Marlene shook her head to clear the foolishness from her mind. She would not follow up on Audrey’s bullshit. Besides, even if she did decided to call her girl Dana, how would she get the samples to be tested? Marlene brushed Audrey’s idea off and continued parting P.J.’s hair. As she plucked the loose strands of hair from the comb, an idea suddenly began to form in her head.

“Nigga, that was some bullshit,” Paul said as soon as he got in the car.

“Fuck is you talking about, my dude?” Larry asked, pulling away from the curb.

“Yo, how you gonna let me run up in shorty?”

Larry gave him a wild look. “I let you? Paul, I ain’t got no control over what your dick does. You fucked Stacy, not me, at least not the first round.” Paul snickered.

“I’m glad you think this shit is funny,” Larry said seriously. “P, I wish you could’ve seen yourself last night. You were a little stiff at first, but once we threw back a few shots you was doing you, kid. Stacy came at you like she was seasoned, and you handled that freak bitch. I’ll bet that pussy was crack!” Larry raised his hand to give Paul a pound, but Paul just looked at it.

“I’m serious, man. You know I’m trying to keep it funky wit’ Marlene, so as my man you should’ve checked me when you saw me going there,” Paul told him.

“Duke, I tried to slow you down, but you wasn’t trying to hear it. Then when you and shorty started popping E pills…”

“E pills?” Paul asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, we all took ’em. You had your tongue so far down Stacy’s throat that I thought you were gonna come up with a tonsil. The funny shit is, when we got to the house, y’all started getting it on right in front of me and Portia. On the real, when you was hitting that phat ass from the back, I almost lost my cool. Next thing you knew, me and shorty started popping and we all ended up in a pretzel on the floor. Dawg, I wish I had a video camera ’cause niggaz didn’t believe it when I told them!”

Paul placed his head in his hands. “I don’t believe this shit. Son, if Marlene finds out…”

“She ain’t gonna find out, so stop crying about the shit. Don’t nobody know but me and you.”

“And the million other niggaz you told,” Paul said.

“Man, those is hood niggaz. What are the fucking chances that one of them is gonna have a conversation with Marlene, let alone blow you up. You did ya thing dawg, enjoy the moment.”