“Kwest?” she asked, her voice lower now. “Yunique baby daddy?”
“Yeah,” the girl answered. “He was talkin’ like he knew what happened in yo’ apartment... Like he was part of that shit.”
Sha’Nelle’s hand came up to her mouth, coverin’ it while she shook her head slow.
“No,” she said under her breath. “That don’t even make sense. Yunique been callin’ to check on me every day.”
“I’m tellin’ you what I heard,” her friend pressed, her voice real serious now. “He wasn’t just sayin’ your name, ‘Nelle. He was talkin’ about what happened in yo’ apartment like he was there, girl.”
Sha’Nelle’s eyes flickered up to me before she forced herself to keep listenin’.
“He said you got hit when you was tryna run,” the girl continued. “He said you ain’t even make it all the way out the door before they shot you, and he was laughin’ about that shit like it was funny.”
Sha’Nelle’s lips parted, and I saw shock hit her all over again.
“And then he said somethin’ about the safe,” her friend went on. “He said it was in yo’ closet.
Sha’Nelle’s hand came up slow to cover her mouth.
“He even said how much they got,” the girl added, her voice droppin’ lower. “He said it was twenty thousand, ‘Nelle.“
I watched this shit hit her. It wasn’t all at once, but piece by piece. Her eyes dropped, and you could tell her mind started goin’ back, runnin’ through every moment she had brushed off before.
“Kwest had been to my apartment that night,” she said slow, like she was realizin’ it out loud. “He picked Yunique up from there…”
Her voice started trailin’ off, but she kept goin’.
The room got quiet after that, and all you could hear was her breathin’ while she tried to hold it together.
“Yunique really been callin’ me,” she said, lookin’ down at the bed, still tryna process this shit. “Checkin’ on me… cryin’ and shit… and this whole time…”
She couldn’t even finish it. Her friend’s voice softened on the other end.
“I’m just sayin’ be careful,” she said. “That nigga know too much. I ain’t wanna just go to the police, but I did wanna tell you, and let you decide how you wanna handle it.”
Sha’Nelle nodded like she could see her.
“A’ight,” she replied low. “I hear you.”
She ended the call and just sat here while she stared down at her phone like she ain’t even know what to do with herself.
Then she looked up at me, and that look on her face told me she was fucked by the betrayal.
“That’s my best friend baby daddy,” she said, her voice low but heavy. “Yunique was somebody I trusted.”
She shook her head slow, still tryna make of it make sense, but it wasn’t comin’ together the way she needed it to.
“How you even process some shit like that?” she asked, more to herself than me.
I ain’t answer her right away. I had already heard everything I needed to hear, and in my head, that shit was up and stuck.
I leaned forward, restin’ my elbows on my knees for a second while I looked at the floor, then I sat back up, my mind movin’ somewhere else completely.
I wasn’t thinkin’ about what happened no more. I was thinkin’ about what was comin’ next.
I was ready to get active.
I spent the next few hours makin’ sure Sha’Nelle was straight while waitin’ on the jet to land.
