Billy wearily pulled her head out from under the pillow and looked around as if she were trying to figure out where she was. The dress that Yoshi had bought her was crumpled and dropped in a corner near her dresser, and the shoes were nowhere to be found. “Hell of a night,” she muttered.

“Willamina,” her mother said, barging in, tired of waiting for an invite, “girl, I’ve been calling you for the longest. What in the hell are you still doing asleep at three o’clock in the afternoon?”

“Three o’clock?” Billy asked, looking over at her digital clock to make sure her mother wasn’t bugging out.

“Yes, three o’clock,” she said, tossing the cordless phone on the bed. “Rhonda is on the phone. Damn girl has been calling all morning,” she said, slamming the door as she left the bedroom.

Billy stretched her arms to the heavens and listened as various joints crackled and popped. She looked at the phone for a long minute before even thinking about reaching for it. She had had a rough night and really didn’t feel like hearing Rhonda’s bullshit, but she knew if she didn’t get on the phone, Rhonda would just keep calling, or worse, come over.

“Yeah?” she said as she yawned into the phone.

“What was with that bullshit you and Yoshi pulled last night?” Rhonda said in a nasty tone. “Y’all leaving us in the club like that was real fucked up.”

Billy held the phone away from her ear and looked at it as if it were malfunctioning before responding to Rhonda. “First of all, its too damn early for you to be calling my house talking outta your ass. Yoshi had to dip because she and Jah go into it with some kid who disrespected her. I was ready to go from the gate, so I bounced, too. I thought Yoshi explained this to you?”

“Yoshi was trying to tell me something like that, but that don’t explain why I didn’t hear from you.”

“Rhonda, the last time I checked my mother’s name was Regina. I don’t have to report my every move to you, so check yourself before it be something,” Billy warned her.

“Whatever,” Rhonda said, then clicked her gum. “What you doing today?”

“I don’t know yet, I’m just waking up. What’s on your calendar?”

“It’s too damn hot to do anything right now, but I’ll probably be on the streets later. Maybe I’ll give Reese’s silly ass a call.”

“What’s she up to?” Billy asked.

“Oh, I forgot you didn’t know. That little hot-in-the-ass bitch gave Don B. some ass,” Rhonda said gleefully.

“Get the fuck outta here!” Billy was now wide awake.

“I’m dead-ass. It was supposed to have happened the night you disappeared.”