Total pages in book: 176
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
“Oh, shit,” Breana said, slurring. “Thanks, girl.” She hiccupped before stumbling to get another drink.
I was about to intervene before she mistakenly poisoned herself when I spotted a familiar face walking by.
I wasn’t sure what compelled me to go after her, but I left the guarded section without a word, dodged the waitresses speeding by, and pushed through some of the people whose sections had spilled over into others until I caught up to the small group of women the plus-sized beauty was leading to a section of her own.
“Demi?”
She stopped, hearing her name, and turned. A warm smile instantly appeared when she saw me. “Atlas? What are you doing here, girl?”
I accepted the hug she offered before shrugging. “Having a good time like everyone else.”
“Yeah, except you know that your ass is too young for this club. Be real with me.” She gave me a stern look. “Did you sneak in?”
I flashed a secret smirk before shaking my head. “No. I just know the right people.”
“Okay, girl. I see you.” Demi looked me up and down and nodded, silently giving me my props. I didn’t tell her it was Ruen that put tonight’s fit together since it was the woman that made the clothes and not the other way around. “Did you come alone?”
“Not exactly,” I grumbled before pointing to my section where Ruen’s friends now had a gang of hardheads commandeering the space. Breana was now twerking her ass on the same guy that had been recording her while her friends were busy snorting the white powder piled on the table and arguing with the girls from the neighboring section that the guys had wandered over from.
Clearly, the men were freeloaders willing to pit women against each other for their own entertainment, but there was no seeing the light once the first punch was thrown. An all-out brawl started between the group of girls while the men, drinking up their liquor and occupying their space, laughed and filmed the whole thing.
They’d be viral by morning. I was sure of it.
Demi winced when she peeped the scene, confirming what I already knew. Ruen’s friends were ratchet as hell.
I silently weighed my options. I could leave or go up to the deejay booth to watch Ruen work. I was still thinking it over when Demi tapped my shoulder. “I can see the wheels turning, and no. You don’t need to be around all of that. Come chill with me and my girls. We have a section.”
I hesitated. “I don’t want to impose.”
“How can that be when I offered?” Demi turned away to rejoin her friends, and I reluctantly followed, feeling curious gazes on me as I entered the section. “Ladies, this is my little mama. Atlas, these are my girls—Chrissy, Mylah, Zoey, and Kingsley.”
They all waved, and I returned the gesture as I sat next to Demi.
“Atlas,” Kingsley mused with a continuous snap of her fingers. “Where have I heard that name before?”
“Probably from geography class, you dumb bitch. What do you mean?” Chrissy immediately roasted her friend.
“Don’t do me,” Kingsley said with a roll of her eyes. “I’ve been hearing that name in more than a few circles. Word on the street is that Rowdy’s whorish ass has a girl now.” Her gaze finally traveled to me, and I saw the budding hostility she tried to hide under the guise of harmless curiosity. “Same name as you.”
“Be so for real,” Zoey interjected. “This girl looks like she’s twelve. No offense,” she offhandedly threw my way. I was very much offended, but it wasn’t worth arguing over, and with a stranger, no less. “She doesn’t even look like she’s old enough to be in this club, much less date that green-eyed monster.”
“That’s the thing. Everybody’s saying his girl is young. Like real, real young. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t know too many bitches walking around with her name.”
I said nothing as I listened to their back and forth.
What was there to say? I’d risked complicating my friendship with Ruen in order to avoid an even more complex situation with Rowdy, and somehow, someway, that overbearing negro had found a way to disturb my peace without even being here.
Call me crazy, but at least two of Demi’s friends sounded like they’d known him intimately. Kingsley was the most obvious of all. She looked seconds away from crying in a corner while Zoey seemed resigned to the fact that Rowdy belonged to neither of them.
The jealousy and frustration amalgamating in my gut nearly came to a head when Mylah, the fourth and most quiet of Demi’s friends, spoke first. “Um, ladies? She’s sitting right there. You can just ask her who she is.”
All four sets of eyes turned to me while Demi pointedly focused on mixing herself a drink. I was sure she already knew the answer but was allowing me the space to decide if I wanted to expose myself or not.