Chapter 20
The Night Everything Happened…
“That bitch wanna be you.”
Booda slammed the trunk shut after stuffing the last brick inside, then wiped his hands against his jeans before looking over at me.
I rolled my eyes from the passenger seat. “Here you go.”
“I’m serious, Ko.”
“You always serious when it comes to Giani.” I laughed softly and adjusted the vent toward me. “You just don’t like her.”
“That ain’t true.”
“Yes, it is.” I smirked. “You swear everybody wants to be me.”
Booda walked around the front of the truck, keys spinning around his finger while his eyes scanned the empty warehouse lot around us.
Rusted shipping containers were stacked near the fence line while security lights buzzed overhead, flickering every few seconds. Somewhere deeper inside the industrial district, metal clanged loudly, echoing through the night before silence swallowed it again.
“Nah,” he said finally. “Everybody don’t wanna be you, but that bitch do.”
I sighed dramatically as he climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Can you leave my friend alone?”
He shut the door harder than necessary before looking over at me. “I am leaving her alone. You should too.”
“She’s been my friend since before all this,” I said, motioning around the interior of the truck. “Before the money. Before the jewelry. Before the houses. And… before you.”
“Exactly.”
My forehead wrinkled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Booda leaned back against the seat and stared at me for a second as if he was trying to figure out whether he should even continue.
“That bitch study you too hard.”
I snorted.
“I’m dead serious,” he continued. “Every time you buy something, she buy something that look just like it. Every time you switch your hair, suddenly she talking about changing hers. Every time you start saying some shit, she repeats it two days later like she came up with it.”
“She’s my friend,” I repeated. “Friends rub off on each other.”
“Nah.” He shook his head slowly. “That ain’t what this is.”
I laughed again and reached for the blunt sitting in the cupholder between us. “You sound jealous.”
“Of Giani?” He looked offended. “Man, please.”
“Then why you always worried about her?”
“Because I know women like that.”
I took a hit before pointing the blunt toward him. “You don’t know shit.”
His eyes narrowed.
“I know more than you know.” He started the truck. “I’m telling you that girl wanna live your life.”
I leaned my head back against the seat and smiled. “Well, my life is fine as hell, so I don’t blame her.”
That pulled a laugh out of him despite himself.
“And you call me cocky.” Booda grabbed my thigh as he backed the truck out of the parking spot.
“You love it.”
Streetlights streaked across the windshield as we pulled onto the road, and music played low through the speakers while the city drifted around us in blurred golds, reds, and neon.
I watched him drive for a second. Really watched him. One hand rested on the steering wheel while the other stayed on my thigh. Gold flashed from his watch every time passing headlights swept through the truck, and his expression stayed alert even while we joked around.
Booda never truly relaxed.
“I tolerate it,” he said, and I gasped dramatically.
“See? I be telling people you don’t appreciate me,” I joked.
“I appreciate you too much. That’s the problem. If I didn’t…” His words trailed off, and that piqued my interest.
“Finish your sentence.”
“Nah. Just do what I say and stay away from Giani.”
My smile faded slightly.
“Nah?” I repeated. “What were you about to say?”
“Nothing.”
“That wasn’t nothing.” I turned toward him fully. “Finish your sentence.”
Booda kept his eyes on the road as the truck rolled through the industrial district, tires crunching over loose gravel before hitting pavement again.
“It don’t matter.”
“Yes, it do.”
He exhaled through his nose.
“Ko—”
“No.” I shook my head. “Don’t do that. You started it, now finish it.”
Silence stretched between us, and I could tell he was debating whether to say whatever was sitting in his head or let it die right there. I knew that look. Booda didn’t hesitate often, so when he did, it usually meant the truth was ugly.
“You not gon’ listen anyway,” he muttered.
“Try me.”
He glanced at me briefly before looking back at the road again. “You really wanna know why I don’t trust that girl?”
“Yes.”
His jaw tightened.
“She tried to fuck me.”
The words hit me so hard I actually laughed, not because the shit was funny.
“What?”
Booda kept driving.
“You heard me.”
I stared at him for a second, waiting for him to laugh or say he was bullshitting.
He didn’t.
“When?” I damn near growled.
“A couple months ago.”
“And you just now telling me?” My voice rose immediately.
“Because I knew how you was gon’ act.”
“How the fuck did she try you?” I snapped.
Booda glanced at me briefly before looking back at the road. “Ko—”
“No. Don’t ‘Ko’ me. What the fuck happened?”
He exhaled slowly through his nose as if he was irritated with himself for saying anything.
“She came by the house one night while you was at the hospital with your momma.”
“And?”
“And she was drunk.”
I folded my arms across my chest to keep from punching him upside the head. This wasn’t something he should’ve kept to himself.
“That still doesn’t explain how she tried to fuck you.”
He stayed quiet for a second too long.
“Booda,” I dragged his name in warning.
“She called my phone, saying you told her to stop by and grab a few things for you when she was on the way to the hospital to sit with y’all. I didn’t think nothing of it because you had her do it a few times, even after I offered to bring you whatever you need.” He looked at me.
“As soon as I opened the door, her drunk ass barged in. I should’ve known something then, but I still wasn’t thinking.
I was too focused on the basketball playoff to pay her attention.
Thinking she was headed to get your shit, I went back to my man cave.
I didn’t know she followed me until she sat her naked ass on my lap. ”
“Nigga, what?” I shrieked, visibly shaking now.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “I pushed that bitch off me, but that didn’t stop her. She started tryna unbuckle my pants, grab my dick, and all kinds of shit. And the bitch didn’t stop until I punched her ass. That’s how she got that black eye.”
My head whipped toward him so fast my neck hurt.
“You sure you didn’t fuck her? It’s sure mighty muthafuckin’ funny that you wouldn’t tell me that shit before now. You tell me everything else.”
“I always felt like she was grimy. I wouldn’t fuck that bitch with my worst enemy’s dick.”
I shook my head. “It sounds good, but I don’t know.”
“Ko, you know I got cameras everywhere. I can show you the shit when we get home.”
It was at that moment that I remembered how paranoid Booda was. If he said he had it on video, it was on video. He left nothing to chance.
“I’m gon’ kill that bitch.”
“There you go.”
“Nah, fuck that.” I sat forward in my seat. “Why the fuck would she feel comfortable enough to even try you?”
“Probably because you let her get too comfortable around us.”
My jaw tightened.
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me as soon as it happened?”
His eyebrows lifted slightly. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
A dry laugh left him. “See? This why I kept my mouth shut.”
“Because you knew how it looked.”
“Because I knew your ass was gon’ start doing exactly what you doing right now.” He pointed at me briefly before gripping the steering wheel again. “Trying to turn this shit around on me instead of paying attention to what I’m saying.”
I looked away before I said something reckless. My thoughts were crashing into each other so fast it was making my head hurt.
Giani.
Naked.
On Booda’s lap.
The image punched me straight in the gut.
“You gave her the black eye?” I asked.
Booda looked over at me again, surprised by the question.
“Yup. I knocked that bitch clear across the room.”
I thought back to when my momma was admitted into hospice. Giani had shown up two days later, wearing oversized sunglasses indoors, talking about how she got into a fight at the club while drunk. She said several females jumped her, but she couldn’t tell me anything about them.
I remembered laughing. Remembered teasing her for going to the club without me and getting her ass kicked.
“Damn,” I whispered.
“There you go.”
“No.” I shook my head hard. “No, because why the fuck would she do that to me?”
Booda’s expression flattened. “Because everybody don’t love how you love.”
Silence swallowed the truck after that. The only sounds were the engine humming beneath us and the music.
I kept replaying shit in my head now. The matching clothes. The copied hairstyles. How Giani always wanted to know where I bought my jewelry. How excited she got whenever me and Booda argued. How she used to stare whenever he walked into rooms.
Little shit I ignored because I loved her.
“What if she had told me you punched her?” I asked eventually, still staring out the window.
“She knew not to do that. Giani ain’t stupid. She knew you would believe me when I told you what she did. Plus, you was going through it with your momma. At that time, you was on edge, and quick to shoot. She wasn’t ready to die.”
“Why would you let me stay friends with a bitch who slimed me?”
“I been telling you to leave her alone. You listen to me about everything else. I thought you would take heed when I told you that too. Friendship breakups be hard. I didn’t want you feeling that when yo’ momma was dying.”
I didn’t answer. Because the fucked up part was he was right.
Booda squeezed my thigh. “You know I wouldn’t play with you like that.”
I looked down at his hand resting against my leg.
“You better not,” I said, still angry with him.
A small grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Crazy ass.”
“Fuck you.”
“Nah.” He laughed softly. “Fuck Giani.”