Trust No Bitch #2
“Shoot me! You think I care! Shoot me! Do it!” She called my bluff, shoving me away from her. I let her move me out of her space.
She opened her door and pointed. “Get the fuck out my house, Rico! Before my real baby’s daddy comes!”
The corner of my mouth pulled. We hadn’t argued often, but when we did, I saw firsthand how vicious she could be. Normally, I would have curved it, but that day I welcomed it. She already fucked our shit up. Wasn’t anything to salvage.
“I think I already took care of that nigga. Trippy, Snow? Couldn’t even aim for the big fish,” I tsked.
“Who said it’s not Grimey? Why wouldn’t I fuck all of them? That’s what you think anyway, right?”
Snow fell into the doorjamb, fresh tears falling down her cheeks. “How could you shoot at me? What if he dies?”
I shrugged. “Then the nigga dies. I been so lenient with you, Snow. But now you know, you fuck with me, I always get my pound of flesh.”
She cried out, hugging herself and sobbing like I killed her best friend or something. My first mind had me ready to do some more drastic shit, but at the last second, I decided to try another approach.
I tucked my gun in my jeans and approached her. “Look, I forgive you for getting pregnant by another nigga. I wasn’t even shooting at you, Snow. You know I don’t miss.”
Snow’s sobs stopped immediately as she screwed her face up at me. She straightened up and wiped her hair out of her face.
What I saw there gave me pause. No fear. No sorrow or remorse. Not even anger.
I saw resolve, and that had me pausing.
“You seriously think that I not only cheated on you, but had sex raw with another guy, got pregnant, and had an abortion without telling you? If you seriously think that, you’re truly the dumbest nigga on earth.”
She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, before opening them again. “Who else have you been fucking, Rico?”
I schooled my expression and peered at her, stapling my lips together.
Rule twelve: never admit to anything, even if they got irrefutable proof.
Snow humorlessly chuckled. “Well, let her know she’s passing around the clap. Get the fuck out of my house, and my life.”
I blinked as she walked past me, toward her closet.
The clap. Snow got burned?
All the anger washed out of me in an instant. I had fucked up. I fucked up so damn bad, that I knew I couldn’t get out of it. That’s why she never hit me about the baby. It wasn’t just the baby.
I’d burned her. I’d burned our kid.
Snow was pregnant, and then she wasn’t.
When she moved past me again, I gripped her arm, noting her wincing.
“Let me go, I need to shower–”
“Snow–”
Snow whipped around and slapped the shit out of my cheek.
“FUCK YOU! GET OUT!” I heard footfalls before a slammed door, a broken sob, and the faucets turning.
I thought about staying in her room until she got out, but she needed space. I needed space.
So I left through her window, and caught the bus back to the Birch.
Fredo was on the courts with some of the Babies. One look from me had him abandoning his seat and coming with me upstairs.
Nan was on the couch, watching her stories. She looked up at us when we came inside, her eyes twinkling like the gold piece between her front teeth.
“My babies. It’s some food in the kitchen.”
My heart thumped, though I didn’t deserve the peculiar love of her. Not then. “Thanks, Nan.”
She nodded and reached for her cigarettes as we walked into my room and I closed the door.
Fredo took the chair at my desk, while I began to pace.
“I take it you caught up with Snow–”
“I fucked up, Fred. I fucked up so bad, and now I think… I think we done.”
My legs got weak, and I sat down at the foot of my bed. “Remember when we heard Gee complaining about getting burned by some bitch a few weeks back?”
Fredo’s eyebrows kissed as he nodded his head, before his eyes ballooned. “Y’all sharing bitches?”
“Not intentionally… fuck. Nut took me to see Tiny after Reem got put on. I told her I wanted Reem to get the same deal I got for Ty-Ty. That when they were ready to be out, they could leave without having to be bought out. She agreed… on one condition.”
“Rick,” he sighed, knowing where I was going.
“I wrapped up with that bitch I swear. But I still burned Snow. That’s why she been out the way.”
“Why the fuck you even agree to that?! You really think she gon’ let them out just ‘cause you fucked her?! She just wanted to fuck!”
“It worked for us!” I tried to keep my voice down.
Nan may be dead to the world at night, but her hearing was A1 in the daytime.
“I fucked her ass, and we don’t have to move work. But Reem and Ty-Ty gon’ run behind Set until they know better, and I needed to make sure that when they know better they could do better.”
“Damn, Rick.” Fredo hung his head until he stared at the ceiling. “Can’t believe you and Gee and whoever else is fucking this bitch. Bishop gon’ kill y’all if Set don’t first.”
“Bishop a cuck and Set prolly fucking her ass too. Either way, that bitch burned me, and got Snow all bad.”
“So… was the baby yours?”
I swallowed, before lifting my chin. “Good thing we wore them masks, huh?”
Fredo brought his chin down to glare at me. “Nigga! She can easily tell them niggas who we is, and then what?!”
“Snow not built like that… she knows telling wouldn’t save her from them or from us. I can’t lie, she pissed. But I think if I give her some time–”
“‘Some time?!’ Nigga, you sound dumb as fuck. You cheated on her, burned her, and got her pregnant. Then shot at her when she was coming out of the abortion clinic–”
“I wasn’t aiming for her–”
“Well, you hit her friend, who she trusted enough to call about it. And I know before you came to your senses, you came at her sideways. Wynter doesn’t need time, nigga. She done witcho ass, and I’on blame her.”
Fredo stood suddenly, knocking the chair back. “She prolly done with all of us, and I’on blame her. And if you really care for her, you’d leave her alone, like Pooh should have left Ma alone.”
His parting words did nothing for me. Snow couldn’t be done. I wouldn’t let her. She just needed time, like I did. I was almost a father, and I didn’t know how to feel about it.
Part of me wanted to murk Tiny, but that would do more harm than good. It wasn’t worth feeling better momentarily. Nah, I’d just go to the clinic and get on the up and up. Give Snow some time. Let the noise from the shooting die down, and reassess in the new year.
That was a couple months away. Plenty of time.
Nodding to myself, I grabbed my phone to look up the number to urgent care.
“Can’t believe that bitch walking around like that. Whole hood prolly burning off her,” I grumbled.