Crazy Summer (5 page)

Red Bone waited for Summer to leave before talking to her new friend Chris in privacy.

She looked up at him and said, “She might be too much fo’ yo’ friend.” 

“How old is she?” He asked her this question for two reasons. One, because she looked great with her well-shaped body, and two, he was curious himself.

“She’s seventeen.”

Chris stared at Red Bone in disbelief. He knew she had to be lying.

“She’s dat young?” A frown masked his face.

“Yeah. I’m three years older than her, and our birthdays are on the same day.” 

Just then, the house phone rang. Red Bone stood up and walked into the kitchen where the wall phone was located. She answered it politely, and Chris came in behind her, cuffing her soft, round buttocks through her tight-fitting Cross Colours shorts. Then he reached around and began unbuttoning her shorts. She didn’t resist. Actually, she allowed him to slide them down her curvy hips. His fingers hooked her panties, also.

 “You know I love you,” she said into the phone.

Her panties and shorts were bunched around her ankles. She was getting moist between her legs. Chris slowly inserted two fingers inside of her vagina. Feeling himself getting aroused, he unzipped his pants. She reached behind herself, gripped his penis, and without hesitation, she guided him inside of her.

“Well,” she whispered, “I’m getting ready to go.”

“Where?” the voice asked through the phone.

Chris went deep, and she almost moaned into the phone from the great feeling. Pain and pleasure merged together.

“Hmmm,” she sighed.

“Wuzzup, girl. What the fuck you doin’?”

“Nothing,” she whispered again. “I’ll call you back.” 

She slammed the phone down on the hook, looked back at Chris, and pressed her body against his, meeting his penetrating thrust.

“Get dis pussy,” she said.

*****

Summer and Fred strolled side by side on the way to her house, with him pushing the twins. They were adorable, and you couldn’t help but to like them.

“Where you from?” she asked him.

“Not far from here.”

“Who you stay wit’, ya girlfriend?”

“Damn, you ask a lot of questions,” he said laughing, and then told her, “Just me and Chris for now.”

“Y’all some kin?”

He laughed, admiring her eagerness to know so much. He paused with the stroller and glanced at her.

“What about you?” he said. “Where yo’ nigga at?”

“I ain’t got no nigga,” she snapped.

“What about their daddy?” He pointed towards the kids.

She shrugged as if she didn’t care. “It’s a long story.”

“I got time.”

As a worried look came across her face, she took control of the stroller and began walking again. Fred was beside her.

“You can talk to me, lil’ lady.”

“My name is Summer,” she shot back, her voice rising with a little more authority.

Her house was within eyesight now, sixty yards away. She told him not to come all the way to her house because her mother would trip. So, he paused where he was and grabbed a seat on the green box until she got back. It didn’t take ten minutes before they were back in stride again.

“You need yo’ hair fixed,” was the first thing Fred said after they started walking.

She touched her ponytail and smiled. “I know, right? I’m messed up in da pocket, though.”

Fred reached in his front pocket and removed three, twenty- dollar bills from a knot of money. When he tried to hand her the money, she gave a sassy look.

“What’s dat fo’?”

“To get yo’ hair fixed,” he explained.

She sucked her teeth and almost snatched the money. With another dysfunctional look across her face and her eyes squinted, she said, “I hope you don’t think you gonna get nothing fo’ dis. Especially no pussy.”

 Before he could respond, a money-green Cutlass came up behind them and slowed down next to them. Fred stared at the two guys in the front seat. He definitely didn’t know either of them. One of them called Summer to the car, and she walked to the passenger side and leaned on the window.

“What’s up, nigga?”

 “Who dat?” the guy whispered, his eyes searching the stranger.

“My friend. Why?” She was about to let her mouth get her in trouble.

The guy in the passenger seat named Danté was the aggressive one, and his reputation was solid through the area. He looked past Summer and stared at Fred. “What’s up, partna?”

Without saying anything, Fred threw his head back, acknowledging his greeting.

Danté really didn’t like that, but still, he managed an evil smile and asked, “You got some work?”

He shook his head. “I’m jus chillin’, playa.”

Danté nodded his head as if he knew he was lying. Then he turned his attention back on Summer. “When you talk to ya brotha?”

“He wrote me last week,” she replied. “I ain’t talk to him in a while, though, ‘cause Mama got a block on da phone.”

“I’ll be at Red Bone’s house,” Fred said to Summer and began walking off.

She looked back. “I’m coming,” she said.

When she turned back to the car, she noticed how Danté was staring at Fred as he walked off. She didn’t like his look, which she had seen many times when he used to hang out with her brother.

Danté’s eyes finally made their way back to her. “You alright?” he asked.

“Yeah.” She nodded.

“What about the twins?”

“Dey fine.”

This time, he nodded. “Don’t be fuckin’ wit’ niggas you don’t know.” He pulled out three, one hundred-dollar bills. “One-fifty fo’ you and da twins, and da other one-fifty is for my nigga.” He handed her the money. “Make sho’ he gets dat money. I’ll get wit’ ‘cha.”

As they pulled off, she watched the car disappear. She was surprised he gave her any money. It was too simple. She could tell something else was bothering Danté, and she didn’t want to get involved in whatever he had on his mind.

When Summer got back to Red Bone’s house, the smell of ether was in the air from the cocaine being cooked in the kitchen. The smell turned her stomach a little, but it didn’t bother her to the point where she needed to leave. Fred was sitting on the couch with a can of Old English in his hand and staring at the television. As she sat beside him, she noticed he didn’t have the spunk he had a few minutes ago when they were walking together.

“What’s up?” she asked.

He sipped on his beer and then lowered it to between his legs.

“Who dem cats was?” he finally asked.

“Dat was Danté. He and my brother are close friends.”

“Where yo’ brotha at?”

“He in prison right now.” she said, then looked toward the hallway just in time to see Red Bone come into the living room wearing nothing but a pair of pink panties.

“Excuse me, y’all,” she said, smiling.

The worse part about it is she wasn’t trying to cover herself. Summer glanced at her briefly, then she looked over at Fred, who continued watching her. Actually, he wasn’t trying to hide the fact that he was looking. Summer rose from the couch and headed into the kitchen where Red Bone stood at the wooden table. Red Bone was in her own world. Her eyes were bucked and glossy looking, and the left corner of her mouth twitched. Summer squinted her eye.

“You were getting high, Red Bone?” she asked with concern.

Red Bone could barely talk. She tried smiling, but it was useless and didn’t fit her at the time.

“You get high, too,” she replied.

“I only sniffed three times,” Summer said angrily. “And all three of those times was with you and because of you.”

Red Bone shrugged and gave Summer a look as if she didn’t have a care in the world. Then she looked at the humming refrigerator and stared at the colorful flowered wallpaper.

Summer couldn’t believe she was seeing this. Turning, she walked out of the kitchen and back into the living room. Fred had heard their conversation, so he knew what was going on. When she looked at him, he couldn’t even look her in the eye. She shook her head in disgust and walked out the front door.

After she was gone, Red Bone came into the living room, walking close to Fred. She told him to come into the room and join her and Chris. She was finished at the starting line.

Later that evening, the scorching sun had nearly set, and by this time of day, the neighborhood was coming to life. Kids raced up and down the paved street on their bicycles. Activity was nearly everywhere. A basketball game was going on at the house across the street. The rim and backboard were nailed over the garage, and the kids who were playing ranged in age from ten to thirteen.

 Mrs. Diane and Summer looked on from their front porch, while the twins napped in the house where the cool air conditioner blew at seventy degrees. Summer was quiet, her mind too far gone to even think clearly. Angry with her friend, she felt as if someone had stabbed her in the chest with a knife. They grew up together, and Summer always looked up to her like she was her older sister. She felt a lump form in her throat, and finally, a tear eased down her cheek. She caught it with the back of her hand, but she didn’t catch it quick enough before her mother realized something was wrong.

“What’s wrong, baby?” her mother asked, looking up from her word search puzzle book. She sounded as if her words had got caught in her throat.

Summer glanced at her briefly, then turned her attention back to the game of twenty-one being played across the street. At least that’s the direction she was looking in.

Her lips barely parted as she said, “I was jus’ thinkin’.” 

Her words were more like a grumble, and her mother knew she was upset.

Mrs. Diane marked her page with the pen, closed the book, stood up, and told Summer to come inside. She sounded very demanding. Once in the living room where the cool air blew against their skin, Summer followed behind her mother until she made her way to the couch. They sat down almost at the same time. Mrs. Diane threw her heavy arm around Summer’s neck and pulled her close. Summer allowed her head to rest on her mother’s shoulder.

“It’s been a long time since I held you like this.”

Summer smiled. “I remember when I was at the hospital in the delivery room. I was so scared.”

“I know, baby.”