The Green (7 page)

“Whoa, Ari, I’m sorry. Don’t get all mad. I
didn’t mean it in a bad way!” He seemed confused at my
reaction.

I took a deep breath. There was no need to
get mad at him because he didn’t understand.

“No, I’m sorry. It’s just, there’s a lot of
stuff going on at home right now. I’m just a little stressed.” That
was most certainly not a lie.

“Well, if you ever want to talk about it,
I’ll listen,” he said softly. He turned down Cambridge Avenue and
stopped in front of the school at the light.

I looked out the window, thinking about if I
should say anything else. He seemed like he cared more than Naomi
would about this.

“When my brother moved out, I found out that
my mom can’t pay all the bills on her own. If I don’t try to help
her, we wouldn’t be able to stay in Slate Park. Meaning I wouldn’t
get to finish the year at Cambridge.” I kept my eyes fixed on the
road.

“Wow Ari, I’m really sorry to hear that,” he
said gently. The light changed and we pulled into the parking lot.
“But you know what, you are a damn hard worker and I know you can
do it. Hey wait, I can be your cheerleader! So anytime you’re
having a bad day, let me know and I will do a cheer routine for
you!”

I had to laugh. “What? You a cheerleader?
What are you gonna wear? My skirt?”

“Oooo, that’s a great idea! And I can get a
ribbon to tie in my hair…it’s gonna be great!” He clapped his hands
together with mock glee.

“Oh my god. I think I might be having a bad
day on Monday, just so you can do it at school!”

At least we were both laughing by the time he
parked the car. And I felt a little better because I was able to
get some of this crap off my chest. I felt like I could trust him.
That I could tell him what was really going on with me and he
wouldn’t run and tell twenty people and then later try to use it
against me, unlike some of the girls at Cambridge High. I felt like
for the first time in high school I had really been real with
someone.

NHS went by pretty quickly. We had to get the
details of induction night squared away and a schedule made for the
Slate Park Soup Kitchen. Every time I looked up, I caught James
looking at me. He would raise his eyebrows or throw me a little
smile. I couldn’t take it. There was no way this boy wasn’t into
me.

After the meeting we drove through Herb’s
Bakery, the best bakery in Cambridge, to have a donut and a
coffee.

“So, what are you doing tonight?” James asked
as we pulled in the drive to my apartment.

“Tonight?” Learning the finer points of the
drug trade. First hand. “Well, I need to work on my apps and I have
a ton of homework. We have that English paper due Monday and I
haven’t even started it. And today or tomorrow I am supposed to
have some, uh, job training, so it doesn’t leave me with a lot of
time to get all that stuff done.” I wanted to be free tonight. I
wanted to go out with him tonight and every night. I wanted to jump
on him right now and plant the biggest, most passionate kiss on him
that he’d ever seen. But now was so not the time. “Why, what do you
have planned?”

“I might head out to the movies or something,
since I don’t actually have a game for once. We’ll see. But just
text me later if you finish early.” He smiled, but his eyes gave
away his disappointment.

“Okay. Will do. If I don’t talk to you have
fun! Oh, and thanks for the rides today and yesterday, and the
donut and coffee. It was delish.” I grabbed his hand and squeezed
it as I opened the car door. He squeezed it back and gave me a
heart-melting smile.

I wandered breathlessly through the door of
the apartment and collapsed on the couch. Ugh. I had to find
Nando’s phone and see when Javier was coming over. Time to put on
my game face.

C U at 5. Let me knw if prob.

Javier had texted me earlier and I was
waiting for him to arrive. I couldn’t stop pacing back and forth
between the kitchen and living room. I jumped every time a set of
headlights flashed through the window as they pulled in the drive.
A little before five-thirty there was a knock at the door.

I flung it open before he finished
knocking.

“Whoa, someone’s a little jumpy! Relax!” He
walked in and dropped his backpack on the couch.

I shut the door and went to the fridge.

“Do you wanna pop?”I asked.

“Sure. So I brought you all the stuff so I
can show you what to do. Are you one hundred percent sure you wanna
do this, Ariceli?”

Butterflies rammed against my rib cage.
Breathe. This is for the future. I HAVE to do something. But does
it mean I have to do this? I rubbed my head with my hands.

“Hey, I’m not here to judge, man, I just
wanna make sure you don’t do this if you really don’t want to. And
if you do it, that you don’t screw it up. Or chicken out.” He
opened the pop with a crack and took a sip.

“I don’t want to deal with any of this, but
really, it’s Nando’s fault, not mine,” I said.

Neither of us said anything for a minute.

I took a deep breath and met his eyes. We
stared for a moment until I found my words. “Let’s do this.”

Javier plopped the backpack on the coffee
table. He lifted out a small metal scale, plastic baggies, video
cassette boxes, and brown paper. Last he brought out a green bundle
the size of a brick all wrapped in plastic.

“So this is what you need. I’ll supply you
with the product every week. It’s up to you to take the phone
calls, measure and package it and deliver it. You measure it out
into the baggies then put the baggie inside the videocassette box.
Wrap it in the brown paper and it’s ready to go.”

“That’s it?” I was amazed at the simplicity
of it.

“I had one of my boys follow me over here
with your car. He’s hanging out outside. Just don’t wreck it.” He
handed me a set of keys.

“Wow, I didn’t really believe you when you
said you were giving me a car to drive. Do I need to pay you for
it?” I swung the keys in front of my wide eyes.

“Nope, it’s paid for. And it was just sitting
there anyways. Besides, it’s helping my business. Just keep it
clean and make sure you get the oil changed when the light comes
on,” Javier said.

“Uh, can you show me how to measure this?” I
held up the brick of pot. “I mean, I’ve used a scale in science
class, but this makes me a little more nervous.” I shifted in my
seat, my body uncomfortable with every position I tried.

“Yeah, and you’ll need to know some more
info. Get a pen or something so you can write this down.” He sat
forward and tossed the brick of pot from hand to hand.

I grabbed a hot pink notebook and purple
feathery pen from my room.

“Nice pen.” He chuckled.

I made a face.

“Okay, first thing to know, since we’re
selling to high-end clientele, we won’t be using street shit or
street amounts. No dime bags or twenty bags. Those are smaller
amounts, but usually we only sell it on the corner. We only sell
this by the ounce.” He patted the brick of green. It kinda looked
like dried oregano wrapped in plastic wrap.

“Okay, so if anyone calls and asks for one of
those, I tell them we only sell it by the ounce. That doesn’t sound
like a very big amount,” I said.

“Hehe, it’s definitely a big amount. And I’ll
make sure the people I give Nando’s cell phone number to are only
looking for a big order. We may get less buyers, but this shit’s so
good, I know we’ll have a lot of repeat customers,” he said,
nodding confidently.

“That sounds good,” I said.

“So this,” he cut the edge of the package
with a knife from his pocket and sprinkled some of the pot onto the
scale, “is an ounce. Once you’ve measured it, pour it into the
baggie. The baggie goes into the box and that’s it. Wrap it up and
you’re ready to go. You can put more in if you need to.”

“So that’s it? What about the money?” I
asked.

“The customers will pay you when you deliver.
You’re going to be holding a lot of cash. Make sure you find
somewhere safe to keep it. I’ll probably come by every few days to
pick it up. You get to keep twenty five percent of every sale. I’m
gonna wanna see records, so make sure you write down who you sold
to, how many ounces and how much you got. I trust you enough to
figure out your portion before I pick it up, but I will look at the
records. So don’t cheat. I figure you must be good at math,
probably better than me and for sure better than your idiot
brother!” He laughed.

“So what’s the price per ounce?”

“375 bucks.”

“375 dollars for this little thing here?” I
shouted and I almost fell off the couch. “Are you kidding me?”

“375 is a good price for that stuff. It’s a
high quality that’s hard to come by. Hand grown. The flavor is
amazing,” he said as he kissed his fingers like an Italian chef.
“It’s beautiful!”

“I guess I’ll be taking your word for it. I
have no desire to even try this stuff. But if they ask, I’ll just
tell them what you said about it! And I get twenty five percent of
375? That comes out to,” I wrinkled my nose as I did the math in my
head, “$93.75 per delivery.”

“Let’s go.” He got up from the couch and
handed me the pot he’d put into the cassette box. “Do me a favor
and wrap that up real quick.”

“Where are we going?” I had a pretty good
guess.

“Hands on training. We’ve gotta go make your
first delivery.”

My heart pounded against my ribcage. I took a
few deep breaths to steady myself. I tried to force down the
dread.

He picked up the knife sitting on the table
and handed it to me.

I scrunched my face and looked at it like
he’d just handed me something disgusting. What the hell was I going
to do with this?

“Now I know you’re gonna be in real good
neighborhoods and shit, so you shouldn’t have any problems. Rich
folk don’t want problems with drug dealers, ya know. Anyway, I
would feel bad if anyone tried to mess with you so I want you to
have this. Just like, take it with on deliveries or whatever.”

I wrapped the package and headed out to the
lot. Javier took my keys and hit the remote. Sitting under one of
the parking lot lights was a shiny black Cadillac. Its lights
blinked when he hit the button on the key fob. Someone got out of a
Mercedes as we approached. He nodded at Javier.

“Cadillac CTS. About a year old. Clean as a
whistle. Oh, and this is Junior.”

It was gorgeous. And I was going to get to
drive it? Wow!

“It’s so not what I expected. Hi, Junior,
nice to meet you.”

Another nod.

“What did you expect? Some pimped out hooptie
like your brother sported? Fuck no.” He snorted. “Junior, let’s
ride.”

Junior, a large guy with a shaved head and a
black leather coat, squeezed into the back seat of the
Cadillac.

We jumped in and drove through Slate Park and
Cambridge to Lavender Grove, another suburb full of large houses
and fancy cars. At least the Cadillac didn’t look out of place
here.

“I also had them put a nav system in the car,
so you just have to punch in the address and the car will take you
there.” He gestured to the dashboard.

“That’s cool.” I glanced nervously out the
window at the passing houses.

We pulled up into a circular driveway that
ran through the front yard of a large cream house. I had managed to
keep my mind off what I was about to do during the ride over
because it still didn’t seem real. I started to get a little
nervous when he stopped the car. This was it. I was going to be
breaking the law. In public. Where everyone could see.

“Ready?” he asked, handing me the
package.

“No.” My hands quaked.

“Look, it’s easy. He knows we’re coming.
Dude’s name is Ken. He should give you money and that’s it.” He
patted me on the shoulder and gave me a big smile.

Here goes nothing.

I grabbed the package and got out of the car.
I ran up the manicured front walk, lined with perfectly pruned rose
bushes. I felt ultra-aware of my surroundings. My hands were slick
with sweat and I couldn’t help looking around. Oh god, someone had
to see me. I was right here, out in the open. Was that a police
siren I heard? I felt like my head was spinning like that chick
from the Exorcist. I checked to see if someone was following me.
But there was no one. Suburban neighborhood on a dark, fall
evening. Cars drove by on their way home. Birds chirped. And
nothing happened. Not a damn thing.

I stepped up onto the expansive front porch
and knocked. The red double doors stood out against the white brick
of the large two-story. I really didn’t want to call any more
attention to myself by ringing the bell. The door flung open
quickly and a middle-aged man in a shirt and tie answered.

I gulped. There was NO way this old business
guy was buying pot.

“Hold on a minute, I’ve got to get the door,”
he said into a cell phone that was glued to his ear.

“Hi,” he said to me.

Gasp. Air. Breathe. Come on Ariceli. Pull
yourself together.

“Ken?” I managed to squeak out.

“That’s me,” he answered impatiently.

“Um, I have a delivery for you.” I held the
package forward, like I was making an offering. God, I am such a
dork.

“Right.” He pulled an envelope from his
pocket. “There you go.”

He grabbed the package and closed the
door.

I stood there, alone with the envelope.

“Ariceli, what the hell are you doing? Let’s
go!” Javi yelled from the car, snapping me out of my spell.

“Sorry!” I turned around and headed back,
getting into the car. “I’m sorry, I just got nervous I guess.”

I kept looking around, waiting for a police
car to stop us. None did. I couldn’t believe it. I had carried out
a drug deal in broad daylight, no wait, it was dark out, but no one
noticed.