Trap House (10 page)

CHAPTER 9

T
iffany paced her small room like a tiger in a cage, deep in thought and pondering where her
next hit was coming from. “I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking.” She cursed herself.
In a brief moment of clarity, she’d convinced herself to pay her bills on payday instead of buying
dope. Now she didn’t have a dime to spend on getting high. The full tank of gas and paid receipts
were no consolation. She wanted to get high.

Her days of snorting were behind her once she smoked that first primo at the hotel. She’d
chipped away at the few grams she’d taken from Marcus until they were depleted entirely. She
loved the intense high that smoking gave her. A few sizzling pulls from a blunt, and she was zone
coasting. Snorting just couldn’t compare to that. Tiffany had vowed to stop getting high every day,
but it was a vow she broke every day.

Payday was days away, so she was faced with the dilemma of how to raise some capital. “Yeah,
right.” She chuckled as the notion to hit her parents up for cash crossed her mind. She knew she’d
milked that cow dry. Her father had forbidden her mother from giving her another dime.

Inspiration struck when she spied Carlos in his driveway across the street. Figuring he’d be
good for a loan that would never be paid back, she sprang into action.

Tiffany was halfway down the stairs when she took stock of the huge sweatpants and T-shirt
she had on. She decided she’d change close and help her cause. Back in her room, she swapped
her sweats for a pair of Daisy Dukes. She removed her bra and tied a knot in her shirt to expose
her hard stomach.

Carlos was just finishing up washing his car when Tiffany came out of her house. Even from
across the street, she could see his eyes lock on her breasts that bounced freely as she hopped down
her front steps. Tiffany was amused by the shocked expression Carlos wore as she made her way
over to him. Then came her turn to be shocked.

Carlos’s front door opened, and a stunning young lady gracefully exited. “Hey, baby. You
done?” she asked sweetly. Her beauty made the question sound like a love song.

Tiffany’s heart stopped as the girl made her way over and kissed Carlos on his lips. She was in
awe of how pretty the female was. The woman was almost white with long, almost blonde hair and
green eyes. The tasteful summer dress could not conceal the voluptuous figure underneath it. The
girl was a knockout, plain and simple.

“Oh, who’s your little friend?” she asked, scanning Tiffany with her eyes.

Tiffany crossed her arms in an effort to conceal herself, now embarrassed by her hoochie mama
getup.

“Huh? Oh, this is my lil sister,” Carlos said, regaining his bearings.

“Hey, lil sis,” the woman sang genially.

“Yeah…um, hey,” Tiffany said, wishing she could pull a
Bewitched
and wiggle her nose and
disappear. Instead, she turned quickly on her heels and headed home.

“Hey, Tiff!” Carlos called from her rear. “Did you need something?”

Tiffany could only shake her head. No way was she gonna let them see the tears falling freely
from her eyes.

* * *

The crushing disappointment only fueled Tiffany’s desire to get high. With no other options,
she gathered up some of her jewelry from her dresser. She decided she could live without all the
trinkets Marcus had given her over the years. She threw in a few of her own pieces to augment the
slum jewelry Marcus was able to afford.

In her haste, she almost left wearing her costume. “Uh-uh!” She chuckled when she caught a
glimpse of her scantily clad self in the mirror. She purposely selected a summer dress similar to the
one worn by Carlos’s girlfriend and set out.

Since all the pawnshops were pretty much the same in her estimate, Tiffany finally selected
one based on nothing more than its pretty sign. Once inside, she waited impatiently as the lone
clerk helped a customer. The delay proved to be instructive, as she was able to learn the pawning
process. She learned that she could reclaim her property by a certain time. She lied to herself,
vowing that she would return on payday to get her jewelry back.

“Yes?” the unprofessional clerk inquired curtly.

“I need some money for these,” Tiffany replied, carefully laying out her jewelry for
inspection.

“How much you tryina get?” he asked, looking the pieces over.

“I guess about $500 should do it,” Tiffany said naively.

The clerk looked stunned for a second and then began to laugh.
Surely she must be joking
, he
thought, but he soon realized she wasn’t because of the serious look on her face. “Can’t give you
that much,” he offered contritely.

“How much then?” Tiffany asked, the sting of being laughed at evident in her voice.

“I can go $100,” the clerk replied in a take-it-or-leave-it tone.

She was insulted, but no so much as to turn down the offer. After a few forms, fingerprints, and
a photograph, she was on her way…on her way to P.I.G.’s place.

* * *

After P.I.G. hung up from Tiffany informing him that she was on her way, he cleared some of
the stragglers from the room. He was delighted to see her again.

Blast eyed him suspiciously, curious as to his sudden change of demeanor.

“Earl, when Tiffany gets here, I want you to stall before serving her,” P.I.G. said, giddy about
his plan.

Blast sucked her teeth and stormed off at the mention of the girl’s name.

Tiffany had never seen P.I.G.’s house so empty. Besides P.I.G. and Earl, there was only the
young girl coloring in her coloring book on the floor. She was confused as to why the obviously
retarded girl was there and why she was dressed in a negligee that was clearly not age appropriate.
“Can I have an eight ball please?” Tiffany asked politely, extending the cash to Earl.

“Sure, but it’s gonna be a second. We still bagging up,” Earl said, retreating to the rear.

“Have a seat,” P.I.G. said sweetly. “Where is your lil man?”

“Oh, we not together anymore,” she replied, confirming what he had heard.

“That’s good to hear.” P.I.G. smiled, attempting to be sexy. “Gina!” he called loudly to break
her from the trance of the coloring books.

When the girl looked up with her crooked stare, P.I.G. leaned back and pulled out an enormous
penis. Tiffany did a double-take, not believing her eyes. An even bigger shock came when Gina
knelt in front of him and took as much of him in her mouth as she could. Tiffany watched in horror
as the handicapped girl feverishly worked her head up and down. She was relieved when Blast
came out and tossed a package on the table; Tiffany just wanted to get out of there.

P.I.G. held his tongue at the deliberate attempt at sabotaging his plan.

“Um, excuse me, Blast,” Tiffany said after looking at the drugs. “If you don’t mind, I wanted
it hard,” she asked sheepishly.

The realization that Tiffany was now smoking crack was too much for P.I.G. He knew her
decline would have to come at some point. As he looked at her, imagining himself in her mouth,
he exploded in Gina’s.

The force almost knocked the girl over, but Gina just sat there as P.I.G. emptied his scrotum in
her face.

“Go clean up,” Blast ordered as she came back with the dope. She tossed the package to Tiffany
and then said, “Take it with you.”

Tiffany looked at P.I.G. for approval to leave with the drugs. “Is it okay?” she inquired, using
her baby girl voice that worked so well on her daddy.

The phony display caused Blast to suck her teeth again as she helped clean Gina off.

“Yeah, go on, sweetie,” he replied, still stroking his huge penis.

Wanda was just pulling up as Tiffany made it to the curb. “Hey, girl!” Wanda sang cheerfully,
as if they were the closest of friends.

“Hey yaself!” Tiffany replied, matching her tone.

“Ima ‘bout to grab something. Wait for me, and we’ll hang out,” Wanda offered.

“That’s cool,” she said, intending to smoke Wanda’s dope. When Wanda disappeared into
P.I.G.’s house, Tiffany quickly took out a gram to use with her and saved the rest for herself.

Minutes later, Wanda returned and led the way to her house.

* * *

When they arrived, Tiffany placed her paltry offering on the table. “It’s on me today,” Tiffany
announced proudly. The small amount would last her a day or two, but that was one blunt for
Wanda.

“P.I.G. sold you that?” she exclaimed.

“Yeah. He hooked me up cuz my money be short. He can be cool when he want to,” Tiffany
replied.

“The only thing cool about that fat bastard is the ice water running through his veins,” she
said.

“That nigga like me, so I showed him a little leg.” Tiffany giggled.

It was at that moment that Wanda saw just how naïve her little friend really was. In that same
moment, she decided she would use the girl for whatever she could squeeze out of her. “A’ight.
You showed him a little leg, huh? That nigga gon’ have you sweepin’ up.” She laughed.

“What is this ‘sweeping up’ I keep hearing about?” Tiffany asked curiously.

“Gurrrl…you do NOT want to know,” Wanda said emphatically. “And what’s up with that little
retarded girl?”

“Girl…you…do…NOT…want…to…know!” Tiffany said, repulsed by the memory.

Tiffany was taken aback when during small talk, Wanda put the entire amount of crack into the
blunt. As she rolled, Tiffany filled her in on Blast’s behavior.

“I can’t believe she think someone wants her man,” Wanda said, lighting the blunt. The drug
sizzled loudly as she inhaled deeply.

Tiffany caught herself inhaling along with her as she had the blunt. When she did get the blunt
for her turn, she pulled on it as if her life depended on it. The heavily laced blunt hit her instantly.
A current-like wave swept over her as the powerful drug coursed through her system. The days of
skimpy blunts were over. Tiffany was on to the next chapter.

CHAPTER 10

T
iffany shook her head when she saw Kim walking in the store. “She look a hot mess.” She
chuckled to herself.

Even with her hair done and some of Tiffany’s church clothes, she still looked like a junkie.
Since the sting was working, it really didn’t matter. For the last two weeks, the women’s plan had
been successful. Tiffany was using legitimate customers’ credit cards for Kim to make purchases.
Kim would simply then return the merchandise for a cash refund.