Alice in Gangland: Chapter One

Westside of Gangland

Monroe Street

Circa. 2024

 “And sometimes we run towards the very thing we want to escape.”

Chapter One

“So, when you gon’ stop playing around with a nigga and let me show you how good life can be? You know I ain’t ‘bout them games, but we been playin’ with each other for a while now.”

“Goshay, don’t start with me,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “Now hold still before I fuck up your edge.”

As I held the clippers in my hand, I gathered my focus. For over three months, I had been cutting Goshay’s hair and he never walked out of a single appointment without trying to convince me how much I needed him to be my man. He was a player and I was usually one for the games until I met his girlfriend, Felicia. Homegirl was the type who was likely to show up on a future episode of Snapped.

“Come on now,” he kept talking, still pleading his point. “You not even gon’ let me shoot my shot?”

“For what?” I snorted. “So, I can end up catching a real bullet from Felicia? I’m new here. I’m not trying to be involved in the drama.”

“That’s what it really is.” His lips spread into a smile. “You just worried about Felicia. So, what if I told you that I’ll drop her if I could get with you?”

Still pressing.

“You already know I got a boyfriend.”

His face screwed into a frown. “You mean that nigga you left in Cali? You still pretending to be in a long-distance relationship?” He fanned his hand as if swatting the thought away. “How that shit work when you lying in the bed alone at night?”

“That’s between me, myself, and my rose,” I joked with a smile. He started laughing.

“Where’s the fun in using toys? Ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby.” Goshay let his tongue hang out his mouth, wiggling it seductively.

“Don’t even start with me. At least the rose won’t have me catching a fade,” I told him as I changed the guard on my clippers. “It’s bad enough that you made me stay late to do your hair after I said I wouldn’t. She is probably outside right now spying on us from behind those bushes. I know she doesn’t really think you’re out here this late just to get your hair cut.”

I twisted his chair around for him to face me so that I could clean up his beard. But something about the impish look on his face made me pause. I groaned loudly before rolling my eyes.

“Goshay, what did you do?”

He placed his hands in the air to quickly diffuse my attitude. “Nothing! I promise. I told her where I was going and she started to crank up but then I handled it. She’s good.”

Something about that didn’t sit right with me, but I let it go for the time being and got right back to finishing up his cut. The quicker he was out my chair and on his way, the better for me so that I could avoid the drama.

Goshay was one of my most entertaining clients and probably the most charming and funniest person I’ve ever met. But he had one huge flaw. His ass was always lying to his girlfriend. It didn’t matter what it was—it could be the simplest shit, he would opt for the lie every time if it meant that he could avoid Felicia getting on his ass.

More than a few times I did his hair late at night and once I was finished, we would chill and talk for an hour or two. Nothing ever happened. Even though he flirted all the time and was the type of man every woman considered sexy, I would never deal with a man like him. However, he had a chill personality so I was open to being his friend. But all that changed the day I met Felicia.

The first time I ever laid eyes on her, she was in the middle of the street, with Vaseline smothered all over her face. Cars on both sides of the street was backed up for three blocks. And in the middle of it all, was Felicia, holding up traffic as she beat the brakes off another chick. I mean she was just tagging her ass like the girl had stolen the rent money and the rent was due.

After that, our late-night chill sessions were a wrap. I wanted no parts of the bullshit that constantly orbited around him. Fighting in public over a nigga who was passing out dick like a vaccine was not the life for me.

“Whatever you told her, I hope it sticks because if she ever asks me anything, I’m not lying for you.” I shook my head as I said it. “Your girl like to fight and even though I can still drag a hoe if need be, I’m too old for that shit. Felicia don’t mind spending the night in jail because she got you paying all her bills. The only person keeping the lights on in here is me.”

Looking me over slowly, Goshay ran his tongue over his perfectly white teeth and gave me what was every bit of a panty-soaking smile. I swear he had the kind of looks that would bring the freak out of a nun, but everything about him was devilish. He was pure poison to anyone born with a vagina.

“See, that’s what I’m talking about. I’m trying to tell you that you wouldn’t even have to worry about none of that shit if you was fuckin’ with a real nigga... like me.”

But the time the last word left his lips, he was already cheesing hard because he couldn’t even keep the act together. He knew he was full of shit and he also knew that I was going to call him on it because that’s what I always did.

Fanning my hand at him, I shook my head. “Tell that to somebody else. Them lines may work on them young ones but I’m about to hit the dirty thirty. You can’t gas me up no more.”

“Man, Toni, you know I’m just fuckin’ around. But, real shit, I do like chilling with you, just on some friendship shit, but my girl is crazy so I can’t really move around like I want to.”

“Don’t do that,” I told him. “She’s only crazy because you’re making her that way. Why won’t you just stop cheating?”

He sighed, lifting both hands in the air as if it was hopeless. “What can I say? It’s hard as fuck being a man.”

I couldn’t believe half of the things that Goshay would sit in my chair and say so this didn’t surprise me at all. He was so disciplined in almost every area in his life but show absolutely none when it came to controlling his dick.

“That’s why I’m trying to get my shit together and stop dealing with these hoes. But it’s so hard because they be coming at me all the time. Females really be out here applying pressure.”

I smiled but said nothing as I continued trimming his beard. He wasn’t saying nothing that I hadn’t heard a man say before. Especially the ones in his position. As long as there were niggas with money, there would be women trying to get at them. And, in Gangland, the men with the most money were members of the G Squad, just like Goshay. In fact, he wasn’t just one of the Squad, he was one of the highest-ranking officers.

He paid me $1,000 per cut just so I would stay after my normal hours. But the main reason I opened up late for him was because I had a lot to gain by being connected with one of the highest members of the G Squad. In Gangland, Goshay was something like a local celebrity. Cutting his hair was good for business.

Just as I was nearly done, the sound of his phone interrupted the silence in the room. Noting the sudden shift in his energy, I took a step back to give him space to answer.

“This won’t be long,” he said to me, his brow already furrowing across his forehead. The only time I’d ever seen him turn serious was when it came to business.

“Take your time.”

Backing away, I turned to the mirror and began fussing with my own hair. Trying to force my thick coils into submission. After finally swearing off the creamy crack, I was trying to figure out how to embrace natural hair that was hell-bent on doing whatever it wanted.

My toxic trait was thinking that I had 3B hair when I was working with a strong 4B. I used to spend fifteen minutes every morning trying to lay edges that refused to be laid before I finally gave up and let the curls do what they wanted to do.

“What’s good?” he began while I was contemplating all the best reasons for having a bald head.

I could pull that shit off. Easy, I thought, staring at my reflection in the mirror.

“Nah, I ain’t seen him,” he continued. “It’s been a few weeks. You think they cut that nigga’s lights out?”

I froze suddenly as I fully processed his words. He wasn’t speaking directly, but I understood his meaning.

If it hadn’t been for his tone, I would have thought they were really talking about somebody’s electric service, but after being Goshay’s barber for so long, I knew better.

His tone was tight and serious, much different than the way his voice was when he was speaking casually. Cutting someone’s lights out meant that someone had been killed.

I took a chance and glanced at him, too curious for my own good. I was always the kid who was constantly being told that I should mind my own business. But I also was the kid who never could.

I could see the tension in his shoulders as he sat up in his seat, senses on high alert. There was a deep bend in his brow as he listened intently to the person speaking on the other line. Something was happening in Gangland and I wanted to know all about it.

Playing it off like I wasn’t listening, I walked over to grab a broom from the supply closet and started sweeping while Goshay’s conversation continued.

“I mean, ain’t shit poppin’ right now. I’m just gettin’ a quick line up and then I can come through and handle that.”

He paused as something was said on the other end.

“Damn, for real? I knew he was goin’ through shit with his baby moms but I ain’t know she had that nigga arrested!”

He slumped back in the chair, relaxing once again as he listened. And then he sat up and turned his seat, looking at me. Feeling his eyes on me, my head lifted and I locked eyes with his, clueless until I heard him speak next.

“Nah, fuck that. If you need a quick lineup, you can come through. The girl that does my shit is official. You see I been finally able to grow a beard and shit. She rubs it down with that tea tree oil be having a nigga feeling beautiful. I thought that self-care was for females but niggas out here be needing it, too. We got stress, too. Know what I mean?”

“I’m closed!” I yell-whispered, trying to stop him in the middle of his impromptu sales pitch. But, of course, his talkative ass just kept right going before ending the call. And then, on cue, he turned apologetic eyes on me.

My expression deadpanned. “Don’t even—”

“Listen, I need you to do me a favor,” he started. “This dude right here been my homeboy since the first grade and he just need a quick—”

I wasn’t trying to hear all that. “How you know I don’t have anything to do?”

He stared at me like I was asking how he knew that Goshay was his first name.

“Because you never have shit to do,” he replied as if it were a matter of fact. “You probably about to go home, warm up a Lean Cuisine and read or some shit.”

I poked out my lips, mad as hell that he’d so easily put that together but didn’t say a word. It was true.

Licking his lips, he continued speaking while taking his eyes up and down my body. He was so used to using sex to get what he wanted, he wasn’t able to turn it off when it wasn’t needed.

“I promise I’mma make it worth your while if you just do me this one solid,” he pled, hands templed like prayer hands. “I wouldn’t do this to you for any other nigga. But this ain’t any other nigga. This is my homie for real. He said that his barber just got locked up in some shit behind his baby moms. He needs a quick line up before he flies out on business. If you do this for me, you already know how I am. I ain’t stingy ‘bout no money so just know I got you.”

Hands on my hips and an unimpressed expression on my face, I played it hard. I was making him sweat just because I liked to see him do it. Truthfully, as soon as he mentioned making it worth my while, I was down.

“I need you to walk me home when I’m done,” I said checking the digits on my watch. “I’m not trying to get caught up in nothing walking home this late by myself.”

“Say less. I got you,” Goshay repeated with emphasis, looking, and sounding just like DJ Khaled. He was playing around but his presence guaranteed my safety.

As charismatic and carefree as he was, I never forgot that he was also just as deadly. Goshay was rumored to be one of the G Squad’s deadliest shooters so, even though I saw him as a friend, there was another side of him I hoped to never see. He’d dropped so many bodies in his life that he always had his gun on him in case someone decided to seek revenge. He told me himself that he didn’t even take off his gun to eat, piss or sleep.   

“So, when should I expect your friend?” I asked as I slid up to sit on the counter.

“He said he was right around the corner so he should pull up soon,” he replied.

“Does he live out here?”

“Not really.”

“Not from the west side… but he’s comfortable driving around out here this late at night.”

“Something like that.”

I frowned. Goshay wasn’t giving me anything. “Something like that? So… how did y’all meet?”

“Are you trying to ask me if he’s a G?”

The skin on the back of my neck prickled at Goshay’s blunt nature. He played so much that I sometimes forgot that the reason he was so good with people was because he could read everyone so easily.

“Yes,” I admitted. “I don’t mean nothing by it. I just like to know who I’m dealing with. I don’t have anyone out here looking out for me. I’m alone.”

Goshay gave me a long, hard look. One that had me wondering if I’d said something wrong. After a while, he finally spoke.

“It’s not good for man to live alone. And it’s even worse for a woman.”

My brow bent. “You quoting Shakespeare now?”

He snickered at that. “That shit ain’t Shakespeare. It’s scripture. All them books you always reading and you ain’t read the Bible yet?”

I shook my head, smiling. “I’m not religious.”

Goshay shrugged. “Yeah, neither was Jesus.”

Before I could respond, I heard a tap coming from the front door. There were two men there, one I was seeing for the first time and another that I’d seen before. His name was Ace. I’d cut his hair a few times before and I knew from the tattoo of the blazing sun at the nape of his neck, that he was part of the G Squad. All of their members had a sun tattooed on a body part of their choice.

Walking over, I unlocked the door but before I could even open my mouth to greet them, they barged right in. Literally, slipped by me like I wasn’t even standing there.

“Excuse me?” I snapped at the sheer disrespect as they pushed past me into the shop, inspecting it as if they were looking for something.

My eyes flew to Goshay for help and he jumped into action.

“Aye, aye, aye!” he said, waving his hands in the air. “Y’all ain’t gotta do that! She my peoples. She all good.”

“Bruh, you know that shit don’t matter,” one of the men said. He was large and muscular with silky hair that he had wrapped up in a bun on top of his head. “We still gotta check.”

Once they were done, Ace went to the front door and waved at someone I couldn’t see. Seconds later, an all-black Cadillac Escalade rode up, the tints so black, you couldn’t see a damn thing that was happening from within.

This has to be him...Mecca. It has to be.

The words quaked inside me in a way that was known not assumed and it set off a chemical reaction inside of me.

My stomach was doing somersaults, the hair on my arms was standing up on edge. My heart was racing and my blood was rushing. It felt like the inside of my body was having a party. Everything inside of me was saying that this was a moment I would never forget.

Tune back in for chapter two... tomorrow!