Single Ladies

by Blake Karrington

  “Come on, dog. Don’t do this in front of my daughter,” Ralphy pleaded, as he lowered Naomi to the ground.

  “Oh, my God, please don’t shoot him,” Johanne said, holding her hands out while sitting in the wheelchair.

  “Daddy,” Naomi cried out, wrapping her arms around his leg. “Daddy, Daddy,” she continued.

  “Please, dog,” Ralphy begged with tears in his eyes.

  “Fuck you, nigga! You think dis shit is a fuckin’ game?” the shooter yelled out, pointing the rifle a mere two feet away from Ralphy’s face. The shooter’s face was twisted up and you could tell that he was biting down on his teeth in anger. His finger hugged the trigger, and he was just about to pull it when Naomi spoke.

  “Please don’t shoot my daddy,” she said with tears pouring down her fat cheeks.

  “Man, fuck dat. Shoot dat nigga!” the other gunman encouraged him as he kept his eyes on DeeDee.

  The shooter looked in Ralphy’s eyes then glanced down at Naomi. Naomi didn’t realize it, but she had just saved her father’s life, because the shooter started to back down the driveway.

  “I’m on ya fuckin top, nigga, and I don’t care who you got wit’ you next time,” the shooter yelled out before getting back into the minivan.

  The two cars both peeled out, leaving nothing but tire smoke in the air. Ralphy let out a huge sigh of relief then immediately got everybody back into the house where it was relatively safe. He would have to stay there until his boys came to back him up.

  Chapter 36

  Falisha rolled Fox over then climbed on top of him, straddling his long, thick baseball bat of a dick in order to get it over with. Fox had been fucking her for the past forty-five minutes straight, and didn’t plan to stop anytime soon. The only way Falisha knew how to knock him down was by riding him. He loved the way she bounced up and down on his dick.

  “Right there. Go faster,” he coached, feeling himself about to bust a nut.

  Falisha braced her hands against his chest and rocked her hips back and forth, just how he liked it. Her breasts swayed with every stroke and, just like second nature, Fox grabbed a handful.

  “You gon’ cum for mommy?” Falisha said in a seductive way, biting down on her bottom lip.

  Fox couldn’t hold it any longer if he tried to. Falisha could feel his warm, thick nut fill her insides. She continued rocking back and forth, making sure she drained every drop from his sack. Fox reached up and grabbed a handful of her hair, pulling her face down to his and kissing her wet lips.

  “I missed you,” he admitted, looking Falisha in her eyes.

  This was the first time they’d had sex in months, but it wasn’t by Fox’s choice that he got some today. It was all Falisha. She was horny as hell and needed to relieve her thirst for some dick. Lamar was out of the question, and somebody random was a no-no. Letting Fox tap it was the more reasonable thing to do. She didn’t have to worry about catching anything, because Fox stayed cleaner than the board of health, and since she was already pregnant, a condom wasn’t necessary at all. The most important thing for Falisha was that she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Fox was going to please her. If she couldn’t count on anything else, she sure could count on that.

  “Come ’ere, where are you going?” Fox asked after Falisha jumped out of the bed, grabbed her clothes, and headed for the bathroom.

  If she lay in that bed any longer, Falisha knew that it was going to start getting personal, something she was trying to avoid Fox doing. For her, it was just about the sex, and she didn’t want to confuse or mislead Fox into thinking it was going to be anything more than that.

  “Falisha!” Fox called out, walking up to the bathroom.

  By the time he opened the door, Falisha was fully dressed and standing in the mirror putting her hair in a ponytail. Fox stood at the door with his boxers on, showing the head of his dick.

  “Hit and run, huh?” he said, walking into the bathroom. Falisha smiled as he slid up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He looked at her reflection in the mirror, taking in her beauty. “I thought we was a little better than that,” he said.

  “Don’t be like that. You already know my situation, and I’m not gonna bring that kind of drama into ya life right now,” Falisha responded, trying not to hold eye contact.

  Fox was insistent. “Look at me, Falisha,” he said, nudging her. “You don’t think I know ya situation? If it mattered to me, you wouldn’t even be here. You know me better than that, shawty.”

  “Yeah, I know, Fox. I just don’t wanna—”

  “Look, man, I know awhile back I fucked up big time when I didn’t fight for you. I shouldn’t have let you walk out of my life that easy.”

  This was the exact thing Falisha was trying to avoid with him. She had to admit that Fox was a nice guy and, given different circumstances, Falisha probably would have tried to give it another shot. But the truth remained that her heart was somewhere else, and although a future with Lamar didn’t look that promising, Falisha wanted to make sure of it. She longed to be with Lamar, and with his baby growing in her womb every single day, the only man who was on her mind was him.

  * * *

  “So what are you going to do?” Tammy asked Kim as she drove down the street.

  “I really don’t know yet,” Kim responded, looking out of her bedroom window at Lamar washing his car. Kim had broken down the whole offer that was presented to her by her boss, hoping to get some good advice from a friend. Tammy was the only person Kim had told so far, and she wanted to keep it that way until she had a chance to talk to Lamar about it tonight.

  “I’m not gonna lie, girl. If I were you, I’d take the job,” Tammy said as she turned onto the block where Chris’s mom lived. “Medical, college, and free housing. Girl, you be a damn fool. It ain’t shit goin’ on in this neighborhood anyway. I wish I was in ya shoes.”

  Pulling in front of the house, Tammy could smell the drama brewing. Brea had two of her girlfriends out there with her, looking as jealous as they wanted. Tammy really didn’t feel like the bullshit today. “Girl, let me call you back,” Tammy said, ending the call.

  Tammy put her hazard lights on then got out of the car, only to be eyeballed by everybody standing out there. “Is the kids in there?” Tammy asked Brea as she headed for the steps.

  “No. My mom took them out to eat. If you wasn’t so busy, you would have picked up ya phone when she was trying to call you,” Brea replied in a slick manner.

  Tammy didn’t pay Brea’s smart tone any mind. “Well, just tell ya mom to call me whenever she gets back. I’ll have my phone on me this time,” Tammy said, walking back to her car.

  “I don’t know what ya brother saw in that bitch,” Aisha said to Brea, while watching Tammy walk off.

  Tammy heard the comment and wasn’t going to respond, but the “bitch” word somehow got under her skin. “Everything he would never see in you,” Tammy shot back as she opened the driver side door.

  “Oh, no, dat bitch didn’t,” Brea instigated, hyping Alisha up. “She’s so disrespectful,” Brea nagged on.

  Before Tammy could sit down in the car, Aisha was tugging away at a handful of her hair. She pulled Tammy out from between the door and the body of the car, and began swinging wildly at her face. Going toe to toe, Aisha didn’t stand a chance. Once Tammy got her footing, it was over. She pummeled Aisha, dropping her to the ground with just a couple of punches.

  “Get dis bitch off of me,” Aisha yelled out from the ground. “Brea, Kisha,” she continued yelling through the punches to her face.

  Feeling bad for Aisha, Brea and Kisha ran over to help. It took one wild punch from Tammy that landed on Brea’s chin to really get it poppin’. Brea and Tammy were instantly locked in a brawl, throwing punch for punch at each other. Neighbors started coming out of their houses and off their porches to see the fight.

  While locked in battle, Kisha and Aisha seized the opportunity and started swinging on Tammy. In a three against on
e fight, they whooped Tammy’s ass, despite the lock hold Tammy had on Brea’s throat. Tammy really didn’t care about losing, just as long as she got the main culprit out of the bunch.

  * * *

  “Look, I want you to take some money and go stay with ya folks for a few days,” Ralphy told Lisa, who had just walked into the kitchen. Ralphy had been sitting at the kitchen table all afternoon replaying the events that happened at Johanne’s. He tried to think of an alternate way to handle the problem, without the use of violence, but none of his ideas mapped out a positive solution. There was only one way to deal with the problem, and that was by holding court in the streets.

  “Babe, you really don’t have to do this. We can just move away. I’ll follow you anywhere,” Lisa pleaded, seeing the vicious road Ralphy was heading down. Lisa didn’t understand how Ralphy felt having a gun pointed at him and his daughter, with the threat to terminate his life. Although Naomi was physically okay, she was still a little shaken up from the confrontation. That in itself fueled the fire inside of Ralphy.

  “We can still move away, but I gotta take care of something first,” Ralphy said.

  “I don’t wanna lose you,” Lisa cried, taking a seat on his lap. “Dis shit just ain’t worth it.” It wasn’t worth it, but it was the street life, and running away wasn’t the solution. “So when will it end? When will this all be over?” Lisa asked, laying her head on his chest.

  Ralphy lightly put his hand on Lisa’s stomach, over the bullet wound. Images of the gunmen opening fire on him and Lisa rushed thought his mind. All the faces Ralphy saw were locked into his memory, and his heart raced at the thought of revenge.

  “It’s over after I kill everything movin’.”

  * * *

  Kim was in her bedroom packing her and Lamar’s weekend bags when her phone started ringing on the nightstand. She walked over, looked at the screen, and saw that it was Tammy calling.

  “These bitches just jumped me!” Tammy yelled into the phone the moment Kim answered it.

  “What bitches, and where are you?” Kim shot back, dropping the shirt she had in her hand.

  The phone went silent, but Kim could hear a car speeding down the street outside of her front window. She looked though the blinds and it was Tammy coming to screeching stop in front of her house. Kim shot down the steps, meeting her at the front door.

  “Girl, what happened?” Kim asked, coming out of the doorway while Tammy paced back and forth across the porch.

  Tammy’s hair was everywhere and she had scratches all up and down her face. Her top lip was busted and her clothes were still disheveled from the fight. She could barely get any words out, but once Brea’s name was mentioned, Kim knew exactly who it was.

  “Hold on, dis shit ain’t over,” Kim said, shooting back into the house to change her clothes.

  Kim moved faster than Clark Kent the way she ran upstairs, threw a pair of jeans on with a T-shirt, and put on a pair of Jordans. She put her hair in a ponytail, wrapped the end in a bun, then put one of her wigs on over it. She came back down the stairs in less than two minutes with a jar of Vaseline, some for her face and some for Tammy’s.

  When she got back outside, she was shocked to see Falisha standing at the bottom of the stairs tying her shoelaces tight. She had rings on every other finger, and on both hands, so it was obvious Falisha was there to fight as well. Lisa must have heard the commotion, because she made her way outside, curious to know what was happening.

  “What y’all bitches up to?” Lisa asked, walking across the street with a glass of lemonade in her hand. “Oh shit, girl, what happened to you?” she asked once she got close enough to see Tammy’s face.

  “Chris’s sister and her friends jumped me,” Tammy answered, applying the Vaseline to her face in the rearview mirror. “They couldn’t beat me one on one, so they had to jump me.”

  Lisa only wished that she could go with the girls for an old-fashioned throw down. The last time they did something like this together was in high school. The bullet wound to her stomach prevented Lisa from actually participating in the festivities, but being the getaway driver was the perfect part for her to play.

  “Hold up, Falisha. Where do you think you’re going?” Lisa asked as they were loading into the car. “You need to sit ya pregnant ass down somewhere.”

  “Yeah, Falisha, don’t risk it,” Tammy agreed.

  Falisha looked at both of them like they were crazy. “I’ma either ride on top of this hood or in the back seat. Either one is fine with me,” Falisha replied, climbing into the back seat before anybody could say anything.

  Falisha was no more than four months pregnant and wasn’t showing in the least. Besides, nobody in the car was going to be able to physically stop her from coming along, so the only thing they could do was just let her go. It was all crew love, and Falisha wasn’t going to miss out on this for anybody. When it came down to her girls, she was willing to go all out.

  * * *

  “Yo, you sure you wanna go through with this, homie? I mean this is practically ya club,” Tank, one of Lamar’s fellow dancers, said as he poured the two another shot of Hennessy.

  Lamar looked around the empty club and thought about how much he was going to miss dancing at Club Mandingo. He thought long and hard about this decision, and concluded that he wanted a different life for him and Kim once they got married. Over the past few years, Lamar had saved up more than enough money, and was in a position to give up dancing and try something new.

  “You know, sometimes in life, you gotta make sacrifices in order to grow as a person. I’m at a stage in my life where I’m trying to chill out and enjoy what the world has to offer.”

  “Man, what da hell is you talking about?” Tank laughed. “You sound like an old-ass man.”

  They shared a laugh at the comment. Tank was still young, and young-minded, for that matter. Lamar wasn’t that old either, but his mentality exceeded his age, and it showed by him taking a big step in wanting to settle down and get married.

  “Well, big homie, if that’s the road you’re taking, then we gon’ have to turn this mothafuckin’ club up before you leave. Hopefully, after you leave we can call this Tank’s Room,” Tank said, throwing back another shot.

  “I’m wit’ you on that, li’l homie. We gon’ give ’em hell for the next month,” Lamar nodded before throwing back his last and final shot.

  * * *

  “There those bitches go right there,” Tammy said as soon as Lisa turned down the block. Brea, Aisha, and Kisha were still standing in front of Chris’s mom’s house, and from the way they were smacking each other’s hands and laughing, Tammy knew that they were bragging about the beat down they gave her. That only added fuel to the fire.

  “Park up there,” Kim told Lisa, pointing to an empty parking space a little farther down the block.

  When Tammy’s car passed by Brea, she knew it was about to be on and poppin’. The crowd of people who once dispersed had returned to see round two. Tammy, Falisha, and Kim all got out of the car. Lisa did too, but she stood by the car with a pocketknife in her hand.

  “I got Brea,” Tammy said as all three women walked up the street.

  The talking was over, and as all six women stood in the middle of the street, they clashed like two armies on foot. Kim took Aisha while Falisha punished Kisha. Kisha didn’t even get a chance to throw a punch. Falisha was all over her, pulling Kisha’s head down by her hair and kneeing her in the face multiple times.

  Aisha grabbed Kim’s hair, only to pull off the wig that Kim had purposely put on for that reason. Kim threw about ten right-hand punches at lightning speed, all of which landed on Aisha’s face. Aisha swung back wildly, hitting Kim a couple of times, but not fazing her.

  Brea and Tammy was the main event everybody wanted to see. It was like Mayweather and Pacquiao, with Tammy being Mayweather. They stood in the middle of the street and exchanged blow after blow. Tammy pushed Brea against a nearby parked car, using it like it was
the ropes. They were fighting like cats and dogs.

  Kim beat Aisha up so bad, the girl took off running down the street. Meanwhile, Falisha had Kisha pinned down on the steps, whaling at her face. The rings on her fingers were cutting Kisha’s face so bad, one of the men who was out there watching the fight had to stop it. He walked over and hooked his arm around her stomach and pulled Falisha off the girl. Thinking about her baby, Falisha didn’t put up any resistance as the man carried her across the street, away from Kisha. Her point had been made.

  “Beat dat bitch’s ass!” Kim yelled out, looking at Tammy and Brea, who were now rolling around on the ground. “You got her, Tammy!” she continued yelling.

  “Fuck dat bitch up!” Falisha also yelled, coming over to the fight.

  After several more punches were thrown by each of them, fatigue started to set in, and the fight became a holding match. The same guy who broke up Falisha’s fight came over and pulled Tammy and Brea apart as well. Once Tammy stood there and got herself together, she, Kim, and Falisha headed back to the car, knowing that they had come, handled their business, and left with a victory.

  Chapter 37

  Ralphy really couldn’t sleep well with so much on his mind. He couldn’t seem to figure how those guys with the guns knew he and Johanne lived at that house. Johanne swore that she didn’t tell them, and there was no way they followed her home the day she was shot, because she went straight to the hospital. Nothing really made sense, and it was eating away at Ralphy like a disease.

  Ralphy sat in a chair in the corner of his bedroom looking over at Lisa and Naomi, who were still asleep in the bed. They looked peaceful, to the point where it gave Ralphy a bit of tranquility. His thoughts were interrupted by a text that came through his phone, which he read promptly. It was from Scoop.

  Heard about what happened. Are you good? the message read.

  Ralphy started to hit him back, but paused for a moment. His brain went into overdrive and he couldn’t help himself for making Scoop a suspect. First and foremost, ever since the day the gunmen ran down on him, Naomi, Johanne, and DeeDee, Ralphy had stayed at his house he shared with Lisa as a precautionary measure. Ralphy put off all his drug dealing in the hood until the situation with Dre’s people was taken care of. He never called Scoop, or saw him to tell him about what happened. The only people who knew about it were the people who were there. There was no way Scoop should have known what happened.