Crackhead II: A Novel (22 page)

“You don’t care anymore?”

“Not really.” She yawned again. She called his bluff.

“Well, if you don’t care anymore, that means you won’t mind
giving me some of that shit you were throwing around on the tape then, right?”

Laci looked at him disgustedly. “Get the fuck outta my house, T.J.!”

He reached inside his pocket and pulled out something that was near and dear to sweet Laci. He pulled out what looked like a new corn pipe and a nice-sized white rock. “You want this, don’t you, Laci?” he said, waving it in front of her face.

“No!” she yelled.

“Your man is fucking my girl, Laci. Don’t you realize that? You haven’t noticed that he hasn’t been at home at night? Shit, Simone hasn’t either.” He put the rock into the bowl of the pipe and lit it. Laci couldn’t move.
Am I really an addict?
she asked herself.
God, please . . . no.

The stone fizzled and popped, producing a foggy yellow smoke. Laci wanted to run but she couldn’t move. The smell that she had forgotten reached Laci’s nostrils and burned her nose.

“T.J., please go,” Laci cried with her hands over her mouth and nostrils.
I’m doing fine . . . up here on Cloud Nine . . . I’m gonna sail up higher . . . up, up, and away . . .
The monkey started to rear its ugly head. Laci tried to block it out. “God it hurts. Please stop the pain!” She fell to the floor.

“Let me make you feel better,” T.J. begged. “I won’t show anyone the tape. It will be our own little secret.” T.J. began to unbutton his pants.

She looked at him with pleading eyes. “Please, just get out . . .”

D
ARYL? SIMONE POURED
each of them another cup of coffee. “Daryl?” she said again and waved her hand in front of his face.

“Huh?” he responded.

“What’s up with you tonight?”

He looked at Simone. “Um, just some stuff with Laci,” he admitted. The two were pulling an all-nighter on their Abnormal Psych project at Busy Bee’s again.

Simone had never seen Dink so distracted. “I’m not going to pry, but if you want to talk about it, you can talk to me.”

Simone poured cream and sugar in her coffee and stirred. She took a sip of it. She wrinkled her nose up when Dink drank his—black, no sugar or cream. Dink laughed at her reaction. Simone turned her attention back to her book until Dink spoke.

“Actually, she’s been trippin’ lately, smokin’ and—”

“Laci? Smokin’? You got to be kidding me!” Simone interrupted him. “She don’t look like she’d even smoke a candy cigarette,” she joked.

“She is a good girl. She’s just reacting because you and I have
been hanging out. When she called me out on it, I defended you, and things haven’t been the same.” Dink didn’t feel the need to disclose the botched attempt of making love.

Feeling flattered that he’d defended her, Simone had to defend Laci’s actions as a woman.

“Daryl, I can understand how she must feel,” she said. “Actually, I feel bad for being part of the reason why Laci feels the way she does.”

“Do you?” Dink questioned. He was amazed. Most black women wouldn’t have given a damn.

“I owe her an apology.”

“How do you figure that?”

“I was blatantly disrespectful to her on the first day of school by flirting with you. I saw the both of you walk into the lecture hall, but I just thought you were late. I didn’t think anything of it. I had no reason to think that you two were a couple until later. I don’t deny flirting with you but as I got to know you, I wouldn’t dare cross that line because I think we’ve built a nice friendship, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, you’re pretty cool,” he told her.

“And most of all, I respect how loyal you are to Laci. Most men, black men at that, wouldn’t be.”

Dink nodded. She was right. Most men, black or white, would have taken advantage of the closeness with a woman other than their girlfriend. Dink knew that Simone was telling the truth. Time and opportunity were a muthafucka. He had the opportunity, she had the time, and at one point he used to be a muthafucka, but his love for Laci stopped any desire he may have had.

“Well,” Simone said hesitantly, “I think after this project is over, we should cool it for a bit. T.J. has been trippin’ as well, making
accusations and shit, and I really don’t have time to deal with his drama.”

“What’s really up with y’all?”

“Nothing. I caught him cheating and I broke up with him,” Simone said, matter-of-factly. “When I did it before, I always went back, but this time I haven’t and he can’t handle that.”

“I ain’t worried about that nigga or whatever he thinks he is, Simone.”

“You don’t know him, Daryl. When he puts his mind to something, he won’t give up on it.”

“What kinda accusations he making?”

“That we’re fucking.”

“Well we both know we’re not, so—”

“Right,” she cut him off, “but I wouldn’t put it past him to put it in Laci’s mind that we are. Actually, he told me he saw her and told her that. He tried to insinuate that he had done something with her, but I know he hasn’t.”

“What did he say?”

“It was some bullshit, man. I really don’t want to talk about it.”

Dink looked at her, urging her to fess up.

“Something about her being a crackhead. T.J. always be lying about shit, so you can’t believe anything he says.” Simone shook her head. “Laci a crackhead? See, that’s the main reason I ain’t with his ass.”

“When did he say that to you, Simone? I mean, why did he say it? What were y’all doing?”

“He got mad when I wouldn’t give him none. When he starts going off like that, I just tell his ass to go to his dorm or back to the frat house.”

Dink’s anger was starting to boil. “I’m sure if he came at her like that, she would have told me.”

“With the way things are with you right now, I doubt it. If I were in her shoes, I wouldn’t say shit. I’d just try to bust yo’ ass.” She gave a laugh, and he tried to force one. “But for real, Daryl, we put a lot of work into this project tonight and I’m beat. Go home to Laci and make things right before you can’t anymore.”

“Thanks, Simone,” he said and patted her hand. Reaching into his wallet, he threw a one-hundred-dollar bill on the table. “Tell the waitress to keep the change. Oh,” he looked into his wallet again and pulled out another hundred-dollar bill and handed it to her.

“What’s this for?” she asked before he left their booth.

“For your services, Ms. Psychologist,” he joked. “You’re going to be damn good once you graduate.” He smiled and darted out of the diner and headed home to where his heart was.

IT WAS EARLY
Thursday morning and once again, Dink was nowhere to be found. Laci remembered he’d been at home when she went to bed but when she woke up abruptly from the all-too-real nightmare she’d had about T.J., she noticed that he was gone. She paged him a couple of times but he never returned her calls. Becoming furious, instead of waiting for Dink to come home, Laci called the local cab company to take her to the airport. She was ready to go home.

Twenty minutes later, Dink walked into their apartment. All of the lights were on.

“Laci?” Dink called out. “Baby, I need to talk to you. Laci!” He walked into their bedroom and to his shock, he saw her packing an overnight bag. “Where are you going?”

Laci didn’t respond. All she could do was visualize him with
Simone. His mouth was saying one thing but his actions were saying something different.

“Laci, don’t you hear me talking to you?” he questioned. He was tired and abrupt in his tone, but he needed to talk to her. Laci continued to shove more things into her bag.

“Where you going?”

Again, Laci didn’t answer. “Baby!” He grabbed her arm. “Talk to me, now!”

“Okay, you wanna talk? Where the fuck were you all night? Guess you were too busy doing whatever it was you were doing to remember that I’m going home this weekend.”

“What? Aw . . . shit.” Dink remembered that he was supposed to take her to the airport.

“Now you remember, huh? I paged you a couple times, too. What were you doing where you couldn’t call me back?”

“I didn’t get any pages, Laci.”

“Well, I did.”

Dink unclipped his pager and looked at it. His eyebrows raised when he realized it was on silent and saw their home number displayed twice. He thought he’d turned it on vibrate when he was at the diner, but obviously he hadn’t.

“I’m sorry, Laci. I turned it—”

“Whatever,” she spat angrily. “Where were you last night? When I went to sleep, you were here. When I woke up, you were gone. Actually, I’ve been noticing a lot of that lately.”

“I was with Simone, but—”

“Exactly. Simone!” Laci shouted. “I don’t want to hear it anymore, Dink. I know you fuckin’ her.”

“What? No I’m not.”

“Yeah, right. Do you really think I believe that?”

“I’m sorry, baby. I can understand why you may think that, but—”

“It’s more than a thought,” Laci barked.

“Why? Is it because T.J. told you?” he asked, remembering what Simone had told him.

“It doesn’t matter anymore, Dink.”

“Yes it does. Here I am trying to tell you that I’ve been wrong for just leaving the way I have. Trying to explain what’s going on, but you wanna listen to that wannabe nigga.”

“Whatever, Dink. I don’t know what to believe anymore,” Laci answered with an exasperated sigh. She gathered her bag and tried to walk past him. He stood in her way.

“When did he tell you that?”

“He’s mentioned it plenty of times. Here, at school—shit, wherever he could find me.”

“Here? He’s been here? In our crib?”

“You been at Simone’s crib?” she countered. She tried to get around him but he blocked her again.

Dink’s face began to distort. He was mad as hell. He didn’t want Laci around T.J., but the fact that he had been in their apartment without his knowledge made him feel threatened.

“Now what the hell you mad about?” she asked Dink, noticing his expression.

“What did you do with him?” Dink’s voice was low, almost a type of growl. In typical nigga fashion, he flipped the situation back around on her, with a puzzled expression, sparking more anger in Laci.

“Hold up,” she cocked her head to the side and looked at Dink with surprise, “what are you trying to say?”

“He knows about your addiction, Laci.”

“Former addiction,” she spat back.

“Yeah right, former addiction. You smokin’ weed, drinking and shit. I don’t know what you doin’ no more.”

“Oh, so we gonna go there.”

“How does he know about it, Laci? The only people who know about it are you and me—oh, and your little bougie friends.” He looked at her with menancing eyes. “I know I didn’t tell him. Your friends are too stuck-up to talk to him, so that leaves you. Did you tell him or show him what you do when you’re under the influence?” Dink shot back at her.

Within seconds, the left side of Dink’s face stung from Laci slapping the shit out of him.

“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. He didn’t even touch me!” Laci tried to walk away but Dink grabbed her by the arm. “Let me go!” she yelled and yanked her arm out of his grasp. “Now you try’na accuse me of shit I never did.”

“You accusing me of fucking Simone!” he yelled.

“That’s because you’re around her all the time, Dink!” Laci was in tears now and angrier than she had been in a long time. “A few months ago, I was a crackhead, and if you think you’re not a part of the reason, you need to think again.”

“Girl, you really trippin’ now,” Dink said and tried to walk away.

Laci ran in front of him and stopped. With a red and tear-drenched face, she yelled, “Tonette got the shit from Dame. You were the go-to man, so it was yo’ shit that got me addicted. You didn’t think I knew that, did you, but not once did I blame you! Do you know why, Dink? That’s because I love you!” Laci grabbed her purse. “Now you wanna start this shit. You know what, Dink,” she huffed, “for you to be so damn street smart, you don’t know
shit about the heart. Everything I did was for you . . . try’na protect yo’ ass so you wouldn’t get hurt. If a crackhead ho is how you’ll truly see me from now on, then crack the code on that, muthafucka—we’re through!”

Laci ran toward the front door and slammed it behind her. She prayed her cab was waiting for her.

“Laci, wait!” Dink yelled, but it was too late.

L
ACI RAN INTO
her mother’s arms when they met at the airport.

They hugged for what seemed like days. Her face was still blotched from crying earlier, but she was now home and she was safe.

Margaret looked over Laci’s shoulder. “Honey, did Dink come with you?”

“No, Mom, he’s back in Boston. I needed to come here by myself.”

Margaret looked at her daughter. Something was obviously wrong between Laci and Dink but if she didn’t want to talk about it, Margaret figured she wouldn’t press.

Three hours later, the two women were sitting in the food court in the mall. Laci was finishing the last of her Sbarro’s spaghetti and meatballs and garlic breadsticks and Margaret was finishing her chicken Caesar salad. They were gearing up for a day of shopping and pampering.

“Honey, you’re looking great,” Margaret exclaimed. She was glad to see her daughter looking healthy again and glad she was also eating.

“I’m glad you think so, Mom. I haven’t been feeling well.” Laci yawned before popping the last of her breadstick in her mouth.

“Why not, sweetheart? You coming down with something?” She felt Laci’s head.

“I don’t know, Mom. It could be stress. A lot has been going on.”

“Honey, I can call Dr. Stevens if you’d like. He’ll make a house call.”

“That’s fine, Mom,” Laci said quickly. When Laci was younger and had a sniffle, her mother would call the doctor. She always thought her mother went overboard with things, but at this point in her life, she didn’t mind. Laci needed that right now.

“Is this last year’s stuff?” Laci’s mother teased, pulling at her top. “We can’t have that.” Both women laughed and headed off for a much-needed mother-daughter shopping spree.