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  “Umm, man! Please don’t stop! Suck faster! I’m about to cum!” he yelled. And then he moaned with passion. He grabbed the back of my head really tightly as he exploded every drop of his warm juices into my mouth. Under normal circumstances, meaning like if I was getting paid for my services, I would have swallowed every ounce of his cum. But not this time around. I spit every bit of it onto the floor of his bedroom the moment he turned his head.

  “You did good, girl.” He complimented me as he wiped off his dick with an old shirt.

  Instead of acknowledging that he said something to me, I got up from the bed and grabbed my duffel bag so I could find some clothing. While I searched my bag, he walked up behind me and said, “Hurry up and put on something so you can take your ass out on the street and get me some money.”

  Again I refused to acknowledge that he was talking to me and continued to search for something to wear.

  Ten minutes after I got dressed, he handed me a small makeup bag filled with foundation, eyeliner, mascara, and several shades of lipstick. He stood over me while I made up my face. He stressed to me the importance of looking good enough for a man to approach me.

  “You can’t go out there looking how you looked when you walked up to me. Ain’t no nigga gon’ pay you top dollar for your pussy if you walk around here looking like a fucking drug addict! You gotta fix yourself up. And you gotta look like something for them to even stop their car. Shit, I know because I’m a man,” he said.

  He continued to give me the spiel about what he expected from me. Half of that crap he was talking about didn’t make any sense. But I listened to him anyway. I mean, what else did I have to do? I knew one thing, I was rusty as hell when it came to applying makeup to my face. I remembered I used to be a pro, but now I was just feeling my way through by applying a dab of foundation to cover up all the battle scars I’d gotten since I’d been in these streets. I also touched up my eyes with a little bit of eyeliner and mascara. And then I finished things off by applying bright red lipstick. When I looked in the mirror to check out my overall look, I didn’t look half bad. I really did clean up well.

  As soon as I was done Slim grabbed me by the arm and escorted me outside. He made me leave my duffel bag behind at the apartment. But I didn’t care. I had no use for it anyway. My main concern was my dope and my money, and since both were taken by Brenda’s nephew, I was out of fucking luck.

  I walked side by side with Slim as we made our way down Okeefe Street. We walked past a dozen people as we strolled through Huntersville. But it didn’t matter, because when people saw you with your pimp, or saw him beating your ass, they would do absolutely nothing to help you. That was just how the game was played. If I’d known that Slim was a pimp, I never would have crossed the threshold of his house. I fucked up! I made that bad judgment call, and now I had to deal with it and find a way to get away from this psycho.

  When we arrived at the spot on Church Street, Slim got everybody’s attention. The two young chicks from earlier were there, along with two more. The other two women looked younger than the ones I saw at the house. I stood there in awe as Slim introduced me to his little fucking girls. I already knew that the chick with the purple hair was Jennifer. But the chick with the red hair didn’t introduce herself to me because she was so fucking wrapped up in getting permission to change locations. So when Slim spoke, I paid close attention. He turned toward the chick with the red hair and said, “Paris, this is Faith. She’s one of my new bitches, so I want you to watch her and make sure she doesn’t go anywhere. Now if she tries to run off, I want all of y’all to jump on her and kick her ass. Do you understand me?” he asked.

  In unison, everyone said OK and nodded, except for Paris. She asked him if he was going to be close by.

  “Don’t ask me any stupid questions. Where the hell you think I’m gon’ be?”

  Paris didn’t respond. She took a couple steps backward like she was trying to avoid any conflict. The other two chicks didn’t say one word. They stood before Slim and waited for him to dismiss them. But before he did that, he looked at them and asked how much money they had made.

  As I mentioned before, the other two chicks looked younger than Jennifer and Paris, but they looked like they were working with a little more common sense, so I waited to hear their answers.

  “I just made seventy-five dollars,” one said.

  But the other one had a sad song to sing. “Slim, you know it ain’t military payday. It’s been slow since me and Sabrina been out here,” she explained.

  Slim wasn’t buying her story. He got in her face like he was about to bite off her fucking nose. “Tacora, do you think I give a fuck how slow it is out here? If Sabrina can make it happen, so can you! Now you better get yourself together before I fuck your ass up!” he snarled.

  After Slim threatened Tacora, she and Sabrina walked across C Avenue and stood in front of the Shop & Go convenience store. As they walked away, I looked at them from head to toe. Sabrina and Tacora were both every attractive young girls. They had caramel complexions and pretty brown eyes. And even though they looked like they were still in high school, they had the bodies of grown women. They wore their tiny skirts in the sleaziest way possible. These young girls looked way better than I did. And I was sure that they would generate more money than me too. So I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why Slim recruited me. Was it because I was older and I probably knew the streets better? I couldn’t call it, but whatever it was, I was sure he had it all figured out.

  Before Paris escorted me to her post, Slim schooled me about how I needed to work the streets. “When you get your first trick, let that nigga know off top that you ain’t about to pull off in his car. You can get inside the passenger seat and take care of his business, and then you get the fuck out. But you gotta make sure he pays you first. Is that understood?” he asked.

  I nodded. Then Paris chimed in. “Have you ever been on the strip before?” she asked me.

  I nodded once again.

  “Do you ask your dates if they the police?” she asked.

  “Sometimes,” I responded.

  “Well you gotta ask that shit ’round here,” Slim said. “If you don’t, then your ass is liable to get hauled off to jail.”

  “He ain’t lying, because that almost happened to Tacora,” Paris said. “So you gotta be careful and make sure you ask him before you even give him your price.”

  With that warning done, I listened to Slim and Paris tell me what to charge for certain favors. I was told to charge fifty dollars for a dick suck, fifty dollars for a pussy fuck, and seventy-five dollars if the date wanted to fuck me in my ass. If he wanted a dick suck and a pussy fuck, he had to pull one hundred dollars out of his pockets.

  When I heard the prices we had to charge, I was blown away. I honestly could not believe that cats were paying that type of money for sex. I couldn’t remember the last time I got fifty dollars to suck a man’s dick. The most I’d ever gotten was thirty dollars, and that was on a good day. So I figured I might be all right after all. Shit! How hard could it be to be Slim’s bitch and get paid decent money to fuck these clowns around here? Plus, I’d have a place to lay my head at night. And if I played my cards right, I would not have to tell him exactly how much money I made out here. That way I could cop me a couple pills of dope when I got ill. Damn right! If all went according to plan, then I’d be sitting pretty.

  Once all the cards were laid out on the table, Slim stepped away from me and Paris. As soon as he got far enough away from us where he couldn’t hear what we said, Paris leaned toward me and said, “Come on, let’s get to work before he starts to flip out.”

  I followed Paris over to where Jennifer was standing, which was on the side of the Shop & Go convenience store. Slim walked across to the other side of C Avenue and sat on the foot stoop of an abandoned house. I couldn’t help but to ask Paris how Slim kept any of his women from running off.

  “Have you seen that big ass gun he’s got?”
she asked me.

  Stunned by her reply, I said, “No.”

  “Well, you best believe he has it on him. He uses it to run cats off who ain’t trying to pay us our money. But don’t get it twisted, because he will use it on us if we try to get out of pocket with him.”

  “Don’t worry about me, because I’m trying to get paid,” I told her, and then I turned my back to her so I could get the attention of the next car that drove by.

  Candy Shop part 2 Kiki Swinson

  Twisted Individuals

  I hung out on the corner of C Avenue and Church Street for three hours straight and made two hundred twenty-five dollars. I was very happy, but Slim wasn’t thrilled. After he collected money from me and all the other girls, he stormed back over to his spot by the abandoned house. But before he left, he screamed at all of us. “If y’all don’t want me to go upside y’all fucking heads, then y’all better get me more money than this,” he complained.

  Of course, no one dared to challenge him, so I left well enough alone. I was, however, upset with myself that I didn’t keep a few bucks. It had been a few hours since my last dose of dope and my body was beginning to feel the effects. I knew that I needed to get me a pill sooner rather than later, because if I waited until later, then I wouldn’t be any good to Slim or myself.

  I tried to hold out at least until after I served up one more date, but the night had slowed down and it seemed like no one was willing to cough up any more money. I stood alongside the Shop & Go for about thirty more minutes, and when I realized that no one was trying to spend their money, I got up the gumption to walk across the street to where Slim was standing.

  He looked at me like I stunk when I approached him. “Why the fuck you over here in my face? You know you ain’t supposed to leave your post until I say so,” he roared.

  “I know, but I’m starting to feel really ill. And if I don’t get another pill of dope, I’m gonna get sick as hell,” I warned him.

  “Bitch, don’t you think I know about fiends like you? Y’all dope heads snort that heroin through your nose or shoot that shit in your veins all day long. And as soon as that shit wears off, y’all are ’round here trying to get another fix. I’ve been ’round that shit all my life. My mama ODed off that shit when I was fifteen, so I know how that shit works.”

  I let out a loud sigh. “Slim I need a pill of dope bad as hell.” I told him.

  “Whatcha want me to do about it?” he snapped.

  “Look, I—” I started to say, but he cut me off in mid sentence.

  “Look nothing!” he roared. “Now if you think I’m gon’ let you close down shop so you can run and go cop yourself a pill of dope, then you got me fucked up! I ain’t gon’ let no bitch stop me from getting my paper. So getcha ass back ’cross that street and get me some more money.”

  The tone of his voice made it clear that he didn’t give a fuck about me getting sick. And the fact that I knew he had a gun on him made it even more clear to me that whatever I decided to do from this point forward would have to be done with caution.

  I was beginning to feel really weak. And if I did not get a grip of something from a needle really soon, then I wasn’t going to be able to do anything.

  As instructed, I walked back across C Avenue and stood beside Paris. “Are you all right?” she asked me.

  “Nah, I’m starting to get ill. And if I don’t get me a pill of dope soon, then my body is going to start aching and I’m gonna start throwing up all over the place.”

  “You snort dope?”

  “No, I use a needle,” I told her.

  “Turn your back toward Slim and follow me,” she instructed, and I did just as she said.

  I had no idea what she was about to do, but I was willing to find out. I followed Paris to the back of the Shop & Go, but before we turned the corner we heard Slim yell at us, “Where the fuck y’all going?”

  “We gotta pee,” Paris said. “so we’re gonna watch each other’s backs.”

  As soon as we turned the corner, she ducked down behind the bush and reached into her purse. Seconds later she pulled out a cap filled with a white substance. My heart fluttered at the sight of it.

  “Is that heroin?” I asked in a low whisper.

  “Yeah. So take some before you get ill,” she insisted.

  I couldn’t tell you how happy I was to see Paris handing me some of her dope. But there was a problem. I didn’t have a needle, nor did I have a spoon and a lighter. I was fucked up and back to square one.

  I held the pill of dope in my hand like I didn’t know what to do with it. Paris peered around the corner for a brief second, and then she looked back at me. “Look, Faith, we ain’t got all day, so you better hurry up and do something. Because if Slim comes over here and catches us fucking around with this shit while we’re working, then he’s going to bust our asses for sure.”

  “Fuck it!” I said and unscrewed the top part of the cap. I dumped part of it into my right nostril and snorted it as hard as I could. When it felt like I had gotten all of it in, I wiped my nose with the back of my hand and waited for the drug to take effect.

  Paris snorted the other half of the cap of heroin like a pro. She didn’t leave behind even a trace of the substance inside the clear medicine capsule. After she wiped the heroin residue from her nose with the palm of her hand, we fixed ourselves up and headed back around the building to our post. When I looked to see what Slim was doing, I noticed that he was preoccupied with Tacora, so we eased back to our spot and chatted for a bit.

  “How you feeling now?” Paris wanted to know.

  “It’s taking its time to work, but I’m feeling better than I did a few minutes ago.”

  “Just give it another minute or two. You’ll be fine.”

  “Yeah, I know. But let me ask you something.”

  “What’s up?”

  “How old are you?”

  “Twenty-five.”

  “How long have you been getting high?”

  “A couple years now.”

  “You’ve been on heroin for a couple of years?”

  “Nah. I just started snorting heroin about six months ago. When I first started working for Slim I was only smoking weed. But then I got introduced to heroin through one of my dates. Slim knows I snort it, but he told me if he caught me using it while I was working then he was gon’ fuck me up.”

  “How long have you been working for him?”

  “For about three years now.”

  “Did he trap you up like he did me?”

  “Nah, he didn’t pull me in like that. I was already on the streets when I met him. I used to work on the other end of Church Street by Young’s Park. And one night he was walking by when I was getting my ass kicked by one of my tricks, so when I saw him I yelled and asked him for his help. He hesitated at first. But when I started begging him, he came to my rescue and told me that if I worked for him then he’d protect me. So that’s how our paths crossed.”

  “Do you know he almost choked me to death back at his apartment?”

  “I kind of figured he would do that. He’s the type of man that wants all the control. If he feels like you threatening his manhood, then he’s gonna come down hard on you.”

  “Somebody should’ve warned me,” I commented underneath my breath, and hen I changed the subject. “So how old are the other girls?”

  “Jennifer is twenty-one, and Sabrina and Tacora are nineteen.”

  “They’re fucking babies!” I commented.

  “They’re grown as far as Slim is concerned.”

  “How long they’ve been working for him?”

  “Well Jennifer started right after I did. That’s why we’re always together. And the other two started tricking for him like a couple months ago. I think Sabrina is his favorite, so you better watch her because she’s one sneaky bitch!”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Yeah. Some shit went down the other night with Jennifer while Slim was back at the house. But guess what?” />
  “Slim found out,” I said, answering her question.

  “Yep, he sho did. And the only people who was out here when it happened was me, Jennifer and Sabrina. And Jennifer ain’t gonna tell on herself.”

  “That makes sense.”

  “I’m glad we’re on the same page. So keep your eyes open and your mouth closed,” she advised, and then she took her attention off me and turned it toward the streets. She smiled as soon as she saw a small, dark blue pickup truck pull up curbside. “There goes one of my regulars,” she said as she walked off in the direction of the truck.

  I stood there and watched as Paris opened the passenger side door of the truck and got inside.

  “Hey, baby,” I heard her say.

  And before she had a chance to close the door behind her, I heard a man’s voice say, “You gave me herpes, bitch!” And then I saw bright sparks and heard a loud roar like there was an explosion.

  I nearly jumped out of my fucking skin as my heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. I knew at that very moment that what I saw and heard was gunfire. And so did everyone else who was standing around, because they scattered like roaches. But I stood there. I was completely frozen. With all the chaos, I couldn’t think straight. It seemed like everything was happening so fast.

  “Oh my God! Paris got shot!” I heard Sabrina scream. Tacora and Jennifer started screaming for help, but no one listened. And then I saw Slim through my peripheral vision running toward the pickup truck, letting off gunshots. When the driver saw that he was being shot at, he pushed Paris’s lifeless body out of his truck and squealed his tires as he sped off. Paris’s body fell to the curb.