Authors: Nikki Turner
Yarni knew that Rallo felt awful about the fight, and he should have. She knew he was in the street life. She also suspected that he messed around on her. She felt like if you're going to cheat, at least keep your women in check. Inform them of their place and make them play their position. Taking all this into consideration, she decided to use this to her benefit. He knew that the fight was because of him. He felt guilty because he was still sleeping with Tina every now and then. He'd explained to Tina that it could be "no more them," that he was with Yarni now. He shouldn't have slept with Tina. He knew that she was going to get out of hand. Tina just gave the bomb head. This week, especially, oh he spoiled Yarni! He brought her a 7-carat tennis bracelet and her allowance was tripled. He agreed to go on a 7-day cruise with her. He gave her the money to go pay for it. She didn't because she wasn't going on any cruise with him. She just kept the money.
After all this, she decided she had gotten enough from him.
They went to Tyson's Corner Mall. They just put out their new fall line. She knew she was going to be going back to school soon.
She shopped early for her school clothes. She figured she'd better get it now. She knew when she left him alone she wasn't going to able to afford shopping sprees in the exquisite boutiques. They actually had a nice day together. All good things must come to an end, huh?
When he dropped her off at her house, she gathered all her bags and told him that she was going in the house to lie down because the Tai food they'd eaten was making her feel nauseat-ed.
The next morning, she changed her phone number to a non-published number. She pulled her car into the closed garage, so it appeared that she wasn't home. When she did leave the house, she drove her mother's spare car, a Toyota Cressida.
When he called on her mother's line, her mother would just say Yarni wasn't available. He wouldn't dare ask Gloria any questions.
After about four days, he realized she really didn't want to mess with him. I can't believe how she just booked up and left me like that. After all the good times, he thought, she let one incident come between us, and I went all out to make it right, not hustling, just straight catering to her that whole week. That cruddy bitch! Then, to put the icing on the cake, his cousin's girlfriend told Rallo she'd seen Yarni down at the prison, visiting Des. She described what Yarni had on from head to toe. It was one of the outfits he had bought her. The gall of her. She had him looking like the laughing stock of Richmond. What was he to do now?
Rallo decided to tell all the hood rats from around the p.j.'s that if any of them saw that bitch, Yarni, anywhere at all, he didn't care if it was at church on Easter Sunday, he wanted her beat down. He'd pay anybody $250.00 to beat her every time they saw her.
It didn't take long for Yarni to get a whiff of the rumor. One day she was in the beauty parlor, some girls were talking about her and didn't even realize that she was right there. She got her beautician to go over there and ask who and what they were talking about. They let the cat out of the bag.
When she got home, she was so furious with the whole thing. She paced the floor trying to make sense of this matter.
She looked at Rallo's picture that she had on her dresser.
"Now, enough is enough! I let you get off easy when I just stepped off. Now, you don't appreciate it when a sister walks away! No, you gotta have drama. Well, let the games begin, Mr.
Rah-llo. We'll see who gets the last laugh; He who laughs last, laughs the longest. You just HAAADDDD to take it to another level. Now it's on!!!"
She pulled herself together and paged Rallo. She put 4000 in after her number to make it look like it was somebody trying to spend $4,000. Just as she thought, he called right back.
Yarni made her voice sound real weak. "Hey, it's me. Sorry I haven't called you. I've been feeling so bad every since we came back from Tyson's. I've been feeling so weak that I didn't call and give you the new number. I changed it because some how, Tina got my number and was playing on my phone. I really need you right now. My doctor's office gave me a sick patient appointment, and I can't drive myself. I need you to come and take me." Of course, Rallo agreed and rushed right over.
Yarni threw on some sweatpants and sneakers and she kept her hair wrapped up in a doobie. She planned out every single detail. She let him go back in the room with her to see the doctor. They asked her for her urine sample so Yarni peed in the cup.
When they did a pregnancy test, it came back positive. She had gone by her cousin's house, who was pregnant, and got her to pee in a cup with a top. She had the cup in her pocket all along and used her cousin's pee instead of her own. They asked her when her last period was. She told them a date two months before. She reminded them about how irregular her periods were. They told her she was six weeks pregnant, and the doctor prescribed prenatal vitamins.
Rallo was happy, although he had ulterior motives, when he first met her and messed around on her, but now he truly loved her. He wanted to marry her. He even told her to set up some marriage counseling with her pastor, but Yarni wasn't thinking about marrying him. Rallo was a snake. How could he even think I would dare to even entertain the thought of marrying him after, just earlier today, he had the dogs out looking for me? Am I just supposed to forget about that?
Yarni knew that Rallo, more than anything, wanted a child with her. He thought that was his way of trapping her and the ultimate revenge on Des. But really it was her way of imprison-ing his mind. He'd never find out the truth. The fact that he truly loved her, just the thought of him knowing that they'd conceived a child together, and she aborted it. It would damage him for sure. Not like a gun shot wound that would eventually heal if nursed right. She wanted real damage. Injury to the heart is the worst kind of bodily harm. Now, if he didn't love her, it wouldn't have had any affect on him, but that wasn't the case.
On the way from the doctor's office she explained to him that having a child right now wouldn't be a good move for her.
Yarni could be very persuasive. She'd always been able to debate and argue her point. So she explained to Rallo while he drove.
"Rallo, I am still trying to complete my schooling and we're not ready for a child. I'm not even legally divorced from Des, and Des isn't going to take no divorce papers lightly." She said, even though she knew that she and Des weren't legally married, but Rallo didn't know that. She continued to assure him.
"We have plenty of time to get married and have a baby. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. Do you plan on messing with somebody else?"
As soon as she said that he consented to the abortion.
"I'm not real good with these type of things, but if you absolutely need me to, I'll go with you." Yarni paused for full affect.
"Rallo, for real, it's going to be hard enough to do it. I don't need you there making the situation worse. As a matter of fact, I need some time to myself to get my mind right." Rallo respected her wishes. When he dropped her off he told her he was going to bring the money back. He left and came right back and gave her $3,000. He said it was some extra money in case she might've wanted to go shopping afterwards.
He thought it would help her feel better.
She went straight to Cloverleaf Mall, a.k.a. "the ghetto mall of Richmond," and every city has one. Whenever you go to Cloverleaf Mall you are subject to see anybody and run into some of everybody. She ran into this big mouth girl Amy. Now Amy was a gossip box who grew up in the suburbs near Yarni, but as soon as she got a job, she moved to the city just so she could be closer to the action.
Every town is equipped with three or four Amy's. Amy is the person who knows everything about everybody. She knows who drives what, who has a baby by whom. You don't even have to request a blood test because Amy knows. She knows where everybody works, who's getting money, as well as who's bank-rupt. If you need to locate or get a message to someone, she can take care of that too. The only thing she don't know, is how to take her gossiping ass up to Channel 12 and get a job so she can get paid to report the news instead of being a broke bootleg gossip columnist.
Amy was pretty as a little girl, but now she has so many scrapes and scars from being in scuffles about, he said, she said, type mess. All of her bruises have given her "a hard" look, which has added about seven years on to her actual age. Thirty years old, standing 5'5, birthing three children, she still maintains her brick house type shape, and is up on all the trends to hit the fashion scene. Amy's complexion is a walnut shade of brown and she has nice round, full lips. Most of the time when she is out during the day, her hair is wrapped around in a doobie under a scarf to match her outfit. Although she can maintain the upkeep of her hair herself, she is faithfully in the beauty shop every Friday and Saturday to get her hair and nails done. But while she's getting pampered, she's gathering and passing on gossip.
Amy informed Yarni, "Girl, that dude Bengee has been looking all around town for you. He's been trying to locate you. He said he didn't want to show up at your mother's house unannounced." She remembered telling Bengee that was her mother's house and she was never there, because she had just met Bengee and didn't want him to know exactly where she lived.
She thanked Amy for the info and kept it moving.
She also ran into Tina, Ralleshia, and Rallo, looking like a big happy family. Oh, I'm glad to see them out doing a family outing. This is all I need. This is surely a valid excuse to be rid of him. He stopped to talk to her.
"Come here, Yarni. Let me holler at you for a minute." Yarni giggled a little with one of those fake laughs. Ohh, he got big balls don't he? He got the nerve to stop and want to carry on a conversation with me when he is with that guttersnipe. I ain't even going to act stupid. Oh, but I'm going to stop and talk to him just to make Ms. Tina mad. Watch and see.
She didn't get upset she just stopped and chit chatted with him. Ralleshia stood by Rallo holding his leg, smiling.
"Hey Ralleshia, you're so cute." Yarni said, in a goo goo ga ga way.
"Hi, what's yo name?" Ralleshia asked, but Rallo cut in.
"This is my good friend, Yarni." Oh, I'm his good friend now, huh?
"Daddy, that's your girlfriend?" Ralleshia asked her father, knowing the score.
"Yeah baby, that's my girlfriend." Tina was furious. She looked like a time bomb about to explode. She stared at her watch and sucked her teeth.
"Rahhlow, come on. Time's up. I thought you just said we was going home to lay up?" Tina said in her most ghetto-fabu-lous voice while twitching her neck and placing her hand on her hip.
Yarni acted as if she didn't hear Tina. Yarni simply turned to Rallo and asked for some money. He went in his pocket. He pulled out a bankroll. He peeled off four hundreds. She grabbed the bankroll and left him with the four hundreds.
"Big daddy," she whined in her most seductive voice, pissing Tina off. "Call me when you drop them off alright," and she kept on going, laughing to herself how funny she was.
Before she got in her door good the phone was ringing. It was Rallo and she told him that it was over. There was nothing he could say. Yarni hung up on him after telling him to never call her again, but those words didn't mean anything. He kept calling, so she simply got her number changed again.
Yarni called Information and asked for the number and address to "Right Choice Landscaping". The operator gave her the information she needed. Her next phone call was to Vogue Florist. She ordered a dozen sunflowers. The card attached read
"Thanks a bunch for being my Superman when I was truly a damsel in distress."
She was sure that some of his homeboys would be hanging out up at his shop. That's usually how it goes. A brother who is trying to go legit still keeps company with dudes from his past.
Yarni's guess was that he might be trying to lay the foundation for the other brothers so they could know that they could do it too. Yarni knew as soon as the flowers arrived, the other guys would be hyping it up. She gave them until about 5pm for the flowers to arrive. Just then, her next-door neighbor, Ms. Jackson, called her to inform her that somebody was over by her car. She slipped on her shoes and ran outside. Her first thought that it was Tina or Rallo. She was wrong it was Bengee leaving a note on her car.
He smiled when he made sight of Yarni and was clearly happy to see her. "I didn't have any way of getting in contact with you. I knew your mother lived here. I was hoping to catch her outside watering her flowers or doing some type of yard work." He stared into her eyes and said, "Today must be my lucky day! I have been looking for you ever since I dropped you off. I didn't want to come back here all unannounced at your people's house. Then today, I surprisingly get these sunflowers from you. Nobody has ever sent me flowers. Yarni already figured that anyway. She just smiled back at Bengee and was pleased with herself.
"The guys at the shop couldn't believe it," he continued.
Then they exchanged numbers and agreed to see each other the next day. He bent down, kissed her on the cheek and got into his truck. She looked at his work truck and just shook her head as he pulled off.
She immediately ran in the house and called him on his cell phone. "I have to ask," she said laughing, "why do brothers who are most likely using a business for a front, go get a work truck and have it sitting on 18 inch rims or better. They have their work trucks chromed out." Yarni mentioned how she'd seen a work truck the other day with TV's in it. "Come on brothers, then you wonder how the police know what you're doing?" She went on.