by T. N. Baker
“Where’s Shana?” Keisha asked K.C.
“I don’t know. She was home when I left. I’m surprised she ain’t with y’all.”
“So, K.C., who’s your friends? ’Cause they were staring me down when I was standing over there by myself. Now I’m over here and they act like they’re to scared to turn around and say hello,” Epiphany said, being as blunt and bold as always.
“Oh, those my niggas. They ain’t never scared. Right, fellas? Tell this pretty lady y’all ain’t scared,” said K.C.
“Nah, shorty, ain’t nobody scared over here. We just over here talking business, you know. A’ight, love, nothing personal.” Ness turned to face her while Smitty kept his back toward her.
“A’ight. Well, come on, Keish. Let’s not keep the boys from discussing man shit. Later, K.C.” Epiphany grabbed Keisha’s arm and began to pull her away.
“Okay, take care, K.C.,” Keisha said as she was being whisked away.
“You see, that’s exactly why I couldn’t fuck with that bitch. That mouth of hers is off the chain.” Smitty fronted to his boys like it was his choice and not his actions that caused her not to fuck with him.
* * *
“Girl, why you do that? That guy was kinda cute,” Keisha said, referring to Ness.
“Please, no he wasn’t. Girl, I got to teach you how to separate the fakes from the real ballers. That was a fake one,” Epiphany said, rolling her eyes.
“Ooh, come on, E, there’s the cameraman. Let’s go take a picture,” Keisha said.
“Whew! Look at you pretty ladies,” said the camera-man as he snapped several pictures of the girls. “Okay ladies,” he continued, “log on to allnightclubs.com tomorrow afternoon and look for your photos.”
“Oh, so they’re gonna be online?” asked Epiphany.
“Yes, ma’am, every picture I take is posted at that Web site,” answered the cameraman.
“Cool,” replied Keisha.
“Come on, Keish. Ain’t nothing really happening in here. Let’s bounce,” Epiphany said as she sucked her teeth to express her disappointment with the club’s crowd.
On the way out, they spotted K.C. in the corner, kissing some hood rat–looking bitch.
“Hold up, E, ain’t that K.C. over there, all on that girl like that?” asked Keisha.
“Oooooh, yes the fuck it is,” Epiphany confirmed.
“Uh-uh, I’m going over to say something,” said Keisha.
“No, don’t. I got a better idea. Wait right here.” Epiphany walked back over to the photographer.
“Excuse me. How good is the zoom on your camera?”
“It’s excellent. Why?” answered the cameraman.
“I got fifty bucks for you if you could zoom in on the guy over there in the corner with that girl and snap a picture for me, but you got to put it on the Web.”
“No problem,” agreed the cameraman as he took the crisp fifty-dollar bill and slide it into his side pocket, zoomed in on the target, and snapped a perfect shot.
“Thanks,” Epiphany said as she walked back toward Keisha, wearing a devious grin.
“Damn, E, you still scandalous.” Keisha laughed.
“Yep! A picture is worth a thousand words.”
The girls left the club and headed home. Fortunately for them, the night had turned out to be eventful after all.
Chapter 71
“Please don’t hurt me,” Epiphany cried out as she laid balled up in a fetal position, trying to shield herself from the kicks and punches that were landing one after another, bruising and paining her body. Suddenly it stopped, but Epiphany was too scared to hold up her head to see what was going on.
“Damn, son, you fucking that ho up.” An unrecognizable male’s voice laughed. More than one person was present.
There was a moment of silence, and just as Epiphany began to slightly lift her head to see what was going on and who was doing it, the telephone rang, waking her from the horrible nightmare. She rolled over on her back, relieved that it was all just a bad dream.
“Keisha, answer your phone.” Epiphany realized she was in Keisha’s guest bedroom. “Damn it. Hello?” Epiphany grabbed the receiver with an irritated tone.
“Yeah, what took you so long to answer the phone?” Tucker asked.
“What? Who is this?” Epiphany snapped, not realizing that it could only be Tucker calling.
“Who is this?” Tucker snapped back.
“Listen, you called here; therefore you need to announce yourself, or I’m hanging up.”
“Bitch, that’s my phone you answering. Now get my son’s mother on the phone,” Tucker said angrily.
“Oops! Sorry, Tucker, I didn’t know it was you. This is Epiphany,” she said, not knowing that she had just added fuel to Tucker’s fire. He despised her.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, just call Keish to the phone.”
“Hey, T, I know you’re sore about what happened to Mali, but you’re not the only one feeling the pain of his death, you know.”
“Call Keish to the fucking phone.”
“I already tried that before I picked up, so obviously she ain’t here, and hopefully I won’t forget to let her know you called. Bye, now.” Epiphany grew furious from his response and hung up the phone.
Getting up, she headed to Keisha’s bedroom. Since the door was slightly open, Epiphany peeked in before entering.
“Keisha, wake up. Get up, girl,” Epiphany said loudly as she plopped down on what used to be Tucker’s side of the bed.
“What?” replied Keisha, frowning up her face when the scent of her morning breath mixed with last night’s alcohol hit her nose.
“Tucker just called for you.”
“He did? What did he say?”
“Well, first off, he wasn’t too thrilled with me answering his phone,” Epiphany admitted.
“Why? What did you say?” asked Keisha.
“I was trying to be nice, but he was the one acting all nasty, so I told him you wasn’t here.”
“Girl, it’s eight o’clock in the morning. You know what he gon’ think,” said Keisha.
“And so what? Let him think it. I’m telling you, if you start acting like you moved on, trust me, he’ll be back.”
“You think so?”
“Yes, I do. Trust me when I tell you. If I don’t know nothing else, I know niggas. I’m telling you, I could write a book on their asses. They may come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, but they all think the same. Girl, please believe me.” If there was one thing that Epiphany didn’t lose, it was her confidence.
“Seriously, Keish, does Tucker think I killed Malikai?”
“No, but he does think that maybe you had something to do with it,” answered Keisha.
“And what do you think, Keisha?”
“Come on, girl. Me and you go way back, like pimps and Cadillacs.” Keisha laughed, covering her mouth with her sheets.
“I know that, but you still ain’t answer the question,” Epiphany continued.
“No, Epiphany, I don’t think you had anything to do with Malikai getting murdered.” Keisha stopped laughing. She realized that her friend was really worried.
“Good, because even though I don’t remember what happened, I know in my heart I didn’t have anything to do with that.” Tears began to puddle up in her eyes.
“I know, and that’s exactly what I told T, so don’t even worry about it, girl. He’s just bitter right now because he wasn’t able to save Mali, that’s all.” Keisha sat up and put her arm around Epiphany.
“Before the phone woke me up, I was having this terrible dream, but I don’t think it was just a dream. I think maybe it really happened.
“What was it about?”
“I really don’t want to get into details right now, but just as I was about to see their faces, the phone rang and I woke up.”
“Do you think your memory is trying to come back?”
“I don’t know, but I hope so,” said Epiphany just as the phone rang again
, breaking her train of thought. “You better answer it this time, ’cause I’m sure it’s Tucker calling you back,” said Epiphany as she got up to leave the room.
“Hello?” Keisha answered.
“What’s up, girly?” said the cheery voice on the other end of the line.
“Um, who is this?”
“It’s Lea, girl!”
“Oh, hey, Lea. I ain’t heard from you in a while.”
“I know, girl. I’ve been so tied up with finals and all that, but I’ve been meaning to call you for a while now. Why haven’t you been to class? You busy planning that wedding of yours?”
“No, the wedding is off,” answered Keisha.
“Why? What’s up with that? You guys are still going to get married, right?” Lea questioned.
“Lea, don’t act like you don’t know about the tape.”
“What tape?”
“Come on, Lea. Don’t you think it’s a little ironic that you begged me to have that party and those strippers? ‘Oh, come on, Keisha, you can go to the club anytime. This might be the last time you see some dicks slinging in your face.’ Remember that? Then all of a sudden a video tape from that night shows up on my fucking doorstep.” Keisha’s voice was getting louder.
“Keisha, I can’t believe that you would think that I would do something like that.” Lea was taken aback by Keisha’s accusation.
“Okay, so if you didn’t set me up, why haven’t you called me until now?”
“I told you why—school. Besides, Simone told me she spoke to you and things were cool with you.”
“Whatever, Lea, school has never stopped you from calling me before.”
“Keisha, if you really wanna get technical, most of our conversations took place in school. I never really called you at home in the first place, except for once or twice to talk about your wedding. But you know what? It’s sad that out of everybody there that night you would accuse me. What about the other girls? Simone, helped me put the whole thing together. Or how about the girl that came with you? What about your friend Epiphany? She was the last one to leave the room.”
“Well, Epiphany wouldn’t do that to me. Neither would Shana and Simone. Come on. She doesn’t even seem like the type that would do something like that.”
“Oh, and I would?”
“Well, at first I didn’t think you would, but the room was in your name; therefore, you had time to set up a camcorder before anybody got there.”
“Oh, is that right? Well, you know what, Keisha? I’m not going to sit here and try to defend myself any longer. If you think I did it, fine. But I certainly didn’t force you in the other room and make you have sex with that guy, now, did I?” Keisha was speechless. “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Lea said sarcastically before hanging up the phone.
If that wasn’t enough drama for one morning, soon after she hung up with Lea, Tucker came barging into her bedroom.
“Keish, what the fuck is that bitch doing in my house, huh? What is it with you? You think I’m that nigga, don’t you? That’s what it is, huh? Just some muthafucka that you could all run over, right? I guess ’cause I ain’t knock some sense into you yet. Are you testing me? Fuck me, right? You ain’t got no fucking respect for me, do you?”
“What are you talking about?” Keisha said, playing the stupid role when she knew exactly why he was upset. That only made Tucker more furious, so furious that he snapped and slapped the shit out of her.
She let out a horrifying cry. Tucker had never put his hands on her before, nor had she ever expected him to.
“Yeah, you know what I’m talking about now, don’t you? Where the fuck is my son at, huh? He was supposed to come home yesterday. I called your moms and she told me some bogus bullshit about you needing two more weeks. Two more weeks for what, Keisha? To hop your ass in and out the clubs? Yeah, I heard. So that’s what you wanna do, huh, club hop?”
Still stunned from being slapped, Keisha didn’t answer. Her face was beginning to swell. She sat there massaging her cheek with one hand, soothing the stinging and wiping her tears away with the other hand.
“All you do is cry, Keisha. I don’t care about those fucking tears of yours. I’ve been trying to be cool throughout everything, but no, you stay pushing my fucking buttons. Damn, Keish, how much is a nigga supposed to take from you?” Tucker was fed up with Keisha’s bull, and in his heart, he was beginning to feel like she really had no respect for him anymore. She didn’t appreciate him or anything he did for her, so as far as he was concerned, it was time to let her go, move on, and put an end to the ‘Tucker and Keisha” chapter of his life for good.
“Keish, you got to go!” Tucker realized that was the best and only decision to make.
“What? What do you mean?”
“I mean I’m not taking care of you no more. My son is my responsibility, not you.”
“Wait a minute. My name is on this house too. How you just gon’ put me out like that, T? I’m your son’s mother. Where are we supposed to go?” Keisha pleaded.
“Keisha, I told you before, I’m not trying to hear all that. This is my house. I pay all the bills. Your name don’t mean shit, so stop it. It’s not gonna fly, and if you feel differently, take me to court. Okay! Now, yes, you are my son’s mother, and I will take care of all my little man’s needs—there’s no questions about that—but you got two more weeks to yourself. I suggest you spend them looking for a place to stay.”
Keisha wasn’t gonna fight it anymore. Time and time again, Tucker had made it clear that it was over between them. She packed some of her things, and as she was about to leave, he asked for her keys. She removed them slowly from her keychain and threw them on the bed.
“Hold up. I’ma need the keys to the truck too,” he added, taking it to the extreme. Keisha cut her eyes at him. I hate you, she thought as she tossed the whole keychain onto the bed and stormed off.
“Thank you,” Tucker said sarcastically.
Meanwhile, just when Tucker asked Keisha for the keys, Epiphany felt her ears had heard enough. She eased down the stairs, grabbed her bags, and decided it would be best if she sat outside in her car and waited for Keisha. She didn’t wanna be the next one to get slapped.
Chapter 72
C-God was slowly fading away, getting high whenever he could. Money was starting to get tight. Marisa lost her job at the grocery store and made her bills become his problem. C-God wasn’t supplying her with any more coke, so she jumped on the band wagon and started sucking on the glass pipe with him. In Marisa’s mind, it was only for a little while, just until she lost some weight, but if only she knew, dropping the weight would be the easy part. The addiction had a hell of a price to pay, and her children were the first to suffer. Why? Because getting high became more important to her than their needs. Most of the time she stayed locked up in her bedroom for hours with C-God, smoking crack while the kids’ knocks for food, help with the homework, or just some quality time went ignored. Her children hated C-God and blamed him for their mother’s neglect.
Reggie still communicated with C-God from time to time, to see how he was doing. Although he chose to roll with Ness for money purposes, he still had love for the nigga C. C-God understood that it wasn’t about him. He knew Reggie had a lot on his plate, trying to take care of his grandmother, who he loved dearly, and hustling daily through rain, sleet, and snow to get up the dough to take care of her bills and pay the live-in nurse.
Reg kept C-God informed about what was going on and the moves niggas was making in the hood. He was the eyes and ears on the street that C-God no longer had. His information was priceless.
C-God was surprised when Reg called and told him how his baby moms Latrice went out.
“Yo, son, they played Latrice,” said Reggie.
“Who?”
“That nigga Ness, man. Out in front of the projects the other day, he had her sucking on a dog’s dick for that crack. Shit, in front of everybody, too, just ’cause she was short a dollar. Yo, C,
I tried to stop her, but she wanted them drugs bad.”
C-God was quiet. He flashed back to how fly Latrice used to be and that smart mouth of hers. All the ballers had tried to get at her back in the day, but she chose C-God when he ain’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of, and he loved her for that; that was, until he started getting money and the gold diggers took notice. His excuse for moving on to the next chick was Latrice’s jealousy and crazed antics after giving birth to their first child.
Reminiscing made C-God think about all his baby mommas. To let him tell it, all of them were some bugged-out bitches. Latrice and Sherri had lost custody of his kids, Lori and Jasmine, because of their crack addictions. Andrea married some Wall Street cat, who adopted C-God’s seven-year-old daughter, Atria, and moved them out to the Hamptons. Kim had a good paying city job, but was always trying to hit him up for money for their son, Corey, who was seven also.
Then Yolonda’s weed-smoking, welfare-collecting ass did nothing but get her fuck on with different niggas and threatened C with child support orders every chance she got. Sad to say, out of all of them, she was the one that had C-God open. He had made her his wifey before finding out how whorish she really was, and to this day, he still questioned if he was the father of her daughters, Kameechie and Yaya.
Last, but not least, there was Tanya. She was a good girl, smart and educated. C-God never had no problems with her. She was still young, so she did what she was told, and she had a strong, supportive family. They all took good care of his son.
“Yo, C, you there?” Reggie wasn’t certain C was still on the phone. He had been silent for a minute.
“Yeah, I’m here. Anyway, fuck Latrice. Tanya’s the only one out all them bitches that I give a fuck about. That’s why I need you to check up on her from time to time and make sure she’s good, a’ight? Do that for me until I get on my feet.”
“Not a problem,” Reggie said.
“Oh, and one more thing: Any word on Epiphany, you know the chick I was fucking with?” C-God asked.
“Yeah, I know who you talking about. I hear she a’ight. As a matter of fact, her pops came through the projects a couple of times looking for you.”
