"Worth a Thousand Words"

I was sitting on the couch with my girls; Lauren, Haileigh, and Lyric enjoying our weekly girls night out. We hadn't missed a night in over four years, we sat around every Sunday night engaging in conversations about just about everything. When I say everything I mean everything! From shoes to sex, from dresses to dildos. We would drink and eat, pamper ourselves and just enjoy each other's company. We would leave the stresses of our everyday lives on the other side of the door and let our hair down. As usual today's topic was men. Unlike my three compadres I didn't have problems within my relationship but I did enjoy hearing their stories and sharing my input.

"His triflin' ass couldn't say shit! His ass was caught with his pants down!" Lauren took a sip of her wine as she finished her statement.

"Literally!" Haileigh fell over laughing hysterically at herself. I couldn't help but laugh myself. Lauren had caught her boyfriend Tre cheating her earlier in the week and she was understandably upset.

"Girl please! You knew his ass was the equivalent of shit when ya'll hooked up. Stop acting surprised bitch!" I wasn't the least bit sympathetic to Lauren. Tre had a girlfriend when they met, so she got exactly what she deserved.

"You got what was coming to you. It's called karma!" I said as I got up from my spot on the couch and headed towards the kitchen.

"Is that how you two bitches feel too? Lyric and Haileigh looked at each other and toppled over with laughter. Lauren couldn't help but laugh herself, she knew that we loved her and would never hurt her.

"Fuck you hoes!" Lauren was the most voice tress of the group, she said the first thing that came to mind. Sometimes it was a good thing and at times it was aggravating as hell, but we loved her all the same. She had the weirdest taste in men, some of the stranglers she brought around made us question her judge of character. We liked to say she was the "BCC" president. She always attracted the BLIND, CRIPPLED and CRAZY niggas the city had to offer.

"So Miss Paige, how are things between you and Mr. Perfect?" I didn't even notice Haileigh standing behind me. Haileigh was the brains of this friendship operation. She and I had grown up next door each other so we were somewhat closer to each other. She was a pediatric neurologist at one of the city's top children's hospitals.

"Jeremiah and I are doing well. He has been gone for the past two weeks on business." I said as I refilled my glass of Reisling and grabbed my box of Spongebob fruit snacks. (odd combination I know, but they were addictive. Some people smoke crack, some snort cocaine. Me, I eat a box of Spongebob Squarepants everyday) Taking my reserved seat on the couch I was ready for my talk.

"Lyric you've been unusually quiet. What's wrong honey?" I said ripping open my first bag of the day. Lyric was the sweetest person you would ever come across. Raised by her grandmother after her mother overdosed on sleeping pills when she was thirteen and her father never being in her life. She had proved all the naysayers wrong by not only graduating high school without getting pregnant, but graduating from Howard at the top of her class. Lyric had a passion for children, she'd just accepted a job at one of the inner city's toughest high schools as the principal.

"Nothing Paige, I just have a lot on my mind." Lyric was engaged a few months back to her college sweetheart when he was killed in a motorcycle accident. She had to plan his funeral because he didn't have any immediate family.

"I know you better than that. You wear your emotions on your face. What's wrong honey?" Lauren moved closer to her and took her hand. Before speaking Lyric took a long deep breath in an attempt to fight off a flood of tears that was already threatening to break through the levies. Something inside me told me this was serious, Lyric was the bubbly one of the crew it took a lot to break her spirits. Finally after a few awkward moments of silence she spoke softly.
"He don't love me nomore." Her voice was faint and soft and I wasn't sure I had heard her correctly.
"Say what honey?" I said taking a seat at the base of the couch at her feet. I watched as the tears slowly ran down her cheeks as she prepared to speak again.
"You heard me Paige, he doesn't love me anymore. He told me this morning that it was over." There was a look a betrayal across her face that broke my heart. She had been with Matthew for almost five years, they'd recently gone through a trying time with the loss of their son. I had no idea what to say to her, I had never been in her type of situation before.
"FUCK him!" I knew it was going to be Lauren that broke the sad mood with some shit like that. I kicked her with my foot and gave her the evil eye.
"Lauren shut yo angry ass up!" Haileigh and I were on the same page. This was no time for bitter woman 101 with Lauren Dancie as the instructor.
"What? I'm serious Ric deserves so much better than that. If he don't love her then why should she waste her time loving his ass? He losing not her!" Lauren rolled her eyes and gave myself and Haileigh her "now what bitch look." I listened to Lyric tell us the reason Matthew was leaving her, or at least the excuse he was giving her. It was at that moment that I realized how blessed I was to have a man that loved me and would never do the shit to me that Lauren and Lyric's men did to them. I was getting ready to say something when there was a knock at the door.
"Who the hell?" I said standing and looking out the window. It was almost midnight and I wasnt expecting anyone so I had no idea who I was.
"Damn Paige you got booty calls and shit!" Lauren stayed with a damn joke, even Lyric had to laugh at that.
"Shut yo ass up! You just don't stop do you?" I said pulling my gun from the holster on the end table. I looked out the peep hole and stared into the face of a white 24-hour Corporate Express delivery man. "It's a delivery dude." I said taking the chain off the door.
"Damn when they start delivering dick?" I just ignored Lauren at this point.
"Paige Lewis?"
"Yes."
"Sign her please, this package is for you." The white delivery guy handed me a large priority envelope. I signed for it, thanked him and closed the door.
"What the fuck is that?" Haileigh questioned looking as puzzled as I was as I examined the front and back of the envelope.
"Hell if I know but we are about to find out." I said ripping the sealing tape straight across the to.
I pulled the contents from the inside and flipped them over. Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see. I stared at the pictures trying to focus my eyes and my mind at the images staring back at me.
"Piggy what is it?" Lyric was now standing next me with the same wide eyed confused look as I had. I felt all the blood rush to my head and I my knees buckle beneath me. Before I could hit the floor Lauren grabbed me and helped me to the loveseat. In a state of shock I could not utter a single word.
"What the FUCK is this shit?" Lauren's tone and rage was the exact expression of what I was feeling I just couldn't get it out. "This is some triflin' dog shit and I'ma fuck Jeremiah's ass up!" Lauren started looking for her keys and purse.
"Lauren wait sit down! It's not about that right now. Look at Paige, we need to focus on her." Haileigh grabbed Lauren's arm and sitting next to me. I stared down at the picture I was still holding on to. The image was so gut wrenching and disgusting that I wanted to close my eyes but I couldn't shake the picture. To see the man I loved in such a position tore my world in half. I had never felt such a sense of betrayal. I wanted to cry but my anger was too much, it was overpowering the hurt. All of the sudden in the midst of the quiet there was a vibration. The fast shaking inside my purse sent an echo throughout the room, causing an eruption from the girls to find the phone.
"HELLO?!" Lauren got to the phone first. "NO you slimy excuse for a man you can not speak to her! She got the pictures of you and your whores!" I didn't have to guess who was on the other end. Lauren looked at me as if to ask did I want to talk. I just looked down at the floor and started to cry uncontrollably. The images of Jeremiah and the two women on the picture filled my head. Him with his face between the legs of some white big titty bitch. Then some jiggaboo black bitch with her lips wrapped around his dick sucking it like a lollipop. Who the fuck was taking the pictures? Was it another bitch? Was she in on the menage a trois' or what? So many questions filled my head, I couldn't answer one question before I asked myself another.
"He is going to get fucked up! Triflin' ass niggas!" Lauren was pacing back in fourth as if it were her man. Just as she was about to say something else the phone began vibrating in her hand.
"The caller id is reading private Piggy, you wanna answer?"Lauren opened her hand extending me my phone.
"Hello" I said answering the phone via speakerphone
"A picture is worth a thousand words huh Miss Thang?" The voice on the other end said smugly.
"Who the fuck is this?" I said getting an attitude and sitting on the edge of the loveseat.
"I'm the motherfucker on the opposite side of the camera. You know they always say two heads are better than one. Well in Jeremiah's case I say his head is better than mine. HA!" It took me a minute to realize what had just been implied, then it hit me. I was talking to a man!

~B~