Free Kiss the Ring by Meesha Mink

her ear.
    Going forward with the eye roll, Naeema smoothed her hands over the skintight jeans she was wearing withsky-high bright pink heels and a white tank with FUN written in neon colors. Her Pocahontas wig was synthetic and making her scalp sweat and itch. She was more irritated than a motherfucker.
    Reaching into her the small heart-shaped neon green chain bag, she pulled out her cell phone and checked the time with a swipe of the thumb across the screen. 12:30 a.m.
    Shit, it’s still early and she ain’t talking ’bout shit I want to hear.
    â€œYou wanna leave now and go home to Red?” she asked, motioning for the bartender. If I’m gonna sit and listen to her ass whine all night, I have got to be fucked up.
    â€œHe somewhere with Bas.” Vivica twirled the ends of one of her braids around her finger.
    â€œI thought he say to lay low for a while?” Naeema asked, pretending to still be nonchalant.
    â€œNot them two. They thick as thieves,” Vivica said.
    As Beyoncé’s “Drunk in Love” filled the air and women began singing along with the music, Naeema ordered two more Crown Royals and Red Bulls, sliding one in front of Vivica as she sipped from hers. She thought about her next words, trying not to trip up and say the wrong thing. “Bas wouldn’t pull him away from you if it wasn’t mad important,” she said, meaning to sound gullible.
    Vivica just shrugged. “Me, Bas, and Red go way back. He wouldn’t do shit to hurt me,” she said, then started to sway to the music as she raised one hand in the air.
    Vivica was another loyal soldier in the Bas army.
    â€œWe woke up in the kitchen saying, ‘How the hell did this shit happen’ oh baby,” she sang, motioning with her hands and dancing in her seat.
    â€œYou always been the only girl ’round them?” Naeema asked, trying to get her attention back.
    Vivica nodded and took a sip of her drink. “Bas ain’t fucking shit but that powder and his thug dreams . . . Hammer got way too many girlfriends, side-chicks, babymamas, and tricks to even think about picking one to chill. Nelson can’t pull shit, let alone a bitch cute enough to bring around and not get clowned on. Brandon died before they even knew ’bout Brianna.”
    Naeema’s heart pounded in her chest almost as loudly as the bass of the music around them . Brianna? She didn’t remember that name anywhere in the file.
    â€œHow come you knew her and nobody else did?” she asked, raising her hand to tap her fingernail against her teeth as her mind worked a dozen different possibilities.
    Since she was in high school and first got a set of acrylic tips, she had picked up that habit and hadn’t kicked it since. It helped her to think and right then her mind was racing at the new info dropped into her lap.
    â€œShe work in a diner over by where we live and I used to see Brandon there with her.”
    Naeema decided to back off that, not wanting to scare her by seeming too nosy. Vivica sometimes talked about Brandon and she was always sure never to pry too much. She learned early on in their friendship that Vivica revealed more when she was uninterrupted. And Naeema needed to hear—to know—more.
    What role did Brianna play in this?
    â€œBas don’t know what to do with you, Queen,” Vivica said, picking up her phone again and tapping a text with her thumb.
    â€œHuh?” Naeema asked, obviously distracted by her thoughts.
    â€œOh, he wants to fuck you . . . we all know that, but letting you ride on the job yesterday was all about him seeing if he could trust you,” Vivica said.
    And to have something to hold over my head in case he didn’t.
    Vivica picked up her phone when it lit up. Her whole face changed. Dick-sprung.
    Naeema knew it was Red. “Your ass ready to go now,” she teased.
    Vivica smiled and stood up. “We’ll