“Have you been drinking?”

Smiling all silly, Arnessa nodded her head while dancing seductively.

Shawn walked over and stood next to Butta. “My dude, she cleans up very well.”

“Yes, she does,” Butta said, unable to take his eyes from Arnessa. He wrapped his arm around her. “I’m ready to be out.”

“We just got here,” she complained.

“Y’all just got here; we been here. I gotta get you home. You got me wanting to do some things to you,” he said, rubbing her ass.

That one touch had her thinking, Fuck this club shit. “Aight, but let me go say bye to Kane and Eisani.”

Arnessa made her way over to where Kisa and Eisani were standing with Sincere. She paid no attention to the man walking toward her until he shoved her to the ground. He then bent over and asked her, “How’s your little sister?”

When she looked up, she saw that it was Suef. Before Arnessa could give any type of response, Sincere came over, laid Suef out with a hard right, and began viciously stomping him. Butta, Shawn, and Mannie quickly followed suit. Eisani and Kisa rushed over, helping Arnessa to her feet. From the corner of her eye, Kisa saw Suef’s right-hand man, Abdul, charging toward Sincere. Reacting quickly, she stuck her foot out, tripping him. Abdul crashed to the floor only inches from Sincere’s feet. He grabbed Sincere’s leg, trying to pull him down. Eisani got a champagne bottle from a bucket nearby and smashed Abdul in the face with it. Sincere turned his attention to Abdul and began stomping on his chest.

Club bouncers pushed their way through the crowd toward the altercation. They stood back for a moment when they saw it was Butta and his crew. If it had been anyone else, they would’ve picked them up and threw them into the street. Instead, the head bouncer, who they all knew from uptown, walked over to them. “Come on, fellas, that’s enough—that’s enough.”

Suef’s reference to her little sister pissed off Arnessa more than being shoved to the ground. It bothered her so much that, as soon as she arrived home, she ran straight upstairs to Cenise’s room. Arnessa was relieved to find her sound asleep. In a few weeks Cenise would be graduating from high school. Arnessa was sending Cenise and her best friend, Nomie, to Oakland to spend the entire summer with Nomie’s aunt before leaving for college. Both girls would be attending Spellman in Atlanta. Cenise, who had been on the honor roll since kindergarten, had received a full scholarship.

Arnessa was relieved that Cenise was going away because she would be far from the drama that was unfolding daily. Inside, she already knew that once her sister was gone, she was going to miss her tremendously. Arnessa walked over to the bed and stared down at Cenise; for a brief moment it was like looking at her mother. A tear snuck out of the corner of her right eye and slid down her cheek as she thought about how different their lives would’ve been if their mother, Maria, hadn’t abandoned them.