16. Chapter 15
Benny the Bums was packed shoulder to shoulder by the time June and Mercedes made it to the bar area.
Music bounced through the restaurant while people crowded around high-top tables laughing over drinks and baskets of wings.
The Phillies game played across the TVs overhead, but they were in their own little world.
Mercedes nearly spit her drink out laughing. “I’m dead serious. STG gon beat Marcus old ass one day if he keep playing with him like that.”
June laughed hard while reaching for one of the loaded fries off Mercedes plate. “Girl stop talking about my man like that.”
“Your man?” Mercedes leaned back dramatically. “Oh now he your man? I thought y'all was just kickin' it."
June rolled her eyes smiling. “Girl you know damn well we way past the kickin' stage.”
Mercedes wagged her tongue up and down. “Yeahhhh. That nigga got you dickmatized.”
“He do not.” June responded back.
“Yes the fuck he do.” Mercedes laughed. “Cause ain’t no way you defending that grumpy ass man this hard.”
June sucked her teeth while grabbing her drink. “Marcus just don’t like people trying him.”
“Marcus don’t like people breathing near you,” Mercedes corrected. “That man be looking ready to square up every time STG say hello.”
June burst out laughing again. “Okay but STG be doing it on purpose.”
“And that’s why I like him,” Mercedes said while lifting her margarita glass. “Petty niggas be funny as shit.”
June shook her head smiling. “Y’all really be wanting men to stress y’all out.”
Mercedes stared at her. “Girl look who talking.”
That made both of them laugh harder.
For a few hours it almost felt like old times again. Just music, drinks, gossip, and talking shit without thinking about men, work, or life for once.
By the time they finally left Benny’s, the night air felt cooler and the streets had quieted down some. June hugged Mercedes outside her car before saying to her.
“And stop telling people STG can beat Marcus up.”
Mercedes laughed while unlocking her door. “I said what I said.”
June shook her head smiling before getting into her own car.
Music played through the speakers while she drove back toward her apartment building still thinking about the conversation. A small smile kept tugging at her mouth every time she pictured Marcus and STG going back and forth in VIP.
She never noticed the headlights that stayed a few cars behind her the entire drive.
By the time June pulled into her apartment garage, she was more focused on kicking her heels off than anything else.
She grabbed her purse, locked her car, and headed upstairs.
A few minutes later, June stepped off the elevator onto her floor while scrolling through a text from Marcus complaining about the club again.
June laughed while unlocking her apartment door.
As soon as she opened it, the older woman from across the hall called out to her.
“June, baby, can you help me for one second?”
June turned around politely. “What happened Miss Evelyn, you okay?”
“Yeah chile I'm alright, this bag done broke on me again."
June sighed laughing before setting her purse down near the door. “Now Miss Evelyn, you gotta stop overstuffing these cheap plastic bags with all them oranges you be buying.”
Miss Evelyn laughed as June bent down to catch the oranges rolling across the hallway floor.
June gathered them not paying attention to her apartment door still being opened.
“Thank you, baby.” Miss Evelyn said with gratitude.
“You're welcome.” June smiled while handing the last orange back to her. “Have a good night.”
“Night, sweetheart.” Miss Evelyn went inside and closed her door.
June then walked into her apartment while slipping her phone into her purse.
Then she glanced toward the living room and she almost dropped her purse at what she saw. Miss Loretta sat stretched across the couch smiling with one leg crossed over the other with her hands folded together in her lap.
For a second June thought she was seeing things. After six years, she couldn't believe she was actually looking directly at the woman who made part of her childhood a living hell.
Miss Loretta grinned. “Well damn. You look like you seen a fuckin' ghost.”
June gawked at her before letting out a shaky little laugh. “What the fuck…”
Miss Loretta looked around the apartment slowly. "Pretty ass place you got here," she smiled again.
June tossed her keys onto the counter trying to pull herself together. “How the fuck you get in here? Matter fact, how the fuck you even know where I live?”
Miss Loretta ignored the question. “You gotcha marble counters. Fancy little lights. Big ass windows.” Her eyes slid back toward June. “You really built yourself a cute little life with my money.”
June laughed again, but this time there wasn’t nothing nervous about it.
June grabbed her bottle of water from her purse and twisted the cap open. “Your money? Bitch please.” She took a sip. “The state bought this everything up in this mothafucka. That shit was never yours to begin with.”
Miss Loretta’s face twisted into a scowl. “You little ungrateful bitch…”
“No,” June cut in sharply. “Ungrateful would’ve been me burning down that dirty ass rowhouse witcho raggedy ass in it before I left.”
Miss Loretta’s nostrils flared. “Yep, you ain't changed not one bit,” she muttered. “You still the same little bitch with the same disrespectful ass mouth.”
June folded her arms. “You snuck into my fuckin' apartment talking about disrespect? Girl, bye, get the fuck outta here wit that one.”
Miss Loretta stood up. “Yo little slick ass stole twenty-five thousand dollars from me and disappeared.”
June shrugged lightly. “Awww and you still ain’t recover from it? Damn. That’s sad.”
June tossed her purse onto the counter. “The money is gone bitch, get over it.
I put it to good use as you can see." She waved her hand around the apartment for emphasis.
"Them people gave you all that money to do one thing, and you did just the opposite.
You got the nerve to be sittin' up here crying about some fucking money like you earned that right to even have it in the first place.
You acting like you was raising us outta the kindness of your heart.
You ain't give a fuck about none of us, you was running a damn business.”
“Boo hoo, cry me a fuckin' river. Fact of the matter is, you still stole from me.” Miss Loretta said.
June rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “And?”
Miss Loretta stepped closer. “And, you owe me.”
June laughed again. “Bitch you lucky all I did was steal your fuckin' money.”
June kept going. “You remember them kids sleeping on dirty ass mattresses with no sheets while you sat in the kitchen smoking and cashing checks?”
Miss Loretta stepped closer. “Watch your fuckin mouth.”
June laughed, challenging her. “Or what?”
That question hit Miss Loretta like gasoline on fire. “You think you better than me now cause you got some ass shots and a luxury apartment?”
June shrugged. “I mean…” her eyes moved around the apartment. “One of us escaped Kensington and the other still smell like Newport one hundreds and government assistance.”
“I bet you don't even remember calling me them racial slurs every other day huh?” June asked coldly. “All you cared about was the money.”
Miss Loretta said with malice. “You ain't have shit before you came to me. I should at least get a thank you. Everything you got came from me!”
June looked her up and down. “Look at you.” Her eyes dragged slowly over Miss Loretta.
“You still a pathetic, fake ass bitch. You still miserable as fuck living in that dirty ass, fucked up house.
And you still salty as fuck that I took yo money.
She started doing a little dance to tease her.
"A-ha, that's why you ain't got no money, broke ass ho. "
“Bitch!”
Miss Loretta lunged forward and slapped the shit outta June. The water bottle she was holding fell from her hand onto the floor causing the water to spill.
Neither woman moved.
June wiped the blood from the corner of her lip with her thumb while breathing hard through her nose.
Then she looked back up at Miss Loretta.
And Miss Loretta knew right then and there that she fucked up.
June was no longer smiling. “I know you didn't just put your fuckin' old crusty ass hands on me,” June said through clenched teeth.
Miss Loretta tried to hold onto that same cocky attitude, but her feet stayed planted where they were. "I surely did bitch."
June stared at her another second before she began walking toward the knife block sitting beside the stove.
Miss Loretta’s breathing changed. “Yoon-Ji…”
“Don’t fuckin' call me that.” June yelled back.
Miss Loretta laughed with amusement in her eyes. “That’s your damn name.”
June looked back at her with pure hatred in her eyes now. “Yoon-Ji died the day I left your fuckin' house.”
June reached for the biggest knife in the holder and wrapped her hand around it tightly.
Miss Loretta took a step back this time.
Cause something about June suddenly felt dangerous.
June slowly started pulling the knife free.
Then suddenly the apartment door opened.
“Bae?” Marcus called out while stepping inside. “Yo, I need you to get ready to come with me to the—”
He stopped as he analyzed the scene before him. He saw water on the floor. June standing in the kitchen breathing hard with a bloody lip. And an older woman standing in the middle of the apartment looking disheveled and furious.
Marcus’s eyes narrowed. “Yo, what the fuck is going on?”
Miss Loretta pointed at June. “This little bitch stole twenty-five thousand dollars from me years ago!”
June looked away shaking her head like she was embarrassed. “Marcus please…”
“No!” Miss Loretta yelled. “Ask her who the fuck Yoon-Ji is!”
Marcus frowned. “Who?”
“Yoon-Ji!” Miss Loretta screamed while pointing at June. “That’s her real fuckin name!”
June walked out of the kitchen and into the living room then reached into her purse. Her face looked irritated now more than anything else.