Another Man's Treasure (Joey Bada$$ Story)

Part Sette

Joey walked me back to the hotel he was staying at. He still didn’t explain to me why he wasn't with his friends and how he found me in the alley (I’d hidden myself pretty well). We just kept walking, skipping the aspect of conversation, until we walked into one of DC’s many Mariotts. He greeted the valet boys and went straight inside to the elevator.

“Hey, Joey,” A girl passing by us winked. I chuckled—she reminded me of Abigail: cute but thirsty. He probably got a lot of those.

The elevator came down and took us all the way to the sixth floor. Joey pulled out his room key and unlocked 627’s door. The room was small, unlike what I expected. Just two beds, a TV and a bathroom. A laptop, which looked to be like his own personal one, sat on the desk by the window. Not much of the baller setting if you ask me.

“Welcome to my fort,” He closed the door behind us. “The other boys are in different hotel roms, but I don’t mind. I like being alone.  I’m just chilling.”

I rested Latara on one of the beds so she could crawl around, and put her bag on the floor. I had the sudden urge to get out of the clothes I was in, and then I realized that they were still in Ivan’s basement. He was gone for good, it seemed. Any time I wanted to go down there I could. It’s not like anyone else would steal it; everyone was afraid of that infested basement.

“So what now?” Joey asked, laying down on the edge of the bed Latara was on. I guess he was posing as a barrier so she wouldn’t fall off the bed. Smart of him; thoughtful of him.

Instead of responding to his question, I dialed Abigail’s number. She picked up after the first ring.

“You’re out of the hospital already?” I asked.

“No, but I’m about to be. I’ve been here too long.”

“What happened to your grandmother?”

“She got a stroke. She can’t move her right side, Jamie.”

“Damn. At least she lived through it, though.”

“Yeah,” Abigail sighed. “At least. I know I should be having sympathy and remorse, but I’m kind of pissed. Now that she’s cripple, she has to move into my house. It’ll be her, me, both my parents, and my grandma’s two foster children.”

“Wow. Full house, huh?” I asked. This was bad news.

“Yeah. Look, I gotta go. They’re rushing us out since it’s not visiting hours. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

I hung up the phone and threw it over to Latara’s bag. Now, when I was considering telling her the truth about my homelessness and asking her to take me and Tara in (I knew she would), I couldn’t. Not with her whole family in the house.

“What’d she say?” Joey asked. I’d almost forgotten he and Latara were behind me. He was making funny faces at her, playing peek-a-boo and other little things that I was way too tired to entertain.

“Nothing.” I said. He didn’t pay attention to me. He stopped playing with Latara, only stared intensely at her, watched her crawl around and observed her as she observed him. I watched him gaze at her, his eyes clearly showing that his mind was full of thoughts. “What’s on your mind?” I asked him. He looked up at me like I’d just woken him up from a dream.

“I don’t know...Steelo liked babies a lot,” He chuckled. I assumed ‘Steelo’ was Steez. “Especially babies like this one, with these fat cheeks [he brushed her cheek with his finger]. He had fat cheeks too, you know. When he was young and chubby.”

I only smiled, remembering my tears from the concert. I was crying for someone who’d saved my life and taken their own. I understood Joey’s pain; he knew Steez better, but I still understood his pain.

“Where’s her father?” Joey looked at me.

I gulped. “He’s...gone. He left us. Everything was fine and dandy, and one day I come home and my babysitter tells me that he went to Missouri to be with his mother. There’s a story in the newspaper about him calling off our wedding—I don’t even know why that was published, to be honest. I was really confused, and the only clues I had was a note he left me saying that I’d lied to him about something and once I figured it out I would know why I left him. That pissed me off so bad, you know? And then the next thing you know, I was evicted for late rent. That means that before Edwin left, he hadn’t been paying the rent even though he had the money to. He’s a lawyer. He probably wanted this to happen to me. I asked him for money to care for Latara over the phone, but he said no. Just like that: no. I haven’t heard from him since. I assume he’s with his mother.”

This was the first time I told anyone the story in its entirety. I told Abigail, but she still didn’t know about the eviction part. It felt raw. It was, anyway. I put myself in his shoes, imagining how I’d react if someone told me the story I just told him. I’d be compassionate, surprised, remorseful.

“Forget about him.” He said.

That’s definitely not what I would’ve said.

“Huh?”

“Forget about Edwin, for good. You don’t need to waste your time with him if he’s playing games with you.”

“Well what the hell do you want me to do about feeding my child if I just ‘forget’ about him?” I asked him, getting annoyed.

“I don’t know,” Joey said honestly. “But I know that this has been the last stop of my tour and I have to go home to get back to work.”

“So you’re leaving?” It came out sounding more disappointed than I wanted him to know.

“Yeah,” He said, picking up Latara and bouncing her on his lap. “So I don’t know what you really want to do, but you’re homeless. If you’re not to posh for it, you can come back home with me and stay in my apartment. I don’t mind; I live alone.”

I grinned. Joey was being too nice, and I didn’t bother with trying to figure out why. All I knew was that when Abigail’s door closed, his door opened, and opportunities were being thrown at me left and right.

“I’m not too posh.” I told him. “I’ll come with you.”

“Good.” He didn’t look at me, just continued to entertain the baby.

“Hey, Joey?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

He didn’t even look at me, only kept playing with Latara. He planted a kiss on her forehead.

I assumed that this meant I was welcome.