GRIND (The Silver Nitrate Series Book 1) (7 page)

Reaching into his pocket, he slammed a five-dollar bill tip on the table and hauled tail. As he drew closer, she ceased chatting with whom he presumed to be a girlfriend of hers, and slowly turned in his direction. There she stood, no longer holding her hookah, tending to a glass of something blue and watered down with shards of half melted ice. Her slender brown fingers toyed with the red lipstick-stained straw in her cocktail, swirling it round and round like the spinning teacups at an amusement park ride. In an instant, the right side of her juicy lips kinked in a perfectly devious smile…

“Hey.” He slowly looked her up and down, taking her in up close and personal. He liked how she wasn’t overdressed, and her natural beauty shined through. “How are you doing tonight?” Out of his peripheral vision, he could see her friend leaning in a bit closer, a big Chester the Cat cheesy smile on her face. The swan, however, was another story altogether…

She slowly brought the straw to her lips, leaving him there squirming in his own skin as she took her precious time to respond. She took a tender sip, then, on an exasperated sigh paired with heavily hooded eyes, she replied, “I’m good.”

“Yeah? You’re good? You’re damn right you’re good. You look good, too… You look
real
nice…very pretty.” He rubbed his hands slowly together while the distant ambient music of J. Dilla’s ‘Dreamy’ played against the words that tumbled from his open lips. He was shooting the gift, rolling out some of his tried and tested material.

A sarcastic giggle escaped her friend’s mouth. The woman turned away, acting as if her own drink where five ounces of ‘Haterade’ and simply too delicious to not gulp down whole.

“Thanks,” the object of his desire finally responded, as if she clearly didn’t give a fraction of a shit and was simply throwing him a dry-rotted bone. His eyes landed on her lips again, then her long neck that begged for his mouth to run real slow across the length.

Yeah, she’s fucking beautiful… Looks like a black swan… Yeah, that’s what she looks like. She’s too fly to give up on just yet. Let me keep working this shit out…

“My name is Zenith.” He extended his hand, two rings gleaming on his fingers, and had to suppress a thrill at the anticipation of their skin touching in a slow shake… “May I know yours?” He cocked his head to the side, easily distracted, damn near preoccupied and semi-sedated by her unbelievable beauty.

She crossed one ankle over the other and he was duly impressed she didn’t fall forward as she held her balance with picture-perfect posture, in step and in rhythm, like a perfectly pronounced poem uttered to a drumbeat. The cruel lady left his hand lingering there with no one to hold…and nowhere to go. Regretfully, he lowered it back down to his side, nerves still tingling.

“Silver.”

“Silver?” He cocked his brow. “Hmmm, unusual name… That’s nice, though. I like it.”

“Yours is unusual, too.”

The darkness in her eyes caught the light just right and made his chest heat as it would with cognac going down smooth.

He nodded in agreement, kept the course. “Yeah, it is. Maybe we can talk about that… if you’d give me the opportunity.”

She turned away as if he’d simply given her a flyer to a local tittie bar and the strippers were substandard at best. But, he didn’t miss the twitchy little smirk on her face.

“So, how are you liking the music tonight so far?” he pressed on, unwilling to throw in the towel just yet.

“It’s okay.” Her face still averted, she swayed back and forth to the music, like a curtain that had caught a light, airy breeze.

Jamming his hand in his pocket, he lifted his chin and shortened their distance to the point he could see a wayward spring of her hair that hung straighter than all the rest, twirling against her earlobe. She turned towards him then, clearly irritated by his bold actions that granted her barely an inch of breathing room.

“Why are you so close to me?” She looked the man up and down as if he’d suddenly appeared out of a mysterious vapor. “You need to step back.”

Should he allow his inner demons to unleash, or play it nice?

“Now!” she snapped.

Demon-launch now in session…

“You know what, Silver?”

“What?” Her face drew serious, her full lips pursed as they stared one another down.

“I’m just a guy that was admiring you, trying to ask you out…maybe get to know you. Instead, you’re standin’ here proud of your nasty ass attitude. The problem with women like you is—”

“Women like me? Women…like me?!” Her eyes scanned him once again, this time a lot faster.

“Yeah, women like
you
. You must be living in some fantasy world. I ain’t beatin’ no drums right now and from your responses you ain’t Helen Keller. You can hear and see me just fine; you heard what I said.”

“Oh, you’re a comedian?” she taunted.

“Not right now and nothin’ is funny at this moment, anyway.”

“Oh, something is funny alright… and it’s still standing here, annoying me.” She sloshed her drink around, tossed the straw on the ground and looked down into the glass, then straight ahead, as if pretending he was no longer in her noble presence.

“The problem wit’ women like you is that you expect a man to chase ya ass, kiss it, fall apart, and play all these silly ass games.” He waved his hands about in a theatrical sort of way.

“Nobody told you to bring yo’ ol’, tired, lame ass over here,” she barked, her dark brows rutting, messing up the beautiful face he’d coveted just moments prior.

“And nobody told you to act stuck up, arrogant, and immature, either!”

Her mouth dropped open, as if she were truly appalled.

“Little boy, please! And for the record, stuck up and arrogant are the same thing!” She threw her hand up in his face, barely missing his nose. “All you want to do is fuck. I put up the stop sign and now you’re mad… You mad?” She cackled. “Not my issue, not my cause or concern, so go find someone else dumb enough to fall for this mess tonight. I’m sure the club is full of them.”

“So what if I wanted to fuck you.” He shrugged, feeling some kind of way.

She shook her head in disbelief, but it didn’t stop him.

“I still came at you respectfully and sometimes a lust fuck turns into a love struck, but you didn’t give it any time to find out!”

She stepped back, her lips parted…yet no words came out. He wasn’t even certain what was going on with him right then, but it was happening and he was going to ride it on out until the little, skinny man sang.

“You aren’t the first woman to act like this and there isn’t shit about you that gives you the right to think that it’s a privilege, an honor even, to stand in your space.”

Yeah… she needs to be knocked off her high horse and put in her place.

“Apparently you think so, ’cause ya ass is still standin’ here!” She lazily chuckled.

“Alright, I’ve heard enough,” her friend chimed in as if she were a one-woman security crew. “Take the hint, okay? She’s not interested.”

“Why are you involving yourself in this?” He laughed in confusion and threw up his hands.

“Because she’s my friend and you’re getting on both our nerves now, that’s why!” The deep caramel colored nymph rolled her neck about, animated and ridiculous as she was.

“I
know
your groupie ass isn’t chiming in,” he barked. “I recognize you now!” The woman’s complexion instantly reddened as he pointed in her face, the flashes of his memory making her known to him. “Yeah.” He smirked as he turned back to Silver, happy to deliver the nasty 411. “She comes to a lot of our shows, always staring and screaming at Javier… He smiled at you one time and you’ve been ridin’ his dick ever since.”

“Oh, grow up, would you? You’re just mad because you got rejected. Guys like you are used to getting whomever you want, whenever you want, and it didn’t work out this time so just be a man about it and leave.” She shooed him away like some roving fly. “We’re just trying to have a good time and you’re ruining it.”

“If this moment in time is so horrible for you to watch, why don’t you leave?” He pointed towards the exit. “You’d have more fun outside on the corner, right? In your element?”

“Shut up!” She rolled her eyes and turned away.

“You’re the type of ho that is always trying to talk your friends out of the guys that holla at them, right? You’re just jealous because no one is tryna talk to your Al Pacino, Tony Montana, ‘Say hello to my little friend’, lookin’ ass! You’re single, but hating it. Liiiivin’! Single! In a ’90’s kinda, woooorld! I’m, glad, I, got, my girls!” he sang, laughing.

“You are
beyond
rude and I’m sick of this. Where is security?” She craned her neck, searching for someone to save her from this mess.

“Stay in your lane, preferably the one I’m driving in while you’re on foot.”

“You must be drunk! No one could possibly be this vulgar or out of control! Typical drummer!” The meddlesome friend rolled her eyes, dismissing him, but her cheeks flushed redder as he undoubtedly struck a chord. He glanced over at Silver, who seemed to find her feet particularly interesting as she glared down at them. Then again, he returned his focus to the friend… someone was going to pay for how he felt, no matter how childish his behavior was.

“Truth hurt, don’t it? I would’ve been gone by now but you just had to throw your two cents in. Save that for your pimp. Wouldn’t want to come up short now, would you?”

“Look, little drummer boy, go on somewhere, alright? You’re not wanted.”

“Cute!” He grinned. “I wasn’t
here
for you… No worries, I’m gone. Silver, it
wasn’t
nice meeting you.”

“I feel the same,” she said, finally making her presence known once again though avoiding eye contact with him. She stared off into the distance, like a fading star. More importantly, her expression appeared vacant. There was no smirk, sarcastic smile, or anything of the like etched upon her face. It was slightly unnerving, but he wasn’t in the mood to give a damn.

“Enjoy the rest of your miserable night… You two deserve each other.” He lifted his hands in surrender, then winked at the object of his thwarted affections before walking away. His heart beat a bit faster, and his anger danced with the flames of some shit that had promise but ended up snuffed out like a Wiccan candle at the end of a spell-casting ceremony.

He didn’t feel bewitched, though. He felt ditched.

Once he returned to the bar, he found his friend nursing both their drinks, one in each hand, taking delicate sips from each as if they were sultry women whispering dirty nothings in his ears. Up on the stage, the crew was setting back up. Elijah shook his damn head in disbelief.

“Oh, sorry, but you was talkin’ so damn long, man… over there tryna get some pussy…but got played,” he teased. “I ain’t hear it, but I could tell things weren’t going as planned. Shit was funny, too! They ganged up on you. You the man, plaaaaayboy! It’ll be aiight. Better luck next time.”

Zenith burst out laughing.

“Man, forget them.” He took a deep breath and exhaled it. “Look, I gotta go… Imma check you out later… You was wrong for drinkin’ my shit though.” He clicked his tongue against his teeth. With a parting wave, he spun around and rushed towards the platform. He marched towards the shining silver and white Yamaha drums, fisting and unfisting his palms, ready to put in some work. He was itching to fuck some shit up, down and all around… fuck it good ’nd hard after his lascivious hopes and dreams blew up in fragrant hookah smoke.

He no longer looked for her; in fact, he didn’t want to see her damn face ever again.

He no longer wanted to smell the sweetness coming off her skin, so clean, cool, and authentic… or recall the way her midnight black hair glistened ever so slightly and how her wide, bright gold hoop earrings picked up his reflection as she swung away, turning her back on him.

He didn’t want to remember her perfectly shaped ass stuffed in a pair of jeans that hugged her in all the right places…

No, he wanted none of that. Instead, he simply grabbed those sticks in a death grip, and began to beat the blue ball shit out of them …

BAM!

BAM!

BOOM!

“Let’s go!”

“Why are you
acting funny?” Clara questioned as Silver drove her back home at two that morning.

Silver had only had one cocktail, but her damn head was throbbing and a headache of epic proportions was taking root. The hookah lay on its side on the center console, reminding her of a good time that now had a hazy, dark cloud looming above it.

“I’m not acting funny… just tired.” She turned the radio down, needing perfect stillness and quiet and there was no way classic, ‘Boyz N’ Tha Hood’ by Eazy E was going to allow that to happen… But, she let it play anyway.

“Yes, you are. You’ve been acting funny ever since that idiot, that smart-ass fucker came over and got mad because you didn’t want to hear his bullshit. He was cute though…” She laughed lightly, causing Silver to do the same.

Yeah, he was… Actually, he was sexy as hell, but that’s far from the point…

“Like I said, I’m just tired, Clara.” The woman opened her mouth to say something else, argue her point, but then clammed up.