Chance
Tonight Luke was throwing Matt a party to celebrate his engagement/ becoming a father. He spilled the beans to me a few weeks back and I was happy for both him and Tiffany. I hadn't known him for long but I knew he would be a great father.
Luke told me this was an all boys affair but I wasn't too surprised to see scantily dressed women scattered throughout the crowd. As I made my way through the house I spotted a few familiar faces. Mainly guys that worked for Money and were most likely friends of Matt and the boys. I respected the guys that worked for Money but rarely associated myself with them. Matt and the boys were cool but some of the guys that worked for Money were the kind of guys you didn't want to cross paths with.
I wasn't scared of anybody but I knew that I had to much too lose to associate myself with certain people. It wasn't me acting like I was better than anyone because I wasn't I was just simply looking out for myself. I didn't want nor need my name coming up in anything that could be held against me.
I didn't see the guys anywhere in the house and when I heard some commotion coming from the backyard I decided to head out there. The first thing I noticed was everyone in a wide circle, yelling out and watching something go down. As I got closer to see what was going on my eyes landed on Eli. I had no clue she was even back in the city so I was pleasantly surprised to see her.
She stood front and center while a guy I didn't recognize rapped and I realized I stumbled upon a freestyle battle. Sure I had seen people spitting freestyles back home but I had never seen anything like this. I didn't catch much but I caught the tail end of his freestyle and knew it was aimed at Eli.
While the guys behind him patted him on the back and the crowd starting cheering him on he took a step towards Eli.
"Still wanna battle," the guy egged Eli on and so did the crowd. There was no way she could back down without looking weak and I knew she wasn't going to. She stared the guy down, he had to be a foot taller than her and outweighed her by at least 150 pounds. He put me in the mind of the singer the Weekend except heavier and covered in tattoos.
Eli stepped to him causing the crowed on her end to hype her up.
"Kill him E," Luke called out to her. Eli bobbed her head to the silent beat in her head since there was no music for them to go by. It seemed like I showed up to the party just in time. As she started rapping it was like seeing a whole other side of her and I was impressed. What made it even better was the way she delivered each line.
When she rapped that the guy had bigger breasts than her and needed to go bra shopping the crowd ate it up. Especially since it was true. Once she was done the boys crowded around her.
I didn't know if this was Eli's first time doing anything like this but I could tell that her opponent wasn't used to losing. He thought he had her beat but he obviously underestimated her.
Everyone was cheering for them to go another round but this Obie guy insisted that his wife was going to 'murder' Eli. She was the girl standing next to him and she looked to please to take her mans place.
They kissed before she stepped forward and mugged Eli like she had a personal problem with her. In all honestly I wouldn't be surprised. Eli turned to look at Geo and Geo scratched the back of his neck and stared down at his feet. Classic move from him when he was guilty of something. I could only imagine...
The girl took no time going in on Eli. She dissed Eli's style and everything else she saw fault in. This whole thing fault personal and I knew I couldn't be the only one to notice. She bragged about her hair and flipped her long hair several times and dissed Eli on the fact that she had nothing to flip. And talked about how much of a bad bitch she was and she called Eli so many bitches I was surprised that Eli was keeping her cool.
When the girl was done Obie hugged and kissed her causing the crowd to egg them on. Eli didn't seem fazed by anything. Instead she didn't waste no time before she started rapping causing the crowd to quiet down. Just like her oppenent she delivered some hateful, ego blowing blows verbally and you could tell the other girl was getting angry.
The line that ended everything was about Eli turning her man into her own personal slave. The crowd went crazy and so did the girl. She tried to break away from her man and took a swing at Eli that but missed. The crowd started hyping up the girls to fight. Once Obie had his girl under control she was still mugging Eli who just smiled and stood in her spot, unmoved.
"Shake on it," Matt told Eli causing Obie to agree. Eli held out her hand first, even though the other girl looked like she didn't want anything to do with Eli she quickly shook her hand and so did Obie before the couple walked away. I was about to walk over but the conversation with the group of boys to the left of me caught my attention when I heard them say Eli's name.
"Eli is fine as hall bro," one guy spoke up eyeing Eli too hard in my opinion.
"She aight for a tomboy."
The funny looking guy that spoke up first sucked his teeth. He was tall, thin and wore red, short red dreads in his hair. He was fair skinned and had tattoo's all over him, even a few on his face, "She ain't no fucking tomboy. She just need dick from a real nigga not no fake ass faggots and shit."
After he said that all the guys in his group laughed and he laughed to before continuing on.
"Ya'll laughing but I'm serious. She just a pretty ass girl with boy ways that just need some good dick in her life to bring out that inner girl outta her."
The guys laughed some more but I heard enough and walked away to where the guys were still crowding around Eli. They wanted her to freestyle some more but she was telling them no. She looked happy so I was glader trip down south must have did her some good because she looked light and refreshed and I loved seeing her smile.
"What," she asked pushing Matt away from her as if she had no idea what kind of effect her words had on the guys around her. They were all surrounding her like hungry wolves.
I wanted to see if I could get her alone so that we could talk about what happened a few weeks back. It seems like every time I made some sort of progress with her something happened that sent us ten spaces back. Her dancing with me wasn't much but it was the way she relaxed and melted in my arms. I could tell I had gotten to her but instead of overwhelming her I walked away and a not even an hour later everything went downhill.
A girl had approached me and sparked up conversation with me. I was good with faces and she looked slightly familiar but I didn't remember where I had seen her from until I glanced over to the bar and saw Eli talking to her ex in a heated exchange. I put two and two together and excused myself form her. By the time I could reach Eli, her ex had attacked her.
Security reached them before I did but somehow he broke away from them. By that time I had made my way through the crowd he broke away from security again and I pulled my gun out and pointed it at his head most likely making his life flash before his eyes by the look on his face and the way he threw his hands up. Security dragged him out and I made it clear that him nor his girlfriend or whoever she was to him were never to step foot in my club again.
Realization set in about what I did as they were being escorted out, club goers and my staff had just witnessed me whip my gun out making me regret my actions. I had too much to lose and the last thing I needed was word getting out about what happened and the police showing up to ask questions. I was pissed and I took it out on Eli and for that I wanted to apologize to her personally. I didn't know the whole story about what went down with her ex but I felt like the last thing she needed to be doing was arguing with her ex, let alone while she was on the clock.
After the incident I retreated to my office and the image of her getting punched in the face kept replaying over and over again in my head. To make matters worse Eli acted like the situation wasn't a big deal and finished out the rest of her shift like nothing happened. I was annoyed when she walked in my office trying to downplay the situation. It only made me wonder how many times in the past something like this had happened, a man putting his hands on her. Her ex putting her hands on her and I I couldn't help but wonder if she was dumb enough to put up with something like that.
Stephanie relayed to me that she was taking some time off and I should have reached out to her in the past few weeks but I wanted to give her time and apologize to her face to face. She had took the last few weeks off because Trell and Missy having their baby but I couldn't help but feel guilty at the way I spoke to her and the things I said.
"Glad you could make it," Matt spotted me and was the first one to reach me.
"Of course," I greeted Luke and Geo. Eli had a few guys talking to her but when we locked eyes I smiled at her only for her to nod her head at me and continue the conversation she was having. The night went on and I was having a good time and I wasn't the only one. Eli seemed to be the life of the party. She was never alone for long before a different guy was in her face. To my surprise it seemed like she was actually entertaining them.
Smiling and laughing without a care in the word and it rubbed me the wrong way because I had never seen this side of her before. I was used to her being antisocial, not like this. To make matters worse when the tall, dread head from earlier approached her, the fact that she was even talking to him frustrated me.
It was ridiculous honestly because I had no reason to be. I didn't realize I was frowning until all the boys laughed. Having no clue what they were laughing at I looked over at them but they were all staring at me.
"What's so funny," I asked taking a sip from my beer.
"You."
"Are you going to stare at her all night or are you going to go and talk to her?"
There was no point in denying it since they caught me staring at Eli so I wasn't about to.
"Let me give you some advice," Geo leaned in causing Matt and Luke to protest and start shaking their heads.
"Here he goes," Luke mumbled.
"I'm trying to help him out. Eli ain't no regular chick so he's going to have to step to her correct. She ain't been with nobody in five years."
"The guy from the club?"
"Him," Matt confirmed.
"So she probably don't even know how to be nobody's girlfriend. She only fucked that nigga once so her ass is practically still a virgin," Geo let me know and it seemed like I wasn't the only one who was in the dark about that bit of info.
"How they hell do you know that," Luke asked Geo.
"I just know," Geo shrugged.
"Well just the fuck up," Matt told Geo, "Key was lame and wasn't about shit. No offense but when Eli is ready to let you know about her life and all that she's been through she will."
"Were talking about Eli. Sometimes I don't even feel like I know her and I've known her ass for years," Geo made a point but I liked to think that I got her to open up to me somewhat. I knew about her brother and she filled me in a bit on her mom but I knew there was a lot that more to her.
"We crack jokes about Eli cause we've known her since she was about 17, Matt longer. None of us tried to step to her like that but she is fine," Luke admitted making Geo agree.
"All Eli needs is a little bit of work and she would be bad as hell. Shit she's bad as hell already to be honest so I can see why she has your ass so sprung."
"I'm hardly sprung," I defended myself.
"Either way if you like her then make your move," Matt told me looking off at Eli and now would be the time because she was alone but I knew she wouldn't be for long. On the way over to her I decided to grab her a drink, a peace offering of sorts.
Once I was in front of her she was sporting a blank face. I couldn't read her expression but I knew with the way we left things she wasn't too happy to see me.
"I brought you a drink," I extended it out to her.
She glanced at the drink and shook her head, "I don't accept open drinks."
"So what, you don't trust me," I smiled trying to lighten the mood.
"Not really," she let me know causing a blow to my ego. This wasn't going to be easy.
"So when did you get back?"
"Few days ago."
"And how was the trip?"
"Good."
She was being short with me, not a good sign but I wasn't going to let it get in the way of me apologizing.
"That's good. I wanted to apologize for what happened at the club."
She snorted, "Why? You didn't do anything wrong. It was all my fault."
I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not but either way I continued my apology, "I should have never said those things to you or talked to you the way-"
"I'm over it," she cut me off.
She may have been but I wasn't, I was ashamed at how I came at her, "I was angry about the whole situation and for the main fact that your ex had the audacity to put his hands on you. Any other women would have cowered and cried but you-"
"Because I'm not any other women. That's where you fucked up at but like I said it's all good and I don't want to talk about it. I'm over it and you should be to."
I decided to drop it because I could hear the frustration in her voice and the last thing I wanted was for the conversation to go sour.
"So were good?"
"Sure," she nodded looking past me and without another word walked away from me. I watched her walk away and knew from the way she was acting that things weren't good. I looked over to the boys who were clowning me most likely. I thought in these past few months I was making some progress wit her but it seemed now I was back at square one.
Eli
I knew I couldn't avoid Chance forever but I wish I could. I wasn't ready to talk to him when I spotted him at Matt's party but I knew he would make a move sooner or later. The whole night I could sense him watching me and knew it would only be a matter of time.
My trip made me think about a lot of things and one of those things being my 'relationship' with him. Besides for the advice I got from all of the women, with one of them being his mom I was ready to get out there and have fun. I think I had been doing a good job at it so far. Usually I would have snapped at any guy that breathed my way but I decided to be nice. The problem was niggas liked to think that just because you smiled and gave a nigga the time of day that you were interested. Not hardly.
I came to the party by myself and went home to an empty condo since Tiffany had officially moved in with Matt. Of course the boys questioned me on why I was being so friendly and I told them I was just being nice. They looked at me crazy but I wasn't ready to explain to them my plans for personal change or talked about my wardrobe. Actions spoke louder than words so I was going to show everybody that I was making an effort to change. Slowly but surely.
The next morning after the party I got a call from none other than Stephanie.
"Hello Eli, hows your morning been so far?"
"Fine," I answered considering I'd only been up for ten minutes.
"Great. I'm sure your well aware that next weekend is Mr. Powell's birthday."
I was about to slip up and ask her who the fuck was Mr. Powell was until I remembered Powell was Chance's last name.
"I wasn't aware."
"Doesn't surprise me with you taking a month off and all, "That's why I decided to call you and get you up to speed. That weekend I decided to set a strict dress code for all employees including you."
I was probably one of the only employees who didn't have a dress code or required uniform. I showed up wearing what I wanted to wear. Either way in the past there had been times I had to swap out my sneakers and jeans for a something less casual.
"What kind of dress code?"
"Well I want his party to be upscale, fancy but no too fancy. I would like you to dress to impress, put on a dress, heels or even a tux depending on your personal preference."
I felt like she was being funny and I let all of her comments slide because she wasn't worth it. Plus I knew she was just itching to fire me. Leah reached out to me and let me know that a few of the employees down at the club heard Stephanie telling Chance that he needed to fire me. Even went on to say that keeping me at the club was going to be his downfall and that I was going to bring him down. They even heard that she talked to him about hiring deejays and that Chance approved the interviews.
I couldn't believe Chance and that was another reason why I was so short with him at the party. I was trying to turn over a new leaf and work on my anger but I didn't trust t hose tips in the self help books I had read over the past few weeks. It was best for me to just walk away before I said something that would get my ass in some shit. I thought I knew Chance but like myself maybe he only wanted me to see what he wanted me to see.
I told Stephanie that I would be on my best behavior and would dress appropriately. She sounded skeptical but I didn't give her time to question me before I hung up on her ass. This was the perfect opportunity to put my new wardrobe to use. I needed Tiffany's, Lauren's, and Bri's help and I knew once I told them what I had up my sleeve they were going to have a field day.