by Chunichi
“Oh my God, that nigga is fine!” she said, attempted to squeeze into the small space with Misha and LaShawn.
Whakelah was sure Ty had heard her. LaShawn only had a studio apartment, and there weren’t any rooms in it besides the bathroom, which was only two feet from where Ty was standing. She wasn’t tripping about him hearing what she had said. He needed to know that she thought so.
As soon as Ty had walked into LaShawn’s apartment, and LaShawn saw him, she, too, thought he was fine. Misha was in the process of adding mousse to LaShawn’s short red hair. She told LaShawn that if she wanted to attract a man like Ty, she had to get her appearance together. Misha wasn’t feeling LaShawn’s spiked look and told her that she should style her hair so that it would have a softer effect. She told LaShawn that it made her look hard, like a butch. Misha didn’t know that Whakelah was going to go gaga over Ty.
“I saw him first,” LaShawn told Whakelah.
“Bitch, whateva!” Whakelah told her, which meant, every bitch for herself, because Whakelah was going for hers.
They left the Bronx and headed to Long Island. Once Misha knew Whakelah wanted to hook up with Ty, there was nothing she wouldn’t do to help her girl make it happen. She owed Whakelah. If it wasn’t for Whakelah, she would have never gone to Club Mansion, would have never met Swag, and she would still be broke.
Misha let Whakelah take her spot and sit up front with Ty, while her and LaShawn played the back of the black ’09 Cadillac Escalade.
LaShawn was heated. She wanted to sit up front with Ty. She felt as if she was being doubly tortured as they drove out to Swag’s crib, having to listen to Misha sweet-talk Swag on her cell phone, as well Ty and Whakelah get to know each other.
The deal was sealed when she heard Ty punching his phone number into Whakelah’s cell phone. She thought that Misha and Whakelah were pulling their two-against-one tag team on her again.
After cruising through the city for a while, they jumped on the Long Island Expressway and made their way out to Swag’s house.
“I thought I was gon’ have to send one of my niggas out lookin’ for y’all,” Swag said.
Swag had been standing there waiting for them in the circular driveway of his grey-stoned mini-mansion. He opened the back door of the Escalade so Misha could exit the vehicle.
LaShawn’s heart skipped three beats as she looked into the most beautiful brown eyes she had ever seen. She quickly looked away.
“What took y’all so long to get out here, nigga?” Swag asked Ty. But once he saw Whakelah step out of the truck in that Rocawear mini dress and those heels, he already knew the answer to his question.
After meeting each other, they all went into Swag’s house. Once inside, Swag took Whakelah and LaShawn on a tour of his luxurious home.
Misha stayed behind. She had already been on a tour of his home. As a matter of fact, they had already christened just about every one of his sixteen rooms. She wanted the girls to get their fill of Swag on their own so they could see for themselves just how cool he really was.
She also wanted to get the business on Ty and Whakelah’s conversation. Her girl was chasing paper too, and Misha knew that Ty had some.
“So, Ty, you feelin’ my girl, or what?” Misha asked him as he walked toward the game room of Swag’s home.
Ty was a good-looking dude in his own right. He wasn’t as fine as Swag, but at six feet even and two hundred and fifty pounds, he held his down. He didn’t have a six-pack, but he was tight in the stomach area. And his legs weren’t too thin, yet they weren’t too thick. His caramel complexion complemented Whakelah’s dark brown skin, and Misha thought they looked real good together. Misha knew that Whakelah wasn’t into a lot of men, but she could tell that her best friend was very much interested in Ty.
It was Sunday, and there was a football game on. The Dallas Cowboys were playing the Washington Redskins, and Dallas was down. Ty, a Cowboys fan, was so engrossed in the game, he hadn’t bothered to answer Misha’s question.
Misha knew what would get Ty’s attention. She went into the kitchen and grabbed him a bottle of Heineken and came back into the game room with a nice cold beer for him.
“Thanks, Misha,” he said, as he took the beer from her.
“No problem. So, um, Ty, you feelin’ my girl?”
“She a’ight,” he said, nonchalantly.
“What does that mean, she a’ight?” Misha couldn’t read his body language.
“I mean, she a’ight, she cool, but, Misha, I really ain’t lookin’ for no girl.”
Misha assumed that if Ty wasn’t looking for a girl then just maybe he was looking for a guy. “Ooooh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
“You ain’t know what?” Ty asked, now looking directly at Misha like she was crazy. He saw her facial expressions and knew right away what she was thinking.
Misha slowly reiterated his own statement. “I mean, you sayin’ you not lookin’ for a girl, so—”
“Yo, get that shit out ya head. I ain’t no fuckin’ faggot!”
“Oh, okay, cool. I mean, they my peoples too, so, you know, it’s all good,” Misha explained, laughter in her tone and a smile on her pretty face.
“Yo, you wild,” Ty told her, laughing.
Ty liked Misha, especially for his man. Swag needed to settle down. He had been fucking with too many girls, and it was bound to catch up with him sooner or later. Misha was able to keep up with Swag’s sexual appetite. At least, that’s what Swag had told him, so she was a keeper. He could see why his homeboy was falling for this young vixen. Misha was pretty, she was sexy, she was down-to-earth, and she was funny.
“So what’s up?” Misha asked, still pressing the issue. “You already got a girl?”
“Nah.”
“So what’s your deal?”
“Let me put it this way. I don’t have time for a relationship, and women want you to spend time. I’m into my work, Misha.”
“What kind of work do you do? I mean, I know Swag is a producer, but what’s your role in all of this?”
“I’m the money behind all of this.”
Misha’s eyes batted extremely hard. Wasn’t Ty just full of surprises? All the time she’d been thinking Swag was the money behind it all. She wondered why Ty was acting like he was Swag’s flunky, if he was the one with all of the money.
Oh well, she wasn’t chasing the paper like that anymore, happy with what Swag was doing for her. With him, it wasn’t just the money. She actually had feelings for him, and she had never really had genuine feelings for any man. Misha was feeling June, somewhat, but it was nothing like the feelings she had for Swag.
Misha thought about Whakelah. Shit, her girl needed six thousand dollars, and this nigga was sitting here saying he was the money behind a nigga that had money. She had heard Whakelah mention on their way to Swag’s house that she was about to sell her brand-new clothes, which was a good idea, and may, in fact, get her some of the money, but she really didn’t want her girl to have to do that.
Misha didn’t know quite yet what she was going to cook up between Ty and Whakelah, but she had just turned the burners on.
“You mean you live in this gigantic house all by yourself?” LaShawn asked, her voice resembling a little girl’s.
“Yeah, I do. But it’s not as sad as you make it sound,” Swag told her.
“I know that’s right!” Whakelah chimed in.
“You have a beautiful house, Swag. I wish I could film some of the episodes of my reality show here. That would be sweet.”
Whakelah rolled her eyes at her LaShawn. She thought her attempt to get Swag’s attention was foul and lame. Swag didn’t want a damn thing to do with LaShawn, and she was making a complete fool of herself. Whakelah couldn’t wait to tell Misha all of the underhanded shit LaShawn was doing.
“Swag, I need to use the ladies’ room,” Whakelah said.
“Do you remember where it is?”
“Yep, I think I can find it.” Whakelah trac
ed her steps back to one of the four bathrooms he had just shown them.
Whakelah wasn’t feeling the way LaShawn was acting and didn’t trust her sneaky ass with Swag all by herself. She didn’t plan to be gone long, but she really needed to go to the bathroom.
Whakelah agreed with Misha. Swag was cool. She liked him a lot and could see why Misha was so shaken by him.
LaShawn knew that niggas like Swag loved bitches with big fat asses, just like the one she possessed. She was willing to bet all of the money that she had in her pocket that if she was left alone with Swag, she could make him fuck her.
They waited in the hallway upstairs while Whakelah went off to use the bathroom.
“So Whakelah’s doing a reality show?”
“It’s a dream of hers.” LaShawn looked at him with wanting eyes.
“That’s what it do,” Swag said. “You gotta have a dream.”
LaShawn had a dream. Her dream was to be butt naked with Swag fucking her doggie-style and Misha watching in horror as she came endlessly, and raced off into the sunset with Swag as her new man. That was the least she could do after Misha had fucked up her chances with Ty.
LaShawn got closer to him. “You smoke weed, Swag?”
“Yeah, I smoke weed.”
“Mmm! That’s what’s good. ’Cause I sell.”
“Oh, word? I respect that, mama.”
“You buyin’?” she asked, as she stepped into his personal space.
“Nah, I ain’t buyin’, mama, but thanks for the offer. Let me know if you need some weight, and I got you.”
LaShawn was so turned on by Swag’s swagger, she couldn’t control herself any longer. She moved even closer and was now a breath away from him.
Swag knew exactly what she was trying to do, but he wasn’t going for it. This scenario of one girlfriend trying to secretly steal him from the other one, or trying to set him up, to prove that he was a dog, had played out many times before. He couldn’t keep count of the amount of chicks and their girlfriends who had gotten into fistfights and had literally declared war over him.
This time he was totally amused. At least all of the other chicks had some sort of looks about them. He wasn’t attracted to LaShawn in the slightest.
Out of nowhere, she put both of her hands on his dick.
“Look, Mama, don’t embarrass yourself.” Swag removed her hands.
“What?” LaShawn asked, playing dumb.
“I ain’t the one for all’lat. I’m feelin’ ya girl hard, and I don’t think she would take kindly to you doin’ what you just did.”
LaShawn’s self-esteem was shattered once again. Her fat ass wasn’t even an asset anymore. Niggas just didn’t want her at all. Larry’s ass kicking was nothing compared to the pain she was now feeling inside.
She wondered if Swag would still be so into Misha if he knew what she really did for a living and just how many niggas she had fucked. She wanted to hurt Swag, just as much as he had hurt her, but in a physical way.
When Whakelah returned from the bathroom, she could tell that something had transpired between Swag and LaShawn. She noticed a complete change in LaShawn’s attitude.
The evening was a lovely one for Misha and Whakelah. They enjoyed Swag and Ty to the fullest. Swag had cooked steaks and burgers on his outside grill, and they ate, drank, and chilled.
DiViNCi had slid through Swag’s place with his crew and had hung out for a while. He got to meet Misha for the first time. He had heard a lot about her, and from what Swag had told him, it was all good. He felt that she would be perfect for his video. They even went into the recording studio that Swag had built in his home and DiViNCi got in the booth to spit some freestyle lyrics for all of them.
Meanwhile, LaShawn stayed to the side, watching, hating, and plotting.
REAL LOVE
It had been a minute since they were all chilling out at Swag’s crib. Whakelah wanted to go back to Long Island again soon. She hadn’t heard from Misha in over a week and had tried calling her countless times, but her phone kept going straight to voice mail. She knew her girl was living it up out there at Swag’s house, without a care in the world.
Whakelah hadn’t heard from Ty either. She thought they’d made a connection the night they were kicking it at Swag’s house. She figured that she probably wasn’t his type and that he wasn’t into her. She realized they were from two different worlds. That wouldn’t stop her from searching for someone. Ty woke up the sleeping beast of lust in Whakelah, a beast that she thought she had on lock.
She had heard from her lawyer, who informed her that the date for her hearing with the judge and the Social Services Department had been moved up for the convenience of the court. Whakelah was in a real bind. She now had to come up with that money by next week.
Selling her clothes wasn’t going as well as Whakelah had expected. She put up handwritten flyers all around the hood, but she wasn’t getting any real call backs with any serious offers. The people calling her back were trying to get something for nothing, and her clothes were worth some money. So far, she had only accumulated nine hundred dollars.
Whakelah had been leaving her kids with her mother every weekend now. She’d been a little short-fused lately and had been yelling at them, something they were not used to. Both she and her moms thought it was a good idea, but Whakelah wasn’t so sure now. She was so used to having the kids up under her, she was going crazy in her apartment all alone.
Whakelah hadn’t talked to LaShawn in a few days. She was over the drama that went down at Swag’s house and wanted her to know that, no matter what they went through as best friends, at the end of the day, and through all of the bullshit, they needed to remain best friends. She called her up. LaShawn wasn’t up to anything special, so Whakelah went to her crib.
Whakelah showed up at LaShawn’s apartment with a blunt in her hand. She wanted her girl to know she wasn’t there to smoke up her weed all the time.
“Aw, shit, that’s what I’m talkin’ about! Light that shit up,” LaShawn told her.
Whakelah explained to LaShawn why she really needed to smoke the blunt. She told LaShawn that she had gotten another call from the lawyer and that she was spazzing out. She was worried that she could lose everything, most importantly, her kids.
“I gotta come up with this money, or my ass is gon’ be homeless, and some more shit,” Whakelah told LaShawn, while looking out the window at the drab environment in which they lived.
LaShawn was sitting on her very first faux leather sofa that she had purchased on a rent-to-own agreement from the furniture store. It was long and black with thick cushions for seats and a contoured back. It looked like it cost a few dollars. She had a plastic crate with a slab of mirrored glass that she had found one day while taking the garbage to the incinerator. She gladly took the mirrored glass and plastic crate back to her apartment and made treasure out of another’s trash. It turned out to be a great coffee table.
Even though she was slinging weed and coke, LaShawn was still moving on a small level, and all of her money was going to grease the hand of the manager that had gotten her the apartment. There was also day-to-day living and travel expenses. She wasn’t able to see any real profit. If she had the money, she would have handed it over to Whakelah so she wouldn’t be going through the hell she was.
“I feel you. I need to come up with some money, too. This nickel-and-dime hustling ain’t hittin’ on shit.”
“What the hell are we going to do?”
“I don’t know, but I know we need a good break.” LaShawn then thought to herself, What the fuck am I talking about, we need a good break? We gotta take our break out this muthafucka. Ain’t nobody gonna give you shit! I’ma make my own break!
“I’m trying to think,” Whakelah said, her mind drawing a blank.
“Oh my God! I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before!”
“What?” Whakelah was willing to consider almost any idea at this point in time.
�
�Did you see that nigga’s crib? We gon’ rob that nigga for everything he’s got!” La Shawn said, talking about Swag.
“LaShawn, are you fuckin’ crazy?”
“Hell no, I ain’t crazy. This bitch done struck gold. She ain’t breaking no bread over this way. So, shit, we gon’ get ours.”
“That’s her man, LaShawn. She doesn’t have to share what he gives her with us. She can if she wants to, but—”
“But, my ass! Misha’s caught up. You see that shit. She don’t know if she’s coming or going. That nigga got her ass sprung. Where she at? You seen her? She ain’t even thinking about us no more. We was all supposed to come up, not just her.”
“LaShawn, this is a crazy idea. We need to come up with a different plan.”
“Ain’t no other plan. This is the plan.”
Convincing LaShawn not to rob Swag and to let the plan die wasn’t going to be an easy task. LaShawn wasn’t playing. She was tired of getting the short end of the stick. She had seen for her own eyes how Swag was living, and the nigga told her he was moving weight. If her homegirl wanted to turn into a punk, that was cool. She had other peeps she could get at to execute her plan.
Whakelah didn’t know what to do. Should she tell Misha what LaShawn had planned, or should she go along with LaShawn’s plan to rob Swag? Maybe they would come away with enough money to set them both straight. Misha had not called her all week, and she had not been answering her calls. Misha knew Whakelah still needed the money for her case. Maybe she was forgetting all about them.
“Aye, B, I got a job for you,” LaShawn said, as she spoke on her cell phone.
LaShawn had met Bernard through one of her uncles. B did his the ski mask way, and was known in the hood for running up in a nigga’s crib, quickly getting the stash, and being out within minutes, with no one seeing him come or go.
“What you workin’ wit’?”
“A nice score, man. I’m over here in the Web. You know where I’m at, apartment 7A. I ain’t gon’ do too much singing,” LaShawn said, letting B know that she wasn’t going to be saying too much over the phone.