Love Thy Neighbor by Belle Aurora Page A

face she goes
on, “Totally cuckoo bananas? Like, Boom! Shit flying everywhere
psycho?”
    I nod again and she shakes her head slowly,
her blonde hair bobbing, and mutters, “Figures.”
    Helena stills before jumping to my defense.
“What the heck is that supposed to mean, ho?”
    Nina turns to Helena with her hands raised
and explains, “I’m just saying that Nat doesn’t have the best taste
in men.”
    Helena pokes her in the shoulder and
retorts, “Well, hell! That’s not her fault. She’s freaking awesome.
It’s the guys that are nuts, not her.”
    Nina’s face becomes heated and she begins to
say something but stops and touches Helena’s black hair. She tuts
and says, “How long has it been since you colored?”
    Helena attempts to answer, but Nina cuts her
off. “I hate store color. How many times have I told you not to use
store color?” Nina looks over at me. “How many times have I told
her not to use store color?”
    I open my mouth to answer, but she cuts me
off with a frustrated, “Too many times!”
    Helena and I look at each other and burst
out laughing. Nina is certainly a force. She takes pride in her
work as a hairdresser and hates when Helena and I don’t do our hair
when she deems it’s time to. Nina ignores our laughter and mutters
to herself, “Find a place that sells color.” She looks towards the
pile of wood in the corner of the room. “And a coffee table.”
    Blowing out a frustrated breath, I beg, “Can
we please talk about something else? I’m sick of hearing about
asshole Cole.”
    Nina smirks and goes back to cooking. Helena
chuckles. “Asshole. Cole. That rhymes!”
    I throw a smile her way and ask, “How goes
the studies?”
    She pulls her hair out of her face and makes
a gross face. I love my sisters so much. This is exactly what I
needed. I’ll have to thank Ghost later on. She scrunches her nose.
“One more year. Just one more year and I’ll be a physical
therapist.”
    Nina and I whoop and clap.
    Helena is the smart one out of us girls, but
she’s school smart. Nina and I, you could say we’re street smart. You see, Nina decided when she was fifteen
that she’d had enough of school. Without telling mom and dad, she
got a job at a local salon sweeping floors and watching the
hairdressers as closely as possible. She fell in love with
everything hair. In total Nina fashion, she came home from school
with permission slips for mom and dad to sign that would allow her
to quit school and basically did a song and dance about the
benefits of hairdressing and how having a hairdresser in the family
would be great for all our relatives. An hour later, she had my
parents, hook, line and sinker. Nina is a go-getter, always has
been. She now owns an extremely popular salon in Cali. So popular,
you have to book a month in advance and there are strictly no
walk-ins. Thinking of their success puts a huge smile on my face.
I’m so proud of them.
    “Well?” Helena breaks my thoughts.
    My brow scrunches. “Well, what?”
    She looks annoyed as she repeats herself,
“Casper. Poltergeist. Ghost. Have you fucked him again?” At this,
Nina stops what she’s doing and looks over at me with a cheeky
grin.
    I scoff and put on my best hoochy imitation.
“First things first, sistah, you don’t fuck Ghost.” Both of my
sisters lean closer as if we’re trading inside information. I point
my finger to enunciate each word and go on, “ He fucks you .” I grin at the memory of that steamy night. Bent over a
conference room table, I shudder in delight. We didn’t even see
each other naked. I still had my dress on and he still had his
clothes on, he just ripped my panties and undid his jeans and It.
Was. On. Yummy . I sigh dreamily. “And it is something
else altogether. It’s like he reaches into your head, takes your
control and sets it alight. Gone.” Still grinning, I finish with,
“It was unbelievable.”
    If my sisters were to grin any wider, they’d
both split right down