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

Part Diciannove

Darius lived in an apartment downtown, away from the junction but close enough to still be worthwhile. The building wasn’t as nice as Joey’s, but there were more restaurants around that made up for the cigarette smell in the lobby and the puddle of what could be either liquor or piss in the elevator. Darius apologized for how shabby the place was, and said that it’s what he gets for moving into the cheapest place he could find in the area.

His apartment was on the top floor, the fifth. He unlocked the door with Latara’s bag propped up on his shoulder while she sat in my arms, studying everything around her, to reveal a spacious, classic Brooklyn apartment filled with thrift-store furniture and a cloud of weed smoke. A girl sat on the living room floor, smoking from a red-gold-and-green bong. Only after Darius closed the door behind us did she look up.

“Hey, D.” She said to Darius. He waved to her hesitantly, as if trying to figure out a way to tell her to put the weed away and comb her messy hair and put on some pants over the boy shorts she was wearing without me hearing him.

“Hey, to my defense,” She stood up from the floor, picking up the soggy bowl of Cornflakes and walking to the kitchen, “I didn’t know you were bringing company.”

“Well now that you know, it’d help if you washed the dishes and changed into something more appropriate.” Darius told her.

She rolled her eyes and dumped the bowl in the sink, not even bothering to empty the rest of the cereal into the garbage. “Hey, I’m Dina. Sorry that you walked into our bickering. What’s your name?”

“Oh, it’s fine,” I smiled, holding Latara a little tighter. “I’m Jamie-Lee.”

“Dina is my roommate,” Darius picked up the remains of the flakes in the sink and dumped them into the garbage. “We’ve been living together for a year now.”

“Your baby is really cute,” Dina smiled at her.

“Thanks.” Latara stared at her in fascination - it was probably the first time she’d seen someone who looked so untidy.

“Jamie’s a friend of mine. She might be staying with us for a while.”

“Not a long time,” I added.

“I’m going to put her in my room,” Darius said to Dina. She shrugged, looking through the fridge for something to devour. Darius picked up my bag and led me to the back of the apartment and into his room.

This was the best part of the apartment I’d seen so far. His room wasn’t as big as Joey’s, but he had a much better view. There was a floor-to-ceiling window that overviewed the Brooklyn bridge and all the condo buildings in the area. When we walked in, he pulled the blinds over the window halfway closed so that little stripes of light illuminated the furniture around the room - his bed, the dresser, even his hair. Darius smiled at me - it was something he was always doing, but this time his smile wasn’t just a corny method of seduction. It was nice today; I admired it today, how perfect his teeth were and how squinted his eyes were. He seemed genuine this time.

“You can lay her down over there,” He pointed over to a plush rug right under his window. “It’s clean.”

I took Latara’s shoes off of her feet, lay her blanket over the rug, and rest her on top of it with a few of her toys. It was all she really needed to stay occupied for at least an hour.

“So this is where you stay when you’re not at CJ’s place?”

“Yup,” He lay back on his pillow, keeping his shoes off the bed. “I’m hardly ever here.”

“Why? It’s such a nice place; I’d want to be here all the time.”

“Well for one, none of my friends live in the area. So I’m always near Joey’s or CJ’s house, because that’s where everyone else always is. And,” Darius gestured for me to come closer to him, as he was about to whisper, “Dina just got off parole for drugs and robbery. She’s been drinking a lot ever since she got off. I like her, and she’s cool so I wouldn’t ever kick her out, but I feel bad for her. She’s going down the wrong path. We’re not comfortable with each other enough for me to actually give her advice, so instead of staying in the house all day and biting my tongue, I leave as much as I can. She likes her alone time, anyway.”