It was quiet....Too quiet, especially on a Friday morning. Usually my grandmother would be up cleaning the house and/or playing gospel music for the whole neighborhood to hear. However, I did not hear the loud praising voice booming through the walls. Instead I heard nothing- silence was in the air, you can hear a pen drop from the basement.
"Grandma!" I yelled out, but there was not answer. Not even a simple loud huff in the distance. There was still nothing. A sly smile was formed by my lips as I hide my head under the covers to go back asleep once again.
Yet, I spoke too soon once I heard the door slam open and close. My grandmother's southern voice boomed through the house; making my insides rattle. "Tj, come heah!"
She was pissed, but I did not do anything to upset her. Well, I did kinda eat all the ice cream- but that was not my fault. Then that means someone must of pissed her off for her to be yelling out like that. "Tj!" She yelled once again and this time she sounded close.
I hurried out of bed- well not hurried, but fast enough movements for a woman with a large belly. I opened my door just in time before she can burst full frontal in my room- temporary room until September. "Yes? Where's the fire?" I looked at her up and down to see if there's blood or anything unusual on her. Aside from her grumpy look, there was nothing.
"Yuh owe me an explanation." My grandmother grabbed my hand and practically dragged me down the steps and out the door to see nothing but the usual cut grass, her old car and the good neighborhood.
"What am I looking at?"
"Turn around." Her face grew stern as she looked past my face.
I slowly turned to look at the house. Graffiti everywhere, saying the word bitch to asswipe. Like seriously, whoever did this needs to expand their vocabulary. "Who did this?" I asked in curiosity.
"You tell me!" My grandmother yelled- her voice cracked in disappointment and sorrow. "Mah house, mah beautiful house- Ruined! Because some wrench decided tuh act childish. Ah'm pissed!"
"Grandma, calm down." Apparently a smile was on my face, seeing her fuss and yell was hilarious. "All call some painters today so they can cover this up, no biggy." I said with a shrug."
"That's not the point Tj. The point is, who will do this?"
"Maybe Mrs. Donald from church. You've been flirting with her husband for a while, maybe she had enough." I turn my head towards her as I said my statement, but I only received glares. "Not Mrs. Donald? I guess a choir singer-"
Grandma shook her head from my soft humor. "Tj, be serious."
"I am serious grandma. You shouldn't worry, as long as no one got hurt everything is fine."
******
Everything is not fine!!!
Staring down at my phone seeing endless threats in my messages was definitely shocking. First of all, how did this person get my number- the only people here that has my personal number is Grandma, Chanel, Dylan and Richard. Secondly, what did I do wrong to piss people off like this. It's not the police because they'll come straight up, but anyone other than them I treat nicely.
"You staring at those messages is not going to help make it disappear." Chanel stated before snatching my phone out of my hand, turing it off and setting it deep inside my purse. When I started to receive the messages, Chanel was there by my side and saw every message. "It's probably some jealous bitch that use to fuck with Dylan. Don't worry, it'll pass." She waves it off- but I expect that from Chanel because from what I know, she's never been in this predicament.
"How can I not worry? If it's one of these girls that Dylan use to mess with, then that can be a problem. It's a small town and I could be seeing her everyday at work or on the street."
"Or maybe at the bar," Chanel mumbled before taking a sip of her cold water.
I gave her a skeptical look. "Don't tell me-"
"I don't know!" Chanel yelled out. "But for the pass four months since you arrived, she's been throwing so much shade; I'm starting to be in the dark." She gave off a small chuckle from her own metaphor. "You get it, because shade blocks the sun and-"
I rolled my eyes at her sense of humor at this wrong moment. "Yes Chanel, I get it." I rubbed both sides of my temple in irritation. "Okay, I just gotta relax," I said mainly to myself. "Do you know any good house painters around here? I was supposed to call one in."
Chanel nod her head yes before pulling out her wallet to pay the bill for our meal. I was supposed to pay as well- since that was the agreement- but she was already dragging me out the diner door.
Leading me inside the old fashioned shop, Chanel screams out, "Al!!" Her voice echoes into the empty store that smelt like mothballs and paint.
"What?!" An older guy that looks sixty walked out with his gut hanging over his blue jeans and his shirt covered in different varieties of paint; I didn't know what the actual color of his shirt is. He looked a little disgusting and trifling by the way he carries himself. Why does Chanel know him?
"I need you to paint Mrs. Turner's house." Chanel orders with authority in her voice. Her whole goofy attitude disappears and the woman I've never seen nor heard before came to surface. Chanel's face was stern and serious; it made me want to crowd away like the old man is doing right now.
"Okay. Ah've heard about de graffiti," with a shake of his head and sigh, Al- I guess his name is- added: "Ah swear des folks don't know how tuh keep der mouth shut." His southern accent was much deeper than my grandmother's. Just hearing and looking at him reminds me of an character from my favorite book of all time.
"Yeah I know," Her eyes rolled slowly in irritation. Al seemed like the type to start rumors and spread news around like no one business. He probably did, especially the way Chanel reacted. "I need this done by today, you think you can handle."
Al nod his head quickly. His chest instantly poked out once he lay eyes on me. Looking at me up and down, a groan rumbled in his chest. Like any other women, I felt uncomfortable. I nudged Chanel to say something that'll make him look away, which she did. "How much you want for he job?"
"Six hundred." Al said.
Chanel scoffed under her breath. "Six hundred? That ain't what I paid you the last time." Her arms crossed in front of her big chest.
"Well last time you didn't want me tuh do the job suddenly. How yuh know ah didn't have uh job tuh so in de evening?"
"'Cause you would of said something!" I've noticed as Chanel becomes irritated or angry, her southern side comes to surface. "Either you do the job, or I'll go to Danny's that'll give me half the price."
Al scoffed in a cocky way. "Danny's? Danny will give yuh will do uh crappy job. Low price, low quality. Yuh and Ah know that, even yuh friend knows that. So if yuh need that house painted correctly and perfect, yuh gotta pay that high price."
A sigh of defeat passes through Chanel lips as she reached into her bag to grab her check book. This is where I come in. I stepped closer to Al with my head held high- I was known to make people change their minds about things, I just have my way around words.
"How many customers do you usually get on weekdays?" I asked.
"Five customers everyday." Al said with a cocky smile.
Little did he know, five customers wasn't a lot. It was actually in the one percent ratio in a town that holds five hundred people. "You give out the same price for them?"
Al nod his head yes. "Yes ma'am."
"Well let me say that each customer is different," I started off to say. "With us, we don't take that over price bullshit. So either you lower that price to two hundred or we're going to tell everyone that your prices are two high for the amount of work."
He slanted his eyes in anger. "Yuh wouldn't dare."
"Oh trust me, I would and I will also tell them that Danny has a reasonable price. Guess who they will go to?"
"Danny," he mumbled under his breath.
"So either you lower that price, or we walk." I cross my arms in front of my chest to show him I mean business.
Al looked between Chanel and I before sighing in defeat. "Fine, three hundred and that's as low as Ah can go at this moment. Have children tuh feed."
"What children? Your sixty," Chanel stated before taking out her checkbook to write a check for three hundred dollars. She aggressively snatched out the thin paper and shoved it towards Al- who was grinning so hard. "Let's go. Do not forget about Mrs. Turner, if you do I'll cancel the check and your business." Chanel grabbed my hand once again before dragging me out the door once again.
"Would you stop dragging me?" I snatched my hand out of her death grip before stopping in the middle of the wide walk. My phone buzzed my purse, so I put my hand all the way down my purse to retrieve it just in time before the call went to voicemail. "Hello?"
"Either your pissed at me for some reason or I'm going crazy." Dylan said on the other side. He sound frustrated and confused as well.
"What happened?"
"Well my car is towed since someone banalized it. Then my bar has graffiti written all over the walls on the inside. Did I do something?"
"No Dylan, I wouldn't do that to you. I'm the type that would ignore you for a whole month." I told him. "Someone put graffiti on grandma's house and sent awful messages to my phone. Chanel and I was thinking it was one of your legs (Hoes) that's doing this."
"Legs? I don't have them anymore. I dropped them five months ago."
"How many was there, Dylan?" I gripped the phone in my hand as I wait to hear the large number.
"Um," he dragged out as he thought of the woman. "Ten, maybe-I don't know."
"Are you fucking serious!" I practically yelled into the phone; scaring Chanel and a few other people that walked past. "Ten! You couldn't keep your dick in your pants. Christ Dylan, you're such a man whore!"
"Well I wasn't the type to settle down Tj," he raised his voice as well, but immediately calmed down by sighing. "This is not getting us no where."
"Of course not since we have a long fucking list of women to go through," I shot back, instantly regretting it. "I'm sorry, I'll take that back. I'll call you back,"
"Okay," he said unsure. "But are you okay though?"
"Yeah, just frustrated." I admit. "Bye, love you."
I heard a small chuckle on the other line. "Love you too."