Free Backstage: Street Chronicles by Nikki Turner Page A

into an argument with Susan over whether you are my friend or not and you ask me to do this. I mean, my dumb ass was just going to bat for you and you prove me wrong and validate her point by asking me to risk my livelihood over a couple dollars. I have money. I have enough money to last me a lifetime. And you might be right, maybe I do only have a year or two left. Who the fuck cares? That is what I got a degree for, life after basketball. But ALL of that goes down the drain the minute I agree to do this bullshit. Again I say, FUCK YOU!”
    “Did I say that when your ass needed me? When you nearly broke my door down for some fucking pain pills because you couldn’t take the pain and the team doctors wouldn’t give you any more? Did I turn my back on you? No, I found a way to make it happen because I knew you needed me and you always had my back. We go back how long, over twenty years, and I ask you to do me a solid and you can’t. How dare you question my friendship? I’ve always shown and proved it.”
    Slim paused. “But your ass is going to sit there ready to bitch up. You didn’t give a shit about your career then but now all of a sudden you do. It’s funny how then all you cared about was playing and I made that happen. I kept your ass on the court. I found the pills, got you a supply, and then made a way for you to beat their damn piss test, too, so they’d think you were clean. I did that. I did all that for you and you tell me fuck you. Nigga, that bullshit career you have. You owe all that to me. Even that bullshit-ass degree, I’m the one who bought your professors to make sureyou stayed on the court. I’m the one who made that rape charge disappear in college when that bitch tried to set you up. I’ve always had your back. Go run and tell Susan’s ass that! She doesn’t know half the shit I’ve done for you so I didn’t prove that bitch right in any way!”
    Slim calmed himself down then continued. “Don’t you think I’ve thought this plan all the way through? Every fucking angle, every possible snag, all of it. I’ve thought it through to make sure there is no possible way we can get caught, just paid.”
    “Damn, you went there. It’s cool. I see where we are at with things. I know the mistakes I’ve made in my past, Slim. I accept them, but I’ll be damned if I continue to make the same fucking mistakes over and over again. Have you ever wondered why I haven’t been around you that much lately? Why I’ve stayed away from you? This is the exact reason why. But I thought, maybe, just maybe you possibly grew up and changed. I guess I was wrong. I guess you are the same selfish nigga you have always been and probably always will be. Oh, and FYI, you didn’t do all that shit for me. You did all that shit for you. That’s the way you do business. You help folks out so they forever stay in debt to your ass. Well guess what, I don’t owe you a damn thing. So again I’ll say for the final time, fuck you!”
    Trey turned and walked out of the office slamming the door behind him. As he was making his way through the crowd, Candi spotted him. She tried to catch up with him, but Trey was on a mission to get out of the club as fast as possible.

Chapter 3
    Trey walked into the house and threw his keys down on his coffee table. He was pissed. He never would have imagined Slim would ever cross that line. Anyone who knew Trey knew that nothing would come between him and his love of the game. Basketball wasall he’d known since he was a child. Trey took his suit jacket off and threw it down on the couch, then loosened up his tie and went into the kitchen to pour himself a drink just as his doorbell rang. Trey made his way to the door to see who it was. Surprise filled his eyes once he looked through the peephole.
    “What are you doing here? How do you know where I live?” he asked after he opened the door.
    “You sound as if you aren’t happy to see me,” Candi replied.
    “I didn’t say