The Dopeman's Fine Ass Son, page 13
Junie wrapped her arms around Cocaine, feeling sorry for him. She had lost her father at an early age, and the pain never really went away. She was always hurting about it, on his birthday, on her birthday, any time there was a special event or something amazing was happening. It never got any easier, and she knew that, and from what Lexxy told her, Cocaine didn’t have a mother, so she knew he probably grew up hard.
Cocaine wasn’t used to being treated so kindly, or like he mattered really to anyone but Lexxy. How was it even possible that Cocaine had fucked up so bad, yet her mother, the person who gave birth to her was being so understanding? A part of Cocaine wanted to believe it was a trick of some sort, but it wasn’t. Junie truly felt sorry for him.
As Junie held Cocaine in her arms, he wondered if this was what it was like to have the redeeming love of a mother, and he wished he knew his mother. He wished he would’ve been given the chance to meet her before she passed away, but Junie was helping to soften that spot in his heart that he thought he’d long ago closed off to women, her and Lexxy. He now held a soft spot for Lexxy and her mother, and he realized why it was so easy to fall for Lexxy; she was just like her mother, but what Cocaine didn’t understand was how Dutch was able to get such a wonderful woman, that he clearly didn’t deserve.
After several moments of Junie’s embrace, Cocaine finally pulled away and spoke. “I’m so sorry. I’m…I’m so sorry.”
“Shh…don’t you apologize. It isn’t your fault. It’s Dutch’s fault. Things were never supposed to be this way. I was groomed for the street life, but that doesn’t mean it gets any easier, especially when your husband won’t tell you the truth. Give me one moment to speak with my husband.”
Junie walked away from Cocaine to scold Dutch. She was mad at Dutch not because this happened, but the why it happened. It was his fault.
Dutch loved Junie; he always had. He’d loved her since before she even knew who he was, and it pained him for her to be upset, but he couldn’t do anything about it. He knew whatever she was about to say was about to burn.
“Baby, before you say anything…”
“Nope, shut the fuck up, Dutch. I don’t even want to hear it. I told you that one fucking day, one dark, sad fucking day, some shit was going to come back and bite us, and I can only imagine how you reacted to being told this was an attempt on your life because of some old dirt you did. You’re not funny! This shit is not funny! How would you feel if this happened to Lexxy? If you were taken from her, and she retaliated? Never mind, don’t answer that, your answer is only going to piss me the fuck off! We’ll talk about this later, but not right now. Have they said anything about our baby?”
Junie had given him an earful, and she wasn’t done; she was just taking a break.
“They haven’t said anything yet. I’ve threatened everyone, and still, there’s been no news.”
“Threatening people doesn’t always get the job done. Let me go speak to someone.”
Junie rolled her eyes and took a deep breath before turning around to speak to someone at the nurse’s station. She needed to be on her p’s and q’s if she was going to get something accomplished. She wasn’t like Dutch. She was rational, and she was good to have in a bad situation. She knew how to keep a cool head and how to get shit done without making them worse. She wished she wouldn’t have even left home. She wondered if she could’ve prevented the situation from happening. Had she been around when this shit was about to pop off, maybe she would’ve noticed the gun being pulled out, maybe she would’ve seen the outcome before it happened, but she wasn’t there, and she rarely ever was. Junie was a good mother, but she wasn’t always there when she probably should’ve been, but she loved her job. She was able to travel and meet people she’d never dreamed she could’ve met without her position, but now that she was needed, she was here, and ready to help however she could.
Her baby was in surgery, fighting for her life, and she was just glad that she wasn’t going to miss this. Lexxy was grown, but she’d always be her baby.
T
he black walls around Lexxy seemed to be getting smaller and smaller the longer she stood in place.
Where am I? she asked herself, wondering what was going on. Around her, she heard loud voices, men, women, some with accents, some who spoke perfect English, but she couldn’t really see anything.
She felt detached from her body like she wasn’t herself, like she was just floating around. Where was she?
Every time she moved, the space she was in got smaller, and soon enough, the place would implode if she took too many steps.
“Hello?” she called out, but there was no one there to answer.
She looked down at herself, and she had on a white hospital gown that was open in the back.
Out of nowhere, she noticed a pinch of light sneaking in, beckoning her to go toward it. She figured anything would be better than the darkness, though she knew there was nothing to fear since the dark was just the absence of light, but she hoped there would be something waiting for her on the other side.
Lexxy walked toward the light, and the pinch became more like a flashlight, and then like a light that had been turned on in a room, and then, it eventually took over the darkness, and it was all white, as bright as the sun.
Lexxy could see two dark figures, and something told her she should walk toward them, to get closer to them.
As she neared the dark figures, she realized she was smack dab in the middle of the two. She squinted her eyes, and she recognized the dread head that stood to her left.
“Lucky, what are you doing here?”
“To be real, I love you too much to let you go. Look over there, that nigga ain’t me. We got too much time invested, beautiful.”
Lexxy thought about it and realized Lucky was right. They had spent so much time together, and she truly knew him, but did she really wanna run back to him just because she had feelings for him that were dying now because of Cocaine?
She looked to her left and saw Lucky, and then back to her right and saw Cocaine. He was the other shadowy figure. Was she dreaming? She pinched herself to see for sure, but she could feel it, so this wasn’t a dream…what was it? What was she going to do?
“Come over here with me...I love you,” she heard Lucky’s voice call back out to her, but the closer she got to Lucky, the further she got from Cocaine.
Lexxy took Lucky’s hands and followed him, slowly and hesitantly, but she went with him nonetheless.
Every few seconds, she kept turning back to look at Cocaine, to see what he was doing, and he was chasing after her with his hands out, longing for her even, she could tell by the face he was making.
“Lucky, where are we?” she asked him, curious as to what was going on.
“I gotta show you something, baby, come on.”
Suddenly, Lexxy’s feet weren’t moving. She was planted firmly to the ground, and she couldn’t move. She turned around and saw Cocaine getting closer. Lucky tugged on her hand, trying to pull her out of the place she was in.
“Come on, baby, we gotta go, we gotta go now!” Lucky said, and then his eyes turned starch white, and his body became hazy.
“No!” She snatched away from him, and instantly, she was able to move her feet again.
She remembered what happened between the two of them. She loved Lucky, and a love like that was hard to kill, but she was madly and hopelessly in love with Cocaine, and there was no way she was going to choose Lucky over him, or was she?
Cocaine’s bright, white smile blasted in her direction, covering and consuming her with the love they shared, and it was like bathing in sunshine. She knew what she had to do. She took one last look at Lucky and gave him an endearing smile. She would love him for the rest of her life, but she couldn’t keep sharing her heart with a man who didn’t deserve it, and the man who owned it.
Cocaine opened his arms wide, waiting for her to jump in them, and just before she got to him…everything went dark again, stealing the light from around her love.
W
hen Denise got the call that Lexxy was in the hospital once again, her heart dropped. How did her best friend keep finding herself in these situations? She had no idea, but she couldn’t get herself together enough to go see her. She was trying so hard to stay calm and keep a cool head, but that was what Lexxy normally did for her. She was the ice to her fire, and without her, she would surely lose all of her senses.
After hanging up with Wild Bill, she lie on her bed, trying to figure it all out. How could this have happened to Lexxy, her sweet, beautiful Lexxy? She had no one to talk to because she was anti-social, so she took to the only place she knew people would be able to comfort her enough to calm down. She knew she would be no good to anyone at the hospital if she was there having a fit, and she didn’t want to do that, not to Lexxy.
She pulled up her Facebook page,and prepared to make a post. She pushed the ‘make a post’ button, and proceeded to type her message, hoping to gain some sympathy or kind and understanding words.
“How is it that the nicest, best people always get dealt the shittiest hands? Y’all, I’m over here really strugglin’, and I feel selfish, but I can’t help it. My best friend, Lexxy was shot, and I know I should be at the hospital, but I can’t get my shit together enough to get up and do it. I’m not strong, and I can’t find the courage, when she needs me the most. Well, if she even notices I’m not there. I don’t know what’s going on, there have been no updates, and I can’t muster up the nerve to get my ass out of this house. I know I shouldn’t be puttin’ my business all over Facebook like this, but I don’t know what else to do. Please, y’all pray for me before I lose my shit. If I lose my bestie, I won’t be no more good. I might as well kill myself too, because it ain’t no me without her.”
Denise posted the status, and within a minute’s time, people were posting, commenting, sending her words of encouragement, prayers, and wishing her and Lexxy well. She sent Wild Bill a text asking if they’d heard anything, and still nothing.
A few hours passed by before Denise was actually able to get up and put on her clothes. She’d been commenting back and forth with some of the people on her post, and she even called Lexxy’s boss at the neighboring hospital to let her know what was going on. She didn’t want her girl to be without a job or get in any trouble. She didn’t know how the hospital world worked, but she knew in the real nine to five world, no call no show meant fired baby.
Denise ran her fingers through her long, fire red Brazillian bundles and threw her hair up in a ponytail. While she was at home, all she had on was a tank top and a pair of black lace panties, and she obviously couldn’t go anywhere like that, so she threw on some leggings and grabbed her blue jean jacket and slid into her fuzzy all black Gucci slippers.
She reached for her keys and did a once over of herself in the mirror. In all honesty, she looked like shit. Her eyes were red from crying, and she had circles like racoons parading around her eye rim. She looked awful, and she felt even worse, but she couldn’t go out the house looking crazy. She had to be strong for Lexxy because she knew how she was. Her best friend would be more worried about her than she was about herself, and she didn’t want to do that to her, not today.
Denise always kept concealer in her bag for emergencies, and this definitely was considered an emergency. She pulled her LA Girl Pro Concealer from her purse that sat underneath the mirror and began dabbing it on her face, covering up the red spots, concealing the pain she held in her face. As she was finishing, she heard a loud knock coming from outside of her door. She turned and looked at it, so annoyed, not knowing who it could be, or what they might want.
She walked over to the door and pulled it open, irritated that she would be held up a second longer.
“Lucky, what the hell are you doing here?” she asked, shocked that he was on her doorstep.
“Yeah….I…I saw your status and figured I’d come over and drive you to the hospital,” Lucky said in a low tone as he rubbed his fingers through his luxurious dreads.
Denise folded her arms and shifted her weight to one of her legs.
“No you didn’t. You came over here because you know you can’t go to the hospital to see her alone. Why on God’s green earth would you think I would take you with me?” she asked honestly. She didn’t know if Lucky had fallen and bumped his head, but he was buggin’.
“Look, I ain’t come here for all that. Call me crazy, but I feel like her soul is callin’ out to me, no joke. I knew something was wrong. I been feelin’ it all day. Now look, we sit here arguin’ goin’ back and forth about what we should or shouldn’t do, or you could let me take you to the hospital, since you actin’ like you ain’t got the strength and shit to move, and we go see our friend together. I still love Lexxy. But I just wanna be there for her as a friend. I don’t want no problems.”
Denise thought about it, and she really wasn’t in any condition to drive, even if she wanted to be, and she hated Lucky for what he did to Lexxy, but this could be the last time any of them saw her, and she didn’t want to take away that for him. She could only imagine how he would feel if he didn’t get the chance to. She just hoped Cocaine would forgive her and that Lexxy wouldn’t be upset.
“Fine,” Denise said as she grabbed her purse, zipped it up, and got her house keys.
Lucky played no games getting through the city of Nashville’s streets. He had one thing on his mind, and that was Lexxy. Though they had been broken up for some time, he didn’t care. He loved her, and he always would. Not even God himself could remove that type of love from him. He wanted to be there for her, to see her. His soul was tied to hers in so many ways, and he knew some shit was off about the day. He’d literally been having the bubble guts all day, and it was more than just not feeling well, it was something wrong, and as soon as he saw Denise’s Facebook status, he often crept on her page to see pictures of Lexxy since she blocked him, he kissed his new girlfriend and his son goodbye and left the house. There was no question about where he needed to be. He needed to see her, just to make sure he got the chance to apologize, and if nothing else, to tell her how he loved her truly, and how he would miss her.
He didn’t know the full extent of the situation; he just knew what Denise posted on Facebook, and that sounded bad enough to him, and he wanted to be there for Lexxy, even if she wasn’t awake, or severely hurt. He needed to do this for himself. The way they ended things, and then seeing each other at the mall, it made it almost impossible to fix what the problem was, and Lucky promised himself if she made it out of this, he would do everything he could to remedy the problems between them because he still loved Lexxy, more than he loved anyone, and she was still the most important person in the world to him, even if she didn’t know it.
Lucky whipped into the parking garage of the hospital and got a ticket from the ticket booth for parking. He didn’t give a damn how much this shit was going to cost, he would pay it no matter what it was when he left, and hospital parking could be a bitch, but that wasn’t important now.
Denise got out of the passenger’s side of the car as Lucky hopped out, both feet on the ground, and they both slammed their doors behind them, running into the hospital. They figured they’d both wasted enough time waiting and praying and crying trying to gather the moxie to even go. They didn’t know if they even had another moment to spare.
They burst into the hospital, wind blowing off of them as the automatic doors flew open to let them in. As soon as they arrived, they ran straight into Dutch and Junie, and Denise saw Cocaine waiting in a chair with his hands over his head.
“Denise, oh, sweetheart, come here,” Junie said as she opened her arms. Denise had been ok. She promised herself she wasn’t going to cry. She promised herself that she would hold it together, but how could she? Lexxy was more than a friend; she was like a sister, and she needed to know she was ok.
Tears slid down her face as Junie held her.
“Any news?” Denise asked as she looked at Lucky who was standing off to the side, ear hustling.
Junie noticed what she was doing, and she turned around to look at the gentleman she was staring at.
“Well, she’s out of surgery. She isn’t completely out of the woods yet. They were able to remove the bullets, but it caused severe damage to one of her kidneys. For now, we’re still running tests.”
“Can we see her?” Denise asked, and the doctor, who seemed to be invisible appeared out of nowhere.
“Hello, who do we have here?” the doctor asked as he looked at Denise and Lucky.
“This is Denise, Lexxy’s best friend, her boyfriend, Cocaine, and this young man,” she said as Lucky got closer, “is Lucky. The ex,” she whispered as she held her hand up against her mouth. Cocaine rose from his seat and made his way over to where they were.
He was mad that Lucky was there, but he didn’t give a shit, at least not then.
“Can we see her?” Cocaine asked as he stared Lucky down, letting him know this was his territory and he had no business being there.
“Yes, but just for a few minutes, and I suggest you go in two at a time, that way she can spend an equal amount of time with everyone. She isn’t awake though, the last time I checked, but sure, go ahead and go in,” the doctor instructed.
Cocaine began walking toward the door, and Dutch, who until that moment had been very quiet, finally spoke up.
“I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but her mother and I will be the first to go in.”
“No, I’m going in first. I need to see her. You’ve had a lifetime with her, and because of you, my time with her has possibly been cut short.”
