Trife Life To Lavish (A King Production Presents...) (15 page)

"Girl, I'm so glad we came. I see mad cute
niggas up in here," Tierra said, sizing up every dude
in the spot... and the women. She needed to get an
idea what her competition was looking like.

"There is a full house. I never knew this
spot was so nice. I've already counted over twenty
plasma televisions, and every bowling lane got big
leather couches for you to sit back and relax on.
They even got a children's party room. Simone definitely has to come next time so we can bring
lil' Anthony."

"Fuck all that, Nichelle. Let's go upstairs.
That's where the sports bar is. You know crazy
cute niggas at the bar."

Nichelle followed Tierra to the upstairs bar
area. As soon as they stepped on the hardwood
floor, some dude grabbed Tierra's arm, spitting
game. Tierra gave him all of thirty seconds and
moved on after seeing his jewelry and shoe game
wasn't to her liking.

The ladies then found two stools at the bar and
sat down. They both sat in silence for a few minutes as
Tierra examined all her potential prospects. Nichelle
knew what she was doing, so she purposely sat in
silence not to interrupt her mission.

Right when Tierra felt the upstairs action was
a bust, a cutie approached her that had excellent
probability written all over him. "What's your name,
sexy?" the tall, Chris Brown look-alike asked. Light
skinned men weren't really Tierra's taste, but he
had a little ruggedness thing going on that she
could work with.

"Tierra, and this is my friend Nichelle. What's
your name?"

Nichelle simply nodded her head to say
what's up. She never got too friendly with Tierra's
potential prospects, because there was no telling
how long she would keep them around.

"Theron. So, can I get you ladies something
to drink?"

"No, we straight."

"Well, how about we go to the VIP lounge
and talk? There isn't a place for me to sit at the bar,
and I want a chance to talk to you... get to know
you a little better."

"That sounds like a plan to me. Come on Nichelle,
Theron is going to take us to the VIP lounge."

Nichelle grabbed her purse and followed
behind them. When they got there, that's where
BET was filming some segment. The mood was
much more upbeat and there were a lot of scantily
dressed women, even though it was dead in the
middle of winter.

"I'm sitting over here." Theron directed them
to the rust orange couch against the brick wall.
There were a few other guys sitting there and a
couple of women. Tierra glanced at the other dudes
to see if she found any of them more appealing
than Theron, but from first look, it seemed he was
the catch of the crop.

Nichelle sat patiently as Tierra and Theron
chatted it up. Tierra decided to have a glass of
champagne, but Nichelle declined. At this point,
she was bored and thought any sort of liquor
would put her to sleep. She kept eyeing her watch,
hoping that Tierra would be ready to leave soon. A
few men would come over to try and kick it with Nichelle, but she would give them all the blank
face stare, so they got the hint and kept it moving,
except for one.

"Can I speak to you for a minute?" At first
Nichelle simply ignored him like she did with the
two previous guys, but dude wasn't going for that.
"Hello, can I have a word with you?"

This time Nichelle looked up and gave him
the blank face stare. That look normally always
worked to get rid of a man. But the dude persisted.
"What do you want?"

"Aren't you friendly," he countered sarcastically.

"Listen, I have a man, and I'm not interested in
talking to you, so can you go bother somebody else."

"Actually, I wanted to speak to you about
business."

"Business? Dude, I'm in high school. There
can be no business you can discuss with me."

"Wow, you're young! Are you at least eighteen?"

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with
anything?" Nichelle was quickly getting annoyed
and wanted the man to go away."

"My name is Akil, and I saw you and your
friend when you first walked in."

"Hum hum..." Nichelle was letting it be
known he was irritating her, and he needed to
hurry up and get to the point.

"I'm working on something in the next few months, and I need a model."

"Again, what does that have to do with me?"

"I think you would be perfect."

"As the model?"

Akil smiled, and Nichelle stared at him
and didn't know whether to laugh or tell him he
needed to step it up and come with better game
when trying to get a girl in bed. Instead, she kept
it simple, because she didn't feel like having any
drama. "No thanks."

"You must think I'm joking, but I'm serious."

"No thank you, I'm not interested," she said
firmly, hoping that this time he would know she
meant business.

"What's your name?"

"Nichelle, why?"

"Nichelle, take my business card. If you
change your mind, give me a call. I'll definitely
remember you."

"I'm sure you will," Nichelle smacked, as
he walked away. "Tierra, are you ready to go yet?
Because I need to get home."

"Yeah, I was about to tell you let's bounce.
Theron, it was good meeting you, but me and my
girl about to roll out."

"I'll call you tomorrow. Maybe we can go out
to dinner."

"That might work. I'll let you know," Tierra
said, not wanting to appear too anxious. Tierra reciprocated Theron's slight hug and headed out.
"Girl, he's a cutie, and I think he got some chips. I
might have to try him out."

"You do that."

"And I saw you talking to a cutie yourself?
Who was he?"

"A nobody trying to sell me some modeling
dream, thinking I would give him some ass."
Nichelle looked down at the business card he gave
her before tossing it in the trashcan.

"I wonder how Simone's date with her boo went
tonight," Nichelle thought out loud as she drove
over the Queensboro Bridge.

"I know, right? I have an idea."

"What?"

"Let's drive past her crib. She said after dinner
they was going back to her place."

"What is driving past her crib gonna do?
What, you gon' knock on the front door?"

"No! But, we might recognize the nigga's car
parked out front, and we won't need for her to tell us
who her so called boo is `cause we'll already know."

"Girl, you might be reaching. Ain't no telling
who she fucking wit'."

"Just drive past her crib, it can't hurt. It ain't
like we going out our way. We have to go in that
direction to get to my place."

"Fine. You so damn nosey."

"Stop acting like you don't want to know too."

"You right, I am curious, especially after that
money she gave you. Whoever dude is, he can't be
hurting too bad in the money department."

"Exactly. And let's be clear, ain't many
niggas hitting bitches off wit' paper right now. The
recession done worked its way all the way up to
Wall Street and down to `Hood Street."

"Tierra, you ain't got no damn sense!" Both ladies
laughed as Nichelle turned onto Simone's block.

"Slow down," Tierra said. "I need to look at
each car carefully to see if I recognize one. Oh, no
the fuck!"

"What?" Nichelle put her foot on the brake,
nervous by Tierra's outburst.

"Nichelle, go up a little bit more. I think that's
that sorry ass Radric's Range Rover up there. I know
Simone wouldn't be fuckin' wit' Radric's ass behind
my back... and that nigga giving her money! I got
something for both of their asses!"

"Tierra, calm the fuck down! You might be
jumping to conclusions. We don't even know if
that's Radric's car."

"We `bout to find the fuck out!" Tierra jumped
out the Benz and ran up to the truck. There was
another Range Rover parked right beside it.

The very next second they both heard sirens,
and Nichelle looked in her rearview mirror, noticing the police cars were coming in their direction.

"What the hell is going on?" Nichelle rolled
down her window and stuck her head out, "Tierra,
get back in the car." But Tierra stood there frozen,
not making a move.

"Put your hands up!" the police officer yelled,
pointing a gun towards Tierra's back.

Nichelle saw a couple of people looking out
of their windows, and a few came and stood on top
of their front stairs. She was waiting for Simone to
come out and clown them for lurking on her block.
She waited for a few minutes to see what the police
officers were going to say to Tierra, but when she
saw them putting her in handcuffs, Nichelle knew
she had to see what was going on.

"Excuse me officer, but why are you putting
handcuffs on my friend?"

"This woman is with you?"

"Yes, we just got here. We came to see a friend
of ours who lives right there," Nichelle explained,
pointing to the building Simone lived in.

"We haven't been able to get two words out
of her. Maybe she's in shock."

"Shock over what?"

"This is a crime scene. I'm going to need for
you to move back," the officer ordered Nichelle.

She walked over to Tierra, who was sitting in
the backseat of the police car with the door open.

"Is she under arrest?" Nichelle asked the other officer, totally puzzled by what was going on.

"Not yet," he answered coldly.

"Then can you take these handcuffs off of her?"

Without warning, Tierra bent over and
vomited on the ground, getting some on Nichelle's
boots. "Tierra, are you alright? Would you please
help my friend!" Nichelle screamed out.

By this time, more police officers were on
the scene, and the ambulance had showed up.

While one of the officers tended to Tierra,
and with all the chaos going on, Nichelle used
the opportunity to see what had her best friend
so shaken. She quickly ran up to the two Range
Rovers that were parked side by side, and when
she got a clear view of the crime scene, everything
became a blur, then she fainted, knocking herself
unconscious as her head hit the concrete.

Do you really believe it's better to have found love
and lost it, than to never have found love at all? I
suppose that's a question that only each individual
knows the answer to. But street love is some of the
strongest around. It's the kind that never dies.

"No, no, this isn't happening! Somebody help
me, pleeeeease!" Nichelle screamed out, fighting
her way through a nightmare.

"It's okay, baby, I'm right here," Nichelle's
mother whispered, holding her daughter as she
awoke from her sleep.

Nichelle was breathing hard and drenched in
sweat. "Where am I?" she asked, opening her eyes.
When she tried to sit up, she let out a sigh. "My head
is killing me," she said, feeling the knot on the back of
her head. She turned and saw Tierra standing behind
her mother, who was still holding her.

"You're in the hospital. Tierra, can you go let
the doctor know that Nichelle woke up?"

"Sure, Ms. Martin, I'll be right back."

"Ma, what's going on? Why am I in the hospital?"

"You don't remember what happened last night?"

Nichelle closed her eyes, and images of what
she saw started flashing in her head. She tried
shaking them out of her mind, because she didn't
want to believe they were real.

"No...no...no! Ma, this can't be real! Simone
can't be dead!" she cried with tears flooding down
her face. "And Carmelo. . .Oh God, Carmelo is dead
too!" she covered her face with her hands and just
wept uncontrollably.

When Tierra came back in with the doctor
and saw Nichelle crying, she ran over and hugged
her. "I'm so sorry, Nichelle. I can't believe Carmelo,
Radric and Simone are all dead."

"Oh my goodness, Tierra, Radric was in the
truck! He was in the truck with Carmelo!" It was all
beginning to come back to Nichelle. "Simone was
in the other Range Rover, but who was she with?'

"That dude, Marley."

The name sounded familiar to Nichelle, but
she couldn't remember where she heard it from.

Tierra could tell Nichelle was having a hard
time, so she tried to jog her memory. "Remember the
dude's birthday party we went to awhile back?"

"That's right, he was Carmelo's people. I remember him saying they did business together."

"Ladies, I know you're going through a hard
time and I don't want to interrupt, but Nichelle, I
need to examine you quickly and make sure you're
okay," the doctor said.

"Sure," Nichelle said, in a daze. While the
doctor examined Nichelle, Tierra sat down in the
chair next to Ms. Martin.

"That could've been you and Nichelle in one
of those cars shot dead," Ms. Martin said, solemnly.
"I don't know when you girls gon' learn that these
streets don't love nobody. If these tragic and
senseless murders don't make you girls stay away
from street thugs, I don't know what will.