Rhonda gave her a funny look. “Reese, why don’t you come clean? What really happened with Don B.?”

“I already told you, we fucked, I got dropped off, and that was that,” Reese said.

“You a better bitch than me, ’cause I’d have been all up in that nigga’s ass.” Rhonda took a gulp of her drink. “On another note, where the hell is Billy?”

“Oh, you ain’t know Ms. Thing had a date?”

Rhonda looked as if she couldn’t believe it. “A date? With who?”

“Dude from the club. Yo, you should’ve seen Billy when she stepped out. Our bitch was killing ’em.”

“I don’t know what she got all dressed up for. She ain’t gonna give him no pussy,” Rhonda hated.

Reese’s attention was drawn by the sound of male voices coming from her left. Under the dim streetlights she could make out the shapes of five men coming their way. Squinting, she could see the faces of True, Pain, Lex, and the little light-skinned one from the group, Lah. When the fifth face came into focus Reese, cursed under her breath.

“Is that True?” Rhonda looked in the direction in which Reese had been staring. “Yeah, that’s him. Good, ’cause I got a few choice words for that nigga.”

“Rhonda, please don’t start,” Reese pleaded.

“I ain’t gonna start, I’m just gonna speak my mind.”

Reese sighed, because she knew when Rhonda said she’d “speak her mind,” she really meant she’d embarrass them. When the five men noticed Rhonda and Reese sitting on the bench, they altered their course and headed over to them. There was something about the look on Jay and Pain’s faces that made Reese uncomfortable.

“Rhonda, what’s good?” True asked, spreading his arms for a hug.

“Oh, now you wanna act like you know a bitch,” she said, backing away. “That was some real foul shit you pulled in the club last night, True.”

“What you talking about?” he said, trying to fake ignorance.

“True, how you gonna leave me with ya people so you can run around the club and whore yourself? You know me and you is cooler than that, so all you had to do was keep it funky.”

True gave her a high smile. “My bad, ma. I got caught up with the show and shit and never had a chance to get back with you. What can I do to make it up to you?”

“I’ll think of something,” she said flirtatiously.

“Shorty, don’t I know you?” Jay asked Reese, taking a drink from the bottle. From the way he was glaring at her, she could tell the liquor had him feeling himself.

“Do you?” she asked with an attitude.

“Shorty, stop acting like that,” Pain said, wiping his nose with the sleeve of his shirt. “You know what it is.”

“Excuse you?” Reese snaked her neck.