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thought hard and long about what her friend had said before answering. “I don’t wanna be her anymore. She was bad news. Big-time. To be honest…,” she tried to explain, “Fat Tee is only having a reaction to an action I had already put in motion. If I hadn’t set him up in the first place, he wouldn’t have the need to seek retribution or compensation. It’s not like I’m an innocent victim in all this. The shit’s like a merry-go-round.”
    “Okay … fine. If you want to be this ‘new and improved’ person, I support you one hundred percent. But”—Tyeedah paused for emphasis—“first you’re going to have to get rid of the skeletons that belong to the old you, which could possibly tear down the new you.”
    Tyeedah let her words marinate for a second. Unique took a heavy, restorative breath.
    “I know you’re feeling Kennard and don’t want to fuck up what y’all got. I get that, but you have to handle this nigga, Fat Tee, before you end up with nothing. Maybe, not even your life,” Tyeedah spat. “Who says he’ll stop at a million dollars?”
    Everything Tyeedah said was the truth. Unique knew this. But where would it end?
    Unique asked, “And how do I deal with the next nigga that finds me? Every nigga Took and I robbed probably saw my face on that show, so tell me how does this all end? Like I said before, it’s like a merry-go-round. And where it stops, nobody really knows.” After a few moments of silence, she wondered, “Maybe if I can give Fat Tee something to hold him, he’ll back off until I can come up with a better solution.”
    “Fuck that!” Tyeedah said emphatically. “You pay one time, and then you gotta keep paying. That’s the way it is for people like him.”
    “So you’re saying, short of killing the dude, there’s no way to make this right?”
    “Girl, you don’t owe him shit. I dig all that action and reaction stuff. And if you really believe that,” she said, “then when you and Took robbed Fat Tee, that was a reaction to what he had done, right?” Unique had told Tyeedah that Fat Tee was getting drugs from Took, but when Took got locked up, Fat Tee reneged on what was owed him and gave Unique the runaround when it was time to pay up.
    As crazy as it sounded, what Tyeedah was saying had merit.
    Unique shook her head. “But I didn’t know Took was going to take everything from the man.”
    Tyeedah wasn’t finished putting on her case. “But don’t act like the bastard didn’t deserve it. From what you told me, the fool showed his entire black ass when Took went to jail. So, didn’t Took have a right, according to your action and reaction philosophy, to get what was his, plus a little interest? The way I see it, his bitch ass is just crying over spilled milk after stealing the damn cow.”
    Unique was starting to feel all of that eye-for-an-eye stuff Tyeedah was talking. But she couldn’t help but think that with her and Fat Tee, it was now about to be a silver motherfucking tooth-for-a-tooth.
    “So what do you suggest I do?” Unique said, resigned and frustrated.
    “I say, merk him or tell him it’s a part of the game. And he better hide under a rock in Virginia and pray that you don’t get the urge to get loose lips and tell Kennard what he did.” Tyeedah realized that she had never seen Unique this indecisive or vulnerable. Her normal take-charge attitude was frayed. The magnitude of the situation and all that was at stake clearly had her friend shaken.
    “To be honest,” Tyeedah said, “I don’t know what you should do. But the bottom line is, whatever you decide, know I got your back.”
    “Thanks, girl.” As Tyeedah gave her a reassuring hug, Unique’s cell phone rang. It was Kennard’s ring tone.
    “Hey, baby,” she said, putting the call on speakerphone. She tried to sound cheerful, hoping he wouldn’t see through the mask.
    “Where are you?” he asked, sounding upbeat.
    “Tyeedah’s house. School’s canceled until