Free 5 Minutes and 42 Seconds by Timothy Williams

diapers?” I was so mad I forgot to cover JD’s ears, and felt bad.
    â€œMan, I just bought him that Nike outfit.”
    â€œGood, now buy some goddamn diapers so he can stop shittin’ it.” I remembered to plug his ears that time.
    â€œLet me go call my momma, she’ll give you some.”
    â€œYeah, I’m gonna let you get to that.”
    â€œWhatever. Just stay here, and don’t go into none of these other rooms.”
    Soon as Pie left, Fashad started laughing.
    â€œWhat are you laughing about?” I said innocently, trying to sound like a sweet little girl. Probably looking like a damn fool, seeing as how I had just cussed out his friend, and was holding a baby.
    â€œHave you not noticed that there are no women here?”
    â€œNo,” I said, apologetically, like I cared. I hadn’t noticed that it was just a place for niggas to chill, but it wouldn’t have mattered. My baby needed some diapers. I would have walked into a ho house.
    â€œThere aren’t any women here besides me?” I asked, still trying to sound like a lost little girl.
    â€œNope, and you haven’t noticed?”
    I shook my head no. “This my first time being here.”
    â€œAnd why you think all them niggas was trying to keep you out?”
    â€œI don’t know. I guess because y’all don’t like girls in here.”
    â€œBut you came in anyway,” said Fashad, sounding like the state prosecutor.
    â€œOnly because my baby needs Pampers,” I said. “I’m not coming back. I don’t have time to worry about what y’all be doing in y’all’s little clique, I just came for some diapers.”
    He laughed, then stuck out his hand for me to shake. He told me his name was Fashad, but I thought he said Façade.
    â€œNice to meet you, Façade,” I said, and I gently reached out my hand for him to take like I was some rich old white lady from the South during slavery.
    â€œIt’s Fashad,” he said.
    I apologized, and he told me, “Lots of people make that mistake.” He said he even called himself Façade until he was old enough to know that that wasn’t his name.
    Pie came back in and said he didn’t have no money for Pampers. Said his momma wasn’t going to pay because everyone knew I was hot and JD didn’t have his daddy’s eyes. He said she said it couldn’t be no grandbaby of hers unless it had eyes as fine as her son’s. His words were matter-of-fact, his eyes were cold and heartless. I was struggling and he didn’t care. That’s when it hit me. Pie never wanted me, he only wanted people to know he could have me. I ran out of that place, hurt and ashamed. The next day Fashad called and asked me out. That was the beginning of the life I live now. We moved in together the next week, and Ihaven’t had to work or worry since. You for damn sure don’t need a broke-down Hyundai when you got a brand-new Mercedes.
    Pie heard about Fashad asking me out and thought Fashad was just kidding around. Fashad never really took girls out, so Pie thought that we were both just playing a joke on him. When he found out me and Fashad were serious, he had a fit. He kept calling Fashad a “twin,” and when I asked him why, he said it was a nickname, because Fashad was two different people that looked just alike. I asked Fashad about the nickname and he said that’s what everybody at Ralph’s called each other, said everyone at Ralph’s was a twin, just like every brotha is a nigga. Pie did everything he could to come between me and Fashad, but I ain’t pay no attention to him. To Pie I was just a possession. He wanted me to belong to him and not Fashad.
    Pie turned out to be gay. I don’t have no problem with fags. My best friend is a fag, and I don’t care what they do. But other people be gettin’ all worked up about that shit. Fashad stopped going to