Karma's a Bitch (23 page)

“Damn, I blew it!” he finally admitted to himself. “Five g’s…”

“Man, why did you have to get cocky? We woulda sold that shit in a day. Now they gonna be watchin’ for us… Fuck it, I ain’t doin’ that shit again. I ain’t goin’ to jail for your ass,” Scoop said more to himself than to Tony. “And who’s to say they ain’t got cameras in the parking lot that saw my truck?”

Tony put his head back on the head rest and rolled the window back up. He had nothing to say. He had cameras, DVD players, Playstations and XBOXs, computer equipment, and all kinds of pricey electronic components in his cart, and he gave it all away for a Swiffer. Scoop was right – he had gotten greedy, and cocky. He had never felt so stupid in his life. All that trouble, and he and Scoop were still negative $20. They were worse off than they started. Tony knew that Scoop was telling the truth – Scoop would never try the credit card thing again after this. Scoop or not, Tony was going to have to find a way to get some money, and fast.

Chapter 16

Quanisha and her cousin Pamela walked down the stairs of the Gallery Mall, heading for the food court. They had been shopping all day long on Quanisha’s day off. Pamela didn’t work a steady job, she was doing welfare to work and this was the time in her cycle when she was receiving welfare instead of working.

Pamela had three kids going on four and now lived in the new projects they had built in North Philly. She had been born in Philly originally, but moved to Camden, New Jersey when she had gotten married. The marriage lasted for two and half years. Pamela and her husband James had both been cheating on each other, even before they were married. No one understood why Pamela and James wanted to tie the knot in the first place since neither one of them knew the meaning of monogamy. But no one tried to stop them, not even her mother. After two years in the marriage, James came home early and found Pamela asleep in bed with another man. From that point on James had become very violent with Pamela, despite his own infidelities. Pamela couldn’t take the beatings anymore, and moved out with all of her kids in tow, right back to Philly.

“What you eatin’?” Quanisha asked her cousin as they approached the food court.

“I don’t know, whatever you eatin’. You know I’m broke,” Pamela said as she plopped down at one of the tables.

“What you mean you broke? You just dropped $100 for that ‘fit,” Quanisha said as she pointed at Pamela’s bag.

“That was my last. Come on girl you gotta spot me. Just get me a pizza or somethin’.”

“Bitch, you knew we was gonna eat before we left. You shoulda saved some money,” Quanisha said as she walked off over to the chinese food area.

Pamela smiled as if she had gotten over. “Good, I wanted some Chinese food. I hope she gets me a Kung Pao Chicken.”

When Quanisha came back, Pamela was disappointed to see that she was only carrying one plate on her tray.

“Where’s mine?” Pamela said.

“I don’t know, where is it?” Quanisha said as she sat down and started wolfing down her food. She hadn’t eaten since 10am that morning. All Pamela could do was sit there with her famous boo boo face on. Quanisha wouldn’t even let her touch a piece of chicken off her plate. The smell of the General Tso’s Chicken with broccoli platter wafted over to Pamela’s nose, making her stomach growl. But Quanisha didn’t care. She was tired of Pamela always trying to mooch off of people.

When they left the mall, Quanisha’s thoughts instantly drifted to what Tony was doing. It was Thursday and she hadn’t seen him since Wednesday morning. He had told her that he was staying at his grandmother’s house for a few days, to make sure she was okay. Quanisha was already feeling as if Tony was settling right back into his old ways. He had called her that past Saturday to tell her that he had a big surprise for her, but then she didn’t hear from him for two straight days. Her instincts told her that he was still messing around with other girls behind her back. She knew he was definitely still lying to her after Tony told her that he had
supposedly
gotten into a fight with Terrance and Terrance
supposedly
had left him in Darby. That didn’t even sound like Terrance to her. She knew that Tony was probably in Darby because he had been staying with the nurse girl and she kicked him out. But she wasn’t bringing that up so that she could keep the peace.

Quanisha was actively ignoring Pamela’s silent treatment as they rode in the El train to Quanisha’s car which was parked in West Philly. She knew Pamela had an attitude about dinner, but didn’t care. Quanisha’s phone started ringing right before they arrived at their stop. It was Trina.

“Hey girl, what you gettin’ into tonight?” Trina asked.

“Nothing girl, it’s Wednesday,” Quanisha said as she walked down the stairs at 63
^rd
Street Station towards her car. Pamela dragged along behind her, thinking that her attitude was actually affecting Quanisha.

“Wednesday nights are hot at Chrome Nish, you know that.”

“Oh yea. What, you wanted to do that?” Quanisha said as she turned down the street and saw her car sitting there. She almost forgot that Pamela was with her.

“Yea, I’ll meet you down there, at like 11 aiight?” Trina said.

“Aiight, see you down there,” Quanisha confirmed and then hung up the phone.

Quanisha got into her car, followed by her cousin, who still had an attitude. But now Pamela wanted to know where Quanisha was going.

“What you just gonna go somewhere and not invite my ass?” she finally said as Quanisha pulled up in front of her building.

“You just said you was broke. I ain’t giving you no money to be at the club,” Quanisha said, rolling her eyes.

“Why you gotta be like that? You know I’m struggling right now. You supposed to help your family out,” Pamela said as she got out of the car. “What was you just gonna drop me home while you go have fun? That’s fucked up.”

“Girl you know you need to stop. Your ass ain’t struggling after you bought all that shit at the mall—”

“Don’t be worryin’ about what I buy with my own money,” Pamela protested.

“—and you know you need to go home and take care of all them kids. You wrong for wanting to party when they got to get up for school tomorrow,” Quanisha finished.

“Oh, see, now you trippin’. Don’t you tell me about my kids and what they gotta do. That ain’t none of your business. They with they aunt.”

“They need to be with their mother, and I’m sure they asses are hungry, but you just gotta have a damn outfit so you can profile in front of those other welfare bitches that don’t got shit.” The words flew out of Quanisha’s mouth so fast that she couldn’t catch herself. Right after she said it, she knew she was wrong.

“You dry barren bitch. Who are you tellin’ somebody about they kids? Once you pop one out of that dried up pussy of yours you can talk to me about my kids,” Pamela hissed back as she walked into the lobby of Quanisha’s building.

Quanisha whipped around with her fist clenched and caught Pamela dead in the nose. Pamela stumbled back and couldn’t stop herself from falling on her behind.

“Now take your broke ass home then, since you wanna talk all that shit,” Quanisha growled at her cousin and tried to hold back her tears. “I don’t care if your triflin’ ass walks to North Philly!”

Quanisha left Pamela sitting there in shock as she hustled up the stairs to her apartment and slammed the door.

It was an hour later when Quanisha sat on her bed, still listening to her cellphone ring. This was the fifth time it had rung in the hour. She had been bawling her eyes out after Pamela’s insensitive comment. How could she be so cruel? Bringing up something that Quanisha had told her in strict confidence was the lowest blow to Quanisha’s spirit. Not even Quanisha’s mother knew that she couldn’t have children.

Now that she had hit Pamela, Quanisha was sure that Pamela was going to go tell her mother all about the abortions. She didn’t need this additional stress in her life. Her boyfriend was cheating on her, she had gotten smutted out on the first date by some stranger, her boss had put her on a final warning at her job for her attitude, and now Quanisha was going to have to deal with her evil mother hanging the fact that she couldn’t have children over her head. It was way too much to bear.

Quanisha finally snatched her cellphone off of the nightstand.

“What!” she screamed.

“Uh, hello! Who the hell you screaming at?” Trina asked.

Quanisha wiped a tear from her face and took a deep breath. “Nothin’, my fault girl.”

“You aiight?”

“Yea, I’m fine!” Quanisha said, about to get an attitude again. “What’s wrong, didn’t you say 11?”

“Yea but—”

“You know what? Listen Trina, I don’t think I’m gonna be coming out tonight. I got work in the morning.”

“Oh girl, don’t start with that shit. You don’t work ‘til the middle of the day.”

“I know, I just wanna get my rest,” Quanisha insisted.

“Bitch please, you coming out with me tonight. I called you cuz they got $1 night from 8-11 tonight at Tre’s Bar out West. We can get popped for like 10 dollars!” Trina laughed.

Quanisha thought about how fun drowning her problems in cheap alcohol would be. But she really didn’t feel like being around Trina, who would be getting all the attention all night. She was sure to be dressed in some kind of ho gear and turning every head in the bar. Then again, Tre’s was only down the street and around the corner from her house, so she could leave whenever she wanted.

“Yea, yea. Aiight Trina, I’ll meet you down there at 9 o’clock,” Quanisha affirmed and then hung up the phone. She was surprised when she learned that it had been Trina calling her all those times; Pamela hadn’t even called her once.

* * *

“Girl look at all these niggas up in here,” Trina leaned over and whispered to Quanisha momentarily.

Quanisha didn’t have an answer. She just walked over to the bar and started ordering shots of Tequila with training wheels. She could already see several men eyeing them, and was getting prepared for all of them to pass her up for Trina.

“Yo ma, I got that,” a rough looking bearded brown skinned brother sitting right next to her at the bar said.

“Oh. Thanks.” Quanisha was unimpressed. It was only $2.
If he thinks he’s getting some ass for some dollar drinks he is severely mistaken
, she thought.

“Where you live at?” he asked.

“South Philly,” she answered quickly, lying.

“South? What you doin’ all the way up here?”

“I’m just minding my own business, tryin’ to get some drinks in,” she said snidely as she took her first shot.

“Whoa, take it easy baby,” the guy said and chuckled to himself.

“Whatever,” Quanisha said as she grabbed her other shot and moved herself to another part of the bar.

To Quanisha’s surprise, she was getting a lot of attention that night. All she had on was a white t-shirt tied to the back and a pair of tight jeans. She didn’t even make the effort to go all out that night with her outfit. Trina, in her low cut tight fitting v-necked shirt and cut off cargo shorts was getting guys as usual, but even she was looking over at what Quanisha was doing more often than Quanisha was checking up on her.

After the bar, they left and decided to hit up Chrome as they originally planned. Quanisha was drunk to the point of tripping over her own feet as they made their way to Trina’s truck. She had gotten four solid numbers from guys at the bar – one who was really cute – and was feeling like she was on top of the world.