Page 2 of Fraudulent Beauty

“This is my homie, Khalif. Khalif, this is Sheniah’s best friend, Tahli.

Khalif turned his body slightly. “How you doing, Ms. Tahli?”

“I’m good,” I smiled as he held the door open for me.

I heard music playing in the kitchen. Following Khalif, we entered and found Sheniah at the sink cleaning meat, and Nook’s brother, Fred was standing by the back door filling a cooler with ice.

“Hey, boo,” Sheniah smiled brightly.

My bestie was super tall. She was almost 5’10 and built like a stallion. In middle school boys used to clown her because she was so tall, but one thing was for sure, and that was her face card never declined. The same ones that joked on her were the same ones that would double back and ask for her number, and she always paid them dust. Her and Nook were the same height, so when she wore heels, she was taller than him, but neither seemed to mind. Sheniah had caramel-colored skin, full, juicy, lips, round eyes, and a broad nose. Her hair was super thick, and she loved rocking her natural, tight coils. I hadn’t seen Sheniah wear weave in about four years.

I possessed peanut butter-colored skin and while I wasn’t as tall as Sheniah, I wasn’t exactly short. I stood 5’8 and had a slim build. My thighs were kind of thick due to me running track for three years, but my ass wasn’t the fattest. I never got any complaints, however. I contemplated getting a BBL many times. It wasn’t completely off the table but if I got one, it would damn sure be for me and not the opposite sex because they didn’t give a damn about my shape. Attention was one thing I got enough of. Even if it didn’t come from the right people because at almost twenty-seven, I was still single and had been for five years.

“Bae, fix me a drink,” Sheniah called out to Nook while shaking the container of seasoning over the bowl of chicken in front of her.

“You on light or dark?” Nook asked exhaling weed smoke from his nostrils. “Never mind. Dark,” he said at the same time that I replied dark as well.

Looking over her shoulder with a hiked brow, Sheniah’s gaze bounced from me to Nook. “What y’all trying to say?”

“That white makes you fight,” I stated. Nook and Sheniah went at it so much that I had learned to ignore them. They had never put their hands on one another to my knowledge, but they could come damn close. I’d seen them standing nose to nose arguing before.

“And I don’t have time for the bullshit,” Nook grabbed a bottle of Anejo tequila. “If I slam your ass on the ground, then Tahli gon’ get mad and start talking shit, then I’m gon’ have to dunk sis on her head,” Nook sighed, while I chuckled.

“Picture that.”

“We’ll beat your ass in here,” Sheniah frowned. “But I don’t want no smoke. I’ll never hear the end of it if I cut up, so I’ll drink dark today. No problem.”

Walking toward her with the cup in hand, Nook smacked Sheniah on the ass. “I love it when you comply.”

“Oh brother,” I groaned as I grabbed a cup and walked over to the table that had the alcohol on it.

“Don’t hate sis. I keep telling you, you gon’ meet a good man soon. In fact,” his eyes widened as if he’d had a sudden revelation. Passing the blunt to Fred, he slammed his empty cup on the counter. “Tahli twenty-six, no kids. My nigga, Khalif, twenty-six one kid. She’s four. Both of y’all are single. Go ahead outside and mingle.”

I angled my head to the left a bit and stared at Nook like he was crazy. When he tried to hook me up with Fred knowing he had two women pregnant at the same time I told him to never in life play matchmaker for me, and that was what I meant. I preferred men with no kids, but that was a rare find. Four was pretty young, and it was possible that he had baby mama drama. Even if he didn’t, the way he just threw us both on the spot was nasty work.

“What have I told you before?” I pulled the stopper from the bottle of tequila I was holding.

Kissing his teeth, Nook waved my comment off. “I was young back then and just wanted my brother with a woman that didn’t walk around with dirty feet. I was out of pocket for that one though not gonna lie.”

Sheniah pushed out a loud laugh while my jaw slacked. Standing up straight, Fred mean mugged his brother. “Not too much on my baby mamas fuck nigga.”

“You don’t even like those hoes. Bae pass me some meat, so I can go ahead and start cooking.”

It was going to be an interesting day indeed, and I was there for it.

The two half cups of alcohol I’d consumed had my ass a little past tipsy and it was for that reason, I had to keep reminding myself to stop staring at Tahli’s pretty ass. I didn’t want her thinking I was a creep. We had been playing Spades for the past hour. She was my partner, and we were playing against Sheniah and Nook. Sheniah had some cute friends and cousins. There were about fifteen females present at the cookout, but none of them had caught my attention like Tahli. It was so bad that Sheniah’s cousin, Lisha was flirting with me, and I kept hoping that Tahli wouldn’t notice. Even though I wasn’t flirting back.

I threw down a King of Spades, and Tahli swiftly swooped all four cards up. “Thang ya.” She was collecting our books. We’d lost the first round, but we’d won the last two.

“I knew I should have kept my partner,” Sheniah kissed her teeth.

“Fuck you trying to say?” Nook frowned at her comment.

“That yo’ drunk ass got us loosing. You been drinking since noon, and it’s almost six. You know when you’re drunk you be slow as hell,” she fussed. “And not slow as in movement. Slow as in dumb as fuck.”

“Fuck you,” Nook spat as I chuckled. I threw down an Ace of Spades because it was the only spade I had left, and Sheniah slammed her palm on the table.

“Fuck, I give up.” Everyone threw their last card down simultaneously, and Nook stood up.