RedBone (27 page)

“What are you doing here?” Farah frowned, preparing to gut punch her.

Chloe wiped the stupid smile off of her face and said, “Well, you ain’t been answering my calls, so I decided to come over to see you.” She raised her arms in the air. “So here I am. It’s funny though, you don’t seem like you’re happy to see me. Why is that, big sis?”

“How come I gotta keep asking what the fuck you doing in my house? The next thing that’s gonna happen if I don’t get an answer is you being thrown out on your ass. You are not welcome here. Anymore ... ever.”

She grabbed her Louis Vuitton purse and looked at Lesa. “Why don’t you hang out in the bathroom again, Farah. That way me and Lesa can talk about how your boyfriend took a fall for the worse awhile back.”

Farah’s eyes widened. “Fuck are you talking about? Farah stepped closer to her. ”That’s your problem. You stay keeping up shit.”

“You don’t remember, sis?” Chloe continued. “You put your hands right here.” She touched Farah’s chest. “And pushed.”

“Lesa, I gotta talk to my sister,” Farah said, interrupting her. “Alone.”

“Is everything cool?” Lesa asked.

“Yeah ... just give me a few minutes.” Then Farah looked back at Chloe’s large grin. “Come to my room.”

When they opened the door Diamond and Pearl rushed into Farah’s bedroom, but she grabbed them, kissed them on the mouth, and put them outside the door.

“Pew,” Chloe said, pinching her nose as she walked into the room. “They smell like they been shitting and pissing in here at the same time. You gotta potty train them. They too cute to smell like that.” Chloe walked deeper into the room and threw her purse on the floor. She was sloppy as always and Farah didn’t want her anywhere in her space. Everything about her was nasty with the exception of her outward appearance. Watching her phat ass and tiny waist move toward her bed enraged Farah. She could see why Zone wanted to fuck her and it made her sick to her stomach. Sitting on the bed she said, “You know Ma says I can live here right?” She looked around. “And if I do, I decided to take your room.”

Farah giggled. “And what makes you think that’s even possible, Chloe? You betta hope I let you live here and sleep on the floor with my dogs. But that’s to be determined. You fucking stepped to my boyfriend and that’s fucked up.”

“I apologize all the time on your voice mail, but you never answer the phone, Farah. It was stupid and I know you miss me too.”

“I don’t.” She looked into her eyes. “And I’m tired of being pushed over by people. You don’t have no respect for me at all.” Farah walked to her dresser, grabbed her brush, and started brushing her hair. “So how’s college?” She skipped topics. “Things working out okay, or are you about to drop out again?”

“College is fine, Farah.”

“Your mother called me. How is she for real?”

“If you really wanna know the real reason Mamma wants us to move with you, it’s because she doesn’t want us to see her anymore. Her skin is so bad she’s not even recognizable. She wears a full body cover-up and people think she’s Muslim. She don’t say nothing to correct them, either. She’s dying.” Farah felt as if a rock formed in the pit of her stomach, but she remained stone faced. “You don’t really care, do you?” Farah brushed her hair harder. “Well, maybe you’ll care about this. You didn’t turn the computer off that day. You turned off the screen.” Farah was nervous. “I saw what you did.”

She faced her. “So what did you come here to do, Chloe? Blackmail me? Because I don’t have any money to give you. I caught him jerking off to my sister. I let him carry the relationship for years as if I didn’t matter. I was tired of his shit, Chloe!”

She stood up, and looked as if she were a kid who held a secret that she was on the verge of telling. “Outside of me wanting this room,” she said, smiling, “I don’t want nothing else but to be your sister again.” She looked into Farah’s eyes. “And I want you to forgive me because I’m sorry. I never thought you were even that serious about him.”

“He was my boyfriend and I do not forgive you. Now please leave.”

Chloe lowered her head, picked her purse up off the floor, and walked to the door. “You can’t stay mad at me forever. You know why? Because we’re Cottons and Cottons stick together whether they like it or not. We know secrets about each other that would get us locked up for life if somebody said a word. Stop acting like you are that much different than me. The camera was on and I know the truth.”

When she left the apartment Farah slowly walked into the living room and lay on the extra-large comforter she had on the floor. Lesa was already on it, smoking a bob. Next to her was a plate of Oreos and a glass of milk: Lesa’s favorite.

“Don’t tell me,” Lesa started. “The next time somebody comes over, you want me to tell you
before
I open the door.” She smiled.

“Please ask me first.” Farah’s puppies jumped all over her and she played with them before throwing their favorite red toy in the corner. While they were preoccupied she said, “Me and her don’t see eye to eye no more. Chloe got a lot of growing up to do. So I’ma deal with her shit on my time.”

“Understood.” She pulled on the bob and passed it to Farah. “Before y’all had that fight and you came out here, I thought your sister seemed nice. She don’t look like you though. Y’all got the same father?”

“Yes,” Farah lied. “But you’d never know it.”

“You know what’s funny, even though you were mad at her, it looked like you missed her, too. Maybe it was just me.” Farah rolled her eyes. “So what was she talking about?” She leaned her back against the couch. “When she pushed you.”

“Remember I told you my boyfriend fell to his death? Lesa nodded. “Well, she keeps throwing it up in my face. Trying to make me think it was my fault and shit.” Farah pulled on the weed and let the smoke fill her lungs. “Platinum Lofts had to replace all the windows in this building. Zone’s mother ended up getting a large-ass insurance policy check and everything.” Farah didn’t like talking about the murder, so she decided to skip the subject. “Let’s talk about something else.”

“Cool.” She paused. “I just got off the phone with the coordinator for the designs I did for the fashion show. I think I’m going to win next week.”

“What fashion show? You didn’t tell me about it.”

“Oh ... I forgot. I told Coconut and Rhonda.” She laughed. “It was at the party and I think you were making sandwiches or some shit like that.” Farah tried not be petty, but she realized they got closer at that party than she realized. “I’m so excited about this fashion show, girl. It should be hot,” Lesa said. “I bought this beautiful black Gucci dress and I have a red Hermès bag in my closet that I’m going to wear and everything.”

“You not wearing your own fashions?” she asked, although she was still thinking about Coconut and Rhonda knowing more about her roommate than she did.

“Bitch, please!” Lesa said. “I want to respect the greats as I”—she pointed to herself—“accept my award. That way I’ll feel like their spirits are with me.”

“How do you have time to design with you working at the cable company?”

“You make time for what you wanna do.”

When Farah’s phone rang she saw Randy’s name flash across the screen. She was supposed to meet him earlier that day, but with recently killing Grand, and then Chloe coming over and the conversation with her mother, she wasn’t in the mood. Hitting the button to answer the call, she crawled away from Lesa. “Hello.”

“Farah, why you playing games with me? I told you how it was gonna be.”

“Randy, I can’t talk right now.”

“Well, you better make time to talk later. Or have you forgotten what kind of nigga I am? I wanna see you tomorrow. You hear me? No more fucking excuses.”

“Okay, Randy.”

“Tomorrow, Farah. I’m not fucking around. Bye!”

When she hung up with him she grabbed the red polish off the glass table. She wanted to do something to get her mind off of him and to prevent Lesa from asking about the call. “Let me polish your toes.”

“I was just about to do them myself, but you can knock yourself out if you want to!” She placed her feet in her lap, and Farah started with the big toe on her right foot.

“I bet niggas love to suck your feet, don’t they? They so pretty and cute.” Farah wiggled the little toe and Lesa felt uncomfortable. Farah caught her gaze and said, “Oh ... my gawd ... it’s not like that if that’s what you’re thinking. I’m not into women.” She temporarily forgot all about her drunk games with Coconut. “You mind if I don’t do this? I forgot I’m allergic to the smell.” Lesa took the bottle and twisted the top back on. “So tell me about your friends. And when do I get to meet them? Since you met both of mine already, and even told them about your fashion show before you told me.”

Silence.

“Are you always this petty?”

That was the second time she said the word “petty” when she was talking to her. Farah raised her brows and said, “Petty?” She pointed to herself. “Me?”

“Yeah ... I mean ... did you not have friends when you grew up or something?”

“I had lots of friends.”

“Oh ... because you seem real overprotective. I don’t want things to be so heavy between us.” She nudged her. “Anyway ... I’ve been beefing with my friends for a minute. That’s why they weren’t at the party the other night. We got into a fight over some bullshit and things got out of control.”

“How long have you known them?” Farah continued, trying to hide the fact that she was still brewing about her comment. Her crazy had been slipping out an awful lot lately.

“Most of my life.” She seemed sad. “It’s hard to find good friends so when you have them you should hold on tight. If you can.”

“Do you got any pictures of them?”

“Yeah.” She put the polish on the table and went for her phone. “Here are some pictures we took at a party we were together at last month.” Farah looked at a picture of two light-skinned girls and their designer bags. They looked cool, and Farah hoped things worked out so they could all be friends. Especially since she hadn’t heard from Coconut or Rhonda since they left her apartment the day she was sick.

“What are their names?”

“The one right here with the short black hair is Lady and the one right here with the long hair is Courtney.”

“You should call them! We can make drinks and stuff.”

“I’d never call them. I don’t care how much I missed them. I told you I’m beefing with them right now, Farah.” Lesa seemed irritated with her anxiousness. “This last shit seemed serious.”

“What made it so serious this time?”

“It was two things. For starters they didn’t want me getting plastic surgery in February. But do or die, I’m gonna be at that appointment because this is my fucking life not theirs. Second, we all used to mess with dudes who knew each other. Like the dude I fucked with was friends with their boyfriends and vice versa. Anyway, one day I saw Lady’s boyfriend at the Wendy’s kissing this bitch and I told Courtney.”

“Why didn’t you tell Lady?”

“I was gonna tell Lady myself, but the shit happened so quick and Courtney was the first person I saw. Anyway, before I could say anything, Courtney told Lady and she got mad with me for not coming to her first. We ended up getting into a fistfight and everything. I’m like, why you mad at me because
your
nigga cheating? It’s been over a month and I haven’t talked to them since. It’s the longest I’ve ever gone without talking to them two.” She looked at her toes. “And since I’m stubborn as hell, and they are too, that’s it. I could be dead wrong but if my mind is made up, there’s nothing you can get me to do. Including call you.” She paused. “It’s cool though. I got enough dirt on them to last a lifetime.”

“Do tell!”

“I can’t do that.” She shook her head. “What if we start being cool again?”

“So you
are
going to talk to them again.”

“Fuck it! That bitch hit me, so I know I’m done.” Lesa laughed. “Here it is ... Lady robbed this soul food restaurant she worked at five different times during the first of the month with her boyfriend. That’s when they get the most cash. Them people still got an award leading to the arrest. If I wanted to be evil, I could’ve called them a long time ago.” Farah raised her eyebrows as she ran down everything Lady did, while they made martinis in the kitchen.

“Damn! What about Courtney? What dirt you got on her?” Farah moved in closer, loving to hear gossip.

“This is heavy.”

“I’m not gonna say nothing!” Farah grew anxious. “I don’t even know them. Plus you got dirt on my friends. If anything this will make us tighter.”

“I guess you right,” Lesa said, getting more buzzed by the sip. “Well, she got a son by her boyfriend’s brother.”

Farah covered her mouth. “Are you fucking serious?”

“Yeah, her boyfriend wanted a son but he couldn’t produce. I don’t know what was going on with his nut. Anyway ... his brother Rod got like eight kids he don’t take care of.” She sipped her martini. “So one day Courtney got his brother drunk and fucked him raw. She knew she was ovulating because she was tracking her cycle, so it was nothing for her to get pregnant. Nine months later, she had a baby and passed it off as her man’s. And since the father is his brother her son looks just like him.”

Out of the blue Farah said, “Let’s tell people we cousins.” She was excited.

Lesa looked at her over the rim of her martini glass. She wondered where that comment came from. “What? Why?” She giggled.

“Because I feel you like family to me. And since you’re beefing with your friends, and I’m beefing with mine, we might as well live life. Plus we both light skinned, we both cute, and we both fly.”

Lesa put her glass down and said, “I never asked you but I’m gonna now. How come you always talk about light skin this and that? You even put it in your ad for a roommate and that kind of fucked me up.”

“Because niggas love red bones.” She smiled. “I know you get it all the time when you out in the streets because I do too.”

“I know, but I’ve seen some of my darker friends pull badder niggas than me.”

“I bet you more times than not you get the nigga.” She poured another martini. “I heard our pussy better than theirs, too. It ain’t our fault.” She paused. “So we cousins or not?” Farah raised her martini glass, and Lesa thought for one second before clinking her glass with hers.