“Just ’cause he stash money at ya crib and you done made some runs for him don’t make you his girl. Plus you don’t even like dudes, you fuckin’ dyke!” Kisa shot back.

Nichelle folded her arms and sneered at Kisa. “You acting like you his bitch, all up in my face with this rah-rah shit. What’s the problem? Ole girl can’t fight her own battles?”

Before Kisa could respond, Arnessa got up and stepped in front of her. With a tear-soaked face Arnessa told Nichelle, “Obviously, you don’t know shit about me, so let me make a few things clear to you, ma. Don’t ever mistake my sadness or what I’m going through right now for me being a punk, ’cause I’ll stomp the fuck outta you in this hospital.”

“I doubt that very much,” Nichelle spat.

“Well, buck then, bitch, I dare you,” Arnessa warned. She wanted Nichelle to try her; at that moment she would’ve loved nothing more than to unleash her frustrations on Nichelle’s face.

“Chill, Nessa, chill,” Sincere said, stepping between the two women. “Shawn, walk Nichelle downstairs. I’ll be down in a sec.”

Reluctantly, Nichelle proceeded to walk out with Shawn.

From the corner of his eye Sincere could see Kisa scowling at him, “Why you telling Arnessa to chill? That whack bitch came up in here being disrespectful. And what are you going downstairs for?”

Sincere pulled Kisa by her arm into the hallway and told her, “Pipe ya lil’ red ass down, aight. From what Shawn told me, Butta had a lot of paper stashed in homegirl’s crib. For right now I gotta play neutral so I can get Butta’s money out of her spot.”

Kisa rolled her eyes. “Don’t play nothing with that simple bitch, for all y’all know, she probably set him up.”

“Kane, let me handle this, aight?”

“Whatever, Sin.” Kisa went back into the waiting room and sat next to Arnessa.

“I’m going to get Nessa something to drink,” Tasha said to Kisa as she rose from her chair. “Do you want anything?”

“Yeah, can you bring me a ginger ale, please?”

“Sure.”

Kisa looked at Arnessa. “You okay, sweetie?”

“To tell you the truth … I don’t know. So that was Butta’s other chick in the flesh, huh?”

“Nichelle is nothing to Butta.”

“Come on, Kane, I’m far from naïve.”

“Don’t do this right now.”

“Don’t do what? Deny that I’m hurt that she showed up here.”

“Fuck Nichelle or any other bitch that might wanna come at you when your dude is down.”

“But—”

“But what? Arnessa, I’ve been here before, okay. Therefore, you can’t tell me shit. You been riding with him through the good. It’s your duty to ride through the bad, even when people are throwing dirt from all sides. Butta is back there shot up, and if he was locked up, I would be telling you the same thing—fuck all the bullshit. As wifey, you got one job, and that’s to hold him down.”