“Nah, fuck that.” I sat forward in my seat. “Why the fuck would she feel comfortable enough to even try you?”
“Probably because you let her get too comfortable around us.”
My jaw tightened.
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me as soon as it happened?”
His eyebrows lifted slightly. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
A dry laugh left him. “See? This why I kept my mouth shut.”
“Because you knew how it looked.”
“Because I knew your ass was gon’ start doing exactly what you doing right now.” He pointed at me briefly before gripping the steering wheel again. “Trying to turn this shit around on me instead of paying attention to what I’m saying.”
I looked away before I said something reckless. My thoughts were crashing into each other so fast it was making my head hurt.
Giani.
Naked.
On Booda’s lap.
The image punched me straight in the gut.
“You gave her the black eye?” I asked.
Booda looked over at me again, surprised by the question.
“Yup. I knocked that bitch clear across the room.”
I thought back to when my momma was admitted into hospice. Giani had shown up two days later, wearing oversized sunglasses indoors, talking about how she got into a fight at the club while drunk. She said several females jumped her, but she couldn’t tell me anything about them.
I remembered laughing. Remembered teasing her for going to the club without me and getting her ass kicked.
“Damn,” I whispered.
“There you go.”
“No.” I shook my head hard. “No, because why the fuck would she do that to me?”
Booda’s expression flattened. “Because everybody don’t love how you love.”
Silence swallowed the truck after that. The only sounds were the engine humming beneath us and the music.
I kept replaying shit in my head now. The matching clothes. The copied hairstyles. How Giani always wanted to know where I bought my jewelry. How excited she got whenever me and Booda argued. How she used to stare whenever he walked into rooms.
Little shit I ignored because I loved her.
“What if she had told me you punched her?” I asked eventually, still staring out the window.
“She knew not to do that. Giani ain’t stupid. She knew you would believe me when I told you what she did. Plus, you was going through it with your momma. At that time, you was on edge, and quick to shoot. She wasn’t ready to die.”
“Why would you let me stay friends with a bitch who slimed me?”
“I been telling you to leave her alone. You listen to me about everything else. I thought you would take heed when I told you that too. Friendship breakups be hard. I didn’t want you feeling that when yo’ momma was dying.”
