“I know he chose some new hot piece of ass with silver dollar titties over you.”

“And what about you, TJ Byrd?” she said. “You think you’d have gotten this far without me? I helped you. I made you. If it wasn’t for me, you’d already be up in prison for killing your own mother.”

John Wesley looked up hard with his big eyes, mouth hanging open. “That’s a lie,” he said. “My momma was real sick. Holly Harkins told me. TJ didn’t have nothing to do with it. She died. She’s up there in heaven with Jesus and Dale Earnhardt.”

“Are you deaf or just a retard?” Chastity asked. “Have you been listening to anything this whole ride, kid? Why do you think your sister is out here running from the law? Holly wouldn’t stand by her. Ladarius got nearly eaten up by some dogs. And I’m the only friend she’s got left.”

“You’re not a friend,” TJ said. “You’re about as real as those boys sending me messages how they want to marry me.”

“Ladarius got eat by some dogs?” John Wesley said. His face bloodless and blank in the soft glow of TJ and Chastity’s phones.

TJ wasn’t sure what to tell her brother as the phone in her hands died out and went black, the only light in the room coming from the glow up under Chastity’s face. She had her head down, already scrolling through like everything was fine and nothing at all had happened between them. TJ held her words until Chastity pulled a whole po’ boy up toward her and snatched up half of it.

“Give it to me,” TJ said.

“Yeah, right.”

“John Wesley hasn’t eaten all day.”

“You sure are a great mother,” she said. “Taking the kid on a wild-ass robbing and killing spree.”

“Better than the one you got,” TJ said, knowing she may have pushed things a little too far.

Chastity threw what was left of that shrimp po’ boy right at TJ, smacking her square in the face with the shredded lettuce and mayonnaise dripping onto her shirt. “Here you go!” Chastity said, screaming. “Take it. Just like you’ve taken or stolen everything else in your life. The world isn’t all about handouts.”

TJ launched herself off the floor and onto Chastity, knocking the girl onto her back, trying to pin her down by the shoulders. Chastity spit into her face and tried to roll away from her, TJ headbutting the girl just like she’d seen on WWE SmackDown, those Bella Twins taking care of business. But damn if that little girl wasn’t tough, grabbing TJ by the waist and driving her straight into the wall, her ass ramming clear though the sheetrock.

John Wesley was yelling. “Y’all stop it!” he said. “Stop it.”