“Fuck that bitch, son. If she’s a fucking jump-off, then she’s a jump-off. I know one thing, if these niggaz wasn’t holding me, I’d stomp a mud hole in her ass.” He made another attempt to break free, but his boys kept him in check.

“Youse a fucking punk, putting your hands on a female!” Rhonda shouted from behind True, sending Pain into another fit of trying to get loose.

“Rhonda, don’t make it worse,” True said. “Y’all get this nigga up outta here,” True told his boys while he walked Reese and Rhonda to the building. Pain cursed and ranted for an entire block, while his boys dragged him to the car.

“You need to check your friends, True,” Rhonda said angrily.

True threw his hands up in surrender. “Fuck did you want me to do?”

“You could’ve checked him about his mouth.”

“Rhonda, you know how niggaz is. Your girl put herself out there and got called on it.”

“Fuck you!” Reese said sourly. “Ain’t none of y’all Harlem niggaz about shit anyway.”

“Jay is from Yonkers,” True said sarcastically. “And don’t get mad at me ’cause you got exposed. I ain’t have a nickel in that dollar. You brought this on yourself, ma.”

“See, now this is all starting to make sense. You were avoiding him because you knew you played yourself,” Rhonda said, proud that she had figured it all out, but completely disregarding her friend’s feelings.

“Rhonda, I know you ain’t over here passing judgment?” Reese folded her arms.

“Bitch, don’t come at me sideways. At least if I had fucked a bunch of niggaz I’d have caked off. Your stupid ass ain’t get nothing.”

Reese was so angry that she started getting sharp pains in the back of her head. Rhonda was bombing her, as if she didn’t already feel like shit. She wanted to punch her and True in their mouths, but they weren’t lying. She went there and it blew up in her face.

“Fuck the both of y’all,” Reese said, walking off.

“Don’t take it like that, baby. Ain’t nothing wrong with a little crew love!” True mocked her.

“Shut up, True,” Rhonda told him. “Reese,” she called after her friend, “you on some real bullshit right now, but you still my bitch!” Rhonda beat on her chest for emphasis. “Call me tomorrow!”

Reese ignored Rhonda’s shrieking voice and kept moving toward the avenue. She was so angry that she had to concentrate to make her body cooperate with her mind. A few times she thought her legs were going to give out, but she managed to make it to the corner without incident.