Betrayal (10 page)

Chillin’ in the next booth with his posse, Maleek had Ashanti’s nice warm ass in his lap and a clear view of Nooni as she gyrated her hips on the edge of the dance floor with some niggah from across town.

His boy Grip nudged him and then nodded toward the floor.

“Sup wit’ Nooni?”

Not a trace of emotion or even a flicker of expression crossed Maleek’s face. No, the danger surging inside him was visible only in his eyes, and if Nooni hadn’t been so busy cheesing up in that yellow niggah’s face she woulda seen that.

“Ain’t nothing,” he told Grip calmly. “She just out there playin’ that’s all.”

Ashanti squirmed around and dug her ass deeper into his groin. The erection she’d been enjoying had almost completely subsided.

“Playin’ my ass,” she giggled as she peeped Nooni’s game. The sun-baked Puerto Rican chick was out there getting vicious on the dance floor. Her hips were crucial, and she was swiveling them shits and booty-rocking her partner like they were about to get bizzy. “Them two look ready to start fuckin’ out there!” Ashanti joked loudly.

Maleek scowled and stood up abruptly.

“Hey!” Ashanti hollered as she tumbled out of his lap. “You ain’t gotta chase behind that bitch!” she yelled at Maleek’s back as he strode toward the dance floor. “She just tryna make you jealous!”

Maleek stormed right past Nooni and her dance partner as they bumped their bodies to the sexy beat. Nooni had backed up against the dude, prompting him to reach down and grip her hips as he bounced with the bass and grinded his dick on the sweet mound of ass she was offering him.

From the corner of her eye, Nooni caught a quick glimpse of Maleek as he strode past. His gaze was aimed straight ahead, but she peeped mad rage in the set of his jaw and knew somebody’s ass was about to get treated!

“Hey,” she turned around to face her dance partner and gave him a nervous smile, “I gotta go to the bathroom real quick, okay?”

Sweat ran down his sand-colored face and buff neck, and he flashed his pretty grin down at her before pulling her into his strong arms.

“You ain’t gone just leave me out here dancing all by myself, are you?” he asked, grinning sexily. His hands slid down Nooni’s back and cupped her thick ass. His hard wood pressed through the slit in her dress and into her toned stomach. “The track is almost over. Let’s finish what we started, girl.”

Nooni had just opened her mouth to protest when she glanced past him and saw Maleek running up on dude from behind.

There was no time to warn him, no time to even scream.

She watched helplessly as Maleek seemed to move in slow motion. He leaned back on his right leg, then threw his weight forward and swung his arm around in a large arc.

The first pool ball he hurled struck dude square on the back of the head. He lurched forward, stumbling into Nooni, who ducked instinctively and pressed her face into his broad chest for cover. Dude shook his head in confusion, and when he turned to look over his shoulder the second pool ball caught him on his temple, bursting his skin, and sending bright red blood splattering from a spot above his eye.

All hell broke loose as thugs and hoods rushed over from tables and booths to stand with those in their set. Nooni got knocked on her ass as one of Maleek’s goonies bum-rushed the guy she’d been dancing with, and then there was nothing but screams, grunts, swinging pool cues, and deadly pool balls whizzing through the air.

“Bitch! Get your fuckin’ ass up!”

Fire was burning in her tailbone, and with her cute lil dress riding up over her hips, Nooni looked up and saw Maleek coming after her with a killer glare in his eyes. She flipped over on her stomach and grabbed some niggah’s pants leg and pulled herself up as she tried to get away.

Chaos had broken out on the dance floor, and every table and booth in the joint had been abandoned as hood nigs got theirs in.

Ignoring her pain, Nooni tried to yank her mini dress down below her ass and run at the same time, but Maleek was on her. He swung his foot and planted it square in the crack of her ass, sending pain shrieking through her lower back and causing her to land face-down on the ground again. She was bracing herself for the death-blow she knew was coming, when the thick end of a pool cue cracked across Maleek’s head and spun him around, drawing him back into the fight.

“C’mon!” Cheyvon was suddenly crouching down beside Nooni as she tried to help her friend get up. “These fools is wildin’! We gotta get the fuck outta here!”

Led by Cheyvon, Nooni stumbled toward the door with a wave of other young chicks. They pushed their way outside, and as Cheyvon supported her, Nooni clutched her aching booty-bone and staggered around the corner toward the housing projects.

“What you go over there and stunt with that yellow dude like that for?” Cheyvon yelled. “Look at what y’all started! That niggah Maleek was about to be on your ass!”

“Maleek is the one who started it,” Nooni muttered under her breath. Her heart felt broken as she rubbed the sore spot on her back. “He don’t love me like he says he do,” she wailed in grief. “It’s all good for him to fuck with other bitches, but he gets real stupid whenever a dude acts like he wants to fuck with me!”

“
Uhhhh
-huh,” Cheyvon pursed her lips and agreed. “I know exactly what you mean. But that’s the way these Harlem niggahs roll, girl. That’s just the way they roll.”

$$$$$

 Even though she was heartbroken, Noni actually went to school the next day, although she didn’t stick around for long.

“Uh-uh,” her good friend Bubbles told her as they strutted out of their third period science class and headed toward the school’s lunchroom. “We outta here girl. I heard about the big fight that went down at T.C.’s Place last night,” Bubbles said as she grabbed Nooni’s arm and swung her around in the opposite direction.

Nooni winced as she thought about how Maleek had kicked her up the ass in the club, and then probably spent the rest of the night getting his bone waxed by that cootie-coochie bitch Ashanti.

“Where we going?” she asked gloomily as she followed her friend. They were both juniors when they should have been seniors, but after cutting so many classes they’d come up short on credits.

“Don’t worry about it,” Bubbles said mysteriously as she strutted in her hoe heels and switched her ass down the school’s corridor. A sick and sexy stunna, Bubbles stayed pressed out in the latest fashions, and like Nooni, she was prissy as hell and meticulous about her hair and nails.

But unlike Nooni, Bubbles was an only child, and her single mother worked two nursing jobs tryna keep her daughter looking fresh and feeling good. That left Bubbles with a whole lot of time to do whatever she wanted, and usually that included getting high and hanging out in the streets with grown men.

“I texted my friend,” Bubbles said with a sneaky smile. “Friend who?” Nooni asked.

“One of the guys who was fighting up in T.C.’s Place last night. I hate I missed that shit! My moms took the night off from work and I couldn’t sneak out. My friend is fine as hell girl, and he’s waiting for us outside.”

“He got a car?”

Bubbles smirked. “Hell yeah he got a car! What I look like? I don’t be fuckin’ with no busted niggahs, Nooni! Bitch you know me better than that.”

“Yeah, what-the-fuck-ever!” Nooni couldn’t help but giggle as they waited until the security guard’s back was turned, then cut across a hallway and dipped out of a side door. Laughing, the pair hauled-ass down a stone-lined concrete path, swinging their back packs and hoping security wouldn’t spot them before they could make it off school grounds.

A beat-up two-door black Honda was waiting for them at the corner. It had Jersey license plates and a chrome bumper, and the right front fender was dented and painted gray.

“Damn girl, don’t tell me this is your friend,” Nooni said, eyeballing the busted ride with her lips turned down and her nose turned up. “Uh-uh, Bubbles. Hell no. I ain’t getting my gear all grimy riding around in that lil piece of shit.”

“Shut up! I don’t see your boojie ass coming up with no plans or no rides!”

Nooni was still frowning when she followed her friend over to the car. It was some kinda throwback hatchback. A young, light-skinned dude with gray eyes and cute dimples was sitting behind the wheel with his seat pushed all the way back, low-riding. A Band-Aid halfway covered a bruise over his temple, and another large, egg-shaped bruise stood out like a hill on the back of his head, courtesy of Maleek.

Bubbles opened the door, and the guy reached over and popped a lever letting the passenger seat flip forward. Nooni was embarrassed over the scene she’d caused in the club the night before, but she wasn’t gonna let him see it. She smirked and stepped carefully into the back row. The pleather seats were ripped and belching foam. She was straight disgusted as her feet sank into a thick pile of empty soda bottles, fast food wrappers, and all kinds of random trash that had been dumped on the floor and on top of the badly stained seat cushions too.

Nooni rolled her eyes. Her stolen designer gear was about to be straight filthy and she shivered when she went to put on her seatbelt and saw how stained and nasty it was.

Releasing the lever, she said fuck buckling up. She was so skeeved out she couldn’t even bring herself to sit all the way back, forget about letting the seatbelt touch her. She was about to climb her ass right back out the car, but then Bubbles pulled the front passenger seat upright and plopped down in it, grinning up in the driver’s face like he was pushing a Porsche.

“Sup, baby?” the dude said to Bubbles as he pulled out into traffic. His seat was leaning back so far that Nooni felt like he was riding in the back with her.

He glanced at Bubbles, then nodded at Nooni and flashed her a handsome, thuggish grin. “Hey, gorgeous. How you doin’ today?”

Bubbles giggled. “Nooni, this is Truth. Truth, Nooni.”

Nooni smirked again. “Yeah, we already met.”

Truth glanced over his shoulder at her again. She’d looked damn good when he was buzzed in the club last night, but he was really seeing her now. His gray eyes roamed over her smooth brown skin, high, firm breasts, and the spread of her curvy thighs.

“We sure did, and you still lookin’ fine, baby,” he grinned and nodded. “Real fine.”

Truth turned the music up mad loud. He drove with one hand as he sparked up a blunt. He puffed on it a few times and then passed it to Bubbles. She took a couple of long tokes, then sent it to Nooni in the backseat.

The trio rode around getting nice and lifted. Before long, Nooni felt herself relaxing. She took a deep breath and allowed herself to unwind. She even sat back in the grimy seat. And even though her feet had sunk ankle-deep in the pile of stanking trash, she was steady patting them to the music’s banging beat.

It wasn’t long before Truth and Bubbles started getting it on in the front seat. Nooni puffed a fresh blunt as she watched Truth steer with one hand and unbuckle his belt with the other. Moments later, Bubbles had dipped her head in his lap. As Nooni watched, they rode down the busy streets of Harlem with Bubbles bobbing and slobbing on Truth’s long, yellow joint.

After a while, the cush had Nooni high and horny too. Forgetting about her heartache over Maleek, she thought about how Truth’s big hands had felt rubbing all over her in the club while they were dancing, and she couldn’t help but stare jealously as her girl throated his thang like it was a sugary bomb pop. It was rock-hard and glistening wet with spit, and Truth moaned as he drove, palming Bubbles’ head with his free hand as he rotated his hips and fucked up into her mouth.

It didn’t take him long to bust his nut. By the time Bubbles swallowed his load and was coating her swollen lips from a tube of cherry-red gloss, Truth was sliding her a yard that he’d peeled off a knot he’d taken outta his sock, and they were pulling up outside of a nightclub.

“What’s this?” Nooni asked, peering out the dirt-caked window as Truth turned off the ignition and opened his door. “Where we going?”

“This is my chill joint,” he replied smoothly. “They call it the G-Spot. Whattup? You was feeling that lil kiddie action over at T.C.’s Place last night, but you too young to handle a grown man’s club?”

Nooni smirked as he moved his seat forward and she followed him out on the driver’s side. She stood up and made a show of wiggling her succulent ass around as she hiked up the waistband of her tight designer jeans. “I ain’t too young for a damn thing,” she said, eyeing Truth’s crotch. She was drooling for the cash in his sock, and for that snake she’d seen him tuck back inside his pants too.
Truth grinned and slung his arm over her shoulder. “So you ain’t got no problem chillin’ wit’ a niggah like me for a minute?” he said as they walked toward the nightclub’s front door.