Single Ladies 7 & 8: " That's What Friends Are For" (7 page)

“Babe, you really don’t have to do this. We can just move away. I’ll follow you anywhere,” Lisa pleaded, seeing the vicious road Ralphy was heading down.

Lisa didn’t understand how Ralphy felt having a gun pointed at him and his daughter, with the threat to terminate his life. Although Naomi was physically okay, she was still a little shook up from the confrontation. That in itself fueled the fire inside of Ralphy.

“We can still move away, but I gotta take care of something first,” Ralphy said.

“I don’t wanna lose you,” Lisa cried taking a seat on his lap. “Dis shit just ain’t worth it.” It wasn’t worth it, but it was the street life, and running away wasn’t the solution. “So when will it end? When will this all be over?” Lisa asked, laying her head on his chest.

Ralphy lightly put his hand on Lisa’s stomach, over the bullet wound. Images of the gunmen opening fire on him and Naomi rushed thought his mind. All the faces Ralphy saw were locked into his memory, and his heart raced at the thought of revenge.

“It’s over after I kill everything movin’.”

__________

Kim was in her bedroom packing her and Lamar’s weekend bag when her phone started ringing on the nightstand. She walked over, looked at the screen, and saw that it was Tammy calling.

“THESE BITCHES JUST JUMPED ME!” Tammy yelled into the phone, the moment Kim answered it.

“What bitches, and where are you?” Kim shot back, dropping the shirt she had in her hand.

The phone went silent, but Kim could hear a car speeding down the street outside of her front window. She looked though the blinds and it was Tammy coming to screeching stop in front of her house. Kim shot down the steps meeting her at the front door.

“Girl, what happened?” Kim asked, coming out of the doorway while Tammy paced back and forth across the porch.

Tammy’s hair was everywhere and she had scratches all up and down her face. Her top lip was busted and her clothes were still disheveled up from the fight. She could barely get any words out, but once Brea’s name was mentioned, Kim knew exactly who it was.

“Hold on, dis shit ain’t over,” Kim said, shooting back into the house to change her clothes.

Kim moved faster than Clark Kent the way she ran upstairs, threw a pair of jeans on with a tee shirt and a pair of Jordans. She put her hair in a ponytail, wrapped the end in a bun, then put one of her wigs on over top of it. She came back down the stairs in less than two minutes with a jar of Vaseline, some for her face and some for Tammy’s.

When she got back outside, she was shocked to see Falisha standing at the bottom of the stairs tying her shoelaces tight. She had rings on every other finger, and on both hands, so it was obvious Falisha was there to fight as well.

Lisa must have heard the commotion, because she made her way outside, curious to know what was happening.

“What y’all bitches up to?” Lisa asked walking across the street with a glass of lemonade in her hand. “Oh shit girl, what happened to you?” she asked once she got close enough to see Tammy’s face.

“Chris’ sister and her friends jumped me,” Tammy answered, applying the Vaseline to her face in the rearview mirror. “They couldn’t beat me one on one, so they had to jump me.”

Lisa only wished that she could go with the girls for an old-fashioned throw down. The last time they did something like this together was in high school. The bullet wound to her stomach prevented Lisa from actually participating in the festivities, but being the get-away driver was the perfect part for her to play.

“Hold up, Falisha. Where do you think you’re going?” Lisa asked as they were loading into the car. “You need to sit ya pregnant ass down somewhere.”

“Yeah, Falisha, don’t risk it,” Tammy agreed.

Falisha looked at both of them like they were crazy.

“I’ma either ride on top of this hood or in the back seat. Either one is fine with me,” Falisha replied, climbing into the back seat before anybody could say anything.

Falisha was no more than seven weeks pregnant and wasn’t showing in the least. Besides, nobody in the car was going to be able to physically stop her from coming along, so the only thing they could do was just let her go. It was all crew love, and Falisha wasn’t going to miss out on this for anybody. When it came down to her girls, she was willing to go all out.

__________

“Yo, you sure you wanna go through with this, homie? I mean this is practically ya club,” Tank, one of Lamar’s fellow dancers said as he poured the two another shot of Hennessey.

Lamar looked around the empty club and thought about how much he was going to miss dancing at Club Mandingo. He thought long and hard about this decision, and concluded that he wanted a different life for him and Kim once they got married. Over the past few years, Lamar had saved up more than enough money, and was in a position to give up dancing and try something new.

“You know, sometimes in life, you gotta make sacrifices in order to grow as a person. I’m at a stage in my life where I’m trying to chill out and enjoy what the world has to offer.”

“Man, what da hell is you talking about?” Tank laughed. “You sound like an old ass man.”

They shared a laugh at the comment. Tank was still young, and young minded, for that matter.

Lamar wasn’t that old either, but his mentality exceeded his age, and it showed by him taking a big step in wanting to settle down and get married.

“Well, big homie, if that’s the road you’re taking, then we gon’ have to turn this motha fuckin club up before you leave. Hopefully, after you leave, we can call this, Tank’s Room,” Tank said, throwing back another shot.

“I’m wit you on that, lil homie. We gon’ give ’em hell for the next month,” Lamar nodded before throwing back his last and final shot.

__________

“There those bitches go right there,” Tammy said as soon as Lisa turned down the block.

Brea, Aisha, and Kisha were still standing in front of Chis’ mom’s house, and from the way they were smacking each others hands and laughing, Tammy knew that they were bragging about the beat down they gave her. That only added fuel to the fire. “Park up there,” Kim told Lisa, pointing to an empty parking space a little further down the block.

When Tammy’s car passed by Brea, she knew it was about to be on and poppin. The crowd of people that once dispersed had returned to see round two. Tammy, Falisha and Kim all got out of the car. Lisa did too, but she stood by the car with a pocketknife in her hand.

“I got Brea,” Tammy said as all three women walked up the street.

The talking was over, and as all six women stood in the middle of the street, they clashed like two armies on foot. Kim took Aisha while Falisha punished Kisha. Kisha didn’t even get a chance to throw a punch. Falisha was all over her, pulling Kisha’s head down by her hair and kneeing her in the face multiple times.

Aisha grabbed Kim’s hair, only to pull off the wig that Kim had purposely put on for that reason. Kim threw about ten right hand punches at lightning speed, all of which landed on Aisha’s face. Aisha swung back wildly, hitting Kim a couple of times, but not fazing her.

Brea and Tammy was the main event everybody wanted to see. It was like Mayweather and Pacquiao, with Tammy being Mayweather. They stood in the middle of the street and exchanged blow after blow. Tammy pushed Brea against a nearby parked car, using it like it was the ropes. They were fighting like cats and dogs.

Kim beat Aisha up so bad, the girl took off running down the street. Meanwhile, Falisha had Kisha pinned down on the steps, whaling at her face. The rings on her fingers were cutting Kisha’s face so bad, one of the men who was out there watching the fight had to stop it. He walked over and hooked his arm around her stomach and pulled Falisha off the girl. Thinking about her baby, Falisha didn’t put up any resistance as the man carried her across the street, away from Kisha. Her point had been made.

“BEAT DAT BITCH’S ASS!” Kim yelled out, looking at Tammy and Brea, who were now rolling around on the ground. “YOU GOT HER, TAMMY!” she continued yelling.

“FUCK DAT BITCH UP!” Falisha also yelled, coming over to the fight.

After several more punches were thrown by each of them, fatigue started to set in, and the fight became a holding match. The same guy who broke up Falisha’s fight, came over and pulled Tammy and Brea apart as well. Once Tammy stood there and got herself together, her, Kim and Falisha headed back to the car, knowing that they had come, handled their business, and left with a victory.

Ralphy really couldn’t sleep well, with so much on his mind. He couldn’t seem to figure how those guys with the guns knew he and Johanne lived at that house. Johanne swore that she didn’t tell them, and there was no way they followed her home the day she was shot, because she went straight to the hospital. Nothing really made sense, and it was eating away at Ralphy like a disease.

Ralphy sat in a chair in the corner of his bedroom looking over at Lisa and Naomi, who were still asleep in the bed. They looked peaceful, to the point where it gave Ralphy a bit of tranquility. His thoughts were interrupted by a text that came through his phone, which he read promptly. It was from Scoop.

Heard about what happened. Are you good?
The message read.

Ralphy started to hit him back, but paused for a moment. His brain went into overdrive and he couldn’t help himself for making Scoop a suspect. First and foremost, ever since the day the gunmen ran down on him, Naomi, Johanne and DeeDee, Ralphy had stayed at his house he shared with Lisa as a precautionary measure. Ralphy put off all his drug dealing in the hood until the situation with Dre’s people was taken care of. He never called Scoop, or saw him to tell him about what happened. The only people that knew about it was the people that were there. It was no way Scoop should have known what happened.

“Not you, homie,” Ralphy mumbled to himself.

Then it hit Ralphy. Scoop was probably the only person who knew where him and Johanne stayed, plus he had been acting a little funny lately, making subliminal comments Ralphy didn’t catch on to at the time. Now Ralphy was almost sure that Scoop had something to do it, and if that was true, it was possible Ralphy, Lisa and Naomi were in danger at that very moment, because Scoop also knew the location of the house Ralphy was in right now. Ralphy started to regret not taking Lisa and Naomi to her folks, but now was just as good as ever, and getting his family out of the house was now the number one priority, and exactly what he planned to do.

__________

Tammy was sore as hell when she finally woke up in her bed. Every part of her body was aching, and it was like a mission in itself getting out of the bed to go to the bathroom. When she walked past the mirror, she barely recognized herself, due to the many marks she had on her face, and the patches of weave missing from her head.

“Well, well ,well. If it ain’t Bernard Hopkins,” Darious smiled while standing at the bathroom sink brushing his teeth.

“Shut up and move,” Tammy replied, brushing by him and taking a seat on the toilet.

Usually Tammy would be a little more private with her bathroom usage around Darious, but today wasn’t one of those days. She pissed and farted like he wasn’t even there. Darious couldn’t do anything but chuckle.

“You should get back in bed,” Darious suggested.

“No, no. I gotta go pick up the kids. I told Ms. Ms. Elaine I’ll be there to get them this morning.

When Ms. Elaine finally did come home with the kids, Tammy was in her bed licking her wounds, and didn’t feel like coming back outside. She also didn’t feel like being chewed out about the fight either, which was inevitable.

“You want me to take you?” Darious asked, not sure if it was safe for Tammy to go over there by herself.

“No, I’m good, babe. I think I got my point across yesterday,” Tammy answered, getting up from the toilet.

“Well look, while you’re out, I need you to drop off Ms. Pam’s medication. I got a lot of running around to do today, and I really don’t have the time.” Darious said, following Tammy out of the bathroom.

“Yeah, I got you babe. Just make sure you call her and tell her to be downstairs waiting. God knows I can’t walk up four flights of stairs today.”

Darious walked over and wrapped his arms around Tammy’s waist as she stood in front of the dresser looking in the vanity mirror. She pulled out what weave she had left in her head and fought through the pain in her scalp while combing her real hair into a ponytail.

“You too pretty to be fighting,” Darious said, kissing Tammy softly on the neck. “You be careful going over there. If you have any problems, call me so I can come get you.

Tammy nodded her head before going into her drawer to grab some jeans and a shirt to slip on. She had to move fast, because Ms. Elaine had called about three times already. She didn’t know it yet, but this was going to be the last time Ms. Elaine saw the kids for a while. After yesterday, Tammy was pretty much fed up with the drama in that family.

__________

Lamar woke up to the feeling of his dick being sucked on by Kim. When he cracked his eyes open, her head was bobbing up and down at a slow pace, and the sensation of her warm spit spilling onto his balls seemed to have made his dick even harder. She looked up and saw that he had awaken, and pulled him out of her mouth.

“Good morning,” she greeted, kissing the head of his dick.

Lamar reached up, grabbed the back of her head, and pushed it back down on his dick.

“You talkin’ too much,” he said, pushing his dick deep into her soft, wet throat. Kim smacked the side of his leg playfully, but continued to go down on him. It made her horny to see the look of pleasure on his face. So, while she sucked, Kim reached under and began playing with her pussy. Her moaning at the same time she sucked turned Lamar on so much, he could feel himself about to cum.

“Come ’ere,” he demanded, pulling Kim by her hair up to him. “Sit down on dis dick,” he told her.

“Shhhh, you talkin’ too much,” she shot back, climbing on top of him.