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DARIUS MCKINLEY

H -Town’s Like It Slow was flowing through the speakers, setting just the right vibe as I laid in bed feeling like I was on top of the world. I was days away from graduating high school and feeling my best. In fact I felt so good I needed to release which was why I was on the phone rapping to Janiece’s ass. Janiece and I have been fucking since the summer but were not in a relationship. First conversation we had I let it be known I wasn’t looking for shit but to get my dick wet. Young, fine as hell, star athlete in my prime, yeah there was no chance of me trying to be someone’s man. All a female could do for me is suck and wet this dick up.

“You know I like it slow,” Janiece purred into the phone.

“What else you like?”

“Come over and find out… or you want me to come to you?”

“Hold up, my line ringing.” I clicked over, cutting Janiece off. “What up KK?” I answered for my homegirl.

“You home?”

“What’s going on?” Instantly I could tell she was upset as I sat up, the song switched to Usher’s Peace Sign . Once she told me dude was over there tripping and she needed to come over, I immediately became on alert.

“You got company over? Listening to love songs I’m trying to avoid drama. Today just might be the day I slap me a bitch. I’m not in the mood for them chicken heads you be dealing with, Darius. I can find somewhere else?—”

“Girl, stop trippin’. Ion fuck with chicken heads, maybe a few goofy broads but never a chicken head.” I laughed, even though I was still concerned about her safety being that she hadn’t left her house yet because she was still on the phone with me. “You sure you don’t need me to come scoop you?”

“Positive. I’m ‘bout to go. I’ll see you in a minute.”

KK hung up before I could say anything else as I got up and made sure my window was unlocked. The only time I kept my shit unlocked was when I was home. If I wasn’t at the crib I locked it, and I always encouraged KK to do the same. So, I needed to make sure it was good for when she got here. She always kept her bedroom window open for me and I always kept mine open for her. It was our thing.

I kept hearing my name. I thought I was tripping until I remembered that Janiece’s ass was on my other line. I had forgotten all about shorty.

“Damn, my bad.”

“I’m like wait, did he forget I was on the phone?” Janiece chuckled. “One minute I’m holding then the next I hear the line click and movement, but you never said nothing or came back to the phone. I didn’t know what you had going on, that’s why I was shouting your name and pressing buttons like that.”

“Yo ass just nosy cause you coulda hung up. Yo head probably hurting from eavesdropping on my background noise.” I laughed, causing her to laugh too.

“I thought you forgot about me. Must have been one of your hoes.”

“You one of my hoes and if it was, what?”

“You coulda just told me to call you back before you clicked over.”

“You coulda just hung up.”

“Do you really mean that?” Janiece asked, softening her tone.

“Hell yeah, it’s way too many hoes as you say outchere for me to be pressed bout one. That’s just why I don’t have no bitch. I ain’t got time for nan bitch other than my moms to be questioning and checking for me.”

“I’m not trying to piss you off. I’m just looking to spend a lil time. I’m horny and need some of that good-good.”

“Oh yeah.”

“Hell yeah,” Janiece said trying to sound sexy now. The bitch was crazy as fuck, but her pussy was A1.

“So, what’s up, Darius; you coming over or nah?”

“Make me want to come to you instead of one of my other hoes.” I laughed.

“Oh, so that’s what you on…bet.” Janiece smirked and started laughing. “You know my shit A1, don’t play wit me.”

“Pussy is pussy. You think you the only one walkin’ round with wet cat?” I chuckled.

“I know I’m not the only one with that wet but that don’t mean it’s that good wet, wet like mine. I taste and smell good nigga, like I said, don’t play wit me. If it wasn’t A1, you wouldn’t be on my line right now.”

I hung up without saying shit then straightened the sheets up on my bed and sprayed some Play cologne throughout my room. I kept my space clean for the most part; at the same time, I had so much sports equipment, shoes, and clothes than I needed so some areas looked a little cluttered. Just as I came back into my room from dumping my trash, my cell was ringing. Seeing that it was Janiece I started laughing.

“Yerp.”

“Why you hang up? You know you wrong for that. Not you mad cause you can’t handle the truth.”

“Smell good fosho but Ion know shit ’bout how you taste. Wrong nigga shorty.”

“No, I know I was talking to you, Darius.” Janiece chuckled. “If you didn’t agree that I don’t have to prove shit to get you come through you wouldn’t waste yo time with me was the point I was trying to prove.”

“That’s a fact.”

One thing I could vouch for was the fact that I was a straight dawg ass, hoe ass nigga. I loved sex and I enjoyed having it with multiple females, hence the reason why I choose to remain single. I’m a nigga that loves to fuck and I’m not ashamed by it, but one thing I wasn’t doing was wrapping my lips around and sucking and sticking my tongue in just anybody’s pussy.

Janiece’s shit was A1 no doubt, but she was DTF, down to fuck not just me but plenty other niggas as well. Shit she had fucked a few of my homeboys and I know that for a fact cause me and my homeboy E-Man ran a train on her ass a few times.

Tap… Tap… Tap!

As Janiece and I continued to chop it up, I heard three taps on my window which let me know that KK was there. That was our signal for each other so that we would know it was one of us coming through each other’s window instead of an intruder. Raising up off the bed I turned toward the window and KK was standing there crying. I helped her in then took her backpack from her. I could see in her face the sadness and fear I heard in her voice over the phone.

“Thanks.” KK softly said.

“Aye, I’ma hit you back.”

“Wait, are you comin?—”

Before Janiece could finish what she was trying to say I hung up. That shit would have to wait til later. Right now, I needed to see what was up with my girl.

“Why you cryin’?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

When we first met, she and I clicked right away, and she helped me adjust to my new surroundings and school. My moms being a single mother and trying to manage everything on her own didn’t have much time for me, but KK did. She always uplifted, supported, and encouraged me no matter how fucked up I felt things were at home. My pops leaving made it hard for my moms to afford to pay for me to be in sports, or so I thought at first, so I hustled and made the money for my fees and equipment on my own in between my games, tournaments, and practices.

KK never judged me unlike my moms who flipped out a few times when she suspected I was hustling at first. It was like she wanted me to go without, and I had to let it be known that I was the type that had it in me to go and get what I needed. Young or not, age didn’t mean shit to the streets and the hustle.

Pops leaving also caused my moms to go wild when it came to men. It was like she didn’t give a fuck who she messed around with. Long as they was sliding her some bread and looked out for her, she was straight, on top of the child support my pops would send; but it would only be enough for the bills and her lifestyle, not my extracurricular activities. Football wasn’t a sport or a hobby to do because I enjoyed it, it was going to be my ticket out of here and away from hustling one day. So, by any means I was going to see to it that all fees were paid cause I had no choice but to.

My pops sent child support, and for years she claimed my pops picked up and left us not giving a damn about us when it wasn’t true. I had come across a stack of mail one day in the kitchen and sitting right on top was a child support order renegotiation letter. When I read it, my pops was the one filing the motion to increase the support he had already been sending because his finances had increased. I should’ve known better than to believe that my pops would rock like that but all I knew was that the nigga had up and left us. I never said shit to my moms about the child support I just hit the block and did what I had to do.

Why my pops picked up and left I was never clear on, he and I didn’t talk very much so I never got his side of the story. I just didn’t really fuck with him because when he first left, I saw how badly broken it left my mom. It used to hurt me hearing and seeing how fucked up she was over him. In a way it made me resent him, but the older I got, I began to see a side to my mom that as a man, I wouldn’t be attracted to in a female so I’m sure my pops had his reasons I just didn’t dwell on they shit because I had my own to be worried about.

I just stayed in the basement and out the way as much as possible. As for KK, times that I needed to stash money at her place she let me. There were even a few times my moms locked me out of the house, locking all the windows and putting the chain bolt lock on the door and KK let me slide into her bedroom window. I just had to sleep on her closet floor and couldn’t snore cause if I did, she would wake me up and I respected that.

It was a given that I would always be there for KK, no matter what and if she needed to come over then she knew she didn’t have to ask.

“Yes, the fuck it does KK. Did dude put his hands on you?” I asked feeling my adrenaline rushing to the point I had to slow my breathing. A technique I learned in wrestling to control my breathing was to be in control of my entire body and mind.

“I’m so damn sick of them both I just need to get away for a minute. If he pops up asking if I’m here, please don’t tell him.”

It was real possible for Todd to come over, her mom not so much unless the reason she left was bad enough for her mom to come here. Todd and my moms fucked around and have been for a lil minute. My moms didn’t care that he was married to KK’s mom because he wasn’t the only nigga my moms hooked up with, so it worked for the both of them.

That’s one of the reasons why Todd and Rochelle didn’t like KK and I to hang out. He knew he was foul, and I knew about him and my moms, so to keep control over the situation he convinced Rochelle to not like me. Convinced her that I was bad business for KK but shit, I was just the opposite he was the one that was bad business. Just like with my moms everybody thought KK and I fucked around but we never have. I feel like her people used that as a reason to tell her to stay away from me. My moms, on the other hand, could care less if KK came over. Either way she was still going to do her. If that meant Todd came over, then it was what it was. She didn’t want me having my company going upstairs and I respected that; plus, KK didn’t feel comfortable around my mom like that anyway.

KK had caught Todd coming over one day when she was leaving. She thought it was because he was looking for her but that was far from the truth. I ended up walking her home that day because that was before I had my car and told her the truth about why he was there. KK struggled with telling her mom and then she got lucky and didn’t have to because somehow word had gotten back to her mom about Todd and my mom not too long after that.

KK said when she got home from school one day, they were arguing so bad that it ended up turning physical. She said her mom had racked up a few taps on Todd’s ass but of course he got the best of her because he was much stronger than her. KK went and tried to break it up and dude turned on her and told her to stay in a kid’s place. That was the day they tried to enforce that she and I couldn’t be friends anymore and I was the reason for her disobedience. I wanted to fuck dude up and her mom was bogus as fuck. KK shouldn’t have had to suffer because of her mom’s husband’s dumb shit. What he had going on with my mom had nothing to do with KK and I being cool.

Crazy thing was it made KK and I’s relationship stronger. From day one I always had a slight crush on her but when she came into my life, she wasn’t in need of a nigga she needed protection and at my young age, I did what I could to be the best friend that I could for her even if that meant just providing a place of refuge when needed.