Free Thong on Fire by Noire Page B

the middle of the night to come get you off the streets no more, Saucy. If my momma finds out you told me to steal her keys and take her ride, both of our asses gone be dead.”
    While I had to sneak out all the time, Tai’s mother never checked up on her. She actually trusted her, and that really tickled me.
    “She ain’t gonna find out, Tai. Not unless you keep running your mouth all loud like you doing.”
    “You was lucky I finally decided to answer my phone. You didn’t answer yours when I called you.”
    I rolled over and squinted at her. I’d walked what felt like thirty thousand blocks last night and my toes were killing me. “I already told you, Tai. We was in the diner when you called. Dip had disappeared in the back on me and I was busy looking out for him.”
    She got real quiet for a second, then said, “Did you see who shot him?”
    I shook my head. “Nah. I told you I went to the bathroom because I had to pee real bad. He was already popped when I got back.”
    “But you said you caught a ride into Manhattan on a water truck. What did you do about Dip?”
    I sat up and looked at Tai like she had a dick on her forehead.
    “I left his ass right there!”
    Her eyes got big. “Oh my God, Saucy. He probably died!”
    I shrugged. He probably did. But what the hell was I supposed to do about that? Dip was the one who had turned me on to this game. He knew the runnings and the risks ten times better than I did. I was just glad I had to pee when I did. Otherwise, there might have been two dead bodies propped up in that Expedition last night.
    Besides, I was the one who got stranded and left out there to find my own way home. No sooner than I’d slammed the door on Dip, that cute little man who had tried to holla at me in the diner came strolling down the steps.
    “What’s wrong, baby girl. What you do? Eat and run? I told you to get wit’ me if ya man’s bank was too short to get up in ya belly.”
    Him and his boy was climbing into a fresh cream-colored Caddy parked two cars over. I saw my opportunity and jumped on it.
    “Yeah,” I said sexily, strutting over to his car. “That nigga came up a little short. But his loss might be your gain.”
    He started his engine and grinned at me.
    “That right?” He dismissed his boy with a hand gesture without taking his eyes off me. “Yo, Jamal. Climb in the back, man.”
    And then to me: “Yeah, baby. Toss that herb who brought a dime like you to some raggedy-ass diner. You wanna party with a winner tonight? I’m Wakim. Jump your fine ass on over in here with me.”

    Tai stood up and opened the window. The breeze coming in felt good and all I wanted to do was roll over and go back to sleep.
    “But wait a damn minute,” she said, turning toward me, her eyes suspicious. “You ain’t tell me about no cream Caddy, Saucy. You mean you made me come get your ass when you was rolling around town in a Caddy? I thought you said the damn water man had kicked you outta his raggedy truck?”
    “He did. But that was after I ditched Wakim at the house party.”
    Tai looked at me with her eyebrows up. She slid off her bathrobe and I closed my eyes when I saw all that meat hanging out the side of her Miss Piggy pajamas. There’s some shit big girls like her just shouldn’t wear, ya feel me?
    “You bailed on Dip to go party with some niggas you didn’t even know? Damn. You should have at least called an ambulance for him, Saucy. Called the cops. Called some damn body.”
    “Nah!” I sat up. “Who I shoulda called the cops on was that skinny Puerto Rican bastard who made me suck his dick for a ride across the bridge!”
    Tai looked all shocked, but I was mad as hell.
    I didn’t know shit about Queens, and Wakim and Jamal had taken me deeper into I-don’t-know-where-the-hell-I’m-at territory to this house party he said his man was throwing. The two-story house was rocking when we rolled up. People were hanging out all over the second-floor balcony and the