Tough Love

Chapter 12~ Nicholas

Shorty had a feisty attitude and I liked that shit. I knew she was gone sense me staring at her while we walked down the stairs so of course a guy had to take advantage of the situation to see what he was in for and to flirt. She got a tiny waist and a nice round ass that jiggled when she walked. I couldn't help but stare. When she turned around she was blushing with deep dimples on each side of her face. It takes a lot to make her smile, but nothing to make her blush.
"You don't have to help me.", Star said while looking down at her plate. "I know I don't, but I want to. Plus, Tiwan asked me to." In an aggravated tone she said, "I am fine. I can handle myself."
"You're not okay. Out of me and Tiwan your body didn't take that cut very well with those gas station bought bandages. Just suck it up and let me help. You don't have to act so defensive around me. I'm not going to hurt you." I got up and throwed our plastic plates in the garbage then went into the freezer side of my black refrigerator and got out a light blue ice pack. "If you're asking me to let you help me your answer is no.", she said as she stood up and crossed her arms while looking at me. I walked over to where she was standing and stood in front of her. She was so short that she stopped to the middle of my stomach. I just wanted to pick her up, sit her on the counter, and let her know what was up. "It wasn't a question shorty, it was demand. Now take your ass upstairs into my bathroom so I can bandage your arm up the right way." I knew my words got to her because she did what I said, but stormed off in a little attitude that girls do. It is amusing to see her respond to me the way she do. Most girls would just say okay to me without any kind of back talk. That only made them easy, but with Star she is a challenge that I'm willing to work for.
I turned off the kitchen light then followed her upstairs into my bathroom. I grabbed the first aid kit under the bathroom sink and put it on the marble counter. "Hop up on the counter." I patted the area where I wanted her to sit.
"I don't hop up on counters." She crossed her arms then looked me up and down.
"But yet you chop niggas arms off, jump into dumpsters, and cut your arm wide open. Girl, hop your short ass on this counter."
"let me rephrase myself. I don't hop on counters while a nigga like you is around." She turned around and said, "I don't need help with a busted lip and my arm is fine."
"What you mean by a nigga like me? I wouldn't hurt you or touch you in a way that would make you uncomfortable. I have respect for you and way too much experience of my own to do that to you shorty." Star turned around and asked,"You promise you won't touch me?"
"I promise I won't touch you. I mean unless you want me to. I'm just saying." She hopped up on the counter and I took the ice pack and put it on her left cheek. She didn't jump, but was watching my every move. I took her arm, cleaned the cut, and bandaged it up with some fresh bandages. I took the ice pack off her cheek and asked,"If you don't mind me asking, and if you want to answer, Did a light skinned nigga touch you inappropriately while you were sitting on a counter?" She looked up at me and we made eye contact. People say the eyes are the window to the soul and I can see exactly why. Deep down Star is a loving person, but has a fucked up past just like me. Looking into her beautiful eyes I could tell she was full of pain, heartbreak, and disappointment.
"I don't mind you asking. Yes, someone did try to make an attempt to touch me. He threw me on the counter and tried to pull my pants down. I grabbed a razor and the next thing I know he's on the ground calling me a bitch for cutting his left eye. He was the same exact skin tone as you."
"What was his name?"
"J-Rod. I was supposed to be selling him some weed, but he wanted more than just that from me. I was only thirteen years old."
"I'm sorry he tried to do that to you. There's evil people in this world. I would never try that to anybody. Just because I'm the same skin tone as that nigga, it doesn't mean I'll put my hands on you like he did. Everyone is different."
"You said you had experience of that. What do you mean?"
"My Aunt used to touch me before my mom died. I was so young I didn't realize she was touching me inappropriately. Until the last minute."
She placed her left hand in the middle of my chest over my heart then said after a long pause,"I'm sorry she did that to you. It must've been hard to lose your virginity at such a young age."
"Counting that, I only had sex with two people. It's not that bad when you think about it. What about you? Are you waiting until marriage?"
She started playing with the gold chain necklace I had on. She was really making it hard for a nigga to resist the urge to take her into the bedroom. "I don't know yet.", she finally said.
"Why don't you want me helping you?", I asked while running some warm water on a blue rag and ringing it out. She looked down with that same look on her face she gave me earlier.
"I don't trust people so easily. I kind of didn't have a choice but to jump right in and trust you today."
"I don't trust people so easily either Star, but in order to have any kind of relationship with a person it all starts with trust. You saw today that the person I thought was my family ended up stabbing me in the back and I've known him for years."
"You don't know me." I took her chin into my left hand so she would look me in my eyes. "Give me a chance to get to know you. I promise it won't be a mistake."
"I'll think about it."
"That's better than you saying no." I smiled, but she looked away. After when I was done cleaning her cuts and re-bandaging her arm and putting ointment on her lip, I walked her to her room and told her goodnight. She said goodnight then closed the door. Damn. I wasn't used to that treatment at all. Most girls would beg me to come to bed with them. To show her some respect I left her alone and went back in my room. I took off my white tank then got into bed then drifted off into a flashback.
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"Momma don't leave me with Aunty May. She mean and make me do stuff I don't want to.", I said while begging my mother not to leave. "I got to go to work Nic. I'll be back at three to pick you up.", my mom said while holding my hand and walking up the steps to Aunt May's house. My mom was a beautiful strong woman with long straight hair. She knocked on the door two times and there standing behind the door stood the hideous woman I hated with a pure passion. She had rollers in her head, a pink silk gown on with dirty stains on it, and dirty worn out beige house slippers on. She looked like an evil black version of the Nanny McPhee. "Oh hello Nicholas." Aunt May said while taking my hand out of my mother's and kissing me on the cheek. I wanted to throw up when her dirty crusty lips touched my face. "I'll be back for him when I get off of work like usual May. I love you Nic. I promise I'll be back soon.", my mom said then got into her gold colored Nissan and left.
"Go down into the basement boy, I'll be there in a minute.",Aunt May said to me as she closed the door. I did what she said and went down into the basement. The only light that came in was from a small window. I found a nail that was sticking up from the wooden floor and held it in my hand. I was only four years old and knew how to hurt someone and defend myself. After three minutes Aunt May finally came down and was naked. Her breasts hanged down low onto her stomach and her stomach hanged over her private area. Eww. "Take off your clothes boy!", she yelled at me."No! I'm tired of you trying to touch me!"
"No? Bring your little smart ass over here!" She grabbed my left arm and I stabbed her with the nail in her thigh then ran up the stairs. She was screaming in agonizing pain as I ran away. I ran into my mom and started crying in her shirt. "She tried to touch me mommy."
"Stay up here and cover your ears Nic." She said as she took off her blue blazer then went into the basement. After what seemed like fifteen minutes my mom came back up covered in blood."She won't be hurting you anymore Nic."
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It was six o'clock in the morning when my phone started ringing waking me up out of my sleep. "Hello?" I answered in a sleepy tone. "Some niggas down here burning down the HQ! " my watch man, Henry, said. I jumped out of bed and told him I was on my way. I threw on a blue V-Neck shirt and some jeans then grabbed my car keys off the nightstand beside my bed. I already had a pistol in the jeans I had on just in case I needed to shoot a nigga. As I was running halfway down the stairs I ran into Star and Tiwan slowly making their way up. "What the fuck are yall two doing?", I asked with a confused look on my face. "Shhh Cody is down there with twenty other men." Nicholas said. I looked at Star and she was already ready for a battle with a 22 Caliber Rifle I never even seen she had. I was about to sit there and think about how she even managed to get that in here, but she brought me out of my thoughts. "Do you have any other way out of here?", she asked me. "Yes, follow me. It's through my room." I knew that some day this would happen so I had an underground garage installed. The door to get there was in my closet. I opened my closet door and moved all the clothes out of the way to get to the large steel bullet proof door. I put in the six letter password and told Tiwan and Star to go in. Before I left I had to get the only picture I had of Tiwan off of my dresser drawer.
I grabbed the picture off the dresser but when I turned around a black nigga stood aiming a gun at my head. "Where the fuck you think your going in such a hurry?", he said with an evil smirk on his face. Just then three other guys entered my room while blocking my exit. I'm not a punk so I pulled out my pistol and aimed it, but the nigga that was talking shit got his head blown off. His blood splattered all over my face and clothes and room. Standing behind him was Star without an expression on her face. Then all hell broke loose.
Tiwan shot one of the niggas and blew off their face. Bullets flew passed me and into my dresser so I shot a nigga in both of his legs. He started yelling and crying and saying he was gone kill me. So I shot him in the head while Star shot the last nigga and sent him flying back into my bathroom. We all made a run to the exit while we heard more guys coming up the stairs. I slammed the steel door shut behind us and locked it. We ran down the dark pathway and into the underground garage. "How the fuck did they find us?", I said in a frustrated tone. "I thought you said if we took the tracking devices out they wouldn't find us Star!"
"Don't yell at me! Maybe you had some female over here who snitched on your ass. It must be some mistake. I don't know how they could've found us.", she said. Then I realized she was still in my t-shirt and boxers but she had blood splattered on her. Her skin color wasn't the same. It turned this reddish brown color and she was sweating all over. "You don't look so good Star."
Tiwan asked,"Star what's that on the back of your shoulder?" Just then her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she passed out and I caught her in my arms.