What Ya Girl Won't Do (2 page)

“Why do you continue to sleep wit' Tony if he grosses you out so much?” Ja'Nay asked as they pulled into the mall parking lot.

“Because he help keep a sista fly and pays my bills so I don't have to go out and work like my parents want me to, that's why,” Kylee answered as she put the car in park. “What other reason could it be?”

“And so does Anthony, Ricco, Joshua, Cedric, Vaughn, Antoine, and Mario. Am I missin' anybody?” Ja'Nay asked sarcastically.

“Nope, I think you got 'em all,” Kylee said, pulling down the visor to check her makeup before looking over at her friend. “You ready?”

“I'reon would be devasted if she found out you were sleepin' wit' her dad,” Ja'Nay said.

“That's why I'reon doesn't know and betta not find out,” Kylee warned.

“I guess,” Ja'Nay said, opening the car door and getting out.

“I need a new purse, some shoes, and some more perfume,” Kylee rambled as they walked into the mall.

“Aren't you afraid of these guys finding out that all you really care about is their money?” Ja'Nay questioned.

Here we go again,
Kylee thought while rolling her eyes. “We still talkin' about me and the men who help take care of me? I thought we finished that conversation in the car,” Kylee said before walking into the Vanity clothing store. “How many times are you gon' bring this up? These men should already know, and if they don't, shame on them.”

“It's just that I be so worried about you sometimes,” Ja'Nay replied sincerely.

“Worried about what?” Kylee asked before picking up a shirt from the rack and laying it up against Ja'Nay's chest to see how it would look on her.

“Worried about one of them niggas flippin' out on you one day,” Ja'Nay answered.

“Girl, please.” Kylee laughed. “I told you them niggas ain't gon' do shit to me but keep a sista laced.” Kylee shook her head no before placing the shirt back on the rack.

“I mean take Tony for instance. He's a mob boss. A fuckin' mob boss,” Ja'Nay repeated as if Kylee didn't hear her the first time. “Don't you think if he found out you pretendin' to like him that one day he'll do somethin' to you or have somethin' done to you?”

Kylee knew her best friend was always worrying about something and had been that way since they were little girls. They had been thick as thieves since third grade when they'd both decided to put glue on the chair of the classroom tattletale. They'd bonded during their week of after school detention. They'd had each other's back since and shared everything except men. Over the years, Ja'Nay's home life had become a mess due to her parents' constant arguing and fighting. Ja'Nay would stay at Kylee's house for days at a time and her parents were so caught up in hating each other, they'd never even noticed she was gone. Ja'Nay loved being around Kylee's parents and watching how much in love they appeared to be. Even more so, Ja'Nay loved pretending this was her family, which was easy to do because Kylee's parents never treated her any differently. By the girls' freshman year of high school, Ja'Nay's parents had divorced. Ja'Nay and her mother kept the house and her father moved out, never looking back. While Ja'Nay's mom tried to make ends meet by working double shifts, Ja'Nay was either stuck at home alone or at Kylee's, which was fine with her.

“Worst-case scenario, you guys might find me swimmin' wit' the fishes,” Kylee said jokingly.

“Kylee!” Ja'Nay squealed. “That shit ain't funny. I'm serious.”

“Calm down, Nay-Nay.” Kylee laughed as she continued searching for a shirt for her best friend. “And, besides, Tony is my dad's business partner and one of his best friends. And do you think he would actually hurt his goddaughter?”

Ja'Nay shrugged her shoulders. “I hope not.”

“Girl, stop worryin'. I got this, okay?”

“I'll try,” Ja'Nay replied, knowing it would be hard to do so.

“Now, can we finish shoppin' without you bringin' up my boy toys?” Kylee asked before continuing her search for more shirts.

“You know it's a shame that every man you mess with either has a wife or a girlfriend,” Ja'Nay said abruptly, ignoring Kylee's request.

“And? I wouldn't have it any other way. You know I don't like messing with single men; they expect too much from you!”

“Like what?” Ja'Nay inquired.

“I wanna man who has to go home to his chick at night. I don't have time for no nigga tryin'a be up under me all night. A lot of single men be thinkin' it's more to y'all's relationship than what it really is,” Kylee said before picking up two shirts for herself that she'd fallen in love with.

“I guess,” Ja'Nay halfheartedly agreed.

“And they be tryin'a control you and shit,” Kylee continued with a frown. “Tryin'a tell you what you can and can't do. Or where you can and can't go or, better yet,
who
you can and can't do!”

“You silly.” Ja'Nay laughed.

“No, I'm serious. That's why from the gate I let a nigga know, all we doin' is fuckin', you gon' pay or buy me stuff with no strings attached and that's that! And they all agree so I don't see what the big deal is.”

“Yeah, but what about their wives and girlfriends?”

“What about 'em?” Kylee asked with an uncaring attitude. “If they wanna help take care of me, then they can. If not, they need to stay the fuck out my lane and let me do me!”

“I just hate niggas who cheat, that's all,” Ja'Nay said, shaking her head in disgust.

“I do too, but only the ones who cheat on me. I don't give a damn what they do to anybody else and I don't know why you care so much,” Kylee said, walking over to a rack of purses. “All men cheat; even the ones you think don't, trust me, they do!”

Ja'Nay disagreed with her friend's last comment. There was no way Kylee was going to convince her that after twenty-four years of marriage her father had ever cheated on her mother. They had the perfect relationship, one she wished her own mother and father had before they'd gotten divorced.

“It's not that I care, but put yourself in their shoes,” Ja'Nay suggested.

“I don't wanna put myself in their shoes, 'cause I rock red bottoms and them hoes wear Payless. You feel me?” she asked rhetorically.

Ja'Nay shook her head. She didn't know what had transpired in her best friend's life to make her think and act the way she did. She didn't know if it stemmed from getting everything handed to her on a platter by her father, or the numerous men she ran through who always let her have her way with them. Whatever it was, she sure needed to change her way of thinking and living.

“I don't give a fuck about them hoes for real!” Kylee said in a raised tone.

“Shhh, calm down,” Ja'Nay said, slightly embarrassed as her best friend caught the attention of some of the other shoppers.

“Calm down my ass! You act like it's my fault these men cheat on their women. It's not my fault, it's their own,” Kylee said angrily.

“How you figure that?” Ja'Nay argued, starting to get upset about the bullshit that had just spilled from her best friend's mouth.

“Well, if yo' bitch learn how to satisfy you, there would be no need to fuck wit' a bitch like me,” Kylee said, pointing to herself. “You see I'm the bitch them niggas come to because I'm that chick who does what ya girl won't do and get paid swell for doing it!”

“That ain't nothin' to brag about.” Ja'Nay frowned.

“I'm not braggin' about bein' that bitch. I'm just keepin' it real!” Kylee stated proudly.

“Don't you wanna settle down, fall in love, and have a family one day?” Ja'Nay asked.

“Fall in love? Settle down? Have a family? Fuck that! I'm content doin' me!”

“I guess, man,” Ja'Nay said, feeling like no matter how many years she'd been trying to get through to her friend, there was no use.

“And as long as I'm not fuckin' yo' man—which you would never have to worry about 'cause I can't stand Quann—why should you care about them hoes and their feelin's? Fuck them hoes and their feelin's,” Kylee snapped.

Ja'Nay shook her head again and sighed.

“Now, can we finish shoppin'?” Kylee asked, smiling.

“Yes, but I have one more question before we do.” Ja'Nay smiled too.

“Oh my goodness, what now?” Kylee said, exasperated.

“Are you payin' for my stuff too?” Ja'Nay laughed.

“Girl, you know I got'chu.” Kylee laughed too, as she and Ja'Nay made their way up to the register with all their expensive items being paid for just the way Kylee preferred . . . with someone else's money.

Kylee was in the living room bumping DJ Khaled's “Take it to the Head” while working out in front of the TV when her cell phone began to ring. She grabbed the towel off the arm of the chair, and wiped her face before grabbing the remote and turning the music down. Kylee walked over to the end table to retrieve her ringing phone. She looked at the caller ID and rolled her eyes before picking the phone up from the charging dock.

“Hello,” she answered, out of breath.

“What are you doing?” her father asked skeptically.

“Workin' out, Dad,” Kylee answered, slightly annoyed because of her father's insinuation.

“Oh, well how come I haven't seen my only child's face in almost a week?” her father started in. “I told your mother it wasn't a good idea for us to get you your own place because we would never see you.”

“I've been busy, Dad,” Kylee said, stretching the truth.

“Busy doing what? Too busy to come over and to see your parents? Remember you only have one mother and one father. Once we're gone, you don't get another pair,” her father said.

Kylee rolled her eyes into the top of her head. If she had a dollar for each time her father said those words to her, there would be no need to sleep with men for money.

“I've been busy lookin' for a summer job so I can help pay for some of the things I'll need for college this fall,” Kylee lied again. Truth be told, she was busy juggling her time between men.

The thought of his only child going to college put a smile on her father's face, but at the same time having her way across the country had him feeling some kind of way. “Now you know your mother and I are only making you work to teach you some kind of responsibility,” her father explained. “You've had a free ride your entire life and now that you're grown, we don't want you to think you can get everything handed to you without you having to work for it, you understand?”

“Yes, Daddy, I understand,” Kylee answered, just to appease her father, knowing she'd always gotten and still could get anything she wanted from him and any other man she dealt with, with little to no work at all.

“Good.”

“Well, Daddy, I need to finish workin' out. I need to stay in the habit in order to avoid the freshman fifteen,” Kylee said, rushing her father off the phone before he steered their conversation to why she felt the need to go way to California just to go to college when they have hundreds of colleges in and around Ohio.

“Okay. Oh, before I forget, your godfather is having a cookout this weekend and your mother and I would like for you to join us.”

Kylee was not in the mood to be around Tony unless she was getting paid to be. And she really wasn't in the mood to be in the midst of all his perverted old friends. They always made her feel uncomfortable by staring at her like she was a piece of meat. Plus, 2 Chainz was supposed to be performing at Skate-A-Mania later the same night.

“Daddy, I really don't feel like bein' bothered with Uncle Tony and all his friends. So I think I'll pass,” Kylee said.

“What's wrong with Tony's friends? They're genuine, down-to-earth, well-rounded men,” her father stated.

“They're well-rounded all right.” Kylee laughed, referring to the majority of his friends' shapes.

“Kylee, you ain't right,” her father reprimanded her.

“I'm jus' sayin'.” She chuckled.

“Anyways, we want you to be there.”

“Who all gon' be there?” Kylee huffed, not really wanting to go. She knew in a couple of months she would be off to college, so spending a little quality time with her parents and their weird friends wouldn't be all that bad—she hoped.

“Just a few friends of Tony's and mines from the office, Sylvia and a couple of her friends, I'm assuming,” her father said, before mentioning a few other who were planning on attending.

“Sylvia comin' huh?” Kylee asked, before twisting up her face.

“Why wouldn't she? It is her house too,” Kylee's father stated.

“I know, Daddy, I was just askin',” Kylee said, trying to disguise the hatred she held for Tony's fake-ass wife, Sylvia.

“Oh, and I'reon gon' be there too,” her father added.

“Oh wow, I haven't seen her in forever. Is she still goin' to that all-girls boarding school in Spain?” Kylee asked.

“She actually graduated about two weeks ago, so she's coming home Friday for good,” her father said.

“That's what's up!” Kylee said, smiling, quickly reminiscing about all the mischief she, Ja'Nay, and I'reon used to get into.

“I never understood why Tony and Sylvia sent that girl away to Spain just to go to school,” her father rambled. “I understand she was getting way out of hand, but there are plenty of boarding schools here in the United States they could have sent her to.” Kylee's father shook his head in disgust.

Kylee knew exactly where this conversation was heading. She was tired of justifying the reason behind her wanting to go way across the country just to go to college. “Okay, Dad, I gotta go. I'll see you and Mom Saturday. I love you,” she said before quickly hanging up. Kylee smiled and shook her head before continuing her workout.