Page 9 of Kid
“Okay.” She hugged me. “Pick your colours. I was going to head home after this, but this calls for an emergency girl’s day.”
I giggled. “Thanks Jami.”
Jamilla winked at me.
But it didn’t seem the fates wanted to be kind. Ten minutes into waiting for Jamilla to finish up, the little bell above the door tingled and I looked up from my eReader. At first, the face of one of the women who walked in looked familiar, but I didn’t care enough to place it. I returned my attention to the novel I’d been reading when it dawned on me and I glanced up to see her staring at me and whispering to the woman she’d walked in with.
“Son of a bitch.” I muttered to myself and lowered my eyes.
Whatever they were talking about shouldn’t be my concern and I was starting to get back into my story when a shadow stopped in front of me.
“This is the bitch I was talking about,” Macy said.
Usually, that was a comment I would let go, but it seemed I’d climbed out of bed that morning choosing violence. I deactivated the screen of my reader and shoved it into my designer purse sitting on the seat beside me and stood.
“Did you say something?” I asked her.
“Nel, there a problem here?” Jamilla was at my side.
“No, no problem.” I replied without taking my eyes off Macy. “Unless she wants to make one.”
Macy reeled back and slapped me across the face.
I took a moment to exhale before clenching my fingers into a fist, squared up and punched her in the face. Everyone in the salon screamed but I didn’t care.
“You wanteda fight?” I asked, slamming another fist into her chest. “You got it.”
“Jamilla, stop her!” Someone else shouted before arms wrapped themselves around me.
I struggled to get out of her arms, but Jamilla merely turned me away from Macy.
“For the record, I didn’t steal your man!” I snapped. “Kid and I aren’t together but if you’ve lost him, that’s on you!”
“Nel, everyone’s staring.”
I didn’t care.
“She wanted a scene.” I snapped. “Usually I wouldn’t.Pero,hoy aprenderás. Tengo muchas tiempo hoy!”
“Do you wanna catch a case?” Jamilla asked. “Think about it. Cálmate!”
I escaped from Jamilla as Macy and her friend made for the door. I took off after them but stopped outside as they dove into the backseatof a taxi and it sped off.
When I went back inside, everyone was staring but I didn’t care. Macy had started it and I wasn’t going to sit around and take a beating from anyone over something I had nothing to do with.
My mother may be crazy, but she didn’t raise a fool.
Before going back to my reader, I called Kid.
“Yo.” His voice was crisp and playful as usually. “Nella, what’s going on?”
“Tell your girlfriend to stay away from me.” I warned him. “If she come for me again without being called, I will end her.”
“What?”
I hung up.
Fighting over a man was never something I would ever do. I was having a bad day and needed to release some stress. But as my body calmed and I assured everyone asking that I was okay, I realized it wasn’t the most lady-like thing to have done.
