Unzipped: An Urban Erotic Tale Read Online Free Page A

of the streets.
    Besides, he understood that shit. He was their father, and for over twenty years he’d been attracted to the street life too, so he knew the call of danger and excitement was coded in their blood right along with their DNA.
    But Diamond had gotten real sick one day and had been taken to the emergency room. Irish was crushed to find out that his baby girl was not only pregnant, but that she had also come down with a bad case of gonorrhea.
    “It’s a good thing you brought her in,” the doctor told them as Irish, Zeta, and Pearl gathered around Diamond’s bedside. The cold streets of Harlem had run Diamond into the ground and she also had pneumonia and a high fever. “Certain sexually transmitted diseases can be very dangerous to a developing fetus, andyour daughter is going to need specific treatment to ensure the health of her unborn baby.”
    Diamond had started crying so hard that her mother Zeta burst out crying too.
    “Don’t worry, baby,” Zeta sniffled. “It’s gone be all right. We’re gonna take care of you and get you those treatments, Diamond. You and the baby are both gonna be all right.”
    “But you don’t
understand!”
Diamond had moaned. She looked at her sister Pearl, who stood there with her hand on her five-month pregnant belly, and then ducked her head under the hospital blanket and mumbled.
    “Pearl needs to get the treatment too.”
    Everybody in the room froze.
    Irish moved first.
    “Come again?” he said, moving closer to the head of Diamond’s bed. “Yo, baby girl, I didn’t catch that. Run that shit by me again?”
    Diamond dug herself further under the covers and practically whispered. “I said, Pearl needs to get the treatment too.”
    It was Zeta who moved this time because Pearl sure as fuck couldn’t budge.
    “What you saying, Di?” Zeta urged, tugging down the covers so she could see her young daughter’s face. “What in the world are you saying?”
    Diamond broke.
    “I
said”
—she flung the covers off and sat straight up in the bed—
“Pearl
needs to get the muthafuckin’ treatment too,
god-dammit!
Whatever fuckin’ diseases I got up in my ass, they got in there the same way this fuckin’ baby got up in there! And I got ’em from the same niggah I got this baby from too!”
    All eyes were on Diamond as she spit out the culprit’s name.
    “I got it from
Pearl’s
niggah! SCOTCH!”

F orgiveness had not come easy for Pearl. Young and dumb, she had fallen deeply for Scotch’s gaming lies, and had given her heart and her soul to him, not to mention full and complete access to her beautiful young body. Scotch was slick and fine, and he had sold her a silky bill of dreams by drilling her with tales of how much he loved her, and promises of how he was gonna get her out of Harlem and be her man for life.
    Finding out about him and Diamond had been a painful blow for Pearl, but her reaction to their lies and betrayal had actually helped her discover something deep about herself: she could be a monster when she needed to. Pearl had lost her quiet demeanor right along with her mind as the humiliation of Scotch’s deceit pressed down on her. For the first time in her life she allowed rage to consume her as she waited until Diamond was out of the hospital, then ran up on her in the street and kicked her fuckin’ ass!
    Diamond didn’t have any wins when it came to her raging sister, either. She took her ass-whipping in stride because she knew she had it coming. Shit, Pearl was done being walked on! Done being scared to stand up for herself and for her proper respect. With her newfound courage she’d shaken off her tentativeness and went after a piece of Scotch’s ass too! She’d taken a nice little slice of his neck meat, and he was lucky she’d fucked around and missed and cut him high when she was trying to cut him low.
    Diamond had apologized over and over again, swearing all out she felt like shit for hurting and betraying her