“Your date is what’s up,” I said, not taking my eyes off of her. This one-hit wonder was about to learn I was not the one to mess with.
Demond put his arm around her. “What is my girl over here doing?”
“You need to get ‘your girl’ before she gets slapped.” I was never one for violence, but I wasn’t about to be played either, especially when I was sure someone around us was rolling on their camera phone.
“Oh, who’s going to slap me?” Paula asked.
“Disrespect me again and see. You know J. Love is here with me and you got one more time to roll up on him . . .” I wasn’t even into J. Love like that, but I could just see the headline: PAULA PUNKS MAYA. No, ma’am.
“Yo, hold up, what?” Demond said, dropping his arm from around her neck. “What do you mean roll up on your man?”
“Nothing baby,” Paula said, pulling his arm. She suddenly no longer looked confident. She actually looked, I don’t know, scared.
“No, what’s she talking about?” he asked, jerking away.
“I’m talking about your girl right here flirting with my date, trying to get his number so they can go out, while you’re just across the room.” I turned my lips up in her direction. Yes, I just cold busted her.
“What?” Paula acted shocked. “Babe, she’s just running her mouth. Don’t listen to her.”
Demond’s happy demeanor had disappeared and he looked burning mad. He didn’t say a word as he grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the VIP and toward the back.
J. Love just stood there like he didn’t know what to say or do. Kennedi, who I hadn’t even seen approach, leaned over and said, “You think you should’ve done that?”
I side-eyed her. “Girl, please. In the words of Kevin Hart, she gon’ learn today,” I said, before picking up my bottled water and returning to my seat.
Chapter 2
It was time to call it a night. Paula had ruined the mood and I hadn’t even been able to enjoy myself the past fifteen minutes. J. Love was trying his best to get me to go to some after party with him. But I was a little salty with him because while he hadn’t encouraged Paula, he’d done nothing to shut her down. That wasn’t a good move for him. He was already on my bad side because of the way we’d broken up. He’d treated me like crap when somebody had told him that I’d leaked something to the press. Turned out it was a hacker/stalker, but the fact that he hadn’t even given me the benefit of the doubt had severely damaged our relationship. Every time I tried to give him another chance, he did something like this to make me mad. But I couldn’t deny the fact that J. Love was all that and then some. Not to mention the fact that his record was the hottest joint in the country right now. Still, I’d blessed him with my presence enough.
“You ready to go?” I asked Kennedi.
“Yeah,” she said. She’d been in a foul mood herself most of the evening. I think it had something to do with her new boyfriend, Kendrick. Even though she kept denying it, she really wanted to go out with him tonight since she’d just gotten back in town. (Kennedi, my BFF since like forever, had just moved back to Miami from Orlando.) But Kendrick had had to go out of town, so Kennedi had been stuck hanging out with me. When she’d told me that, I had straight given her the side-eye. Nobody had to be stuck doing anything with me. It was a privilege to be with Maya Morgan. But since she was my BFF and I knew she was mad at Kendrick, I’d let her make it.
“Yeah, let’s go,” Kennedi said.
I said good-bye to J. and promised to call him later. He wanted me to wait so he could walk me out, but his manager wanted him to meet some bigwig at MTV and I didn’t feel like waiting.
“I still can’t believe they had a party with no valet parking,” I said as I thought about the two-block trek we had to pick up my car. “Where they do that at?” I moaned. I probably needed the exercise. I had missed my Pilates class this week so I sucked it up.
Kennedi and I joked about some of the people at the party as we were walking. We had just rounded the corner when Kennedi stopped and grabbed my arm. “Isn’t that your girl?” she said, pointing.
I looked to the right and saw Paula and Demond deep in conversation and he did not look happy. In fact, he leaned in front of her and jabbed his finger in her face.
“Whoa,” Kennedi said, pulling me back so they couldn’t see us.
“Oh, snap!” I replied as I fumbled to get my iPhone out of my clutch. Paula and Demond were going at it. Oh, I was definitely about to record this. Now that iPhones were in high definition we could easily use this video on my show. I stepped to the side and zoomed in as much as the camera would go as the two of them argued.
“Dang, I wish I could hear what they were saying,” Kennedi whispered.
“Shh!” I motioned toward her. I didn’t need any extra noise in my video.
“You got me messed up!” Demond screamed. That definitely was loud enough for us to hear. It was what happened next that almost made me drop my camera phone. He hauled off and hit Paula so hard he sent her hurtling to the ground. He then reached down, picked her up by her hair, and slammed her up against the wall.
While I desperately wanted to keep filming, that was one thing I couldn’t stand: a guy putting his hands on a girl. So, I knew that I needed to step in.
“Hey, what’s going on?” I asked, stepping around the corner.
Demond glared at Paula, but did release her. She scrambled to pull herself together.
“Is everything all right?” I said, walking up to them.
“What’s up, Maya? I was just having words with my girl,” Demond said.
“Are you all right?” I asked, looking at Paula.
Paula cut her eyes at me. “Why don’t you mind your own business?” she snapped. “Oh, I forgot, your janky behind doesn’t know how.”
“Wow,” I replied, my eyes fluttering in shock. “I’m over here trying to keep you from getting your behind beat and you want to snap on me?”
“Like I said, don’t worry about what’s going on over here,” she said, glaring at me like I was the one who just Floyd Mayweathered her behind.
I couldn’t believe this chick. I actually had to stop and do a double take. Then I threw my hands up.
“I hope you have a good night,” I said, before turning and stomping off.
Kennedi turned and took off after me.
“She’s lucky I don’t fight,” I huffed. “Because I’d knock her in her other jaw.”
“Calm down,” Kennedi said. “They’re just having beef. That’s all.”
I shook my head as we neared my car. “You better believe you’re going to see this on Rumor Central first thing Monday morning.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t do that,” Kennedi said.
I stopped and stared at her. Since when was she the one trying to worry about someone’s feelings, especially someone like Paula Olympia?
“Really, K?” I said. “Did you not just see the way she acted toward me? And this was after she tried to push up on my man earlier.”
“You said yourself that you don’t even like J. Love like that.”
“She totally disrespected me.”
“So? It’s not like you’re in some gang or something. I’m just saying leave it alone.”
I looked at my friend and raised an eyebrow. Yeah, Kendrick had her all messed up because there’s no way the Kennedi I knew would ever have let something like that go.
“All I’m saying,” Kennedi continued, “is that you should . . .” She stopped speaking midsentence as her gaze went across the parking lot.
I turned to see what she was staring at, but there was no one there but a guy and girl cuddled up against a black Escalade.
Kennedi squinted in their direction, then mumbled, “Oh, I don’t think so,” before stomping off toward the couple.
“Kennedi, what’s going on?” I asked, scurrying to catch up with her.
She didn’t say anything as she stomped across the parking lot like a girl on a mission.
I had no idea what had my BFF in a rage, but I took off after her, determined to find out.
DAFINA KTEEN BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2014 by ReShonda Tate Billingsley
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
KTeen logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
Sunburst logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-0-7582-8957-5
ISBN-10: 0-7582-8957-X
eISBN-13: 978-0-7582-8958-2
eISBN-10: 0-7582-8958-8
First Electronic Edition: June 2014
Truth or Dare Page 17