She didn’t really care about them standing near her locker, but she knew that her father had eyes and ears all throughout the school. Her wearing the lipstick she had on was already enough to get her in trouble. The last thing she needed was for one of his goons to snitch her out about talking to the boys at school.
“Mannnn,” Kent said, dragging out the word. His eyes lit up like he was about to tell Tiara the story of the year. “So yesterday, right? My nigga Stevelle and that nigga Marco got into it about a bitch.”
“Who?”
“Najay. That light-skinned girl in our algebra class.”
“With the freckles?” Tiara asked, thinking about all the girls in her algebra class.
“Yup, her,” Kent nodded. “Well, apparently, she been fucking my nigga Stevelle here,” he patted a boy standing next to him on the arm. “And she been fucking Marco at the same time. Now that nigga wanna scrap, and Stevelle ain’t no bitch. So we finna just get this shit popping right quick before class.”
He shrugged his shoulders like it wasn’t nothing. Tiara glanced at Stevelle and saw that he was just as skinny as Kent. He was darker in complexion, and the waves in his brush cut were deep enough to swim in. Tiara didn’t know if she’d ever seen him around school, but she for sure had seen Marco. Marco was a caramel-skinned boy who was a senior just like them. He was buff and also was the star on the wrestling team. Tiara raised her eyebrows at Stevelle and just shook her head.
“You might as well just let that go,” she said. “Ain’t no ho worth getting your ass beat over.”
“Who getting their ass beat?” Stevelle asked in a surprisingly deep voice.
“What’s going on over here?” Tiara heard Brandy come up on the side of her.
“Girl, nothing,” she said and gave her best friend a hug. “Just that these basic niggas are about to fight.”
Brandy looked at the group of boys and shook her head. “I swear private school is worse than public school. You niggas are always acting a fool.”
“You tryna stay and watch?”
“Hell, yeah, girl!” Brandy exclaimed. “I’m from the hood. Ain’t nothing like a good fight.”
Tiara laughed and dapped her friend up. Brandy was looking extra cute with her short hairstyle freshly tapered and an auburn track bang swooped to perfection in front of her face. Tiara was thick, but Brandy was what you would call voluptuous. She’d just turned eighteen, and her body followed suit. Her stomach was flat, and her hips were wide. She had natural 38C breasts and an apple bottom with a deep cuff. Her smooth cacao skin and pretty face made her stand out from all of the other girls in the school.
“Where this nigga Marco at though?” one of the boys standing in the group of six said.
“Yeah, man, where that boy at?”
“He ain’t gon’ show!”
Tiara hadn’t noticed the crowd that had formed by her locker until then. Everyone was looking around, scanning the hallway for any sign of Marco. Tiara glanced at the clock and saw that they only had five minutes to get to class before the bell rang.
“C’mon, best friend,” she said and grabbed Brandy’s arm. “Let’s get to class. These niggas faking.”
As soon as the last word left her mouth, the crowd cleared, and Marco stepped forward. Behind him, like Stevelle, he had a group of his own friends to back him up. He looked square in Stevelle’s face with a sneer of his own.
“I’m here, nigga,” Marco said and yanked up his pants, squaring up with Stevelle. “What’s up, homie? I heard you been tryna fuck with my bitch.”
“Nah,” Stevelle said, putting his fists up as well. “I ain’t trying. I been fucked your bitch, and she sucked my dick. There’s a difference. You can have her back, though. I’m done with that.”
His words must have struck a nerve because Marco launched at Stevelle and tried to rock him with a strong right hook. Stevelle dodged it effortlessly and followed through with a right hook of his own. Marco had been leaning in, and his face was met with a surprisingly strong fist from Stevelle. His head snapped to the side, and he stumbled slightly. Stevelle used that to his advantage and plowed into Marco with a combination that not too many could come back from.
“Damn! How he getting rocked by that skinny dude?”
“Marco, get up!”
“Stick that nigga, Stevelle! You better not let that nigga get up!”
The crowd was going crazy at the fight going on in front of them. Nobody jumped in; they just let the guys handle their business. Marco tried to fight back as best as he could, but Stevelle had gotten the advantage. Marco had blood spewing from his nose and a gash over his eye before the sounds of the school’s security broke up the crowd.
“Oh shit! C’mon, T!”
Brandy grabbed Tiara’s hand before security could grab them up and ran in the direction of their first class. The final bell was ringing, and neither girl bothered to look behind them to see what was going on with the people they left behind. As Tiara ran, she spotted one of her dad’s hired goons watching her at the end of the hallway. She groaned and put her head down and hit a sharp right with Brandy to run up a flight of steps. All she wanted to do was see a good fight, but she was sure that her father would know about that by the end of the day.
Up until two years ago, Blake had his daughter shadowed by security practically every minute of every day. He made one of his men follow her to every
