Page 6 of Forbidden Fruit

“Was that who you called before we left?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Lawd, boy. I hope you know what’chu doing. You just better not get me fired.”

“Don’t worry, Ma. She prolly won’t talk to me no more. I never told her that I knew who she was.”

“How did you know who she was?”

“I’d seen her a couple of times when I picked you up. One time she was about to leave, and another time she was getting home.”

“Chitrita is a sweet girl. She’s just in a bad situation with her parents.”

“Who?”

“That’s her first name. Vashti is her middle name.”

“Oh. What do you mean?”

“Her dad is very strict and domineering. She got in trouble for getting home late.”

Did she go somewhere else? I thought she said she was twenty-four. “In trouble? She told me she was twenty-four.”

“She is Drek. That’s my point. He won’t let her fly.”

Damn. For a split second, I felt sorry for her. Then I realized she may had been using me to rebel. I was just another conquest to feed her rebellion. That only made me feel worse.

When we got home, I went to my room and called her again. She didn’t answer the first two times I’d called, so I decided to leave a message. Once the greeting had played, I began. “Vashti, look. We need to talk. I know you said that we were just fucking, but I wanted to apologize. I knew who you were, but I figured if you knew who I was, you wouldn’t have talked to me. Call me back and let me know what’s up. I’ll still be at the car wash at three if you wanna show up.”

I ended the call and laid across my bed for a minute, then decided to go ahead and leave. “Ma, I’m about to go wash my car.”

“Okay Drek. Your Aunt Rhonda is coming to pick me up in an hour, so I probably won’t be here when you get back.”

“A’ight, Ma.”

I headed out to my car, and before I could get in, my phone was ringing. It was Vashti. “Hello?”

“So, I was just a conquest for you?”

“No. I wanna see you today. You still gon’ meet me or what?”

“Why should I? My dad already had my car cleaned.”

“Say what you want, lil mama, but that pussy is screaming for me, and you know it.”

I could hear her breathing, then she said, “I have to go.”

“Vashti, why you trippin’?”

“I ain’t trippin’ Jedrek. I told you what this was, but it seems like you can’t let that shit go. I know you ain’t pussy whipped already.”

“You know what? You did say that, my bad. Do you, lil mama.”

I ended the call without giving her a chance to respond. She was right. I couldn’t be mad, and Iwastripping. Shit, when she squirted, she must’ve put some kinda voodoo on a nigga. That shit was such a fuckin’ turn on. It felt like she’d surrendered to the dick I was puttin’ to her. When I got to the car wash, I decided to get out my feelings and called my boy, Zay. “What’s up, nigga? Where you been?”

“What’s up, Zay? I been where I’ve always been, nigga. You wanna go to Crossroads tonight?”

He chuckled, then said, “Yeah, I can go hit a few strikes on yo’ ass. What time?”

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