Worlds Apart

Chapter 8: The Dark Side Of Brotherhood

1992 was one of the best years that the East Bay High basketball team ever had. Records were broken by teammates that year and lives were changed. My first game back after the suspension was a victory and an unbelievable one at that. 

The celebration in the locker room quickly escalated when someone offered up their home for a party with kids from schools all across Harlem and even some from the Upper East and West sides. People were piled ceiling-high at that party and if it wasn't for the jersey I was still wearing when my friends and I got there, we probably wouldn't have made it inside. The house was over on Sugar Hill, about three and a half miles from where I lived. It was a rich neighborhood but nobody cared where it was as long as there was beer and if it wasn't a fellow teammate, I would have been leaving with a souvenir.

We had to step over bodies just to get to the front door and by the time we got there, the host of the party was already off her face, swaying from side to side as she tried to muster up a sentence. "Hey, Jordan. Mh... I don't, uh, remember, um, invitin' all them people." She pointed to a group of nicely dressed, slightly preppy guys who were obviously from the all-boys school from down the street. I was more than certain that they weren't the only ones who didn't get an invite. 

Laurie ran off to get the first round of drinks, leaving me and Emilio in the front room. "Did something happen between you and Ryder?" He then took one of the drinks from Laurie's hands and took a gulp.

It took me more than a minute to answer him. "No, why?" I took the second and downed half of it without realizing that Laurie was watching me with concentrated eyes.

"'Cause he's been acting weirder than normal," he shrugged it off and that was the end of it. 

What Ryder did to me. How he hurt me. That secret would die with me. It would ruin me if it ever got out. And it would ruin Ryder, too. I just couldn't have that on me. It wasn't his fault for what happened to him. One of Ryder's foster parents would spend the night in his bed. That was the extent of what Ryder would tell me but it didn't take a genius to piece that twisted puzzle together.

I finished my drink quicker than Emilio and Laurie so I left to get the next round, stepping over passed out drinkers and guys dry heaving in the corner, trying their hardest to keep the liquor in their stomachs. Natalia just so happened to be in the kitchen where I needed to be, sipping her cocktail. I avoided her best I could as I poured three drinks. There was two maybe three other guys in the kitchen as well but I took no notice of them. I could feel Natalia's glare in the back of my head as I filled the red plastic cups. She left with one of the guys before I could even turn around. 

That's when I started to feel bad. Natalia had only tried to help me after the fight and I had pushed her away. So, I left the drinks on the counter top and went to look for her. To this day, I'm still not sure what I was expecting from Natalia. A snarky remark, maybe. But it definitely wasn't what I found. 

Natalia always stood out in a crowd, even at a packed and very hectic house party. I knew she wasn't downstairs so I climbed the steep flight to search the upper level. I found myself wandering around aimlessly until I heard a guy's voice. It was the same as the man Natalia was talking to in the kitchen before they left together. I slowly opened the door but I was not prepared for what was on the other side of that wall. Two men, the dark haired was well-built while the blonde had clearly been skipping the gym for the last seventeen years. The brunette was holding her arms down against the mattress. She was barely conscious, her eyes fluttering open and closed. As much as I hated it, I knew Natalia, at least enough to know that she would be kicking and screaming if she was aware of what these guys were trying to do. Blondie was still taking his shirt off when I sent a right hook across his face. He went down like a fish and curled up into a ball as I kicked his side. 

"Yo, what the fuck! Get outta here, bitch!" The darker haired man was the one yelling at me but he was still holding Natalia down. He tried to straddle her when I walked over to him and pulled him from on top of her. He stumbled as I tried to haul him off the bed but he was bigger than I was. He got me to the ground and in that moment, his positioning triggered something inside of me. I started to panic and the grin on his face was all too familiar. So, I did what I should have done all those nights ago. I kneed his crotch and he groaned with his head bowed just enough to break his nose with my leg. 

Natalia was completely knocked out, much like the guys on the floor, when I got to her. I tried shaking her shoulder to see if she would stir but she wasn't moving aside from her chest slowly rising and falling. "Natalia." One shake. "Natalia." Two shakes. "Wake up." Nothing. I had no choice. I had to carry her. 

Natalia was wearing a short skirt and a see through white shirt so I grabbed the sheet she was lying on and wrapped her in it before taking her downstairs. I don't know if it was just instinct but she draped her arms around my neck and her grip tightened, almost like a child when their mother picks them up after a tiring day out. 

Laurie was standing close to the front door, on her tip toes to peer over the sea of bodies. Then she saw me. She placed two fingers in her mouth and let out a high pitched whistle. That was her call to Emilio and before long he came hurrying over.

"Um, what is going on here?" He had a cocked brow and I couldn't blame him. I was sure that they had never been more confused in their lives when they saw the woman I had a resentment towards for many years in my grasp. 

"I'll tell you in the car. Can you drive?"

"Yeah, let's get out of here." Emilio only ever drank to his own limit so that he could drive us home after parties. He wasn't really one for mingling and getting wasted. 

I sat Natalia upright in the back of the car and plugged the seat-belt in over the sheet. She was still unconscious, unable to hold her own weight, so her head ended up on my shoulder.

"So, just a quick question-" I had cut him off, knowing where that was going. 

"Two guys tried to rape her upstairs. I couldn't just leave her."

"Oh my, is she alright?" Laurie was far more affectionate with her words than Emilio was, even if she didn't exactly like nor care for the individual she was speaking about. 

"I'm not sure yet." She still wasn't awake and I didn't know if she ever would be. I couldn't understand why I cared so much about Natalia when she had hated me, even after all these years.

"So, what are we going to do with her?"

"Um, I didn't think that far ahead. I was too focused on getting her out of there. I'll just sneak her past Charlie. She's probably passed out asleep anyways." Charlie was trying to get better but I knew her. More so than anyone else. And I also knew that, as much as I loved Charlie like she was my own mother, she didn't have the willpower to give up the drugs. I already knew, with the fire and the bills coming through, she couldn't cope. She was probably in a worse state than Natalia was in that moment.

The drive was short, about ten minutes or so. Laurie grabbed the door and helped me lift her out of the car. "Its fine. I've got it from here."

"If you insist." 

Sneaking past Charlie was a piece of cake. Hiking up the stairs with dead weight on your back was another story. Most of my belongings had been burned to a crisp so I was temporarily set up in Baby Joey's room. Joey was the youngest in our family, he was only about 10 months old. He was the only kid with a couch in his room so that's where I stayed until we could fix my bedroom. I laid Natalia down on the couch and draped a blanket over her body. Joey began to stir in his sleep but a gentle stroke on his cheek calmed him straight down.

Then it hit me. What was I doing? I could have found Miles. Given her to him and left without the burden of an unconscious teenager who at any moment could asphyxiate in her sleep.