You're My Little Secret 3

by Chenell Parker

  “That’s why I don’t understand why you felt the need to go behind my back and do me dirty like you did. We looked out for you when your own family didn’t want to be bothered with your ass,” I said getting madder as I spoke.

  “What are you talking about? I appreciate everything that y’all have done for me. I would never do you or David dirty.”

  “So you running to Kennedi like a lil bitch is not doing me dirty? You told her everything you knew about me and Brooklyn. And if that wasn’t bad enough, you gave her the paperwork to back it up. You’re already fired so do yourself a favor and just keep it real. She already told me everything. I just don’t understand why you did it.”

  “Despite what you think everything is not always about you. Yeah, you threw me a few crumbs, but so what. I damn near started this company with y’all, but it was like fuck me once it got off the ground. It was supposed to be the three of us running shit when we planned it. All of that changed once it actually happened,” he complained with fire in his eyes.

  “You should be happy that we hired your ass at all. You’re a fucking alcoholic. We held you down even after your own family turned their backs on you. We would be some damn fools to let you fuck up what we worked so hard to build,” David barked.

  “Your ass was in AA when we started this shit so don’t act like we owe you something. And you didn’t help us plan a damn thing. David and I did all the ground work, and it was already done when you came in,” I yelled.

  “Yeah, you would say that. I remember us talking about this long before we even went to school for it,” he replied.

  “You still stuck on some shit that we talked about when we were in elementary. That was long before you decided that you loved the bottle more than you loved your money. Fuck outta here with that bullshit,” I roared.

  “Man, it’s whatever. Like you just said, I’m already fired, so there’s no need to keep talking about it. Fuck both of y’all and this job,” he hissed. David tried to pull me back when I went to grab him, but I was too quick. After delivering two vicious blows to his face, he went stumbling to the floor with blood gushing from his nose. I got in two more good licks to his face before David grabbed me.

  “Let that clown make it. It’s not even that serious,” David said while holding onto my arm.

  “Get the fuck out of here before I knock your bitch ass out,” I yelled through clenched teeth. Usually he would be popping off at the mouth, but he knew better than to test me right now.

  We watched as Scott got up from the floor holding his bloody nose. He got into his car and sped out of the parking lot. Over ten years of friendship and this is what it boiled down to. I don’t have any regrets, and I would do it all over again if I had to. I would rather have one hundred enemies than one fake friend like him. Aside from all the drama with Brooklyn, that’s one less problem that I have to worry about.

  CANDACE

  For the past few weeks, David’s house has become our hangout spot every Sunday. He and Dominic would get on the grill or Bryce would boil seafood for everyone. I usually stayed the night and went home Monday morning when he left for work. That was the plan for today until I received a very disturbing call from Nadia’s mother, Cheryl, early this morning. Cheryl had moved to Virginia a few years ago, and she hasn’t looked back since then. She’s been begging Nadia to join her and the rest of their family, but she keeps refusing to go. I was surprised when she called me, but that soon turned into shock. According to her, Nadia was locked up, and she needed my help to get her out. Working prevented her from coming down to do it herself, and I’m the closest thing to family that Nadia has in New Orleans. She wired me the money and David, and I rushed to the St. Tammany Parish Jail in Slidell to bail her out. I’ve never known her to ever hang out in that area, so I had no clue as to what was going on. I don’t know what has gotten into Nadia, but this is not like her at all. I never asked Cheryl what she was charged with because she’s already upset about everything. I’m thankful that David has taken the day off from work to be here with me. I don’t know the first thing about talking to a bail bondsman, so he did all of the talking for me.

  “It’s been over two hours. I wonder what’s taking them so long to release her,” I complained. We’re sitting in the waiting area where the prisoners are released from, but Nadia still hasn’t come out.

  “It’s a long process. They have to do all kinds of paperwork and stuff before they release somebody,” David informed me.

  “I can’t believe she’s in here in the first place.”

  “Now that was a shock to me too. Nadia has never been the type to get into anything. She must have gotten mixed up in something with somebody else.”

  “It’s like she can’t catch a break. If I were her, I would move to Virginia and be closer to my family. Maybe a fresh start is what she needs,” I said. My poor friend has been going through a lot lately. She hasn’t really been herself since she had her heart broken by Dominic. Because of her insecurities, no other relationship seemed to work out after that. She automatically assumed that every man was out to do her wrong.

  “Here she comes now,” David said as we both stood up. I looked towards the sliding glass doors and spotted Nadia walking towards us. She looked awful. Her hair was all over her head, and she seemed to have aged overnight. It also looked like she’s lost some weight since I saw her at the restaurant the last time.

  “Hey,” she said smiling weakly. “Thanks for coming to get me.”

  “You’re still my best friend, Nadia. You know I’m always here whenever you need me,” I assured her while giving her a hug.

  “I’m just so embarrassed. My mama is mad at me, and I don’t even know where my car is,” she cried.

  “Where were you when you got arrested?” David asked her.

  “At a strip mall not too far from here,” she replied. “But that was three weeks ago.”

  My head shot up, and my eyes widened in surprise when she said that.

  “You’ve been in here for three weeks Nadia?” I asked her.

  “Yeah,” she nodded.

  “Oh my God Nadia! Why didn’t you call me? You know I would have been here the same day to get you out,” I replied.

  “I don’t know Candace. I was just too ashamed. I haven’t been a very good friend to you lately,” she admitted.

  “Girl, forget about all of that. We’ve always had each other’s backs. Even if we don’t talk as much as we used to I would have been here in a heartbeat had I known what was up.”

  “Come on, let’s go see if we can find out where your car is,” David suggested.

  After talking to a few people at the police station, we were no closer to finding her car than we were before. David decided to go back to where she was arrested to see if they knew anything. It only took us about ten minutes to get to the strip mall that Nadia led us to. He told us to sit in the car while he went in to speak with the manager of the place.

  I wanted to ask her what she did to get locked up, but I decided against it. I figured that if she wanted to talk then she would come to me whenever she’s ready.

  “The manager said that the police towed your car a few days after you went to jail. Most likely it’s been impounded,” David said when he got back to the car.

  “So what does that mean?” Nadia asked.

  “The first thing we need to do is go to the auto impound lot. He said they don’t have one out here, so it’s probably at the general one on North Claiborne. Do you have your keys?” David asked.

  “Yeah, they gave them back to me with my other belongings. But I don’t have any money on me to pay for it. My phone is dead, and my debit card is at home,” she said sadly.

  “Don’t worry about that. Let’s just see if it’s there first,” David said.

  After stopping to get Nadia something to eat, we were on our way. It took us almost an hour to get from where we were to where we needed to be. Since there was nowhere to park, David stayed in the car while
Nadia and I got out and talked to someone. It didn’t take long for us to be switching places. After almost going to jail for slapping the rude ass lady who was trying to help us, David made me sit in the car while he went in with Nadia. I was pissed that we stood there for almost ten minutes, and the bitch never asked if we needed any help. When she did decide to help us, her attitude was ridiculous. She was popping her gum and talking on her cell phone at the same time. Then when I went off on her, she threatened to call the police and have me arrested. We did find out that Nadia had to pay three hundred dollars to get her car back. I had given her the money before I left to go back to the car. She promised to pay me back, but I’m really not worried about it.

  “Hey Ms. Cheryl,” I said when I answered my phone for Nadia’s mother.

  “Hey, Candace. Nadia’s phone is still going straight to voicemail. Were you able to get her out?” She asked.

  “Yes, ma’am, me and my boyfriend are at the police impound trying to help her get her car back.”

  “I can’t believe she could be so damn stupid. And who the hell is Shannon Franklin?” She asked.

  “I know a Shannon, but I don’t know her last name. Why?”

  “That’s who she got arrested with. I had somebody that I used to work with look it up for me,” Nadia’s mother had been a police dispatcher for years when she lived here. She knew just about everybody in all of the police precincts and she still kept in contact with most of them. Even now that she lived somewhere else, she’s still in the same line of work.

  “Well, what did she get arrested for?”

  “Check fraud. Can you believe that shit? She was going around cashing counterfeit checks. If she needed money all she had to do was call me. I’ve always helped her out when money was tight,” she fussed.

  “What! Where in the hell did she get counterfeit checks from?”

  “I don’t know, probably from that no good ass nigga that she was messing with.”

  “I didn’t know that she was messing with anybody. I mean she told me that she had a friend, but that was a while ago,” I admitted.

  “She’s been messing with some loser named Kyle. I called her phone one day and heard him cursing her out like a dog in the background. Then she tried to cover for his ass and said that it was his brother cursing out his girlfriend. I’m not stupid, and I specifically heard him saying her name when he was going off,” she rambled.

  After she said Kyle’s name, everything that she said after that was a blur. I didn’t want to believe that it was the same Kyle that I use to deal with, but it would make perfect sense. I thought that Brooklyn being with Dominic is what was keeping her away. Now it was a possibility that it was more than just that. I didn’t want to just jump to conclusions, so I asked a few questions just to be sure.

  “Did she tell you anything else about Kyle, Ms. Cheryl?” I asked.

  “No, not really, only that he lives with his younger brother and the brother’s girlfriend,” she replied.

  “Is his brother’s name Kevin?”

  “Yep, I remember her saying that it was Kevin who was cursing that time and not Kyle,” she confirmed.

  “Wow,” was my only reply. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that Nadia would do something so conniving to me. I’ve always prided myself on being a good friend, but obviously I was the only one. I could care less about Kyle. He fucked anything with a pulse. I’m just hurt that my best friend fell for it.

  “Well, I won’t hold you any longer Candace. Tell my stupid daughter to give me a call,” she said.

  “Alright Ms. Cheryl,” I said right before she hung up. I held my phone in my hand as I stared off into space. I’d just given up my whole day to bail this bitch out of jail. I even took three hundred dollars of my hard earned money to get her car back for her. Now I know why she said that she hadn’t been a good friend to me lately. That also explains why she’s been hanging with Shannon all of a sudden. She’s been sleeping with the enemy. I’m beyond pissed and nothing she says can calm me down right now. As a matter of fact, I don’t even want to talk. I pulled a hair tie from my purse and pulled my hair up into a sloppy ponytail. I took off my earrings and got out of the car. The longer I waited, the more infuriated I became. About twenty minutes later, I saw Nadia and David walking back towards me. She was smiling, so I guess she got some good news about her car.

  “Candace thank you so much. I promise I’ll pay you back every penny before the day is over. I just have to go around the corner to pick up my car,” Nadia said happily.

  I didn’t reply, but as soon as she got close enough to me, I grabbed her hair and slung her to the ground. She didn’t even hit the pavement good enough before I pounced on her and started beating her ass.

  “Oh shit! Candace what’s wrong with you,” David said as he tried to pull me off of her.

  “Get off of me David!” I screamed as I banged her head on the concrete sidewalk. He ignored me and picked me up off of her and wrapped his arms tightly around my waist. Nadia sprang to her feet and used that as an opportunity to get a few licks in. She hit me one good time before David let me go to defend myself. I ran at her full force, and she was back on the ground in a matter of seconds. I delivered blows to her face so fast that she didn’t even have time to block them all.

  “Alright mama, that’s enough. What the hell is going on?” David said as he pulled me up and stood in between us.

  “You dirty bitch. Why would you fuck with Kyle of all people? I’ve been nothing, but a good friend to you and that’s how you do me?” I yelled out of breath.

  “If you’re so much of a good friend why would you hook your cousin up with my ex? I know that you had something to do with Dominic and Brooklyn being together,” she cried while holding the back of her bloody head.

  “You must really be crazy. I came to you and told you what was going on before it came from anywhere else. Brooklyn and Dominic are grown. I can’t control what they do.”

  “Yeah right, now you know how it feels to have someone you trust stab you in the back. And don’t be mad because Kyle came to me. Obviously you weren’t enough for him,” she screamed.

  “Girl, I don’t give two fucks about Kyle. I got a man. It’s just the principle of it all. Trust and believe that you’re not the only one he’s fucking. And where was that nigga when you were sitting in jail for three weeks dumb ass?” She stood there looking at me with a stupid look on her face when I asked that. I know firsthand how selfish Kyle can be. He doesn’t care about anybody but himself and sometimes Kevin.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought. He left your stupid ass in jail and is probably laying up with the next bitch. You can keep that lil money I just gave you. Three hundred dollars is a small price to pay for getting rid of a snake,” I yelled as David pulled me to the car. We left her standing there looking stupid while we sped away. David looked over at me, and I could tell that he wanted to say something.

  “Say what you have to say,” I demanded as I stared right back at him.

  “You sure you’re not mad about her being with ole boy?” David asked me as we drove home.

  “Hell no, I can’t believe you would even think that. I’m very happy being with you. Kyle is the biggest dog I know, so nothing that he does surprises me. Honestly, it’s not even about him. Nadia was my best friend, and she should have known better. I knew that something was wrong, but I’m happy I know for sure now,” I replied honestly.

  “Alright, I was just asking. But you’re right Nadia shouldn’t have crossed that line. At least you found out before it was too late. First it was Scott now Nadia is on some foul shit. That word loyalty don’t mean nothing no more,” he said while shaking his head.

  I hate to admit it, but he was absolutely right. A lifetime of friendship was gone down the drain all behind Kyle’s no good dog ass.

  NADIA

  I’ve never felt so stupid in my life. I lost my best friend over a man that doesn’t give a damn about me. I’d spent three
weeks in jail hoping and praying that Kyle would come and bail me out. Shannon and I were in the holding cell together for the first day, but we got separated after that. I just assumed that she was still locked up as well, but I soon found out that I was wrong. After talking to one of the male guards who kept flirting with me, I found out that Shannon had been bailed out after only two days of being in there. As stupid as it sounds, I thought it would be only a matter of time before they came back for me. After the first week I gave up hope, but I was too scared to call anybody. By week number three, I thought that I was going to lose my mind, so I ended up calling my mother. She was so upset, but she still came through for me just like she always does. I hated for her to get Candace involved, but I was ready to get the hell out of there. I’d lost so much weight because I refused most of the meals that were offered to me. A few times I’d luck up and get something decent to eat, but it wasn’t that often. I’m so thankful that my rent had been paid up for a few months, or I’d probably be evicted by now. I have a few thousand dollars saved up from before, but that won’t last me too long. I still have to go to court and legal fees will probably eat that up. Even though I’m a first-time offender, the dollar amount of the checks we cashed was so high. I pray that I just get probation, and I don’t have to do any time in jail. I’m bound to go crazy if I do.

  I spent my first night home soaking in a hot tub of water and nursing the bruises on my face and body. Candace went into full beast mode and practically killed me with her bare hands. I understand that she’s mad, but she took things a little too far. Deep in my heart, I knew she didn’t help Dominic and Brooklyn get together, but that was my only defense. I really don’t have a reason as to why I started messing with Kyle, so I tried to turn everything around on her. She’s right about everything that she said about him. He left me in jail and went on as if I never existed. I’ve been calling his phone nonstop since I’ve been home. At first, he would send me straight to voicemail. After a while, he blocked me out altogether. I called Shannon’s phone, but she didn’t answer either. She did send me a text telling me that she would call me later, but that call never came. I’m giving him a few days to think it’s all good before I show up at their house. There’s no doubt in my mind that we’re over, but he owes me money that I want and need.