MALIK

CHAPTER ONE

The dishwasher slammed shut as Malik Moore loaded the last plate in the machine. He wiped the sweat off the brow and turned towards the couch.

"Mama, I'm finished!" he called out.

His mother, Keesha Moore, lit another cigarette and placed it between her plump, glossed lips. She heaved herself out of her comfortable position and walked to where her son was, who was still breathing heavily from his chore.

He had never washed so many dishes in his life.

"Some party, huh?" Keesha said as she stared at the beer bottles, cake crumbs, and chicken bones that filled their garbage can. "You lucky I can cook."

"But did you have to invite so many people?!" Malik asked.

Keesha inhaled and blew smoke in his face. "Boy, stop complaining. I needed to maintain my reputation for throwing good ass parties. That ain't anything new."

"Whatever."

Keesha smirked just as her cigarette simmered down into a stub. She sucked her teeth with annoyance.

"Baby, can you PLEASE get me another pack?"

"I thought you was trying to quit."

"I said NEXT MONTH I would quit," she said, obviously getting fed up.

"I don't know," Malik answered.

His mother's fluttered her long eyelashes, and whipped her luscious, pink-dyed hair at him. To any person who didn't know the two, it would've seemed like she was seducing her boyfriend.

Honestly though, the two of them could have passed for a real couple. Malik already had the beginnings of a mustache, and his mother looked young enough to be his sister. After all, the two were only fifteen years apart in age.

Keesha conceived Malik in the back of a pickup truck with some punk named Jackson West. She was just turned fifteen at the time, and damn, was she even finer in her younger years. Unfortunately, once her beau heard that she was pregnant, he bolted. Not a trace of him was left.

And by the time Keesha realized her own mistake, it was too late.

So she raised Malik by herself, just getting by working at the local Walmart. But it was tough, and some days she felt like ending it all.

That was when she started smoking.

"Babbbbbyyy," she pleaded. "Pleeeeaaasseeee..."

"Okay, okay!" Malik said, cutting her off. "Just stop doing that weird stripper voice."

"Boo, that IS my voice," Keesha snapped as she speed walked back to her place on the couch, her butt jiggling all the while. Malik shook his head and went to get his shoes by the coat rack. And as his mother surfed through the channels, her eyes widened, just thinking of something.

"Malik!" she shouted just her son opened their apartment door. "Keep that hoodie of yours off your head."

Keesha grabbed at her hair, a thing she did when she was nervous.

Malik noticed this and nodded his head in reassurance. "I will, Ma." Keesha waved bye as her son slammed the door shut.

What they didn't know, was that on that very trip to the store, everything was about to change.