her?”

“Yeah girl,” Monique said, amped up.

“Crackhead Laci?”

“Yeah girl,” Monique laughed, “but she’s changed though.”

“What you mean she’s changed?”

“I can’t describe it. Maybe more like one of us now. More laid back and less—”

“Stuck up?” Shaunna laughed.

“Yeah girl,” Monique chimed in.

“Damn, you gonna tell Tonette?”

“Yup. Laci said she wanted to see all of us and kick it SBB style again.”

“Bitch, you lyin’!” Shaunna jibed.

“No I’m not.”

“Wow. Even after what happened? All I know is she better
watch her ass, because Tonette is one step away from making her Crystal’s roommate.”

“Tell me about it,” Monique interjected. “Oh, she asked about you and your baby.”

“Really?” Shaunna said, surprised but excited. “You know, she was the only one who ever cared to ask me about my baby.”

Monique felt bad because she hadn’t asked how Shaunna was doing, even after she had her son.

“But you just let me know when and where,” Shaunna said, “and we can do our shit, SBB style. Well, I guess all we can do is sit back and watch the fireworks.”

Once Monique got off the phone with Shaunna, she paged Tonette. Within minutes she called her back.

“What’s up?” Tonette said hastily. “Talk fast. The spot is hoppin’ tonight.”

“You’ll never guess who I saw today.”

“Who?”

“Laci.”

Tonette became quiet and her tone changed. “Um . . . where?”

“Her momma’s, but check this out: she wants to see all of us.”

“What?” Tonette laughed. “Straight up?”

“Yeah girl. So what you wanna do?”

“You know how we do it: invite her ass over and let’s see what pops off from there.” Tonette began laughing. “I can’t wait to see my dear friend, Laci Johnson.”

Monique laughed right along with her. “A’ight, cool.”

SMURF LAY BACK
in his bed while Quannie rode him like a bull. He still didn’t take broads to his real crib; just like Dame and Dink, he had another place for ass only. Smurf had begun to sex Quannie often. For being only fifteen years old, her sex game was tight
and she knew what to do to keep a nigga coming back. Even though he usually didn’t like fucking young girls because they fell in love quickly, Quannie was different. She kept her ear to the street, alerting him to anything she felt he should know. She truly looked out for young Smurf, without asking for anything in return, and that impressed him.

Smurf grabbed her hips tightly as he watched her go up and down on his dick like a pogo stick. Her small breasts bounced and Smurf liked the fuck faces she made when he dove deep into her. Just as he broke off another nut, Quannie collapsed on his chest. Both of their bodies were worn and well used. She looked over at the clock that sat on his nightstand. “Oh shit,” she said, sitting up fast.

“What’s up?” Smurf said tiredly. He had dozed off for a minute.

“It’s getting late and I gotta go to school in the morning.”

Smurf took a deep breath and let it out. That was another thing he liked about Quannie. She had some idea of what she wanted to do with her life and regardless of how well he sexed her, she wasn’t going to miss school for anybody. When Quannie saw that Smurf was trying to go back to sleep, she playfully kissed his neck.

“Come on boy, quit playin’. We can finish this up tomorrow.”

Yawning, he got up and threw his clothes on so he could take her home.

An hour later, at 3:30
A.M
., Smurf arrived back at his crib. He opened his safe and put in another stack of money that he had collected after dropping Quannie off.

Smurf’s riches had grown almost fourfold since Dink left. The ice that Dirty brought to town, along with pure cocaine, heroin, and crack, instantly took Smurf and everyone in his crew
to another level in the drug game. Because of his reputation of being more deadly than cancer, cats didn’t fuck with young Smurf. Many of his rivals felt it was best to work with him instead of against him. It’s better to be fed than be dead, many rationalized. With the support of Dink, who still had him under his wing, Smurf rid his circle of the dead weight. Now everyone was benefiting, and he was gaining new territory as quickly as the product came through.