Chapter 17 #2
“I heard her, the bitch is out bragging about it in public! I confronted him, and he didn’t even want to use it against her.
He tried to forbid me from using it, but I told him if it even looked like it wasn’t going our way, I was airing that hoe out.
I did and now he’s mad at me! I was trying to protect him! ”
“Does he still… have feelings for her?” she asked cautiously.
“He swears he doesn’t. He says it’s because he knows that she went through a lot, and he promised her that he would never expose her, no matter what.”
“But she’s trying to blackmail him into getting back with her raggedy ass! How does that make sense?” Mona blurted out.
“That’s what the fuck I said! So, I quit… the case and him,” I sniffled.
“May,” she said softly, tearing up again. “I’m so sorry.”
“Girl don’t feel bad for me. That ain’t even my nigga!
I don’t even know why the fuck I’m crying right now.
I didn’t even like him like that,” I said before my voice broke and I cried harder.
This was so fucking pitiful. She just looked at me like my own personal lie detector but didn’t call me out on my bullshit.
“Fuck these niggas!” she finally said, wiping her face as she pulled out her phone.
“What are you doing?” I pouted.
“Texting the girls, so they can come over and bring a bottle. We’re having a girl’s night.”
“You know what?” I said, a smile spreading over my teary face. “Hell yeah!”
Mona
Code Red. We need y’all! Anybody down to link up at my place tonight?
June
Hell yeah… “We?” Is this a double Code Red??
Me
Unfortunately
Laila
Shiddd! I’m on the way now.
Mona
Bring liquor!
June
You sure you need to be drinking when you’re upset? I’m sensing a pattern here.
Mona
Girl, fuck you! We all been drunk singing on the bar before! Now I’ma alcoholic?
June
Just asking! Just know if you start that shit, I’m leaving! Up there sounding like a wounded animal!
Mona
You know what? You got one more time to talk about my singing, Ju!
Watching the two of them argue through faux insults and emojis gave me the first laugh that I’d had in a few days.
My girls could heal my soul without even trying.
That’s why we were so solid after all these years, and nothing short of death was breaking up our squad.
Even then, I would haunt them bitches. I needed them more than they could ever know, and definitely more than I let on.
“Hellooo?” Laila called out as she walked in the door an hour later with June in tow.
They were each carrying a bottle of liquor and some type of food.
I immediately went for the bottle of Patron in Laila’s hand like we hadn’t just had two shots of gin each.
Why that was the only liquor Mona had on hand was beyond me.
Mona on the other hand went straight for the cheesecake in June’s hands, but she pulled it away making her poke her bottom lip out.
“Nah, y’all over here begging like shit is sweet after calling in a Code Red!” Laila fussed. “What the fuck is goin’ on? Especially you, May. Last we checked, your ass was single!” Mona and I looked at each other before looking back at them.
“You start,” I sighed.
“I found out that Tah used to be with his sister-in-law,” she said in one long exhale.
“Be with, how?” Laila asked with a raised brow.
“Biblically, bitch! He’s been inside that woman. They were together,” Mona groaned.
“Oh shit,” Laila said as she handed her the much deserved cheesecake and urged her to go on.
Mona spilled all the details about how the bitch pulled up on her and she found out Tahmir had been lying to her.
Me personally, I would have sent that hoe to be with the nigga, but Mona’s Libra ass was way too understanding.
Laila and June just listened and gave their supportive nods and gestures, then it came time for the Q&A portion.
“So, after all that you’re just done?” Laila asked.
“He lied! He’s been looking me in my face every day since February, knowing this shit was built on a lie.
Yes, I’m done. This time I’ma learn my lesson before I get in too deep,” she said with the saddest expression.
We all shook our heads sympathetically, none of us having the heart to tell her that she was way past that already.
“Yeah, he lied, but come on, MoMo,” Laila reasoned.
“Would you honestly have given the nigga a chance if he told you from day one? ‘Hey, I know you used to fuck on my brother, but it’s all cool because I used to fuck on his wife too! It’s all good, we just keepin’ it in the family around here!
’” I snorted and Mona narrowed her eyes at us.
“I’m just saying,” she continued. “That nigga loves you. He ain’t gon’ come up off you that easily. ”
“Fuck him!” Mona scoffed as if she wasn’t the literal teddy bear of the group.
I knew she was hurt, but what Tahmir did wasn’t a complete dealbreaker.
Besides, the nigga would probably buy her a small continent or some shit to apologize.
“You know what, moving on. Let’s talk about your Code Red,” she said, making everyone’s eyes turn to me.
“Bitch,” I mumbled. “So, I fucked Chase…” I started.
“Girl!” Laila hollered. “When we called you the Olivia Pope of the league, you took that seriously, huh?” Now it was Mona’s turn to cackle at my misfortune.
“Shit, I don’t blame you! The man is fine as fuck!” June blurted. I gave her horny ass the meanest mug. “Damn… I’m sorry!” She quickly followed up.
“It was more than just sex,” I admitted to them what I couldn’t say to him. “I—there are feelings involved.”
“Bitch, why did you just say that like you found out you were dying from an incurable disease?” Laila asked me with a blank stare.
“Because I feel like it!” I whined. “I really liked that nigga and he had to go fuck it all up!”
“Well, what happened?” June questioned.
Now I had the floor, the three of them hung onto every word as I gave them the play by play of our messy endeavors.
The way June damn near drooled on herself when I talked about the sex served as a reminder that we needed to get somebody’s dick in her soon because she was acting so feral that her rose was probably overheated and wilted by now.
By the time I hit the end of our short affair, they were ready to start offering me their unsolicited advice.
“So you’re mad at him for… trying to keep his promise?” June asked as she looked at me with wide eyes. I rolled mine because I did not need her to be logical right now.
“Yes!’
“Amaya, you gotta think about it” Mona said softly. “If it was me, and we fell out, would you expose my shit because we were no longer friends?”
“Hell no, but you’re also not a fuckin’ crackhead and would never blackmail me!” I muttered indignantly.
“At least you know he’s loyal!” June offered.
“Yeah, to the wrong bitch!” I spat. “I don’t wanna talk about him no more.
Change of subject, please. What’s been up here?
How’s Trent?” I asked with raised brows.
Trent was Laila’s on again off again fuck ass boyfriend, and they knew I must have been desperate to get the spotlight off myself.
I hated Trent’s dusty, skee-ball head, ass and would much rather clean a public toilet with the last toothbrush on earth than to ask about his wellbeing.
He and I had damn near come to blows multiple times and I would do it again because he played in my girl’s face entirely too much for my liking.
I scoffed at how logical each one of us was when it came to each other, but how blind to our own bullshit we tended to be.
Fuck… Am I the problem?
“Girl,” Laila scoffed. “You do not give a fuck about Trent!”
“I really don’t,” I said, unable to hold back my laughter. From that point on, it became a No Nigga Zone, and we caught up on our shit—families, work, and personal, but left our love lives in the background.
“I’m really glad we did this… I missed y’all,” I said, smiling warmly.
“We missed you too!” June said. “So… does this mean you’re back for good now?” My eyes glazed over as Chase two stepped his way right back into my mind. I didn’t answer for a while, sitting there in a daze as our tragedy of a story replayed itself in my head once again.
“Yeah, I’m back,” I said with a nod. In more ways than one. I made a vow right then and there to go back to who I was before Chase, before Malcom, before I felt real big girl heartbreak.
I was going back to my hoe phase.
We sat there and spilled tea while we filled our bellies and got good and tipsy, then ended the night with a dance off.
I didn’t realize how much my soul needed a good twerk, but it healed a part of my sad spirit.
We even let Mona sing. It was more like a drunken wail that, ironically, sounded something like a drunken whale, but clearly, she needed that too.
By the time Laila and June left, all Mona and I could do was take our drunk asses to bed and pray for a better day tomorrow.