Page 202 of The Ninth

Liv: My bad! My bad! That nigga in jail.

Two different girls: JAIL?!

Devyn and I shared a look again. Clearly one of them was Ben’s niece. She sounded worried sick. If I can be honest? I didn’t give a fuck. Why her man down here getting into it with niggas about other bitches! But at the same time, I knew how it felt to have my man in jail. That, I could feel sympathy for.

Liv: Cook County. Your niggas love jail, Cassie.

Me: THAT’S NOT MY NIGGA!

Liv: You want Cassie to give him your number, Ben? I know she probably can get in contact with him.

Me: No, I can’t! The most I can do for Benny is pass it to his homeboy.

There was a long stretch of silence. I briefly remembered how sweet she looked up in the section. She fucked up getting caught up with a Chicago nigga. I took down the number I knew was hers as Ben read it off.

Me: Alright, I gotcha Benny. Tell whoever looking for him, he’s alive and well. Also, when you dropping that dick off for Devyn?

Devyn and I started cackling as Liv shook her head, hanging up the phone. I made myself comfortable as Unctie grabbed her empty clipboard and sped away.

FINALLY, Tati and MacKenzie popped out from wherever the fuck they were. Seeing them in The Ninth shirts and shorts made me so jealous. I was so fucking cute in my outfit, on my deddy.

“Hey! Sorry, it’s been a mess.” Kenzie hugged both Devyn and I. Tati hugged us second,

“Yeah, sorry! Let’s make this quick, I know them niggas about to be looking for y’all.”

“What up?” I asked.

Tati shot a look at Kenzie before speaking up, “Wasn’t it crazy that Pink was at yo nigga’s shop, Devyn?”

“Please don’t re-piss me off! I’ve never felt that amount of anger before, y’all. I never want to let myself get like that again. Why the fuck would she do that? She knew what Duke looked like but not who he was.”

Kenzie nodded, “That’s some slimy ass shit. Especially after what happened. She went out of her way to do that. Definitely for a reason.”

“What reason you thinking?” I asked.

Tati sighed, “I think our time has come.”

We all sat in silence, looking at each other. I thought back to what Pink was saying as she got drug out of the shop. “YOU BITCHES IS DEAD WRONG! Y’ALL DEAD!” That wasn’t a coincidence. She didn’t pop up from the woodworks for some petty ass get back, G. She could’ve lined our niggas up last night and got they lives took like she may think we did hers. Her intentions were laced with evil.

“That bitch was trafficking bitches with her nigga! You think her best shot is flashing her funky ass titties? She’s on one, G...” Tati shook her head.

“I woke up around 6am,” Kenzie started. “Trent wanted to meet early for breakfast. Well...there were two niggas in my backyard.”

My heart dropped.

“WHAT?!” Devyn shouted. A few people looked at us before continuing to go back and forth.

“Cassie, you know my backyard—”

“Yeah. You don’t get back there by accident.”

“They didn’t try to force they way in. But they was just back there...on the house. I grabbed my shit and turned a light on, letting them know I knew. They immediately got the fuck on.”

“I was followed on my way here!” I blurted out. They all gasped. “I lost them, but I was followed by a van.”

“What the van look like?!” Tati asked. As if that mattered!

“Bitch, it looked like Kendrick needed to get his freestyles ready!”