URBAN: In Love with A Boss Nigga (32 page)

“Ok.” The detective gave a smirk. “Can we use your bathroom?” He asked but Antwon shook his head firmly. He started standing up to guide them out.

“You guys can leave now.”

Lionel stared at his friend. He couldn’t believe what he heard. That would explain why his friend looked like that.

“So…you’re telling me that you killed Martin?” Lionel asked.

“I’m not going to say yes or no to that. I don’t ever want you in the position where you have to answer that question under oath. I simply told you a story; whether or not you believe it, it is up to you.” He gave his friend a look and Lionel knew what he meant. He didn’t want him to go to court. Antwon and Lionel had been friends for years, but they were more like brothers. Antwon already put himself in a bad position, he didn’t want his friend suffering as well. That’s why he was going to do his best to keep him out of trouble.

“I need you to do me a favor.” Antwon started out of nowhere. “I need you to take this money and put it in your mother’s account.” He handed him a thick envelope. When Lionel opened it, it was nothing but crisp $50 and $100 bills. His eyes opened wide.

“What is all this? Where did you get all this money?”

“You don’t think you were the only one saving some of the paper he was making?” Antwon gave one of his widest smiles. He really looked like his old self. “I put some paper to the side too.”

“But why are you giving all of it to me?”

“I have some money for myself, don’t you worry about it.”

“But if this is all the money that you made…”

“I sold all my shit. I got some Gs for myself, I’ll be fine.”

“You’ll be fine?’ Lionel didn’t understand it at all. “What are you about to do?”

Antwon was still smiling, but now it actually worried Lionel. He knew his friend well and knew that if his friend was in trouble, something big was going to go down.

“I’m going to be going. soon.”

“Going where?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know or you don’t want to tell me?”

“Both.” He chuckled. “Just do me a favor and give the money to your moms. It’ll get ya closer to the house. Ya need to get out of here.”

“What you mean?”

“Listen, it’s only a matter of time before they try to find me and everything about my past. Once that crackhead bitch Ms. Rita goes flapping her gums, how long do you think before she starts talking about you and how we made money.”

“She won’t do that.”

“It’s funny how you putting all this trust into a crackhead.” Antwon laughed. “They are not the most reliable people.”

“She supposedly in prison or holding.”

“The more reason that you and your mom need to be out of here. You take that money and you get a house out of this neighborhood.”

“But if that’s the case, I don’t need to be around my mom neither.”

“What you trying to say?”

“I think I should go with you.”

The room fell silent. Antwon leaned back and thought about it. He was going to be on the run. He hoped that if the police’s efforts focused on bringing him to justice, that they wouldn’t bother looking into his past. He smiled because he knew that his friend had been his partner for a long time, but it looked like it was coming to an end.

“No, you stay here.” Antwon stood up. “I’ll take the heat for everything.”

“I’m not going to let you do that.”

“Let me?” Antwon laughed. “Nigga please.”

“I’m not going to do it.”

“It’s happening regardless.” He walked towards the door. “You not gonna hear from me.”

“Hold up.” But Antwon was unlocking the door already. “What you doing?”

“It’s been real.” He extended his hand. Lionel was about to protest, but he knew his friend well enough. Antwon was going.

“Yo, I don’t even know what to say.” He gave him a pound then pulled him in for a hug.

“Just tell me bye.” He smiled.

“Be safe.” He told Antwon. Antwon nodded and made his way outside of the building. He took one last look at the neighborhood, and then left.

Giselle came home smiling from school. She had a new plan and a goal to reach. In a few months she will be 18 and if all goes as planned, she will be well on her way back to her home of North Carolina. She was excited for the first time in a long time. Everything was going to go her way. She knew nothing and no one could stop her. She turned to walk into her building and froze when she saw it.

“You fucking bitch!” Ms. Rita lunged for Giselle. She was in the lobby rocking back and forth before she saw Giselle walking in. She was very much still angry at her and the fact that she just got high, didn’t make the situation any better.

“Get away from me!” She screamed at her foster mother. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Me? You’re the one that tried to get me locked up so you and your drug dealer boyfriend can run the streets.” Ms. Rita yelled loudly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She played off. There were a few neighbors that were close. She didn’t want them hearing what she was saying, but it was hard to do as loud as Ms. Rita was.

“Don’t play stupid.” She walked towards Giselle. “I was hoping that you would be dead by now.”

“What?”

“You fucking bitch. They were suppose to kill you bitch.” She spit on Giselle. She was just about to hit her when someone came in pulled them apart.

“What is wrong with you?” The guy asked the deranged woman, but she wasn’t being cooperative as usual. “If you don’t calm down, I’m going to have to put you under arrest.”

“Who do you think you are cracker motherfucker?” She spat at the man.

“I’m Detective Ward.”

The detective then waved an officer over. Ms. Rita started thrashing wildly as the officer tried to put cuffs on her.

“You fucking bitch!” She went for Giselle again, but the cop just tackled her down to the ground.

“Stop resisting!” He ordered her while Giselle and Detective Ward watched. Finally they got her under control. She was put under arrest and thrown in the back of a squad car. She was still screaming and moving violently in the backseat of the car.

“This is crazy.” The cop commented with a grin. “To think we are here to question one guy and we walk right into this. I guess this is something that happens a lot.” The cop dusted off his uniform and walked back to Detective Wade.

“This is just your rookie year so you should expect even more craziness.” The detective told him. He turned to Giselle, “Can you tell me what’s going on?” She opened her mouth to speak the whole truth, but decided against it.

“Just another crackhead.”

“She had it out for you.” He squinted. “Are you sure it’s not anything more?”

“That lady is crazy. You really can’t believe anything she says.” She shrugged off.

“Okay, do you know where apartment 23 is?”

“Yeah, it’s right next door to mine.”

Both men of the law stopped and looked at each other. Almost immediately, Detective Ward pulled out a small memo pad.

“What can you tell me about Lionel-”

“What do you want with Lionel?” She asked before the detective could open his pen.

“Do you know him?”

“Only as a neighbor.” She lied. “We really don’t talk that much beside just greeting each other.”

“Oh yeah?” He jotted that down. “Do you know his friend Antwon?”

“Like I said, he’s just a neighbor. We’ve had a few talks but that’s about it.” She tried to play it cool as she could. She was giving off that cool vibe even though on the inside she was panicking.

“Okay. So you’ve never seen him with Antwon?”

“I can’t say. I’ve only spoke to Lionel here once and maybe I bumped into him around, but nothing like we were friends.”

“Okay.” The detective nodded his head.

“I’m sorry, I’m just a little bothered about what just happened.” She gestured towards the squad car where Ms. Rita was now calming herself down. “I’m just a little…”

“I get it.” He sympathized with her.

“I’ll bring you to the apartment.”

She led the way and brought them to the apartment. She told them a quick but very courteous goodbye. The second she got inside, she sent Lionel a text message.

“Whatever you do, do not open the door. Just trust me on this one.” She looked out of the peephole and could only see their arms. She heard them knocking and ringing on the doorbell but nobody opened at all. They kept going but nothing happened. Pretty soon, they gave up and went away. She ran to the kitchen and looked out the window. She saw the men get into the car and drive away.

She went to the door and started knocking on the door.

“It’s me.” She said after a few knocks but still no one came to the door. “Lionel?” She knocked again. Then she felt her phone vibrate. She looked down to see a text message from Lionel. It read:

“I’m not even home. What’s going on? Is it Ms. Rita again?”

She replied back, “I need to see you right now.” He responded back with the address to the pizza shop that wasn’t so far from their apartment building.

Giselle walked cool and casually to the pizza shop. She felt scared. She was so paranoid. What if the cops were watching her? What if this was all a set up? What scared her even more was that her suspicions about Antwon seemed to be true. It was likely that he killed Janine’s boyfriend. Janine’s boyfriend was an asshole, but Giselle didn’t think that meant he deserved to die. She shook her head at the whole thing. Her life sure has been crazy since she’s been in New York. The sooner she got to North Carolina, the better.

“What’s up?” Lionel looked sad as she sat next to him in the pizza shop.

“What’s wrong?” She asked putting her hand over his. “You look so down.”

“It’s nothing I want to talk about right now.”

“Are you sure? I know we haven’t really been on the best of terms, but I do still care about you.”

“Oh? You care about me? Is that why you tossed a nigga to the side like he was a piece of trash?”

“I’m sorry, I was taking things too far, but I just get real sensitive about my parents.”

“And I don’t feel no type of way about my Uncle. You threw him back at me like he didn’t mean shit to me just because he wasn’t my Dad. That was real fucked up of you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“And now you want to apologize? I apologized to you and you didn’t even say a word.”

“Look, I had no excuse for my behavior.”

“I was acting like a-”

“A bitch?” He said in a mean tone.

“No. I was actually going to say that I was acting like a child but since I’m such a bitch, how about I get up and let you get arrested?”

She got up and started to leave the small restaurant. Lionel held her arm but she just snatched it back.

“What are you talking about?” He asked.

“I’m talking about the two cops that came to see you.”

“What?” He shook his head. “What would they want with me?”

“Nothing with you, but they want Antwon. Antwon killed Martin.”

“Oh wow.” Lionel tried to give his best shock face, but she saw right through it.

“Did you know that?”

“I just found out.” He confessed. He thought about lying, but he hated to lie.

“And you didn’t tell me.”

“I just found out.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“About Antwon?” She whispered. The restaurant was empty, which was rare, but she didn’t want to take any chances that someone might hear their conversation.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? How can you say nothing?”

“Easy.” He leaned back in the booth. When he saw the look on her face, he asked, “What do you expect me to do?”

“Anything is better than nothing. How can you do nothing?”

“Because there’s nothing that I can do. What’s done is done.” He told her.

“And what about Antwon?”

“I don’t know where he is.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“What?”

“The two of ya are as thick as thieves. Ya are like brothers. There is no way in hell that you don’t know where Antwon is.”

“I’m telling you the truth.” He defended himself. “I just came from his place and he really cleaned out and left. He’s gone and I don’t even know where he is.”

Lionel got really quiet and Giselle believed him. As he sat there being somber, Giselle felt herself feel sorry for him. Even though she didn’t exactly get Antwon, she knew that Lionel loved him like a brother. It was clear that he was hurting. All the anger and resentment went away.

“You need to get home and rest.” She suggested.

“What home? I don’t want to go back there. The cops are only going to be back there until they find me. It’s a good thing that my Mom is taking some classes at night, so maybe she won’t be bothered by them. I don’t want to deal with them right now.” He sighed rubbing his head. He could feel the headache before it even arrived.

“All they are going to ask you is about Antwon.” She rubbed his back.

“And when that time comes, I’ll tell them the truth, but I can’t right now. I just want to be by myself.”

“Oh.”

“Or I can just hang out with you.” He looked up at her. He saw that same beautiful young lady from the hall. She didn’t have those same lost look in her eyes anymore though. In the short time she’s been there, she’s changed tremendously.

“You want to hang out with me?”

“Of course.” He smiled and she grinned back. “Come on, I think I know just the place.”

As they stood outside of the Marriott in Downtown Brooklyn, Giselle shook her head.

“Every time you bring me to a hotel room, you end up leaving me the next day.” She joked.

“Yeah I know.” He smiled. “Usually something to do with Antwon.” He let out all the air from his nose. He sighed slightly. “It’s going to be weird.”

“It sure is, you won’t have anyone to get into trouble with anymore.” She stuck her tongue out. She led the way to the front desk. After they checked in, they settled into the room.

Giselle started to take off her jeans and kick off her shoes. Lionel stared at her. Her thick thighs and hips always caught his attention. Tasha was a woman, but Giselle wasn’t shaped like a girl either. He may have been attracted to Tasha, but Giselle clearly had his heart.