Flyy Girl (21 page)

“Ay Victor, there go that young-girl, man,” one of his friends said, referring to Tracy.

Victor grinned. “I see her, but I'm just gon' make her sweat for a while.”

“Shit, cuz', I don't see how you do it. You got all these little young-girls in love.”

Victor said, “It's all in the mind, boy. You tease 'em and let them make their choice. If you're
the man,
like
me,
they'll be on you.” Victor took a shot at the hoop and missed. “Shit! Let me get that one back.”

His friend responded, “Well, every time I give a girl her freedom of choice, the bitch ends up dumpin' me.”

Victor chuckled, and looked over at Tracy with another smile. Tracy turned away in embarrassment.

“Shawn, cuz', you have to know how girls think, and then you'll know how to deal with them. All girls are ruled by curiosity, so the less they know about you, the more they wanna know, and the more they wanna find out. So you just keep 'em guessin'. Watch this.”

Victor swiftly walked over to Tracy and sat without speaking.

Jantel had had enough. “Hi, Victor,” she said. Tracy was acting like an airhead to her.
Just tell him how you feel about him,
she wanted to advise her friend.

Stupid!
Tracy thought.
Why she have ta' open her dumb mouth?
Damn, she stupid!
The last thing Tracy wanted to do was seem obvious, even though it was a given to Victor. She was only there to see him.

“Oh, you not gon' speak to me?” Victor asked Tracy after waving to Jantel. Tracy couldn't help but to smile.

Victor chuckled at her and got up to leave.

Tracy asked Jantel, “Why you do that, girl?”

“Well, you didn't say that I couldn't say nothin' to him. We've just been sittin' out here for hours, doing nothin'. God!”

Victor came back and whispered in Tracy's ear, “I got something to ask you. Okay?” Tracy turned to eye his beautiful dark face, shining in the sunlight. Being that close to Victor again gave her goose bumps.

“What?” Tracy asked him.

“I'll tell you, just make sure you don't leave the playground,” he answered her before he walked away. He returned to his friends as
Tracy wondered. He then walked off with them, heading toward the stores on Chelten Avenue.

Tracy obediently remained at the playground, watching the older boys playing basketball while she waited patiently for Victor to return. After a while, Jantel was ready to leave.
She
wasn't in love with Victor, and
she
thought that Tracy was acting ridiculous.

“You're actually gonna stay here and wait for him?” Jantel asked her friend.

Tracy sucked her teeth. “Jantel, if you don't wanna stay with me, then you can go home,” she responded.

“Hmm,” Jantel mumbled, standing up from the benches. “Well, I'll see you tomorrow then,” she announced. “Happy waiting,” she added.

“Whatever,” Tracy said with a smirk as she continued to wait. She was afraid to leave, loving Victor without betrayal. And when the sun started to go down, she grew restless, still waiting, foolishly.

“Are you waiting for somebody?” one of the glamorous older girls asked her. They were all beginning to fade away.

Why don't you mind your business?
Tracy wanted to snap. “No, not really. I just like watching basketball,” she said instead.

The girl's friends snickered at Tracy as they began to walk off. “Don't get no splinters in your ass, waiting for no nigga, girl. 'Cause ain't none of 'em worth it,” she said to Tracy as she walked off behind her friends.

Shawn said, “Ay Victor, man, that's ugly how you doin' her.” They were heading back from the store.

Victor sucked his teeth. “Man, shet up. I know what I'm doin'. You gotta discipline these young-girls,” he responded tartly. “She goin' through my little trainin' session.” He munched on his barbecue chips and took a drink from his soda. “Plus, I'm waitin' for my pop to roll out, so I can take her to the crib and hit that ass again. I'm gon' hit it from the back this time.”

When they got back to the playground, Victor looked over at Tracy, who was sitting by herself, and decided that he had trained her enough. It was nearly eight o'clock and his father would be gone from the house by then.

“Come here, girl,” he said. His stare was serious as his connecting eyebrows rose. Tracy walked over to him slowly, feeling ashamed but important. If Victor wanted her, then she was surely a somebody. “When you want me to come over again?” he asked her sternly.

“I'on know. It depends on when my mother goes out,” she answered, neglecting what she had told herself about not giving him
any.

Victor said cheerfully, “Well, guess what? We can go to my house right now. But you probably don't want to though.” He started to walk away from her, toward a hole inside of the playground gate.

Tracy lost her cool. “I didn't say that!” she gushed. There was no way for her to refuse without losing him. “I'll go with you,” she said bashfully, as she followed after him.

Victor responded, “Come on, then.” He led her through the hole in the gate. “YO, I'LL CATCH Y'ALL NIGGAS LATER!” he shouted, smiling at his friends and taking Tracy's hand.

“Damn, cuz'. Just let me be that nigga for
one
day,” Shawn said to no one in particular.

“Dig it, man. Victor got all the flyy bitches.”

Victor and Tracy walked around the corner, hand and hand. He wore a white Adidas shorts and shirt set, clean as usual. Tracy felt like a queen, ready to make love again to King Victor.

Victor looked into her hazels. “You know, I never realized how sexy your eyes were until I seen them in the light today,” he told her.

“Thank you,” Tracy responded, tickled brown.
God, I love him!
she thought to herself.

Victor told her to wait outside on his patio for a moment while he went in. Tracy waited, happy to be with him. He then came back and gestured for her to come with a flick of his wrist. His house was beautiful. Tracy looked at his brother's basketball pictures, noticing the family attractiveness.

“Your brother is my complexion,” she commented, standing in front of the imitation fireplace.

“Yeah, my mother is your complexion,” Victor told her. “Us niggas
come in all colors.” He approached her from behind, putting his hands around her waist and kissing the nape of her neck. Tracy rubbed his hands and leaned her head forward, loving it.

“Tracy, I want you to do me a favor. All right?”

“Yes,” Tracy responded, dizzily.

Victor turned her around and looked her in her eyes. “Go upstairs to the last room in the hallway and take off your clothes. I'll be up in a few. And get under the covers while you're at it.”

Tracy didn't even hesitate. She did exactly what he had told her, waiting for him under the covers, naked and unashamed.

Victor walked into the room and turned off his light. Tracy felt his smooth dark body as it joined hers under the sheets. He turned her over on her stomach and pushed her knees forward as he entered her from the back.

Tracy whined, “Ooww, Victor. I don't wanna do it this way.”

He gripped her by her waist and began to pull her into him. Tracy dropped her head into the pillow, fighting the pain until it no longer hurt her.

“Did you miss me?” he asked her.

“Yesss,” she moaned, breathlessly.

“Do you like it?”

“Mmm, hmm.”

“Do you want me to stop?”

“No.”

“Good,” he told her, kissing the nape of her neck again.

Tracy rolled over and rubbed his chest when he had finished. He was her
man
and she loved him. Victor allowed her to lay with him on his bed, butt-naked and under his sheets, as Tracy peacefully fell asleep in his arms.

Victor leaned away from her and looked into her face as she dozed off.
She's just so young and pretty,
he told himself. He ran his dark fingers through her hair. “I like you,” he whispered in her ear,
but I
just can't let my guard down,
he thought to himself. His older brother had told him that young-girls were the worst ones to fall for, “because they don't know enough about relationships, and they're not mature
enough to handle all of their emotions,” he had said. Nevertheless, Victor liked Tracy's loyalty to him, so he considered her trustworthy.

Victor continued to have sex with Tracy throughout the summer, whenever he wanted. He never seemed to spend any quality time with her though. Tracy was pleased when she did have him. She saw no need to complain. He would come to her block and simply look at her a certain way, and she knew exactly what it meant.

Tracy had a problem with not being able to tell Victor “no.” On restless summer nights, she even went looking for him. Time spent with him was never boring, and Tracy enjoyed her small part in his fast world.

“Ay, girl. Is your name Tracy?” a short, well-curved girl asked from the bottom of Tracy's walkway.

“Yeah,” Tracy answered. She had been sitting out on her steps with Raheema.

The short girl said angrily, “Well, I got somethin' to talk to you about. Was you lookin' for my boyfriend?” she asked.

Tracy looked at the two girlfriends the short girl had brought with her, knowing they were all in high school.

“I don't even know your boyfriend,” she said.

“Yes, you do. You know Victor Hinson, girl. Don't fuckin' try to lie to me,” the girl snapped.

Tracy was glad that she was in front of her house. If anything jumped off, she was ready to make a dash for her door.

“I'ma tell you now, if I ever hear about you bein' with him again, I'ma kick a bone out your young ass.” The three girls walked away after soundly ranking Tracy.

Raheema grinned. “See what trouble boys get you in?” she said.

Tracy sat speechless for a second. She then sucked her teeth and sighed. “Aw, that bitch know he be runnin' around
doin' it
to everybody. She stupid to even go with him,” she said.

Raheema asked with a smile, “Well, what about you?”

Tracy smiled back. “So what, Ra-Ra?”

Raheema giggled helplessly. “Well, if I talked to a boy, first I would make sure that he didn't live around here.”

Tracy grinned, curiously. “Oh, so you like boys now, hunh?”

Raheema defiantly shook her head. “No. I'm just saying if I
did.”

“See them girls right there, Bruce?” said a short, round-bellied, brown-skinned boy inside of the Cheltenham Mall lobby.

“Going into the arcade?” his taller, lighter-toned friend responded. Shiny waves mopped his head, flowing to the right with a part on the left.

Round-belly said, “Yeah, cuz'. We can get some ass from them, Bruce. They live up Wayne Avenue. I'll talk to the dark-skinned one.”

His friend was hesitant. “Naw, cuz', I'm not talkin' to that other girl.”

“Why not, man? Bruce, she looks good as shit, and you a pretty boy, too. Man, you can get with her,” Round-belly assured him.

Wavy-head contested, “Naw, cuz', I can't really deal with them type of girls.” He could tell that the girl was flyy; she had clues of high maintenance written all over her face, hair and body.

“Man, all you got to do is talk, and she'll be on you.”

“I don't know, cuz'. She looks like one of those material girls to me, and I ain't really thorough enough to talk to them.”

Round-belly said, “Man, shet up, as pretty as you are.”

Wavy-head smiled as they went inside the arcade.

Round-belly said, “Ay Carmen, what's up, baby?”

“Oh my God! What's up, Bucky?”

“You tell me.”

Bruce stared nervously at Tracy, who was looking at him.

“Yeah, this is my boy, Bruce,” Bucky introduced him.

Carmen said, “Hi, this is Tracy.”

“Hi you doin'?” Tracy said.

Bruce was too afraid to talk. He silently nodded his head.

Carmen asked him, “Don't you go to Northeast High School?”

“Yeah,” Bruce answered, nervously.

“Do you know Victor Hinson? He goes there.”

“Yup, he live up y'all way, right?” Bruce said, opening up. He leaned up against Marie Brothers' Donkey Kong.

Carmen responded, “Yeah, he do.” She then looked at Tracy and smiled.

Bucky told them, “Yeah, well, we might be around there to see y'all. Aw'ight? So I just want y'all to know that we're comin'.”

“Aw'ight,” Carmen said.

The two boys walked out from the arcade.

Carmen asked Tracy, “What 'chew think about Bruce?”

“He was pretty as shit,” Tracy told her.

“I know. Wasn't he? You see all them waves in his head?”

Two days had passed before Bruce and Bucky pursued their plans. They found Tracy's house on Diamond Lane, and ended up meeting Raheema and Jantel.

“Yo, what's up, Jantel?” Bucky said with a grin. He seemed to know everyone. “Don't that girl Tracy live here?” he asked, pointing to the house next door.

Jantel responded blandly, “Yeah, why?”

Bucky frowned. “Boy, you got an attitude,” he commented to her.

Jantel did not particularly care for him. Bucky was known to be disrespectful to girls. “Yeah, whatever,” she huffed.

Bruce interjected, “Well, she probably ain't home anyway.” He then smiled at his friend. “Man, you always arguin' wit' girls, cuz'.”

Raheema had been staring at wavy-headed Bruce from the time he walked to her steps. He didn't notice it at first, but once he did, he was drawn to her like a magnet. She had the most innocent pair of eyes, and he was not afraid of
her
attractiveness. Raheema seemed soothing and down to earth as compared to Tracy.

Bruce asked Jantel, “What's your friend's name?”

Jantel smiled, expecting Raheema to brush them off as usual. “Why don't you ask her?”

Bruce looked at Raheema and they smiled at each other, to Jantel's surprise.

“My name is Raheema,” she answered.

Oh my God, she likes him!
Jantel assumed from Raheema's dreamy look.
Wait until I tell Tracy!

“That's a different kind of name. I like that,” Bruce said to her.

“What's your name?” she asked.

“Bruce.”

“Are you in high school?”

“Yeah.”

“I'm going to high school in September.”

He grinned at her. “Oh, you gon' be a freshman, hunh?”

Raheema nodded. “Yup.”

Bucky smirked and began strolling down the street. “Yo, man, I'll be back,” he told his friend. He didn't want to get in Bruce's way, and he was obviously taken by the girl.

Bruce said, “Aw'ight,” and sat on the steps to continue talking to Raheema.

Jantel then decided to leave the two love birds alone herself. “Well, when you see Tracy, just tell her that I'll call her up tonight,” she said with a smile.
Dag, everybody's talking to somebody but me. Maybe I
should give that boy Damon that runs for the Philadelphia Express a
chance. He likes me, and he's kind of cute,
she told herself as she walked off.

Bruce asked Raheema, “So you got a boyfriend, pretty?” He felt much more confident with her than he did with Tracy. Raheema was definitely more his speed.

“No,” Raheema said, staring into his eyes.

Bruce leveled with her from “jump-street,” or in other words, from the beginning of things. “Well, to tell the truth, I'm at the point now where I would like to settle down and find a girlfriend myself. And you're such a nice girl and all that I wouldn't mind you being the one.”

Raheema blushed. “Well, I don't know if I'm ready for a boyfriend yet.”

“Yeah, well, I can understand that. We just met each other, so we'll just be friends for a while until we find out how much we like each other.”

Bruce left once his friend Bucky came back. Talking to Raheema had been relaxing to him.

Bucky said, “Ay Bruce, don't talk to that girl, cuz'.” They headed down Chelten Avenue, back home toward Chew.

“Why not?” Bruce asked.

“That babe ain't fuckin', man.”

“Oh, I know that.”

“How you know?”

“ 'Cause, I can look in her eyes and tell. That's gon' be my girl, man,” Bruce announced.

Bucky laughed. “I'm tellin' you, cuz', leave that nut bitch alone.”

“You crazy. I ain't hardly tryin' to let
her
go,” Bruce snapped. “See man, that's all I want is a pretty girl, who I like. I don't need them flyy, hip-hop girls.”

Bucky responded, shaking his head, “Aw'ight then.”

They walked home to the East Germantown area, across Chew Avenue.

•    •    •

“Ay Bucky, the party gon' be live tonight, right?” Bruce was asking.

“Yeah, cuz', it's gon' be many hoes up in there,” his friend responded as he groomed himself, getting ready to leave out.

Bruce wore leather-trimmed jeans, a Members Only jacket, a gold pinky ring and a pair of seventy-five-dollar Fila sneakers. Bucky slid on his blue silk shirt with black, snake-skinned shoes and a matching belt. He wore dark blue Louis Rafael slacks and a gray Sergio jacket. Silk shirts were
in
in Philly at the time. The year was nineteen-eighty-five; the day was Saturday.

“Bucky looks like a million dollars,” Bruce said with a laugh. He wrapped a twenty-dollar bill around his finger for status; all of the guys who had money to spare were doing it.

“I'm tellin' you, Bruce, you should get classy, man. The bitches love it.”

“My gear is aw'ight,” Bruce retorted. “But yo, ‘Buck,' I'm gon' go up to Raheema's house to see if she wants to go.”

Bucky frowned. “Man, that girl can't go to no parties. You wastin' your time.”

“Well, I'm gon' go see anyway.”

Bruce left immediately, taking the long walk by himself. When he got there, it was eight-thirty, and Raheema and Tracy were outside talking. Bruce hesitated after seeing Tracy there, but then he walked up as if everything was cool.

Raheema greeted him excitedly, “Hi, Bruce.” Bruce was apprehensive, wondering what Tracy was thinking, and what she planned to do about her thoughts.

“Wasn't you at the mall, earlier this week?” she asked, as if she was not quite sure.

Bruce answered, “Yeah,” nonchalantly.

Tracy wore a pair of tight black jeans and a red Sixers jacket. Bruce was more interested in Raheema, wearing a long royal-blue skirt and a colorful blouse.

“So, Raheema, you wanna go to this party with me tonight?” he asked her.

Tracy was immediately jealous. “Some boys just asked us about that,” she interjected.

Raheema said, “I gotta go ask,” to Tracy's surprise.

Oh my God! Jantel was right; she do like him,
she thought to herself with a smile. Her neighbor then ran into the house and left Bruce alone with Tracy.

Tracy asked him with a devilish grin, “You came up here with Bucky, looking for me yesterday?”

Bruce lied and said, “Bucky was lookin' for you.”

Tracy stood up and walked closer to him on the steps. Bruce turned away to avoid her hazel-eyed glare.

“You like Raheema?” she quizzed.

“Yeah, and I wanna go with her,” Bruce answered bluntly.

Tracy felt like cursing him out.
Why does everybody want to go
with
her? she fumed. Bruce continued to avoid her, giving Tracy a challenge.

Raheema came back out with a jacket, and Tracy was shocked.

“They said that you can go?” she asked, confused by it.

“Yeah,” Raheema told her. “I told them that I was going with you and your friends, and they said to be back before curfew. That's all.”

Tracy grinned, excited as ever to see how Raheema would act at her first house-party. Her neighbor was finally ready to start experiencing life.

Tracy dashed into the house to tell her mother where she was going, and then the three of them headed to the party, which was eight blocks away. Tracy and Raheema giggled behind Bruce's back at how pretty he was while on their way. Tracy then slid her hand near his butt. Raheema grabbed her hand and playfully hissed at her.

“Stop that, Tracy,” she whispered with a grin.

Tracy whispered back to her, “I would
do it good
to
him.”
But she realized that Bruce would rather
do it
with Raheema.

By the time they had arrived at the party, it was nine-thirty. A gang of teenaged boys were crowded outside. Bruce recognized none of
them, as they jealously began to stare at him. He had
two
pretty girls.
Who the hell is he? t
hey thought.

Although she didn't feel like associating with them, Tracy was familiar with several of the boys. One of them even called out to Raheema, but she refused to respond. They entered through the front door and paid their dollars. A girl then led them into the basement and down the crowded stairs.

Bruce walked down the steps and into the packed dance floor accompanied by two
fine
young women. And no sooner than he had reached a comfortable spot inside the room with them a boy rudely stepped in front of him, addressing Raheema.

“What's up, Raheema? Come here for a minute. I got somebody for you,” he said as he tugged at her hand.

Bruce cut him off as Raheema pulled her hand away. “Naw, cuz'. She wit' me.”

“If she really with you, then let her say it,” the boy contested.

Bruce responded, ready for a fight, “Yeah, well, you see that she ain't goin' nowhere.”

Tracy was impressed, but it made Raheema afraid of him. She hoped that Bruce was not a control freak like her father. Yet Bruce was simply standing his ground.
Dude had no business grabbing her from me like
that,
he thought.
Who the hell he think he is?

The boy walked away to join a group of his friends, and Bruce began to fear for his safety. He wondered where Bucky was.

After his nerves calmed, Bruce helped Raheema from the wall to dance with him. The DJ played “Angel,” by Anita Baker. Bruce and Raheema caressed each other as Tracy watched them enviously. She was then appalled, noticing Victor kissing another girl. Tracy was horrendously jealous. Her heart burned inside of her chest with rage. Victor had not given her
a treat
in three weeks. Tracy counted the days.

“I wanna go home,” she snapped to Bruce and Raheema. They were dancing as if they were married.

Bruce said, “Aw'ight, just wait until after this song.” It didn't take much for Bruce to grow a hard-on, and he wanted to stay close to Raheema to get his thrills.

“I wanna go home,” Tracy repeated.

Bruce looked at her with an evil eye. “Come on, now. We gon' roll, but just as soon as this dance is over.” He regained his stance with Raheema.

Tracy glared at him. “NO, BOY! I want to go home! NOW!” she roared like a baby. Teenagers glanced at her as she hastily began moving through the crowd and toward the stairs. Bruce followed with Raheema, hating Tracy. She acted like a big kid. The thug types tried to entice her with conversation as soon as they walked outside. They were the guys no one wanted
inside
the party.

“Ay, come here for a minute, Tracy,” one of them called.

Tracy already had an attitude. “NO!” she screamed at him.

He looked to his friends and frowned as they laughed at him. “What the hell is her problem?” he asked.

Bruce and Raheema held hands, pacing behind her.

Tracy looked back to Bruce and decided to pick with him. She had nothing better to do, and she knew that he was pissed. Tracy had ruined his hard-on. “You mad at me, ‘Brucie'?” she said, giggling.

Bruce smiled at her humor with no comment.
This girl is a damn
kid,
he told himself.
But she sure is attractive,
he could not help thinking. Tracy carried herself with a lot of passion.

“Are you gonna walk us back home?” Raheema asked him.

“Naw, 'cause that's outta my way.”