GRIT (The Silver Nitrate Series Book 2) (31 page)

“You son of a bitch…”

“The little boy asked me what you said about him and I said something like, you said he stunk and sucked at all sports… and that you didn’t like playing with him. Then I told him that your father screwed around on your mother, got AIDS and gave it to her, too… and that was the
real
reason they were dead. I got in my car, and waited. Moments later, you two were arguing, but at least you finally got the truth!”

Before Zenith could stop himself, he clocked Uncle Len clean in the face. He got atop him, beating and pummeling him, while people screamed and cried out, others tried to pry him away. So many hands were upon him… and there was so much blood… so much…

“Zeeenith!” he heard Denise holler, making him pause and come to his senses.

“Get the hell out of here!” Denise screamed at Uncle Len, pointing towards the front doors. “You get your drunk ass out of this funeral home, you devil! You’re a disgrace! Horrible!”

He’d never heard her curse before, nor had he seen her so angry. He stood there, halfway out of breath, with Silver beside him, the picture of an angry goddess. Uncle Len got to his feet, swiped at his bloody nose and mouth, and sneered at Denise as she drew closer to him. The woman balled up her fist; everyone surely saw her do that. Len turned away and stumbled out, like the coward he was. Javier marched behind the drunk, undoubtedly going to make sure he was leaving, for good.

Zenith looked around the crowd, but didn’t see his cousins anywhere in sight.

They must’ve left… shit.

“I’m sorry, everyone,” he called out, his voice cracking as anxiety seeped in. But people continued to come up and hug him, act as if nothing had happened at all. No one even spoke of the incident. It was the damndest thing…almost as if what Uncle Len did had been expected.

“I knocked him to the ground…”
He suddenly recalled those words Paw had said to him about Uncle Len. It was like déjà vu…

Silver reached in her purse, pulled out hand sanitizer and tissues, and began to clean off his blood-splattered knuckles.

“Hey, they’re serving dinner,” Flip announced as he straightened his suit jacket.

“Okay, here I come.” He turned back towards Paw, smiled and winked. “It wouldn’t be a Taylor party without a bit of fighting now, would it?” He burst out laughing, took Silver by the hand, and waded through the crowd to partake in the homecoming feast…

‘Through the blood you were born, through the blood you are saved, through the blood you know family, and through the blood you shall die, and be born again…welcome home.’

…Two weeks later

“They have those
new chips out. They taste like cheddar sour cream, got little green specs on ’em.”

“Zenith, how in the hell is that supposed to help me? Do you know how many varieties of chips there are in the grocery store? You need to give me the
exact
name of the chips, the brand at least. Google the shit or something.” Silver reached in her closet and pulled out a white leather jacket.

“If I knew what they were called, you think I wouldn’t tell you? I’m craving them. Come on baby, go the extra mile for me.”

She rolled her eyes. “If you remember, text it to me. I’ve got to pick up some more milk too because
someone
thought they needed
three
bowls of cereal this morning and couldn’t eat a normal amount of food.” She grabbed her keys to head out.

“Two and a half! Some of us are hungry and need sustenance. I’m a grown ass man, I need—” The door slammed while he was in mid-rant. “Food! I need you to cook more,
too
! You could pay me in home cooked meals and I’d be yours forever, but you ain’t learned yet… yeah! You been skatin’ by on your pretty looks! Pretty don’t take care of my stomach, Mrs. Taylor!” he went on, knowing she couldn’t hear him. The coast was clear and he was safe. “Yeeeaaaah, non-cookin’ ass… She think having some good ass pussy, being intelligent, having nice tits, knowing how to ride a bike, play video games, and design her own shit makes her a winner! She think ’cause she is damn near perfect for me, that that’s enough! Well it isn’t! I need
more
than a perfect woman to make my damn day!” he kept on, cracking himself up… feeling silly. Just then, his cell phone vibrated and a light glowed from the screen. He snatched it off the table and answered it.

“Hey, did you think of the name of those chips?” Silver asked.

“Nope. Can you just pick up some Lays?”

“Yeah, I’ll pick up lunch, too.”

“Thanks, baby. It’s almost noon… damn. I’m still waiting on Javier to call me back. I spoke to L.A. Reid on the phone last night, like I told you, but I have to coordinate this with the guys. We’re supposed to fly out to California, but no set date has been scheduled. I have no idea what’s taking him so long to get back with me.”

“You know he’ll call you back. He’s just as excited as you are…probably waiting on Mike or Flip or someone to confirm their schedule.”

“Are you sure you won’t come? I’d love for you to be there.”

“No, that’s alright, honey. It’s not like you guys are performing or anything. This is just the final meeting and not only that, I’ve got two important meetings in the city this week regarding—”

“The game. That’s right. I have no idea why I kept thinking that was next week. I made a note of it in my calendar, told Javier I can’t miss that.” He shook his head, angry with himself. “My days are a little messed up. I’m trying to get back in the swing of things.”

“That’s okay, a lot has been going on. See you in a bit… oh, and just because I love you, there is a little something for you sitting on the bed. Buh bye!” And just like that, she hung up. He placed his phone down and hightailed it down her short hall, bare feet slapping the hardwood floor past the restroom to her bedroom. It looked awfully strange inside; only her bed and television could be seen, and everything else in boxes. His home looked much the same, for they’d be breaking ground soon on the new house. There, on the middle of the bed, sat a small red box. He picked it up with both hands and removed the lid. Inside, he found a black video game box… but it had no label, no artwork, nothing.

He turned it around in his hands, rather perplexed as he sat on the edge of the bed, pulled up a roller tray that housed the Xbox, and placed the disc inside. Various images began to fade in and out of the screen. He navigated to the main menu, his curiosity piqued. A sexy female voice began to speak.

YOU ARE THE LEADER OF YOUR BAND… CHOOSE AN INSTRUMENT…

He tilted his head ever so slightly to the left and selected the drums…

CHOOSE WHICH BAND MEMBER YOU ARE…

Five band members appeared to choose from… and they looked a bit familiar, especially one in particular…

“Oh… my…God!” He burst out laughing as he selected his likeness, a tall, light brown man with long black hair and one long, gold earring dangling from one ear. The character’s arm donned a tattoo that read: Zen. The computerized man began to swing drumsticks as if he were doing Karate.

YOU HAVE SELECTED ‘ZEN’.

“I’m Zen… and I run this motherfucker!” said the character as he continued to dance and showboat with the drumsticks.

“Imma kill you, Silver! Oh my God, this is hilarious!” He continued to navigate through the game.

CHOOSE YOUR BAND OPPONENT, ZEN.

Suddenly, he was standing in a small white room on the screen that morphed into a stage and cheering crowd. It looked so real, as if he could reach out and touch it.

“Damn, that’s tight.”

There were a series of bands to choose from with different names, cities, even countries. Some had interesting costumes, while others looked like your average college group. Some had female band members, or were all girl bands. He decided to select a band called, ‘HOCUS’.

“Alright, what you got for me, Silver?”

YOU SELECTED, HOCUS. BEFORE YOU COMPETE AGAINST HOCUS FOR THE TOP PRIZE, YOU MUST WARM UP. ZEN, YOUR BAND MEMBERS WILL NOW JOIN YOU…

Suddenly other members arrived, all showing a slight similarity to real band members in Pure Grit.

“Ahhh, now that they’re more up close, I see you were careful!” He cackled. “Didn’t want that copyright to come bite you in the ass, and you knew your man wouldn’t sue you, so you were safe keeping me accurate!” He quieted while his character sat behind the drums. Looking at the console and the directions, he mumbled to himself a few times as he tried to figure everything out. “Oh, okay… so I hit this right here, and the guys join me on stage… alright, got it. That’s slick, Silver… Damn, girl.” He slicked his tongue over his lower lip. “Ha!” All of the band members began to warm up with their individual instruments. “Oh… I can choose a different background? Cool!” Various backdrops displayed options of a studio, garage, stage, park, and more.

“Okay, okay… so let’s get to playing.” He selected, ‘warm up complete.’

The competing band hit the stage right beside them, with their respective instruments.

TOSS A COIN, AND CHOOSE WHO GOES FIRST,
the woman announced.

Zenith selected the coin icon and watched it swivel in the air, almost in 3-D.

“Wait! There is a 3-D option! Oh my God! This is slick as
fuck!
I want my 3-D glasses, Silver! You’re slippin’, homie! Ahhhh! Hocus goes first? I call bullshit!” He laughed as he sat back and watched the band play a song. “I don’t even recognize what the hell they played… but the crowd is going wild. Okay… here is a song menu… word?! There are like 300 songs here… looks like you can add more from your mp3 player, too… Silver, this is tight as hell! I keep saying that but it is… I’ll tell you when you get back home, if you can pry my hands off here…”

CHOOSE YOUR SONG…

He selected, “In Bloom’ from Nirvana.

“Okay, you got some good stuff here to choose from. Okay boys, let’s rock out! This is like garage band on steroids!” He was able to move his player’s arms on the drums, just as he played in real life. “
THIS IS SO DAMN DOPE! HOLD THA FUCK UP!
” He put the game on pause, raced back into the living room, and grabbed his cell phone. When she answered, all he could hear was beeping and clicking, as if someone’s groceries were being rung up.

“You know this is dope, right?!” he shouted before she had a chance to respond with a simple, ‘hello.’

Silver laughed. “You like it?”

“Do I like it? Do I
like
it?! Silver, this is incredible. I’ve seen games with slightly similar concepts, but this is so far advanced, it’s not even funny. The graphics are incredible, the players’ movements are accurate, there is no lag or drag time, the song selection is good… This is awesome and I can only imagine how much fun this would be with a team of others playing at the same time.”

“Right; that’s more what it’s for. Some really funny things can happen we’ve discovered when people play their friends as the opposing band. You have an advantage obviously, because you know how to really play, but for others, it is just a fun game, though I also thought it could be a teaching tool.”

“I definitely could see that, because the motions are natural. You had some professionals come in, right? You could’ve asked me, baby.”

“I know, but you know what’s so funny? I was thinking about a game like this before I even met you. After we started dating, I took that kind of as a sign to go on and do it. I’m really glad you like it… Oh, hold on… Yeah, that will be credit…”

“It’s going to do really well, Silver. I can just about guarantee that because you’ve got so many things people can do. There’s a built in music lesson, song lyrics, a karoke play option and everything. It’s fun… it would keep people entertained for a while and the sound quality is excellent for an Xbox.”

“Thank you. I thought that was really important so we spent a lot of man-hours on that, making sure it was up to par.”

“You’ve been burning the midnight oil, grindin’!” He laughed. “I’m so proud of you… Hey, do you mind if I show the guys?”

“No, go right ahead.”

“Bet… we could even give some of these out, once it is ready of course, at performances. We could even place them on our band website to concert ticket buyers, help promote it and offer it at a discount price for every ticket bought.”

“Zen, that is an excellent idea! Simone is going to
love
that!”

“And I’ve got another idea, too.”

“What’s that?”

“You should have the drummer like get to sleep with the designer, but only him, right? Like once he reaches a certain level in the competitions, he can go to some back chamber called ‘Sex with Silver’ or some shit like that and then—Hello? Hello? You hung up right before I got to the best part!”