Bronxwood (6 page)

“True that,” I go. “She even went to live with him for, like, a couple days after I left outta the shelter. She said it was ’cause Bennett is a family shelter and they wouldn’t let her stay there if she ain’t had no kids living with her, but I don’t know, man.” I stop talking ’cause just thinking ’bout everything again make me wanna kill Dante.

Regg get close to me and he look real serious when he say, “If I was you, Ty, I wouldn’t say shit to your father. He—”

“What? I’m s’posed to let Dante stand in there and act like he his friend when—?”

“Ty, your pops just got out.” He look ’round real quick. “You tell him any of this shit and he gonna end up right back in there ’fore the end of the night. You understand what—”

“I could kick Dante ass for showin’ up here, smiling in my pops face.” I feel heat moving up through my body. “It would feel so fuckin’ good to stomp on Dante face and make him pay for—”

“I’m telling you, Ty, don’t tell your pops. A man hear that and he ain’t never gonna get it out his mind. He gonna be picturing that shit forever. Him and your moms is doing good now. He hear what she did behind his back, he ain’t never gonna forget that. Trust me.”

I stand there, feeling my head getting hot. This whole thing is pissing me the fuck off. Why I even gotta deal with this? All this should be between my moms and pops. Why I even gotta know who they messing with?

“I’m serious, Ty. Keep this shit to yourself.”

I’m tired of hearing Regg too, like it’s up to me to keep my moms and pops together or something. “Whatever you say,” I tell him, and open the door and go back inside. And right away I see Dante ’cross the room. I walk in his direction, staring him down the whole time, and when we close enough that he can hear me over the music, I say, “Stay the fuck away from my moms.”

He get this little smile on his face, but he don’t say nothing back. He just walk to the other side of the room where he got some friends. After he outta my way, I turn back and, course, Regg seen the whole thing. He shake his head, like he warning me again, but I just turn ’round and head back over to the DJ table so I can finish helping the man and get my money. Yeah, I’ma listen to Regg. I ain’t gonna say nothing. But this whole situation getting me more tired and more pissed than I need to be.

When the party over, my pops and all the guys sit ’round
getting high and relaxing. Course I get some of they weed too. After a while we break down the equipment and clean up the room the best we can so Regg friend that own the place don’t get mad. Me, I just wanna get paid and bounce, but my pops wanna go back to the diner like we always do after his parties. I don’t know why he dragging this thing out, but it don’t matter. I’m cool with going and eating another one of them Beasts. ’Til I hear Dante tell my pops he coming too.

I gotta go in the van with my pops to help him bring the equipment back to the storage place, but we don’t hafta talk ’cause on the way he call my moms and they talk for the whole ride. Then, when we get there, he tell her to get in a cab and meet us at the diner. I know she was ’sleep ’cause it’s only something after five in the morning and she hate getting up early, but my pops tell her he miss her and
all that shit, and next thing I know he hanging up and telling me, “She coming.”

I don’t care one way or another. The whole time I was down south, the only time she called me was when she wanted to complain ’bout something. She would say shit like, “I don’t know why you out there in Atlanta having fun and you got me here with no money or nothing.” Them calls pissed me off, but they wasn’t nothing new. I mean, I been taking care of my moms for a year and she been acting like that the whole time. The one good thing ’bout my pops being back is, least that’s over with now.

When we get to the diner, all the other guys is already there, sitting at a big table in the back of the place. I sit next to Regg, on the other side of the table from Dante. Regg too busy to say anything to me. He on his BlackBerry, typing some shit, probably handling his business, but I’m like, it’s five in the morning. Who he doing business with now?

Being that we all still kinda high, everybody start getting loud, talking and laughing ’bout some of the shit that happened at the party. I gotta say, for one of my pops parties, this one wasn’t all that wild.

We order our breakfast and for a while we sit there having a good time, but every time I look over at the other end of the table, Dante staring right at me. I’m like, what he want from me? ’Cause if he looking for a fight, I’m ready.

Then my moms get there, and I ain’t lying, soon as she see Dante, the look on her face is like, oh, shit.

A second later, she try and play it off, and smile like it don’t matter. I gotta say though, my moms is looking kinda okay, ’specially for somebody that just got theyself outta bed. She ain’t wearing them cutoff shorts she been running a lot this summer, or one of them tank tops that she probably too old to be wearing anyway. She got on jeans and a red T-shirt, but she musta put makeup on or something ’cause her face look good. Either that or it’s ’cause she smiling. Ain’t seen her do that since they sent my pops up.

My moms go over and sit down next to my pops, and they start hugging and kissing, acting like they ain’t seen each other for years instead of just, like, a couple hours. Kinda embarrassing, you ask me, but okay, least they happy. When I look over at Dante, he staring at them, mad. But what he got to be pissed off ’bout? He the one that used the situation we was in to get my moms in bed with him. He knew my moms since she was, like, my age. He know she don’t know how to act when her man ain’t ’round.

Not that she ain’t responsible for what she did. She fucked up, and I ain’t never gonna forget it. Wish I could.

Our food come, and all through breakfast my moms and pops sit so close they practically on top of each other. They eating but still kissing and shit. And I can see Dante getting madder and madder. Regg must see it too, ’cause he get up from the table and go over to Dante and say he wanna talk
to him ’bout something outside. Dante look kinda scared, which make sense with the way Regg standing over him, big as he is, but Dante don’t got no choice ’cept to go with him.

After they leave, my moms flash me a look like, what’s up with them? I shake my head like I don’t know, ’cause I don’t want her to know I told Regg. I don’t need her going off on me any more than she already do.

It don’t take long for Regg and Dante to get back. Dante still walking and ain’t got no broken bones or blood coming outta his body, so it don’t look like Regg laid a finger on him or nothing. Regg go back to eating, and so do Dante, but he eating mad fast now. Like three minutes later, he done. He throw some money on the table and say he gotta go. Nobody hardly pay him no mind though, ’cept my moms, and soon as he leave, she look ’bout ten times happier and more relaxed.

I don’t know what it is, but something ’bout the way Dante was looking at my moms and pops, and something ’bout how my moms is acting, make me think shit is even worse than I thought. I been thinking they only hooked up for them couple days, ’til I got my moms her own place, but now I can tell that ain’t what happened. They probably ain’t stop this whole time, knowing my moms. She don’t know how to be by herself.

When we through eating, my pops and Regg go over to another table in the corner and count the money. Regg get
a piece of what everybody pay at the door, so they always count together. After they through, my pops come over and pay the other guys. When he come over to me, he hand me some cash and before I can even count it, he go, “Tomorrow, I’ma gonna need you. We gotta get all the furniture and shit out the storage place, into the new apartment. I got some guys helping out, but I’m still gonna need you.”

“What time?” I ask.

“Early. I’ma call you when I’m on the way.” He don’t wait for me to say alright or nothing. He just go back over by my moms.

I ain’t gonna lie. I’m confused. My pops say he want me to help him move into the new apartment, but what that mean for me? I’m s’posed to move in there or not? Or I’m s’posed to help him move and then keep staying with Cal?

I’m still sitting there when Regg come over to me and say my pops asked him to drive me home. He laugh and say, “Your pops don’t wanna take no time away from your moms.”

I get up from the table. “They too old for all that.”

“Never too old,” he say, still laughing. “Your pops is what? Forty-one? How old is your moms?”

“Thirty-five. Gonna be thirty-six next month.”

“They young, Ty. They still wanna—”

“A’ight. I get it.”

Regg still laughing when we walk outta the restaurant and ’cross the parking lot to his truck. “I can drive,” I tell him. “If you too tired, I mean.”

“I got this,” he say. “I already risked my life one time this week.”

I get in the passenger seat and right away start counting my money. Eight hundred dollars, all in twenties. It’s more than I thought he was gonna pay me, but I still need a lot more.

The second we get out the parking lot I ask Regg what he said to Dante, how he got him to break outta there so fast.

“I told him that from now on, he need to know that your moms got a order of protection out on her. From me. If he see her, he need to back away. And if he don’t, he gonna hafta deal with me.”

I smile. “Good.” I shoulda did that myself.

Then Regg tell me again ’bout not saying nothing to my pops ’bout what went down with my moms and Dante.

“I ain’t,” I say a couple times before he actually believe me. “I’ma let them handle they business. I got my own problems anyway. I don’t need no more.”

“How you and your pops doing? Y’all looked like y’all was okay playing together tonight.”

I shrug. “I was just looking to get paid, that’s it.”

“But y’all talking, right?”

“Nah. I ain’t got nothing to say to him.” Then I tell Regg ’bout what my pops did to me at the storage place yesterday. “The way he did that shit, it came outta nowhere. He, like, crazy or something, I swear.”

“Try and make it work with him, Ty. Y’all used to be real tight. A lot of kids your age ain’t got that with they old man.”

The way Regg talking, I know he thinking ’bout his own life. When we was driving down south he told me he ain’t never knew his father. When he was my age he had to leave his moms house ’cause he ain’t get along with her boyfriend and he ain’t had nowhere to go for a long time. Regg was living out on the streets, not like what I’m doing, staying with Cal and them. Regg had it real bad.

As we get close to Bronxwood, I’m still thinking ’bout everything Regg told me. “Regg,” I say, “was the whole reason you brung me down south with you ’cause you wanted to talk to me ’bout my pops?”

“Not the whole reason,” he go. “I wanted to get you outta the Bronx for a while. And yeah, I wanted to talk to you too. Make sure you was ready for your pops to get out. I knew you since you was a little kid, Ty, and I don’t want you going through the kinda shit I had to go through.”

“You think I need my pops or something?”

“It ain’t about what you need. I’m just looking out for you.”

For some reason what Regg saying kinda get me a little mad, at him and my pops. Like the two of them is on the same side or something, trying to get me to do something I don’t wanna do.

“You can let me out here,” I tell him before he can turn into Bronxwood. “I need to get something from the store.” And I need to stop talking to him.

He pull over, and as I’m opening the door to get out, he say, “Just so you know, I’m going outta town for a while.”

“A’ight.” I get out the truck and close the door.

“Don’t get in no trouble,” he say out the window.

“You too.”

He laugh. “They ain’t caught up to me yet, right?”

Even though I don’t wanna talk to him no more right now, I can’t help but ask him again, “What you do, anyway?”

“Mind my business,” he say.

“When you gonna trust me?”

“I trust you, Ty. But I ain’t trying to get you involved in my shit.”

Now that just make me madder at him. I’m sixteen and he treating me like a fuckin’ child that can’t handle nothing. “Thanks for dropping me off,” I say. “Holla at me when you back.”

“Count on it,” he say, and drive off. Another dude that can’t stay in one place too long.

I go in the bodega and buy a Pepsi and some chips and cookies. Then, on my way to my building, the second I turn the corner, I almost run right into Novisha and her moms. They look like they on they way to church, and I’m like, damn, it’s Sunday morning. People been to sleep and woke up and got dressed, and me, I’m now getting home.

I don’t wanna stare at Novisha, but she look real fuckin’ pretty, wearing a light blue dress and heels. She don’t never
dress sexy. That’s not the kinda girl she is. But no matter what she wear, she look good. She real short and little, and her body kick ass. And she got a cute face too. Back when we was together, I could never get tired of looking at that face. No lie, it used to make me feel real good that she was mines.

But I ain’t with her no more, so I stop looking and instead just turn to Ms. Jenkins and tell her good morning.

“Good morning to you too, Tyrell.” She used to always look happy when she seen me, but now that me and her daughter is broke up, she only half smile and it’s real fake. I don’t know if it’s ’cause me and Novisha ain’t together no more or if it’s ’cause I’m living with Cal and them and maybe she think I’m in they business now. She probably glad I ain’t Novisha boyfriend no more. “You’re up early on a Sunday morning.”

The way she say it, I can’t tell if she actually believe that shit or if she really know I been out all night. So I just nod and go, “Yeah.” Then, so Ms. Jenkins don’t think I’m disrespecting her daughter, I say, “Hi, Novisha.”

“Hi, Ty.” She open her mouth to say something else, then close it again.

And for, like, five seconds, we don’t say nothing. We just standing there on the sidewalk, not moving and not talking ’til finally, Ms. Jenkins say, “Well, we better get going.”

“Yeah,” I say. “Okay.”

They walk to the corner and stop, waiting for the light to change. Crazy thing is, I’m watching them. I don’t know why. Then, while I’m still standing there, Novisha turn her head back and look right at me, like she wanna say something. Her eyes is right on mines, and damn, that face. I’m waiting for her to say something, but she don’t. She just turn back ’round.