Chapter 18
Kayla never thought she would end up cool with Farrah, she was Diamond’s enemy, but she was cool as fuck.
One of her homegirls was tight with Farrah, they laughed about the fight they had, and Kayla apologized for going upside her head.
Teenagers always fought and got cool with people, it was a part of growing up in the hood.
They sat in Farrah’s living room, feet kicked up, music low, scrolling on their phones like nothing in the world mattered.
Farrah rolled her eyes at something on her screen. “My daddy be doing too much.”
Kayla looked up, grinning.
“I ain’t gon’ lie…your daddy is fine though.”
Farrah laughed it off, “You crazy and that’s nasty as hell. He’s an old ass man.”
“A fine, and I do mean fine, old man,” Kayla shot back as all of the girls busted out laughing.
Farrah didn’t notice the shift or seriousness in her joke, but Ace did. He stood in the doorway, pretending to check his phone, he didn’t mean to listen, but once he realized one of Rich’s girls was in his home, he was tuned in.
He noticed that she was nothing like Diamond, she was young, wild, and loud.
Ace leaned against the wall, mind already moving at a rapid pace.
Diamond was sharp, calculated, and hard to back into a corner.
Duke got an A for effort, but he smelled bullshit, she wasn’t quick to fall. But Kayla? A weak link.
Farrah pointed toward where Ace was standing, which led to the bathroom. As soon as she turned the corner, Kayla walked into him.
“Shit! You scared me. I’m sorry for cussing, I’m…um looking for the bathroom.”
“You good, the bathroom is the last door on the left.”
She looked up at him and smiled before walking off.
He didn’t watch her walk away because he was in no shape or form that type of nigga for real, it was business.
Business that her bitch ass daddy put her in the mix of.
Rich bruised his reputation; Ace wouldn’t say he killed it because the hood knew he was still a loose cannon.
“Thank you,” she replied, walking back down the hall, drying her hands on her shirt.
“No problem, stay pretty.”
When those words left his mouth, it looked like something in her clicked and he knew he had her right where he needed her to be. She was going to bring Rich straight to him and he was going to get his lick back in the worse way. He owed that nigga a hard time anyway from shit in the past.
Kayla walked back in the living room with a smile on her face that she didn’t have when she left and Farrah noticed it first.
“Girl, what the hell you smiling so hard for?”
She quickly shook her head, “Nothing, y’all’s crib nice as fuck.”
Farrah gave a slight side-eye before thanking her.
Little did she know, Ace had put Kayla on cloud nine with his compliment.
Kayla walked home replaying his words in her head like a broken record.
Sure, she liked a few boys, but Ace was a man and a fine one.
She knew he would never go for a girl her age, but she could imagine, and she did.
She dreaded going home because she didn’t want to see Diamond’s face.
The two hadn’t said a word to one another for a week straight.
She did her thing and Kayla did hers, she was making a killing boosting while Diamond was moving her little drugs with their father.
That was the real reason Kayla was mad, Rich always thought Diamond was better than her, but she was going to prove him wrong.
Kayla was going to be that bitch, fly, rich, and bossy.
“Girlllll, where you been, and why you got that goofy ass smile on your face?” Jatara asked as soon as Kayla turned the corner.
“If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.”
“Well, bitch, bury me at the park on Christiana so I can still be lit in the summer!”
Kayla contemplated on telling Jatara that she was crushing on Ace, but she did anyway as soon as they made it to her porch.
“Girl, I have a crush on somebody.”
“Who? Ryan? I been knew that,” Jatara quickly replied, rolling her eyes.
“That’s a kid, I have a crush on a grown man. Ace.”
“Come again? The Ace that your father just knocked the fuck out? That man will be locked under the jail if he fucks with you. He ain’t thinking about your young ass.”
“Hmph, that ain’t what his mouth say. I was just in his house, and he called me pretty,” she boasted with her same cocky demeanor.
“At his house for what? That nigga is your family’s enemy, you tripping.”
“I was with my friends, they cool with Farrah.”
“Oh, you breaking all the codes. You know that bitch don’t like your sister.”
“You don’t like my sister, and I still fuck with you. Anyway, that ain’t got nothing to do with me, hell, I don’t like my sister,” she shot back as they both started laughing.
They sat there and gossiped until the sun went down and when it did, the block got live. Chicago was the place to be on a nice night.
“There go your boo,” Jatara pointed at Ace as he stepped out looking like Mitch from Paid in Full.
The drip, the jewelry, everything about him screamed boss and Kayla wanted to be on his arm.
Her thoughts came to a halt when she saw a bitch pull up in a candy apple red Benz and stepped out.
Her body was banging, her clothes hugged her body like a glove as she balanced her weight on a pair of heels that looked like needles, she was badd!
“Damn, she cold,” Jatara said as Kayla’s eyes followed over to Ace.
She couldn’t lie, her feelings were hurt when she saw him wrapping his arms around her waist. Right then and there, Kayla knew what she had to do.
It was time to grow the fuck up and switch her style up.
No more gym shoes, she was going to become the bitch that was occupying her man in that moment.
If Ace didn’t like her before, he was going to when she was done.
Kayla couldn’t stop thinking about the woman, even after she got home, the woman was still in her head. She wasn’t loud, she wasn’t flashy, she was polished.
By the next week Kayla didn’t look like herself anymore.
She swapped out bright colors for neutral ones.
She got rid of her weave and started wearing her hair in a high ponytail just like the woman.
She would never forget her; she unknowingly created a sharp little bitch and that’s what Kayla was.
She went and stole the highest designer jeans, tops, and little purses.
“You cool? You look…different. Cute, but different,” Mia said, appearing in the doorway of Kayla’s room, eyeing her from head to toe.
“Well, people grow up,” Kayla shot back, applying a coat of lip gloss to her full lips.
Her body was already slim and curvy, and she was nowhere near done developing, shout out to Sherry for blessing her and her sisters.
There was usually one fat sister, one ugly one, and one that was tea, but all three of the Hayes sisters were tea, from face cards to body structures.
They were all different, but very much alike. Kayla just had the biggest personality.
“Yeah, but this isn’t you.”
“This is me so get used to it. I’m tired of being invisible.”
That was a lie, Kayla had never been invisible, but when it came to Diamond, she felt clear, like no one laughed at her jokes when she was around, no one told her she was pretty.
She loved her sister, but she loved attention more, it was the one thing she wanted more than anything, no matter what she had to do to get it.
Her photo album on her phone was piling up with women who looked like money.
Women she knew Ace would choose. She practiced in the mirror nonstop.
“Soooo, you’re erasing yourself to become something that you’re not?”
Kayla smacked her lips, “You wouldn’t understand, you sat in the house over the summer reading books and shit for the upcoming school year. You want to be a successful businesswoman, and I want to be a successful badd bitch. I’m becoming exactly who I want to be.”
She knew Ace was too old for her, but she wanted to be chosen, noticed, and acknowledged. She wanted the power she saw in that woman’s actions; she turned every head when she stepped out and from where Kayla was sitting, the world stopped for her.