A Girl Called Nikki

Synopsis

A Girl Called Nikki

By K. L. Davis

It’s not easy being a teenager, and when the passage to adulthood is paved with sex and drugs, it makes the coming of age even more difficult for those involved. Shaye, Brenda and Nikki are all seventeen, beautiful, and caught up in living secret lives that no one their age should be living.

When Shaye’s mother was killed by a drunk driver, it left her to be raised by her father, a novice junkie who would do anything for his next fix; including pimping out his daughter’s best friend. The only comfort Shaye has in life is the forbidden love affair she shares with Rahim. While Shaye struggles to keep secrets concerning her relationship, her friend Brenda’s problems are ones that aren’t as easy to hide. Strung out on heroin and pregnant, Brenda fights daily with the fact that she will soon be a teen mom by a man who does not want kids at all; especially ones that will be born addicted to heroin. The loss of innocence for these young ladies begins with bad choices and from a willingness to follow the actions of Nikki Bradley; the most experienced of the threesome. Streetwise and intelligent, Nikki has baggage of her own which lands her in a brothel in Miami to work off a debt she incurred under Marcus, one of the most notorious drug dealers in Virginia.

Three young girls in three struggles for survival which start a chain of events that changes all of their lives forever.

K.L. Davis takes you on a fast-paced journey through the lives of impressionable young girls who each experience a loss of their innocence to the streets. In a story that is full of twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat, secret lives will unfold as a dramatic story is told of following the lead of A Girl Called Nikki.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to thank God from making all things possible. It is because of His grace and mercy that I am able to even attempt to walk in the path of my dreams. Without Him, none of this could have happened and I want thank Him for closing windows and opening doors just for me.

I would like to especially thank my mother, Wilma Ramey, for giving me life and the ability to read. It is because she thoughtfully planted a seed deep inside me that made it possible for my love of reading and my desire to write to fester and grow.

I also want to thank my sister, Claudia Parks, for the street education, and first-hand acknowledge that she gave me. Through her, I saw so much and lived so much. It is my goal to be able to save someone from the same situations and experiences that I was able to witness as reality from those on the streets.

Special thanks to William Thornton and my kids Keiara Parks and Terrance Davis for believing in me even when I wasn’t sure of myself. Even a flower at the beginning of spring questions its ability to bloom. I am thankful for those that saw my possibilities even when I did not see them within myself.

To my nephew, Christopher Parks, keep your head up and don’t doubt yourself. Your trials and tribulations are almost over. God has something great in store for you even if you don’t see it. Have faith, your joy cometh in the morning; you just have to be patient and wait on God. I love very much.

To my goddaughter, Leshawn Parks, keep reading…knowledge is power. Reading will show you that everything you see in the streets is not what it appears to be. All that glistens is not gold; and a world of possibilities awaits you if you just see passed your today and focus on your tomorrow.

A special thanks to my mentor, Treasure E. Blue, for going above and beyond to help me bring my dream to life. You have no idea how much your guidance has meant to me and I am truly grateful for your unselfish willingness to show me how to obtain my goals. May you have much success in all your literary endeavors. To Traci Bee, thank you for always making yourself available to answer my many questions and to Marcus and Jackie Washington and Andrea Nino for all the time and effort that each of you put in to helping me pursue my dream. To Linda Gregory, Shannon Carroll, and Tammy Wade for going out of your way to tell everybody about my book and for all the sales you guys have made on my behalf.

Thank you Wanda Alexander, Preston Parks, William Ramey, Grilette Bates, and all the ladies at Arlington County Treasury Department for your support; you have been my silent angels that kept me focused on bringing life to my story.

If I have missed anyone in my feeble attempts to give thanks to all who have been an aid in bringing my first book to life, please chalk it up to my head and not my heart. I will never be able to express all of my thanks to all that have helped me along the way; so if I have missed your name among the roll, please know that you are loved and appreciated and that extends to all that continue to follow me on my journey, thanks to each of you as well.

Last, but not least, thanks to all those that worked behind the scenes to help put my words into print: Glenda Wallace, Donna Osborn, Dashawn Taylor, Dave Brewington, Carla Dean and most of all Lorraine Elzia; each of you showed me the way to give life to my words, and for your assistance, I am eternally grateful.

A writer has a story to tell. I thank each and every person who has been instrumental in helping me allow my story to be told. God Bless you all.

~K. L. Davis

Chapter 1

My name is Shayla Johnson. Most people call me Shay. I am going to tell you about the summer of 2000. The shit that happened jumped off that summer is unbelievable and is a story that needs to be told just because it was a summer that would change our lives forever. I was only seventeen at the time; and my friends, Nikki and Brenda, were the same age as me and we were all set to graduate in 2001, so we looked forward to spending our last summer in high school together. The shit that went down during that year would be something that we would later have to charge to the game and the rules of survival.

I was a young, brown-skinned, pretty girl with good, straight black, shoulder-length hair that was real and all mine; something rare where I lived. Even at the tender age of seventeen, I already had a body that most grown women would kill for – and I knew it! My cute smile and curvy figure never failed to get attention from the guys. All of them, young and old alike, were sniffing behind me trying to get what they could from me. Thanks to my sister, Teresa, who everybody called ‘Tee’, I was able to carry Marc Jacobs and Coach handbags; wear Parasuco jeans, Coogi dresses, and Ferragamo sandals. My fronts were always up and my shit was always on point. I had it going on like that from every angle imaginable.

My signature scent was Coco Channel and Dolce & Gabbana. Me and my friends were all what you would call, ‘good teenagers, because we did a lot of positive things by anyone’s measuring stick and up until that point, we’d always stayed out of trouble. We always did our homework before anything else and that was why our parents didn’t do that micro managing shit when it came to any of us. We had a reputation of being good girls for the most part. Well, except for Nikki; thoughts concerning her reputation tended to ride the fence. Ms. Delores knew that out of all of us, Nikki was the most outgoing. She loved to lead the boys and men on, and she got whatever she wanted from men, which made it hard to believe that she wasn’t fucking yet – even though she wasn’t…well at least in the beginning.

With Ms. Delores at work and Rock trying to watch Nikki, it was hard for him to keep up with her and have a social life of his own. Nikki was known for wearing some expensive shit to school, and when we would ask her how she got it, she would say so and so gave it to her…yeah right!

My mother, Mrs. Traci Johnson, sold real estate for a living; and my father, Chris, was an engineer for a big firm in Old Town. One night while my mother was on her way home from showing a property in Woodbridge, Virginia, she was sitting at a traffic light in the mixing bowl, and a crazy-ass drunk driver rammed right into the back of her car. He hit her so hard she was ejected through the windshield into the path of oncoming traffic. That was all she wrote for my mother. I was told it happened so fast she never knew what hit her. She died on impact, leaving my dad to raise me and Tee by himself. – A task that was way over my father’s head.

Tee was nineteen then and had already graduated from school. I guess you could say my mom’s death had an effect on both of us, my dad and me. My dad must’ve taken it pretty hard, because just six months after Mom’s death, he started using dope. He had a good job that would have allowed him to pay all the bills, but after his habit kicked in full swing, he started to miss a lot of days of work. Then he would go back to work and tell his boss a lie about me being sick. His boss called him in the office one day to confront him about all the days he was missing from work.

He asked him if there was something wrong, ‘cause he had noticed that my dad had started to change. He told my dad if there was anything he could do to help out, he should let him know, and he would do everything in his power to help him. My dad had been employed there for almost ten years and had never had any problems in the past; but after mom was gone, he started using the excuse that he was just stressed out about her death, combined with the added pressure of trying to raise me alone. He used me as an excuse for everything!

His boss let him off with a warning the first couple of times, but told him that if he kept missing days, he was going to have to let him go and get someone that could be there full time and not just when they felt like it. My dad agreed that it would be the last time he would need to be off for a while and assured his boss the he would do better. But that was just the beginning of a string of lies and broken promises.

Tee like to hang out in the dirty areas where the dope fiends were in alleys shooting up drugs , while the crack heads gave blow jobs and the hoes just straight out sold themselves for little or nothing.

My mom used to tell Tee all the time about hanging out in those alley like some damn alley cat, but those crack heads where her friends and she had what they wanted.

My dad had a friend named Smokey. I knew from the first day I saw him that he was nothing but trouble. Every time he came over, my dad was different after he left. I never saw my dad getting high, but I knew something was wrong. I know now that reason was because Smokey was the source that my dad got his dope from, and when the dope man left, dad was always high as hell.

My dad had a habit of leaving with Smokey a lot –no telling where they were going. Sometimes they would be gone for hours, and when they came back they would be laughing loud and talking about some bitch that they had just tricked.

Smokey was a smooth talker and an immaculate dresser. That’s why everybody thought he had a regular nine to five, even though his job was one that if he was called to do it, nobody lived to talk about it. Smokey had made his reputation as being a notorious motherfucker that didn’t give a fuck about nobody but himself. Smokey should have been put away or in some kind of institution a long time ago. He had a dark side about him that only a few people had seen; and most of them ended up dead once he turned into that other side – the mother fucker who was ruthless.

Smokey worked for Marcus as his enforcer; and he was good at getting rid of problems, so to speak. Marcus was a major distributor of coke and heroin in Virginia and in parts of Maryland. Whenever the competition tried to move in, Marcus would send a warning to his competitors by way of Smokey.

One day Smokey mentioned to my dad that he could get him some part-time work, but first he had to check the situation out. My father didn’t really need a part-time job, he made good money on his real job; but his drug habit was starting to catch up with him. My father was interested and agreed that he would check out Smokey’s lead, not knowing what kind of work Smokey was really talking about.

My sister Tee was a lesbian who sold drugs for a living to support herself and to support all of her women. Tee never got along with our father because he did not approve of her having sexual affairs with women. He would always say to her, Girl, if God wanted you to be a man, He would have given you a penis and not a vagina. He would also spit out comments randomly like, God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. Tee’s response was always the same and something along the lines of…It was her damn life and she was going to live it to the fullest in whatever way she damn well pleased.

Dad spent most of his time entertaining drug dealers so he could get high for free; and when he couldn’t get any work out of them, he expected Tee to give him some of her supply. During the week, I was expected to keep the house clean while my father did side hustles to support his habit; but on the weekends I stayed over at my sister’s apartment. I couldn’t stay at my sister’s during the week because I had to go to school and since this would be my last year, I had to stay up on my homework and attendance. I know my mom would have been real proud of me because I was an honor student with straight A’s even though I smoked a little weed here and there.

Nikki and Brenda were my best friends; we hung out all the time and there was barely a time that you would see one of us without the others. We had all met in the second grade and had been friends since then. Nikki was the ring leader. Mostly because she had the most energy out of all of us and because she had a way of finding something to do at all times. She had a way with the boys too. We all admired the way that she seemed to be able to keep the boys noses wide open; they were always hitting on her because of the clothes she wore. No matter what she was doing, Nikki always seem to be moving at a faster pace than me and Brenda. She had an infectious laugh, and no matter when you saw her, she would always have on the tightest jeans and a broad chest that was always swinging. Sometimes her body parts seemed to be moving during those rare moments when Nikki was totally still. Nikki lived with her big brother Rock who was eighteen, and with their mother Ms. Delores Bradley who worked nights at Sentra Hospital in the pediatric ward. While Ms. Delores worked at night, it was Rock’s job to watch Nikki.

Brenda transferred in our class during the middle of the school year. In the beginning, she was quiet and not as outspoken as we were. She never really spoke unless she had something to say, now don’t get me wrong, she wasn’t shy at all, she just didn’t have as much to say as me and Nikki did. Brenda had two little sisters that she sometimes had to watch after school until her mom got home from work. She lived with both of her parents, but her father was a long distant truck driver who stayed on the road most of the time. Brenda and her family lived a few blocks over from us and her mom work for the Patient Office out of Crystal City.

Brenda, Nikki and I had a really close friendship; we were like the Three Musketeers and we did everything for each other, even down to our school work. After school, we would all get together and walk over to Nikki’s house since we had the most freedom there. We would sit in her room doing stuff teenage girls did like talk about how we were going to lose our virginity and about the boys that we liked and all the shit we were going to get into. Just joking, laughing, and clownin’ around like girls do as we reminisced about how far we had come in our short lives. We would also smoke a couple of joints.

I stayed over at Tee’s on weekends and Sundays when it was time for me to go home, Tee would give me weed to take with me for me and my girls. That might sound bad, but when you look at it there were a lot of chicks walking around here all fucked up and strung out on cracked and shit, asking motherfuckers on the streets if they could suck their penis just for a rock, so Tee just didn’t want that shit for me, so she gave me weed to keep me from trying to get it from someone else off the streets – at least if it came from her, Tee felt like we were at least getting something good that she did not have to worry about how safe it was for us because she knew where she got it from

Most time we did not see each other during the week, and she wanted to make sure I did not have to risk getting anything from someone else. My friends and I had never experienced snorting cocaine before, but we had seen it done many times. Tee’s woman did a lot of shit in front of us, so we weren’t dumb by far on anything concerning drug use because we saw it firsthand. Sometimes Tee would let my two friends stay over on the weekends when I stayed at her place so that I would have company my own age and they could keep me out of her hair so that I wouldn’t get in her way. Most of the time, Tee kept late hours on the weekends and in the evenings, that seem to be when everybody wanted to buy from her and to get their smoke on. One of the things Tee didn’t believe in was having her customers come to her house.

The last weekend I was over Tee’s house, one of the guys she worked with in the streets named Rahim, came over. When I answered the door, he just stood there staring at me like he knew me – in a few brief seconds he took in my five-ten, one hundred pound frame with a visual x-ray machine inside his head. He seemed to devour me with just one glance.

His eyes traveled down the length of my curvy body and came to rest on my thick thighs before he return to look at my face. This particular day I knew I was looking good, so I didn’t much blame him for staring me up and down. My freshly-permed hair was parted down the center and my hairdresser, Moni, had hooked me up with a cut that skimmed my shoulders and accentuated my honey brown eyes. So, I definitely understood Rahim’s inability to speak as he took all of me in with his eyes.

Rahim was a delicious looking, dark chocolate, slim goody with a bald head. He stood about six two, sported a freshly-trimmed goatee, and a huge Colgate smile. Just the way I like my men!

While Rahim and I checked each other out,