A Kingpin's Dream Read online

  A KINGPIN’S DREAM

  Six Months Earlier

  Damn it’s hot outside, Briana thought as she sat outside on her balcony finishing her psychology homework. It was June so the warm yet crisp Chicago breeze felt soothing on her smooth chocolate skin. Even though the breeze felt nice, it was also humid as hell. She felt her hair sticking to the back of her neck as she turned the pages of her eight hundred-page psychology textbook. In the distance, she heard kids playing and old folks yapping their mouths about the good ole’ days and their grandchildren. Anybody and everybody was outside today. Although things were ok now, shit could easily turn deadly; that’s just how Chicago was.

  Briana looked at the time on her iPhone that sat next to her homework. She was going to lunch afterwards with her best friend and sister, Persia. Although it was only Friday and she didn’t go back to school ‘til Monday, procrastination had been getting the best of her lately; so she made it her business to study and finish all of her work today. That way if Persia wanted to do something this weekend, everything would be done and she wouldn’t have to worry about it.

  That should be it, she thought as she stacked her work together and stapled them. She inhaled and leaned back into the chair as she gazed up at the sky, “I need to get ready for work before Persia comes,” she said to no one in particular. She made her way back into her three-bedroom loft and closed the screen door. While heading upstairs, she untied the rubber band that held her long curly tresses. After lunch, she was going to work; she was a caregiver at Rush University Medical Center. While opening her walk-in closet, she picked out her scrubs and the Cherokee nursing shoes to match. After lying them on the bed, she turned on her Spotify playlist. She found Beyoncé’s, “7/11” and started dancing while making her way to the bathroom to shower.

  Thirty minutes later, she was dressed and staring at herself in the full-length mirror that sat up against her wall near her bed. Damn, I make scrubs look good, she mumbled to herself. Briana's figure made the scrubs hug her body. Her natural beauty made her stand out from the other nurses and women in general. The females at her job seemed to envy her but that didn’t stop her from doing what she had to do in order to get that check. Her skin tone was dark and rich without a blemish insight. Her tantalizing light brown eyes and deep dimples that complimented her cheeks always drew people in; her beauty was unexplainable.

  Her long, dark black hair; which was all hers, draped down her back; she was often asked if she was another ethnicity, or mixed with anything. That only aggravated her, “What, I can’t look like this and just be black?” she asked anyone who asked her. Briana stood 5'4; her mother blessed her with a body that women paid top dollar for; a body that made men drool whether she was in scrubs or not.

  She had C cup breasts, ass and hips; she was definitely winning. Briana prided herself on eating right and taking her ass to the gym. With a figure like hers, thickness could immediately turn into something else. She was 145 lbs. and wanted to keep it that way, curves and all. Briana's phone started to ring. While looking at the screen, "Best friend" flashed across, which was Persia’s contact name.

  ****

  “Hey girl, where are you? I’m in front of your house, hurry the hell up!” Persia yelled into the phone.

  “Ok, here I come,” I said before hanging the phone up. After I looked myself over once more, I grabbed my purse and headed out the door. I was hungry and needed something in my stomach fast. I darted outside and as soon as I got into Persia’s car, she started going off.

  “Bitch you know how hot it is out here and you’re taking forever to bring ya ass outside? I could have gone with one of my other home girls.”

  Now I know Persia was going through some things with her on again, off again, no good ass boyfriend Ivan, but that didn’t give her a right to go off on me. I would have said some slick shit to her ass but decided against it to spare her feelings. Plus, this bitch knew that I was damn near the only friend she had. It was cold as hell in her car; the air was on full blast. Not one ounce of sweat was on her body but she wanted to go off for no reason.

  “Persia, please calm down okay, don't take the problems you have at home out on me. Maybe you need a nap because you’re wildin,” I said while applying my lip-gloss in the passenger mirror.

  She looked away and I saw a tear fall down her cheek. “Briana, that nigga is trifling, I can't take him anymore, I can't, I just can't do it. He cheats on me constantly and had the nerve to get another woman pregnant, an ugly one at that! He just ain't shit and I can't wait ‘til I find better because I'm too young and pretty to be stressing over a man that doesn’t appreciate me.”

  Persia and Ivan have been together for three years. He did everything a man was supposed to in the beginning of the relationship. He wined and dined her, took her on shopping sprees, exotic get-a-ways and bought her several cars that sat in her drive way. Then everything took a turn for the worst when Persia’s pussy started burning after she urinated. She had no idea that he was entertaining other women because as far as she knew he only had eyes for her; she was wrong. Later Persia and Briana found out that Ivan had women in several states that he took care of with Persia of course being one of them.

  Once she confronted him about it, he didn’t sugar coat shit. “Yeah, I take care of them hoes, but I love you. I got you in this nice ass loft that I pay the bills in, I bought you four new cars that you take turns driving. I give you and Briana money to go shopping and I’m not even fucking her. Those other hoes don’t get half of what you get baby and that’s on my mama. You got my heart at the end of the day Persia. I’m not letting you go,” he said to a crying naive Persia.

  She met Ivan when she was nineteen, with him being thirty-nine at the time he knew exactly how to get in her head. He may have been old but he damn sure didn’t look it, black definitely didn’t crack in his case. He resembled Tyrese but was a little more muscular. Persia liked her men chocolate so she immediately took a liking to him. He was conniving and knew how to manipulate her into thinking that he was innocent and did nothing wrong.

  He constantly did this to a young Persia but now that shit was over, Persia knew him like a book. Over the years, she mastered his facial expressions and knew when he told a lie and when he was truthful. Nine times out of ten, lies came gushing out of his mouth. Persia was fed up now; the baby was just the icing on the cake. No matter how many times a woman came back to you after you did her dirty one day she wasn’t. You couldn’t be dumb for a lame nigga forever.

  Briana looked at her best friend with sympathy. How could you tell somebody that kept going back to the same man that hurt them repeatedly to leave him alone? After a while, I got tired of repeating myself so I stopped giving advice. After Persia found out that he got another woman pregnant, she still went back. I knew that eventually she would grow tired of his triflin' ass; a woman could only take so much.

  Persia wasn't lying when she said she was pretty; she was light brown and resembled Meagan Good. Persia had the prettiest set of grey eyes you ever seen. She stood 5'5, although a little smaller than me, she still possessed hips and ass men drooled over. She was twenty-one years old and in school for forensics at the University of Chicago. We didn’t have any family, only each other, our parents were non-existent.

  We met at Mercy's Home for Boys & Girls, a home for children; when we were five and have been extremely close ever since. If you saw Persia, you saw me and vice versa. She was the sister that I never had. In fact, you might as well say she was my sister because that's what we considered each other since we had no one else. Sister Clara was a nun that came to the home every now and then to pray for us. She was sort of like a mother figure to Persia and I. She always snuck us snacks and bought us several outfits
and games. The other girls in the home didn’t get any of that, they tried to steal our shit and that’s when Persia and I had to lay our hands on their asses.

  If it’s one thing that I loved about Sister Clara, it was that she never failed to teach us about the importance of education. She always told us that being pretty could only take you so far, but being both was a killer combination. So we made it our business to have more to offer than just our looks. Instilling that in our young minds made us who we are today. It’s funny because Sister Clara told us that one last time before she disappeared. No one knew where she went or what happened to her. We were hurt but realized that we needed to stick together and the only ones that we could trust were ourselves because all we had was each other.

  That advice that she gave us stuck like glue because we had it going on. We were young, beautiful, ambitious women who didn’t let our pasts stop us. Why would we with futures as bright as ours? Persia and I left the home when we were eighteen; we finished high school and jumped right into to college. We stayed in the dorms until we got a little older then rented lofts downtown with the money we saved up from working.

  Whoever Persia’s parents were, they left her over 250,000 dollars; it went to her as soon as she turned eighteen. She split it with me, along with the money Ivan drops in her bank account every week. Just because we had all this money in our back accounts, didn’t mean we couldn’t add to it ourselves. I worked at a hospital and Persia worked for the state as a forensic tech. We were making the best out of life with what we had.

  Persia started the car, looked over at me and said, “Sometimes I wonder if it's me, am I doing something wrong?”

  I looked at her ass in astonishment, “Come again bitch, because I didn’t hear you correctly.” The truth was, I heard exactly what the hell she just said but I wanted to make sure, before I slapped her ass.

  “I said someti...”

  “Hold up Persia, how dare you doubt yourself over a nigga that don’t give a fuck about you. You have a nice ass car, a loft in downtown Chicago, you're in college and have a good ass job. Not to mention you're pretty as fuck. Don't let that nigga make you insecure Persia, for real because you’re too smart to be stressing over somebody that don’t give a damn about you or your feelings.”

  She looked at me like that was the best advice that I ever gave her. “You know what Bri, you’re right; we need to go out tonight. I can’t let him or this situation get to me, it’s time to actually move on and focus on the future instead of the past. I need a drink so we should go to that new club that opened up downtown. I think it’s called Club 101.”

  “If that will make you feel better, then I have no problem with going, I’ve already finished my homework for Monday and I’m off tomorrow so I can stay out late. You can meet me at my house to get ready so that we can arrive on time.”

  Persia started clapping her hands and cheering and to be honest I was pretty excited too because I haven't gone out in forever. I bought this sexy dress a week ago so it was now time for me to put it to use.

  We finally made it Benihanna's downtown. “Table for two please,” I said to the waiter. He grabbed two menus and seated us at a booth in the corner. Persia and I ordered our food and stayed there for at least two hours eating and chatting. By the time it hit three, it was time for me to go to work. Persia dropped me back off at home and I got in my car and raced to the hospital.

  *****

  As soon as I started to clock into work, I overheard the care partners and nurses talking about how fine some man that came in earlier was. I rolled my eyes and shook my head because they were just thirsty.

  All of them took turns having sex with all the male staff. As soon as a man would get hired, they would all jump on him. I tried to walk past them so I could go to the locker room but Shantay and her ghetto ass sidekicks just had to say something to me. Shantay, Jerrica and Shondria were the “hoes” of the hospital.

  “Hey Briana, you missed that sexy ass nigga that just walked out the hospital. If he gave me one minute of his time, I would have sucked his dick.”

  I looked at her and shook my head in disgust. “Oh trust me, I knew you would have, that’s what you're known for around here right?”

  Shantay didn't even take offense to what I said because she knew she was a hoe. While laughing and slapping hands with the hospital’s second hoe, Jerrica, she said something under her breathe. I didn’t pay the shit any mind because at the end of the day, if you weren’t boss enough to say that shit out loud then in my eyes, you were just a scary ass bitch. My time was precious and it wasn’t to be wasted on trash like them.

  I put my belongings in my locker and closed it then turned the lock and made sure that it was secured. I made my way to the hall to see what patients had today. “Ms. Barbara is here again?” I asked Jenny who was a nurse that floated on our floor several times out of the week.

  “Yeah she's here, her grandson is fine as hell girl, you should have been here,” she said while walking into another patient’s room.

  “I’m good on men for right now Jenny, I’m too focused,” I stated honestly.

  “Well if you saw him, you would have had second thoughts,” she yelled. I couldn’t do anything but laugh as I made my way to Ms. Barbara's room; I loved this woman as if she was my grandma. She never took her medicine so her grandson or “grandbaby,” as she would call him always brought her up here and I had her every time because she couldn’t stand the other nurses or care partners. “Hey beautiful,” I said while opening her blinds.

  “Hey sweetie, she lit up as soon as she saw me, I've been looking forward to seeing you all day; these damn nurses won’t even come to my aid when I need them. I told my grandson about it and he said he's going to take care of their asses.”

  I looked on her desk and saw a beautiful bouquet of flowers, “Is that who gave you the flowers, Ms. Barbara? They're so beautiful,” I said while inhaling their scent.

  “Yes, my grandbabies always know how to make me feel better.”

  I started her evening vitals and took her blood sugar, “Ms. Barbara, your blood pressure is 210/130. You really need to start taking that medicine if you want to get better. You promised me you would do it for me.”

  “You know child, you are very beautiful, your skin looks so rich. One of the prettiest girls I've seen in a while, why aren't you married with kids Briana? My grandbaby would take a liking to you, he loves them chocolate.”

  “Ms. Barbara that’s nice but you just completely ignored what I told you. Please take them for me. I don’t want you having a stroke,” I begged.

  “Ok child, I heard you the first time Na. I’ll take them shits as soon as the nurse gives them to me, now since you ignored my question answer it. Why are you so pretty and single Briana?”

  I blushed and rubbed the side of her cheek. “Ms. Barbra I’m only twenty, plus I don't need any distractions. Were you married when you were twenty?” I asked.

  “Honey yes, I was married to one of the most ruthless drug lords to walk this earth. You better ask about me child, Ms. B was the shit back in the day. See times are different now so I understand where you're coming from, but don’t think it can’t happen,” she fussed.

  “Why aren’t you married anymore?” I asked, I was intrigued, being married to a man like that had to bring all sorts of problems.

  “Well, if you’re thinking the streets killed him, you’re wrong. He got into a car accident several years ago. He lived to be fifty-six which is rare for a drug lord now,” she smiled while looking at me. “You remind me of a younger me. You're beautiful and have your head on your shoulders. Don’t do what I did; I dedicated my life to that man and forgot about myself in the long run. It was as if I wasn’t happy if he wasn’t; I became so engulfed in his feelings and his lifestyle that I forgot about my own. Never let a man do that to you, but most importantly, don’t do that to yourself. You seem smarter than I was back in the day so I have faith.”

  “I'll defin
itely take your advice into consideration Ms. B, I’m done here though. If you need anything else, let me know, I’ll be here ‘til seven tonight.”

  “Okay baby, I’ll let you know.”

  I kissed her cheek and exited her room. I wanted to ask about her grandsons but the way she talked about them made it seem like they were younger than I was and I wasn’t up for that. I checked up on my other patients and made sure they were straight. I gave a couple baths and as soon as I looked at the clock, it was 6:50. “Okay Mr. Rodney, looks like I’m done in here, let me know if you need anything.” He was a grumpy old man that never responded which was good because I didn’t wait for one. He simply nodded his head so I took that as my queue to exit the room. I went to the locker room to retrieve my things and clocked out.

  It’s party time, I thought as I walked out the hospitals doors. When I pulled up to my driveway, I saw Persia’s car. She’s probably already dressed, I thought as I walked to my front door. We had keys to each other’s apartments just in case of an emergency. I walked in and she was jamming to Trey Songz, "BOSS."

  "She just want to fuck with a BOSS, So I took her on a cruise 'round the city, It don’t really matter what it costs, cause she know a young nigga gone get it.”

  This was my song. I loved me some Trey Songz. “Wassup girly, you ready to do it on ‘em tonight or nah?”

  “Yes bitch, I haven’t been out in so long. What did you bring to wear?” I asked as I sat my stuff down on the bed.

  “A skin tight dress with a slit down the middle, you know I got to give a little, not too much. I gotta leave their asses wondering. Oh, and these Giuseppe Zanotti heels.”

  The outfit was so sexy, Persia was about to have men and women drooling by wearing that shit. I had to go in my closet and find the dress that I thought about earlier. It was just as sexy but showed a little more. It was a skintight, nude, strapless dress; the back was cut out allowing you to see the dimples in my back. There was a small slit in the front where my breasts were, but it wasn’t as deep as the one in Persia’s dress. I had nude red bottoms to match with no accessories. If anything, I was an accessory to the little dress because I was about to rock the shit out of it.