by Mikal Malone
“Well you may have fucked my friends but you didn’t fuck me,” Kenyetta said. “And calling us out of our names ain’t gonna make us wanna stay in Tyland.”
“I don’t care if I fucked you or not. After all the bodies I put to rest in ya’lls names, you owe me. Or have you forgotten who brought the firepower necessary to clean up your shit when Black Water and his crew almost killed all of you? It was me. As a matter of fact, where is Carrisa?”
We all looked at her. “I’m…I’m right here, Dreyfus.”
“You and I had an agreement, so you better school your girls on our arrangement. Because ain’t no backing out on me. Ever!”
When he said that we all looked at Carissa. What agreement did they have together?
“I’ll talk to them about our arrangement, but it’s hard for me to remember the details, it was so long ago.”
“Well let me remind you.” He said. “I told you that my coming through that day you all almost lost Emerald City meant you would either owe me ten million dollars or would have to run Tyland for me permanently. You agreed to run Tyland.”
Why would she agree to something this crazy without talking to us first?
“What if we just pay you?” Carissa said.
“The price for your freedom has doubled. Do you have twenty million to buy me out?”
I don’t know about them, but with my shopping habits I would be lucky if I could scrape up one million. And since Carissa and Kenyetta partied a lot, I doubt they had enough either. If any of us had the money, it would probably be Yvette.
“ARE YOU THERE?!” He yelled growing irritated by our silence.
Dreyfus didn’t sound calm like he normally did. In fact he sounded up tight, angry and confused.
“We’re here, Dreyfus.” I said.
“Then fucking answer me!”
“Motha…”
I placed my hand on Yvette’s because I saw she was about to let loose on him. “Not now.” I said gripping her hand. “Let’s let it play out.”
“Fuck this shit!” She said getting up and walking into my room. I guess it was better to let her go than to force her to stay. If she popped off on him, we could all end up dead.
When Yvette closed the door I said, “We’re here, Dreyfus.”
“Good, because let me make myself clear. You bitches don’t get to say when it’s time to leave, I do.”
“You not listening to what I’m saying,” I said. “We’re already done, Dreyfus. We’re not fucking with Tyland no more. But it ain’t like we not still gonna make you money. We still pumping in Emerald and we still use your product.”
“Who you think gave you Emerald? If I wanted to get behind them niggas before ya’ll killed them, every last one of you would be selling pussy off New York avenue right now.”
“Dreyfus, we not fucking with it but we don’t want to beef with you.” I said.
“You beef with me? Picture that.”
“Dreyfus, we’re through. We don’t want war, but if there is one, then that’s on you.” Kenyetta said.
Her words sounded like she was going to offer him up. I wish she hadn’t, but now it is too late.
“I wonder how you will feel if I strip you of Emerald. And get someone else to run it for me.” He said coldly. “Would you still be able to talk to me as if you were my equal?”
“I guess we gotta see.” I said.
“Do you really want to go there?” He said.
Just then Yvette walked back into the room. “You know better than to fuck with us,” She laughed. “We have lost everything, our men, people we love and any chance at a full life. This all the fuck we know, and if you bring somebody in here,” she paused, “no fuck that! If I think you’re even thinking about bringing somebody else in here, I’ll have them killed. And then I’m coming for you.”
He laughed and said, “We’ll see about that.”
“I just don’t understand why this happened to me.”
-Carissa
It was below 20 degrees outside as me and Kenyetta rushed to my car. Thank God for my Viper automatic starter because my car was nice and warm. After the meeting, we decided to talk in my car away from the girls because we shared secrets they didn’t know about.
“While you’re sitting in here, start your car, girl.”
Kenyetta reached into her MCM bag and hit her Viper button. Her Mercedes started up and she fell back into my soft leather seats.
“You got any coke?” She asked me.
I dug in my console and we did a few lines together. The euphoric feeling put us at a momentary ease.
“Kenyetta, you sure you gonna be able to take that package to our men tomorrow?”
“Yeah…why you ask me that?”
“Because it’s not cooked. And you and me both snort coke now that’s why.”
Kenyetta looked at me and said, “I fucking hate you.”
“Hate me? Why?” I frowned.
“Because I wasn’t even thinking about getting high until you turned me onto this shit. Now I feel like most days, I can’t even get along without it. Why did we even start this shit?”
“Kenyetta, I think we are both two grown ass women who made a decision. So don’t try to put all this shit on me.”
“But why did you even start? I mean, what made you decided to say, ‘I sell coke, let me snort it, too?”
I exhaled and said, “I don’t know, Kenyetta. I guess it’s this lifestyle. It’s so fucking hard on me. I mean, why you start?”
“Same reason.”
“Well, we in the same boat.”
Suddenly Kenyetta started crying and said, “I’m broke, Carissa.”
“What? How?!!!”
“I been getting high and I don’t hardly have no shit to show to my name. That’s why when Mercedes asked us did we have enough money to buy ourselves out from up under Dreyfus, I said I didn’t want to leave Tyland. I can’t help ya’ll if I wanted to.”
“Right. I wasn’t surprised though when Yvette said she has fifteen million saved. She must don’t spend shit.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do. I can’t even afford my luxury apartment in Virginia any more. If I add up all my money right now, I might have twenty thousand dollars.”
“Kenyetta, why you ain’t tell me? Before it got to this?”
“I don’t know, but my life is over.”
“It’s not, you just gonna have to stop for a while.” I looked into her eyes. She didn’t look too confident. “You can stop right?”
“Yeah. I ain’t addicted if that’s what you think.”
“You sure? I mean, you did say you broke. I mean, did you mean to get broke on purpose?”
“No.”
“Okay, so let me ask you again, can you or can you not stop?”
“I can.”
“Okay, well stop using. And just so you know, I’m here for you. You and me are the same. We just got to get our shit in order so that Mercedes and Yvette don’t find out. You know how they be judging us sometimes.”
“Okay.” She exhaled. “You’re right. Well, let me go. My car is probably warm now, I’ma call you later.”
She grabbed the bag with the package. I looked at it before she left and said, “Are you good to make the delivery?”
“I got it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Stop worrying. I wouldn’t fuck with our money. We’re fine.”
“Okay. I’ma get up with you later.”
When she left I got on the phone to call Slack. Although boss shit filled my day, I still had some unanswered questions for my boyfriend. The moment he answered he sounded agitated.
“Babes, I’m so fucking sorry! Did you see the pictures somebody posted up of you around DC?”
Sometimes, but not every time, he had a slight southern accent. And since he was from DC I didn’t understand why.
“You mean the naked pictures I allowed you to take of my body? Because if you’re talking about those, I’ll hav
e to say yes, I saw them.”
“I can’t believe somebody violated like that.”
“What about the videos?”
“Somebody posted the videos, too?”
“Yes, but I told you about that already. It just seemed like everything about our private sex life ain’t private.”
“FUCK!!! I’m soooo sorry, babes. I’ma find out who did this shit.”
“Slack, are you sure you didn’t do this?”
“You actually think I would do something like that to you?” When I didn’t answer he screamed. “Do you?!!!!!”
“I…I don’t know. I just…”
CLICK.
“Hello? Hello?” I looked at my receiver and the name Slack didn’t appear on it anymore. He had hung up on me. Nervous about losing him I called back. “Slack?”
“What?”
“Baby, I’m sorry. I’m sooooo sorry. I just don’t understand why this happened to me. I had my daughter in the car with me when we saw the posters and everything. It just fucked me up that’s all.”
“I know. And I hate that this is happening to you. Give me some time to get some answers. I’ma hit you back. Okay?”
“Okay.” Before he hung up I said, “I love you.”
He waited a few seconds before saying, “Love you back.”
It’s just that your moms and pops spoiled you, and I think you care too much about what people say
- Derrick
Derrick was in the gym when he saw Daps again. Something about her secrecy as she crept into the gym raised his antennas. Like she had before, she walked into the gym with two large bags and went straight back to the locker room. She appeared to be in a hurry.
Derrick unclipped his phone off his hip and called C. “C, your peoples here again.” He said walking slower on the treadmill.
“What peoples?”
“Your friend. Daps.”
“Oh…she said she was working out for a marathon or something. That’s why she there all the time.”
“I see. But look, before you go, I saw you took all of your sneakers out of the apartment in Emerald and at the Harbor.”
“Yeah…I don’t wear regular sneakers no more.”
Derrick laughed and said, “Why?”
“Tired of niggas having my shit on all the time.”
“So you get rid of all your shoes? Including the ones I bought for you?”
“Yeah…you know how I am. What you wanted me to give ‘em back to you?”
“Naw, but I been meaning to talk to you. I think you worry about what people say too much. Be careful about that trait. It’s not a good look.”
“Just because I don’t want to wear the same shoes other niggas have in the streets I got bad traits?”
“It ain’t about the sneakers. It’s just that your moms and pops spoiled you when you were coming up and you gotta watch that. That’s all I’m saying.”
Silence.
“Derrick, I’m good. Now I’m doing something right now. I’ma get up with you later though.”
“One.”
“Whatever happened to playing hard to get? She acting like a fucking tramp!”
- Lil C
Ryan’s house was packed when Lil C and Persia walked up in his spot. Niggas were gawking over Persia and it was making C heated. Not because they were looking at her, but because they didn’t know if she was with him or not, yet they were making moves. Although both of their parents ran Emerald, Persia never mingled amongst them so they’d never seen her before. C hung around up and coming gangstas and thugs…the ones her mother warned her to stay away from. Yet there was something about them that made her want to hang around them even more. In a sense she was chasing after her first love, her daddy.
“What up, nigga?” Ryan said giving him a one-arm hug.
He was sitting in the living room with two other niggas. To C, Ryan looked like Lil Chuckee from Lil Wayne’s Young Money label…down to the dreads. He was thin, with light chocolate skin and he looked much younger than seventeen.
“Where’s Mazon? He here yet?” C questioned.
“Mazon!” he yelled to the back of his apartment.
“Where your folks at?” C asked.
“Out of town.” Then focusing his attention on Persia he said, “What’s up, Persia? You want something to drink or something? We got everything. Beer, wine, Ciroc…what you want?” He walked toward the kitchen where the liquor was.
“Naw, she good.” C said speaking up for her.
Ryan stopped in his tracks. “You sure?”
“Boy, whatever.” She said to C. “I do want something to drink.” She looked at Ryan. “Uh…what you got again?”
“Whatever you want.”
“You got Red Bull and Vodka?” She asked.
C felt like fucking her up for being reckless in front of his friends. He told her she was royalty and that she needed to act the part yet she still didn’t get it. So C pulled her to the side and said, “You doing way too much and I don’t want them thinking you loose. Just fall back, aight?” She rolled her eyes. “Ryan, just give her a soda, man. She don’t need all that other shit.”
“Boy, you not my mother.” She said all loud and ignorant like. “I drink all the time.”
“Well not when you with me.” C told her looking seriously into her eyes. He saw a queen in her even if she didn’t and he wanted her to live up to his perceptions. “Ryan, the soda. And I don’t give a fuck what she says, you bring back what the fuck I told you. ”
Ryan walked to the kitchen to get her drink. And C told the two niggas on the couch to get the fuck off.
“Sit down, Persia.” He demanded. She folded her arms against her chest and dropped into the sofa acting like a brat. But even at her worse, C couldn’t help but think about how cute she was. “I don’t care about your pouting and shit.”
When Mazon finally walked into the living room, C felt like ditching the whole idea of hooking them up. But the moment they laid eyes on each other, it was a wrap. They had connected and there was nothing C could do about it.
“Damn, C…this you?” Mazon said pointing at Persia as he moved quickly in her direction.
She stood up and said, “If you Mazon I came here to meet you.”
Whatever happened to playing hard to get? C thought. She acting like a fucking tramp!
“This my cousin, Persia. She’s Carissa daughter,” C said trying to remind him about who she was and what fucking over her meant. “I wanted her to meet you.”
“Good lookin’ out, C.” He said staring her down.
There was something in this nigga’s eyes C wasn’t feeling and he started reflecting on how they met. C met Mazon last year, when he was bringing some weed to Ryan to sell at his school. But Mazon wasn’t anything like C and his friends. He didn’t have a rack of bitches around him all the time and he seemed to be focused on something else. While females sang all around Emerald about how C and his friends were heartless, cold and players, never did anybody say anything bad about Mazon. His rep was clean and intact as far as the ladies were concerned.
In C’s eyes, Mazon seemed to be more about that paper than anything else and he always told Mazon that when he got put on, that he was bringing him with him. Ryan assumed it would be him instead because they were cool, but Ryan wasn’t good at reading people and making decisions like Mazon.
“Good looking out shit.” C told Mazon after meeting Persia. “This right here is my peoples. Remember that shit if you think about fucking her over.”
Mazon shared the sofa with Persia as they continued on without C. Done with both of them, he scanned the room for Cute Nikki because he needed to talk to her.
“Where Cute Nikki at, Ryan? She said the nigga Tamir came ‘round the way lookin’ for me.”
“I saw her earlier. And I told her not to tell you that shit.”
C staggered back a little, frowned and said, “Fuck is you talking about you told her not to tell me? You know I put the word out that I
needed to know every move this nigga made. Why wouldn’t you want to tell me some shit like that?”
“I figured your mind busy with enough shit already.”
“Nigga…let me make it clear if I haven’t already, if this nigga come looking for me,” he paused, “no fuck that…if any nigga come looking for me, I wanna know.”
“Man, I think this nigga’s tripping off some bullshit. Who’s really worried about Tamir?”
“Are you hearing me?”
“Yes.” Ryan said slightly embarrassed.
C was still talking when someone came into the party. C wasn’t trying to see, his ex-girlfriend Lani. They had history, history he wasn’t trying to repeat. Besides, Lani broke all kinds of codes when she fucked his friend, at the time, Tamir. As far as C was concerned, she could be directly attributed to the reason he was beefing with Tamir to this day. He could never forget the time when he called Lani to check on her and his baby she was carrying. When instead of getting her on the phone, he got Tamir, for sure bad blood still brewed between them.
“What’ up, Lani?” Ryan said walking up to her. “Where your twin sister, Sachi? I thought you were bringing her.”
“Boy, I am Sachi! Lani heard C was here, and didn’t wanna come.” Sachi said looking at C with lustful eyes. Bitches ain’t shit, C thought.
If he wanted to be scandalous and fuck her he could with no problems. He couldn’t lie, Sachi had gotten fatter and sexier over the years. Back in the day Lani was the baddest, but now all that had changed. Lani lost a lot of weight and people were whispering that she was HIV positive.
“Fuck you invite her for?” C asked Ryan, ignoring her all together. “You know I don’t fuck with them bitches.”
“So what, you not gonna speak, C? Even after you had Monie Blow and her cousins jump my sister and me just because she fucked Tamir. You can’t say hi?”
“Fuck you…be lucky you still walking because what I was ‘bout to do was worse.”
“But that shit ain’t right, C! Do you know that girl is still in love with you to this day?”