"You seen Quadir and Rik?"
"Yeah, they"re downstairs all the way in the back at a table. Gena, do Qua know you"re dressed like that?"
"Like what?" she said, looking down at herself.
"You"re gonna hurt something, baby. You"re definitely out to hurt something up in this motherf.u.c.ker, and I got to get away from you, "cause it"s not gonna be me."
"Quinny Day, shut up!" she told him as she moved toward the stairs to go find Qua.
Everybody was in the house. Amin was sitting in a corner with a couple of bottles of champagne on his table, surrounded by at least five girls.
"d.a.m.n," said Lita, "You see how he"s playing?"
"I see how Quadir"s playing," said Gena, noting that Qua was talking to some girl. "Who"s that?" she asked Lita.
"I don"t know, but whoever it is, don"t you start nothing in here tonight, you hear?"
Qua looked up, sensing Gena, and noticed that she didn"t look too happy.
"Rik," he said nudging his friend. Rik spotted the girls and he turned to Black and started talking. Qua was getting frustrated with Cherelle. It was the same old thing.
"I"m your baby"s mother and you don"t do s.h.i.t for me or your baby. I need some money."
"Look, I"ll call you," Quadir said, walking away from her and heading for Gena.
"Who"s that?" she asked, looking at Cherelle standing behind Quadir. Quadir had no idea the girl was right behind him. Where is Tyrik? Why doesn"t someone usher her away? Why does Gena look like that?" thought Quadir feeling extremely uncomfortable as Gena stared at him and Cherelle.
"Gena, this is Cherelle. Cherelle, this is my wife."
"I"m his daughter"s mother," said Cherelle, correcting Quadir.
"Oh, s.h.i.t," said Lita. "Rik, go break it up before something gets started."
"b.i.t.c.h, everywhere I am, you want to be. I know who you are. Quadir told me all about you."
"Whatever," said Cherelle, throwing her hand like Gena didn"t know what she was talking about.
"So, what you want? He don"t got nothing for you. How many times the motherf.u.c.ker told you to stop calling our house?" Then Gena punched Cherelle in the face, grabbing her hair with her left and throwing nothing but rights. By the time Quadir and Rik stepped in, Gena had handled her business. Even after they had separated the s.h.i.t and the music had stopped, you could still hear Gena, "b.i.t.c.h, please. You one of them motherf.u.c.kers that need their a.s.s whooped every day. f.u.c.k with Quadir if you want to, b.i.t.c.h, and see what the f.u.c.k happens." All said in one breath ready to throw down again over the bulls.h.i.t.
As the music returned and Cherelle was escorted away as usual, Quadir went to explain. The problem was that Gena didn"t care. She would beat up Cherelle every day if she had to. Quadir knew he should have told her. Not only did he not tell her; he lied about the girl and the baby.
Quadir led her to the table and fixed her hair, poured her some champagne while attempting to explain. "I send the paper to her through Rasun. Don"t think I deal with her, Gena. I can"t stand the girl," he said shaking his head trying to figure out why Gena had to bring her Richard Allen bulls.h.i.t to Black"s party. He knew that s.h.i.t was gonna happen sooner or later, though, and he was so glad Gena beat her up, he didn"t know what to do. Cherelle made him sick, always taxing him. And wouldn"t even let him see the little baby half the time.
"Quadir, I don"t care. I can handle the truth. I can"t handle lies. You put me on the spot. I should be able to handle a situation because you hipped me to it, not because I heard the s.h.i.t through the grapevine. Ask you, and don"t know what to believe. I can"t believe you left me in the dark like that. I"m really mad at you. You should have gotten me a Rolls Royce for this s.h.i.t. It would"ve gotten you out of the dog house a lot sooner than a CE."
"Gena," said Bridgette, walking over to the scene, "I"m so glad you didn"t tear this motherf.u.c.ker up."
"I don"t know what ya"ll gonna do with her simple a.s.s," said Rik shaking his head.
"Put the b.i.t.c.h in the river," said Black.
"I tried to tell him," said Rik.
"Well, I"ll be at Saks tomorrow getting over all this," Gena said, kissing him so that everybody would see that they were happy and nothing had changed.
Black wanted Rik and Quadir to come with him to the bar. It was too many girls crowding Lita and Gena. The guys understood. Everyone would be talking about that a.s.s whoopin" for days to come.
Before he got up to go with his friends, Gena leaned over and whispered in Quadir"s ear, "Is there anything else I should know about?" she asked calmly.
There"s so much stuff you should know about, I wouldn"t know where to begin, he thought to himself.
"No, and if there was, I would tell you," he said, ever so sincere. He got up to leave and Gena watched him as he walked across the floor.
"d.a.m.n, I love that motherf.u.c.ker."
"We know, there"s no doubt." Lita"s sarcastic charm couldn"t let that pa.s.s by.
"Well, I know everybody thought the house was coming down," said Bridgette.
"s.h.i.t, Gena did tear it down," Lita chimed in. "I"m glad Gena beat that b.i.t.c.h up, "cause if she hadn"t, it would have been a whole different story."
"Yeah. She dealt with the situation rather well, didn"t she?" said Bridgette.
"Better than me, "cause I would have killed the b.i.t.c.h," said Lita looking at Bridgette as if to say, Now try your luck with Rik. Gena left the table and followed Quadir.
Qua poured her a gla.s.s of Dom and walked her to a table, with Rik and Black opposite them ordering another bottle of champagne.
"It"s crowded in here, Qua."
"I know. Too crowded for me."
"So, that is Cherelle," she said.
"Yeah, that"s her."
"Well, she"s better-looking than I thought."
"She don"t look good to me, and I don"t want to talk about her no more."
She wanted to have a good time and decided that, as the saying goes, there"s no need crying over spilled milk. She kissed her man gently on the lips and went back to the table with Lita and Tracey.
A hush rustled through the club a minute or so later when Pam came in. Her entrance was definitely remarkable. Pam was sharp. She knew exactly what to do with Black"s money. She wore it well. "Where"s Bridgette, "cause she could get her a.s.s kicked next up in this motherf.u.c.ker," whispered Lita, nodding Pam"s way so Gena could see what she was talking about. "Mmm, hmm. That"s another one that"s gonna end up getting hurt for f.u.c.king with somebody"s man. s.h.i.t, Bridgette gots to be crazy. Ain"t no d.i.c.k worth having to deal with Pam. I don"t know how Black even find b.i.t.c.hes crazy enough to f.u.c.k with him, "cause Pam don"t be bulls.h.i.tting."
"Oh yeah, Pam rolls on motherf.u.c.kers about her man," agreed Gena.
"s.h.i.t, the motherf.u.c.kers been together since eighth grade."
"Where"s Tracey?" Gena asked.
"She"s over there talking to Muhammad," pointed Lita.
"Oh," said Gena. "Maybe I found her a friend."
"She looks like she needs one," said Lita, glad she didn"t seem to have to worry about her f.u.c.king with Rik.
The guys had come back to the table with bottles of champagne. Black pulled out a spliff and started smoking it. Pam looked at him. "Black," she said, "you"re not supposed to do that."
"Who paid here, Pam? Huh? Who?"
"You did, Black."
"Okay then," he said, pa.s.sing it to Qua.
"Sit your Happy Birthday a.s.s down, n.i.g.g.a," said Rik. "Didn"t n.o.body ask you who paid."
Everybody was having a good time when Blair walked over to the table. He greeted everyone and gave his best wishes to Black.
"This is my wife, Blair. This is Gena."
"Oh! It"s nice to meet you. Do you like your car?"
"I love my car. How do you know about my car?"
"He sold it to me," Qua told her.
"I suggested that he get that particular car. Do you like it?"
"Definitely," she cooed. "It"s so blue."
"I know, I like that color." He didn"t get it, but it didn"t matter. Just then Andrea walked up to the table, as if she belonged.
"Girl, what are you wearing?" asked Gena.
"Looks like nothing to me," whispered Qua.
"n.i.g.g.a, you better stop looking," said Gena with an evil glow.
"Do you like?" asked Andrea.
"Do you?" Gena hissed, nudging Lita under the table. Gena wanted Andrea and her see-through dress away from her man, far the f.u.c.k away. You could see, but you couldn"t see. It was one of those dresses that would make you stare until you did see something. "Thank G.o.d it"s dim in here," said Andrea.
"How could a person come out lookin" like that?" said Lita, challenging the girl.
Oh, s.h.i.t, Gena thought. Here goes Lita. Qua was looking, everybody was looking, and Andrea just played it off all the while, deeply knowing that they were all jealous of her. She was body, and those b.i.t.c.hes, especially Lita, were just jealous. Of course, Rik"s s...o...b..ring on himself didn"t help.
Kim, from out of nowhere, walked up to the table. "Andrea," she said, hugging her.
"Oh, no. They got to go away from here," said Lita with her eyes on Rik the whole time.
"So, Gena, what"s up? How you been?" said Kim.
"Oh, I"m fine," she said, expressing just how fine she was with her left hand.
"I heard about you, Quadir. You naughty, naughty boy," she said, hitting his hand as if that was just punishment.
"I"m glad. I"m glad you know now, Gena."
This b.i.t.c.h is crazy, thought Lita, looking at Gena, silently asking her if she wanted to roll on "em. To ease the tension Rik was feeling from these unwelcomed travelers of the night, he decided to add relevance. "Does anyone have the time?"
Everyone especially looked at him as if he were crazy. "Oh, I have a Rolex. I forgot."
"d.a.m.n Black, where"s the food at?" asked Kim.
"It"s over there," said Black, glad they"d gone over there before something was said and Pam came out her s.h.i.t.
"That"s Forty, right?" whispered Tracey, star bound.
"Yeah, that"s Forty in the blue," said Lita. Pausing, she added, "I heard he got Richard Allen locked."
"I heard he got a nice shot," whispered Gena as she sipped her champagne.
"Mmm, hmm, I heard that s.h.i.t too," said Lita looking at him, wondering if his d.i.c.k was as big as everyone made it out to be.
"I heard Forty eats the s.h.i.t out of some p.u.s.s.y, too," whispered Gena, knowing the rumors had to be true.
"Would you f.u.c.k him?" asked Lita as the girls looked Forty up and down.
"No," snickered Gena as Quadir wrapped his arm around her.
I would, thought Tracey to herself.
Oh, s.h.i.t. There goes Jamal, Gena noted to herself. It had been such a long time since she had last seen him. Sahirah"s funeral. That was the last time, as a matter of fact, with b.i.t.c.h-a.s.s Kim on his hip. Gena just turned away and pretended she hadn"t even noticed him. She didn"t fool Qua, though. He saw everything.
Just then, Brother Ramier came by with greetings. "As-Salaamu Alaik.u.m," said Brother Ramier.
"Alaik.u.m As-Salaam," said Quadir, as the brother greeted Rik and Black. "How you doing, Bridgette?"
"Hi, how you doing, Ramier?"
Gena could tell something was up; Bridgette had too many skeletons in her closet for there not to be something going on. Rich Green, Charlie, Kevin, Coleone, Winston, Amar, Rock, Black, all the big boys, their brothers and cousins, the list went on and on.
Rasun and Reds came downstairs.
"Black, where did you get the girl in the see-through dress to do your party?" asked Rasun.
"I want her at my party," said Reds.
"I didn"t get no naked lady," said Black, as if the young boys were bugging.