Durty South Grind by L. E. Newell

to mention that suffocating head of hers. Hell, as freaky as she was, there was little doubt she’d offer that ass sooner or later. He shivered with the thought.
    He shifted to her counting the dope dumped on the bed. “Looks like you got about six hundred dollars worth left, playa.”
    He did some quick calculating himself. “Okayeee, dig this, baby, you go ahead and do your thang at twenty percent and we’ll go from there, cool.”
    â€œYou mean to tell me that you are about to trust me with a package. Nigga, I be smoking this here shit twenty-four-seven; you sure you want to take a chance like that?”
    Sparkle arched a brow and smiled at her. “Well, baby girl, for some reason I can’t explain, I feel like I can. You and I are going to go a long way together. Call it a hunch, intuition, hell, call it whatever the fuck you wanna call it. I just feel like we need to do this together. That is, if you can find it in you somewhere to keep the money at least partially straight. And to tell you the truth, down in my heart, I feel that you will.”
    He got up and started to get dressed. She watched him considering things. Hell, ain’t nary a soul had ever trusted her like that. And here was a nigga who she was meeting for the first time in her life doing exactly that. She twisted her bottom lip and started to laugh.
    He turned to her as he was pushing the last button into place. “So what’s so funny, girlie?”
    â€œShit, baby boy, ain’t nobody trusted me with this here shit forso long that it’s fucking with my head. I ain’t lying.” Dee shook her head in disbelief.
    He spread his hands. “Well, can I trust you or what? Make up your mind now, and I do mean
right now
’cause I’m tired of waiting on JJ to get back. I’ve got to go back to the crib and wash my tired ass. It’s been one helluva long day.”
    She nodded in agreement, realizing that he was going through some shit; his first day out. Radiating a brilliant smile, she purred, “I gotcha, baby, I gotcha.”
    He sighed, nodding, and reached for the doorknob. Before he closed the door, she called out to him and pointed to the rocks on the bed. “Hey, I know you tired and all that, but ain’t you forgetting something?”
    He squinted and cocked his head to the side, left his gaze on the rocks. “Naw, girlie, I ain’t forgetting a thing. I’ll see ya when I come out of this coma I’m about to go in.” He left the apartment and fished out Violet’s note. Smiling to himself, he pocketed it and thought,
What a first day back on the bricks; what a first day home.
    Halfway across the parking lot he heard the car horn. JJ and Percy were in the car on the other side of the apartments. With eyelids heavy from fatigue, he headed toward them.
    As he approached the car, JJ reached his arm out and gave him a baggie of rocks. Sparkle blinked himself alert, fingering the bag of about thirty or forty, fifty slabs.
So that’s what took these niggas so long. They were probably just getting ready to come back over here.
    JJ smiled. “Yo, dog, I can see that you damn near out. Go ahead and hit them niggas who ready to score right now. Whatever you make we gonna take with us. Give them other fools about five minutes to score because our folk’ll be calling us any minute now. And we gotta be on the sprint to hook up.”
    He stuffed the package in his coat and headed back up the stairs.JJ called out, “Man, I know that you your own man but take a good look at old lady Violet. I can see that she got eyes for you and she can cut you into a lot of good people and a lot of good thangs.”
    Sparkle started scratching his eyebrow with his thumb. “Oh yeah, she got it like that, huh?”
    â€œMmm-hmm and it ain’t too many niggas that draw her attention like you did, player. I say take advantage of it.”
    â€œI can see it