Hustle Hard Read online

  “What do you mean? My inner circle’s tight. What’s the latest lie they’ve been spreading at school?”

  “Have you heard from your boy Devlin lately?” She asked suddenly.

  “I don’t run with that nigga no more.”

  “He was at the bodega earlier saying he’s gonna take your spot.”

  I laughed so hard my ribs felt like they were about to pop out from my sides.

  “Ha, ha…! He’ll never start in front of me. Devlin’s buggin’! He’s smoking or sump’n? He got pudgy and can’t take no hits. Ha, ha later for him. Bria, it’s all about you and me, girl.”

  “Jay, come here.”

  Immediately I was in her arms kissing her neck while tugging the book out of her hands. Then I gently bit the back of her neck. She turned back to face me.

  “Ow! Not so rough...”

  She was acting like she didn’t want to get it on. It always started that way. I was hard as a roll of quarters and wasn’t taking no for an answer.

  “Shouldn’t you be studying, too?”

  Her whining stopped when my fingertips slipped easily under her tight, tiny shirt. She slid her lower body closer and shoved her lips on mine. Her hot tongue made my lips sizzle. Minutes passed before she finally broke away. I smoothed my hands over her soft breasts.

  “How’s your mom?” She asked. The question killed the mood.

  “Not so good,” I replied.

  Perfect timing, Bria, I thought to myself. I tried my best not to think about it.

  “Her condition hasn’t improved. If things don’t get better, she’s gonna have to go through surgery and that could be real costly. But we gonna work it out.” I sighed.

  “It has be hard for you to watch her suffer, Jaden. Let me help you take your mind off all that.”

  Bria pushed me back and pounced. I felt her fire and my worries went up in smoke. After peeling off her shirt, she stroked my face with her long manicured nails. Her lips sucked my lower lip and she slowly worked her way south.

  “You know that we were meant to be together, right, Jay?” Bria asked and grabbed my belt. She kissed me, adding, “We have so much fun together, we finish each other’s sentences and we never argue. We were meant to be.”

  I undid her shiny, silky, black hair. Her sweet fragrance hypnotized me. I was ready to do whatever she wanted. Our legs intertwined and her tongue slithered into my mouth. My hands were busy fondling her breasts.

  “Ah…that feels good, uh?” She purred and locked her shapely legs around my waist.

  I slipped my fingers under her tits like I was weighing them. She sat up and flattened them babies on my face. I sucked them until she moaned and tugged at my belt.

  “Let me lock the door, baby.”

  It took forever for baby girl to tiptoe her sexy size four frame to the door. I followed her to the door and pressed her against it as soon as she turned the key. She giggled. I nibbled on the back of her neck. Her tits were flattened against the door and her breath came in gasps. Bria’s smile told me it was on.

  She moved her body up and down a few inches to rub up against the bulge in my pants. My wood was glued to my boxers. Twisting back, she kissed me hard. I humped her till she grabbed her waistband and did a slow toe-touch peeling off her skirt. My baby grabbed her ankles and rocked her bottom sideways into my crotch. I couldn’t take it. I grabbed her shiny buns and heaved my package. She squealed.

  “Strip me, baby. Take it off. Kiss me all over,” she whispered.

  I yanked her panties down and kissed her meaty rump. Spanking her, I stood to slide up into her moistness. She swiveled around and pushed my head down.

  “Please tell me you’re hungry, Jay. My kitty wants a big wet kiss,” she said when my head bumped into her belly-button. I couldn’t turn the invitation down. She parted her shapely legs allowing me to lick her puffy, moist labes. I worked my tongue until Bria beat her fist on the door.

  “Ah…Just like that… Go deeper. Hmm-m-m…”

  I rubbed my nose in her slit sucking in her inner pink. She stumbled back and pressed my face as my tongue tickled her swollen nubbin.

  “Ooh yeah, just what I need, baby… Keep it like that...God yes-s…”

  Her sweet gushiness dampened my mustache. She tugged at my ears, guiding me to the bed. Bria was naked and belly-to-belly we wrestled while tonguing each other down. My pants were down when her cell phone started ringing. She picked it up. I was pissed. She stroked my hardened meat while she chatted with her girlfriend.

  “Hi Dana, what’s up? Nah, you know I’m with Jay,” she said as I slid inside her.

  “Hmm… Wha…what you say, girl? Ooh! Lemme, hmm, let me call you back, Dana.”

  She hung up and went right into riding me, bucking her hips hard. Our thighs slapped with her every bounce. I fondled and spanked her gently at first, then harder. Bria went bananas and slid her box up and down my pole so hard I was scared she’d snap it. I pulled her down and slipped my tongue down her throat. She popped up, spun around and stuffed my piece deep inside. She dropped her face low, raised her ass high and pounded me until I grunted.

  “Not so fast, Bria, or I’m gonna…”

  “I’m right there, Jaden! Don’t… don’t slow down now! Oh God! Oh God, yes-s-s-s…!”

  Her body stiffened and she screamed. I let off and jumped up and covered her mouth. She turned round and nestled her head against my chest. Sweat glued her boobs to my chest.

  After we caught our breath, she asked, “What’s your biggest dream?”

  “Hmm, it would have to be, uh… leaving this country. Yeah,” I said.

  Bria’s pretty face lit up. I kept my eyes on her onion. She hopped off, dug in her dresser drawer and pulled out a scrapbook. Then she started flipping through pages.

  “I’d love to travel the world, see the sights, eat all the exotic food. And take pictures everywhere. All the places we read about in history books. Here’s the Tower of Pisa, this is Tate Modern in London. Expensive art,” she smiled when I spooned her. “And last but not least, I gotta hit up Amsterdam.”

  I faked snoring and she punched my arm.

  “Boy, are you listening to me?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m playing. It’s pretty cool.”

  “On the real, this can happen.”

  “It will, baby.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  ENEMIES

  I had to go see him and took the trip. Scoping chicks and stopping to buy a couple pair of jeans on Broadway, I trekked between 143rd and 155th to see my two-faced, former friend. I’d known Devlin since second grade. We used to be in the same class every year. I started getting mad shine and everything changed between me and him.

  Two years in a row we both put up amazing rushing yards. Then he got hurt and fell out of the spotlight. All of a sudden we didn’t hang out anymore. During that time we seemed to switch from friends to enemies.

  “Devlin!” I yelled from below his second-floor living-room window. Couple minutes later, he popped his head out of the window.

  “What’s up, bro?” He asked looking as if I had just woke him.

  “I need to talk to you. Should I come up, or what?”

  “Come up, Jay,” he yelled and buzzed me in.

  It was like I got transported to Puerto Rico. I was greeted by paintings of the Virgin Mary and saints hanging all on eggshell-colored walls. His father, Mr. Rodriguez had a new woman. She had beads the color of the Puerto Rican flag, hanging by the kitchen doorway.

  “Hola, Jayden,” she purred, gently flicked my chin and strutted by.

  Devlin called out to me from the living room. His pops was a dangerous man. Back in the days I once walked in unannounced and he pointed a high-caliber Colt at my head. Since then, I walked slowly through his crib, pausing at every corner. I took a seat on his plastic-covered couch and watched him and his Dad play cards.

  “Dev, c’mon, son. I know you’ve got better cards.”

  “All you do is check. You’re blu
ffing, dad. I fold,” Devlin said tossing two pairs in. His dad had an Ace-high straight, scooped the money and walked away.

  “That’s a pretty intense little battle you had with your pops for five bucks,” I said giving him an energetic pound. He led me to the fire escape. I lit up. Devlin was still rubbing his eyes.

  “You had fun last night didn’t you?”

  “A little sump’n, sump’n. This chick I met a week ago tried to wear my ass out. And that Henney got me hurting. What’s up?”

  “I came over to let you know that they talking crazy about us.”

  “What? Who?”

  “This chick said she didn’t know who it was. She overheard some dudes talking about it. They had football equipment on. She said that dudes are saying me and you fittin’ to compete for the starting spot at running back.” I moved closer.

  “Word?” He asked looking away to the side. Police siren raced by on the street below. His mouth remained shut until they were gone. I puffed and waited.

  “Whoever said that got a point. I been working out extra-hard on the weekends trying to get in better shape. The shit is true. Ain’t nothing wrong with a little competition, is there?”

  “Yeah, ain’t no problem with that.”

  It was ten in the morning. Bria was hanging with her friends, Dana, Nicole and Veronica. They were playing Spades outside of the apartment building. It was a warm spring day. Veronica was Puerto Rican and always dressed in the best gears. She did volunteer work, babysat her nephew and had a part time job. She even had Bria and Dana helping her out.

  “Why you fronted on feeding the people at the soup kitchen in Queens last week, Bria?”

  Bria sucked her teeth feeling mad. Veronica continued, “You had me out there waiting for you the longest time.”

  “I got caught up in some drama with Jaden, Veronica. You know how it is? I’m really sorry. I’ll be there next time, I promise.”

  “Whatever, Bria…”

  “I’m serious about it. You know…”

  “Please bitch! You ain’t neva thought about nothing or nobody other than your damn self. Play a damn card, will you?” Dana cut in.

  Dana was light-skinned and ghetto. Always dressed in Tims and jeans, she was a tomboy with curves. Nicole was a really dark shade of brown. She wore gears just Dana’s. When it came to style, Bria was somewhere in the middle. She liked to relax in loose clothes one day then slip into something sexy from time to time. Her other girls never switched their styles.

  They were always chilling. Today, both sides of the street were closed for the block party. All the young boys were showing off their best moves on a foldaway hoop. The girls played double-dutch on the sidewalks.

  Dana and Bria whipped them in card games. Nicole started making excuses.

  “Bitch, I hate playing with you!”

  “Well bitch, come do something about it!” replied Veronica. “I was all out of high cards. Bitch!”

  Dana had her eyes on a boy on the stoop across the street. She kept trying to throw Bria at him.

  “Bria, that guy’s been eyeing you for the last ten minutes. Maybe we should cross the street to the store and tease him. He’s kinda’ cute.”

  “Why the hell I gotta remind you…? I have a man. I’m not like you, throwing stuff around to every cute guy I see.”

  “First of all, I don’t be throwing it like that. And second of all, Jaden’s gonna forget you like last week’s trash the second he goes away to college. Where you told me he might go again? Nebraska? Humph. Them white girls are gonna show him things he ain’t neva seen before.”

  “He loves me, Dana. Don’t hate because he’s great and he’s mine. It ain’t my fault that Eric be working on his third strike.”

  “True, I like me a thugged-out dude. I can’t help it,” Dana said.

  She pulled out the piff and lit it.

  “Dana, must you light that up right now? You act like cops don’t whiz up and down all the time.” Veronica turned up her nose.

  “Hell-low…! The block is closed.” Dana retorted.

  “Exactly, so they’ll be on foot. That’s even worse. Oh, by the way, ain’t Nick and J friends? I’ve been feeling him lately, with his pitch-black self. He might have a future one day making all them beats. I wanna be there right next to him when he blows.”

  “Oh, so you a gold-digga too, now, Veronica…? There’s officially no hope for any of us, now.” Dana hissed.

  Dana offered Bria the blunt, holding it up like she wanted to get busted. She looked around to make sure nobody was looking and took four strong drags. The raw left her coughing like crazy. Dana laughed while Bria put it out.

  “It ain’t good smoke unless you choke, bitch!”

  “Bria, you think you could tell Jaden to tell Nick that I wanna see him? His chocolateness and my French vanilla would mix nicely. I mean, he makes beats and I’m a singer. It just might be a match made in heaven.” Veronica said then abruptly stopped.

  Nicole cut in, “Bitch, you need some work in the studio for real… oh shit. You two birds probably glad to see Will pull up at the end of this corner.”

  Mad girls were on Will’s jock at school, but Bria never gave him the time of day. Obviously Nicole wasn’t interested either. She thought the brand new, champagne Lexus 350, drop, he drove was way sexier than he was. He wasn’t that bad-looking but had more bumps around where his beard should be than the Cross Bronx Expressway.

  His smile was alright but his eyes were sunken like he needed to go to rehab. The thick clunky chain that hung to the middle of his beer gut seemed real, but the pendant looked cheap. Dana asked the same dumb-ass question.

  “Are you gonna talk to him, Bria?”

  “About…?”

  It was ridiculous the way Veronica fixed her skirt and her hair when his hazard lights came on. He walked over with arms opened like he was expecting a hug from everyone.

  “Hello, Will.”

  “What’s up Bria? I’m having a jump-off at my spot, and you’re invited. You know it’ll be off the chain. Bottles gonna be popping and everything. Oh yeah, and you can bring all your girlfriends too.”

  “Look, Will, I think we’ve gone through this before. Ain’t no way I’m going to your party…”

  “Take my card and call me if things open up for you, beautiful,” he said sticking his card in my hand. “Call me,” he said waving. Bria busied herself wiping off her hand.

  “Girl, why don’t you give him some play? Will is getting paper. He’s the only dude in school that’s got his own ride and apartment. He can take care of you,” Veronica said.

  “Okay, this is the last time I’m telling ya’ll. Jaden’s gonna get signed after college and make Will’s paper look like peanuts. And who made ya’ll matchmakers anyway? Not that that’s the reason I’m with him or nothing. I love that sexy boy. Don’t y’all understand that?”

  Dana opened her big mouth again.

  “Shit, if it were me, I’d take the money now. You neva know how long you and Jaden gonna be together. Once he starts stacking he might drop you like a hot potato and start chasing ’em white girls. You don’t wanna get married to him or have kids with him and then he pull a Kobe on you, do you?”

  “You know what? Fuck ya’ll bitches!” Bria shouted. She got up and threw the cards across the table. Some flew into a nasty gutter with oil and cigarette butts floating in it. The cards were ruined. “Why can’t y’all just be happy for me?”

  “I’m gonna call you later, Bria!” Dana shouted as Bria started walking away.

  “I’ll talk to y’all later.” Bria kept walking.

  CHAPTER THREE

  DESPERATE MEASURES

  Three weeks later, that backstabbing son of a bitch ruined my life. The problems had me in the kitchen hitting my mom’s liquor cabinet. I hated vodka, and any clear liquor for that matter. For a problem like this, I felt it necessary to burn my throat the fuck up. The Tropicana bottle in the fridge was less than half full. I figure no on
e would miss it so I dumped vodka in it then shook it up. It burned so damn hot I thought my gums would bleed. I could’ve taken care of my family lovely if it weren’t for the Devlin. I mean, a player with talent like mine was supposed to have agents on my jock. Graduation was coming up and I didn’t know what I was going to do.

  Devlin spoiled all that. It wasn’t my fault that he wasn’t as committed to athletics. While I switched my diet up and worked out twice a day, he hit the block and pitched pieces to fiends from his building. Around the hood, I was always in warm-ups with matching team sneakers. Devlin stunted in the freshest gears.

  When we used to be cool, I gave him props when he showed up with the Knicks ’70’s throw-back suit. He wore expensive sneakers, the latest Nikes and retro Jordan’s six years back. A heavy chain with a piece. It took him about two months to upgrade it with diamonds. No wonder he got soft in the middle in senior year. If I was the hustler type I wouldn’t care about practice when I could make money without even stepping outside of my building.

  Whatever, I’ll get him back. I had bigger fish to fry. I was about to turn eighteen years old and could only carry a football. What were my job choices? McDonald’s? Nope. Wendy’s? Nah. It just didn’t make good math and I just don’t have the patience.

  Another option was bussing tables. My mother did that for a few years after she moved to New York. She was always exhausted and got paid very little per hour.

  I took another swallow and thought about hustling. It was one thing I really didn’t want to do. Selling drugs was selfish. Killing strangers and people you know just to make a fast buck. It wasn’t my style, but mother had bad news when she returned from her visit to the doctor again.

  Her kidneys were failing and she needed an operation that was expensive even with her health insurance. I stayed up late one night hugging the bottle and decided that I would never push poison for my own benefit but with mom’s condition getting worse, I started thinking that it might be time to take a risk.

  I called Eric up and told him to come through with some trees to ease my mind. He showed up twenty minutes later with Dana in tow.