Page 12 of Welcome to the Heart Of A Maniac
“I’ma need for you to wake all the way up for this,” I told her, eyes scanning my surroundings. I wanted to make sure no one was listening on before I continued my conversation.
“What done happened now?”
“Can you believe that Uncle Trayvon and Tyree call themselves selling me?”
“Wait, what?” From the tone of her voice, I can tell that woke her all the way up. Aria was just as protective of me as Uncle Trayvon, if not even more. It surprised me to hear that he’d sold me to someone like that. It didn’t sound like something he’d do. They must really be in some deep shit.
“You heard me right.” Getting up from my seat, I collected my things and went to the cash register to pay my tab and leave. There were a lot of prying ears in here, and I didn’t want them to hear the wrong thing. “Give me a minute. I’m leaving out of Waffle House.”
I swiped my card and the waitress said, “Enjoy the rest of your day.”
“You too.” I headed for the door and this older guy held it open for me. “Thank you,” I said and continued on to my truck. Hitting the fob, I climbed inside and sighed.
“They really sold me, Aria. They came in there last night talking about all I have to do is date the guy for a while. Who accepts humans as a form of trade for drugs?” Aria knew all about Uncle Trayvon and Tyree’s illegal activities.
“Yo’ family from the looks of it.”
“I really don’t know what to do. I’m scared that if I don’t help them out, they’ll get killed. I got their lives in my hands.”
“Wren, you can’t let them manipulate you into thinking that. They chose that life, not you.”
“I know.” My eyes lowered, and I fiddled with the dangling thread from my sweater. “Aside from you, they’re all that I have left.”
“Who are these people?”
“That’s the thing, I don’t know.”
“You need to be finding out. If you’re going to go through with this, which I’m pretty sure that you are, we need to do our own research on them to keep you safe. I can’t believe these niggas.”
I started up my truck and backed out the space. “What you got planned for the day?” I asked her as I headed back toward the house.
“I don’t know. After hearing that, I think I need to go get me a drink.”
“I gotta go home and wash, but after that, I don’t have anything to do. We can probably meet up at a bar or something.” I wasn’t a heavy drinker, but I’d go get me a lil mixed drinky drink and some wings and I’d be in the game.
“I’ll let you know when I finally roll out of bed. In the meantime, try not to get sold to anyone else.”
“Yeah. Yeah. Bye.” I pressed the end button and immediately heard sirens shrill behind me. Looking in the rearview, I saw a police car. “Damn,” I mumbled and pulled over to the side of the road.
Leaning over, I grabbed my registration out of the glove compartment. As I straightened my posture, I heard a knock on the window.
Letting the window down, I said, “I’m sorry, officer. Can you tell me what I got pulled…” My eyes connected with a pair of familiar ones. He wasn’t dressed in a police uniform—he wore a black t-shirt with a platinum chain dangling from around his neck with Maniac on the charm dancing in diamonds. “Over,” finally escaped my lips and I licked the dryness from them.
“Wren.” The diamonds in his grill blinded me.
“H-how do you know my name?” I cleared my throat. Turning around, I looked out the back window in search of the police officer that pulled me over. The car was still back there, lights brighter than ever, but there’s no officer in sight.
“Why wouldn’t I know the name of my future wife?”
“W-wife?”
“I was just trying to see when you were coming home?”
“Excuse me? Where’s the officer?” At this point, I’d rather take the risk of getting a ticket than to deal with this lunatic.
“They didn’t tell you?” He rested his forearm against the top of my door and leaned his face down toward the window. Tonka bean and cedar wood floated into the truck. It wasn’t overbearing, but it’s strong enough.
“What are you talking about?”
