“Good morning cousins.” I greeted them as I walked in.
“Good morning.” They both replied.
“Don’t you look cute this morning?” Mia said checking out my outfit as I hung my jacket up on the coat rack. I had on a pair of black jeggings, a long sleeved black and silver top with a pair of black Uggs. “I love those boots girl.”
“Thank you.” I replied glancing down at my own outfit. “Are y’all going over to Ms. Lizzie’s card party tonight?” Ms. Lizzie was an older woman who ran a shot house where people went to drink, listen to music and play cards. She also sold some of the best chicken sandwiches that I’d ever eaten.
“Yeah, Corey and I are.” Nelle answered as she plugged in her curling irons and blow dryer.
“Ron said we might go, depending on how he feels when he get off.” Mia added. “We went over there about two weekends ago and Ron won six hundred dollars playing Tonk.”
“Oh shit! Tell Ron to let cuz hold something.” I joked.
“Heffa please, you know that my baby broke his wifey off with half of that!” Mia bragged placing her hand on her thick hip and snapping her fingers. “Are you and Tremaine going?”
“Yeah, he said that we were.”
“Awww, I love the two of you together.” Nelle all but sang smiling really big. “I will admit that I was totally against it in the beginning but Tre has changed a lot. I barely even see him without you and whenever we are all together he is so affectionate and sweet towards you.”
I rolled my eyes up in my head and waved her off. “Girl hush, he’s cool.”
“Shit, he’s better than Mello’s abusive ass!” Mia put in her two cents. “Have you heard anything from him?”
“Yeah, he calls all the damn time. I never pick up though. I do let his mama take Simya with her when she goes to visit him.”
“Hmph, I wouldn’t let my baby go down to a jail to see him.” Nelle said. “She doesn’t need to be going down there. I don’t care if he is her daddy. If he was a real daddy he wouldn’t have treated her mother the way that he did and he wouldn’t be in there.”
I let out a sigh. Maybe I was being a little bit too sensitive but almost everything that came out of Nelle’s mouth now-a-days somehow managed to pluck my damn nerves. Here she was yet again giving here opinion when no one had asked for it. Just because she wouldn’t allow her daughter to visit her daddy if he was locked up didn’t have anything to do with me or my decision to allow my daughter to visit her daddy. I decided not to reply to her last comment. Instead I busied myself setting up my things and getting ready for my clients that would be coming in soon.
The bell over the door sounded and Kim came in. “Hello everyone.”
“Hello.” We all spoke to her. A half hour later, clients started to come in and we all got busy. I had clients back to back all day which cause my day to go by fast.
Mina
When Tremaine and I arrived at Ms. Lizzie’s house the yard looked like a car lot. I spotted Corey and Nell’s car but I didn’t see Mia and Ron’s car. We went ahead inside, the first person that my eyes landed on when we got inside was Kisha. She was standing next to one of the card tables watching the game. Skeet was seated at the table playing cards. Corey was at the same table. I looked around and spotted Nelle talking to a few girls that was over in the living room area.
“I’m going to go over there with Nelle.” I told Tremaine.
“Okay.” He leaned over and gave me a peck on the lips and I went over to where Nelle was.
“What’s up?” I spoke to everyone once I’d made my way over to Nelle.
The ladies that she was talking to spoke and she turned around and gave me a hug. “Hey cuz.” She was sipping on a drink.
“Hey girl, what’s that you’re sipping on?” I asked pointing to the cup that she was holding in her hand.
“This is some Absolute.” She told me. “You want some?”
“Yeah come on and go with me to buy a drink.”
She looked at me and laughed. “Girl you’d better bring your ass on out here with me to my car so that I can pour you a drink.” She grabbed me by my arm and practically dragged me outside. We went outside to her and Corey’s car and she unlocked the doors. “Get in Mina so that we can smoke this half of blunt that I have in the ashtray.” I got in on the passenger side and she got in on the driver side. We sat in the car and got a nice little buzz. I was feeling really good by the time that we got out of the car to go back inside but Nelle was fucked up. I assumed because she’d already smoked with Corey earlier and she’d been drinking before I got there.
We were on our way back inside when we heard a lot of commotion. I could make out that it was males that were arguing but I was trying to see who. A few seconds later, I saw two guys pulling Tremaine outside. He was talking shit and struggling against them to get to whoever it was that he was arguing with. I rushed over to where he was.
“What’s going on?” I asked but he ignored me and kept talking shit.
“Nigga bring your bitch ass out here and talk that mothafuckin’ shit!” He barked. “I already owe you an ass whoopin’ anyways.”
Next I saw Skeet and he was trying to break free of the people that was holding him. Kisha was one of the people that was trying to hold him back. “Nigga we can do this! You ain’t said shit! You just mad because I’m fuckin’ your babymama!” Skeet roared. “Don’t be mad nigga!”
“Mad? Mad for what? I don’t give a damn about y’all being together! You just ain’t gone be putting your gotdamn hands on her around me!” Tremaine was still trying to get his hands on Skeet and the two guys holding him was having a hard time keeping him away from him.
“Tre, he didn’t hit me.” Kisha pleaded. “Calm down. Why are y’all acting like this?”
That only seem to infuriate Tremaine more. “You gone tell me that I didn’t see that nigga smack that cup in your face?” The front of her shirt was wet so there must’ve been some truth to what he was saying but I couldn’t understand why he was so upset. Kisha was no longer his concern. I wasn’t feeling his reaction at all.
“Exactly nigga, I smacked the cup! Not her!” Skeet tried again to break away from the people that was holding him.
“You smack the cup in her face! I know what the fuck I saw!” This was my first time seeing him mad but I could tell that he was ready to fuck Skeet up. I can’t say who would’ve won but I don’t really believe that Skeet wanted the guys that were holding Tremaine to turn him a loose. Tremaine pushed one of the guys that was holding him. “Man, y’all get the fuck off of me.”
“Tre!” Kisha called looking like she damn near wanted to cry. “Will you please let the shit go? I am okay.”
“Nah, don’t try and talk to him.” Skeet told Kisha. “He don’t have to let it go. I ain’t Casper. When I am done with him the coroner’s will be coming to pick his ass up!”
I don’t know why Skeet said that. Somehow Tremaine managed to get around the guys that were holding him, trampling over Kisha in the process and knocking her to the ground! He’d almost made it to Skeet but was grabbed by several guys and tackled to the ground. I couldn’t believe the shit that I was seeing before my eyes. I felt slightly embarrassed at the show that he was putting on all over Kisha. He’d obviously forgotten that I was there. He definitely was proving that he didn’t give a flying fuck about my feelings.
“Get the fuck off of me!” Tremaine yelled to the guys that were holding him down.
“Let him up, yo.” Corey spoke up.
One of the guys that were helping hold Tremaine replied. “Man, if we let him up, he’s going to go after Skeet again. If they fight Ms. Lizzie is going to call the police.”
“Fuck that! Let me the fuck up!” Tremaine demanded. “She can call whoever the fuck she wants. His ass is mines.”
I saw two guys along with Kisha walking Skeet to his car.
“He’s good.” Corey told the guys. “Skeet is leaving. Let him up. I got him.” The guys re
luctantly let him up.
As soon as he got up off the ground he looked around, I assume looking for Skeet. Corey must’ve assumed the same thing. “Man let that shit go before you end up getting locked up. I understand why you are upset but there ain’t no sense in you getting yourself in trouble. Kisha obviously don’t see anything wrong with what he did. So if she likes that shit, let it go.”
Tremaine didn’t say anything. He just stood there looking like he was ready to murder someone. He reached in his pocket and took out his pack of cigarettes and lit one up.
“Are you good?” Corey asked him after a few minutes.
“Yeah, I’m straight.” He replied. “I don’t play that shit though. They can argue all they want but him putting his hands on her in front of me, ain’t gone fly.” He shook his head. “Nah, fuck that. We may not be together and we may not see eye to eye on shit but she’s still my babymama and as long as I got breath in my body, I’m going to always be protective over her and I don’t give a fuck who doesn’t like it.”
“I feel you and I agree the shit was disrespectful. I guess he figures that since he technically hit the cup. It wasn’t that big of a deal.”
“He smacked the cup into her face because he’d told her that he didn’t want her to drink anything else and she ordered another drink anyways. I don’t know why he didn’t want her to drink and I honestly don’t care about that part. I wouldn’t have said anything if he hadn’t smack the cup in her face. They could’ve argued all damn night but he crossed the line. She ain’t his fuckin’ kid.”
I’d been standing there quietly trying not to say anything but I couldn’t hold my tongue any longer. He was willing to catch a case and everything for this bitch and he was saying this shit in front of everyone making me look like a nobody. The way that he was carrying on no one would’ve assumed that he was there with me. “Whatever he did was between the two of them. It had nothing to do with you!” I snapped. “You ain’t with Kisha anymore. You are with me. So why are you out here showing your ass and trying to fight Skeet over something that has nothing to do with you?”
“First of all, who in the fuck are you talking to like that? I’m not your motherfuckin’ kid! You might want to check your tone.” He roared stepping closer in my face.
Seeing his reaction and not knowing what it could lead to if I kept talking, I backed down some but not completely. “You’re right. You’re not my kid. Obviously we ain’t shit.” I turned my attention to Corey. “Can you and Nelle give me a ride home?”
“Oh so you are going to carry it like that?” Tremaine asked. “You mad because I wouldn’t stand back and allow a nigga to put his hands on my babymama? Why are you acting so fucking insecure? I haven’t given you any reason to think that there is anything between Kisha and me. So there is absolutely no reason for you to be trippin’.”
“Whatever. This is why, I am so guarded when it comes to my heart and dealing with motherfuckas because one way or another they end up hurting you. Fuck that.” The way that he was acting over this shit with Kisha made me feel less guilty about the thing that I had for Corey.
“What?” He gave me a confused look. “What in the hell are you talking about? Don’t be comparing me to your ex or exes. I haven’t hurt you in any way. You are just looking for an excuse to pop shit because I haven’t done anything wrong at all to you.”
I ignored him, still waiting on an answer from Corey.
“Yeah, we can give you a ride but why are y’all two getting mad with each other?” Corey scratched his head looking from me to Tremaine.
“I’m not mad.” Tremaine replied plucking the cigarette butt onto the ground. “I know who I’m here with but that doesn’t mean that I am going to allow anyone to put their hands on my babymama with me sitting there. Hell nah! So if she wants to have an attitude because of that. She’s more than welcome.”
“Since you are so worried about your babymama then you can go and be with that bitch!” I snapped rolling my eyes.
Tremaine shook his head and let out a chuckle. “Man, you are funny but it is what it is.”
“Mina, I don’t think he meant any disrespect towards you. He was just defending Kisha because he felt like Skeet had cross the line and I agree. He had no business smacking that cup into her face…” Nelle as always added her two damn cents that no one had asked for.
I cut her off. “You weren’t even in there when it happened. So how are you going to speak on some shit that you didn’t even see?”
“You’re right, I wasn’t in there but him and Corey just told the same damn story about what happened. That’s some real nigga shit that he just did. Even though he and Kisha ain’t together, he still took up for her. Most niggas would’ve just sat there and let some fucked up shit like that go.”
“Like he should’ve done!” I got loud wanting to slap the hell out of her but I knew better. I wasn’t a fighter and never had been. I knew how things would turn out if I hit her. “He ain’t have shit to do with what was going on between Kisha and Skeet.”
“Girl, I’m not going to stand here and argue with you. Kisha and Skeet are gone and he’s still here with you. Not somewhere trying to get with Kisha. I think that says everything. That man wasn’t trying to disrespect you at all.” She continued to preach. “Y’all women kill me being so blinded by past bullshit that once you get a good nigga you can’t even see it. Everybody ain’t like Mello’s sorry ass. I ain’t gone stand here and front like I didn’t have my doubts about Tre in the beginning but he’s proven to be a good guy. Let the dumb shit go girl and go ahead home with your man.”
“Thanks Nelle. I’m glad somebody gets it.” Tremaine thanked her looking at me.
I was so pissed that I could’ve spit fire. “Whatever. I will be standing next to the car whenever y’all are ready to take me home, Corey. I can pay y’all if needed. I don’t want to be a burden on any one.”
“Are you serious?” Nelle laughed. “Why are you trippin’ cuz?”
I walked off towards Nelle and Cory’s car without saying a word. I got something for that bitch! I thought to myself. I was so sick of her no it all attitude. She’d always been Ms. Perfect since we were little, always thinking that she knew everything. She was standing back there preaching to me about knowing a good man when I see one. Obviously she didn’t know everything there was about men or relationships. It had only been three years since she’d tried to kill herself over Corey because some white chic, named Amy that he’d met when he’d moved to DC, had his nose wide open and he didn’t want shit to do with her ass. He didn’t get his shit together until Amy went crazy and tried to kill his mama and her. Now she tried to act like she was a relationship expert, thinking that Corey had fully changed. I was willing to bet anything that he still had a lot of shit with him.
“We are going to see just how perfect your marriage really is Nelle.” I said allowed as I stood next to their car. “Since you want to sit back on your little high horse and judge everybody else.”
Kisha
A few days had passed since the altercation between Skeet and Tre, and Skeet still wasn’t speaking to me. Not because of what had gone down between him and Tre but because of the reason why he’d smacked the drink in my face in the first place. He was upset because I was two months late for my period and there was a strong possibility that I may have been pregnant. I hadn’t taken a home pregnancy test to see because I was almost certain that I was and I didn’t want to be. I’d already told him that if I was pregnant, I wasn’t going to keep it. We didn’t need a baby together. I didn’t want a baby at all right now. A lot had changed over the past few months. I was starting to feel really differently about our situation. I was starting to feel like I didn’t want there to be a situation between us at all. Like I wanted to be by myself for a while and figure some things out. I’d started to realize that hooking up with Skeet had been a mistake and that I hadn’t done it for any of the right reasons. I’d done it to get back at Tre. Skeet was a good
man, he had flaws but overall he was a good man. He deserved someone who really wanted to be with him. Not someone who was only there out of spite and frustration.
I let out a sigh and looked up at the round clock that hung on Dr. Sheppard’s wall. I ran my hands up and down my arms and over the chill bumps that had formed on them. I’d been sitting on the table in the cold examination room for well over twenty minutes waiting for Dr. Sheppard to come in and tell me the results of the pregnancy test that I’d taken.
Skeet had forced me to make an appointment and demanded that he go with me. His being with me wasn’t going to make any difference at all. My decision was already made as far as the pregnancy was concerned, if I was in fact pregnant. I was having an abortion and that was that. He was sitting over in the chair up against the wall with my clothes laying folded across his lap, rocking an evil mug on his face. He was staring at me like he wanted to knock my head off of my body.
“It’s cold in here. I wish he would come on so that I can get dressed.” I said aloud referring to Dr. Sheppard. Skeet didn’t say anything. “Are you cold?”
“Are you still going to get rid of my baby?” He asked staring me down.
I let out a sigh and looked in the other direction. “We’ve already talked about this and I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I mean, not right now. Can we talk about something else?”
“Why Kish? I don’t understand why.” I looked over at him. He’d sat up on the edge of his seat and placed my clothes in the chair next to him. “What’s so wrong with you having my baby? You know that I am going to take care of you and my seed. Hell, I do shit for Shaun and Quan. I know that I don’t have to but I do. I’ve even changed a lot since the two of them have been around. When they first got there, I didn’t know shit about having no kids around and I used to say and do a lot of things that were inappropriate but after you said something about it. I changed. It may have taken me a while but I finally got the hang of things. Didn’t I?”
Side Chic 3 (The Ratchetness Continues) Page 12