RedBone (22 page)

“I need you to get out of my house.” Farah was nervous. “Please.”

“You seem fucked up.” She smirked. “Did I just pull your card or something?”

“Can you please go?” Farah never looked into the officer’s eyes. She was starting to feel panicky. Although Grand told her to take the medicine once a day by mouth, Farah discovered that she needed it at least four times a day. Something about going into the cooler and putting the liquid to her lips put her at immediate ease.

“Look, I really need this room. If you’re worried about me being a cop, like I said, you don’t have to. I just need to stay in a place I can afford, that’s close to work and safe. This may be in the hood but the building is secure. Plus I have a gun. I have a lot of student loans and the rent is right up my alley. I think this can work.”

“It will never work. Trust me.”

“You know it’s better to have me on your side than it is to have me off?” Every time she opened her mouth all Farah heard was “cop, cop, cop, cop.” She could plead with her until she grew hair on her face. Her family was crazy and deranged and she couldn’t risk Nadia snooping around and finding out about who the Cottons truly were. “I should’ve known something was up when you specified that you wanted to live with another red bone.” She looked at the applications in Farah’s lap. “I bet you don’t even have any friends. Or a man, do you?” She laughed harder. “Your neighbors probably don’t even fuck with you!”

“Whoever is in my life is my fucking business. Bitches kill me getting mad because I didn’t choose them to stay. We ain’t fucking! Now bounce before I call the police.”

She looked at her and shook her head. “I am the police. Or have you forgotten already?” Nadia looked at her with a penetrating glare. There was something up with this Farah Cotton, she was sure of it. “I don’t know why, but for some reason, I’m sure I’ll see you again.”

Farah moved toward the door. “Good-bye, Detective.”

Nadia smirked and walked out. Farah closed the door quickly and leaned up against it to regain her composure. That shit was too close for comfort.

At the end of the day Farah was tired of interviewing a rack of bitches who were all wrong. She realized she needed a roommate but everything she had to go through, in her opinion, was for the birds. Nadia was right about one thing: she never got along with her neighbors. Zone told her all the time that if someone broke in his apartment not one of them would care enough to tell him what they saw. Suddenly meeting the people in her building seemed like a good idea. First she decided to take her medicine. She knew if she did nothing else, she had better take care of her health. It did wonders for her complexion, body, and mood. Often times she would feel better just thinking about it before she even got to the cooler. Prior to meeting Grand Mike she spent $200 a week on makeup, and now she was down to about forty.

Farah walked into the bathroom and sat on the toilet. Grabbing a magazine she thumbed through the pages and saw a girl who looked like her baby sister. She missed Chloe. A lot. As wrong as she was, she was still her sister and they’d never gone so long without talking to one another. Chloe had been calling nonstop saying she had to talk to her about what happened, but for the moment, Farah seen enough of her face and pussy to last a lifetime. After Farah finished using the bathroom, she grabbed her pink Mikasa cup and proceeded on her mission to borrow sugar, which she really didn’t need.

Ever since Zone died, she isolated herself even more from those who lived in her building. She would go so far as to ignore people who spoke to her in passing in the hallways. At first, before she met Grand, Farah was too afraid they’d look at the sores on her face and judge her. She didn’t have that problem anymore. But it was because of the drama in her apartment that construction workers had to go into her neighborshomes to redo all of their windows. After Zone’s death, the fire department determined the windows couldn’t stand up to the safety code and in their professional opinion, had the windows been properly installed, Zone would still be alive today. Of course, they’d be wrong.

On a mission, she grabbed her key and walked out the door. Her naked toes burrowed into the plush burgundy carpet as she walked to the far end of the hallway. Spotting the door she wanted to knock on first, she took two quick breaths because she was nervous when meeting new people. Then she looked down at her neat True Religion jeans and clean white T-shirt. Feeling that she looked fine enough to bum, she knocked softly on the first door.

What am I doing? Maybe I should just go home.
She was about to abandon the entire idea when a fourteen-year-old pudgy black kid opened the door and said, “What you want?” She’d never seen him before; then again, she didn’t see many of her neighbors. When she looked farther into the apartment and saw a picture of him and a large older woman on the wall she realized exactly where she was ... Vivian James’s apartment, who was her property manager and who also couldn’t stand her.

“What do you want?” he repeated.

“I wanted to borrow some sugar.” Farah raised the cup and smiled. “You got any?”

“Do you even live in this building?”

Farah was tired of looking at his extra round face so she sarcastically said, “No. I just appeared from nowhere with no shoes on, stupid.” The pudgy kid looked at her feet and slammed the door in her face. Farah didn’t move right away because she contemplated knocking on the door again and smacking him down. Instead, she mustered up enough courage to proceed to the next location. This time she ran her fingers through her natural brown hair and took two deep breaths. When she was ready, she hit the door twice with her knuckles and stepped back. A smile spread across her face in the hopes that whoever answered would be welcoming.

“Yes?” a girl asked, throwing the door open. She was pretty with large brown eyes and freckled light skin. The only thing missing was her sweet disposition. “What the fuck do you want?” The girl’s eyes moved over Farah as she made a judgment.

She took a deep breath and said, “Uh ... do you have ... I was wondering ...”

“You here to see Kirk?” The girl glared.

Hoping Kirk was nicer, she said, “Yes, is he home?”

Air seemed to fill the girl’s chest as she balled up her fists and looked sternly at Farah. “I’m tired of you bitches trying to ruin my fucking marriage! When you gonna realize Kirk is married? Huh?” she screamed, stepping into the hallway. If she swung Farah had all intentions of dropping her at her doorstep.

Seconds later, an attractive man with an extra-long beard walked out. “Who is this?” he asked her.

“You tell me!” screaming girl yelled. “I know one thing, I’m sick of these bitches coming over here with this bullshit, Kirk! I thought you said you wanted to make this work! I thought you said you wanted me!”

“I do, baby. I don’t know this bitch.” He pointed at Farah.

“Well, what the fuck is she doing here?”

“Don’t ask me!” He looked at Farah. “Who the fuck are you anyway?”

“I’m ... your neighbor. I ... I live down the hall.” Farah tried to create a smile but it didn’t move upward. Truth was, she was growing weary of the foolishness already. “I was just trying to see if you had some sugar. But if I caused too much drama, I can roll, it’s not that deep.”

“You wanted to see if we had some fucking sugar? screaming girl said. “Bitch, don’t play games. You came for him so here he is.”

“Look, I’m not gonna be too many more of your bitches.”

“You gonna be as many bitches as I call you.”

“Baby, I don’t know who this chick is,” he interrupted, “but I swear to God I’m not fucking around on you this time!”

“How come I don’t believe you?” screaming girl said, resting her hands on her hips. “She came over here asking for you! Called you by your name and everything,” she lied. “Here I am making dinner and sucking your dick in between checking on the meal and you still not satisfied. What a bitch gotta do to keep you?”

“You told my girl you know me?” Kirk asked.

“Like I said, I was just coming to get some sugar.”
This bitch is doing too much now.
The moment Farah said that the pudgy kid entered the hallway. Instead of minding his own fucking business he straight leaned against the wall and watched the entire scene unfold while chewing popcorn.

Farah was preparing to walk away when Kirk grabbed her forcefully by the wrist. His long bitch-like nails dug into her skin and she was sure if he didn’t let go, he’d break her arm. “You ain’t going nowhere until you tell my girl you fucking lied on me! If you don’t she gonna be at my throat all night and I don’t feel like that shit.”

“I don’t know him,” Farah said to the girl. “I live in apartment 1316. If I knew all of this was gonna pop off, I never would’ve came over here. You can keep him because I damn sure don’t want him.” She flashed the engagement ring she didn’t even respect. “I have a man.”

“You told me you don’t live here,” the pudgy kid interjected. “When you knocked on my door. Maybe you were coming to see him.” He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Fat fuckin’ bastard! Why don’t he mind his fat-ass business!
“I was just playing with you!” Farah yelled. “I do live in the building and have been here for years. That’s why I don’t have no shoes on. What I’m gonna do, get out of my car and walk through the snow and hallways with bare feet?” Farah paused. “My boyfriend was the one who died a month ago.”

“You getting married already?”

“Yes.” She rolled her eyes. “Anyway my ex fell out the window. It was because of that everybody in this building had to get new windows.” screaming girl’s expression changed and Farah felt she believed her. If she didn’t, she had all intentions of reaching into her mouth, removing her blade, and slicing both of them quickly if he let her go. Suddenly, for some reason, all she wanted to do was talk to her grandmother. It was as if she foresaw everything that was happening to her in advance.

“So you fucking a bitch in our building?” Screaming girl frowned. “Right under my nose?” Either she was petty or she was just ready to rumble. Either way Farah wanted no part of it.

Farah was about to walk away when Kirk forcefully grabbed her wrist again. “You ain’t going no-fucking-where!”

“You’re hurting me! Let go!” She dropped to the floor and her pink cup rolled a few inches out into the hallway.

Kirk was preparing to hit Farah when a six-foot-five-inch man came out of the apartment next door. His presence was huge and filled up the entire hallway. His dark skin was so perfect it almost didn’t look real. The man’s bald head was clean, and with the exception of a scar that ran across the right side of his neck, he was exactly like she imagined. Under the light the mark glistened like liquid platinum under the sun. Farah never, in her entire life, wanted a man more than she did him, from first sight. This was the man of her dreams ... the one she wrote about since she was a child ... she was sure of it.

The man looked at Farah and then at the dude who was holding her against her will. He had a younger boy with him, whose skin was also chocolate. “Slade, what you doing?”the boy asked. “We gotta go meet our brothers. Fuck that bitch, man!”

“Give me a second, Audio,” Slade said, examining the scene from where he stood. He was trying to figure out if he should get involved.

Kirk grabbed Farah’s arm tighter and didn’t seem to be phased by the dudes, who stepped into the hallway. “Bitch, you better tell my girl who the fuck you are before I fuck you up!”

Now Slade was involved. He walked up to him and said, “I don’t know what’s going on and I’m not trying to step into your business—”

“Then don’t,” Kirk interrupted. “This between me and her.”

Slade looked down and, for some reason, his eyes averted toward Kirk’s butter-colored Timberlands. There was a large stain on the left boot that looked as if it was dried blood. He fought enough niggas and seen enough blood to know the difference. He wondered why this dude would wear shoes like that. “I hear what you saying, but I know you not about to hit no female. In front of your woman and a kid?”

“Man, I don’t know who the fuck you are, but you better mind your fucking business,” Kirk rallied. “Anyway, this bitch just lied on me, and I’m not letting her go until she tells the truth.”

Farah’s eyes focused on Slade. She could smell the scent of his fresh leather black coat. Now she wished she had done more to make herself cute before walking into the hallway. “You not about to hit her in front of me.”

“Slade, we gotta bounce,” Audio said. Although he didn’t want his brother involved with Farah, his eyes moved toward her toes and he wondered what they’d taste like in his mouth. His fetish for feet was heavy. Slade gave him one look which silenced him immediately.

“I think you better listen to your little bro,” Kirk added.

“Nigga, fuck you!” Audio yelled. “You don’t know shit about me or my brother!”

Slade seemed irritated with Kirk so he slammed his fist into the wall next to their door. It folded under his knuckles as if it were wet paper. Kirk released the hold he had on Farah and she fell to the floor. The pudgy kid rushed into his apartment for fear that Slade would flatten him next.
Oh, my God! And he’s strong!
She’d seen Zone punch at that wall a thousand times, never denting it once.

“If you want to hit somebody ...” Slade said, removing his fist from the hole he just formed with his bare hand. White powdered plaster covered his chocolate knuckles. He stepped so close to Kirk his bitch got scared and rushed into the apartment to save herself, leaving him alone. “Then how ’bout you hit me.” Slade looked into his eyes and challenged his manhood. “I guarantee you I won’t be as vulnerable as the chick on the floor.”

Kirk looked at Slade and then at Farah. He backed up to get out of Slade’s way and said, “Don’t fucking come to my house again with no more bullshit.”

When the door slammed, Slade reached over to help Farah up. She was about to take his hand when he quickly removed it as if she spit in his palm. Farah was confused as she plopped back to the floor. He tucked his hand in his pocket and looked at her. “I’m ... I’m sorry. But I gotta go.”