Zero Degrees Part 1 (4 page)

The guards pulled me off Christeena as she just lay on her back in a puddle of blood. I watched her chest move as she struggled to breathe. Her agony was etched on her face as she grimaced in pain with blood stained teeth. That was when I saw all the blood coming from the back of her head. When I slammed her on the hard floor it opened up a deep gash in her head. We were both covered in blood and the scene was quite gory. Christeena had to be taken to an outside hospital’s emergency room. They said that that fight was one of the best throw down, fist fights the institution had ever had.

While the fight was being investigated, I was placed in segregation for twenty four hours and then released back into the unit. Christeena kept her mouth shut and told them that we had been horse playing.

After that Christeena, or nobody else ever tried me with that bullshit again. Christeena and I had actually become cool after she came back from the hospital weeks later. She had suffered a concussion, cracked rib and a broken nose. I didn’t have any problems out of my other bunkmates, or the other girls in the camp. Ameria was my girl. I fucked with her hard, because she was just a down ass chick. When I thanked her for helping me out all she said with a grin on her face was,

“I never liked that Keisha bitch anyway.”

* * *

After that the three of us became really close. Christeena actually asked me to teach her that scoop move I used when I slammed her on the floor. It took everything in my power not to laugh.

Our friendship continued to grow with time. I eventually started calling them Teena and Peaches and they called me Zero. I even got a 0 tattoo on my arm while I was there.

One day the three of us were in the cell playing a game of cutthroat card game for money on Ameria’s bunk. Lucky ass Teena was winning all my damn money. She was up about three hundred dollars. It was all money that I had been smuggling in through visits and hustling weed.

I watched Teena bob her head as she listened to her headphones.

She sang along to whatever she was listening to and slammed her hand down. She had twenty six, all hearts. I counted my cards and I had twenty three in clubs. I threw my hand down and caught her trying to run. She had to pay up in double and it was a fifty dollar pot. We all laughed.

“Bitch tryin’ to run on me again. I told you I was going to catch that ass,” I beamed as I counted my money. Suddenly the obese male guard walked in. His fat ass was always trying to catch us naked. We quickly stashed our money.

“You got mail,” he said breathing hard like an animal as he looked at my breasts. Suddenly he looked up and passed me several letters. He had on some kind of funky cologne that smelled like roach spray. When he walked out of the cell Teena wrinkled her nose.

“Dayum, y’all smell that?

“Skunk spray for men,” Peaches said making a comical face. We all erupted in laughter.

I opened the letter from Buff. He had sent me another money order along with some pictures. Peaches and Teena both leaned all the way in my space trying to steal a glance at the photos.

Peaches commented, “Damn that mufucka is fine and I know that he puts all that money on your books. He must got that paper,” she said.

That bitch was very observant and nosey. “Buff is my best friend. That’s all.”

“So, you ain’t
never
fucked him?” She asked looking surprised.

“No, I ain’t
never
fucked nobody,” I said.

Now Peaches was looking at me like I was crazy. “You serious?”

I nodded. “I ain’t never been into a dude like that. I was so busy trying to keep my mom’s boyfriend off me.”

Teena grinned. “So how do you know you ain’t into chicks then? You ain’t even had a dick.”

I laughed. “Whatever Teena. I am attracted to niggas, not bitches. That I do know. I just never got around to it. If I hadn’t ended up in here, who knows.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I wanted to get with Buff’s brother Zeus, but he’s an older cat.”

“How you and Buff get so close?” Peaches asked.

“When I was eleven we were living in the PJ’s. Campbell Terrace is the name of ‘em.”

“Yeah, I heard of Campbell Terrace in “Fayettenam.” It’s hard out there in them jects. People be sleeping on North Carolina, but you got crazy ass niggas everywhere. I heard ‘bout how those crazy mufuckas on Murchison road be murkin’ mufuckas. So, your crazy ass is from the hood. Should’ve known,” Teena said. She was from Charlotte.

“Yeah, you can say that,” I said. I’d left out details about my early child hood days, when I did live in a nice house in a good neighborhood. “One day I was walking to the store to get some vegetable oil for my mom. On the way back this dude stopped me and tried to get me to get in his van. Buff was walking toward us. He saw what was going on and grabbed a beer bottle that was on the ground, ran up on dude and bust his head open for me. He made sure that I got home safe and shit.”

I smiled at the memory. “Buff is a hard head ass nigga who loves the hustle and wants to run shit like his big brother. He taught me how to fight like a nigga. He looked out for me when nobody else would. After my mama got with Goody we moved out of the projects. I still spent most of my time with Buff in the Terrace. We’d smoke mad trees and play video games. He even taught me how to shoot and gave me the burner I killed Goody wit’. He told me that if that nigga fucked with me to blast his ass, so I did it. Buff’s the one who started calling me Zero. Ze from Zeaira and Ro from Rowe. He said that name fits me ‘cause I’m cold as hell. That’s my nigga.”

“So, you ain’t feelin’ Buff like that?” Peaches quizzed. She must’ve been interested in him. I wondered what had happened to her boyfriend.

“No, I don’t like Buff like that. He’s like my brother,” I confirmed for her.

Her lips curled up into a mischievous smile. “Well, the next time you write him ask him if I can send him a letter. I know Reggie’s gonna be locked up forever and ain’t no future in that shit. I’ll be eighteen when I get out of here and I want something to look forward to. He ain’t gotta be my man, but on the first day I get out of here I’m trying to fuck something. I miss that shit,” she said.

I just shook my head because she seemed too young to be so sexually experienced.

Teena chuckled. “I feel you. I gets mine in here though. You know me. I got plenty bitches to choose from. Too bad ya’ll bitches won’t get your pussies licked up in here.”

She had so many chickens in the camp sprung out over her. Most of the time if there was some ruckus going on it was two bitches fighting over Teena’s ass.

“I don’t get that gay shit. I mean, I like gettin’ head, but I need a dick behind that shit,” Peaches said with a frown wrinkling her nose and forehead.

Her family had money and she’d gone to a private school. They made sure she had a good lawyer who assured that she was tried for a lesser crime as a minor. Reggie was nineteen, so he was tried as an adult. Peaches’s mom was black and her father was white. She’d explained that she got her smoky, gray eyes from him. With skin the color of almonds, long, sandy brown hair and lips like Megan Goode’s, she was very attractive. At 5’1, she weighed a petite, but shapely 115 lbs.

“How many dudes you been with?” I asked her.

“Only two. My first was my ex-boyfriend Mazi. That shit hurt like hell. I was thirteen and he was sixteen. I always liked older boys. I guess I was just being rebellious. Mazi was a thug and that shit turned me on. It was probably because my parents were strict and there wasn’t shit going on at home. I wanted some excitement and being with Mazi gave me that. I snuck out all the time to go see him. He had my ass gone because he loved eating me out. I’d never felt anything like that shit. He ended up getting shot in the head during a drug deal. Some niggas robbed him. We found later that it had been a set up. After that I met Reggie and…” Her voice trailed off and her eyes were moist.

Attempting to relieve the tension in the air, I turned to Teena. “You ever been with a dude, or you always knew you liked girls?” I asked her.

“I was with a dude once.” She had a faraway look in her eyes, like she was reliving the moment. “He was my foster father. I was about to turn twelve. He fucked me almost every night and I was there for about a year. After that I never wanted to see another dick again. When I was removed from that home I was sent to another. That couple just ignored me. I was just a form of income to me. I met this older chick named Trice that lived next door. She was ‘bout eighteen and I was fourteen. Her folks were never home and one day when I got off the school bus she was outside. She had on some real short shorts and a shirt that showed her sexy ass belly button ring. After she invited me in that day I knew.” She laughed. “That bitch had my head fucked up. She taught me how to please a woman. She had mad skills, so in no time I had her ass climbing the walls. Shit, I can eat pussy better than any dude, ‘cause I know exactly what to do with it. That’s why I got these broads in here fucked up. When I turned fifteen me and old girl got a crib together. My foster parents didn’t give a fuck since they still got a check for me. She taught me how to hustle and we got that money together. That bitch didn’t tell me that the cops were watching us. She just left one day and let me take the fall for everything. It’s all good though, ‘cause I was fucking with two of her girls who be putting money on my books and shit.”

And that was how it went. I got to know Teena and Peaches and they were my two road dawgs through thick and thin, ride or die. Their loyalty was proven over time and the three of us vowed to have each other’s backs no matter what. We called ourselves “three the hard way”.

Chapter 4

1995

After Biology class I met Teena and Peaches back at our room. They only took one class with me, which was Geometry and had funny looks on their faces when I walked in.

“What’s up?” I asked sensing that something was wrong.

“Lorielle was moved,” Teena said.

I shrugged my shoulders. “And? I didn’t fuck with her like that anyway. The bitch barely even talked.”

“We got a new bunkmate,” Peaches spoke up.

“So? What’s the big deal?” I sat on the bed and pulled out a joint. Buff had a few chickens he was cool with sneak weed in during visitation for me to sell. My pockets stayed fat although we smoked that shit like chimneys in Alaska.

“Ya’ll wanna go behind the dumpsters and smoke this shit?”

Teena glanced over at Peaches. “It’s Chanda,” she said.

Now that was one bitch I hated with a passion. She had only been there for two months and was trying to act like she ran some shit. She had been locked up for beating some chick with a four by four and putting her in a coma. She was in a gang. I didn’t know if she was supposed to be a Crip or what, but I didn’t need a gang. Shit, I was a one bitch army. The way I saw it, that bitch
let
her beat her ass. She knew better than to bring that shit to me. All she ever did was run her mouth. In my opinion tongue flapping was a waste of time and energy. I saved all of my energy for the fight.

A few minutes later while we were talking Chanda walked her oddly shaped body into the room and cut her eyes at me. She sucked her teeth as she placed her hand on her hip.

“Don’t look at me like that Zero. You ain’t runnin’ shit around here, Okay.” She snaked her neck at me.

I got off my bunk with the quickness, put on my shoes and walked over to check that hoe.

“Don’t call me Zero. You don’t know me like that. My name is Queen Zeaira to you and for the record BITCH, I DO run shit. I’ll beat a bitch’s ass. Now act like
you
know and shut the fuck up talkin’ to me!” I spat.

Chanda looked at Teena and Peaches as she shook her head. She then took several steps back because I was close enough to steal on her ass and she must have sensed it.

“Ya’ll better get your girl ‘fore she end up like that bitch I got layin’ up in the hospital.”

Teena stood up from her bunk. “We ain’t gotta tell her shit.”

Chanda just stood there huffing with a screw face. The bitch was already ugly with a mean ass overbite. She was brown skinned, with ashy skin, a big ass bubble like nose, thin lips and a bad acne problem. She hated on me because she was ugly as hell with naughty hair and couldn’t grow any edges. That was exactly what I told the butt ugly bitch.

“You just mad ‘cause your ass is ugly as fuck with that nappy ass hair! Where the fuck your edges at? Bald eagle lookin’ bitch! I ain’t got time for that back and forth nonsense. If you wanna fight let’s do it. If you wanna stay in here with no problems I advise you to leave me the fuck alone.”

She laughed dryly. “Nawl, you better watch your mouth. You don’t know who you fuckin’ wit’.”

“You got it twisted Chanda.” I shook my head and rubbed my hands together as I took a step toward her. I hadn’t been a fight in a while and needed to release some pent up anger. If she didn’t squash that shit, I would have to release my wrath on her and it wouldn’t be pretty.

“You wanna fight me bitch?” She challenged. I swung and connected my fist with her face. That bitch dropped like a sack of rocks.

“Ohhh, shit! Shit!” Peaches said excitedly as she jumped up and down. Chanda was on the floor out cold as her leg twitched.

Teena laughed. “That bitch’s knocked out snoring.” Peaches giggled as she looked at Chanda laid out on the floor.

“That bitch had it comin’. I ain’t got time for negotiations and shit. Either we goin’ fight or we ain’t,” I said rubbing my knuckles. Her big ass tooth had cut my hand.

We heard the keys jingling up the hall. One of the guards was making his rounds.

“Oh, shit,” Peaches gasped. “Here comes the C.O. Let’s put that bitch on her bunk.”

“I ain’t touching that bitch,” I said in disgust as I watched Peaches and Teena pick up Chanda’s limp body. They quickly placed her on her bunk just as the guard looked inside the room. I appreciated them trying to keep me out of trouble. We pretended to be in a deep conversation as Chanda snored on her bunk. The guard looked in and kept it moving. Teena released a heavy sigh of relief as Chanda stirred and began to groan incoherently like she was drunk. She looked at us and narrowed her eyes for a moment as if it was all starting to come back to her.