“Get off me!” Za screams, elbowing me in the chest as she tries to swing again.
Frankie pushes her back.
Za comes right back at her.
“Enough!”
I finally get between them when Za’s hand catches Frankie across the cheek and Frankie shoves her so hard she stumbles into the arm of the sofa.
“Stop!” I shout, grabbing Za around the middle as she tries to launch herself back at her. “Stop it!”
“Let me go!” she screams, fighting me like I’m the enemy too. “Let me GO, Jabari!”
Frankie’s chest is heaving and her lip is split.
Za’s braid has come loose at the front.
They look at each other like strangers.
Or worst.
Like enemies.
“You’re dead to me,” Za says, voice shaking so badly she almost chokes on it. “You hear me, Francine? Dead to me!”
Frankie blinks.
“You’re a nut case! We could’ve talked this out like adults but you had to go all psycho on me!”
“Honestly, Frankie,” Za spits, tears already running down her face, “fuck you and what you have to say. All I wanna know is one thing.”
Frankie wipes at her mouth with the back of her hand, smearing blood.
Za got her good, not gonna lie.
“What, Chinaza? What?”
Za’s voice drops. Then, “Were you ever really my friend?”
The entire energy in the room changes.
Frankie’s face falls with her shoulders drop like something inside her just snapped.
“Of course I was,” she whispers. “ Of course I’m your friend, Chinaza. I love you so much.”
Za nods once, then she points at me.
“Then choose,” she says. “Him. Or me.”
I can hear all three of us breathing in the moments that past.
“Za, don’t—” Frankie starts.
“No. You don’t get to talk your way out of this,” she cuts in. “You don’t get to cry and hug me and tell me you love me after this. You don’t get to have both of us.”
Frankie looks at me. Then back at her.
“Please.”
