Grey Area

Chapter 1-Grey

My breathing was harsh from the bitter and cold of the night. The wind nipped at my ears and I knew they would be a striking red when I got back to my apartment. I kept running as fast as my legs would take me. I probably looked like some sort of moron running in this freezing cold, but I could care less what people in their cars driving down the road thought of me.

I couldn’t stop running; I couldn’t stop training. My livelihood depended on my training. Everything I did depended on my training and I’d never let myself slip out of this routine.

I made it back to the rundown apartment building I called home. It was a dump to put it lightly, but it was all I could afford at the moment. Home to many addicts, struggling mothers, and your everyday prostitutes, the complex was run by some dirt bag landlord who lived on the first floor. I heard about the things he would ask of women in the building who couldn’t afford their rent, taking advantage of their misfortunes. Being here made my skin itch. I spent every moment I could at the gym. There it was clean; no one was trying to pick my pockets, and the gym owner provided the boxers with all sorts of food to keep us on a healthier diet.

I slowed down as my building came into view and sighed at the thought of having to step foot inside of the place. I made sure to keep my headphones in and hoodie up as I approached the building. I kept my eyes forward walking up the stoop where the neighborhood drug dealers talked amongst themselves. I have been offered everything from pot to cocaine to steroids, and have never once thought of making a purchase. As much as I would’ve loved to smoke a joint to relieve some stress, they drug test at every competition and randomly at the gym. I had too much going for me throw it away on a high. I rushed into my apartment which thankfully was located on the first floor. Most of the prostitutes were on the second floor and I didn’t want to run into any of them. They were nice most of the time but I wasn’t in the mood to turn down what they were offering.

I sighed heavily as warmth flooded my body and I began to feel human again as opposed to the popsicle I was before I walked in. I went for my coffee maker, one of the few luxuries I escaped with from my ex-wife. She was an awful woman who manipulated me until it was too late. Clara put on a good show in court I’ll give her that. She cried her whole way to the bank when she cleaned me out after our divorce. Half of all the money I worked hard for went to her. Her expensive lawyer, who she had been sleeping with, managed to work every loophole in the book for alimony and child support that he could drain from my savings.

She got me for everything I worked hard for, and even got custody of our daughter.

My angel was the only thing that kept me going anymore. She was my world and any time I was given with her; I made the most of it. I never brought her anywhere near my apartment though; I’d never expose her to this side of the real world. I would take her around my parent’s house, on the other side of town. It was safer than where I was staying and she had room to play around. She was still innocent and didn’t deserve to have to see this side of the world yet. I wanted to clean up my situation before I brought her to my side of town. Get a nicer place, a bigger one where she could have her own space. Even if it was on this side of town, I just need somewhere with less criminal activity.

I try my best to undue all the shit that Clara was putting into Amelia’s beautiful little head. The last thing I want is to have my daughter growing up to be a high maintenance, spoiled little brat like her mother. I sighed just thinking about it. If only I hadn’t lost the damn house in the divorce I could have gotten full custody over Amelia, but instead her and her lawyer, now husband, somehow were able to bleed me dry. All the money from winning my titles gone and given to Clara’s gold digging clutches.

Her trust was the only thing Clara had no access to and would never have access to. I turned the rights of the trust over to an attorney so there would be no conflict when it came to giving it to Amelia. My angel would be set at twenty-one with her trust. There’s been money in there since I was 24 and found out Clara was pregnant. I made sure 20% of all my competition money went in there. Clara was madder than hell when she learned the trust was no longer under either of our names. The judge agreed that with the toxic nature of the divorce that it was best to keep the trust away from the both of us, especially Clara as she was very obvious with her intents to take everything I had.

A knock on my door brought me out of my thoughts and away from my steaming mug of coffee. I glanced at the clock on the stove. Who the hell is here at 11:30pm?

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my gun from the coffee table in the small living room, tucking it in the waistband of my joggers. I bent slightly and checked the peephole to see who could possibly be at my door this late. I caught sight of deep curly brown hair and green eyes looking at my door popping her gum as she held a casserole dish covered in aluminum foil.

Why the fuck is she out here at this time of night?

I quickly opened the door and ushered her into my apartment checking the hallway slightly. I caught sight of a few members of the local gang lingering in the stairwell, their eyes still on the space that Haezel had previously occupied.

“That’s you blancito?” One of the members, Oscar, asked taking a drag off the blunt that was offered to him. Blancito was my nickname with the gang members that lived in the building because of my white features, courtesy of my father. My miother was a darker skinned woman from the Dominican Republic, allowing my skin to tan not burn.

“Yeah, so keep your eyes to yourself.” I warned lightly. Haezel and I weren’t together, just very good friends since college. She was my rock through the divorce and my biggest fan whenever I was in the ring. She often babysat Amelia for me whenever my mother couldn’t. But these guys didn’t need to know that.

I kept it cool with them, and they kept it cool with me. Never bothered me and even offered me jobs for the extra cash. I declined because I didn’t want to owe any favors to them or the gang. They knew of my situation and some of them as fathers themselves respected me and offered protection instead, which if they thought Haezel was with me, would extend to her now.

They laughed as they continued to pass around the blunts they had in rotation. The smell of marijuana filled the floor but no one ever really complained since it was legal and there were much worse things happening on this side of town to worry about.

“No te procupes blancito. We making sure she’s off limits. You know we got your back, and now we got shorty’s back too.” Oscar commented turning his back to me.

I nodded at him before retreating back into my apartment, locking the door up with the chain, and the two deadbolts the door came equipped with. I lay my gun back on the small stand next to the door where I usually throw my keys.

I looked to find Haezel already putting the baking dish into the oven to warm it up. I smelled like her homemade mac and cheese and my mouth watered at the thought of devouring a massive plate of the cheesy goodness. Haezel knew I wasn’t the best cook, and even the things I could cook I never had the energy for. She usually brought me a few meals at the beginning of the week to keep the fridge stocked for me. I was always grateful for her cooking. I shook my head, and remembered that I should be upset at her for being on this side of town alone tonight.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing coming around here this time of night? Eres loca? You know it’s dangerous over here.” I seethed at her from across the small bar section of the kitchen.

Haezel just rolled her big green eyes at me. She was a beautiful girl with her curly brown hair, tan skin and plump pink lips. She was only 5’1 which felt eons shorter than my towering 6’5 but she was a fighter just like me, or well tried to be. Her height made it hard for sponsors to take her seriously. Dwight, the owner of the gym we train at, was the only one who would take her on in the city.

“Grey you know I can handle myself. Did you forget I grew up in the projects, or the fact that I still live in the hood?” She said as she hopped on the kitchen counter next to the stove. I sighed. I knew she was more than capable of navigating her way through the projects and boroughs of any city but it still worried me. I cared about her, and she was my best friend. She lived in the next town over in its inner city projects and even though I have tried countless times she wouldn’t move in with me so I could keep an eye on her.

“I know that baby girl, but I worry about you. Plus this isn’t your hood. People don’t know you and won’t care to snatch you up out here.” I tried to explain to her, and it was true. If you weren’t a familiar face around here you were a target. It took months for people to stop trying to hustle me, rob me or break into my apartment. To them I appeared to be some white boy slumming it in the projects, so I looked like easy pickings.

“You know as good as I do that I’m safe when I do my bullshit.” She said as she lifted her hoodie revealing her favorite throwing knives strapped to her stomach and pulled out the small revolver tucked into the waistband of her jeans.

I rolled my eyes at her. “Of course, you’re strapped.”

Haezel flashed me a cheeky smile, “You know it sweetheart.”

I chuckled and came around the counter to give her a hug. It had been a little over a week since I had seen her last. “I missed you Haze. Where you been at?”

She pulled away from the hug and sighed pulling her curls back into a pony tail before hopping off the counter to check the mac and cheese in the oven.

“I went to go visit my brother.” She answered without looking at me.

Haezel was the only girl of six children. Her siblings were all she had after her mother overdosed and her father ran off with his mistress when she was sixteen. Her brother Emilio was currently serving 15 years for an armed robbery charge in the state prison about two hours from here.

“How’s he doing?” I asked softly, knowing the subject was touchy for her. Emilio was the youngest of all the siblings, and was very close with Haezel before he went to prison.

Haezel sighed again. “You know. Same shit different month. I put money on his commissary and we talked for a little bit. He’s doing okay, just counting down the days he can be eligible for parole. Jasmine apparently brought Jr. to see him a few weeks ago.”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Jasmine and Emilio called it quits right before he went to prison, but never kept him from his son, Emilio Jr. Jasmine, however, hated bringing him to the prison to see Emilio because she didn’t want him to see his father in that kind of environment. It was surprising to hear that she brought him all the way out there.

“Wow, that’s very adult of her.” I joked. Jasmine was only 24, 6 years younger than Emilio and 8 years younger than Haezel and I.

Haezel snorted. “Yeah. She put her feelings aside for this one. Jr. turned five and all he wanted was to see Emilio. So she gave him what he wanted.”

I smiled. “He’s getting so big. I can’t believe it. He’s about to start school and Amelia is going in to the 1st grade. I don’t know what to do with myself. ”

“I know. I can’t believe it. Which school is the witch putting her in?” Haezel asked grabbing some bowls from the cabinet.

I rolled my eyes and chuckled at her name for Clara. Haezel was the only who warned me about her and I never listen, too blinded by my love for her and my winning streak at the time. I was on the best emotional high anyone could ask for and it left me nearly broke and broken. “She’s putting her in one of the public schools by my parents’ house so they can pick her up if Clara can’t.”

Haezel scoffed. “Yeah right. Why in hell wouldn’t she be able to pick her up? She doesn’t work. You’re paying her bills and her lawyer husband makes more than enough to keep her at home.”

“I know Haezel. Trust me, I know her plan. She just wants more time to fuck her little side pieces while Jorge is at work.” I gossiped. I knew Clara’s ways and I knew the people she hung around. She remarried Jorge, her divorce lawyer for financial security. His steady income plus my child support checks makes her a very taken care of woman. But I know while he’s working those long hours, someone else is in their bed or Clara is laying in someone else’s.

Haezel opened the oven door, bending over slightly. I admired the curvature of her body that she had since our college days. She kept her figure in shape through training and eating properly. Haezel is a beautiful girl, and she knows it. While in college I had the biggest crush on her, but she was too focused on school and making sure her family was okay to notice, so I got over her and under Clara. Our friendship was bigger than any crush I had anyways. She grabbed a pair of oven mitts from the hooks next to the stove and slowly pulled out the mac and cheese.

She turned to me and I caught her rolling her eyes at me. “You know if you keep staring at my ass and not doing anything to it, we’re going to have to fight.”

I shook my head at her. “I was just admiring your figure. It hasn’t changed since college.”

It was partially the truth.

Haezel raised a brow at me. “That didn’t prove my point any less. At all Greyson.”

I groaned. “We’re not having this talk again Haezel.”

“Stop being such a pussy Grey, we’re both adults. I don’t understand why you’re so against it.”

“You know exactly why.” I passed her, making my way to the cabinets to glaases.

“Its just sex!” She exclaimed as I set the plates down. “Why is that so scary for you?”

“I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again.” I turned to her slightly annoyed at this conversation. “You are my best friend. If we fuck and things go sour I don’t just lose pussy. I lose someone close to me. I am not risking that because you want a piece of me.”

She just shook her head at me. “How would things go sour? You know me better than I know myself. You and I have a special friendship that I don’t think would be put at risk by a little fun. You and I ended terrible relationships and deserve some healthy, no strings attached sex”

I sighed serving myself a healthy portion of the mac and cheese. “Tell you what,” I say setting my bowl down and going to serve her, “If I win the next competition, I’ll give in. I will succumb to this ridiculous ass friends with benefits situation you want to start.”

Haezel’s eyebrows shot up. “Seriously?”

I nodded my head handing her a fork and her bowl. “Yes. Only because that money will give me enough to get the fuck out of this dump. But the catch is, you have to move in to the same apartment complex as me.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Why the fuc-“

“I will not have my best friend, and the woman I am sleeping with staying in that infested ass apartment. With the competition money I can afford both our rents for an entire year.” I cut her off sitting down at the small dining table I owned. Haezel followed behind me setting her own plate down giving me the evil stare.

I raised an eyebrow at her. “So do we have a deal?”

She ‘hmphed’ and crossed her arms like a child and looked away from me.

“How much do you need this dick Haze?” I teased taking a bite of the mac and cheese. I moaned at the taste. The girl could cook, that alone could’ve been enough to convince me of this ridiculous arrangement.

Haezel whipped her head at me and narrowed her eyes. Then she smirked and stood from her seat. She slowly removed her hoodie and the weapons that lay underneath leaving her only in a tight sports bra.

I swallowed slowly trying not to stare. Haezel was damn near perfect. Great figure, amazing ass, perky breasts and a pretty face? She could have any man begging and yet here we are. I knew I was bound to get hurt in the process but at this point I was willing to risk it. I was playing with fire knowing my feelings for her never went away completely but I was 32 trying to get back onto my feet again and the only person who cared about me for me was Haezel.

“I don’t know Grey,” she said, sitting down forcefully causing her breasts to move and catch my attention. “How much of a tits guy are you again?”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “It’s my way or the highway. I know how long it’s been since you’ve gotten any, just like you know how long it’s been for me. We’re both desperate, so trying to distract me with your little body isn’t going to work.”

At least that’s what I keep telling myself.