BANGERZ (2014)

17. Turnt & Burnt

Everything happens very quickly then. Jason extends his arms and shoves Quavo, hard, before he can swing. Quavo stumbles for only a second before charging forward and pushing Jason back, and Jason gets this kind of fed-up, crazed angry look in his eyes as he grabs Quavo's arms and both boys start forcing each other's momentum. I don't know if it's because we're in the middle of a party and people are staring, or because this isn't the time or place for a fight, or both, but Za and Khalil and Johnny and Adrian pry Jason and Quavo apart, respectively, before they can go at it.

"What the fuck?" Jason demands, straightening his shirt. He gives a short nod to Za and Khalil and they release their grip on his shoulders.

"Y'all are some sneaky mothafuckas!" Quavo seethes. "You think just because we don't have patrollers that we don't keep up with our shit?"

"Or do you think that we're stupid and wouldn't notice?" Adrian adds.

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Jason snaps bitingly.

Tate sneers. "We ain't stupid, and we ain't as weak as you're trying to play us for. We're in the streets, just like you."

"And we take the game seriously," Nina says pointedly. She glances at me for a second and shakes her head.

"And we don't?" Za demands. His voice gets acidic. "We're very serious, believe that. And we don't have to cheat like you."

"You went in the dark and ruined our shit like some fucking rats!" Johnny shouts. "Which is worse?"

"What are y'all talking about?" Miley wonders, stepping forward and looking like a savage tribal princess with her painted body, clenched fists, and ice-blue eyes.

Khalil looks at the rivals with hard eyes. "Is this about Mischief Night? 'Cause if it is - "

"Y'all are some bitching punkasses," I finish dryly. Khalil glances at me and nods agreeably. Nina cuts me a dirty look but says nothing. What, she thinks I'm not going to speak up?

"This isn't about Mischief Night," Cherry tells us from the end of the line. "This is about you stealing our shipment order last weekend."

"Stealing?" Jason cocks an eyebrow at her. "I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a thief."

"Well, you were Saturday night. Our customer was very specific about the order and the delivery. They told the carrier to expect a white boy and a Latina, which was me and Adrian, to pick up pot, Xanax, and bizzurps. When we showed up the carrier told us it'd been taken care of already, and we looked like leeches trying to feed off the shipment with a order that wasn't ours. On top of that we didn't get to make our delivery, and our customer was pissed. We were their only source for uppers like those and we never miss a drop off. We swore we'd make this one. Now they don't wanna do business with us because we look like liars and snakes."

"That part is the truth, though, so you can't be mad at that," Miley snorts, and all three Wrecker girls give her a dirty look. I think they have a different problem with her, besides the obvious. But I can't worry about that now.

"We just knew it was y'all that stole it," Quavo says. "Lemme guess, you and you were there to pick up." He points at Jason and me. "We lost a contact and some of our credibility because of that shady act. That's low, even for y'all, and you're gonna pay for it."

A long, bass-filled pause follows as our crews stare each other down and absorb this information. So the Wreckers were supposed to make an exchange Saturday night, too. And they think we stole the shipment order that was meant for their customer when we delivered to José. His order was similar to theirs, and Jason and I are a white boy and a Latina, basically, so I see where the misunderstanding happened. That explains why uppers were part of the order, even though José didn't need them and we chucked them when the cop showed up, anyway.