24 Hours to Live · Tupac

❾: friend or foe

❝ Trying to keep it together, no one lives forever anyway. ❞

[11:34 PM]

SHAY SETTLES HERSELF by warming up a couple of tacos and sitting on the sofa, flowing through the TV channels. "So, if y'all not messin' around.. let me guess... you broke up with Anthony for him?"

"Nope," Lena replies, plopping herself down. "I haven't heard from him since I cancelled on him though."

"Girl," Shay widens her eyes, focusing on her friend. "You cancelled again?"

From the other side of the room, Tupac answers his phone, walking down the hall since Shay was being too loud. Lena shushed her, "Yeah. But it was for something important!"

"Like what? You finally got you an acting gig after all this time?" Then, she thinks she's putting two and two together, whispering excitedly. "Wait! You're in a movie with him! Ooh, girl, remember me when you rich and famous!"

Lena laughs loudly, honestly forgetting that Pac is also an actor. "Nah, I wish something came up though. ..Since you popping up with ridiculous things, I'll tell your lost self; he's one of my.. patients."

Shay scrunches her face up, "You could do anything in the world with that man and you choose to be his muthafuckin' doctor?"

"You know what-why can't you listen rationally for once?"

"I'm just saying," she takes a bite out of her taco. "You could ask to be in one of his videos, you could let him hit it, you could get him to put you on to that one bomb ass movie director-and you choose to be his psychologist?"

"He came to me, all right," Lena defends, struggling to watch her tone with Shay. "It's not liked I begged or anything. I said it was important-that's why I cancelled-and he said that it was important for him to see me."

Shay returns her vision to the TV, "All right. So, what's his issue? Suffering from success? Drowning in money? Emotional distress from being too rich? Same."

Lena was getting real, real fed up with the sarcasm. Cutting her obnoxious laugh off by speaking, "No. And you know I can't disclose any of his information."

Shay furrowed her brows, "What you mean?"

"It's," Lena briefly peeked around the corner to see if Tupac was listening, he appeared to be on the phone still, though. "It's against the law to spill any confidential information. Tryna get me sued and end my career before it even starts?"

Dismissing the suing fact, Lena won't give off his information, it was way too personal. Shay gapes, "You tell Anthony and I everything! Why you holdin' back now? Because you got some rapper in your house? Bump that!"

"I don't tell y'all everything," Lena retorts, ready to drop the whole conversion. "Rapper or not, it's still illegal."

"Yes you do," Shay sets her food down. "The stripper-"

"She's just a stripper!" Lena holds her hand out. "And y'all knew anyway since y'all always took peeks at my files!"

"Stripper or not, it's still illegal," Shay mimics Lena's voice in the most absurd way. "I bet you she got more problems than his ass. You just met-you're so far up his ass that yo' face digesting in his stomach, you know that? Ain't nothing change about you."

"Where is all this coming from?" Lena raises her voice. "All because your man cheated on you, you getting nasty with me? Because I don't have no part in that!"

"It's not even about that!" she groans. "Anthony was right about you always switchin' up and hiding shit! One day we friends and the next day you can't even tell me something so simple. You got a good ass man and you cancelled on him for some bullshit-and I know you lying-"

Lena stops her with her hand, "You should probably just stop because I let you in my house, remember that. I'm being nice enough to let you stay while your fiancé-"

Shay stands, "Fucking fine, I'm out, because I know who my real friends are. And don't you try to make this about me, it's about your shady ass. Everyone been saying that you fucked my man and you probably did. That's how I know you fuckin' Tupac."

"I would never do that to you!" Lena jumps up in fury. "I've been the one trying to warn you about him! But you're still with him because you're just blind and-"

The girls don't realize how loud they're being, they don't even realize Tupac nearing them, rubbing his temples. "Aye, what's good? What's the problem?"

"She's the problem," Shay bellows, "You need to watch out for this shady, manipulating, fake bitch!"

Lena folds her arms, replying calmly. "You're jealous that Anthony's not cheating on me, that's all it is."

Shay cackles, "Girl, bye, ain't nobody jealous of your relationship. ..And you can forget about that $350 that you lent me, I ain't giving it back."

Lena shakes her head, "Not paying me back, but I'm manipulating? Broke and jealous, what a shame."

Shay drops her purse, "Hol' on, say I'm jealous again and you gon' catch these fists."

Tupac lowers her hands, "Aye, chill girl! You ain't gotta do all that!"

"It's cool," Lena replies, eyes burning at the fact that she's being threatened by her bestfriend.

Tupac opens the door, "You gotta go, g. This her crib."

Shay gathers her bag again, "A'ight, fine. But now you friendless and ain't gon' have no boyfriend once I tell him you fucked two niggas behind his back. Weak ass, how ditzy can you be?"

Lena slams and locks the door after her, "Ditzy?! I can't believe her-she blew up for no reason! And I don't know how much you heard, but she's a damn lie! I never cheated on my boyfriend and I'm not fake, none of that! She's just worked because of her situation and I couldn't care less!"

Tupac witnesses Lena throws her mini-tantrum, he begged to differ on how she supposedly didn't care. He definitely noticed how hurt she was when she was called ditzy.

Lena and Shay had been the best of friends since high school, she wasn't so sure on how things changed so sudden. She knew the blow up between then would come, but not so soon. Shay was the closest friend that Lena ever had, so of course it would hurt for her to say such things to her face.

Inside, she hoped that this was just a misunderstanding and that things would be healed soon. Something else told Lena that there was no going back to Shay, no matter how long they've been close.

Lena wipes her eyes hastily, "I'm gonna go shower."

He doesn't attempt to soothe her since she's so quick to walk away. She leaves Tupac in the main room as she disappears into the bathroom to cry off her remembrance of childhood pain in silence.