Karma's a Bitch (21 page)

“Nooooo!!!!” Jenny let out two piercing screams when she heard what Tony said. “Noooooo!!!!”

Tony was a little taken aback by her screams, but didn’t relent in his verbal assault. “And then on top of that, you crazier than a muthafucka. I don’t want your ass! Man, I’m gettin’ the fuck up out of here before you start trippin’ for real.”

As Tony started to pull on the jacket he had gotten out of his old closet at Jenny’s house, Jenny came over and latched onto him like a leech. Her white veil flailed in the air as she struggled with Tony.

“No baby, don’t go. Don’t go. Baby you can’t leave me again. I need you here with me. I’ll give you anything, I’ll buy you anything, just don’t leave me alone in here again. Please!” Jenny pleaded. “Baby I got you a present. I bought you a ring, it’s two whole carats!”

“Bitch get off me!” Tony said trying to shake her off. All he knew was that he needed to get out of there, fast!

“Tony you promised me. You said we would be together for ever. You promised!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. Tony finally pried her loose from his arm. He reached back and slapped Jenny hard right across her lips. She held her face in astonishment as Tony picked back up his jacket and headed towards the door.

Tony was trying to get the top lock undone when he felt a blow to his head. The last thing he saw was the door fading to black right before he passed out.

* * *

When Tony slowly came back to consciousness he was laying on the floor close to the couch. Jenny had dragged him there after she hit him over the head with a large crystal candy dish.

He heard a lot of commotion coming from the downstairs basement. Remembering his whereabouts, he pulled himself up off of the floor with all of the strength in his body and made his way over to the basement door. He held his ribs, which were hurting so badly that he actually wanted to go back to the hospital now. He could hear the sounds of Jenny cursing and throwing stuff around down there.

“Fucking
asshole
! If he thinks he’s leaving me again he’s the one that lost his mind!” she alternated between screaming and mumbling. It sounded as if she were looking for something down there.

“Damn, what the fuck is she doing?” Tony said quietly to himself. Instead of sticking around to find out, Tony closed the basement door slowly and locked the door. “That’ll teach that crazy bitch. She ain’t never gettin’ out, with her dumb lonely ass.”

Tony grabbed Jenny’s cellphone out of her purse and hurried up out the front door. He ran down the block and turned the corner, even though he had no idea where he was going. The one trusty number he remembered was Quanisha’s, and he didn’t hesitate to dial her number. He rubbed the back of his neck where a stress bump was forming as the phone rang and rang. He prayed that Quanisha would pick up.

Quanisha groggily reached for her phone. She could barely say hello before she heard Tony’s deep voice bellowing through the phone.

“Nish! Baby, I need you to come get me,” Tony said, sounding as if he was troubled.

“Tony, nigga where you been?” Quanisha said, struggling to wake herself up.

“I’m down in Darby you need to come scoop me baby. I’m in trouble.”

Quanisha rubbed her eyes and sat up in bed. “What kind of trouble?”

“What the fuck do it matter—” Tony caught himself before he got disrespectful with Quanisha. She was the only person that was going to get him out of this mess.

“Tony do you know that your mama and everybody been lookin’ for you? Where the hell you been at?”

“Nish, seriously, you gotta come get me right now. I’ll tell you everything later,” Tony promised. He already knew there was no way he was going to tell Quanisha about staying with Jenny. He would just tell her he got into a fight with Terrance, and that he had gotten left in Darby. Little did he know that she already knew everything.

“Aiight, well give me the address then,” Quanisha finally replied as she threw the covers back and jumped out of bed. She didn’t even care about the nurse, the so-called engagement or where he had been any more. She could put all that behind her. As much as she was pissed at him, and tired of his antics, she needed Tony. She didn’t have anybody else. All she cared about was that he was calling her now. All that mattered was that he was coming home.

Chapter 15

“Nigga pass the blunt, quit chokin’ up all the smoke,” Tony commanded Scoop from the passenger’s seat of Scoop’s truck.

“Nigga you in my car, puffin’ my weed. I’ll smoke on this shit long as I want,” Scoop answered before taking another long draw of smoke into his lips. He held it for too long and started coughing hysterically.

“Man gimme that, talkin’ all that shit,” Tony said as he snatched the roach away from Scoop.

It had been over a week since Tony had finally realized what was going on with Jenny. She had been lying to everybody. He had finally talked to his grandmother, and she told him all about the fact that Jenny had lied to her about his whereabouts, and that she had been out of the hospital for several days before him. His grandmother explained that some idiots had been pranking her at the house, and she didn’t even bother to answer the phone half the time, which is why she probably didn’t pick up the couple of times Tony had tried to call from the hospital.

Tony’s grandmother said again and again how she knew there was ‘something wrong with that girl.’ Tony couldn’t believe that he had been messing with a real life psycho. He still couldn’t believe she actually thought he wanted to marry her. Jenny even showed up at his grandmother’s house the day after Tony left her, asking where Tony was. Tony didn’t care; he was trying to set up his situation with Quanisha again and didn’t want to hear anything else about Jenny. To his great pleasure, Quanisha wasn’t asking anymore questions about Jenny, and he wasn’t offering any answers.

“Don’t you know Quita talkin’ bout she need a new ride now?” Scoop started complaining. “She said the car be actin’ up. Now she need a new one. Ain’t that a bitch?”

“That’s a brand new whip dawg. I don’t know why you keep puttin’ up with that crazy bitch and her bullshit.”

“Yo, don’t be talkin’ bout my lady like that bruh, you crossin’ the line,” Scoop warned.

“Didn’t you tell me that bitch pulled a gun on you?” Tony turned and asked his friend.

“That don’t matter nigga, I told you we put that to rest.”

“Whatever. I wish Nish would pull a gun on my ass,” Tony laughed.

“You watch, the way ya’ll shit go, you just might get what you wish for,” Scoop replied.

“Yea, whatever nigga. Bitch ass nigga. That’s why you broke as shit now, takin’ care of that dumb ass girl. She evil as shit.”

“You broker than me nigga, I know you ain’t one to talk. And your girl the one up at the hospital rammin’ on nurses. Check your own girl before you run your fat mouth about mines,” Scoop responded in a voice that told Tony he was stepping over the line, and that he was not to go any further with this conversation.

They sat in silence for a while as they both accepted the fact that they both were seriously hurting for money. Ever since they had gotten robbed, neither one of them seemed to be able to get back on track. Tony was so happy when he found out that Scoop had kept his car parked at Shaquita’s house the whole time he was at the hospital. It was one thing to be broke, but a much worse thing to be whip-less
and
broke.

“Yo, Lil Joe was tellin’ me bout this dude down Germantown that be dealin’ wit that plastic,” Tony said out of the blue as he took the last puff from the roach and put it out in the ashtray.

“What? You mean credit cards?” Scoop said frowning when he saw that Tony had finished off his blunt.
This nigga don’t got no manners whatsoever
, he thought.

“Yea.” Tony exhaled and took his time to think before continuing. “He said he get them mostly off the connects he got in the restaurants and bars. You know how people get fucked up and be leavin’ they shit by accident and don’t realize it. Shit like that. Well, he said he can get at least three of them jawns a night.”

“Word? Well, how that work? Don’t they be reporting them in stolen or somethin’?” Scoop inquired as he put his hand on his chin and rubbed it in deep thought.

“Nawww, not until the next day usually. That’s why you gotta get on them things early that night. Go to Best Buy or one of them other high priced stores and buy as much shit as you can fit in your cart,” Tony explained as he gestured with his hands.

“Man. So how we get on that?” Scoop said without much hesitation. His dealings with Rock had been going sour lately, and they weren’t making much cash. Rock was getting more and more vocal about not getting the right cut, and it was becoming a strain on the business relationship. On top of that, their main supplier had gotten locked up in a raid a few weeks before. His job paid pretty well, but not enough to pay the large bills that Shaquita racked up, on top of his own.

“We gotta give him like, $20 a card? I think… I gotta ask Lil Joe again. But you serious about that dawg?” Tony turned and nodded once at Scoop.

“Hell fucking yea I’m down wit that. What’s the worse that could happen?”

“Yea, I know. But yo, on another note. I heard that nigga Rock been talkin’ mad greasy down on the block on your ass. You better handle your business nigga,” Tony said trying to incite his friend.

“Mannn, fuck that nigga. I ain’t worried ‘bout his retarded ass. He petty as shit talkin’ bout that little change,” Scoop said as he started up his car.

“That’s what you get for fuckin’ with a nigga that smoke up the supply. You knew his ass was half crackhead.”

“Yea, well you live and learn. Yo let’s get outta here.” The truth was, Scoop was terrified about what kind of things Rock was spreading around the hood. They actually snorted coke together on a couple of occasions, and there were things Rock knew about Scoop that he never wanted getting out.

* * *

“How much you said?... 40? Man, what the fuck, you told me 20 the other day!” Tony yelled into Jenny’s phone. Gullible Jenny had left the phone on for him just so that she could blow it up all day long, trying to get in touch with him. She just wouldn’t give up.

“Well never mind then, you trynna rob me nigga… Naw, cause you know you just trynna get your cut off the top…I ain’t trynna hear all that man we already discussed this…Aiight well call me back then,” Tony said, clicking off the phone finally. He had to keep close tabs on the phone since his voicemail box was full. He left it full just so that Jenny couldn’t leave anymore messages.

“Man, that nigga trippin’,” Tony said to Scoop as they walked down South Street on a lazy Saturday afternoon. They were reaching out to the connection for the credit card scheme they were trying to get into. “He talkin’ bout $40 per card. Man, get the fuck outta here. That ain’t worth it.”

“Well, you can’t get ‘im down?” Scoop asked as his eyes became glued to the body of a girl passing by.

“That’s jail bait nigga,” Tony warned Scoop when he followed his trail of vision. “I don’t know, he said he was gonna call me back. You know all I got is $10 right now. My mom’s check don’t come for two weeks.”

“Yea, and I don’t have much cash on me either. And I’m tryin’ to eat in a little while.”

“Man. I wanted to get this shit started
tonight.
This a big bar night. There’s probably mad drunk white folks leaving their cards at the bar by accident,” Tony complained.

“Oh, I don’t know if I can do that tonight. I got an appointment. I gotta let you know.”

“Aww man! What kind of appointment?” Tony said turning to look at Scoop with disgust.