Color Blind

Chapter 13

"Rica! Give me that glass!" Tia shouted, snatching the plastic cup out of my hands.

She grabbed it so hard that my rum and coke splashed all over the carpet. I looked around drunkenly to make sure that the hostess of the party, Katina, hadn't seen it spill. Several of the partygoers around us were trying to inconspicuously see what was going on, but luckily Katina was nowhere to be found.

"I'm sick of this shit!" Tia continued, even louder than before. "Every damn time we go somewhere, you have to get drunk and start talking shit! You're lucky that bitch didn't kick your ass!"

She was talking about a girl who I had been standing nose to nose with only moments before. Tia, as usual, had been there to break up the almost fight and escort me into a different room. I was so drunk by the time Tia started in on me, though, that I couldn't even remember what the other girl and I had been arguing about. I did remember, however, that Tia had jumped on my case and not hers.

"Why don't you just get the hell out of my face!" I shouted back and caught myself on the edge of the bar, right before slipping off of the stool. "I'm sick of you trying to be my babysitter. I don't need you or your mother to look out for me! I don't need any damn body. Just go away and leave me alone."

Tia's face turned bright red and she turned away from me just in time to see Scott walk down the basement steps and pause to look around. Pushing through several people who had stopped dancing to watch us, he strolled casually up to Tia and asked, "There a problem here?"

Tia looked back at me, eyes flashing. "Hell yeah there's a problem! If this girl wasn't so damn drunk, I'd knock her stupid ass out!"

Scott caught me by the arm just as I jumped off the stool and almost fell to the ground.

"Don't let that stop you, Tia. You always talk so much shit, bring it on then! I'm moving out tomorrow anyway," I finished, turning away from her.

Scott, who knew that I had been living at my aunt's house without so much as even one complaint for the past two years, looked from me to Tia questioningly. "What the hell...?" he asked, visibly confused.

"Don't listen to her, Scott. She's just drunk off her ass as usual."

"Tia, you're a drunkass ho, too," I said, snatching my arm away from Scott.

"Hey, cool down beh-be," I heard a voice drawl from behind me. I turned to see Lafayette coming around the corner. "What's goin' on down hea'? E'rbody upstairs on the way down to watch you two break out the mud and throw down."

His grin slowly faded, though, when he saw what was really going on.

"Just in time. Get this bitch outta my face."

"Dang girl! Calm down!" he cried, surprised that I was dead serious.

"See, that's why I don't like none a y'all. You always wanna stick up for Tia, but don't ever give a shit about me. Fuck all y'all," I said and started to stumble towards the door.

Scott caught my hand and turned me around, pulling me reluctantly back towards them. "What are you talking about, baby?" he asked quietly.

"Rica," Tia began, looking around at the growing number of spectators. "I think we need to take this home and talk about it there."

"Why?" I cried loudly. "You already told everybody everything there is to know about me. Not one of these fools in here don't already know about my crazy ass mama or my white trash father."

Scott and Lafayette stopped in mid-movement and gawked from me to Tia. Tia turned to Lafayette.

"See, this is the kind of crap I'm talking about! I don't know what her problem is. She always gets paranoid as hell out of nowhere and thinks everybody's talking about her! I walked in and she was trying to start a fight with some chick upstairs just because the girl asked if she was mixed! What the hell, Rica? Nobody gives a damn about your mama or your daddy. And until now, nobody ever knew anything about your pops in the first place. You're the one always tellin' everything! Not everyone else. Rica, if it means so much to you to keep family business in the family, then you have to learn how to keep your big mouth shut. It's not me telling everything, it's you talking shit every time you get drunk. What you need to do is get over all that old stuff and move on."