Tacora was in the other bedroom doing God knew what, but I guess she decided to join me in the living room, because she came prancing out not too long after I had sat on the sofa. I hoped she wasn’t looking for conversation, because I was not in the mood to socialize with her, especially after all the shit I’d been though because of her. She strutted her stinking ass over to the sofa and took a seat beside me. I pretended to be engrossed in the show that was on cable, but that didn’t matter to her, because she made sure I knew she was in the room.
“Whatcha watching?” she asked me with that squeaky voice of hers.
I started to ignore her simple-minded ass because she knew what I was watching. She saw that it was Martin Lawrence and Gina, so she knew it was an old episode of Martin. But I smiled and played her game. “It’s Martin,” I told her.
“When did that come back on? I used to love that show before they canceled it a few years ago.”
“Yeah, I used to love it too,” I responded, but didn’t turn my head once to look at her.
Before she could make more conversation, Slim walked into the apartment, but he didn’t come in alone. He had this pretty young girl with him. I knew right off the bat that he had recruited another victim. Too bad she hadn’t been warned that she was in over her head with that joker, because it was only a matter of time before he flipped the script on her. He was smiling now, but give him another hour or two, and he would be right back to his regular self.
“Come on in here,” he instructed her as if he was the most gentle man on the face of the earth.
Listening to him sweet talk this young girl made me want to regurgitate my entire grilled cheese sandwich. He was pouring on his phony ass charm too thick for me, and I wanted to expose him for who he truly was. But Tacora beat me to the punch.
“Who the fuck is she?” she asked.
Ignoring Tacora, Slim closed the front door and pointed the young girl toward the bathroom. Immediately after she closed the door behind herself, Slim rushed toward Tacora and gabbed her around her neck. I could tell that he was squeezing the hell out of her windpipe because she was gasping for air like her life depended on it. Well, I guess her life did depend on it.
“Bitch, don’t you ever question me about who the fuck I bring in this house!” Slim said. “Do you understand?”
Tacora wasn’t able to respond verbally, but she was able to make some type of eye signal to him, I guess, because he ended up letting her go. Several minutes later the young girl came out of the bathroom and noticed that Tacora was massaging her neck. She gave Tacora a really goofy expression. I spoke to the young girl and she spoke back to me, but Tacora wouldn’t open her mouth. She focused her attention on the TV, ignoring the new chick.
Slim finally introduced the new girl. “This is Stacy,” he said. “She will be staying with us until she can get back on her feet.”
I nodded, because I didn’t care one way or the other. I already knew that whatever he told her to get her to come here was a lie. And to say that she was going to be here until she could get on her feet was definitely some bullshit. I couldn’t wait to see her face when he removed the blinders from her naïve eyes.
Like I said earlier, Stacy was a very pretty girl. I could tell that she wasn’t over the age of twenty-one. Her body was nice and ripe for this line of work, so I knew Slim had major plans for her. She reminded me of the R&B singer Rihanna. She had that innocent girl look and she was petite like Rihanna as well. As I watched how Slim interacted with her, I knew that he had no intentions on springing Sabrina from jail. As far as he was concerned, she was a distant memory. She was just another young and gullible streetwalker that could be replaced at the drop of a hat. That was how he rolled.
“Where do you want me to put my stuff?” she asked him in her childlike voice.
“Come here and let me show you where you gon’ be sleeping,” he replied, and then he escorted her to Tacora’s room. Right after he entered the bedroom, he called Tacora’s name and told her to come into the room to help Stacy put away her things. I laughed softly, but Tacora heard me anyway. She sucked her teeth, jumped up from the couch, and stomped her way into the bedroom where Slim and Stacy were. Stacy’s arrival had become so comical that I needed to share, so I got up from the sofa and snuck into my bedroom.
“Hey, Jennifer, wake up,” I whispered as I nudged her on the arm.
She turned over and looked at me. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Shhhh! Don’t talk so loud,” I told her.
“Why? What’s the matter?” she asked, and then she turned her body around to face me.
“You were right,” I said.
“About what?”
“Slim doesn’t have any plans to bail Sabrina out of jail.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because he just brought this new girl in the house and told Tacora she was going to be sharing the room with her.”
Jennifer’s eyes bulged. “You lying?” she whispered.
“No, I’m not. He got the girl and Tacora in the other room now.”
“You fucking kidding me? ” Jennifer asked and then chuckled.
“No, I’m not. Go in there and check for yourself,” I said. So she got out of bed and walked toward the door. “Don’t be so obvious. Act like you’re going to the bathroom,” I told her.
Jennifer fixed her shirt and shorts and then she opened the door. I followed her and acted like I was heading to the kitchen, just to see the reaction on her face. After she got an eyeful she marched back into the bedroom and I joined her about five seconds later.
“Oh my God! You weren’t lying,” she whispered as she took a seat on the edge of her bed. “She’s cute too.”
“Yeah, she is, and Tacora hates her already.”
Jennifer chuckled. “Boy, I would have given up my last dime to see her expression when that girl first came in the house.”
“Trust me, you would’ve died from laughter.”
“I believe it,” she replied, and then she asked, “Did he say what her name was?”
“Yeah, her name is Stacy.”
“How old is she?”
“He didn’t tell us that. But she’s probably around twenty or twenty-one.”
“You’re probably right, because she looks young.”
“I wonder what they’re in there talking about now,” I said.
“Probably not much of anything. But I betcha Tacora is kicking herself in the ass now.”
“Girl, you know she is. You should’ve been in the living room earlier when Slim first walked into the house with her.”
“What happened?”
“Tacora got really bold and asked him who the fuck she was.”
“And what did he say?”
“He ignored her at first, but as soon as he showed his new moneymaker where the bathroom was, he ran up on Tacora and damn neared choked the life out of her.”
“Oh, so she got the same treatment that I got, huh?”
“You better bet it. And she didn’t like it either.”
“That’s good for the bitch! Now I bet she feels really fucking stupid.”
“I’m sure she does, especially now that she knows he isn’t springing Sabrina from jail.”
“Wow! Unfucking believable!” Jennifer commented, and then we both shook our heads.
We stayed in the room for about another hour and chitchatted. We got quiet a few times when we heard Slim making conversation with Stacy. She giggled the entire time they were talking. I made a bet with Jennifer that Slim was going to fuck her by nightfall. Jennifer’s bet was that he was going to get her before nightfall. So we sat back and waited to see who would win the bet. The loser had to spend ten dollars on the drug of the winner’s choice.
Nightfall finally seeped through the mini blinds of the living room windows. And since Slim had not yet christened Sabrina’s bed with Stacy, I was the winner of the bet. Jennifer assured me that she would happily pay her debt as soon as we got on the block.
“Y’all need to get ready because we gon’ be heading over to Goff Street in the next thirty minutes,” Slim announced.
“I’m ready now,” Tacora replied as she sat on the living room sofa.
“Well, I’m not, so just chill out until I tell you we’re leaving,” he replied sarcastically.
Jennifer and I were in the bedroom with the bedroom door cracked, so we heard everything.
“She better step back before he fucks around and hurts her really bad,” I said.
“I don’t think she believes that he’ll hurt her,” Jennifer said.
“I don’t see why not, especially after the way he choked her earlier.”
“Well all I’m gonna say is that she’s either stupid or she’s a glutton for punishment.”
“At this point it doesn’t matter to me. Because whatever she gets from him is what she deserves,” I said and then I grabbed my purse and headed to the living room.
Jennifer followed me a few minutes later. She had already introduced herself to Stacy earlier, but they hadn’t had a chance to really talk. As a matter of fact, Stacy and I had not had a chance to get acquainted either since she had been trying to get her living area situated. Once she had taken care of that, she accompanied us into the living room. The sight of her made Slim smile from ear to ear. He lit up like a fucking Christmas tree. And she had a glow as well. I saw them looking at each other through my peripheral vision. I was sure that Jennifer and Tacora saw the way they were acting too, but no one dared to make mention of it. I had a feeling we wouldn’t be able to ignore Stacy for too long, though.
The Candy Shop part 2 Kiki Swinson
Let the Games Begin
When it was time to head outside Slim made the announcement that he was splitting up me and Jennifer. He wanted someone who had been with him the longest to show Stacy the ropes, and since Jennifer was that person, she was appointed that job. Now I was left with Tacora’s silly ass, and I was not at all happy about it. Jennifer looked at me and shook her head to indicate that she was disgusted too. I responded by nodding so she knew I shared her sentiment.
As Slim had planned, we all headed over to the corner of Goff Street and Okeefe. As soon as we arrived at our spot, which was in front of the Huntersville Recreation Center, Slim pointed out where he wanted me and Tacora to stand. He told Jennifer and Stacy he wanted them to stay close to him. Our post was right at the corner where the playground was located.
“Get ready! Here comes a car!” Slim yelled, which of course brought me back to reality.
The car approached the side of the street where Jennifer and Stacy were located, so Tacora and I just stood around and waited for our turn. As we waited Tacora sparked up a conversation with me. At first I had no intentions of entertaining her. But she started saying some very interesting shit. And while she was talking, she gawked at Slim the entire time.
“I swear, I hate him,” she said. “That punk ass nigga left my best friend in jail so he could go out and find another bitch to take her place.”
“Yep, that’s what it looks like,” I said.
“And look at that bitch! She thinks she’s pretty, but she ain’t all that to me, especially with that big ass nose she’s got.”
“Well I think she’s pretty,” I said in an effort to piss her off. And it worked.
“Please, she ain’t pretty nowhere. I look better than her.”
“If you say so,” I replied as I laughed to myself.
Tacora was being really pathetic. She was all broken up because Slim had used her dumb ass like he’d done to everyone else. She finally saw that he was the dirt bag that everyone had pegged him out to be.
“The first chance I get, I’m leaving,” she blurted out.
“You’re gonna do what?” I asked her. I knew what she’d said, but I just wanted to hear it again. I had to make sure I’d heard what I believed I’d heard.
“I said I’m leaving,” she repeated.
Stunned by her boldness, I looked at her with a newfound respect. I sensed that this young girl wasn’t so dumb after all.
“And how do you think you’re gonna do that?” I asked her. It was important for me to know what her plans were, because Jennifer and I had been trying to figure out an escape plan of our own. Unfortunately we hadn’t been able to devise one. But hopefully Tacora could help us out. I figured she must know something we didn’t, and I was ready to hear what she had to say. I stood there and waited for her to divulge her plan.
“I haven’t figured it out yet, but it’s coming,” she assured me, and then she fell silent.
Well that just dashed all my hopes. She had me thinking that I could use her to get away from Slim. But then something inside me ignited the possibility that she could have been lying to me. I mean why would she tell me how she planned to escape Slim? She and I weren’t on the best of terms. She knew she was on my shit list. And she knew that I did not care for her, so why would she tell me?
Looking at it from her perspective, she would have been really stupid to do that. I could very easily have dropped the ball and told Slim her intentions. Now that was not something I would do, because that wasn’t how I did things, but she wasn’t aware of that. So if I were in her shoes, I would be leery too.