Chapter 28

I started my senior year the first week of September. Boss hired a maid to take care of the house and hired my mother to take care of the baby. Neither one of us trusted leaving her with anybody else; we knew nobody would take care of Malaysia like her grandmother would. Besides, that was the only way I could go to school all day and not worry. I knew she was in good hands because a few years ago I was in that same hold. My mother made some mistakes along the way, but considering what happened to some of my friends, I was thankful for those small roadblocks; they got me to where I was standing, and the view was damn good: I had everything I wanted, and my life was only just beginning. :

My mother and I didn’t waste any time before we started planning the wedding. Boss didn’t want to wait six months to a year, so I searched for a planner that was equal parts efficient and fierce. Raquel Bleak knew just the bad bitch for the job: Rion Bianci was a six-foot-two-inch Amazon queen with skin that looked as if it had been bathed in the sun every single day since her birth. Her face outshined any Cover Girl model - past or present - and her body was what every sister secretly wanted her own to look like. She had legs for days and ass for weeks – so needless to say, she and Boss never met face-to-face; I knew my man loved me, but I was also no fool. On a scale of one to ten, Rion was a twenty-one; hell, I would have switched teams for one night with her.

I met with Rion almost every single day after school. When we went over the color scheme. I wanted something classic, so I went with black, white, and red. Damask was my obsession of the moment, so I combed through dozens of bridal magazines and found a photo of a four-tier cake that was decorated so elegantly with the pattern. Rion found the perfect cake designer to reproduce it. The invitations were created and sent out. We wouldn’t have a lot of guests, but we would have everybody that mattered. The food was ordered, everything from the appetizers to the main course. Things were going well for us. There were no more phone calls from anonymous women, and even Boss’ late nights out with Pee-Wee seemed to be a thing of the past.

When things seem to perfect, they usually are. That week, Monday through Wednesday came and went without so much as a flat tire or a misplaced assignment - then Thursday rolled her evil ass around and ruined everything. I was sitting at a table in the corner of the school cafeteria, laughing and joking with my new friend Larry. Every since I found out that he was Boss’ cousin, I took to him. We hung out at school and even sometimes at the house. He didn't ask me a million questions about Boss, and I appreciated that. He also knew our number one rule: he didn’t run his mouth.

“I heard you fuck with Boss?” Risha Williams bent over our table with her funky ass all up in the air. “Is that true? You fuck wit Boss?”

I knew it was about to be some drama. Words can’t even describe how much I hated that bitch. She was so simple - and not in an innocent way, but in an ignorant way. Risha was a rat I’d known since the second grade; I even hated her ass way back then. She was the little girl that kicked the back of your chair when the teacher’s back was turned but never got caught doing it. I thought things were settled when I whooped her ass back in seventh graht seventde, but I was obviously mistaken. What other reason did the stupid bitch have for approaching me about my man? She knew damn well that I was now the mother of Boss’ only child; the kids at that school knew my life better than I did, and she was no different. The thirsty trick spoke my name so much, I bet she mumbled it in her sleep. She was just a hater, and I knew that - so why did I let her get to me?

“Risha, what you want?” I took a deep breath and sat back in my seat like the shit was nothing to me. “You know I fuck with Boss. So what’s yo point?”

“My point is,” Risha bent down even further and snaked her neck with every vile word she spoke, “I fucked ‘em.” She made sure to blurt it out loud enough for everyone in the entire lunchroom to hear.

I was mortified, but I wasn’t about to let her know it. She started it, so I just played along with her. Mama didn’t raise no fool - but she also didn’t raise no punk.

“Bitch, what you want, a lollipop?”

“Nauh, I already had one.” She egged me on, licking her crusty-ass lips in my face. “And he let me lick the wrapper.” Lil Wayne’s lyrics came firing out of her mouth like a missile launcher. “I sucked that nigga’s dick so good, I made his toes curl.”

“Really?” I stood up and met her halfway across the table. “’Cause I sucked his dick so good that he bought me that Porsche parked out back.” I couldn’t help but smirk. “And bought me a house and asked me to marry him. But I guess that’s just the difference ’tween me and you: you make nigga’s toes curl, and I make nigga’s hearts weak.” I said what I had to say, then sat back down in my seat. Who was that bitch to make me uncomfortable? I wasn’t tripping off her lies. Boss was my man, and that was all that mattered. It was hard sometimes to trust a nigga like him, but if I didn’t at least try, there was no point to our entire relationship. I wasn’t that naive. I knew he’d been unfaithful in the past, but when he asked me to marry him I assumed that part of his life was over. I had him so far up on a pedestal, he couldn’t do anything but fall.

Risha didn’t learn her lesson in the seventh grade. She wanted to try me again, so I gave her what she wanted. When she jumped across the table and knocked me to the hard linoleum floor below, I was taken completely off guard. She got that one off, I gave her that much - but it wasn’t over just yet. Once I shook it off, I walked that bitch like a dog. Larry tried to pull me off her, but I wasn’t having it. We went at each other like animals in the wild. Word of a girlfight spread fast, and soon damn near every student in the schoolwiln the s surrounded us – but my rage wouldn’t let me care.

“The principal comin’!” An unfamiliar female voice shouted out from within the crowd.

“Come on, Meesh.” Larry pulled me off Risha as one of her girls pulled her from me.

“Let me go!” I snatched away from him, picked up the chair I was sitting in earlier, and swung it right at Risha’s head. “Talk all that shit now, bitch!”

The chair hit her on the side of the face, sending her crashing to the floor - and I regretted it instantly. The way I hit her was merciless; that wasn’t me, but she made me so mad. I understood then how people commit murder with no intent. I didn’t kill her, but I could have. A blow like that to the head could have cost Risha her life and cost me my freedom. I knew I had to get my temper under control; if I didn’t, my baby was going to grow up without me - and that was not acceptable. She was my first priority...I even put her before Boss.

The principal arrived right in time to see it all go down, and I got suspended for thirty days. He told me that the only reason he didn’t call the police was that I’d never been in any kind of trouble before. Risha was another story; that girl lived up in his office. Plus, I had too many people on my side that said she started it. After the nurse checked her out, she got bounced the same way I did. Thirty days was fine with me, just as long as she got the same.

The drive home was quiet. I played no music and answered no phone calls or texts; my mind was too busy. I thought about the man I was about to marry, the man I loved with all my heart. Just for a second, I allowed myself to doubt him: What if Risha really was telling me the truth? What if Boss fucked that rat? It didn’t take long for me to start to believe it was true; it wasn’t like it was the first time. Asia wasn’t the last bitch to call my house, and everybody else couldn’t be lying...Boss had to be guilty of something.

“What you doin’ home so early?” He began to question me as soon as I walked through the front door at one-thirty in the afternoon.

“Why?” I shot him as much attitude as I could muster up. “I fuck up yo plans?”

“Fuck you talkin’ bout, Meesh?”

“Whatever.” I just brushed him off, then tossed my bookbag on the floor in front of him. “I got suspended.”

“For what?” he managed to ask through his ighthroughlaughter. “Baby, what the fuck you do?”

“Ya know,” I walked over and sat down on the couch right across from him. “It’s bad enough you gotta cheat on me - but do you gotta do it with a bitch that goes to my school?”

“Here you go,” he complained as if I were the one being unreasonable. “Quit lettin’ them hoes fill yo head with bullshit.”

I honestly couldn’t tell if he was being sincere or not. Boss had a way about him that made you believe every word he spoke, even when he was blowing smoke up your ass. The only thing I knew for sure was that I was tired. Between him, his drama, going to school, handling my business around the house, and taking care of my baby, I was wore the fuck out. I couldn’t even argue with him anymore; I just wanted to get away.

“I’ll see you later,” I told him as I clutched my car keys tight and headed back for the door. “I’m going to my mama’s house to pick up Malaysia.”

“Don’t you think we need to talk about this?”

“I don’t really see the point right now.”

“The point is, I don’t wanna lose you over no bullshit.”

That was exactly what I meant: he was good. I wanted to believe him; I wanted to stay there and hear him out - but something inside wouldn’t let me. I stood in limbo for a few seconds. My heart wanted me to stay, but my head shook back and forth and told me to leave. It said I was being a damn fool for this nigga – and even my heart started to believe it was right. I didn’t have another argument in me, and I damn sure didn’t have another knock-down, drag-out fight. So, I did the only thing I could for myself: I left...it was the only thing I did right the entire day.