The Crazee Life

I try not to look at her too hard, because then she would get suspicious.
"I'm sorry, I should've looked." I said.

I knew I had to get the hell outta here if I was gonna try and get into her routine, I would have to follow her. Shit. I didn't even know what car she drove, and Chris didn't tell me. I had to think of a ruse to get her to tell me what kind it was, and somehow get her to tell me the state she's from so I can glance at the license plate.

I go up in the chip aisle to get my Doritos, and I find her again.

"Hello, Miss?" I asked. She looks surprised to see me again. "My name is Ash. Uh, I forgot to tell you this earlier but I saw the car you drove up in, I like it. That color looks so good!"

"Yeah, lots of people thought that getting a white BMW was a bad choice, but I keep her clean."

"Her? You named your car?" I ask, chuckling.

"Yeah, I call her Snow."

"Classic, that's classic. Hey, I think I may have seen you before.... What's your name?"

"I'm Vicky."

"Where you from, Vicky?"

"Richmond, Virginia."

BINGO.

"Hmmm.... Nope." I said, pretending to be in deep thought. "No, I don't believe we've met, then. Maybe I'll see you around."

"Maybe." she said, smiling.

I reached over her and grabbed a bag of Doritos, all while flashing a flirty smile at her. I walked away satisfied with how the conversation went, knowing I'd gotten the information I'd searched for.

After paying for my chips and my cereal, I went outside and sat in my car until Vicky came out with her groceries. I had spotted her car right when I walked out. It was directly behind mine. I waited a few seconds and then pulled up behind her.

She went around the lot and headed eastbound, so did I. I didn't have to worry too much about Vicky seeing me because my windows were tinted. I still avoided being all up on her bumper because I didn't need her to notice my license plate and then report my ass.

I was prepared for a lengthy drive, too, since I had Doritos in the car.

For whatever reason, she stopped at a house nearby the Walmart.

That turned out to be a pit stop, and she drove to a house in Richmond.

After stalking Vicky, I went back to Norfolk to visit my homie, Priest. She was a real Jesus freak. She was about the Lord 24/7. Just one problem, though. She was into the fast life, too. She wasn't a hitman, but she did deal drugs. What's crazy is, you couldn't tell by looking at her. She was sort of like me, a clean cut stud. Neither of us had cut our hair to look more masculine, and both of us looked very much like women. True, we wore masculine clothing, but you could still see that we're women. So naturally, when people see us doing our little night time jobs, we had a couple people that refused to take us seriously. Especially Priest. I thought she was the most gorgeous stud I'd laid my eyes on, and I really wasn't even into studs. Everything about her was sexy, even her real name; Verena. I loved the way she handled business and the way she knew when to joke and when to be serious. The one thing I hated was the religious talk.

I understood that Priest was a very religious person. She took it very seriously, just like her father who is an actual priest. I thought it to be a bit hypocritical that Priest liked to spew all of these scriptures, yet sold drugs. Every time she said something to me about the Bible, it irked me because I knew I was doing something I wasn't supposed to. This hitman thing is very bittersweet. I loved the money, I made a lot of it. Sometimes it pained me to have to take people out. I still did it, though. Nothing else is out here. Nobody is trying to hire someone with barely any experience in the corporate world. My degrees must not mean anything to these big companies out here. I have way too much pride to be on government assistance. I had a family to feed. I know my mom doesn't approve, but there isn't much she can do to change my mind. She thinks I'm the one selling drugs, not Priest. I was much worse than that. She blames herself, but she didn't raise a killer or a drug dealer. This was all me. So, I just let her think what she wants to, without saying much about how I get so much money.

Priest often talked about retiring from the game before it was too late.

"I really hope God understands why I'm doing this." Priest says, pacing back and forth. She was waiting for a customer to come through. "I really didn't see myself doing this, ever."

"Me, either." I said.

She sighed. "You want somethin' to drink, Zee?"

"Do you have anything with alcohol in it?" I said. I was still thinking heavy about how I had to take out Vicky Caruso. She didn't seem as bad as Chris made her out to be. I didn't have much time to be fuckin' around. Chris was actually pestering me today. Fuck, what does she want me to do, kill Vicky on sight and leave everything a mess? So I can get caught? No. Never. These things take a little time.

"You know I don't keep any liquor in the house."

I scoff dismissively at Priest. I forgot. She also doesn't eat shrimp. I think she got lucky on that because she's allergic. Otherwise, she wouldn't pass it up. One habit she's been trying to kick all her life is having sex with women. She will not listen to me. I keep telling her, it is not that serious. After the third time, I just stopped.

"What you got, then?" I ask.

"Lemonade, Pepsi, and the pack of Capri Suns from the last time your sisters were here."

"I would like some lemonade, please."

"No problem."

Soon after, Priest walked to the door since the customer was here. She walked him into the next room over and I could hear them conversing about some grams and some money or something. I sipped some of my lemonade, before hearing an escalating conversation. "If you can't pay, then get out of my face. What do you take me for, sir?" She escorted the guy out, and he came out with a brick of weed, and she came with a wad of cash.

I had never heard someone who dealt drugs speak in such a gentle way.

"Ugh, that guy tried to sway me with sex. What did he think was gonna happen?"

"He thinks he has that Thousand Dollar D." I replied.

She only frowns as she was counting her money. " I only want the Thousand Dollar D when I buy it, to use it on my girl." She said, chuckling.

Even I had to laugh. Like I said, people had a hard time taking Priest seriously. To me, she was a little soft to be talking about slinging the D. I knew she was serious, though.

"Speaking of girls, has your father come around to you, yet?"

"Eh. He's still trying to change me. He's old school, so I understand. I keep praying and praying and I'm still gay as hell. I just have to pray harder."

I roll my eyes as slightly as possible. I thought she was one of my coolest friends, but sometimes I hated that she was so religious. She thinks something is wrong with her because of a religion. I could never live like that.

"Old school folks are crazy, anyway. The culture back there was quite ... interesting." I said, to lighten up the situation. "Bell bottoms? The Salt N Pepa hairdos? Fail."

Priest laughs. "Dawg, you crazy. How's Kady?"

"Annoying as always," I replied. "Every time I come into the house late, she's always in my damn ear."

"Wait, y'all moved in together?"

"No. She wants to, but I don't need her all under my nose and finding out what I do. I will die if she finds out that I'm a human exterminator."

"Human exterminator, huh?"

"Well, sounds less terrible than a cold blooded killer."

"You're still a killer. That is not in God's will for you to be out here killing like this, Zee. Or Ash. Look, this drug life is eating me up inside. Some of the things I sell are the reason people are having funerals and winding up in jail. We gotta stop this. I can't see myself doing this much longer. The money is great, but I can't do this. Don't you want better for yourself? "

"Of course I want better for myself. I don't wanna live with having to look over my shoulder all the time. Nobody is checking for me, though. "

"So, start a business. You have more than enough money."

"I... never thought about that. Honestly, I have just been wanting to do this and just live the fast life."

"No. We want better for ourselves. Both of us. We don't want to go to the grave early."

"I definitely don't, but I'm addicted to the money."

"We all have habits we need to break. I think God sees better for us."

"Can you tell me if He sees me owning a better car in the future? Like a Ferrari or something? The Lexus is nice, but I want a car to sit pretty on some rims."

Priest glared at me. "Come on, Zee. Be serious. Promise me something. If I stop, you gotta stop."

"There is no way in hell that you're going to stop." I say.

Priest rolls her eyes. "You're supposed to say 'you can do it'. All we gotta do is pray for the strength to stop. We already want to stop. Well, I do. So I will keep praying. What say you?"

"You said yourself, prayer hasn't been working."

"Well, this is different. This is us, facing our demons head on. "

"You're scaring me. Can you go back to Verena for a second?" I asked.

"It's still me, I just have so much on my mind. I can't stop thinking about this stuff. It haunts me and all I want is for the thoughts to just stop. They freak me out."

I drink the rest of my lemonade and look away. I felt like Priest was getting into another one of her preaching sessions and I did not like it.

"Alright, Priest. If you stop... I'll stop."

"Really? That is awesome. I can't wait to tell God about this."

Um.... doesn't He already know?

I didn't say this out loud.

I sigh deeply.