Thugs with Tendencies

Thugs with Tendencies 11

TWT11Sterling Huckabee

These weren't my blocks. Sometimes they were tough, sometimes they felt secure but they maintained firmness. These blocks were built on the back of systematic failures to society. Sometimes you make money, sometimes you stayed broke but you were always poor. Being poor wasn't the amount of money you made. Being poor was not knowing the wealth of the world. These blocks were more like cellblocks. They were prisons for people who didn't want to escape or didn't know how. Most of these blocks are mentalities.

Blocks on a staircase.

Sometimes going up. Sometimes going down, but always going in the same direction.

"Hey wasn't expecting you to be over," I notice Kenyatta.

She is sitting at the edge of the living room sofa. She keeps her head hung down and slouched. Her eyes are red. I think she's just been crying or something like that. She seems like a really moody girl. I've noticed getting to know her. It's a lot different from her sister Cheyenne. Cheyenne was never really moody at all.

"I figured you'd be here. Good morning by the way. You don't leave much do you?" she asks.

"Nah I don't hang in the street too much. Was waiting for Meech to get home."

"Why?" she asks.

"Well don't tell him. It's a secret but my dad has a company and I was thinking about taking Meech up there and having him interview. It's on the other side of Chicago though. On the North side."

"Your dad owns a company?" Kenyatta asks.

I don't talk too much about my background. I know it may come off as I'm entitled or something like that. I don't want to make it seem like that at all. Kenyatta looks impressed though sitting there like that.

"Yeah, he does," I state, "It's not around here though. He'd have to move for the job."

"Lot of white people up there," Kenyatta states.

It's more of a question then a comment I think. I think she figures but she just wants to make sure for some reason.

"It's not about race. It's just an opportunity," I state.

"Well he'd be good at it. Meech would be good at that," Kenyatta explains.

"You can come too. There's always room," I explain.

Kenyatta shakes her head at that moment, "Me? No. I'm a hood rat. Who are you trying to kid? I'm not worth shit. Can't even protect my own family? Can't even help my own little brother..."

She stops talking. There is something bothering her. I can tell she came here because of it by how she is reacting. I decide to walk over and sit next to her on the couch. Kenyatta looks at me for a few seconds. I call tell she's a little nervous today.

"What's wrong Kenyatta?"

"It's Meech."

My heart drops. This isn't good. I can tell by the look on her face. I couldn't lose someone else. After Cheyenne I just couldn't bring myself to lose someone else I cared about.

"Is he---"

She shrugs, "He might be dead. I don't know."

"Fuck you mean you don't know?" I ask, "Kenyatta where the fuck is Meech?"

"You overheard us talking about going to the Mexicans. Well we went to go see some and shit went wrong. It went bad. I had to get out of there. I had to grab the guns and go. I left Meech back there with them. I keep calling his phone but no one is picking up. I don't think he got out. Those Mexicans notice that their shit is missing they might end up killing him if he isn't dead already."

My mouth drops.

I've heard enough. I make my way over to the phone.

"I'm calling the cops."

Kenyatta follows me to the phone. She grabs it out of my hand, "We don't do that."

Her face is serious. She isn't fucking around. She looks like I just said the wildest thing ever. The expression on her face is the most right now.

"Are you serious? Your brother is in danger BECAUSE of you and you don't want to call the cops?" I ask.

"I know Meech. He'd rather die than get the cops involved. We don't snitch Sterling," she tells me, "We don't snitch."

"So what are we going to do?"

"We?"

"Yes. We."

"I'm getting the fuck out of town," she explains, "I just gave the guns to the Bakersfield Boys and now I'm leaving."

"Are you fucking serious?" I ask her, "That's your brother."

"What you want me to do? Do I look like Rambo to you. You care about Meech? Don't you?"

"Of course."

"More than a friend I mean. Like you care about him like...you know..."

Was she asking if me and Meech were romantically involved? She knew about the sex. She knew that much but did she really think it was more than that.

Did I?

"I don't know. Maybe," I stop. Who am I fooling, "Yeah. Definitely."

She pauses for a few seconds as though finding some confirmation she was looking for. She starts making her way to the door. I'm surprised. I follow her to the door. I can't believe Kenyatta really plans on just leaving town like this. Was she that heartless?

Kenyatta gets to the door and hands me a piece of paper, "Here is the address and a number for this Jose guy. You got to go save my little brother. I can't do it. I fucked up. You love him---you save him."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

She was crazy.

"How the fuck am I supposed to go save him?"

"Your daddy owns a company. Doesn't he? Money talks. You reimburse them for those weapons, they might not be so mad," she explains.

With that she walks out of the door slamming it before I get the chance to argue with her. She slams the door right in my face in the most disrespectful way and speeds off. I look over at her shocked, this girl is really booking it out of town like this and just dumping the responsibility of helping Meech into my lap. I knew she was a little bit of a bitch but I thought she at least cared about Meech. I guess I was wrong.

I reach out to the only person that I know Meech has in his life: Yusef. There are a couple guys out in front of the house that Yusef is supposed to be in. They all look real suspect. It takes knocking on a lot of shady doors and talking to a lot of shady looking people to find out where Yusef would be at this point in the day. Luckily I find him and this place looks just as shady as all the others if not more.

I walk up to them and notice the looks that I get as I approach. The guys look up when they see me approaching. A couple of them put their weed away. I think they might think that I'm a cop or something like that. I'm not sure.

"Hey I was looking for Yusef?"

"Yo---fuck off," the guy answers bluntly.

"Hold up Kool Aid," the other guy says, "He's cool. This that guy Sterling remember? The one who saved Ty."

I feel lucky that they remember me. The guy actually gives me a pound as I walk towards them and the one guy apologizes for telling me to fuck off. All of a sudden I seem to have this respect that I didn't know I had.

DJ, who is the one recognized me brings me in the house. I swear I see crack rocks as we walk into the front. That's when I see Yusef and Ty. There are two girls in the house too. Yusef is getting his dick sucked and Ty is fucking the girl. As I walk in I damn near run right back out of the house.

"Hey hey...wait...Sterling come in what's wrong?"

"Um..."

Yusef continues to get his dick sucked. His pants are to his knees while the girl is giving him head. He has a decent sized dick and is mouth fucking the girl shoving his dick so deep down her throat that she is gagging. DJ doesn't seem to be surprised to see this. Maybe this happens often. He walks out of the room as though this is just an everyday occurrence. Ty on the other side of the room is fucking a female. He gives me a wave and nods at me as he gets up and starts fucking the girl doggy style on the couch. Whoever this girl is seems to be thoroughly enjoying it because she is moaning deeply. Ty's dick is bigger than Yusef's but he has a different looking butt. Yusef has a nice ass. I can damn near see it sitting down. He has a big old bubble butt similar to Meech. I feel bad realizing that this whole scene was kind of sexy. Seeing Yusef sitting like that and seeing Ty beating up some pussy is really turning me on.

It's damn near hard to focus on why I even came here.

"You want some pussy?" Ty asks me, "I owe you?"

"Not really my thing..." I state.

Ty raises my head. I just realize how gay it sounds. I actually didn't mean it like that. I just meant I wasn't the type to just go having sex with random people or something. The only person that I'd ever really "hooked up" with was Meech and honestly Meech was a little special to me.

"Oh huh?" Ty says pulling out of the girl, "Ya'll get out..."

His dick is still dripping wet with her innards when he pulls out of her. I'm kind of glad when he stops having sex with her so that she can leave. He throws her clothes at her. Yusef follows suit and does the same thing with the other girl. I watch as Yusef pulls up his pants when the girls leave. Ty doesn't pull up his pants though.

Ty actually does something weird. He walks over to the door and locks the door behind the girls.

"So what is your thing?" Ty asks.

"Yo you're serious right now?" Yusef asks Ty.

I'm confused standing there, "What? Listen I have something important to tell you guys."

Ty is rubbing his dick! Right in front of me. I turn to my right to see that it seems to be annoying Yusef a little bit for whatever reason. I'm a little confused here. Ty keeps rubbing his dick using the girl's fluids as a lube. It is clear he is a little bit of a freak or something. I'm shocked when he opens his mouth and lets a bit of spit drip down from his mouth on to his dick.

"It can wait. Ever since I saw you at the pool man I have to admit I been wondering what your thing is. You sexy as hell to me man."

"You really going to disrespect me like that?" Yusef asks him, "You going to play me for this lame ass motherfucker?"

It's clear Yusef and Ty have some sort of 'thing' going on by the way they are talking to one another. Yusef is clearly jealous. I put my hands up. Ty is a good looking guy but I doubt he was the type to get fucked and I definitely wasn't the type to get to get fucked.

"Listen, this isn't even my thing," I state, raising my hands up, "Honestly not here for any of that. I don't want any problems."

Ty isn't backing down.

"Yo why you always jealous. We just had some bitches in here..."

By bitches I assume Ty is talking about the girls that just left. I'm still getting used to their lingo and how they talk. It seems really disrespectful to me for him to be referring to girls like that but then again those girls didn't really seem like the type to have a ton of respect for themselves in the first place. Yusef is giving me this pissed off look as though I'm the one who causing all these issues.

"Those were females," Yusef says before turning to me, "Sterling I thought you were cool, you trying to hit on my man?"

"What? I did NOT come here for any of that."

"You keep staring at his dick! FAGGOT!"

Yusef gets up. He is getting in my face. I'm shocked. He went from 0 to 100 really quick. This is causing Ty to laugh in the background. Ty is enjoying this little show of jealousy. I am wondering if he is doing this specifically to get under Yusef's skin. Whatever the reason he is doing it, it seems to be working. Yusef is clearly threatened by me. Physically we were complete opposites. I had no idea how I was a threat to him.

"It's there! He's been walking around here swinging that thing for the past five minutes," I state raising my voice a little bit, "I'm not interested at all. The only thing I'm interested in is Meech. He's the only reason that I'm here."

The two shut up. This seems to calm Yusef down a little bit. He steps back away from me. I can't help but to still think he is a little crazy. That is the only way to describe how he got pissed so quickly. Yusef is seriously addicted to Ty and I didn't get it. It was kind of scary. I don't know how to react to this guy. No one has ever gotten in my face like that especially over a guy.

Ty finally stops jerking his dick and goes to pull his pants up, "You and Meech huh? I wasn't expecting that honestly. Lopez is going to be pissed."

"Why do you say that?"

"Him and Lopez are a thing aren't they?" Ty asks looking over at Yusef, "I thought they were together by now..."

My heart kind of skips a beat at this point. Honestly I'm a little paranoid. Truth is Lopez is a good looking guy. I know I'm not ugly by far but I'm intimidated to know that Lopez has Meech's attention. They looked like they fit together a little bit more than Meech and I did. I was probably a catch in the suburbs but we weren't in the suburbs. On the south side a guy like Lopez is probably the cream of the crop.

How could I compete with that? How the fuck could I compete with Lopez?

Yusef shrugs, "I don't keep up with my cousin's hoes. Hell he's been ignoring all my texts. I think he's mad about something. I dunno..."

"Meech isn't ignoring you. He's been taken."

I say the words quickly. They spill out. I know I should have probably been more smooth with them but the fact that I've been distracted so much since I came into this house was not a good thing. I needed to be able to tell them what was going on and I needed to make sure that I figured it out.

Yusef jumps up, "Taken? By who?"

"This guy Jose. I have an address. Supposedly he was over there and Jose has him..."

"Gimme the paper," Yusef asks.

"Jose from the Westside?" Ty asks his lover.

Yusef nods, "That little young border chaser got my fucking cousin."

"He can't be so stupid as to kidnap your cousin. This has to be a mistake," Ty says.

"It's not a mistake," I state, "I swear."

"Why was he over there in the first place and how did you find out about this?" Yusef asks.

"Does it matter?" I ask.

Yusef and Ty look at one another. It's clear there is a sense of dread. I'm not sure about all the dynamics going on but the fact that I don't want to tell them is definitely weird. Who was this Jose guy anyway?

Ty crosses his arms, "Sterling I like you dude but I don't play that funny business. What was Meech doing over there and how do you know what happened? Don't make us ask a third time. You won't like the way we have to ask."

He nods to the TV stand. There is a gun there. I look over at Ty and know this guy isn't fucking joking. This guy would hurt me if he had to. He was a thug. Even the fact that I saved his life didn't make a difference at this moment.

The answer to both questions was Kenyatta. Truth is a part of me wants to protect her but why? The girl left town. She ran away. She left her brother to die. Where was the loyalty that she had? Why would I have loyalty to try to protect her.

"The answer to both those questions is Kenyatta," I explain.

"Kenyatta?" Yusef asks.

More suspicious stares.

"I don't know any more information," I state, "You are going to have to ask her. I don't want to get involved with whatever is going on. Right now I just want to make sure Meech is going to be OK."

"Oh I'm going to get back my cousin," Yusef replies.

"Not alone," Ty responds, "We are going to war with Jose."

I stop.

I get a little scared when I see Ty going into the room and coming out with an AK. I'm shocked he even has one of those. He seems so ready too. It didn't take much. Yusef is just as dangerous looking. He has a pistol that came out of nowhere in his hands. These guys look dangerous and they look like they are about their business.

"We strike tonight?" Yusef asks.

"Yeah. I'll get the boys. We'll storm in there and kill all those motherfuckers, then go to their families and kill them," Ty responds, "No one will ever fucking make a move in this city without running it by me again."

For some reason this tough talk seems to turn on Yusef. Yusef leans in and kisses Ty right on the mouth in front of me. It's a wet tongue down.

I'm just sitting there confused.

"Whoa. War? What about Meech?"

"We'll get him back."

"I have another plan. These people want money. I already have the money. I was able to take out of my trust fund," I explain, "If you guys can come with me to just make sure the trade is safe. All I need is backup to get Meech back."

"Trade?" Yusef asks, "You going to trade with these motherfuckers who took my cousin? TRADE!"

Yusef is pissed. His swaying back and forth. It's clear he cares about Meech but it's also clear that Yusef has some sort of problem. Something is really wrong with this guy.

"It could be dangerous to go to war with Jose," I try to reason with him, "What if he kills Meech?"

"I warned Meech to stay out of this life. I WARNED HIM!" Yusef is screaming at the top of his lungs, "I'll get him back my way. This is the way we do things. I'm going to go in there and kill all of those motherfuckers and take Meech by force."

"We can be more diplomatic. No one has to get hurt. We don't have to risk Meech ending up as collateral damage in this."

"I got good aim. He'll be fine," Ty says.

Ty is saying this while holding a military style semi-automatic weapon. Immediately I regret coming to this place. I don't know what the fuck I was thinking to be honest. I just assumed they would help me get him back and make sure nothing went wrong with the trade. I'm completely wrong. These people are crazy as all fuck. They are fucking psychos and I had to make sure that Meech wasn't put at risk because of Ty and Yusef.

"I can't let you go do this."

"Let us? Who told you that you had a choice?" Yusef asks me, "Get the fuck out man. Go back to your country club or whatever. We got this from here."

I leave the house. I just have a rotten feeling in my stomach that I fucked up coming here. I knew Yusef cared about his cousin. The fact that he was doing something at all is better than what I can say for Kenyatta, but still. This was the complete opposite of what I wanted to happen. This was the other extreme. He was going to go in there guns blazing assuming that his boyfriend "had good aim". What the fuck was that even supposed to mean.

I sit in my car. I know I have to do something. I'm getting desperate. I'd just made a bad situation even worse and now I had to find a way to save Meech before nightfall and before Yusef went in there and attacked everyone and everything.

I have to find a way to save Meech.

And there is only one other person that I know that would care enough about Meech. I'm desperate. It's my last option. But it's the only thing I know.

I knock on the door. It's not hard to find Lopez. All the girls in the neighborhood seem obsessed with him. I give a girl at the gas station a 20-dollar bill and she gives me his life story in a matter of minutes. They act like the guy is some sort of local celebrity or something. It makes me even more annoyed that I have to go deal with this guy.

I knock on the door and he answers without a shirt on. The guy has a decent body. It's a little different from mine. I'm more cut and he probably has more muscle mass. When he sees me at the door he seems to be scaling me out as well.

I wonder if he's thinking the same thing. So, this is the competition.

"You the guy who was texting Meech all the time...huh?" he asks as soon as the door opens, "While he was with me..."

He puts emphasis on that.

"Are you still with him?"

He puts his head down. A part of me wants to know the answer to that for my own personal reasons. Another part of me wants to skip past all the bullshit and make sure that he actually does care about Meech. His reaction to my question is a little telling. Something happened between the two. I don't know and I doubt that he's going to tell me but something definitely happened.

"We will figure it out," Lopez responds, "What the fuck do you want? If this is some shit about you being mad that I stole your man...you're not the first one to come to my door about it. So we you want we can take it out to the backyard. There's nothing but space and opportunity."

I'm guessing that the fact that he is getting defensive and actually is open to us fighting means that the answer to my question was a no. They weren't together. A part of me actually smiles inside when I see how Lopez looks.

I wonder if he is just as bothered about me as I am about him.

"Listen I know you don't know me, but Meech does," I state, "We are close..."

Lopez is getting tight. I had to pause at that moment just to rub this in a little bit. I know he is a thug. He's probably dangerous as hell but right now this little slight is just worth it.

"Not for long," he spins back.

"Listen. I'm not going to do this back and forth. That's not why I'm here. I'm here because Meech needs your help. Someone has him. The person who has him is this guy named Jose. You and me man...we need to work on getting Meech back. No matter what."

"Jose? Why the fuck was he there?"

"Kenyatta."

I don't plan on giving out any more details but by the way Lopez reacts I can tell he must already know the details. He leans back and punches the wall so hard that it dents it up a little bit. I can tell that he's pissed off.

"Fuck. I KNEW that bitch was going to be trouble," he replies, "I knew it! FUCK! She got the guns for the Bakersfield boys. You have no idea what this means."

"What does it mean?"

"It means a big ass fucking war is going to start," Lopez responds, "This is just what I was trying to avoid. Shit is going to get messy."

He is really passionate. He punches the wall again. I can tell that things are probably worse than I know. I'm not sure about the politics of the Southside. Right now I just wanted to focus on one thing at a time.

"Listen I'm just here for Meech," I respond, "I told Yusef and Ty."

Lopez looks confused, "Why would you do that? Why didn't you come to me first?"

"Because I don't fucking know you and we both want to be with the same person...that's why.

This doesn't seem to be a good enough answer for Lopez. I can see the hatred in his eyes at the mere mention of Ty and Yusef.

"If something happens to Meech I'm going to go off on everyone...including you," Lopez responds, "You do understand that don't you?"

"Listen. You can be mad at me all you like. Yusef and Ty are crazy though. They have assault weapons and they are talking about going to war with Jose over Meech."

"That sounds like Ty," Lopez responds, "I have to stop this. I have to get to Jose. I know where he is."

"I'm coming with you..."

"Fuck no you're not..." Lopez responds.

"I have money. They probably want their guns reimbursed. We pay them for it and things won't go wrong."

Lopez looks over at me at that moment. He is resistant. He is just as resistant as I was when I asked him for his help. It's clear that he doesn't want my help. It's clear he wants to be the one to save Meech. Maybe he thinks it'll fix whatever situation they had going on that caused the rift. The thing is it isn't about our relationships with Meech. If either of us wanted to pursue something with Meech then we had to make sure that he was OK. That was what was important.

He struggles, takes a deep breath and then nods, running in the house to grab a shirt and his car keys. When he comes back out he nods, "Get in."

~

We pull up to the house. I've taken out the money. Lopez tells me to wait in the car. He says they don't know me and things will go wrong if I show up in there. He says he has a good relationship with Jose. They were in juvenile detention together back in the day. Every part of me wants to argue. Every part of me wants to not have this go down but I have no choice.

"Trust me," he tells me.

"It's my money..."

"I'm not going to steal it," he responds, "I want Meech back as bad as I do. It'll just take a minute. I'll just walk in there explain this is all a big misunderstanding. Jose trusts me. Just wait right here OK?"

I sigh a little bit.

"Ok..."

Waiting in the car is the worst feeling I've felt in my life. I hate the fact that Lopez can actually be the one to go in there and get Meech alone. I wanted Meech to know how much I cared as well. I want him to know how much I been through all day trying to make sure he is OK. It doesn't work like that. Lopez gets to play the night in shining armor.

Lopez comes out of the house with Meech. He's comforting him. He has his hand over him. Meech has his hand on his shoulder. It's making me a little sick.

Meech's eyes get wide when he sees me.

I run out of the car and give him a hug in the middle of the street, "You're OK."

"I'm fine..."

He's so sexy. I want to kiss him right there and then. I want to keep him forever. Lopez must be thinking the same thing. Maybe that's why he distracts us.

"We should get going. We still got to stop Ty from going to war. Meech how about you drive in the front seat with me?"

Sitting in the back seat is the most awkward thing in the world. Meech keeps thanking us over and over. Truth is a part of me wants to be petty and let him know that it was my money and really my plan. All Lopez did was go in the house and do the trade. I can't be petty right now though. I have to just be happy that Meech is alive. I'm sitting in the backseat of the car and I'm feeling like the fucking third wheel. Lopez keeps rubbing on Meech's back. He keeps looking at him and smiling. He keeps comforting him. He's doing everything that I should be doing right now.

I don't even recognize we pull up to Ty's house until we get there. We get in the house and Lopez doesn't give me any room to even be near Meech. It's clear he's trying to cock block and make sure we aren't alone.

"Meech?" Yusef says, "Thank God man!"

Yusef runs over to Meech and gives him a hug. I have to say the relief that Yusef has when he looks at Meech is real. In a weird way I think there is some true love there even though Yusef doesn't seem like he is always on the right track. I think he honestly cares about his cousin.

"I got him back," Lopez says, "So you can stop whatever you guys had planned."

Lopez takes all the credit. I look at him shocked. He doesn't even acknowledge me. Meech is looking over his way smiling at him. Lopez is liking this shit. He's eating up playing the fucking hero.

Yusef raises an eyebrow, "What? No. We're still going to war."

Meech shakes his head, "Honestly they weren't that bad. They just wanted their guns back. They actually were kind of nice. They treated me really well surprisingly. I know that sounds crazy but the only they didn't do is let me leave and charge my phone. Jose even got me Chinese food and Manuel let me choose what shows to watch on TV."

That doesn't seem enough for Yusef.

"They touched you and through doing that they fucked with me. Ty isn't going to let me be fucked with. Ty's going to war. Regardless. All of those motherfuckers are going to die."

Just at that moment I hear a scream.

It's coming from the bedroom.

"What the fuck is that?" I ask.

Another scream. Then another. Yusef tries to stop us but it's Lopez who storms past us. We end up in the bedroom at that moment and what we saw shocks all of us.

Ty has Kenyatta tied up to the bed. He's mutilated her. She's bleeding from everywhere possible. A part of me is so sure that he raped her. It smells like sex. She's pissed herself in the bed and he's orgasmed all over her. I have never felt so sick to my stomach seeing this. He's standing over her with a knife in his hand. He's carved his name across her naked body. A big T its right on her chest and the Y is below her abdomen. She's crying. It's clear she didn't get far out of the city before he got to her.

That's when I realize something.

Ty waves at Meech and says, "Hey welcome back Meech. Good you made it out before we get there and kill those Mexicans. I'm going to have to kill your sister by the way..."

I realize that Ty is a monster.

To read the next chapter in advance go to www.crushedcrown.com