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“Well mama, what did you get him?...what did you get any of us?” Aneesah asked.

“I gave y’all life! What the fuck?! And that bitch mama got him a cheap ass Gucci watch. Them bags he bought her cost wayyyy more.”

I wanted to slap the shit out of her because she was coming for my mama too hard. I hated that my mom had even spoken to her and attempted to drum up a conversation about the kids. Lucia loved Christmas, so she was naturally in a good mood and ready to be genuinely nice. Today would have been the perfect day for Rahesha to get back on my mom’s good side, but she blew it by acting stank and dry. My mama peeped her lack of energy and she left her alone.

“But it was something, though. She bought all of your kids a gift and it’s a lot of us, so it’s automatically not cheap. You’re the only one who showed up empty handed, so you really shouldn’t be throwing a fit about gifts. If you don’t care to give them you shouldn’t care to receive them,” Aspen hissed. Whew, that was a word.

“Fuck all that! Armias is always in charge of Christmas gifts! It’s been that way for years! This is the first time he didn’t go all out for me! Can y’all not see that Lourdes is turning him against me?! He’s been giving me money weekly for over the past twelve years, but after that baby shower it stopped! That girl is pulling the strings and y’all so far up her ass y’all can’t see it!”

The silence that followed was loud.

“Alright, bye mama. I’m about to go enjoy Christmas with my brothers and sisters. See you later and I love you. We love you,” Aneesah patted her shoulder before walking in the house.

“Tuah, y’all girls is different! I used to ride for my mama. Couldn’t nobody mistreat Rema around me!”

“Oh, somebody’s being mistreated alright, but it’s not you.”

“Excuse me?!”

“My brother is your kid, but you haven’t treated him like one since daddy died. At first I felt a way about how Bubby was handling you, but now I get it. If it was up to you he’d never have a life of his own. In a perfect world for you he’d just take care of you and all your responsibilities while disregarding his own wants and needs. Yea, Bubby’s not wrong for being done with you. He should’ve been done because he created a monster.” She left Rahesha standing on the porch looking stuck and stupid. She stood there for several seconds before storming over to her car and leaving. I was with Armias. I didn’t want her at our house anymore.

Chapter 19

Nazaria

My mama was throwing one hell of a Christmas party at her new four bedroom Gentilly home that Section 8 had afforded her. An all day brunch buffet was fully loaded, different flavored mimosas were being served up, and we had all types of family games available to play. I was sitting in the living room with my sister and cousins, but I wasn’t socializing at all. They were indulging in an intense game of “Black Card Revoked.” They were shouting and screaming answers to black pop culture questions while I was on my phone stalking Ali’s young hoe. I was watching her page, Ali’s page, her mama’s page, Aspen’s page, Aneesah’s page, and I’d even gone to Milan’s Tiktok. I was determined to catch everybody’s perspective of Christmas because I wanted Lourdes’ pov to be an illusion so bad. I knew how bitches were when it came to social media. You could pretty much post whatever and paint any picture you wanted. I had bukoo friends who made it look like they were having their way when they were really broke as fuck. Sadly, Lourdes was really having her way and it was with the nigga I’d loved for over a decade.

Initially, I thought Ali would just be my lil play thing whenever I was in the mood. He was three years younger than me and a corner boy, so I never intended on catching deep feelings for him. The only reason why I gave him play in the first place was because he had an obvious crush on me and he was a Pierre. The big fish in the family were older and never looked my way. The few who were closer to my age didn’t look my way because they knew I had a nigga. Ali was wet behind the ears and didn’t understand the potential fallout that could come with fucking with the next niggas bitch in the streets. He didn’t budge one bit when I pounced on him and he was down to secretly hook up with me. As time went on and our friendship progressed things changed. He hustled harder and smarter than some grown men I knew. His name was ringing bells in the streets for all the right reasons. Folks were dickriding him because he was young, getting to the money, knocking niggas who played with him out on their asses, and he wasn’t scared to bust his gun. There’d been times when my own man would be bigging up Ali to my face not knowing that I was familiar with his game because I was secretly fucking him. His lil virgin ass didn’t know what to do when I first put this pussy on him, but he quickly learned. I knew I liked him on a deeper level when I found out he was smashing other bitches in the projects. I was cool with half of the girls he was knocking down and had only learned he was fucking with them from their own mouth. They thought they were sharing juicy gossip with a trusted friend, but I was really the bitch who taught Ali everything he knew. They were getting fucked good because of me and it was eating me alive that I couldn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t even complain to Ali because I had no space to be doing that. I had a man and I wasn’t trying to leave him. Sean had about four years on me and he paid the cost to be the boss in my life. He was breaking bread with me everyday and spoiling me with any designer item I ever asked for. Ali wasn’t trying to give me any money because it was all going to his lazy ass mama.

Ali remained my side nigga for years until Sean caught a fed case and got a lengthy prison sentence. Bitches were popping out the wood works and two even claimed to have babies for him. That’s when I knew I needed to focus my attention on something better and that something was my relationship with Ali. With years of hustling under his belt, he was doing alright for himself and his family. His money still wasn’t long enough to take care of a bitch like me, but he was only 16 so I was willing to give him a pass on that. Sometimes you had to stay down for the come up. I also had my own hustle going on with scamming. I started when I was 18 because Sean was going through a dry period. That taught me that I needed to have something of my own. I’d been boosting since I was in 10th grade but that was hit or miss at the time. I needed something that was going to bring in big money every time, so I learned the game of scamming from one of my other side niggas. By the time Sean was getting sentenced I had enough money to take care of myself, so I didn’t have to factor that into my dating life.

I was ready to give Ali my all based on what I felt for him in my heart. I guess years of playing second had bothered him more than he let on because he was completely against us becoming an exclusive couple. He said it was because he didn’t have time for the boyfriend girlfriend thing, but I felt like he was just trying to get back at me for not leaving Sean sooner. Rejection was new for me and I struggled with him not jumping at the chance to really be with me. But I concluded that it was just my ego because he still continued to hit me up and treat me the same. The more I thought about it, I was the only female he consistently fucked with and we’d formed a bond over the years that he didn’t share with anyone else. I’d heard of him fucking with several girls, but he never took any of them seriously. He rotated females in and out his life, but he’d never gotten rid of me. I could do without a title because it wasn’t like he was giving the next chick more than he was giving me. For nearly 13 years I was able to say that I was the closest a bitch came to Ali’s ice cold heart. I went to prom with him, I put his first traphouse in my name, I’d gotten acquainted with his family, he’d vent to me whenever his hoes got out of line, and anytime he was in a bind I was right there to save him. He used to call me his trap queen because of how much I held it down.

Never did I think he’d switch up on me. I believed that one day he’d finally realize I was the realest bitch on his team and wife me up. I definitely didn’t expect for another bitch to come along and get everything I’d been patiently waiting for. Yet all it took was a little two year jail sentence for him to betray me and do the unthinkable. I wasn’t even away for a full two years and he still managed to fall in love with someone else. The fucked up part about it was that Ali told me about the bitch himself while I was still in jail. I realized that “friend” shit had gone too far when he was sitting up on the phone damn near crying because another bitch had done him dirty. He was pouring his heart out about how things with her were soooo different. She was at his house damn near every night. He’d been wining and dining her with dates every other day. He’d dropped his entire roster for her. She’s gotten close to his siblings. He’d met her mama. He dropped a stupendous amount of racks on her for her birthday. It was a lot and I was getting madder every time he revealed another detail. I’d been around forever and didn’t get any of that shit. I’d met his family because I did clothing orders for his mom and I’d gone to prom with him. But I wasn’t on family trips with them or going to brunch with his sisters. That bitch had really worked her way in the family and hadn’t put in any of the work I had.

I was devastated, but I remained calm. It didn’t matter that he fell in love with Lourdes because she had fucked it up. Ali didn’t double back with people who crossed him, so I believed him when he said he was done with that bitch. I ended up getting released from jail a month early and when I came home things with Ali were different. All of a sudden he was bringing me around the fam on some chill shit, he was taking me on dates, he was posing for pictures with me and not tripping whenever I posted them, and he even let me stay at his place until I got my own shit. He was finally giving me the treatment I deserved and I was the happiest bitch alive. I joked with my friends about wanting to write Lourdes a thank you letter for changing him for the better.

Then towards the end of August that raggedy bitch Lourdes climbed out of the black hole she’d been hiding in to reveal she was pregnant. I had nightmares about the day I answered that call. I didn’t even know who was calling, but I was positive it was a bitch and I was eager to pop my shit. Ali was giving me everything except a commitment and I faulted Lourdes for that. Her wrongdoings may have helped Ali realize I was the only solid bitch in his life, but her wrongdoings had evidently traumatized him, too. Anybody would think twice about getting into another relationship right after being fucked over, so I gave Ali grace and didn’t trip about him still seeing other bitches. That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to trip on those bitches whenever I had a chance to, though. One of them calling his phone while I was laying naked in his bed after getting fucked good was my chance to really let a bitch know what time it was.

When I found out it was the infamous Lourdes on the other line I could have jumped for joy. I enjoyed antagonizing that bitch and I didn’t even have to do too much. I simply laid out the facts. I may have embellished some things to make her angrier but it worked. She was hooting and hollering in my ear when Ali walked in and found me on his phone. I was laughing at how mad I’d made that bitch until I heard the word “pregnant.” I didn’t have time to get nervous about it because he immediately shot her down and hung up the phone. After that I just knew that it didn’t matter if she was pregnant for him or not. He wasn’t interested in dealing with her or a baby, so even if she went on to have his baby he wasn’t going to be bothered with it. I was more than okay with him making her ass a single mother. She had her lil kiddy hair braiding business so she’d be okay.

I should have known a nigga like Ali was not going to be content with being a deadbeat. He was a teenager talking shit about niggas around the projects who weren’t taking care of their kids. His change of heart regarding Lourdes and the baby she was allegedly carrying should have been expected. It coming only a few days after that phone call was a little surprising though. I thought he’d get a blood test once the baby was born. But no, this nigga was checking me about snide comments I was making about her and trying to cut me off because I was doing too much. I had to reassure him that I would fall back and allow him to handle his responsibilities in peace so he’d feel comfortable with continuing to fuck with me. I should’ve known he was about to switch up on me, but I naively thought he was just doing the right thing. I always praised him for being a stand up guy, so I couldn’t trip about him doing right by his own flesh and blood. But now I knew that it had nothing to do with that damn baby. It was all about him wanting to be there for Lourdes because his stupid ass still loved the bitch for some reason.

I’d played it cool, stayed in my lane, and I gave infinite grace all for nothing. I’d been dropped on my head like I never meant anything to the nigga. He wouldn’t even give me the satisfaction of going back and forth with me. Him or his dumb ass bitch! I threw shots at them everyday on IG, but it was paid dust. I’d put in too much time and work with Ali to just let him be at peace with a bitch he hadn’t even known for a full year. If I didn’t do nothing else I was going to put hands and feet on that bitch once she dropped her baby. I had to because she was antagonizing me with the shit she was posting on IG. She hadn’t been popping it her whole pregnancy, but now she wanted to brag and post Ali? She was doing this on purpose.

I rewatched her story for the umpteenth time. The first few slides were pictures and videos from the night before at Qaylo and Amil’s house. Amil was from the 10th ward, too, and I never liked that sadity, fat hoe. The Pierre men must have had a thing for bitches who fucked over them because Amil had taken Qaylo through there. If I was him I would have killed that hoe for all the stunts she pulled. She smiled for selfies with Lourdes and those fake bitches Versace and Fendi. I was really cool with them at one point but then they became service providers and started acting weird. All of a sudden they were too good to hang in the hood and be on the scene. I wanted to slap those lame ass bitches.

The next few stories were posted early this morning. She posted pictures of some of her gifts and I was green with envy. Ali had gotten her multiple pairs of vintage Versace heels. The girls were scrambling to source those because they’d been going viral. She then posted three LV Murakami bags along with a bunch of other designer shit. I was pissed because that bitch was a Shein and Fashion Nova bandit. Ali was changing her sorry ass life. A few hours later she posted a picture of her holding a brand new Chanel bag and wearing a diamond Hello Kitty necklace. Then she posted pictures with Ali’s siblings, her mom, and she posted a few with Ali. They wore a different set of matching Christmas pajamas from the night before, but these were pink. This bitch had him losing his marbles. One picture in particular really made my blood boil because he reposted it. She was sitting in his lap, her shirt was lifted over her belly where there was a big, pink present bow, and his hands rested on both sides of her stomach. She clutched his face and kissed his cheek while he cheesed from ear to ear showing off his diamond grills. “LOVER GIRL” by Megan Thee Stallion played over the picture and it made me hate the song even more than I already did. Her next story was a repost from Ali’s page. His soft ass had done a boomerang with her in the same pose from the picture on her page. They were kissing each other on the lips in the boomerang though and he added “Best I Ever Had” by Drake. That shit fucked my head up because he was deliberately coming for me! If she was the best he ever had then he was implying that she was better than me. If I wasn’t going to get my nigga back then I needed to get my lick back. Those muthafuckers were going to feel me in real life.

Chapter 20

Armias

We were only two days into 2026 and I had hit the ground running with renovations on the second uptown location for Pierre Cuts & the first official salon for Braids by Lo. She had a suite before but this was a whole new ball game and I was excited to get the ball rolling for her. On New Year's Eve I presented her with the deed to the house and to the shop. I wanted her to know I wasn’t playing about putting her name on both. If anything ever happened to me she never had to worry about having a place to stay or being kicked out of her place of work because it was her property, too. She cried like a baby while thanking me over and over, but it was her that I was thankful for. She showed me how beautiful life could be when you had someone to share it with.

“I bet Lourdes wants to do all pink everything, right?” Juri asked as we walked into her side of the building. I wanted everything to be done by mid March, so I had Juri meet me at the shop for a consultation. She couldn’t do any interior decorating until the actual renovations were finished, but she always wanted to see what she was working with so she could give a quota as early as possible.

“Probably not, cause don’t she do lil boys' hair, too?” Benji asked while picking up one of their twin boys. They had a whole football team of kids ranging from ages 5 to 10. They only had the twins, who were the youngest of the bunch, with them today. Benji had come a long way from the head busser he used to be back in the day. He was an enforcer and goon for the niggas who used to supply Qaylo. I’d watched that nigga make grown men who were supposedly tough cower and cope pleas. No lie, I’d learned a lot of intimidation tactics from watching Benji in action. With him having four years on me he was like a big brother or mentor to me. Similar to Qaylo, he laid out the perfect blueprint for getting out the game unscathed. He was married with kids and owned multiple clubs and bars.