“Man, that nigga put his hands on me about some bullshit paper I owed him, so all that friend shit went out the window. All I did was show Slick and them where he be at, but I swear I didn’t shoot anyone.”

Valerie just sat for a long time, never saying anything. She looked at Ralph as if she was trying to process what he had just told her. It started out with her lip quivering, then tears rolling down her cheeks, then the next thing Ralph knew, Valerie was bawling.

“Val, what’re you crying for? I told you I didn’t shoot anybody.”

“That’s not why I’m crying,” she said, sobbing.

“Then what the hell is your problem?”

Valerie wiped her eyes with the palms of her hands and cleared her throat. “Ralph, me and you done been through some shit, but for the most part we’ve had a wonderful relationship. I never thought the day would come when I was embarrassed to be your girl.”

“Embarrassed? What the hell did I do?” he asked.

“What did you do?” she asked, as if it was a stupid question. “Ralph, you’re a rat!”

“What? Bitch, is you crazy? You’re only a rat if you cooperate with the police.”

“Ralph, you can’t be that dense. You gave someone up for your own selfish reasons. I don’t give a shit if it’s the police or the competition, the code of silence always comes first. To make matters worse, you had the goddamn nerve to point him out.”

“Well, what did you expect me to do?”

“You could’ve handled it like a man. Jah bleeds just like anyone else. If you had a problem with that man, then you should’ve handled it, not duped someone else into doing it. That’s some snake shit.”

“Fuck that, it was him or me.” No sooner had the statement left Ralph’s mouth than a wad of phlegm left Valerie’s mouth. It smacked Ralph dead on the cheek and slowly dripped down his face. He started to jump on her, but froze when he saw she had produced a very large pair of scissors.