• 𝐃𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 •

• 36 •

valerie

"Okay, me, Milli, and Pey will take the Civic. You and Jadyn can take the Bentley," I instructed.

"Why I gotta go with Jadyn. She's creepy," Yenvy whispered.

"Yenvy, that's rude," I nudged her. "And she's very focused. We need a focused person in each group. We got Peytyn, and you got Jadyn."

"Great," she sighed. "Me and her finna roll out then, I guess."

"C'mon," I called Milli, Pey, and Jadyn over to tell them who was going where with who in what.

"You'd think it'd be better if we put the bigger group in the SUV," Milli commented.

See...always tryna be with Jadyn.

You know...leave it alone, Val. Be better than that.

"If you wanna go with Jadyn, that's fine Milli," I said neutrally. "Just let Yenvy know, okay?"

Jadyn came up to me, a little closer than normal.

"Switch me out, please. Yenvy's very...loud. And I don't do loud," she whispered.

"Jadyn, really," I sighed, "C'mon."

I thought through the groups again, "Milli's gonna follow you wherever you go. And I was tryna keep Pey and Yenvy apart so we could get things accomplished. We're lookin' for Eneaj, not goin' on a road trip."

"Please," Jadyn pleaded.

In truth, I could ride with Pey and Yenvy, but then I'd be stuck trying to mediate their drama.

"Me, you, and Milli ride. Pey and Yenvy can deal with their BS, and hopefully they don't run each other off the road," I sighed.

"Who's gonna tell her?" Jadyn whispered, as we both looked over at Yenvy fixing at her hair.

"How about we just leave and deal with the aftermath later. Grab Milli," I suggested, laughing.

Once we were in the Civic, Yenvy looked up from her phone and Pey came out of the house with an apple, sharing one look, then realizing their fate.

Before they could chase me down the driveway, I got outta there, pressing on the gas and heading out of the gated neighborhood.

"Thanks, Val," came from Jadyn.

Mm, feeling real thankful I bet.

"Where are we headed?" Milli asked from the backseat, leaning against me and Jadyn's seat with a bored expression.

"Zinnias. Scour the city," I sighed.

"Let me see your phone?" Jadyn asked.

I handed it to her, looking her way every few seconds to see what she was doing with my phone.

"So this is shawty's last location-

"Jadyn."

"My fault. This is Eneaj's last location. It doesn't add up," she sounded puzzled. "Does Eneaj usually hang around there?"

"No. What's worse is that it's in Houston and she doesn't know many Houston people. Yenvy and I concluded that it was probably stolen."

Jadyn's jaw clenched all of a sudden.

"She's probably avoiding you...because of last night."

"Last night?" I rose a brow, "I keep hearin' that but I don't remember shit."

"You always used to black out when you were drunk," Milli laughed.

"I heard a lot of things last night, Val. A lot of things," Jadyn's whole expression changed. "I don't even know if it's safe to be helpin' you find Eneaj."

"Safe? Bro, what are you talking about?" I demanded. "I need somebody to give me some straight answers. You and Mrs. Smith doin' the same shit here."

"You put your hands on shawty. In front of the whole club," Jadyn stated.

"Nahh, that's wild," Milli mumbled. "We don't get down like that ova here."

"I'd never put my hands on Eneaj," I frowned.

"Yeah, but whatever you was drinkin' would. Drunk Valerie would," Jadyn stated.

"Do you think I hurt her real bad," I started to panic, "Jadyn what if I...what if I ki-

"No, Val, you wouldn't," Jadyn shook her head.

"But like you just said...who knows what I could've done when I was drunk. I can barely remember shit."

"The last I saw of you, yo ass was tryna crowd surf and the crowd wasn't tryna be no waves. You almost got put out. Good thing you work there, Val," Milli scoffed.

"What," I shook my head, "I don't be like that when I'm drunk man."

"Hope nobody drugged yo shit," Jadyn sighed.

A cold feeling went over me.

"One of Yenvy's friends offered me something. That's basically where my memory ends, you know. After that, shit's real murky. She said it was real strong."

"Crap, Val, really?" Jadyn ran her hand through her dark brown locs, letting them fall out of their bun down to her shoulders. "You needa put Yenvy on the phone: now."

"Yenvy don't remember shit either-

"I. Do. Not. Care. Put her on the phone, Valerie."

"Okay, okay," I took my phone from her and called Yenvy up.

"You thought you did sumin, puttin' me and Peytyn together? That's why we at Burger King right now hoe, gettin' some tater tots for the road. Finna be lurkin' and searchin' in style bitches!"

"Yenvy, Yenvy," I cut in.

"Wassup?" she asked.

"Who were them friends you brought to da club last night? That was in the lil section?"

"Man, those my friends. They ain't on no crazy shit."

"One of them drugged Valerie," Jadyn took my phone out of my hand, speaking into it. Milli leaned forward again, "Put it on speaker phone, bruh."

"What? They don't get down like that," Yenvy stated.

"Well they do. Val remembers gettin' drugged, and if that's the case for her, who knows who else they could have done that to. Namely, Eneaj, who's currently missing."

Silence from the other end.

"What I didn't mention earlier when you showed me Eneaj's location, Val, is that I got a friend who live over there too. And...she was at the club with us last night. I didn't think-I didn't think the two were correlated."

"Fuck, Yenvy. Turn the car around. We goin' to da bitch's spot. Y'all stay headin' for Zinnias, we got this," Jadyn told them before hanging up.

"This is some crazy shit," Milli commented as I made a wide U-turn at a no U-turn light, wheel spinning, "And that's a lot comin' from me."