Side Chic 4 (Forever Ratchet) (13 page)

Nelle let out a sigh and threw up her hands before closing
the trunk. “Okay Mina but don’t say that I didn’t try and warn you. You know what they say, a hard head makes a soft ass. You gone learn to listen one day. I have no idea where you got that damn stubbornness from but suit yourself. I just hope that Tre doesn’t catch you pinching or shaking them because if he does he is going to kill your ass.” She cut her eyes at me as she walked around and got in on the driver’s side.

I rolled my eyes up in my head, pushed the basket out of the way and then got in on the passenger side. “Girl, I ain’t thinking about Tre.
He shouldn’t have went and snatched them from their mama and then expected for everybody else to help him keep them.” I buckled my seatbelt. “Shit, I ain’t nobody’s damn live in babysitter. I don’t be dropping Simya off on him!”

She was backing out but then brought the car to a halt. “So you are going to sit here and lie like Tre don’t be watching Simya for you?”

“I don’t ask him though.” I let her know.

“Exactly, he does it and you don’
t even have to ask. Mind you, she isn’t his so that isn’t his responsibility.” She swiveled her neck like she was checking me or something. “That man helps you take care of your child financially and he takes her places with him and his kids. He doesn’t have to do that.” She paused and shook her head. “I don’t know what Mello did to you but you had better get your shit together before you end up making someone fuck you up. I don’t know why you do the stuff you do. I hope and pray that you never do any crazy shit to me because if you ever cross me in some fucked up way I am going to beat the dog shit out of you. Point blank period.” She told me matter-of-factly.

I studied her face and saw that she meant business. I started to become a little bit nervous.
I really wasn’t sure of how of how I should respond to that. “Damn, it’s like that? You are getting upset with me and threatening me for pinching those kids? You act like, I abused them. It really wasn’t that serious.”

“I am not upset with you nor am I threatening you. I am just letting you know.” She corrected me. “You are my cousin and I love you to death but you be doing way too much. It’s obvious that man trusts you because he is leaving you alone with his kids. After everything that has happened with Lala and the whole situation with her boyfriend touching one of them, why would you even do something like that? Maybe you didn’t pinch them hard or shake them too roughly but the point is that you did it at all. You wouldn’t want anyone pinching or shaking Simya. All I’m saying is you need to chill out before you fuck with the wrong person.”

I didn’t bother to say anything. I just turned my head and looked out the window. For the first few minutes of the drive, neither of us said anything else. I was looking out the window and wishing that she’d hurry up and get me to my destination so that I could get from around her uppity ass. If I’d know that she was going to react the way that she had, I would’ve never told her about what I’d done. I’d thought that she was going to just laugh it off because to me the shit was funny but I should’ve known that her righteous ass wouldn’t. That was the one thing that I hated about her, how she always tried to act like she was perfect and like her shit didn’t stink. You would think that she’d never done anything that wasn’t right. I knew better than that though, she had the nerve to try and judge me after all of the crazy shit that she done to try and get Corey. Her silly ass had even taken a damn overdose to try and get his attention but I guess she’d forgotten all about her bullshit being that he’d finally felt sorry enough for her thirsty ass to marry her. I couldn’t stand folks like her who tried to act like they were better than the next motherfucka knowing that they truly wasn’t.

“I hope you aren’t mad Mina but I am just keeping it real with you.” She spoke. “I’m not trying to talk down to you or anything like that. We all got a little bit of shit with us and we all do foul shit but you went a little
bit too far this time cuz, I’m just saying.”

Why can’t you just shut the fuck up and let the shit go. You’ve made your fuckin’ point!
I thought to myself still looking out the window. “I’m not mad.” I lied. “I feel what you are saying.”

“Really or are you just saying that?”
              I turned to look at her. “Yeah, I get it. Maybe I shouldn’t have pinched them but at the time they deserved it.” I giggled to try and kill the tension between us and at the same time make her think that I wasn’t mad. I figured why be mad when I could get even. I’d made it up in my mind that I was going to have the last laugh in the end because I was so sick of her always judging everybody else because she and Corey had finally gotten their fucked up relationship in order. If I had to drug Corey and fuck him. I was going to do it and then take pictures of him naked in my bed and send them to her. A smile formed on my lips as I imagined the look on her face when she saw those pictures. I had news for her perfect ass and I would gladly take the ass whooping that I knew was sure to follow. It would be worth it just to see her perfect little world come crumbling down around her.

“What? What are you smiling about?” She asked looking at me skeptically.

“Nothing. I am just glad that you and I are able to have a disagreement, work through it and move on. Ya know?” I looked at her my head slightly cocked to the side and a smile plastered on my face.

“Yeah but that’s how it should be. We are family. We shouldn’
t let little things come between us. And we should always be able to be truthful with each other.” Her cell phone rang interrupting her little “we are family” speech. She picked it up from her lap, where it had been lying and answered it. “Hello…oh hey Mia.” I rolled my eyes and looked back out the window. Mia still wasn’t fucking with me like that and frankly I didn’t give a fuck. She was just like Nelle always pretending to be perfect. For the most part she had always been a ‘good girl’ but still that gave her no right to try and look down on me. She was still all in her feelings about the whole Corey situation. As far as I was concerned she could stay in them. What I did with Corey wasn’t any of her damn business. If Ron was more of my type I would’ve tried to give him a shot of pussy too just because of her little stank ass attitude. If she kept it up I might just do it anyways. She and Nelle killed me with all that “we are family” bullshit. Family crossed family every day in the real world. The two of them were just living in a fuckin fantasy world. I’d been stopped giving a fuck about family years ago after sitting around listening to them talk about me and call me names because of my decision to stay with Mello and try to have a family. On numerous occasion, several family events, they would all sit around and talk about me as if I wasn’t there. Even though Nelle and Mia would always come to my rescue whenever Mello would beat my ass, the two of them would talk about me right along with everybody else. It’d always been amazing to me how people never took time to think of how much their words could hurt a person. A lot of the things that I’d overheard them saying still stuck with me to that day and they still hurt whenever I thought about it. That was part of the reason why I didn’t give a flying fuck about anyone else or their feelings because no one had ever really 100% given a fuck about me. Either they would say they did and their actions said something different or they would pretend to through their actions but something different would come out of their mouths.

“Mina and I are on our way back from Walmart. She had to pick up a few things and I picked up a few cases of soda for the little get together that I am having for my birthday. What are you doing?”
Nelle told Mia and then she was was silent for a few seconds while she listened to whatever Mia was saying on the other end. “Do you think you and Ron would feel up to coming by later and playing cards with Corey and me? We haven’t gotten together in quite a while. Maybe Tre and Mina could come too.” My head snapped around and she looked over at me showing all thirty-two. “We could have a few drinks and just chill.” She paused again. “Alright then, it’s a date. See y’all a little bit later on.” She disconnected the call just as we were turning in Tre’s driveway. She parked beside my car and turned off the ignition. “So do you think, you and Tre might want to come over later and play cards with us?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” I picked up my pocketbook off the floor of the
car and took out the blunt that I’d rolled earlier. I held it up. “You want to smoke?”

“Hell yeah, I want to smoke. Put some fire to that shit.” She replied moving the seat back some and adjusting it to get comfortable.
Then she reached over and turned the radio on. K. Michelle’s joint V. S.O.P was on.

“Oh snap turn that shit up!” I demanded as I put some fire to the end of the blunt and took a few puffs. She did as I asked. “That’s my shit right there!” I passed her the blunt and began to dance in my seat while singing along to the song
and snapping my fingers. She danced and sang too. We sat there listening to the radio dancing and singing before long the blunt was gone and we both sat in the car high as a kite.

“Damn girl, that shit got my face feeling numb.” Nelle
admitted giggling and rubbing her face.

I giggled too. “That’s because you are used to smoking that bullshit with Corey.” I teased. “That right there
we just smoked is that good shit. Tre gets it from some dude over in North Carolina.”

“Oh for real? I’m going to have to holla at Tre. I need some of that in my life.” She
continued to rub her hands down her face.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m straight.” The weed had me feeling really relaxed and my lips started to get loose like they always did whenever I smoked or drank. I leaned back in my seat and looked over at Nelle debating whether or not I should tell her what I’d been wanting to tell her for the past few days. I didn’t feel like hearing another speech but I needed to tell someone. “Can I tell you something without you judging me?” I blurted.

“Oh lord…” She rolled her eyes up in her head and threw up her hands dramatically.
“Heffa what have you done now?”

The weed had me extra goofy so I just laughed at her dramatic ass. “
I haven’t done anything.” I replied honestly because really I hadn’t.

“You’ve done something.” She contested pointing an accusing finger at me. “I know your ass like the back of my hand and I can tell by the way that you started off, you’ve done something. Talking about me not judging you.”

“Well you do always judge me.”

She waved me off. “That’s all in your head. You are just a very defensive person.” She said. “Now tell me the business.”

“I’ve been talking to someone for the past few days on Facebook.”

“Someone like who?” She inquired looking at me through low chinky eyes. I could tell she was feeling really good. “Mina, Tre is going
to fuck you up!”

“See? This is why I hate telling your dramatic righteous ass anything!” I told her smacking my lips. “Damn you haven’t even heard who it is yet and already you are judging me.”

“Bitch, I ain’t judging you! I am warning you!” She giggled. “It doesn’t matter who this nigga is. You know Tre ain’t gone be feeling you talking to the next nigga. I mean that’s just common sense, it doesn’t have anything to do with me being righteous. And stop saying that bullshit too. You’ve said that shit quite a few times over the past few weeks that I am righteous and think I never do anything wrong. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I don’t think I am better than anyone and yes I make mistakes but there is a difference between making mistakes and just doing dumb shit! You my dear just be doing dumb shit!”

“What?” I felt some type of way by her last statement. Just because I chose to do what made me happy didn’t mean the things I did were dumb.

“You heard me, you be doing dumb shit!” She repeated but it wasn’t in a harsh tone. Actually she had a smile on her lips. “Now who is it?”

“Nevermind…” I wasn’t about to tell her who it was so she could go on and on about how I as so wrong for talking to him. “Can you pop the trunk so I can get my stuff, please?”

“Oh so now you aren’t going to tell me?”

“Nah because I don’t feel like another speech or having you blow my high.”

“Lord have mercy! Girl, are you seriously upset because I said Tre is going to be mad if he finds out that you are talking to someone else? Do you think that he is going to be happy?”

“Nah but don’t you think I already know all of that?”
I snapped opening the car door to get out but then paused. “You know, I don’t fuck with a lot of people. Only you and Mia…well mainly you, so that is why I come to you and tell you everything because truthfully I don’t have anyone else to tell shit to. If I told Mia, of course she would have her nose turned up and looking at me sideways. She has always been the judgmental type but you weren’t. Back in the day you were just like me. You did dumb shit and made stupid decisions but now that things are all good in your world you have forgotten all about that. You used to tell me a lot of shit and I never judged you, even when I felt like the shit was stupid. I would listen and give you the best advice I could and then let you do you. Sometimes, I want you to just listen and then allow me to do me. Realize that you and I are different so what may work for you don’t necessarily work for me.”

“Are you done?”

“Yeah…” I rolled my eyes feeling a lot better after getting some of the stuff off of my chest that I’d been wanting to say for quite some time. I’d wanted to say more but was afraid that if I did things might end up getting physical.