Avenues: Ch. 6

Chapter 6: Aquinas High School, 685 East 182nd Street

Thinking back on my four years at Aquinas High School, and the self-destructive asshole I had been during my stay here, there was no question as to why I felt the overwhelming consumption of regret the second I entered through the broken gates that would lead to the basketball court near the back of the school. The school was still standing proudly at Six Eighty-Five East One Eighty-Two. Luey played here with the neighborhood kids and the rest of our old crew whenever he got the chance. There were perfectly good basketball courts where he lived, but he always came back to play in this one. He claimed this court always gave him luck and kept him safe when the streets got too heavy to carry.

I could see why the moment I spotted him barking plays at the younger kids, while the music blasted, the sun beamed towards the side benches, and all the while Luey’s arm nestled into a shoulder sling. I can’t say I missed that part of being out there in the streets. The fights, the broken bones, the broken soul. It gets old pretty quick.

Not for Luey. He lived and breathed this lifestyle and I was pretty sure I was going to lose him to it one day.

“How bad is it?” I asked when I finally approached him across the courtyard and greeted him with a nod.

“The bullet missed the heart by an inch. I told you this place makes me invincible,” Luey tried to joke, and even added a proud grin to his statement, but I wasn’t buying it. Coming that close to death when you had the means to talk away wasn’t humorous. It wasn’t cool. It wasn’t a rush or a thrill. It was self-destructive and scary. I’ve been there more times than I can count, and would’ve continued that journey straight to the finish line until someone had to bury me six feet under ground, if I had followed through with my plan to take Oliver out the night of Diana’s party.

Luey and I had played in this courtyard the day before that party. I ended up in the hospital with a brain injury that permanently erased the moment that would’ve eventually led to me ending up back in jail or possibly dead.

Maybe Luey was right about this place after all.

“I suppose telling you to lay low for a bit would be falling on deaf ears,” I commented as I sat beside him and contemplated on telling him I knew about everything. What happened at the party, what happened after. The only thing I needed some clarity on is that picture Richie had managed to send me from Susie’s phone. But there were more important things to worry about now. Like how I was going to end Oliver Polscotti’s life without getting my hands dirty. The justice system wasn’t in Diana’s favor. Street justice would have to do.

“The streets never scared me, Julian,” he responded with a warning in his dark brown eyes, letting me know any words of caution I was thinking of giving him would be futile. Luey didn’t care about dying at the hands of a gun, or at the hands of a street soldier. That’s why he ruled the streets so well. He was fearless and it made him all the more threatening to his competitors.

“Maybe not you, but it does scare Marissa.” I brought out the big guns. Marissa had always been Luey’s soft spot. No matter how many times he tried to deny it, or how many women he fucked trying to replace her. It was a cheap shot, I knew that. But I had to try. I wanted him to know having someone to come home to was better than not coming home at all.

“You said you needed a favor?” Luey changed the subject quickly and I sighed in defeat. It was going to take divine intervention to shake my best friend out of his pig-headedness. So I decided to move on to the real reason for coming here. I explained to him what happened when I went to visit Diana. And then I followed up with my visit to the police station and told him what the detective had told me about the mysterious new evidence that was sent to him. Marissa claimed she had nothing to do with it. So it must’ve been Oliver trying to incriminate Diana even further, making sure she’d never get out of prison. Which meant Diana had something on him that was worth killing Willie for. Willie’s death must’ve been Diana’s warning to stay quiet, and so far she’s broken her silence to me and Susie. And that meant we were all in danger now.

Oliver had to be stopped. And if that meant he had to be served a taste of his own medicine, then so be it.

“Let me handle this, Julian. This ain’t your scene anymore,” Luey offered and I shook my head, gesturing towards his right shoulder, who was currently out of commission.

“He’ll be out in a week. That piece of shit gets to walk while Diana is in that shithole because of me and--”

“She’s in there because of him. Not you,” he began, and I stared at him, waiting for him to continue, “Oliver paid her mother a visit the night before you two got busted. He threatened to take her out if she didn’t take the fall, Julian. So you can stop shitting on yourself for it.” Luey finished and stood up to bark up some more orders before sitting down again. I honestly didn’t know what to say. Or how to feel even. I was a contortion of every emotion known to man and I had no clue which one to sort through first. One thing was for sure, there were more pieces to this puzzle than I originally thought. If I was going to help Diana, I needed her to tell me the whole truth this time. No truths left unspoken. All cards on the table.

It was time for this nightmare to be taken out for good.

“I’ll get you those names as soon as I can. And don’t worry about Diana. I have eyes on the inside, so she’ll be safe for now,” Luey added and I nodded, grateful he was thinking ahead.

“Oh, and Luey?”

“Yeah, man?”

“I’ll see you at Marissa’s Christmas party,” I teased, knowing he knew the Hell that awaited us Friday night. He groaned in protest of course, because he understood Marissa’s charm was irresistible and he’d been coerced into attending this year.

“Any chance I could try to get out of it? Your family hates me.” He wasn’t wrong. They did. But they hated everyone who didn’t have an honest job or had a criminal background. They knew exactly who Luey was and had endlessly given Marissa grief for it. They always told her she could do better than a street thug who had nothing but death or misery to provide for her. Marissa never cared about their opinions. Which was why she thought this was the best way to stick it to them. It was a horrible idea. But at least it wasn’t mine.

“They hate me too. You won’t be alone,” I answered with a grin, forcing a laugh out of him.

“I’ll see you there, brother.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Could you frown any louder?” Susie asked with a small laugh as I opened the car door for her and helped her onto the sidewalk. Marissa’s Christmas party had started an hour ago and although I’d been tempted to call and tell her I wasn’t coming several times before arriving, I couldn’t leave her to the wolves. She’d been there for me when I needed her. Now it was my turn.

Times like these are where I hated how my conscience overruled my selfishness.

“I could. You wanna see?” I retorted and Susie’s response was to grab my freshly shaven chin, and force me to look at her right before she planted a kiss on my lips that made me think twice about being on my best behavior tonight. My hands instantly made their way to her backside and while I briefly enjoyed caressing it, Susie decided to pull away before things got too heated out in the open.

“I’m not asking for a smile. Just the effort of one,” she explained, wiping off any excess lipstick off my lips as I closed the car door and locked the car.

“So you’re saying there’s a good chance we’ll get down to business in the bedroom if I actually try to not hate my family tonight?” I teased with a grin as I escorted her into Marissa’s building and into an empty elevator. Susie stood in front of me as the elevator doors closed and I wrapped my arms around her delectable body. The skin-tight red dress she’d worn tonight wasn’t the kind of outfit I thought she’d wear to meet my family. Not that I cared about what they thought or that I thought the dress was too inappropriate. I just had a feeling she wore it to keep my mind off the herd of toxicity that awaited us upstairs. It was definitely working. At least for now.

“You’re spot on, Mr. Perez,” Susie answered as her hand quickly made its way behind her and grabbed onto the bulge forming inside my jeans. There were other people inside the elevator with us now and I struggled to breathe when she began to stroke me down. The woman was unabashedly giving me a hand job in the middle of a crowded elevator, while displaying a calm demeanor and I honestly could not be more in love with her.

Love was a strong word, obviously. My dick was in control and I wasn’t thinking straight. But it didn’t erase how rapidly my pulse raced whenever she was around, how I’d find myself speechless by pretty much anything she did or said, or how she always managed to bring me out of the dark place I often went to when things fell apart around me. Susie was becoming too important to me. And I feared the worst when she finally realized how much of a moron I really was.

“If you plan on killing me before we get to that party, I’m fine with that too,” I whispered huskily into her ear just as she removed her hand when someone turned to look towards us.

“You’re not getting out of this so easily, Julian,” Susie replied with a chuckle as we both exited the elevator and we arrived at Marissa’s floor. I pulled her closer to me as we landed against the dimly lit corner that held no cameras and kissed the rest of her lipstick off her lips. I wanted her so fucking bad, I thought I’d lose my mind. And when I saw her pull away and send one of her smiles my way, I knew that was her intention.

“I’ll go in first while you cool down,” Susie teased, forcing me to groan from the agony I felt in my pants right now and planted another kiss on my lips before walking down the hallway towards my cousin’s apartment door. Watching her walk wasn’t helping the situation, so I decided to pull out my phone to find something boring to read. As soon as I clicked on something, a phone call interrupted me. It was a call from Riker’s Island, the infamous prison that held the most dangerous of criminals in the state. And I only knew one person who was rotting in that place serving a life sentence. That definitely cooled me down enough to be able to walk again, but curiosity got the best of me. I accepted the call and held the phone against my ear, waiting to hear the voice of the man who took my mother away from me.

“Son, I’m glad you picked up,” Emilio Perez claimed in a throaty voice. He smoked most of his life and his voice had grown deeper throughout the years. Deeper and menacing. The kind of voice that you’d recognize anywhere and did your best to steer clear of. My mother had told me it soothed her to sleep while they were together. Now the thought of this monster being anywhere near her only doubled my sour mood.

“How’d you get this number?” I asked, peeved someone thought it was a good idea to give it to him.

“I asked around. Listen, I know you and I don’t have the best relationship, and that’s completely my fault. I’m a fucking lunatic and your mother deserved better--”

“Don’t...don’t you fucking dare talk about her.” Was he out of his mind? What did he think he was going to gain from this phone call? A fresh start with the only son he left an orphan? I knew he had other kids out there. Kids he actually managed to be there for. Half-siblings I’ve never met or cared to know. Reason being I’d been the only one who’d been left to fend for himself out on the same streets that turned him into the kind of man that would kill someone he claimed to love. My mother hadn’t been the only one who died that day. Emilio Perez, and everything he was promised to be to us, did too.

“I didn’t mean to…” he paused, as my finger lingered on the end call button, ready to leave him hanging, “Look, I only called to tell you to stop digging into Oliver Polscotti. I’ve been hearing shit around these parts and it ain’t good. He’s got a target on your back, son.” His words didn’t surprise me. I knew Oliver had connections on the outside and would no doubt watch his back when it came to all things Diana. What had me drowned in suspicion was why my father decided to warn me tonight after not speaking to me for ten years. We cut off all contact the moment his trial was over and he was convicted of first degree murder. I had stared at the man who had murdered my mother as they handcuffed him and hauled him out of that court room. He didn’t bother looking back at me. Out of shame or lack of remorse, I didn’t know. What I did know was that there wasn’t anything he could ever do or say that would atone him.

But still. There was something he wasn’t saying. And I didn’t have the time to figure it out tonight. Marissa and Susie were waiting on me.

“Put me on your visitor’s list for Tuesday,” I ordered and ended the call as I walked over to Marissa’s apartment door and rang the bell with shaking hands.