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There was a red Mazda that we’d had for a while, a complete piece of shit but it worked<br />
well enough. I’d borrowed it before, but the car I really wanted was Abel’s BMW. It was old<br />
and beat-up like the Mazda, but a shit BMW is still a BMW. I begged him to let me take it.<br />
“Please, please, can I use the BMW?”<br />
“Not a fucking chance.”<br />
“Please. This is the greatest moment in my life. Please. I’m begging you.”<br />
“No.”<br />
“Please.”<br />
“No. You can take the Mazda.”<br />
Tom, always the hustler and the dealmaker, stepped in.<br />
“Bra Abie,” he said. “I don’t think you understand. If you saw the girl Trevor is taking to<br />
the dance, you would see why this is so important. Let’s make a deal. If we bring her here and<br />
she’s the most beautiful girl you’ve ever seen in your life, you’ll let him take the BMW.”<br />
Abel thought about it.<br />
“Okay. Deal.”<br />
We went to Babiki’s flat, told her my parents wanted to meet her, and brought her back<br />
to my house. Then we brought her around to the garage in the back where Abel and his guys<br />
were working. Tom and I went over and introduced them.<br />
“Abel, this is Babiki. Babiki, this is Abel.”<br />
Abel smiled big, was charming as always.<br />
“Nice to meet you,” he said.<br />
They chatted for a few minutes. Tom and Babiki left. Abel turned to me.<br />
“Is that the girl?”<br />
“Yes.”<br />
“You can take the BMW.”<br />
Once I had the car, I desperately needed something to wear. I was taking out this girl<br />
who was really into fashion, and, except for my Timberlands, everything I owned was shit. I<br />
was limited in my wardrobe choices because I was stuck buying in the shops my mother let<br />
me go to, and my mother did not believe in spending money on clothes. She’d take me to<br />
some bargain clothing store and tell me what our budget was, and I’d have to find something<br />
to wear.<br />
At the time I had no clue about clothes. My idea of fashion was a brand of clothing called<br />
Powerhouse. It was the kind of stuff weight lifters wear down in Miami or out at Venice<br />
Beach, baggy track pants with baggy sweatshirts. The logo was a cartoon of this giant<br />
bodybuilding bulldog wearing wraparound sunglasses and smoking a cigar and flexing his<br />
muscles. On the pants he was flexing all the way down your leg. On the shirt he was flexing<br />
across your chest. On the underwear, he was flexing on your crotch. I thought Powerhouse<br />
was the baddest thing in the world, I can’t even front. I had no friends, I loved dogs, and<br />
muscles were cool—that’s where I was working from. I had Powerhouse everything, the full<br />
range, five of the same outfit in five different colors. It was easy. The pants came with the top,<br />
so I knew how to make it work.