Shattered (10 page)

“Hell yeah, I want some,” said Meeka, sashaying over to the island and pouring herself a cup.

“Make me a cup, too, please,” I said, plopping down on her plush sofa.

“Damn, Peaches. This house is so nice,” Meeka said, walking around. Although she had been to Peaches’s shop and even went on a cruise with us the past February to Puerto Rico, she had never been to Peaches’s house. I watched her walking around, looking at pictures. The big one of Nut and Peaches on top of the fireplace. The one of Amir in the foyer. The wall of framed pictures leading up the staircase. I knew this was all Peaches needed to start going down memory lane. Listening to her talk about Nut was downright depressing. Meeka curled up on the couch across from me with her glass and listened to all the stories I’ve heard a thousand times. The funny ones that had Peaches’s crazy butt up out her seat imitating me or one of my other girlfriends who worked the streets with us and even some of the fucked-up ones that left all of us with watery eyes. By the time she was done, we had been through the whole bottle of margarita mix, two bottles of rum, and a couple glasses of an Amaretto mix Peaches called Alice in Wonderland, swearing she was a bartender. That shit had us so twisted, it took me a second to realize her and Meeka was both snorting lines of coke on her glass coffee table.

Peaches smiled and said, “Here, KiKi.”

I felt my body moving toward them. I reached out for the crisp bill she had rolled into a straw and kneeled down to breathe in the magic dust.

T
he first hit made me feel like I could do anything. I kept hearing myself say, “Let’s get in the pool, y’all. Come on, y’all, let’s get in the pool.” Meeka and Peaches just kept laughing at me. I ain’t care that it was too cold outside. I had a huge burst of energy, the kind that made me wanna do something not planned. I jumped up off the floor and turned Peaches’s iPod speakers up as loud as they could go.

“If you gettin’ money/Just throw it in the bag,” me and Fabolous rapped.

“Whoa! Whoa!” Meeka and Peaches clapped and danced around me until we had a mini–Soul Train line going and I was pop-locking. I leaped up on her couch and sang some more with the remote control. I felt so free.

“You get it ’cause I got it/I got it, so you get it.” I kept rapping, and then I soared across Peaches’s coffee table, just missing the other couch.
Blooop.
The back of my head clipped the coffee table.

“Oh, shit!” Peaches yelled.

“You all right, KiKi?” Meeka said, running to help me up.

My head hurt a little bit, but I still felt like I had eaten a hundred dark chocolate bars. “What we ’bout to do next?” I said, clapping my hands against my thighs.

“Girl, you need to sit down and chill the fuck out ’fore you tear my shit up,” Peaches said, giving me a Ziploc bag filled with ice. “Lay back.”

I laughed and laid across the couch, holding the bag to the back of my head.

Meeka was laughing, too. “This your first time?”

“I feel like that damn Road Runner cartoon. Meep. Meep.” I bounced back up when Ester Dean came on. “Drop it, drop it low, girl/drop it, drop it low, girl.”

“KiKi, your ass crazy as hell!” Meeka shouted.

Peaches yanked me back down on the couch. “Come on, KiKi, for real, you doing too much. Chill out.”

“All I hear you saying is
wonk-wonk, wonk-wonk, wonk-wonk
,” I said, opening and closing my hand to show Peaches what her mouth looked like.

Meeka rolled on her side, laughing.

“Y’all bitches crazy,” Peaches said. “I’m taking my ass to bed. KiKi, you know where the guest room is.”

Me and Meeka cracked up again as she walked up the staircase. We both fell asleep soon afterward, right on the couch. The next morning, the back of my head was throbbing like a toothache. Peaches was up before the two of us, cooking breakfast.

“That shit smell good. Okay, Silver Diner,” Meeka said, stretching. She got up to use the bathroom.

I laid there, listening to the sounds of the house. The sizzle of the sausage. The water running in the guest bathroom with the jetted tub. The birds outside the window. Fuck! Birds don’t chirp outside my muthafucking window. I rolled over on my back and stared at the details of the sage trim on the curtains that matched the faint sage color on the sofas that just so happened to pick up the sage specks in the carpet and the lampshade. This bitch had it made. Living all the way the fuck out here in the woods, just her and her damn son.

“Whenever y’all whores ready, breakfast done!” Peaches yelled.

No, this tramp ain’t call me a whore when my fucking twat put the down payment on her deluxe palace. Selfish ass. All this time, she been seeing me struggle and the best she can do to help me is give me a lot of hours shampooing hair? Now that shit don’t make sense. I make ten dollars an hour plus tips. And black people never tip the shampoo girl.

Meeka came back out the bedroom fully dressed, so I grabbed my bag and went to the bathroom. Look at this. Plush, creamy towels, scented soap, and candles everywhere like this the W Hotel. I washed up, threw on some black leggings, a fitted red hoodie, some big silver hoop earrings before I headed down for breakfast. Peaches had made pomegranate mimosas.

“You doing the damn thing, I mean, got your own shop, your nice-ass ride, and this place is gorgeous,” Meeka said, smiling. “I wanna be like you when I grow up.”

Pssst. Peaches smiled and raised her glass. “I’ll drink to that.” Meeka clinked her glass against Peaches’s glass. I rolled my eyes and sipped my mimosa.

“No, for real. I’m glad you like it. It took my interior designer forever to finish, though.”

Pssst. Now here she go. Bragging and shit.

“So, ladies, did you have fun last night?” Peaches said.

“I know KiKi’s ass did,” Meeka said, laughing and pointing at me. Peaches joined in with the cackling, too.

“Fuck y’all,” I said, really not in the mood.

“Damn, calm down,” Peaches said, still smirking. “Awww…somebody’s irritable this morning. You ain’t sleep good?”

I rolled my eyes.

“Hey, I got an idea that will cheer you up,” Peaches said, her eyes big and bright like a child who just found out they was going to Disney World.

“What?” I said, feeling more annoyed by the second.

“Since Audri just left your ass down here, we should roll up to New York and see what Trina Boo up to. When’s the last time you seen Trina Boo with your shady ass?”

She
would
have to put it that way.

“I’m down,” Meeka said, excited. “All I gotta do is tell my mother to keep Quentin another night.”

“We should take a picture in Times Square and send it to her ass. Put the word
Naaa
up under it,” Peaches said, laughing. “Take that bitch right in front of the Flatiron Building or some shit.”

I even had to laugh at that one.

“Wait, let me call Trina Boo first, and see if she’s even in town,” Peaches said, dialing her number. “I know how her ass like to hop from city to city.”

Peaches put the phone on speaker.

“Hey, girl, what’s up?” Trina Boo said.

“Hey. What you doing?” Peaches asked.

“Nothing, just waking up.”

“Hey, Trina Boo,” I said. “It’s KiKi.”

“Hey, Shakira! What y’all doing?”

“Nothing yet,” Peaches said. “You in New York?”

“Yeah, why? Y’all coming to see me?” she asked, excited.

Peaches looked at me, waiting for my answer with a big cheese grin on her face.

“KiKi, you owe me a trip, bitch!” Trina Boo said.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. They knew how to lay the guilt trip on thick.

“Shit, it’s a big party tonight, too. And I’m telling you, y’all ain’t never been to a party ’til you been to one of these kind. Wall-to-wall rich niggas. Rappers, producers, league niggas.”

“Hot damn…fuck that, I’ma have to get me something cute to wear,” Meeka said. “Hey, Trina Boo. I’m Meeka.”

“Hey, girl, nice to meet you. You coming, too?”

“I sure am!”

“Can you get us in the party?” Peaches asked.

“Of course. As long as I bring some bad bitches with me, I can get anybody in. Meeka, you a bad bitch or what?” Trina Boo asked, laughing.

“You best believe it! Bad with a capital B!” Meeka added a snap for extra emphasis.

They all laughed. Now I wanted to go, too. I had never been to one of Trina Boo’s celebrity bashes. She had been telling me to come to one for a long time, but I was always too bunned up with Kareem. Camille told me about one she went to in Atlanta, and Peaches told me about the parties she went to in New York, Miami, and Houston. Ever since Trina Boo’s name was getting big around the music industry, cuz of all the hot videos she was in, she stayed getting invited to celebrity parties and premieres. Last I checked she was dating a Knick or a Net.

“Please come, KiKi. Your ass be flaking on me all the time,” Trina Boo said.

“Okay, okay,” I finally said.

“Yay!” Meeka and Peaches sang. I shook my head at Meeka dancing in her seat.

“Let me go pack a bag,” Peaches said.

“And let me go raid your closet,” I said, racing her up the stairs.

By the time we finally hit the road, it was almost two o’clock. It took us awhile to get there cuz of construction in Philly and in Delaware. We got to Brooklyn at seven o’clock. Trina Boo shared an apartment with a Trinidadian girl named Taryn. They lived in an apartment building on Atlantic Avenue. Peaches said it used to be a Catholic church before they turned it into condos. After Trina Boo buzzed us in the gate, we walked inside the building, then down a long hall, before we stepped out a glass door and cut through a nice-size courtyard in the middle of the building. You would’ve never thought the courtyard was there from the loud and busy street. I could actually see the sky and where the trees, grass, and plants got its light from every day.

When we rang their doorbell, Trina Boo snatched open the door and gave me and Peaches big hugs. I introduced Meeka to Trina Boo, and then Trina Boo introduced me and Meeka to Taryn. She had pretty brown skin and naturally long, straight hair. She was a dancer, too, under the same Imprint agency Trina Boo was signed with. They was lounging around and not in no kind of rush to get dressed or anything. Free, Trina Boo’s little black Yorkie, sniffed our ankles before he went back to his red cushion on the floor. Their apartment was gorgeous. There was higher ceilings than normal, an exposed brick wall, nice hardwood floors, and even a metal spiral staircase that took you to the basement.

“What y’all want to drink?” Taryn asked, going to the kitchen.

“Cîroc and something else,” Meeka said.

“You got some Grand Marnier?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ll hook y’all up. What you want, Peaches?”

“Whatever mixed with whatever,” she said, plopping down on the camel-colored leather couch. “My feet hurt. We better be catching a cab tonight.”

“Of course, we are. About time you finally came here, bitch!” Trina Boo said, squeezing me again.

“I know, I know. I’m terrible.”

“Yeah, you are. So what y’all gonna wear?”

We all opened our bags. When I showed the green-and-blue Versace dress I borrowed from Peaches, Trina Boo said, “Oh no. Too many people got that one up here. I’ve seen it like a hundred times already. You can’t wear that.”

Damn.

“Let’s go check my closet for something else,” she said, snatching my hand.

It ain’t take me long to find something I liked. Even though Trina Boo had ass for days, everything she gave me to try on hugged my body like it was made especially for me. The one everybody seemed to like the most was an emerald-green Givenchy romper. That shit looked perfect on me.

“Well, we not leaving ’til twelve, so y’all can just chill,” Trina Boo said.

“I’ma take a nap,” Peaches said, curling up in Trina Boo’s sheets. “Uggh, girl. When the last time you washed these fuckin’ sheets. They stink.”

“Fuck you!” Trina Boo said, laughing. “Ain’t nobody tell you to lay in my bed. There’s a huge pullout downstairs. I ain’t never here anyway.”

“Your ass here now,” Peaches said, tossing the sheets off of her. “Give me some clean ones, please.”

“Trick, this ain’t the Holiday Inn. Get your ass up and go to the closet.”

Me and Meeka shook our heads, then went to get our drinks from Taryn. I saw her rubbing her nose, the same way Peaches did all the time these days. I knew Taryn had just had a hit, and I wanted one, too. I felt my mouth getting wet cuz I wanted one so bad. I ain’t know what had come over me.

“Here you go,” Taryn said, passing me a drink.

“Thank you,” I said and waited for Meeka to grab hers. When she went back to the living room, I tapped my nose with my finger so Taryn could see me. She smiled and nodded her head to the right. I followed her down the hall and into her white-and-black decorated room. She closed the door behind me.

“You can sit down.”

I sat on her bed and waited for her to grab the stash from a drawer. She took out a vial, then passed it to me. I sniffed it and almost immediately felt high. I laid back on her bed and laughed. Before I knew it, I felt Taryn’s hands massaging my breasts lightly. Her sexy ass was smiling at me hard. When she leaned closer, I kissed her. Taryn’s lips was so soft. She swirled her tongue in my mouth like a snake. She raised my shirt and pulled my breasts out before she flipped her tongue over my nipples. It was feeling so good, but then I heard Audri’s ringtone muffled under my butt. I took a deep breath and then pushed Taryn away.
What was I thinking?

She looked disappointed and then said, “Whenever you want some more, just come see me.”

I ain’t know if she was talking about more of her or the coke, but I had to leave her alone and answer the phone. I smiled as I walked out of her room, but the music stopped. How crazy was it that Audri chose to call me now but ain’t call me all day? I dialed her back.

“Hey,” I said, walking to the living room. I climbed down the metal staircase so I could have some privacy in the basement.

“Damn, you wasn’t gon’ call me all day?” Audri asked.

“You just thought about calling me, I see.” I sat on the plush chocolate couch.

“Man, whatever. What you doing?”

“Nothing.” I decided not to even mention that we was in New York. “What you doing?”

“Getting ready to get outta here. The party’s in a suite upstairs and shit.”

“Hey, Audri…have you ever fucked one of your dancers before?”

“What? Where the fuck is that shit coming from?”

Now she’s stalling. “I just wanna know.”

“You ain’t never ‘wanna know’ before.”

“Have you or not?”

“No! I don’t mix business with pleasure. Ever. Why the fuck you asking me that shit?”

“You sound guilty,” I said.

“Man, I don’t have time for this.”

“Are you lying? Which one you fucked?”

Audri sucked her teeth, and then she said, “I’ll talk to you later.”

She hung up the phone. I laughed at myself for what I had just did. I picked a fight with her on purpose, and Audri fell right into my little trap. It’s true. I never even cared if she had gone there with any of them little hood rat hoes cuz they was there before I had even stepped in the picture. But now she was making me wonder. Hell, she never even brought them broads around me, and since she ain’t invite me to Atlantic City with her or any of her other little road trips, maybe it
was
more to their relationship than I thought.

I climbed the stairs to see where everybody was. Meeka had fallen asleep on the couch. Trina Boo was on the phone, and Peaches was curled up in her sheets snoring like shit. I decided to go see what Taryn was up to. My pussy was still wet from earlier, but when I tapped on her door, there was no answer. Maybe it was for the best. I went back to the living room and tried to fall asleep on the couch across from Meeka.