FOR BLOOD AND LOYALTY

Chapter Ten

Extorting anyone was the last thing Bobby was doing, though. It was 6 weeks later and there he was, back at the gym, working his underachieving day job.

            He wasn’t resentful of Victor or anyone’s success, but some nights when they went out to party, on Victor’s dime, he had to try not to be. Everywhere they went Victor would grab the check. Then they’d go to the mall, and Victor would buy Bobby clothes. Victor was living like a king.

            But that was his life, not mine, Bobby thought. Gotta stay loyal. Victor was by far the best friend he ever had. And while he sat there at the front desk, combing through the Yellow Pages there was only one thing on his mind. However, when the boss walked in Bobby folded the page he was reading and closed up the phone book.

Curious though, Victor picked it up off the desk. He looked at it. “20 bucks says it’s the G-section.”

Bobby didn’t say anything. Instead he smiled when Victor opened it up to the D-section. Specifically, the dog section.

“So you wanna be a professional dog walker now?” Victor asked.

            “What?”

            “If you don’t like it here just tell me,” Victor said.

            “Don’t flatter yourself,” Bobby told him.

            Victor put the book down. He pulled out a knot of at least $2,500 and gave Bobby a 20 from it.

            “If you insist.”

Victor smiled. “You got plans for tonight?”

            “Jennifer called me. She wanted to hang out again.”

            “Are you going to?” Victor asked.

            “Not if you got something better goin’ on. What’s up?”

            “Let’s go to Snap.”

            “We were just there.”

            “Well let’s go back. There’s somebody there tonight I wanna introduce you to.”

The old crew, back together again. Or at least part of it, Bobby thought, as they passed a blunt around while cruising down the Long Island Expressway that night. Riding in Victor’s Beamer, Fat Mark and Bell in the back with Bobby up in shotgun and The Lox’s Money, Power & Respect playing on the radio. The track featured DMX and Lil’ Kim on it, too.

            But Fat Mark had to ask him, “You smell this shit, Bobby D? Now I know they didn’t have nothin’ like this in the joint.” He was talking about the high quality of the insane bud they were smoking.

            “My man,” Bobby replied. “They didn’t have nothing like this before I was in the joint.” He coughed. “Jesus Christ. Where’d you get this from?” he asked Victor.

            But Victor didn’t respond. He just gave Bobby a look.

            “Bobby D you know the best weed in New York was always in the neighborhood,” Fat Mark told him.

            “It was funny actually,” Bobby said. “When I was Up North? There was a blurb about the weed in Bayside in High Times.”