by Saundra
“You sound just like him.” I chuckled and sniffed at the same time. “So you also know just like him that we don’t need the money. We got plenty.” Rochelle shook her head in agreement.
“But it doesn’t matter the reason anymore. I feel strongly about it and I gave him an ultimatum. It has to be me or the game.” I was matter-of-fact. “One or the other, he can’t have them both.”
“What does he think about all this?” she asked.
“He says he hears me, but that’s about it. Now, when I said I would leave him, that pissed him off. But other than that, I don’t know. I haven’t been talkin’ to him. I been playing the silent treatment card. He suffering from it, too.”
“Oh and you accuse me of being mean.” We both chuckled.
“I know, right. I just don’t know what else to say, Rochelle. I just know I can’t lose him to these streets. I mean, look around: Li’l Bo, Pig, Li’l Lo . . . and don’t forget Rob, all dead. And for what? I cannot lose . . . NO, I won’t lose him to that.” I stressed that part, meaning every word. I would fight for my man’s life or walk away from it.
“Damn, Mya, I never looked at it like that.” Rochelle had begun to tear up, but she grinned. “Yo ass is a poet.”
Now she was forcing it. “Get outa here.” I threw my wet napkin at her and we both started laughing. All of a sudden we hear what appears to be yelling.
“That’s Pam. Who is she arguing with?” Rochelle looked at me. We both jumped up and ran toward the reception area. We slowed down as we entered to find Pam holding her own as Felicia, along with two other chicks standing behind her, continued to yell something about bullshit.
Instead of addressing Felicia’s ratchet behavior, I looked to Pam for answers. “Pam, what is going on?” I pretended as if Felicia was not standing there.
“Well, she upset . . .” Before Pam could finish, Felicia jumped in.
“Why you askin’ her? Ask me, I’m the customer. Besides, it should be clear what my problem is, look at my head.” She pointed at her hair and it was a mess, just like her attitude. “I need to see Trina.” She twisted her lips and threw her left hand on her hip while balancing her Gucci bag with her right arm.
I slowly turned in Felicia’s direction and prayed silently to keep my cool. The last thing I wanted was to start a fight in my salon. After all, it was a business. But by then Rochelle had had it.
“Bitch, who do you think . . .” Rochelle jumped in Felicia’s face, but Pam and I pulled her back in time.
“Chill, Rochelle, I will handle this.” I tried to control the situation and keep Rochelle off Felicia’s ass.
Rochelle sighed and mouthed to me, “You better get her.”
As calmly as I could muster, I turned back to face Felicia. “Felicia, do you have an appointment?”
“Hell no,” she barked at me with attitude.
At that point my patience was thin. Clearly this bitch didn’t respect my place of business. But with a tight lip, I gave it another try. “Felicia, this is a business. I’ma need you to fall back and respect my customers. If you can’t do that, then hit the pavement.” I was proud of myself: In the past my hands would have been around her chicken-thick neck. “Besides, Trina is not here yet.” I smirked.
“Look, Mya, I need to get my hair done. Ain’t you got somebody else up here that can do me?” She just would not let up.
“No, Felicia. I don’t have people sitting around waiting for walk-ins. This is an upscale salon, we do heads by appointment only. We have a full clientele. But I would be more than willing to allow Pam to schedule you an appointment.” Again I smirked. I was loving the pissed-off look on her face. Standing beside me, Rochelle had a grin on her face.
I turned to Pam and told her to set her up with the next available appointment spot that Trina had open. With that said, I turned and headed toward the back, but Felicia was not done.
“All you bitches just jealous of me.” Felicia chuckled from deep in her throat. “Mya, fuck you and this raggedy-ass salon. Ugh, wit’ yo wannabe perfect ass, but I know about what you did to Squeeze’s operation.” I felt the color drain from my face. How did she know about that? I guess I didn’t kill Charlene’s big mouth ass fast enough before she got a chance to run it. Her next obscenity snatched my thoughts back. “Bitch!!”
At that point I was done. That bitch had tried it. This was a check her ass was gonna have to cash. Before I could stop or control myself, I turned around and rushed her. My right fist connected with her left eye socket and she screamed out. But that didn’t last long because next I wrapped my hands around her neck. Then I threw her to the floor and punched her over and over until Rochelle, Pam, and two clients pulled me off her.
“You dumb bitch! Come up in my salon startin’ shit. I’ll choke your ass to sleep,” I yelled, meaning every word. I had tried hard to be professional, but no, this bitch just wanted to disrespect me. I was heated.
The girls who were with her, aka her bodyguards, just stood back and watched as Felicia attempted to get up. Rochelle pulled back deep in her throat and hocked spit on her then yelled, “Bitch! And don’t come back. ’Cause next time I’ma beat that ass,” she threatened.
Felicia got up with tears running down her face. “Fuck you back, bitch!” She cried and screamed at the same time. “This ain’t over. I will have the last laugh,” she screamed out before Pam and one of our clients, Tunya, pushed her out the door. That whole incident was crazy. I could not believe Felicia. She had some nerve. She had come looking for trouble and she found it.
Chapter 18
I still could not believe Felicia had come to my salon and showed out the way she did. Two days had gone by and I was still in awe of the nerve of that hoe. Not to mention she tried to bring up the issue with Squeeze. She had known about the robberies all along and I knew exactly where she got the information: Charlene. But I just brushed it off, though. That was in the past and, besides, Squeeze was dead now. And really, what’s a dead drug dealer to do? Fuck Squeeze and her. I just hate that she had to bring it up. Rochelle had not brought it up or asked me anything, but the curious look on her face was enough. She wondered what Felicia was talking about.
I called Hood right after and told him what had happened. Hood’s exact words were “Fuck that bitch. She disrespects, she can get it.” I assured him that the bitch got it. She knew better than to act a fool with me. I guess the last ass whupping Rochelle put on her wasn’t enough. At the same time I didn’t want to cause conflict with Silk and Hood, because niggas sometimes go wacko over their females. Hood happened to be that dude. Not that I cared about the deal they had going on. ’Cause I could care less about that. It’s just that when dudes start beefing instead of fighting, there’s bloodshed. And to be honest, it was not that deep. Felicia just wanted to show her ass to get some attention. But Hood had assured me that everything was cool and for me to keep it moving ’cause, “Silk didn’t want none. He should teach his bitch to behave.” He even said that he was going to let Silk know that he didn’t appreciate Felicia coming to my place of business and acting up.
Today the salon was closed, which meant Rochelle and I had the day off. Tiny was with Mike for the week so Rochelle said she would come by. We both had been so tired from working that we decided to watch a movie instead of going out shopping. Kill Bill was one of our favorites, so that was the choice. After that, we were going to watch Alex Cross with Tyler Perry. Both movies were packed with action. I could not wait. It had been a minute since we had movie day at my crib. I had a home theater built into my house with a huge-ass movie screen with all the trimmings, surround sound and all. We had the movie theater seats installed and a built-in popcorn machine, too. We hardly ever used that, though, I would just throw a bag of popcorn in the microwave.
I got up and made Hood breakfast early in the morning and now lunch was approaching. Rochelle had agreed to stop by Domino’s and pick up a couple of pizzas for the movie. Hood was lying around the house, too; he had
a meeting in a couple of hours, so while he waited he decided to watch The Sopranos. That was one of his favorite television shows. He loved to watch those reruns. He swore that they were going to bring that show back. But I knew better, so I just laughed at him and told him he had a better chance of The Wire coming back on television.
The doorbell rang twice so I knew Rochelle had finally arrived. I was in the kitchen grabbing paper plates for the pizza. We also had snacks like popcorn, Nerds, and oatmeal pies. You name it, we had it. It was going down. Hood answered the door. I could hear him and Rochelle talking, heading toward the kitchen.
“What’s up, chick? ’Bout time you made it. Yo ass ain’t never on time,” I joked.
“Ha, ha, whatever.” Rochelle sat the pizzas down on the table. “Even when I’m late I be on time. And I know you ain’t watchin’ nobody time. Don’t make me bust on you.” Rochelle tried to hoe me. We laughed. Hood just shook his head at both of us.
“How about both of y’all be late,” Hood threw in. Turning to face him at the same time, we gave him the evil eye with the raised eyebrow. That meant his ass had tried it. He quickly caught the hint.
“A’ight, I’m gone. Just let me grab some of the pizza. Rochelle, I know you got some supreme up in here.” That was his favorite and he made sure everyone knew it.
“Dude, I got you. Third box,” Rochelle confirmed as she lifted the lid on the supreme. The steam off the pizza escaped the box. Damn, it looked good.
“What about the pepperoni?” I butted in. Now that was my favorite and Rochelle knew better than to come over without it. She didn’t even answer me. She just raised the lid of the box next to the supreme and gave me a smile.
“Now that’s what’s up.” I grinned, rubbing my hands together symbolizing it’s on. “All right, let’s grab some slices so we can get to the movie. Babe, you already got the screen going, right?” I always had Hood go and start the projector. There were too many buttons, so I hated operating it.
“Yep, it’s ready to go.” After piling pizza on a couple of paper plates, we headed to the theater room. The movie was already rolling through previews. I loved the loud booms that came from the surround sound. It always gave me that rush and got me pumped for the movie even if I had seen it a dozen times. Rochelle and I chose to sit in the back row. Before the movie could even get started good, I was on my second slice of pepperoni. Dang, it was banging.
The movie was banging as well. We were on a scene where Uma Thurman was fighting the chick with the patch on her eye in the trailer. That was one of my favorite parts. Uma was kicking that bitch’s ass off top. But the hoe just kept coming back, sort of like Felicia. Rochelle and I cracked up as Uma reached her hands out and pulled that chick’s other eyeball out of the socket. That shit was disgusting. Rochelle screamed out and shuddered as Uma held the eyeball.
“That is so disgusting, but she a bad bitch.”
“I know, right.” I laughed and popped some popcorn in my mouth.
“But I ain’t gone lie, that look like you beating Felicia’s ass the other day.” Rochelle laughed and I chimed in. Her ass was crazy. I had to admit I went ham, but that’s what I do. Never push me to that limit. I tried to let the bitch walk away several times but she just refused to walk away. In the end her mouth got the best of her and I got in that ass. And leave it up to Rochelle to compare it to Uma Thurman kicking ass on Kill Bill. The more I thought about it, the harder I laughed, and so did Rochelle. Then I noticed that Rochelle stopped laughing and focused on me. I had to get the giggles under control.
“So for real, what was that shit about when Felicia tried to pop off something about Squeeze operation? Ain’t that nigga like missing or some? Like what dealings you ever had wit’ him?” And there it was. The question I knew was coming. The nerves in my stomach started to flutter so I took a huge swig of my Coke. Fuck Felicia and her big-ass mouth.
“Aww, that hoe ain’t talkin’ ’bout nothin’.” I tried to laugh it off. “She just mad ’cause I beat that ass.” I should have slapped myself. That statement was lame, even I knew it, but I had nothing else. I felt awful lying to Rochelle, and the look on her face told me that she was well aware that I was full of shit.
“Mya, how long we been friends? How long I been holding you down as a friend?” Turning her entire body to face me, Rochelle was reading all my expressions. I was trapped, so I decided to lay it on the line.
“Like forever. So long, hell, I don’t even remember.” She had me with that: I couldn’t lie to her. I had to tell her something. I had dreaded this moment since those words had spilled out of Felicia’s mouth. And to be honest, at this point I was trapped.
“If we been friends for so long and we been through thick and thin, why the secrets? You are keeping something from me and I know it. I know you, Mya, and you nervous right now. I blew up your spot.”
“A’ight, there were some things that happened back a little over two years ago. . . .” I paused and took another drink—my throat was hella dry. Rochelle’s eyes were glued to me. And I’m sure she wanted to take my Coke and throw it at the movie screen so that I could get to the point.
“Okay, remember . . .” I paused again. I had to think of the best way to say this.
Rochelle was growing impatient. She shifted her weight in her seat, but still her eyes never left me. She sighed. “Dang, Mya, just spit it out.”
I took a deep breath in and went in. “Back when Squeeze’s crew was getting robbed, I was responsible. I’m the one that robbed Luscious and Phil. That’s how I came up with all that money.” The look on Rochelle’s face was priceless: Her mouth literally hung open with her bottom lip damn near touching her chin. One thing was for certain, I had shocked the hell out of her. Finally her lips touched again.
“Wait, you mean the hundred thousand dollars that you said your dad’s friend had for you was all a lie? You got that gwap from robbing Luscious’s punk ass?”
“Exactly.”
“You mean to tell me you robbed both them punk-ass niggas and they didn’t know you was a female?”
“Nope. I had on a mask and I disguised my voice. They never knew.” I too still had a hard time believing I had pulled that off all by myself.
“How . . . I mean why?” Rochelle still had questions.
“Squeeze’s ass is the one that beat Ma. It was him who did that horrible shit to her. That pushed me over the edge, so I decided to get even with him. The one thing I knew would hurt him was someone taking his money. So I did it. To be honest, it turned out to be easier than I thought it would,” I bragged. While I still hated Squeeze, I was not proud of what I had done. But I damn sure didn’t regret it.
Rochelle seemed to be thinking over everything. I tried to read her expression, but it was hard. By this time she had dropped her head a little so I couldn’t see her eyes anymore. Something told me that as a best friend she felt betrayed. We were supposed to tell each other everything, and for that I was sorry. But I had my reasons. I had to protect her. Sometimes knowing is not such a good thing. Sometimes it’s what you don’t know that keeps you safe from harm.
Rochelle raised her head and looked at me. “So basically you lied to me. Me, your best friend for over twelve years? And for what? You are supposed to be able to share everything with me.”
“Rochelle, you right and that is true. But not this, this you were better off not knowing, so I made that decision.” And that was real. I hope she would one day understand that.
“Mya, you went out and you robbed crew members of what was at that time one of the biggest dope pushers on the street. Do you know how funkin’ dangerous that was? We was still hangin’ as usual and you never once told me. How could you keep something like that from me?”
“Like I said, I had to. It was for the best. I never told a soul, not even Hood knows about this. You are the first.” That was another lie. Hood did know, but not because I told him. Squeeze’s punk ass had ratted me out on the night he kidnapped me. I could t
ell I still was not getting through to her. She felt betrayed.
“You know what? I’m out.” Rochelle bent down and started to put her shoes back on. She was hurt. I had to fix this.
“But that’s not all.”
Rochelle looked up, rolled her eyes at me, and went back to putting on her shoes.
“I killed Phil,” I released.
“You what?” Rochelle all but screamed.
“Shhh, I don’t want Hood to hear.” She got quiet instantly, but her eyes asked the burning question: What happened? But I decided to remain quiet to make her verbally ask me why.
“I had to. He tried to rape me.” Again the look on Rochelle’s face showed shock, but when I said the word rape, tears spilled from her eyes and stung at mine. I tried to fight it, but just thinking back at that whole incident was my soft spot. I still could remember the weight of Phil as I fought him off. I could still remember the sound of his body hitting the floor as I pushed him away. That dead weight was awful. And even though I had killed again since then, each killing carried its own weight. None was the same.
“Phil was my bait to robbing Squeeze. All the information I used to get the upper hand on robbing Squeeze’s crew I got from Phil. Eventually Phil put two and two together and realized it was me who was pulling off the robberies. Long story short, he threatened to tell Squeeze if I didn’t give him some of the money. But I knew his snake ass was just gone keep trying to play me for more money. So I snuck in his crib to talk to him on my terms so that we could work something legit out. That’s when he beat me and tried to rape me. So I shot him.”
Tears had been running down Rochelle’s face, but suddenly a cry escaped. She reached out and hugged me. “Awww, Mya, I am so sorry you went through all that alone. I wish I could have been there for you. But I understand why you didn’t tell me.” I gave a sigh of relief. I was so happy she understood.
