Still Sheisty: Part 2 (Triple Crown Publications Presents) (16 page)

"Good morning, Beautiful." Wild said as he plopped down next to her on the bed. Right off the back he sensed a bit of attitude by the way she twisted up her lips and cut her eyes at him.

"What up, you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay." She lied.

"You don't seem okay, so tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing, I just overheard you making travel plans, and I guess I wasn't ready for it to be over with us." Epiphany said.

"Oh, so it's over between us?" Wild questioned.

"I don't know, you tell me." She answered.

"Nah, as long as you don't want it to be over it ain't." "And what do you want?" Epiphany asked.

"Well first, I wanna know why you won't let me kiss on your tits?"

"Wild, come on be serious!"

"I
am
serious, I wanna know why every time we had sex you did everything to deter me from seeing them." He thought that maybe she had gotten a bad boob job or something of that nature.

Epiphany's eyes started to tear up, he was right, she did stop him from removing her shirt every time they had sex, but it wasn't because of her tatas it was because of the ugly scar she was hiding. She really didn't know how she was gonna to explain it, slowly removing her shirt, she thought of an explanation.

"What happen to you?" he questioned in shock. Epiphany revealed the ugly scar from not only the bullet but the surgery she had done on her lung.

"I was in an abusive relationship and when I tried to leave him, he tried to kill me." Epiphany said.

"Damn ma, I'm sorry to hear that, where's his punk ass at now?"

"I don't know." Epiphany answered.

"What you mean, you don't know? Come on, for some sucker shit like that he should be under the fucking jail."

"I know, but it didn't turn out that way. Believe me, I wish it did because maybe then the nightmares would stop and I wouldn't have to worry about him coming back for me one day.

But you know, with you I feel safe, I haven't even thought about it." Her tears continued to fall. Epiphany over-dramatized her story to gain his sympathy and it worked. Wild seen a lot of crazy shit go down in his hood when it came to a man and his girl, so Epiphany's story wasn't far fetched. He could understand a nigga not wanting to let her go because she was absolutely gorgeous, but what she did for him was more mental then physical. He fucked plenty of pretty girls with good pussy, but with Epiphany he felt a connection that was real and that made him want to hold on to her.

"Listen Epiphany, I'm feeling you like crazy and if you feel like I feel and it ain't about the money, then maybe something serious could pop off. I'll be in LA for a couple of weeks, but when I get back, I'm trying to see what's good, a'ight?" He leaned down and kissed her ugly scar. Epiphany didn't say a word she just looked in his eyes and hoped her tearful emotions would say it all, but in her mind she was screaming
'I got his
ass.'
Just like that old school tune said,
'Use what you got to get
what you want.'
All she could think about was a life filled with the finer things like shopping sprees, VIP status, trips around the world and maybe even a career in acting.

C-God lost himself completely as his addiction started to control his mind, body and soul.
His body started to take on the form of a true fiend as well as his habits. His money was spent, his jewelry sold and the only other thing he possessed that held any value, his Cadillac Escalade, was dogged out by the local street corner dealers, who he let drive it more than him in exchange for crack. Marisa lost her kids to the system due to her neglect and started selling pussy to any nigga that would provide her and C with their next hit. C-God started asking Reggie to wire him money on the regular until Reggie just started ignoring his calls. Tanya had no idea that he was cracked out, so she would send him a couple of dollars whenever she could, until she started to suspect something was up. It got to the point where he would call at all times of the day wanting her to go to a Money Gram. He'd make up all kinds of excuses for why he couldn't see her. Eventually, she washed her hand of him. C-God was smoked out and all he had was his memories of when he was getting paper. He would tell his story to any young hustler, in VA, who was willing to listen to him talk about what he used to have, how one of his own betrayed him, shaming him and his family's name. Nigga's didn't believe or respect him at first, they would clown him and his stories.

"Ahh go head with that shit, nigga you ain't nothing but a crackhead." They would say. It wasn't until he started to drop some valuable knowledge, rules to the game that could be ben- eficial to one's progression, that they really paid attention and respected the shit he was saying. One particular nigga named Alpo, a lightweight in the game, had enough hunger to be a heavyweight and took a liking to C-God. He could tell C knew exactly what he was talking about, concerning this drug shit.

Even though he was a fallen soldier, Alpo still admired the position he once held. During a two year bid in prison, he became real familiar with the reputation of the infamous Hinderson brothers from some stories cats told. C-God also took a liking to Alpo because he reminded him of himself eight years ago at the ripe age of twenty-two. He seen a similar hunger in him and felt, given the right type of guidance, Alpo would not only be official, but he could be what C-God tried to be--unstoppable.

On the way home Shana rehearsed her "I'm leaving you"
speech over and over again.
It was gonna be hard to face K.C.

without trying to claw his fucking eyes out, but at this point it was whatever she thought. Her cell phone started ringing, but no number registered on the screen. She debated for a moment on whether or not she should answer it.

"Hello?" she finally answered.

"Yo Cream, they got me locked up," said Raina.

"What?" Shana had been caught off guard.

"Yo, it's me Raina, they raided Honey's last night. I had your shit on me and got locked the fuck up. I'm at the Queens House so ante up and get me out of here, my bail is five thousand."

"A'ight, I got you." Shana said nonchalantly.
'Damn, what
next?'

"I hope so, because if you have me in here too long, I'ma start talking." Raina hung up before Shana could respond.

When Shana walked in the apartment K.C. was on the phone but her anger towards him was now diverted towards getting that bitch Raina out of jail. She cut her eyes at him as hard as she could to let him know they had beef, while passing him to get to the bedroom.

"Yo Smitty, my chick stay mad at me dawg," K.C. said noticing her attitude. Shana slammed the bedroom door, she despised Smitty's ass, too. Plopping down on the foot of the bed she tossed her car keys to the side and just sat for a moment, thinking about Raina's threat to snitch her out. The more she contem-plated the more she realized that Raina ain't have nothing on her but her stage name. She didn't know her real name and if she did she didn't know her full name, or where she lived or anything about her connect. She was no longer worried.

'If I was a complete bitch I'd let her ass hang'
Shana thought getting up and walking over to the closet for her stash. She could still hear K.C. on the phone with Smitty, but didn't pay their conversation any mind until she heard Epiphany's name being mentioned. Pressing her ear up against the door she eavesdropped on what K.C. was saying.

"Who, Epiphany? Nah, I don't think she got it back, if so don't you think she would of had the police all over Ness's ass for that shit. What? I think so. Come on man; the nigga tried to kill her. Yo, that's your boy. Nah I can't even fuck with him like that no more. Yeah, he be bugging the fuck out and I know that nigga is responsible for what happened to Righteous and his girl.

Yo, you still asking about that bitch? Yo, man let it go. Nah Shana ain't gon' hook that shit up. She can't stand ya ass, besides Shana don't even fuck with her like that no more and what's up with you and my sister? Yeah you right, Trina is a crazy bitch. But yo, what's up with that money? Nah, I got mine ready nigga. I'm waiting on yours."

From the sound of it, Shana assumed Ness was the one responsible for Epiphany's brush with death.
'That dude Ness
rubbed me the wrong way just by looking at him. Damn he
probably did Mali too and what the fuck is up with Smitty wanting to get with Epiphany? That ain't happening, he's not even in
her league. when I met him the first time, he claimed he already
fucked her and couldn't stand her, so what's really good? Today
is defiantly just one of those days.'
Shana directed her attention back to her stash in the closest. Pulling down the timberland shoe box she notice it felt extremely light. Shana opened the box and instantly she noticed the dent in her savings. What use to be 42g's was now only two-thousand dollars. Shana threw the shoe box on the floor, dug in the back of the closet and pulled out one of those metal baseball bats and stormed out into the living room.

"Where that fuck is my money at, huh?" she screamed.

"Whoa, whoa, yo nigga I'm a hit you back." K.C. quickly hung up the phone "Yo Sha, chill the fuck out!" He yelled making a move to grab the bat. Shana stepped back and swung with all her strength, '
whack
,' hitting his arm.

"Don't fuck with me K.C. Where the fuck is my money you dirty dick nigga?"

"OUCH! Yo what the hell is wrong with you, Sha? Shana positioned herself to slug his ass again. "Yo, chill, don't hit me no more!" He ordered as if he was in any position to make demands.

"K.C. I swear on everything I love, if you don't give me my money right now I'm gonna take this fucking bat and try to kill you with it."

"Sha, listen I just need a couple of weeks. Let me make this move with Smitty and, I promise you, I'll give you back double.

Come on Ma, put the bat down. Just grind with me please, so I can get this paper, a'ight? Come on Sha, you know I got you.

Clyde can't shine without Bonnie." Shana did the math, double meant eighty grand. She weighed out her options
'Raina's bail or a forty-thousand dollar profit' Fuck Raina
she thought lowering the bat.

"See, that's why I love you girl." K.C. let out a hard sigh of relief. Shana turned up her lips and gave him a
'Whatever nigga'

look.

"Well if you love me like that then go get your dirty dick cured and stop fucking them nasty ass hoes." She walked back in the bedroom, slamming and locking the door behind her.

Shana laid on the bed trying hard to understand how and why she loved K.C. grimey ass so much.

Epiphany's mother was glad that she was home and still in one
piece considering that she hadn't heard from her in days.

Really, she wanted to talk to Epiphany about Keisha's recent behavior, thinking maybe she could talk some sense into her friend. Lord knows she tried, Keisha was like a daughter to her and she couldn't sit back and watch her live recklessly.

"Epee, I need to talk to you," Mrs. Wright was obviously worried.

"Ma, before you start, I'm sorry I didn't call, but I was fine." Epiphany answered defensively.

"I can see that now, but you know what, I'm not gonna go there with you. I wanna talk about Keisha."

"What about Keisha, is she here?"

"Shhh, she's downstairs."

"Okay well, what happened?"

"Epee, I'm worried about her, she been running out of here with a different guy every night for the past four days, and you know that ain't like her."

"Ma, she's just trying to get her mind off of Tucker that's all.

It's not that big of a deal." Epiphany tried to justify Keisha's behavior.

"Well, I tried talking to her and I'm telling you, she's not herself. She hasn't even mentioned her son."

"Ma, I'm sure she's fine, but if you want I'll talk to her. Don't worry about lil' Tucker's. He's with her mom in Atlanta. I'm going downstairs now." Epiphany whined.

"I'll tell you this, you girls need to except Christ in you life and stop running around here taking things for granted. Your father's trying to."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where's daddy at anyway?" Epiphany asked heading down the basement steps.

"He went to see his brother. Your Uncle Ramel got arrested?

Um hum, the Feds finally caught up with him."

"Wow that's too bad." Epiphany said sarcastically.

"What's up E? It's about time you came home girl" Keisha excitedly sat up on her futon bed anticipating the 411 on Epiphany's new friend.

"Hey, I know. Believe me it wasn't by choice and it ain't for long. Wild's gonna take me up out of the hood." Epiphany said with a smiled.

"Are you serious? So what happened? He must have a lot of money 'cause I ain't seen you smile like that since your father bought you that beamer."

"Keish, he has everything I want in a man; a lot of money, a huge house, good dick, no kids and he's not cheap at all. He bought me this Marc Jacobs bag for $725. This fucking bag is a month's rent and I'm walking around with it on my arm. I ain't never had a purse that cost more then five hundred dollars. So girl, you know I made it my business to put it on his ass, right? 'Cause shit, a bitch is trying to get a one way ticket out of Southside, okaaay!"

"That's good, I'm so happy for you." Keisha was a little envi-ous. She once had everything she wanted in a man, too, and she missed the feeling.

"Anyway enough about me, how was your date with that guy?" Epiphany asked.

"Which one?" Keisha answered.

"Well damn Keish, go on brush your shoulders off. I'm scared of you," laughed Epiphany.

"Don't be, because my pimp game sucks." Keisha sighed.

"Well, what happen to the computer fix-it-guy?"

"Oh my gosh, E, his apartment was a dump, his ding-a-ling was the size of my son's and now he has the audacity to avoid my calls."

"The dick was trash and your still calling him, why?"

"I don't know."

"Well, did he at least take you out and spend some money?"