to talk to you. Kevin is hurt.”
“What? My little brother?” I hadn’t heard from him since Stephon’s funeral. Now I wondered what he was mixed up in. He usually handled his business. I looked back to see if Trae was coming before I let her in. “Hurry up!” I opened the front door. “Where’s your car?” I was now whispering.
“I parked down the street. Come outside. I don’t want to have to cuss Trae out.”
“I have to change. Come on, girl. I’ll sneak you upstairs. Close the door, and tell me what happened. Hurry up.” I made a dash for the stairs. She was right behind me. I knew that my ass was hanging out.
“What happened to you? Never mind. I don’t want to know,” she said.
We went into the bedroom, and I shut the door. I went into the bathroom and closed that door, leaving it cracked. I turned on the shower and began to undress. “So what happened? Is he okay? He got busted?” I yelled through the crack in the door.
“It’s Kyron.”
I stopped the bitch right in her tracks. Opened the bathroom door all the way, naked and all. “Kyron? Trina, get the fuck outta here with that bullshit. I can’t believe you.” I snatched up a towel, wrapped it around me, and started pushing her out of my bedroom. I couldn’t believe she was bringing me this bullshit. I wanted her out of my house. “Get out, Trina!”
“Tasha, no, listen to me. He threatened me. He said if I didn’t set up something with you, it would be my ass. And when I didn’t, he went to Kevin and cut his ear off. He—”
“He did what?” I shrieked as I stopped pushing her.
“He cut his ear off. He did it with me right there on the phone. I don’t think Kevin knows why. And I wasn’t planning on telling him!” Tears welled up in her eyes.
“This shit is crazy. This has to stop.” I began pacing back and forth.
“Make it stop, Tasha,” she said with sarcasm dripping from her voice.
“How can I make it stop? I’m not fucking with Kyron like that no more. You must be crazy!”
“What if he comes after you? Or Kevin again? He’s your brother, too, Tasha. Or even worse . . .”
“Or even worse what?” I stopped my pacing. “Trina, this is mostly your fault—”
“My fault? Was it my fault when you fucked him?” She pointed at me. “I’ll take half of the blame. But not all of it. But now we have a crisis, and we gotta do something.”
“Do what? You know my situation.”
“Do something. Shit, I don’t know.”
I went back to pacing back and forth. Kyron wanted to see me? I was scared to even mention his name to Trae. But I knew for a fact that I wasn’t meeting him under any circumstances, not in this lifetime. And our baby brother—this was outrageous. “You gotta stall him somehow until I can figure something out.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“Bitch, I don’t know. Think of something. Tell him you spoke to me and that I said I would get back to him. Shit, make up something. In the meantime, I gotta call Kev.”
“Nooooo! Tasha, don’t! We can’t let him know we had anything to do with it. He doesn’t know Kyron and don’t know that we know him.”
“Bitch, you sounding real stupid.”
“I’m serious, Tasha.”
I thought about what my sister said, and it just reconfirmed how cold-hearted of a bitch she was. Here it was, our own flesh and blood; all three of us came from the same loins. Our brother was cut the fuck up and over some of our deeds, and she was talking about don’t call him.
“Trina, I got to figure this out. This is too much for me to swallow right now. Let me think about it, and I will call you later.” I had to tell Trae about this.
“Don’t call Kevin, Tasha. And call me. Don’t leave me hanging. All right, Tasha?”
“All right, Trina!” I snapped, agitated that she had brought me this Kyron bullshit. Why didn’t that muthafucka die? And now he was using my brother and Trina to fuck with me. I needed to get her and her negative energy away from me. “Come on, let me get you out of here.” I tossed the towel and grabbed my robe and pulled it tight. I cracked the bedroom door to make sure the coast was clear. I peeked out and motioned for