Ruthless and Rotten (15 page)

“I'm happy for you,” Jordan lied with a straight face. “What are you going to name the baby? Is it a boy or a girl?”

“It's gonna be a boy. I'll probably name him after his big-head daddy.” Chocolate Bunny was in the dressing room, bragging about being pregnant and the fact that her and her mystery man had just put a huge down payment on a new house.

She wasn't fooling everyone with all that top-secret hush-hush shit about the baby's daddy. All the girls in the club would see her all up in O.T.'s face day in and day out, laughing and giggling. They weren't blind or stupid. Jordan tried her best to pry the private information out of Chocolate Bunny or at least make her slip up and finally admit the shit, but wasn't successful. She was keeping that close to the vest.

“This week is gonna be my last grindin' up in this here motherfucker. My man wants me to sit on my ass and raise his son.” Chocolate Bunny affectionately stared down at the tiny bulge that was growing and smiled. “I'm ready to retire out this game anyway and get my life back together. Maybe I'll go back to school or something productive like that.”

Kenya was at the doorway ear hustling on the conversation that was taking place between Jordan and Chocolate Bunny. She felt like marching in the dressing room and knocking that bastard-ass baby the fuck out of the stomach of that man-stealing black-snake bitch, but what good would that really do? Paris would still be devastated whenever O.T. would be man enough to break the news to her.
He should've just broke up with her a long time ago and saved her the grief of all the drama
. Kenya eased away from the door, unnoticed, and sat back down at the bar. She had the bartender give her the entire bottle of wine and poured herself another glass.
This shit is fucked up,
was all that kept racing through her mind.

Kenya decided by her fourth glass that it'd be better to keep this baby-crap information from Paris as long as possible to spare her feelings. Considering the unstable, depressing state of mind and constant stress that Paris had been dealing with, Kenya was terrified what would be her best friend's response to all the madness that was going down. Luckily, this was gonna be Chocolate Bunny's last week dancing, so she claimed. But just in case she had any thoughts of prolonging her departure from Alley Cats, the sooner Kenya made it official and fired her low-down sneaky-ass the better. She'd call Chocolate Bunny right before her shift the next day and let her know what was really good.

“Last call for alcohol!” the DJ announced for the last and final time for the night.

It was damn near two in the morning and the strip club was slowly clearing out as the house lights came on. All the girls were going back to the dressing room to get changed and go home or wherever they planned on laying their head down for the night. Some had boyfriends waiting, some had husbands, some had tricks, and even a few had a bitch. Whatever the case was, everyone was hauling ass to leave out.

“All right, Addiction and Tight-n-Right, I'll see you ladies tomorrow.” Boz held the door open and watched them to their vehicles.

“Hold up, Boz, I'm ready to jet too!” Chocolate Bunny yelled out while struggling with her duffel bag, followed by a loud-talking Jordan.

“Yeah, me too! I'll holler at y'all in a few!” Boz saw Jordan and her woman embrace, kiss, then drive off.

Chocolate Bunny seemed to be enraged as she threw her bag to the pavement. “What kinda jealous-hearted-ass ho done did some treacherous shit like this?” Chocolate Bunny fumed, looking down. “And Boz, where the fuck was security at?”

Boz walked over to investigate and found all four of Chocolate Bunny's tires slashed. “Damn, girl! Who the fuck did you piss off tonight?”

“You know how these bum bitches up here be hating on me because I clock major dollars up in this motherfucker!” Chocolate Bunny screamed across the parking lot to make sure that the rest of the dancers who hadn't left yet could hear exactly what she was saying.

“Fuck you!” one of them replied as they all laughed at her misfortune and went on about their way.

Chocolate Bunny whipped out her cell, rolled her eyes, and pushed number one on the speed dial. “Hey baby, it's me!”

“Where you at?”

“I'm still at the club!”

“Why you still there? I was waiting for you.”

“One of these tramps done sliced my tires!”

“Well, just turn the sounds on and sit tight. I'm gonna send one of my street soldiers to find a nigga with a flatbed and come get you. I told you ya ass need to be done with that club!”

“Don't start with me, okay, sweetie? I love you!”

“I love you too! You and my son!”

“Okay, see you soon!”

 

 

Twenty minutes or so had passed and Chocolate Bunny was still sitting in her car, waiting. Boz was chilling on the hood, keeping her company as long as possible. Kenya finally appeared at the door and waved for him to come inside. It was time to pay the security detail for the night and close up, so he had to return to his post and finish up club business.

“You better come in the club and wait in there,” Boz suggested as he opened the car door wide for Chocolate Bunny to get out. “I can't abandon your ass out here with all these perverts and stalkers roaming the streets!”

“Yeah, you ain't never lied. I don't want nobody to kidnap my fine black perfect ass!” she joked as they both walked back into Alley Cats.

Kenya was going over the paperwork and having each guy sign for his pay envelope. Boz had to do his job and verify each bouncer's nightly evaluation. As soon as Kenya was done with her part, she then focused on Chocolate Bunny, who was sitting at the other end of the bar playing one of the poker arcade games.

“Hey, girl, what's the deal?” Kenya interrupted her game, feeling like now was just as good a time as any to fire her.

“Nothing, just waiting for my sweetie to send a tow truck to come rescue me from them broke tricks slicing my damn tires! You know I'm off tomorrow, so I'll call the club in a few days to talk to you about something! It's kinda important.”

“Well, I'm sorry about your tires, but this gives me the opportunity to kick it with you about something else. It's important too.”

“Oh, yeah? Well, what is it, Kenya?” Chocolate Bunny smartly asked. “What the hell did I do wrong now? I'm dying to know!”

“Nothing, we just need to talk. Give me a minute to finish things up and send the fellas home so we can have some privacy.”

“Yeah girl—whatever!” Chocolate Bunny put another quarter into the game to pass away the time waiting for the tow truck to arrive. She was gonna just tell Kenya over the phone she quit, but fuck it—now was as good a time as any. Fuck waiting any longer.

Boz and the rest of the guys gathered their stuff and left out with a few beers in hand. “Are y'all gonna be all right?” he turned back, asking before he started his truck.

“Yeah, we good,” Kenya waved him off. “Go ahead and bounce. Go home to your family. I'll see you tomorrow evening!” Kenya shut the front door, making sure that it was locked. Ready to argue, she then took a seat next to Chocolate Bunny and braced up for round one. “Listen chick, I swear to God that I'm not trying to be twisted all up in your business, but I think what you been doing is seriously foul and wrong as a motherfucker.”

“Excuse me, but what in the hell am I supposed to be doing, Ms. Thang?”

“Don't play silly mind games with me, Nicole. I was coming in the dressing room and heard what you said on the humble.”

“And please tell me, just what do you think you heard?” Chocolate Bunny snickered as she leaned back on the stool, getting an earful.

Kenya was getting angry at the brazen and heavy-mouthed Chocolate Bunny. “So you about to have a baby, huh?”

“And so what? What's it to you?”

Before Kenya could answer they heard a noise come from the rear of the club. Both of them froze, looking at one another with a sense of fear, because they knew for a fact that everyone had left the building. Kenya kicked off her high heels and quietly made her way around to the other side of the bar, grabbing the pistol that they kept on the bottom shelf. Two seconds later she and Chocolate Bunny heard the noise once again.

“Whoever the fuck is back there, you about to catch some serious hot ones in the ass!” Kenya screamed out into the rear of the club. “I'm not bullshitting! You best to come out! We already done called the police!”

Chocolate Bunny and Kenya's mouths both almost dropped to the ground in disbelief when the person emerged out of the dark shadows and into the light. It was a red-eyed, worn-out, and exhausted-looking Paris. She had her nightgown and slippers on while a huge 9 mm pistol graced her side. Her hair was all over her head and her puffy face was full of tears. “It's me, Kenya!” She dropped the spare club keys on the bar. “Don't worry, it's only me!”

“Girl, damn! Why the fuck is your ass lurking like that?” Kenya, relieved, lowered her gun. “I could've shot you. And damn, why you dressed like that? And shit, why you here?”

“Damn, she's right. Are you crazy or what? Have you lost your mind?” Chocolate Bunny jumped in, confused also.

Paris's fingers tightly gripped the gun handle with animosity. “You don't say shit to me, man-stealing ho!”

“Who the fuck is you talking to like that? I 'bout done had enough of you tripping out whenever the fuck you feel like it! Not to mention putting your damn hands on me like at the salon!”

Kenya knew that Paris was out of her mind and didn't know what exactly she had planned on doing, so she did her best to try to defuse the situation before it got well out of hand. “Listen, why don't we all just calm down?” She raised her hands up in between Paris and Chocolate Bunny.

“Oh, I'm good!” Chocolate Bunny replied, as she looked Paris up and down, shaking her head. “I'm not the fool that's standing in a strip club in the middle of the night rocking pajamas with my wig tore up.”

“Paris, why are you here anyway?” Kenya wondered, asking her friend. “And girl, why aren't you dressed? What's wrong with you? What happened?”

“I didn't have time.” Paris was timid in her demeanor and response when talking to her best friend.

Kenya, tired of trying to figure her girl's motives out, threw her hands up in the air. “I'm confused as hell! I give up! What's going on? What's wrong? Tell me!”

“This whore right here is what's wrong with me!” Paris pointed at Chocolate Bunny with her pistol. “She's what happened!”

“Look, you lunatic, it'll be in your best interest to stop waving that gun around before it mess around and go off, then it really will be some shit!” Chocolate Bunny put her hands on her hips, showing no signs of fear of Paris and what she could possibly do.

Kenya stood back, realizing that her best friend was on some other type of shit and had totally and officially snapped. “Just tell me what happened? I thought that you were at home sleeping—relaxing?”

“I was at home doing what you said until Jordan called me!” Paris wept like a small child not getting toys on Christmas morning.

It then hit Kenya like a ton of bricks what the fuck this whole scene was about. Jordan must've called Paris with that baby bullshit getting in her head and getting her fired up. “Listen, Paris, I was gonna tell you, but I just found out myself—tonight.”

“Look, y'all, I hate to break up this wild soap opera y'all living in, but I'll be out in my car waiting for my man's people,” Chocolate Bunny blurted out. “Ain't nobody got time for you or you!”

“Bitch, I swear on everything I love, if you take one step that's your black-cheating-ass!”

“Yeah, okay Paris, can you just tell a girl, with your messy self, what the fuck this is all about, if you don't mind? I'm listening!”

Paris wiped her tears, gathering up her courage to hear Chocolate Bunny finally confess the truth. “So I heard you supposed to be having a baby?”

“Yeah, and?” Chocolate Bunny put her hand on her stomach. “What about it? Is that okay with you? Matter of fact, why do you even care so damn much?”

“Why the fuck would you think that the shit would be okay with my ass?” Paris hissed with anger and contempt.

“Girl, bye! I ain't gotta clear my personal life with either one of you two messy bitches. Y'all be buggin'!” Chocolate Bunny shifted her weight on one hip. “So deal with it! I'm having a baby—so fucking what!”

“So you ain't denying it?” Paris shouted nervously as her hand shook and her words echoed throughout the empty club. “You're pregnant?”