Free Secrets of a Side Bitch 2 by Jessica Watkins Page A

to get this money. Don’t play me like we still in high school. I’m grown and I need some grown money.”
    “You sure you wanna be ‘bout this life?”
    “Real talk, it ’s not a question. I’m out of options.”
    Some niggas sold drugs because it was easy. I honestly would have taken a different route, but drug money was faster than legal money. I needed fast money before my ass didn ’t even have the nasty ass motel to sleep in.
    “ A’ight, man. I’mma fuck with you because I know you. Take my number and holla at me in a few days.”

Omari
    “Tiana, I need you to watch Dahlia for a minute.”
    Tiana looked at me like I was crazy. I had just walked into the spot out south. I knew that she could see that something was going on. I would never have my baby in the spot. But it was an emergency.
    “I ’ll be right back,” I tried to convince her.
    “You sure?”
    “I swear. C’mon.”
    “ A’ight, Omari. Come right back. I got plans.”
    Every time I left Aeysha ’s grave, I left with a bigger scar on my heart. But that day the scar was massive and burned like salt in a fresh wound.
    I dropped Dahlia off to Tiana, jumped back in my ride, and bent blocks at record speeds. I wasn ’t even thinking. I just felt rage and was heavily seeking revenge. Visions of the digits of Aeysha’s blood pressure rapidly lowering fueled my rage as I swerved through lanes on Seventy-First Street.
    When I got to Ching ’s block, I pulled over at the corner and turned off my headlights. Never did I think to stop. I reached into my glove compartment for the .38 that I kept inside. It was about seven o’clock in the evening. The sun had just set. Just a few people were on the streets. I put the car in drive and crept up the street slowly until I was in front of Ching’s crib.
    My mind was still pregnant with thoughts of Aeysha. Visions of me attempting to tell my baby girl that her mother was dead, whenever she could comprehend death, made me sick to my stomach. I wiped the tears away that flowed from my bloodshot eyes as I rolled down the window and pointed the gun at Ching’s house. I thought of Aeysha and I fired repeatedly. Bullets whizzed through the cold biting winter air like parachute fireworks.
    The few pedestrians on the block could be heard screaming as bullets pierced the windows of Ching’s house. Bullets shot through the front door and pierced the siding of the house.
    I shot until my finger hurt. I shot until there were no bullets and I was firing out air.
    Then I sped off.
    Flying down Aberdeen at record speeds, I realized how good that felt. I ’d released three months of pent up vengeful frustrations. For five minutes, I felt better. But as the minutes and seconds slipped by as I flew east on Seventy-Ninth Street towards the e-way, I knew that that wasn’t enough. That wasn’t enough for Ching to pay for what he’d done to Aeysha.
    But it was a start.
    It was a warning.
    My cell phone started to ring as it lay in my lap. I wasn’t in the mood to talk to no motherfuckin’ body, but when I saw that it was Capone, I answered.
    “Whad up?”
    “Did you just shoot up Ching’s crib?”
    I glanced at the clock with a smile. It had only been fifteen minutes since I left Ching ’s block. I was damn near back in Riverdale.
    “Did he get hit?”
    “Hell naw.”
    Instantly, regret filled my heart. I knew that I was just aiming randomly, but I was just hoping that I’d hit that nigga.
    A warning was good enough though. I wasn ’t quite ready to kill him. I wanted to fuck with him for a little while first.
    “He wasn ’t there. His girl was there though.”
    A small evil grin ran across my face as I thought of that ratchet bitch running through the house, scared and taking cover.
    “You did that shit, homey?” Capone had a slight laugh in his words as he questioned me. “We were supposed to do this shit together.”
    “I ain ’t done nothing yet. How you find out so fast?”
    “She called him. He