Project Dreamz Read online

  “You ain’t lying, nigga. He my homeboy and all, but all he does is mimic us. The shit is getting whack,” I replied.

  When it was just us two together, we talked however we wanted. The last thing we needed was Ryan calling us “nigga,” and trying to get a pass from it.

  “That’s your boy,” Sebastian said.

  “So, word around the school is that token boy father is leaving his mother. I just knew you wasn’t so perfect!” Peyton said.

  Peyton has been my enemy since the ninth grade. I heard it was because of Jonna. Supposedly she did something with Peyton, but she denied it. I was starting to believe she did because Peyton still had a grudge against me. The clown said he wasn’t racist, but he always said some slide shit to me and Sebastian.

  “You mad because my dick touches my ankles? Or is it because I can outrun your bitch-ass on any day?”

  “He even talks like a thug!” Peyton said, and his friends laughed.

  “Yo, Peyton just chill out!” Sebastian said.

  “You are only on the team because your father sucks Coach’s dick. Everyone knows you’re failing, Sebastian, you can’t read or write but, hey, that’s your culture. Blacks only go to this school, so we won’t get bad press! You all are the tokens,” Peyton said.

  A lot of the students were threatened by Peyton because he always talked about how many guns his father had. He was fake crazy and got away with a lot because the principal was his uncle.

  “Ignore him, Tryst. He’s trying to get under your skin because a big game is coming, and he knows reporters will be watching you. Fuck him,” Sebastian whispered.

  I turned around and ignored Peyton while he rambled on about how my mother would have to go on welfare since she doesn’t have a job. Most of the information he got was from his uncle. He knew a lot but what could we say? We didn’t want to do anything stupid to waste our parents’ money.

  “Don’t worry, my father knows some people. This whole damn school might get shut down for all this racist ass bullshit!” Sebastian said.

  I didn’t want to stick around any longer, so I got dressed and rushed out the locker room. Sebastian followed me into the parking lot since his BMW was parked next to my truck. Peyton tried everything to tarnish my image, but I was very popular in school. I got plenty of notes in my locker from girls who wanted me to smash and some just even wanted to suck my dick because Jonna bragged about that, too.

  “Hit me up so we can get on the game. I still need to whip your ass in Madden,” Sebastian said.

  “I’m going to swing by my father’s crib then I’ll hit you up.”

  “Keep your head up and fuck those boys,” he replied.

  I gave him a head nod before he got in his car. I opened the back seat and tossed my backpack in the back. A pair of hands covered my eyes and whispered in my ear.

  “We should have sex in the back seat,” Jonna said.

  I pulled away from her, slamming the door.

  “Whose side are you on?” I asked.

  “What are you talking about? I’m on your side!” she said.

  “How in the fuck are you on my side telling my business to the whole damn school! I told you I wasn’t in the mood and your dumb ass just had to make it worse. The coach is on my ass and Peyton and the rest of his KKK-ass friends was talking shit about my mother being on welfare. I should get my sister to whip your ass!”

  Jonna’s face turned red and she started crying. She said she only told one person knowing that this person runs her mouth—hell, they all do.

  “But Tryst I was only trying to help! I wanted advice!” she cried.

  “The fuck I need advice for? I can’t be with you anymore. Why would you tell someone who doesn’t like me my fuckin’ business? But it’s cool, since she’s your best friend, ask her how she wanted to suck my dick last year! She hasn’t liked me since.”

  “Amanda would never do that! She’s been my friend since third grade. We’re over!” she said before running away. I shrugged it off because I didn’t have time to chase behind her. The good thing about it all, I didn’t tell Jonna about my half-brother. That was something I really couldn’t grasp. I got inside my truck, heading towards my father’s loft.

  ***********

  The drive was only twenty minutes from my school. My father was living in the Annapolis Town Centre. I pulled up in the garage of the high-rise building. He was standing by the elevator on the third floor where I parked. I got out and walked over to him.

  “What happened at school? I always know when someone is fucking with you,” David said while puffing on a blunt.

  “I almost lashed out on Peyton. I want that boy dead.”

  “Now, son, when you say things like that, you have to mean it. It can happen,” he said. Since he opened up about his life, he seemed more down to earth. I told him about Jonna while we walked into the building.

  “I sent you to that school for a better education. Who told you to mess with those brainless-ass broads. Learn from my mistake, get you a girl who can help you be a better man and not someone who thinks you’re beneath them. You might not know what I’m talking about but when you get older and see how the world will start to change, you’ll understand,” he said.

  “Jonna doesn’t think that, you trippin’,” I said while stepping onto another elevator in the lobby of the building.

  “Why is she always sneaking you into her house when her parents not home? How many times have you actually sat down and talked to them? Jonna makes herself at home when she comes to your house, can you do at her house or are you too dark for that?” he asked.

  “Why is everything about race with you?”

  “I’m giving you the ugly truth. Now, not all people are like that but there are a lot of Peyton’s in the world and a lot of girls like Jonna who might have a complex with their blackness. You don’t have to listen to me, but you’ll see,” he said. I shrugged it off because sometimes David turned into a civil rights leader whenever he was high. Most times I agreed with him but Jonna’s father is black even though he’s biracial himself.

  We got off on the tenth floor then walked to the second door on the left. My father stuck his key in the door and I heard a few voices; one was my father’s friend, June Bug. The other voice I wasn’t familiar with.

  “Damn it! Your old ass be cheatin’!” a boy said to June Bug.

  When I walked around the corner, I froze. I wasn’t expecting to see him that soon—I wanted to talk about my mother to see if they were really trying to work their marriage out. I knew the boy that was almost my height was my brother. We had the same complexion, he even had dreads. He had our nose and cheekbones but everything else was different.

  “So that’s my square-ass brother, huh?” he asked David, grilling me.

  “Nigga, the fuck you say?” I asked, balling my fist.

  “They teach that language up in private school, huh? Fake ass wanna-be,” he said.

  “Shut the fuck up, Trell! You went to private school, too, until you got caught selling weed during lunch!” David said to him. Trell went into his room and slammed the door.

  “What a family reunion,” June Bug said.

  “How are you and Mom’s getting back together? Is he going to end up living with us? His mother lives here, too?”

  “His mother has been dead for many years, since he was five. She was a junky. His mother’s sister has been raising him. Trell has a different upbringing than you and it’s my fault. That’s why I must leave your mother so that I can be there for him,” David said.

  “So, you and my mother are done done?”

  “Yeah, she must’ve lied and said we weren’t. She lost her damn marbles,” he said.

  “And you’re leaving your family to raise Trell? His grown ass can raise himself,” I replied.

  The bedroom door opened and Trell walked into the kitchen. June Bug told me to pass him a beer while he sat on the couch like a big-ass kid playing video games, oblivious to what was goi
ng on. My day was getting more dramatic by the second.

  “Why are you worried about what Chrome do for me, huh? You had access to that nigga twenty-four seven while I was waiting for that nigga to pick me up and take me school. Matter of fact, this our crib and you need to bounce. You ain’t welcome here just like I can’t go to your crib,” Trell said.

  “The fuck is Chrome?” I replied.

  “Yo’ daddy street name. What you thought hood niggas be calling him some goddamn David? Damn, you really are an uppity-ass nigga,” Trell said. I couldn’t even be mad at Trell anymore. All he wanted was the same attention our father gave to me. Why was he exposed to shit that I wasn’t? Why didn’t our father raise us the same? He raised me to be this perfect kid who goes off to college on a scholarship. It was like I was what David wanted to be and Trell was what David couldn’t escape. It was all making sense.

  “Listen, up. I don’t give a fuck how you two feel about each other but we’re a family. I fucked up, I was young but that’s not an excuse, I was just young and careless. I had a side chick that got pregnant with my seed while I was married. I’m not proud of that, and never will be. I love all of my kids despite how they got here. I love Trell the same way I love you and Deerie, which is why I decided to sacrifice my marriage for my son. You can live here, too, you and your sister. I want joint custody so that way it doesn’t seem like I’m neglecting anyone anymore,” David said.

  “I’m not living here but I guess I can tolerate his bitch-ass,” I replied.

  “Why are you acting like this? What’s up with all the anger?” David asked.

  “I’m straight,” I replied.

  “I guess I can be nice, too,” Trell said, and our father patted his shoulder. David and June Bug went upstairs to discuss business, leaving me with Trell. I sat in the love seat and Trell stretched out on the sofa.

  “I know you’re older but I’m still the big brother. I got more knowledge than you,” he said.

  “You don’t have more knowledge, you just think you do because you sold a little weed in school. How you get caught if you’re this smart-ass nigga?”

  “I purposely got caught. I hated that school so much I didn’t know how to get out of it. I was even starting fights just so I could get suspended but then the teachers felt sorry for me because they thought I was a special kid. I wanted to go to the school where the city girls be at,” he chuckled.

  “You ain’t never hit nothing.”

  “The lies you’re telling. I was fuckin’ best friends. I bet you ain’t do that, have you?” he said.

  “Think what you want, chump.”

  “What the girls look like in your school?” he asked.

  “There are a lot of pretty girls in my school but not too much ass and breasts,” I replied.

  “I got this new girl, she got an older sister. I think she’s about eighteen. She’s a dime,” he said.

  “I’m good.”

  Trell shrugged his shoulders then turned the TV on. My mother called my phone probably wondering where I was at, but I ignored it because she would’ve been pissed off to know I was with David. On the other hand, I had to admit, Trell wasn’t that bad; he was aight for the time being. David came down the stairs and told us he was coming back in a few hours because he had to take care of something.

  “I got cameras all through here, so I’ll know if you two do something stupid. I’ll be right back. I left some money upstairs in my bedroom on the dresser in case you two get hungry,” David said. He kissed me and Trell on our foreheads. Soon as he was out the door we wiped it off.

  “What you think he fittin’ to do?” Trell asked.

  “I’on know but I’m not sittin’ here and I damn sure ain’t going back home right now. Show me where you be at, you know so I can gain some of this so-called knowledge.”

  “You got jokes,” he said.

  “Cool,” I replied.

  I got up and grabbed my windbreaker off the loveseat along with my cellphone and truck keys.

  “I’ll be back. I’m ready to hit the mall really quick and grab something to eat.”

  “Naw, nigga, take me wit’ you. I won’t touch shit in your whip, I won’t smoke in there neither. You won’t even know I’m witchu,” he said.

  “Hurry up!” I said, heading towards the door.

  Trell ran upstairs and hurried back with the money our father left us. Trell wasn’t that bad, we actually had a few things in common although we expressed ourselves differently.

  Ten minutes later…

  “I don’t want to hear that bullshit! Stop touching my radio!” I said to Trell. He had a blunt hanging out of his mouth while going through the radio channels. Lil Wayne’s song, “Milli,” blasted throughout the truck.

  “I had a two-door coupe Benz but David took it. I’ve been doing whatever I wanted but now it’s a problem cause he wants to be father of the year,” Trell said.

  “Maybe he’s finally woke,” replied.

  Trell passed me the blunt and I looked at it for a second.

  Fuck it, I’m stressed anyway.

  I grabbed the blunt and took a few puffs, “Open those baby lungs up!” Trell said.

  I passed it to him and tried so hard not to cough but did anyway.

  “Owwwwww weeeee. I got that from this old head around the way,” Trell said.

  My eyelids were heavy, but I was feeling good. I remembered I had a bottle of Henny in my truck which I took from David’s liquor cabinet.

  “I got a bottle of Henny in the back.”

  “About time you stopped actin’ like I was gonna rob you or something,” Trell replied. He reached into the back of the seat and grabbed the bottle.

  “What’s your real name? I know it ain’t just Trell.”

  “I’m only telling you this because I’m high right now. My real name is Quyntrell. It looks weird on paper, but it’s pronounced kwen-trell. What’s yours?”

  “Tryst,” I chuckled.

  “Stop lyin’. What is it?”

  “I’m dead ass serious. That’s my name. Pops would’ve told you already like he did everything else,” I replied.

  “Yeah, I know everything about you and Deerie. It’s like I been there with y’all, just invisible. But forget all of that, my girl and her sister just got off from work. We can chill with them,” he said.

  “Yo, I don’t know about all of that. I barely wanted you to hang out with me and now two more people have to get in my whip?”

  “You scared of pussy ain’t you?” he asked.

  “You need yah ass whipped with a wet belt.”

  “Whatever, you actin’ like I’m asking you to fuck her or somethin’. I know you a virgin,” he said.

  “Nigga, just tell me where they at so you can shut up. I’m not even high anymore.”

  “I’ll give you gas money,” he said.

  “And you pumping it, too.”

  I was in the inner-city of Annapolis five minutes later. I pulled up to a Chuckie Cheese. I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous meeting inner-city girls. I was far from shy, but they probably thought I was a square-ass nigga. My gear was straight though; I had on a Nike Sweat suit with a pair of Air Max’s.

  Trell put his window down, calling two girls over by the name of Naya and Dream. It got dark early in Maryland during the fall season. It was only six o’clock and outside looked like midnight. The girls approached the truck and Trell hopped out. Since they were closer I could see them better.

  “Sit in the back wit’ me, Naya,” Trell said, pulling on the slim one’s hand. They opened the back door and climbed in. The other sister had to be Dream.

  “Ohhhhh, Trell, your brother is FINE! Awww you finally got to meet him. I’m happy for you because you wouldn’t stop talking about it,” Naya said.

  “I only brought that nigga up once!” Trell replied.

  Dream finally got into the truck and I saw all of her. She was short, probably five-foot even if that. She had a short hair-cut with soft
curls that framed her face. Her skin was only a shade lighter than mine, but it looked smooth. She had a nose ring with a rose tattoo alongside of her neck. I checked out her nails, they were long and neon pink. Dream smelled like cucumber melon or whatever it was; I was familiar with the scent because my sister was always wearing it. Dream had the same exact face as a younger Nia Long when she played in the movie Friday. I stared at her pink glossy lips as she popped her gum. We stared at each other until I finally looked away.

  “Are you shy, Tryst? I spoke to you twice already,” Dream said.

  “You did? My bad, what’s up?” I asked.

  “Nothing much. This is a nice truck,” she said.

  “Thanks.”

  I was speechless. There was something about Dream that I couldn’t put my finger on. That preppy overexcited attitude I normally get around the girls in my circle was non-existent. Finally, I was in the real world and I could be myself, without worrying about my friends asking me questions about what David did for a living.

  Dream

  Iwas riding in the passenger seat of a Range Rover, staring out the window, thinking about how I was going to get extra money. The Chuckie Cheese job wasn’t doing much for me and Naya. We lived in the grimiest neighborhood in the city of Annapolis. We were able to play on the playground when we were younger but now you had to duck bullets. I wanted out of there. I attended a community college but that still wasn’t enough. I had to pay for all of these things and ended up being broke. I could’ve had a better job, but I was in jail for eight months for stabbing my ex-boyfriend’s side chick that I didn’t know was pregnant at the time—it was self-defense. I hated that I messed up my future so close to graduating from high school. I should’ve let the girl beat my ass, at least I would’ve had a clean record.

  My mother agreed to help me get back on my feet when I came home from jail, but she bounced on me and Naya a month ago. Our mother started dating a man while I was locked up; actually, I never met him. All I know from Naya is that the man had a good job. He was our mother’s opportunity to make it out of the projects. I kept replaying the day she left in my mind…