by J Peach
“Shit, I’m tryna finish this shit up before nightfall and take my ass to the crib.” I muted the phone and put it on speaker. “King, call her and set something up. Tell her you throwing a party or some shit for my death, reliving good times or some shit. Krystal, yo ass listen to her talk.” I hurriedly told him before getting back to the call. I got up and went to her bedroom so I wouldn’t be overheard.
“Before nightfall? Peaches still ain’t gave you none, huh?” He laughed.
“Hell n’all. Her ass on that bullshit. Aye, I need a favor.”
“What’s up?” Sam was always down to help with no questions asked.
“I need you to find out all you can on a nigga named Rice from The City. When you get everything, hit my line, bet?” If anybody could find some shit out legally, it was Sam’s ass.
“I got you. Give me a couple of hours and I’ll call you.”
“I’ight.” I disconnected the line and went back into the room where King had Tish on speaker.
“Yeah, I’mma have a cookout next week at the Rex for my homie. So be there, i’ight.”
“I’ll be there. King, how Peaches been? I’ve been trying to reach out to her but I haven’t gotten ahold of her. I tried talking to her at the funeral but her little friend brushed me off and Peaches didn’t say nothing. But I took that as her being upset about Blaze. Then I went by Mom B’s house after the funeral but she had already left town. I don’t know if I did something to her or not. She hasn’t even tried to reach out to me.” Tish explained to him sounding weary. “Did I do something to her?”
I leaned against the wall of the hallway listening to their conversation.
“N’all, Tish, I don’t think you did shit to her. But after that shit happened with Le’Ron’s ass, she stopped dealing with a lot of folks. She wanted to keep her circle small. So it ain’t shit you did. It was just too much shit that was happening and then with her crib blowing up, Tish you can’t blame her. Shid, anyone she met in that short time, she stopped fuckin’ with.” King smoothly told her but it was the truth.
Peaches had stopped talkin’ to everyone that didn’t include her circle of friends. Even then, she only dealt with my niggas, except for Sam. She didn’t fuck with him, period. Shid, that was cool with me. He was my nigga and all but I still ain’t like the slick shit he did when he tried to get at her. Although he told me about it and I beat his ass for it, that shit was still fuck'd up. I had no problems with a nigga going after any bitch I fuck'd with but going after Peaches was the wrong move.
“I guess I understand that. I just didn’t expect her to shut me off. We had become real good friends and she has to know I would never do anything to hurt her. It’s just crazy she pushed me off the way she did without even telling me. I thought we were so much better than that, you know?” She seemed hurt.
That bitch know she was a fuckin’ actress. I couldn’t wait to kill that bitch!
King’s head tilted to the side and he stared at the phone. I’m sure he was thinking my thoughts. His eyes slid to me and pointed at the phone before he shook his head. “Yeah,” was all he said.
I covered my mouth and laughed. He didn’t know how to respond to the bullshit coming through the line.
She got quiet then sighed.
I snapped my fingers at him to get his attention. When he looked at me, I mouthed for him to bring up Le’Ron.
King nodded. “You gotda look at it from her stand point, Tish. Shid, she thought Le’Ron was a good dude because he looked out for Blaze but look what he ended up doing to her. Man, he beat the hell outda her and made her have a miscarriage. We still don’t know why the fuck he did that to her. His ass just disappeared. So shid, I don’t blame her for not wanting to fuck with nobody new. What the fuck did Peaches or Blaze ever do to him.”
She made a weird sound as if she had suddenly became irritated. “King, I know Blaze was your boy or whatnot but that nigga wasn’t a fuckin’ saint! He’s done plenty of dirt to good people. Now I’m not saying Peaches deserved the treatment she got but what would one expect when you dealing with a nigga like him? Yeah, it’s fuck'd up what happened to her but I’m not surprised that it did. Y’all go around doing all types of shit to mothafuckas and expect no consequences at all. Not everybody is scared of y’all. Somebody gon’ step up and come straight for you behind the shit y’all do. I mean, every action has its consequence. You should keep that in mind while you still out here.” She sounded pissed.
“Did you just fuckin’ threaten me?” King snapped into the phone.
Tish let out a laugh. “What? King? Oh, my God. No, I was simply stating a fact, that’s all. Dude, you’re crazy. You know I love you, King.” She laughed.
I could tell King didn’t buy that shit and was about to go clean the fuck off. I stepped out the hallway shaking my head at him, telling him to chill out.
He bit into his lip and took a couple of deep breaths. He was mad as hell. “Yeah, I know. I’ll hit you later on about the party, i’ight?”
“Okay, boo.”
King hung up the phone. “Don’t say shit.” He pointed to me as he started to pace. He walked back and forth three times before he made a beeline for the door.
I got him and grabbed his arm, stopping him. “Yo’, hold the fuck up—”
King pushed me hard into the wall. I felt the plaster break as I hit it. “Don’t fuckin’ touch me! Fuck you mean hold up? That bitch just threatened me and you gon’ tell me to hold up? B, stay the fuck out my way.” He turned to go for the door.
Quickly. I grabbed him and put him in a choke hold. My arms wrapped tightly around his neck. “Nigga, you gon’ calm the fuck down. Yo ass ain’t about to fuck this up now.” After the shit his ass told me in the truck on how I needed to calm down. Now this bitch wanted to trip.
King pulled at my arms, trying to pry them from around his neck as he rammed us backwards into the wall. He put up a hell of a fight but I wasn’t letting his ass go. One thing about King when he got pissed and his mind was set to tear up some shit, it was hard as hell to talk him down. He was stubborn as hell, just like Peaches ass but worse. I wasn’t about to fight with that big mothafucka just to calm his ass down. Fuck that. I was putting his ass to sleep so I could think.
Once his fight dimmed, I looked over at Krystal. “Aye, go get me some duct tape or something so I can tie this mothafucka up before he wakes up.”
She jumped up to go get what I needed.
Mac sat on the couch, laughing his ass off. B, how the fuck you gon’ tie that man up, tho’? I say let his ass go and we go handle this bitch. I clearly heard the threat she made. Boss, I’m not good with threats. I’mma get yo ass before you can plot or act on a plan to get my ass. Fuck that. I say we go kill that bitch now.” Mac reached on his side and grabbed his gun and cocked it.
I was down to put a bullet in a bitch real quick but King made sense when he said she was only a piece of the puzzle. We needed to put that mothafucka together and kill everybody so nobody came back.
“We gon’ kill her ass but we need to get everybody. Until we know who’s all involved, we gotda play nice.” I explained to him.
Krystal returned with both duct tape, rope and some handcuffs. My brow rose at the rope and handcuffs. “I didn’t know which one would be better.” Her face turned red.
I grabbed the white rope and bound King’s wrist together then covered it with duct tape. I moved to his ankles and repeated the process. “Baby girl, you can keep yo cuffs. I ain’t touching those mothafuckas. But shid, I ain’t gon’ lie. I’m curious like a mothafucka to know what you doing with those and the rope.”
Again her face turned bright red. “None of your business as to what I use them for. Blaze, don’t look at me like that.” She laughed before taking the extra rope back. “Whatever, man. Y’all paying for that wall.” She pointed to the big hole in the wall.
“We gon’ take care of that.” I crouched down and reached in King’s pocket, getting his money out. “So
you liked to be tied up?” I asked her while counting off a stack. I folded the money up and handed it to her.
“Thank you.” She slid the money in her pocket. Krystal didn’t answer my question.
“I see you. Yo ass grown now, huh?” I was just fuckin’ with her. When all the shit happened with Peaches’ crib blowing up, me Krystal stayed cool. I didn’t fuck with her on no play play shit like before but we were still cool. We would put some smoke in the air or get a drink from time to time but that was about it.
“Blaze, leave me alone.” She rolled her eyes at me.
I laughed. “I’m just fuckin’ with you. Aye, I’mma need you in on this shit. You might even have to become friends with that bitch. She probably not gon’ think you remember her…” I started to think on just how I was gon’ get those two together.
“B, you can’t ask me to do that.” Her head shook in protest.
She didn’t have a choice no more. “I’m asking you to. Did you recognize the voice? Be honest did you?” I asked.
“I don’t know. It could’ve been—I don’t know. The tone of her voice sounded more mature then it had.”
I could see the battle she was having with herself.
She had to suck that shit up because she didn’t have a choice. She needed to get pissed that was the only way I could see her going along with it.
So I brought up the incident that happened to her and made her think about everything that Blue did in that basement. Then with his girl telling him to kill her, I convinced her this was the only way she would be able to let everything go and forget about it.
“Fine, I’ll do it. But how am I going to get close to her? It’s not like she’s going to come to me.” She pointed out.
That was the same thing I was thinking. Tish didn’t work at the lot no more after the whole Le’Ron thing.
“Give me a few days to come up with something, bet?”
She let out a heavy sigh but nodded her head. “Alright.”
Chapter 23
Peaches
It was now five o’clock and I still hadn’t heard anything from Blaze or King. I was past worried, every cell in my body was telling me something bad had happened to them and all I was waiting for was the police to contact us. I had cried so much my head pounded painfully, my tear ducts were swollen and my nose was stopped up. I couldn’t think straight.
This was the first time he’d been out and haven’t called. It just wasn’t like him not when he knew how worried I got.
My chest shook as I sobbed.
“Peaches, babe, I’m sure it’s nothing. His phone could’ve died or something. That’s probably why he hasn’t called yet.” Kim hands rubbed my back as she tried to confront me.
“Yeah, Peach, that could be it. King’s phone always dying on him. And he never charge it up. Believe me if King sees my number, he’s going to answer. He’s always worried about Keema so there has to be a reasonable explanation as to why they’re not answering their phones.” Ebony insisted, while she squeezed my hands.
“If that’s the case, why not go to a damn payphone? Or go get chargers, better yet bring they asses’ home and tell us something. They are so fuckin’ inconsiderate, I swear. If something happened and he’s dead, I’m going to kill him. He is not to do us like that. We not staying here. We getting the hell out of this city. And y’all asses dumb if you stay here, too. I’m not about to put us through this bullshit.” I cried. “Y’all if ain’t nothing wrong with him, why wouldn’t he call, though?”
Ebony suddenly started laughing.
I didn’t see anything about the situation funny at all. King or Blaze could be dead and she finds this funny.
“E, stop it,” Kimmy told her.
I looked over at her to see her lips quivering. I was having a hard time finding the humor in any of it.
“If you bitches ain’t gon’ take this serious, y’all can get the fuck out my damn house. Something could’ve fuckin’ happened and y’all wanna fuckin’ laugh.” I snatched myself away from them.
Kim hit Ebony and threw a glare her way. “You’re right, Peaches. We’re sorry.”
“The situation isn’t funny. I’m sorry for laughing, but I personally don’t feel as though something has happened to those two idiots. King probably not answering his phone because he don’t have it. If he’s making moves, he don’t carry his phone with him. He leaves it in his car because he don’t want to risk losing it. As for Blaze’s crazy ass, I don’t know how he operates but I don’t think nothing happened to him. I’m sorry but that bastard is a lucky mothafucka,” Ebony said before she started laughing again. “And yo pregnant ass. Your emotions are seriously messing with you, is all. That’s why we’re laughing. Peach, I was the same emotional way. You can’t help it. I understand that, but babe, breathe and relax. Please.” Ebony grabbed her cup off my dresser and tossed the content back.
“Yeah, I’m sure they are. Peaches, clean your face and let’s go out there with everybody and enjoy the rest of the day.” Kim pulled me up off the bed.
I let out a sigh, maybe my hormones were making me overact just a bit. But I couldn’t help it. Almost losing Blaze a few months ago heightened those feelings. “I guess I’m just scared of something happening to him again. Everybody wanna use my baby as a fuckin’ target mat. He’s not invincible and I’m just scared that our luck is running out. And when you out looking for the trouble…” I trialed off as my head shook.
“Come on, let’s go get in the pool and take your mind off of this.” Kim pulled me off the bed.
“N’all, y’all gon’ ‘head. I’m just gon’ stay in here for a bit.” I sat back on the bed with a sigh.
“No you not. Bring yo ass on now, Peaches. Stress is not good for you or my niece or nephew. Come on, we’re about to take your mind off of everything for a while.” Kim pulled me up again.
Ebony grabbed one of my arms and began to pull me too. “Yeah, mama, stress isn’t good at all for my baby. So move yo ass, Peaches. Come on. And it’s food in there.”
Kimmy burst out laughing. “Let me move because whenever her ass hear food, she go charging for that shit!” She laughed, clapping her hands together.
My eyes cut at her but I ended up chuckling to myself. “Yo ass ain’t funny. Stupid self gets on my nerves.”
“She smiles,” Ebony poked at the dimple on my right cheek. “Now come on before Mr. Blake pops in here worrying as well. With his little grown ass. I don’t know what you gon’ do with that boy when he gets older.” Ebony head shook. “With his ol ratting ass. He do know snitches get stitches, right? We need to teach his ass that.” Her eyes rolled up in her head.
“Girl, bye. Peaches ain’t gon’ let nobody teach him nothing. She’ll fuss at him about it then turn around and have movie night with him a second later. He ain’t gon’ learn nothing with her ass always babying him,” Kim added.
“Shut up and leave my baby alone. He ain’t that bad—”
Ebony stopped. “His ass is beyond bad. Ol tattle telling ass.”
I started laughing. “So what. You shouldn’t have been doing nothing to make him tell on you.” My laughter stopped and I let out another sigh. “Y’all I’m serious this time. If he’s okay, we leaving tonight. I’m not about to deal with this stress when all his inconsiderate ass have to do is call or text me.” I fussed. My mind was made up. We were going back to Lafayette.
“Okay, Peach.” I could hear the disbelief in Ebony’s voice.
She didn’t believe me but I was so serious. Blaze wasn’t about to put me through this stress. He better be okay.
We walked into the living room where Bianca and Marcus sat watching TV. They looked over at us once we came in.
“Are you okay, sweetie?” Bianca sat up straight in her seat.
“Yeah, I’m good. Just worried, is all. It’s just not like him not to call or text me back. You know, especially knowing I worry—”
Ebony cut me off as I started to complain once again. No doub
t I would’ve ended up crying again. “She’s cool. You know how it is. Momma with her hormones and all that jazz.”
“I figured that much. That’s why I didn’t go running after her. The boys are good.” Bianca waved me off then leaned into Marcus and started back watching TV.
She got on my nerves sometimes. “I’m about to go check on my babies,” I said, referring to Blake and Keema. I left them and went into the backyard. Missy and Blake were in the pool playing, she kept dunking him under the water. “Missy, don’t be doing my baby like that.” I yell to her in the pool.
“Girl, he just drowned me!” She laughed as she picked him up once more and dunked him down. She pushed him away from her and hurried to the end of the pool.
I quickly ran to her and pushed her back in. “Ahh!” I screamed as she snatched me with her, pulling me into the pool. Once I came up for air, I burst out laughing. “Damn, Miss!” Grabbing her head, I pushed it under water and then made a quick swim to the end of the pool.
“Nuh uh, Peach,” Ebony pushed me back in. “Ah!” She screamed as she came falling into the pool as well.
“How the hell you gon’ try to push her back in? Yo ass going in too! The fuck you thinking.” Blaze laughed.
I cut my eyes at him. He walked up in here like he hadn’t been gone all day without checking in. My eyes soon slid to the brown skin dude with him. I could tell immediately he was younger than Blaze.
“Boon, why is King tied up?” Bianca stood at the back door, arms crossed under her chest with her hip cocked to the side and a scowl on her face.
My brows raised as I looked at him, wanting to know the same thing. I moved to the edge of the pool and got out.
“Boon, why?” Bianca asked him again.
“He had got out of control so I had to tame ‘em.” He shrugged as if it was nothing.
The guy with him laughed.
“Excuse me, Momma. B, I’m about to kill you.” King snapped as he rushed out the house.
“Uncle Boon, don’t do my mommy like that.” Keema’s little grown self walked up to Blaze like she was about to do something.