Chapter 5: Cooped Up
{ Martie's POV }
19 YEARS LATER
"I'm about to pull up
Hit switch, pull curtain (hit switch, pull curtain)
And I've been waitin' so long
Now I gotta resurface (I gotta resurface)
And yeah, we 'bout to toast up
All that bread that we burnin' (burnin', burnin', burnin')
'Cause I've been feelin' cooped up (yeah)"
I drove my new birthday gift to myself, a shiny black BMW, through the city with my top down. I felt so free just cruising without a worry or care.
My phone rang and I pressed the ACCEPT button as I kept driving.
"Hello?"
"Bitch! What are you doing? I have to tell you something, girl." My best friend, Paula, yelled as soon as I spoke.
She always had a mouth like a freaking boom box with her loud ass and I really loved that she always spoke her mind no matter what.
"I'm actually driving right now. Went to pick up the black BMW we had seen the other day," I finally told her as I turned off the freeway onto the service road.
I needed some gas.
"Girl! Why you didn't take me? I want to do the dash like Stacey, too! But I wanted to know if you were down for another race tonight?", Paula asked knowing full well I would love to do another race plus I needed the cash.
Especially since I wanted to help out my mother and send my sister off to school when she graduated in two years.
"I'm a little out of our neighborhood and I can't say when I'll be back."
"You must got a boo?"
I rolled my eyes and pulled up to the pump quickly. She knew damn well I wasn't able to get close to nobody with my mom's lurking eyes and even if I did, it wouldn't be a secret from her. I would tell her any and everything. She was the only friend I could make in all the years I've been on the run. All the other girls hated me because of my long hair and ample fully grown body parts.
They thought I thought I was better than them.
"I found a picture in my mom's stuff when I was looking for pictures to take to the hospital," I admitted. "On the back, it said Charming, CA 1990. My mom was smiling and hugging up on some man, Paul."
"Your mom? A man? Girl, Hell must have frozen over."
We both giggled at that but I felt like my mom had to have had a wild childhood especially since I found her stripper floss back when I was younger and then the fact that she wasn't married when she met my dad and had me.
"You're forgetting about the fact that I'm alive."
She stopped laughing as I turned the car off and went inside the store to ask for some gas.
"So what? Are you going to go there? It's like 9 hours from here."
I stepped into the cool air and went straight to the chips section to grab me a bag of Hot Cheetos, regular Cheetos, then went over to grab some Starburst, and an ooey gooey Milky Way before I stepped to the drink freezer. I wanted a Sprite so I grabbed that and headed to the front counter.
"$50 on pump 6 and all of these."
While I pumped my gas, I spoke to Paula who snuck in her new boo, Zeke, into our conversation. I rolled my eyes because the girl was head over heels with the boy and I was focused more on us moving up in life. Maybe because I had never been in love...
I tried to keep a distance from the thing that broke my mother.
"Okay. I'll be home later. Let's go out tonight."
"Uncle Tej's?", she squealed in excitement.
"Where else."
[[[ ]]]
"Then I woke up in the mornin'
Police showed up at my door with a warrant (fuck that shit)
I remember flushin' somethin' down the toilet (flush, flush)
Guess he gotta let me off with a warnin'
Return of the Mack (ah)
Feelin' like an outcast, I'm the only guy in slacks
That'll cost you three stacks (three stacks, three stacks)
Now you savin' that check, why you takin' my swag?
Can you give me that back?"
The quaint little graveyard near the park bench that my mother had taken the picture just made me wish I could read her mind or at least travel back to the woman she was 18 years ago.
"Little too young to be doing that," a voice behind me spoke up as I stepped towards the bench with the urge to touch it.
Take something back with me. A memory of it.
"Excuse me?", I asked turning around with a dirty look to the white body rocking a leather vest, oversized white tee, and white Air Force 1's. "Aren't you a little too young to be dressing like a wannabe gangster?"
He chuckled at my quick response.
His hand went through his shoulder length blond hair before he pulled out a cigarette and quickly lit it up.
"Didn't know they had y'all working the streets this young."
I finally understood what he thought I was. My shorts were short as fuck, my hair was in its silk press state flowing past my shoulders and I wore my favorite clear heels with a light blue baby tee. I looked like a streetwalker but it just so happened that I loved my body and hated covering it up.
My mom encouraged me to always love everything about myself from my slick mouth to my tall height. My curvy body was no exception but she said to trust my gut and never let a man look at you too long without speaking to them to get a feel of their vibe.
"Not one of those, jackass, but nice try."
"My bad. We don't get a lot of your type around this way," he admitted, blowing out a thin cloud of smoke.
I scoffed at the ignorant suggestion. If he didn't mean it that way, he sure didn't lessen the blow with the nonchalant way he spoke.
"What? Sexy, beautiful, BLACK women?"
"I didn't mean it like that, darlin'."
"Y'all never do," I rolled my eyes. "I best be going before my manners fly out the window."
The sound of engines roaring made me glance up and see the funeral party rolling in. I hadn't noticed before the flower arrangement, large photo of someone over the dirt covered ground, and all the chairs sitting beside that pile. Now I could see it and I felt bad for stumbling upon this event.
"I should go," I mumbled softly clutching the photo in my hand.
"What made you come here?"
"A ghost."
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