Thicker Than Water (30 page)

“No he won’t… I won’t do it. I’ll leave.”

“Oh yeah, you’ll leave huh? And go where? If you don’t do it, you aint gonna have no food, no clothes, nowhere to live, no mommy, no nothing. You only thirteen years old, where you gonna go little girl?”

Heaven was shocked that he called her little girl so much, it seemed lately everyone around her had totally forgot what she was. She thought about what he was saying and had a feeling that it could be true. He continued.

“Plus on top of everything, where you think all that money gonna go? You think he gonna give it to you? Your daddy gonna use your body to get himself some money, and he still gonna tax you and come and get some whenever he feel like it.”

Heaven turned quickly and looked at him, knowing that he knew that her daddy was fucking her. She could feel tears coming to her eyes as she looked down at the car carpet. He was right, she had to get away.

“Heaven you basically gonna be doing it for free, doing it to all kinds of people and yo daddy. All for free. And they gonna hurt you.”

He scooted closer to her and put his arms around her.

“But I won’t hurt you Heaven. I promise. I’ll make you feel good, I’ll make it feel so good. And I’ll pay you. I’ll pay only you, it’ll be your money.”

She looked up at him and thought of her options. He wasn’t ugly, and he wasn’t that old, not like the men she’d seen coming to her house checking her out. But what would she do when it was time to trick for all of the other guys? They wouldn’t be this nice and they wouldn’t give her the money.

“But what about my daddy?”

He smiled at her knowing that he was so close he could taste it. He rubbed her knee anxiously and licked his lips.

“Le-Lemme talk to yo daddy. I, I promise I’ll take care of everything. You won’t have to do it with nobody but me.” Their evening ended with her telling him that he wasn’t getting anything until she talked to her daddy and was sure that it was all worked out. He dropped her off and came inside, and after about an hour conversation with Sam, Khalil came into her dark bedroom.

He had worked out a deal with Sam to pay him $400 a week, to keep Heaven from having to deal with anybody else. He would be able to come and get her anytime he wanted and sometimes she would be spending the night. He also told Sam that the deal was off if he ever laid another finger on her. Sam debated the last straw, but after a negotiation of $450, they shook hands. Khalil knew that this meant he would have to work extra hard, sell twice as much liquor at the bar and even do some engineer work on the side to keep his new arrangement, but he didn’t care. He had her.

“Yup. I told him you mines now. You only do it with me, and nobody else. I told him sometimes you’ll be coming to my house and we’ll go to the movies, nice restaurants and everything. And I told him I’ll take you shopping when I can, and buy you some clothes and stuff. We gonna have fun Heaven watch.”

She smiled lightly thinking that maybe Khalil was like her night in shining armor. Maybe doing it with him wouldn’t be so bad, and the way he made it seem, they might not even do it that much.

And with that he kissed her goodnight and left. For the first time in as long as Heaven could remember, her daddy didn’t come into her room.

Heaven shook her head flippantly as if literally shaking off the past and coming back to reality. She put the remote on the table leaving it on videos as she reached into her Jansport backpack and pulled out her Physics book.
What pages did I have to read again? She looked around for her mini planner and then realized she had stuffed it in her purse. My purse. Where is my purse?

Before she could fully rise off the couch in search of it, she was knocked to the ground by a backhand from Khalil. She fell hard in the tiny space between the coffee table and the couch. She held her face with both hands even though she could not feel them, her left side of her face was completely numb.

“Who the fuck is Ricky, huh!” He screamed at her waving her cell phone in hand. She knew she had meant to change his name in her phone, but she forgot.

“He aint nobody, just a boy from school, that’s all!”

Khalil’s eyes went cold and his face twisted up I anger. He was furious, not only because she had a boy’s number, she had a younger boy’s number. He was always intimidated when it came to Heaven and age. He went to kick her hard in her ribs, but she blocked his foot with her hands, only making him angrier.

“Oh you wanna fight? You wanna fight!” He challenged her on a rampage, as he pulled her up by her hair and stomped her back down with a Timberland boot to the stomach. She pushed and swung her arms but was mostly trying to defend herself, she knew her small frame was no match for Khalil. Just as it seemed he was getting good into her beating, his doorbell buzzed.
Saved by the bell.

Khalil immediately froze, fist still cocked back and then he pointed as if to say, we’ll finish this later. He walked over to the intercom and didn’t even ask who was there, he just buzzed them up.

As Heaven went into the bathroom to fix her hair and get a look at herself, she could hear voices in the living room. The voices were unfamiliar to her, but one of them, with heavy baritone, seemed to be yelling at Khalil. She knew it probably had to do with business and all she could think was
‘good for his punk ass’
.

Her face was red and seemed as if it was about to swell up, she figured she should put some ice on it. She knew Khalil didn’t like it when she came out when he had company, but she needed to get to the kitchen ASAP before her cheek blew up like a balloon.
He already gonna fight me when they leave anyway.

She walked slowly out of the bathroom into the living room and the men immediately stopped talking. She kept her eyes to the ground but looked up at Khalil briefly and could see an enraged look on his face. Something inside of her told her to put her eyes back down and just carry on to the kitchen. Something told her that if you look up, you gonna be in some trouble Heaven. She figured that trouble meant trouble with Khalil but nothing could prepare her for what she was about to see.

His name was G and he had come for his money. Khalil had been ducking him all week and he didn’t have the time to be chasing this nigga around. He knew Khalil was a nickel and dime nigga, a waste of space type, and the only reason he did business with him was because Khalil owned Slick’s, a low budget bar that was mediocre in profit but great in location. Location being for meetings, covers, and shit like that. Anything needing to be done, him and his team could go to Slick’s to do it. So when he inherited the empire from his brother who was now doing triple life sentences, he went part owner automatically in many of the black owned businesses throughout North Jersey. Bars, strip clubs, and even some venues and restaurants. He didn’t have the time to keep up with many things on the daily, he usually let his workers handle that, but when his man let him know that Khalil hadn’t paid his 40% for the month yet, he figured he would pay him a personal visit. Usually G was a real calm guy, but if you fucked with his money, whether it was ten dollars or ten thousand dollars, you were owed a visit. He demanded respect just from his walk alone and to be so young, only 24, he was very, very powerful.

G was becoming irritated with Khalil, his excuses, and his lying. And just when G raised his voice letting Khalil know he didn’t come for talking, Khalil promised to have his money by the end of the day.

“It’s been a slow month. The bar needed the roof fixed. G, I promise, just give me the end of the day.”

G was about to run his pockets and take everything that was of value in his piece of shit place, and then, she walked out.

She had a sad face, pretty, but very sad. G didn’t even notice her perfectly sculpted body, and that was a first for him. He just looked at her face and begged her with his eyes to look up so he could get a better look at her. She was barefoot, with pretty little toes, and unblemished skin that looked like a pool of caramel.
She’s too young to be his girl.
G thought.
And too fly.

Even with no words spoken G could tell there was tension between the two of them. Then she looked up at him, quickly, but she looked nonetheless. Her eyes were light brown and tantalizing, her face was red and G could tell she had been hit. She scurried across the floor and hastily disappeared into the kitchen as G kept his eyes on the kitchen opening to try to get a glimpse of her.

Heaven heard them start back their conversation again as she took four ice cubes out of the tray and put them into a paper towel. Instead of putting them to her cheek like she intended, she held them against her neck and then down to her cleavage area in an exaggerated attempt to cool off from her first ‘G’ sighting. She stood mouth opened replaying his eyes locked on hers over and over again.
Oh my god he is beautiful.
She knew that wasn’t a word a woman usually used to describe a man, but it was the only word she could think of to describe him.

His chocolate complexion, his sexy lips, his brown piercing eyes all sent shocks through her. His jet black hair was cut low with deep waves, he was tall with a nice muscular build. He was dressed like new money, he hadn’t said a word to her, but she could tell he was smooth. So smooth, that she was sure he could make the strongest girl submissive.
Damn.

At that moment she cursed any and everyone that had put her in the situation she was in. It wasn’t until that moment that she truly hated being Heaven. Of course she didn’t enjoy her life, but she had never felt a true desire for something else as strong as this, not even with Ricky. At this moment she was certain that she didn’t even like Ricky, he was just something different, out of her norm. But this guy, this guy was the first guy that made her feel those butterflies that the girls at school always talk about. She waited until they left to exit the kitchen.

When she came out of the kitchen she was shocked to see that Khalil was gone as well.
Hmph. Maybe he is gonna get that man his money after all.

She stood next to the small curtain less window with her ice and thought about what she had just experienced.

A man like that would never be interested in me anyway. Who am I kidding?. I wonder what his name is. I wonder how old he is. Maybe I can find out stuff about him from Khalil without sounding like I want to know. Ugh! What am I talking about? It doesn’t matter anyway, I could never meet him. I might as well just forget about it, and try to clean this house and cook so Khalil don’t kick my ass.

And so she cleaned the apartment and baked some chicken, mac and cheese, and made some broccoli.

Then she showered and took out her Physics book once again to get to her homework. It was after 7 p.m. and Khalil still hadn’t returned. By the time he returned it was after 9, and he told her that he was too tired to fight with her. He ate the food, and said that instead of fighting, he might treat her tonight.

She knew what that meant, and to her it was worse than a beating, he wanted sex. Before she went to bed to get ready for Khalil she looked over all of her college acceptance letters still debating on who to choose. Just a couple of months to go and she will be 18, far way, and starting life over. No more of her parents, no more of Khalil, no more of that school, just her. She smiled, and then she put the letters away and then headed into the bedroom. She took off her clothes, climbed into bed, closed her eyes and allowed Khalil to enter her, all the while thinking of the man she would soon learn to be G.

About The Author

Takerra Allen was born in Jersey City, NJ to proud parents William Garland (former Black Panther and biological father to the late Tupac Shakur) and the late beautiful Suezette Allen. In addition to being an Author, she is the CEO of her self-launched all female Entertainment Company Heaven Inc and an active Community Activist.

Thicker Than Water is her first novel, loosely based on the lives of her close friends and herself, and has already become and urban phenomenon. Stay tuned for more works from Takerra!

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For book signings/parties/book orders or information please contact Angelic Script Publishing at [email protected].