by J. Gail
Quanisha got into her car, followed by her cousin, who still had an attitude. But now Pamela wanted to know where Quanisha was going.
“What you just gonna go somewhere and not invite my ass?” she finally said as Quanisha pulled up in front of her building.
“You just said you was broke. I ain’t giving you no money to be at the club,” Quanisha said, rolling her eyes.
“Why you gotta be like that? You know I’m struggling right now. You supposed to help your family out,” Pamela said as she got out of the car. “What was you just gonna drop me home while you go have fun? That’s fucked up.”
“Girl you know you need to stop. Your ass ain’t struggling after you bought all that shit at the mall—”
“Don’t be worryin’ about what I buy with my own money,” Pamela protested.
“—and you know you need to go home and take care of all them kids. You wrong for wanting to party when they got to get up for school tomorrow,” Quanisha finished.
“Oh, see, now you trippin’. Don’t you tell me about my kids and what they gotta do. That ain’t none of your business. They with they aunt.”
“They need to be with their mother, and I’m sure they asses are hungry, but you just gotta have a damn outfit so you can profile in front of those other welfare bitches that don’t got shit.” The words flew out of Quanisha’s mouth so fast that she couldn’t catch herself. Right after she said it, she knew she was wrong.
“You dry barren bitch. Who are you tellin’ somebody about they kids? Once you pop one out of that dried up pussy of yours you can talk to me about my kids,” Pamela hissed back as she walked into the lobby of Quanisha’s building.
Quanisha whipped around with her fist clenched and caught Pamela dead in the nose. Pamela stumbled back and couldn’t stop herself from falling on her behind.
“Now take your broke ass home then, since you wanna talk all that shit,” Quanisha growled at her cousin and tried to hold back her tears. “I don’t care if your triflin’ ass walks to North Philly!”
Quanisha left Pamela sitting there in shock as she hustled up the stairs to her apartment and slammed the door.
It was an hour later when Quanisha sat on her bed, still listening to her cellphone ring. This was the fifth time it had rung in the hour. She had been bawling her eyes out after Pamela’s insensitive comment. How could she be so cruel? Bringing up something that Quanisha had told her in strict confidence was the lowest blow to Quanisha’s spirit. Not even Quanisha’s mother knew that she couldn’t have children.
Now that she had hit Pamela, Quanisha was sure that Pamela was going to go tell her mother all about the abortions. She didn’t need this additional stress in her life. Her boyfriend was cheating on her, she had gotten smutted out on the first date by some stranger, her boss had put her on a final warning at her job for her attitude, and now Quanisha was going to have to deal with her evil mother hanging the fact that she couldn’t have children over her head. It was way too much to bear.
Quanisha finally snatched her cellphone off of the nightstand.
“What!” she screamed.
“Uh, hello! Who the hell you screaming at?” Trina asked.
Quanisha wiped a tear from her face and took a deep breath. “Nothin’, my fault girl.”
“You aiight?”
“Yea, I’m fine!” Quanisha said, about to get an attitude again. “What’s wrong, didn’t you say 11?”
“Yea but—”
“You know what? Listen Trina, I don’t think I’m gonna be coming out tonight. I got work in the morning.”
“Oh girl, don’t start with that shit. You don’t work ‘til the middle of the day.”
“I know, I just wanna get my rest,” Quanisha insisted.
“Bitch please, you coming out with me tonight. I called you cuz they got $1 night from 8-11 tonight at Tre’s Bar out West. We can get popped for like 10 dollars!” Trina laughed.
Quanisha thought about how fun drowning her problems in cheap alcohol would be. But she really didn’t feel like being around Trina, who would be getting all the attention all night. She was sure to be dressed in some kind of ho gear and turning every head in the bar. Then again, Tre’s was only down the street and around the corner from her house, so she could leave whenever she wanted.
“Yea, yea. Aiight Trina, I’ll meet you down there at 9 o’clock,” Quanisha affirmed and then hung up the phone. She was surprised when she learned that it had been Trina calling her all those times; Pamela hadn’t even called her once.
* * *
“Girl look at all these niggas up in here,” Trina leaned over and whispered to Quanisha momentarily.
Quanisha didn’t have an answer. She just walked over to the bar and started ordering shots of Tequila with training wheels. She could already see several men eyeing them, and was getting prepared for all of them to pass her up for Trina.
“Yo ma, I got that,” a rough looking bearded brown skinned brother sitting right next to her at the bar said.
“Oh. Thanks.” Quanisha was unimpressed. It was only $2. If he thinks he’s getting some ass for some dollar drinks he is severely mistaken, she thought.
“Where you live at?” he asked.
“South Philly,” she answered quickly, lying.
“South? What you doin’ all the way up here?”
“I’m just minding my own business, tryin’ to get some drinks in,” she said snidely as she took her first shot.
“Whoa, take it easy baby,” the guy said and chuckled to himself.
“Whatever,” Quanisha said as she grabbed her other shot and moved herself to another part of the bar.
To Quanisha’s surprise, she was getting a lot of attention that night. All she had on was a white t-shirt tied to the back and a pair of tight jeans. She didn’t even make the effort to go all out that night with her outfit. Trina, in her low cut tight fitting v-necked shirt and cut off cargo shorts was getting guys as usual, but even she was looking over at what Quanisha was doing more often than Quanisha was checking up on her.
After the bar, they left and decided to hit up Chrome as they originally planned. Quanisha was drunk to the point of tripping over her own feet as they made their way to Trina’s truck. She had gotten four solid numbers from guys at the bar – one who was really cute – and was feeling like she was on top of the world.
“Did you see that light skinneded nigga with the braids? Tommy? He lookeded good as shit,” Quanisha slurred as she took her pumps off to air out her feet.
“Yea, he was aiight,” Trina answered with a jealous edge in her voice.
“Aiight? He looked betta than any of those other tired ass niggas in there,” Quanisha said assuredly.
Trina felt a twinge of anger rise up in her as her envy overtook her for a second. She knew that Quanisha was right – for the first time, Quanisha had hooked the best looking brother in the bar.
“Man, fuck Pam, fuck Ma, fuck Tony,” Quanisha rambled and ranted. “I’m my own woman. I’m gonna do my thing and fuck what anybody else got to say about it!”
When they got to Chrome they were caught up in the whirwind of females that had entered the club thinking they were getting in for free. But it was well after 11pm and the admission had gone up to $10 for ladies. That was no problem for Quanisha and Trina who had only spent about $10 each at the bar and still had cash to burn.
Towards the end of the night, Quanisha was off to the side dancing by herself near the bar when someone grabbed her from behind and started dancing with her. She stopped instantly and whipped around to see who had the nerve to put his hands on her. Quanisha was in rare form – she became ridiculously cocky when she was drunk to the point where she didn’t even want anybody, even guys, touching her.
To her surprise the face she met was familiar.
“What the fuck do you want?” she said as she laid snake eyes on Randy. Randy - the same guy who had done a ‘tap and run’ on her.
“Whoa, calm down baby girl
. I’m just saying what’s up!” he said as he held his palms up in surrender. He looked her up and down like he was a tiger and she was a tall piece of raw steak. He was obviously very drunk too.
Quanisha was turned off by his presence. “Man go ahead with all that corny shit,” she said as she turned back around and started dancing with herself again.
“Come on ma, stop bein’ like dat. What’s your name?” he asked with his eyes dimmed from the effects of the Hennessey he had been drinking all night.
“What?” Quanisha said, turning her neck sharply to look him in the face again. “You don’t even remember my name? Pffssh.”
Quanisha gave Randy a flip of her hand as she made the sound meant to dismiss him, and walked right away from him. She left him standing there looking like a fool.
The whole night Randy watched Quanisha go throughout the club and dance with all kinds of different men. But she didn’t seem to care about any one of them – it seemed like she didn’t have a care in the world. He liked that. He was still trying to figure out what her name was and where he knew her from though…
When he looked at his watch and saw that it was 2:45am, only a few minutes before the club would close, he made his way over to Quanisha boldly and snatched her away from the guy she was dancing with. He finally came to his senses and remembered that this was the girl he had kicked it with a couple of weeks before after Fridays.
“What are you doing,” Quanisha pronounced her words clearly and loudly over the club music.
“I’m taking you home Quanisha. You popped ma. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.”
Quanisha had no idea where she was as she leaned over the bed and let Randy pound her from behind. She was so drunk that she didn’t even remember when he had pulled down her jeans and panties. She moaned and sighed, enjoying the feeling as the first orgasm started to build up inside of her.
When they were finished, Randy laid down on the bed next to Quanisha and smiled at her. How could he have forgotten Quanisha – she was the best sex he’d had in months. He then closed his eyes as if he wanted to go to sleep, but Quanisha stood up.
“Okay, I’m outta here,” she said suddenly. Randy’s eyes shot back open.
“What? Where you goin’?” he asked as he still lay there, not wanting to move.
“I’m goin’ home. I got shit to do in the morning,” she said cheerily as she pulled back on her jeans and grabbed her cellphone.
“What you got to go for? You can stay the night,” Randy said sincerely, as if he were doing her a favor.
“No thanks. I’ll holla,” Quanisha slurred as she stumbled to the door. Right before she left she turned back around and simply said, “Thanks for the bang out. I needed that.”
She got all the way out to the street when Randy came bounding out the door after her. “Come on ma, you need to stay here for a while. You don’t even know where you at and you fucked up.”
“Gee, I wasn’t too fucked up for you to fuck me though,” Quanisha laughed and snorted through her nose as she called ‘215-333-3333,’ the easiest taxicab phone number to remember in the city.
“Yea, whatever. I ain’t beggin’ you,” Randy said before he slammed his front door shut.
When Quanisha finally got home, she gave the cab driver her last $15 and went upstairs so that she could crash out in her room. Only she didn’t even make it to her bedroom – she ended up falling out on the living room couch.
* * *
Tony came in the door at 12 noon that day and saw Quanisha laid up, the top half of her body on the couch, the other half hanging out onto the floor. She was dressed in the clothes she had on the night before and her face was fully made up.
“Nish,” Tony said as he stood over her, confused.
Quanisha was lost in deep sleep. If it was hard to get Quanisha up normally, it was impossible when she was hungover.
“Quanisha!” Tony said much louder this time as he shook her incessantly.
“What what what,” Quanisha said sleepily with her eyes still closed.
“Why you sleepin’ with your clothes on? Don’t you have work today?” Tony asked her as he leaned down several inches from her face.
“Mmmmph,” is all Quanisha said. It was completely quiet for a few more seconds, and then Tony heard her snoring again.
“Nish!!” Tony yelled as he grabbed her and sat her straight up on the couch. Her head slumped over to the side. “What’s wrong wit you, you drunk?”
“No,” Quanisha mumbled.
“You late for work ma, when you goin’ in?” Tony asked her.
“I don’t have no work leave me alone,” Quanisha lied. She still thought she was inside of a dream. Tony wasn’t really there.
“Why you drunk? You went out last night?” Tony asked again, but Quanisha wasn’t responding. He didn’t like the idea of his woman up in the club drunk. He scanned her body and his brows lowered at the sight of the tight jeans she had on, hugging every curve of her body. He wanted to snatch her up so badly, but he didn’t want any Quanisha drama right now. He was exhausted and needed to lay down, so he decided to just get at her later on that day.
When Tony woke up he heard Quanisha on the phone.
“…I’m sorry, I told you I wasn’t feeling too good. I’ll just come in for second shift,” she pleaded. “Amanda don’t do this to me alright. You know I can’t afford to lose this job!... I know, but this is the first time I ever missed my shift…I’m sorry, was I supposed to go in and throw up on the customers?...Yea I know I should’ve called…No I…(long pause)…Man this is some bullshit Amanda and you know it! I been there for almost five years and ya’ll gonna fire me over one missed day? That’s fucked up but whatever!…I don’t got no attitude with the customers… and no I don’t got no attitude with you either…Come on now, don’t even go there with me, you and everybody in there know I’m a good worker, I do double shifts all the…Fuck that, I ain’t even tryin’ to hear that shit…Fine then ya’ll keep your lil btich ass job. I got skills! I can get a better job than that anyway. Bye Bitch!”
Tony shook his head as he looked at the alarm clock that read 4:43pm. The time seemed to have flown by so fast.
Quanisha had slammed down the phone and was randomly screaming obscenities every few minutes or so in the other room. Tony did not want to get caught up in this whirlwind, and was plotting how he could leave without having to confront Quanisha. When he heard her coming to the bedroom he put his head to the side and played dead. Hopefully she would just go in the shower or leave. But no such luck.
“Tony!!!” she screamed at the top of her lungs in a way that made his body shiver.
Tony kept pretending to be asleep, so Quanisha came over and jerked up one of the sheets so hard that he went rolling off the side of the bed.
“Why the fuck didn’t you wake me up when you came in!” she hollered. “I lost my fucking job!”
Tony just stood up and started putting his clothes back on.
“Do you hear me talkin’ to your lazy, leeching ass? What the fuck is wrong with you! Now I don’t have no job! What am I supposed to do??”
“I tried to get you up,” Tony said in a low voice as he grabbed his hat and headed out of the room. He was getting the hell out of there.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Quanisha asked incredulously as she followed him out of the room.
“I’ll holla at you later Nish,” Tony said as he opened her front door. Quanisha made a charge at him and punched him in the back with all of her power. Tony winced and threw his head back in pain.
“What, you think this is a hotel? You just gonna come here whenever you want and get some sleep and then leave?!” Quanisha said every note in a shrill high pitched scream. It was definitely heard throughout her hall. “I can’t stand your bitch ass! What do you do for me!”
Tony wanted to turn around and punch Quanisha out so badly, but he restrained himself. Quanisha had a lot of uncles who were merciless killers – all she
had to do was tell them that Tony had put his hands on her and they would be out for his blood. Instead, he just rushed out of the door as Quanisha followed him with blows to his head, neck and back. When she finally got tired she stopped in the middle of the hall and screamed behind him.
“Don’t come back here you dumb motherfucker. You ain’t no real man!” Quanisha yelled. “You ain’t nothin’ but a little pussy! Go ahead and run to your grandma so she can change your pamper you little bitch!”
Chapter 17
Tony came around the bend of Spring Street sharply and pulled into Terrance’s driveway. He hadn’t seen his buddy for a long time, and needed a respite from the stresses he was experiencing with Quanisha, money, and Jenny calling his phone twenty times a day. He still couldn’t believe that she hadn’t just cut the phone off already.
Tony hadn’t seen or talked to Terrance since he went to the hospital and was looking forward to talking to his friend, but Terrance wasn’t home yet. It was close to 6 o’clock, and he should have been back by then since he did a 7-5pm shift.
“He’ll probably be home soon,” Tony thought as he settled back into his car to wait. This was a perfect time to give his jump-off, Tonya, a call. He had run into her on the block one day as she was heading to the grocery store and reconnected. She was looking good in a pair of white shorts and tennis shoes. The phone rang and rang until Tonya’s voicemail picked up.
“Yo call me. 267-255-2152,” Tony said and then hung up the phone. He turned up the radio and listened to an old Mary J. Blige song play.
Twenty minutes later Tony saw Terrance pulling up behind him in the driveway. Terrance parked and got out of the car.
“Yo man, why you park in my spot?” Terrance asked with an attitude. He had had a bad day. One of Terrance’s so-called friends at work had stolen yet another one of his great ideas and passed it off as his own. The last co-worker that had done that had been promoted to a position that he wasn’t even qualified for and Terrance was passed over. He was tired of his bosses not recognizing or rewarding his work. Now here was Tony, another so-called friend of his, taking his spot at home too.
