Vegas Chronicles (eBook)

1

“I hate this nigga! He always does this.”

Bianca grumbled under her breath as she waited outside the closed IHOP in the dark. It was already approaching 10 PM, and her shift ended at 8 PM. She decided to check her phone to see if Zeke had texted her. But there weren’t any messages from him. She was getting real sick of letting him borrow her car.

She thought to herself, he’s late picking me up from work all the time. Why? All niggas do to get ready is throw on some clean clothes. They don’t have to do as much as women do. It doesn’t make sense for him to be this late all the damn time. Fuck him.

While she was in deep thought and cursing his name, she saw her dark blue Honda Accord pull up. Zeke had his durag on and was holding a Black & Mild out the window. Bianca rolled her eyes and walked down the restaurant’s staircase. She got into the back seat and slammed the door hard enough to make the car shake.

“Ay, why you slammin doors and shit?” Zeke said.

“Ay, why you late all the god damn time, Zeke?” she mimicked back.

She let out a sigh and set her black Louis Vuitton bag down in the seat beside her. After about 20 seconds went by, she heard a gentle “I’m sorry” in Zeke’s country accent.

She didn’t respond. She wanted him to think she was still mad so that he would make it up to her some way. But inside, she desired him. Even though he upset and disappointed her quite often, Bianca couldn’t shake the love she had for Zeke. She just wanted him to do better, and she didn’t know if that would ever come to pass. But regardless, she had no plans of letting him go.

The car took a different route than Bianca expected and turned into a plaza with a grocery store. Zeke parked, and cracked a window in the back. “I’ll be back,” he said before leaving her by herself.

Damn, he didn’t even ask me if I wanted anything, she thought. She pulled out her phone and checked her texts. She had 5 unread messages from her best friend, Sunny.

She giggled and then quickly began typing a reply. She had been her best friend since middle school, when Sunny moved to Las Vegas from California. She was rough around the edges, but Bianca, being somewhat popular in school, showed her around. Their friendship blossomed from there, and they were nearly inseparable ever since. Sunny was dramatic, loud and boisterous. But she was also the insightful one out of the two. Bianca admired her for her street smarts and being able to put messy situations into perspective.

About 15 minutes later, Zeke came back to the car with a single plastic bag of groceries. After he got in, he reached behind him and put the bag on the floor beside Bianca’s feet.

“What is this?” she said, sounding agitated.

“Well, look at it.”

Still holding on to her anger, she rolled her eyes again and dug into the bag. Inside was a box of Russell Stover chocolates and a small, plush teddy bear.

He was really good at disappointing her and then making her feel bad for getting mad at him, she thought.

She still didn’t say anything. She stayed quiet for the next 10 minutes, until they pulled up to her house. She got out and left her bags in the back seat. She opened the passenger’s side door and got in. Bianca grabbed Zeke’s face by his rugged beard and kissed him deeply. He placed his hand on her back, enjoying the passionate moment. She then unbuttoned and unzipped his pants and gave him head. It was the only way she knew to say she forgave him.

After Bianca was done with Zeke, the two didn’t exchange any words. He waved goodbye, and she waved back. She grabbed her bags from the back seat and headed inside the house. Once inside, Bianca instantly smelled cornbread. She walked into the kitchen and saw Auntie Ruthie rinsing out dishes. The old woman wore a brown, long-sleeved shirt and a long jean skirt that covered her plump body. Her face sagged in an endearing way that glorified all the years behind her. Her permed hair was salt and pepper colored and slicked back.

“Hey Auntie Ruthie, what’s for dinner?” she said as she put an arm around the older woman and kissed her on the cheek.

“Hey baby. I made some cornbread and greens. Your plate is in the oven, I tried to keep it warm. How was work?”

“Eh, it was the same as always. Co-workers getting on my nerves, bosses getting on my nerves, and the customers getting on my nerves. I hate it there sometimes.”

“Aw, suga. I’m sorry. What about getting a job working for the state? It’ll be more stable. Since you don’t wanna finish college.”

“Yeah, maybe I’ll think about it.” She really had no intention of thinking about it. Bianca was an artist, that was her passion. She wanted to make money with her drawings one day, she just wasn’t sure how she would get there. Her aunt didn’t like that idea— she wanted Bianca to have a job with stability. She was tired of Auntie Ruthie suggesting careers that had nothing to do with her passion, so she didn’t talk to her much about her artistry aspirations anymore.

Bianca took her plate out of the oven, grabbed a can of Coke from the fridge, and headed to her room. As she walked out of the kitchen and through the family room, everything was spotless, as usual. Auntie Ruthie had been living in that house for decades, and it was handed down from her mother and father, which were Bianca’s great-grandparents. She kept the same old pictures and outdated figurines in the house but made sure it was always clean and void of any dust.

Bianca was grateful that her great aunt allowed her to live there. She was easy to live with, even though she was old-school. Auntie mostly just cooked, cleaned, watched old tv shows, and went to church and on missionary trips with her senior friends. She didn’t really like many of the younger members of the family. But since Bianca’s mother was her favorite niece, she always helped Bianca more than the rest.

“You girls goin out again tonight, baby?” Auntie Ruthie asked loud enough for her voice to carry.

“Yes, Auntie. I’ll be back a little later,” she replied as she continued to her room.

“Fast-ass heffah,” Auntie Ruthie whispered to herself after Bianca closed the bedroom door.

***

Bianca quickly ate her food and showered. She put on a black corduroy skirt and a tight, white, shoulderless top. She applied foundation and neutral-colored eye shadow to her round, cinnamon brown face. She then topped the look off with her favorite matte red lipstick. She ran a comb through her long, bone-straight, honey-brown remy wig. The last thing she needed to do was call Sunny.

“Hey girl, I’m ready.” she told her friend over the phone.

“Aiight, I’m down the street at Bronson’s house. I’ll be there in like 10 minutes, ok?”

Before Bianca could respond, the phone disconnected. Bianca knew that Sunny was telling Bronson whatever she needed for him to put some money onto her Cash App. Bronson was a radiologist in his 50’s. He made great money, drove a new Mercedes-Benz, and owned his own home. He was also a sucker.

Sunny met him at a lounge 3 months ago. Ever since then, all Sunny had to do was come over his house every now and then, tell him she loved him and give him a few pecks on the cheek, and he would drop her a couple $100. Bianca sometimes envied the fact that she wasn’t as good of a finesser as Sunny. Her best friend really considered it a skill.

Bianca heard the sound of the suffering engine from Sunny’s car trucking up the road. She grabbed her bag and headed out. She got into the white 2000 Lexus, and they sped off.

“Bitch!” Sunny shouted. “This nigga only gave me $100— we broke tonight.”

“I have my tip money from this week,” Bianca said.

“Girl, please. You know you gonna use that money on that no good nigga Zeke, like you always do. We’ll just have to watch how we spend tonight.”

Sunny turned up the City Girls song playing. “I told you that you need to drop that nigga and get you someone like Bronson,” she shouted over the music. “Then you’ll be making money instead of losing it.”

The two women rapped over the words, feeling like they were ready to take on the town. “He wanna fuck but he gotta be a millionaire, he wanna fuck but he gotta be a millionaire!”

“Black, White, Puerto Rican, Chinese or Asian, I aint discriminating nigga, long as you payin,” they continued rapping along. Sunny rolled down the windows before pulling onto the freeway. The wind blew in her wavy, pitch-black shoulder-length mane as she revved up the speed. As they passed the bright streetlights that illuminated the city each night, Bianca noticed Sunny’s mocha skin glimmering in the glow. She wore a strapless dark green jumpsuit that hugged her body.

Sunny was naturally skinny, but she got butt shots on a regular basis and had C cup implants that her former sugardaddy bought her a couple years ago. Her curvaceous frame made a lot of people mistake her for a stripper or a video vixen. She would probably have gone that route in life, however, if she didn’t have the dream of being a real estate agent.

Her father had been selling houses ever since she was a toddler. As she got older, she would go with him to show houses, and she realized she was good at it. She got her real estate license at...