Adrienne

"You busy?"

"Nah. Why?" Lesane speaks into the phone. "You wanna come pick me up? I need to go grocery shopping and I figured you should come with me since your coming over tonight." I say.

"I'm kinda in the middle of something right now Dri." He says, making me furrow my eyebrows.

"Please. You'll get to pick dinner tonight." I say.

"I'm on the phone. Gimme a minute." He says, talking to someone else. "Yea igh. Want me to come now or you needa put some clothes on?" He asks.

"Umm.. Give me like thirty." I say.

"Igh." He says, before hanging up. He must be in a bad mood.

~

The car ride to the grocery store is quiet. My leg shakes anxiously as I wait for Lesane to say something, anything.

"What's wrong with you?" I finally ask, without looking at him.

We've stopped at a red light.

"Nothin. Just tired." He says, sinking into the leather seat, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter with his right hand.

"Are you sure?"

"Yea."

"Okay." I say, folding my arms.

I hate when he's like this, he obviously has something on his mind, but if he wanted to talk about it then he would.

"Well. If you don't wanna talk to me.. Guess I'll sit in the back." I say, taking off my seat belt. I start to climb to the backseat but Tupac grabs my shirt. "Sit yo ass down, got ya shoes all over my seat and shit." He says.

"No. You don't wanna talk to me anyway so-" I slap his hand, making him let me go.

"Adrienne sit down."

"I am." I say, plopping into the back seat.

Lesane just sucks his teeth, glaring at me in the rearview mirror.

A horn sounds behind us.

He rolls down his window and holds his middle finger up. "Lesane don't do that. That's rude." I say.

"The light just changed, they better shut they ass up."

Just as I'm about to say something back, the radio catches my attention.

Lesane turns the radio off, making me suck my teeth.

"I was listening to that." I say.

"People that sit in the back don't get to choose what's on the radio."

Once we get to the store, Lesane asks to stay in the car. After me telling him no a dozen times he finally gets out. "You're acting like a big ass baby today and I don't like it." I say, he sucks his teeth.

"Says the person who got mad and sat in the back seat."

"Shut up." I say, walking ahead of him. "And since you wanna be a baby. I'm picking what we eat tonight, because babies don't get-" my attention shifts to a familiar car in the parking lot.

"Is that.. DeVante?" I squint my eyes.

I stop in my tracks, making Tupac suck his teeth again.

"What the hell are you doing?" He asks, standing beside me, trying to line up my gaze and figure out what I'm looking at.

DeVante gets out of his car and goes to the passenger side. He opens the door and Jamie gets out, dressed like she was the other day. He walks her over to another car before she kisses his cheek and gets in.

I watch as DeVante walks around the other person's car, leaning down to their window. I can't see what they're doing. Talking of course. But about what?

"Jamie's gotten involved with this really shady guy. That's him." I say, "He just walked her to another guy's car. What are they doing?" I question, more to myself than Lesane.

"Oh.. Sweetheart." Lesane says, shaking his head.

"What?"

"That's De Swing. I recognize the car." He says, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Okay.. And?"

"He rotate bitches." Pac says, making me furrow my eyebrows. He sees the confusion in my face and chuckles.

"He's a pimp Adrienne."

Oh. My. God.

~

After Tupac left, I waited a few hours and decided to go over Jamie's. I need to know that she's not being pimped out. Why in the world would she turn to that type of.... profession.

DeVante's car isn't here. What if she's not home yet either?

I knock anyway.

I hear shuffling before the door opens. "Hey Dri.." Jamie says, before opening the door wider and letting me in.

"Hey." I say.

I look around and there's half packed boxes all over her living room. Its pretty much empty, except for the furniture and her TV.

"What's up?" She asks, sitting down on her couch, and turning down the TV a little. So she's just gonna act like she didn't completely blow me off the last two times I was here?

"What do you mean what's up? Bitch what the hell is going on with you?" I ask, she just laughs.

"Okay since you think this is funny I'm gonna just say it. Me and Lesane saw you and DeVante earlier in the grocery store parking lot. It looked like he was delivering you to somebody. Wanna tell me about that?" I fold my arms.

Jamie's smile drops.

I just stare at her, waiting for her response.

"Me and DeVante are just friends." She says.

"Please don't lie to me. I'm not stupid Jay.." I sit beside her on the couch. "What's going on? You can tell me."

"I work for him..." She says, "It's not what you think."

"Then what is it?"

She stays silent for a while, making me clear my throat. "Why are all these boxes packed up?" I ask.

"I'm moving in with him?"

My eyes widen. "You're moving out of your house to stay with some shady asshole? Are you serious?" I look at her, but she doesn't look at me, she keeps her eyes forward on the TV.

"I have to. All the girls that work for him have to."

"All the girls?"

"Yep." She pops the P at the end.

"Jamie.. DeVante is pimping you out, isn't he?" She finally looks at me, but she rolls her eyes.

"It's not like that. He treats me nice... And when I'm not working we spend time together." She says.

I bite my lip, trying to think of something to say.

"Why are you doing it?" I ask. She just shrugs. "I like him."

"So what? You think he's gonna be your boyfriend or something? Jameria he's getting paid to put you in other people's beds and you're okay wi-"

"DeVante is my pimp Adrienne. He's my fucking pimp okay, is that what you wanted to hear?!" She looks at me, her eyes are red like she's been crying.

She does like him.

"You think you can change him, don't you?" I ask, making her turn away from me again.

"I can. He looks at me different than the other girls.. He likes me, I know he does.."

I just shake my head, massaging my temples with my pointer fingers. She can't be serious right now. Catching feelings for somebody that's literally getting payed to let her sleep with everyone except him.

"Jamie.. Men like that.. They can't be changed."

She doesn't say anything, so neither do I. We just sit there in silence. The TV catching neither one of our attention as our minds swarm with thoughts.

"You need to go. I have to pack. De will be back in a while." She says, her voice so low I can barely hear her.

I decide not to argue, so I just get up and head towards the door.

"Dri?"

I turn to look at her.

"So you and Lesane huh?" She asks, a small smile on her face.

"I'll have to catch you up later.." I say, opening the door.

"Maybe."

~

Tupac

Every since I yelled at Sek she's been avoiding me.

She feeds Renny and then she leaves.

But today she took her out for a walk, and I'm waiting for her to get back so I can apologize. I don't want her to be mad at me, she's all I got.

I hear the front door open downstairs, making me get up from my spot on the bed. Just as I get to the bottom step, Sekyiwa stops in her tracks. Renny runs past me into the kitchen.

"Wassup." I say, stuffing my hands into my pockets.

"Nothing." She says.

"I know you're mad at me. So I'm sorry for yelling at you." I say, making her look down at her feet.

"I'm not mad. You yell at me all the time." She says, making me laugh lightly.

"Then why you been avoiding me?"

"Mama wants to talk to you.." She says, still looking down at her feet. I furrow my eyebrows. Me and ma haven't talked in months. Why would she wanna talk to me now?

"Why?"

"Because I told her.." Sek says.

There's silence between us as I absorb what she just said.

I walk closer to her. "You told her what?" I ask, through gritted teeth.

"I had to tell her Pac. I can't keep a secret like that from my own mother." She says, raising her voice at me.

"It wasn't your secret to tell. How I know you won't go tell one of ya homeboys huh? Have em looking through my house or something. You want somebody to put a bullet in my head Sekyiwa?!"

"No. That's not-"

"Just get the fuck out." I spit, waving her off. She stands there, her eyes starting to fill with tears.

"If you gonna snitch like one of these niggas on the street then that's who you get treated like. Get out." I repeat.

She starts to walk towards the door. Renny comes back into the room making Sek turn around. I grab Renny's collar to keep her from following her.

Sekyiwa looks at me with sad eyes again before leaving, closing the door behind her.

"Hey baby." Adrienne kisses my cheek as I come into her kitchen.

"Ready for the best sleep over ever?" She smiles, before pulling me over to the stove. She dips a spoon into the big pot of gumbo and holds it up to my lips.

I taste it, she watches my face closely.

"Oh that's good girl. Put a lil more pepper in there though." I say, making her smile.

"So what'd you do after you dropped me off?" She asks, as I sit down at the table.

"Went by the club to get something, then I went home for a while." I say.

Adrienne stirs the gumbo some more before putting the top on the pot and turning the burner down a little.

"Why you been so sad today?" She asks, draping her arms around me from behind and kissing my cheek.

"Got a lot on my mind."

"Wanna talk about it? It might help." She says, but I shake my head no.

"I just wanna relax, and have the best sleep over ever with my girl." I get up from the chair and hug her. She smells good, or maybe its the food. Or both.

"Well. Let's do that then." She says, pulling away from me and holding my right hand. She looks down at all my rings, the diamonds reflecting off her brown eyes, somehow making them even more beautiful.

"Igh." I smile, kissing her forehead.