Lovely Lies

by Lashanta Charles

  Chapter 11

  Makynzee

  After we get to the room the three of us take a shower together. Kali has to force me to stop scrubbing myself so hard. I need to wash away the blood and the memories of what happened. He has the concierge bring up some ice packs and Tylenol for my face. The right corner of my top and bottom lips have a cut going through them. Both lips are extremely swollen, along with my right cheek. Kalil is livid and blames himself. He says he should’ve been there with us. He’s not making sense. How was he supposed to know someone would break into his house? We’re lying in bed with him behind me and KJ in front. His arm is draped across the both of us.

  “The future is already written, Kalil. All we can do is survive long enough to get to it.”

  I’m tired. I want to sleep, but every time I close my eyes I see those eyes staring back at me. I pull his arm tighter around me. KJ stirs in his sleep. Kalil is apologizing again. I lost count after he said it five times.

  “Quiet, baby. Go to sleep,” I say.

  He takes a deep breath then gets out of bed. I want him to hold me, but I let him be. I force myself to close my eyes. I took three Tylenols and they’re finally kicking in. Wait, that’s not an overdose is it?

  I awake the next morning to Kalil’s voice. I wonder if he slept at all. When he’s pissed he doesn’t sleep until everything’s back to how he wants it.

  “Someone was in my house last night, they cut the main power. Your system was still supposed to activate off the backup power your guys said they installed.”

  I guess that explains why the power was out and why the alarm hadn’t gone off. KJ is still asleep. I gently slide my arm from under him and go into the bathroom. Brushing my teeth hurts like hell. I can’t stop myself from crying. Kalil asks if I’m okay. When I don’t answer him, he opens the door and comes inside.

  “You’re going to the doctor, you may need stitches.”

  Before that we have to take KJ back to his mom. When Kalil tells him he has to go he cries and begs to stay. Kalil promises to come back for him this weekend. That seems to soothe him for now. When we get to his mom’s house she’s standing on the porch smoking a cigarette. She quickly puts it out and fans the air around her.

  “Bye, Makynzee.”

  “Bye, baby. See you soon.” I watch as Kalil walks onto the porch and gives KJ to his mom. She’s freaking beautiful. Did I really expect anything less? A pang of jealously hits and although I want to, I can’t look away from her. She looks older. Not in a bad way, but older than I expected. She looks at me as she says something to Kalil. He looks back at me as if contemplating something then looks back to her. She shakes her head up and down and they both walk towards the truck. When Kalil gets to the window I push the button to lower it.

  “This is Jasmine, she wanted to talk to you for a minute.”

  I think I frown at him. He smiles. What’s funny? She steps closer to the truck and sticks her hand through the window.

  “Nice to meet you, Makynzee.”

  I wonder if her smile is genuine. I shake her hand, but don’t say anything. Smiling hurts, so I don’t even try. I’m not sure I would if I could.

  “I don’t wanna hold y’all up, it’s just Kalil told me what happened and I wanted to tell you thank you. I don’t think you would have gotten hurt this bad if you wouldn’t have tried to get to him,” she says and looks down at KJ.

  “You’re welcome.”

  She looks as though she wants to say more, but backs away instead. Kalil is already in the truck. She stands in the yard and watches as we drive away.

  “How old is she?” Talking hurts, but I’m curious. Kalil looks at me then back at the road.

  “30.”

  Guess I was right. “Why aren’t y’all together?” He keeps his eyes on the road; doesn’t answer right away. More curious.

  “I opened the club right when we met. Trying to start a business takes away a lot of free time…she didn’t think I was actually working, thought I was out messing around, so she decided to get even. I forgave her. I neglected her when it came to spending time with her and showing her attention so I tried to make it up to her. After she got pregnant with KJ she told me she’d never stopped seeing the guy. KJ might not be mine, but she still wanted to be with me. I stayed with her, she could be carrying my child. When he was born we did a paternity test, she came home with me, but was still messing around with him. I left her alone…divorced her. Got joint custody of KJ.”

  Wait…did he just say divorced her?! His baby’s mother is actually his ex-wife?! I don’t know how to respond to that. My mind goes back to the day I asked him who decorated his house. I knew I didn’t want to know. He’s looking at me. Trying to read my expression I guess.

  “How long were y’all together?”

  “A little over four years.”

  Unable to hide my frown any longer, I ask, “Married how many?”

  “Two years.”

  I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I’m pissed and it’s depressing. My baby’s been hurt before. How can he still be so sweet and open with me? I tell him my phone dropped out the window last night. We’re at the hospital now. He stares at me for a few seconds before responding.

  “Donte has it, the screen is messed up,” he says as he gets out the truck.

  I’m still shocked by the fact that he was married, so I don’t move. I’m trying to decide on going with anger or jealously when he opens my door.

  “Are you mad?”

  “Jealous. Jealously is a pretty strong emotion for me.”

  He smiles and helps me out of the truck. “Trust me, you have nothing to be jealous about. I’m all yours.”

  I’d smile, but it hurts.

  Kalil

  Mak is high. She’s rambling and I have no idea what she’s talking about. Apparently she’s on some good shit though. She asked me when we could go home and why it’s been so long since I’ve had my way with her. I’m pretty sure I did before I left last night, so I just laugh. She keeps rambling as someone knocks on the room door. Donte said he’d bring her phone. I check the peephole then let him in. He’s on his phone with Jaida. I can hear her yelling at him. He gives it to me and shakes his head as he tells me he can’t deal with her right now. Mak’s gotten quiet, so I think she’s asleep. I say Jaida’s name into the phone.

  “Kalil, what the hell? What happened to Mak?”

  “She’s fine, scared maybe, but her face is a little messed up.”

  “Do I need to come back there? You’re supposed to be taking care of her, this is the exact opposite of that!”

  I don’t respond to that. I already feel like shit. I don’t need her reminding me that I let this happen.

  She sighs and says, “I’m sorry, that came out wrong.”

  “I’ll let you talk to her, they gave her medicine so she’s kind of out of it.”

  “Kalil wait. She’s my sister. I love her to death. I hate when anything bad happens to her. If somebody hurts her I take it personal and I tend to go overboard.”

  I know that feeling.

  “I know you’ll take care of her, just have her call me when she feels like talking.”

  I say okay and give the phone back to Donte. He gives me Mak’s phone then leaves. Mak’s not sleeping. She looks up at me as I sit beside her.

  “You need a new phone.” I pass it to her. She smiles a little, but doesn’t look down at the phone. She says my name and smiles more. I’m staring right at her, but apparently she’s waiting for me to answer her, so I do.

  “I’m gonna die if you don’t fuck me right now.”

  What?! She doesn’t curse. It’s the medicine. It’s gotta be the medicine. I get up and tell her to lie down and go to sleep.

  “Right now, Kalil,” she says as she stands up with me.

  She’s loud. She’s also taking her shirt off. Her bra is blue, lacy, and see through. I try to put her in the bed and tell her, “You need to go to sleep.” She pushes me away.
She’s actualy mad.

  “You can’t tell me no, I said right now.”

  She undoes her shorts. It’s hard to resist Mak when she’s acting normal. It’s impossible to resist her when she’s acting like this. She steps closer to me and pulls my shirt off. I step away. She’s the one who’s high on pain killers, so why do I feel like I’m the one who’s being taken advantage of.

  “Baby, what are you doing?”

  She comes closer and turns away, pushing her ass against me. Something tells me I’ll lose this battle. She reaches behind her and undoes my pants.

  “Maybe you should take a nap first.”

  “Shut up already.”

  I laugh a little. She bends over in front of me and takes her shorts off. She’s wearing thongs that match her bra. She tells me “now” as she braces her hands against the edge of the bed. I guess that means she wants it from behind. She wins.

  Makynzee

  Kalil and I stay at the hotel until Friday. He said the carpet was being cleaned and the window was fixed. He also had a different alarm system installed. When we get to his house he tells me the new code and shows me how to use it. I go upstairs and take a shower. When I come out he’s sitting on the bed. He looks up at me as though he’s been waiting for me to come out.

  “Have you ever used a gun?”

  I sit beside him and frown. I know I’ve answered this question before, so I don’t answer him.

  “I’m gonna teach you how.”

  I’m not sure how I missed it, but there’s a gun on the bed beside him. I stand up and he stands with me.

  “Don’t freak out, it’s not loaded.”

  It doesn’t matter. I hate guns. I’m scared to even hold one. “I don’t want you to teach me.”

  “It’ll make me feel better.”

  “If I let you show me, will you stop blaming yourself?”

  He hesitates. If he says yes I know he’s lying.

  “No.”

  I expected him to lie.

  “Can you just take it?”

  I hesitate then hold my hand out. He gives it to me and then stands behind me. He shows me how to hold it, load it, work the safety, how to breathe when I pull the trigger and how to stand to absorb some of the kick back. What the hell is a kick back? When he’s satisfied that I know how to use it he tells me to follow him. I ask where we’re going.

  “I’m gonna show you where I keep them.”

  Them? Kalil has six guns hidden throughout the house. Two of them are hidden in plain sight. I’ve been around them numerous times and never even noticed them.

  “Why so many? What if KJ gets hold of one?”

  “If you can’t get to one, you got the others. The safeties are always on and he’s never by himself when he’s near any of them.”

  Kids always find what they’re not supposed to, but before I get a chance to say this my phone rings.

  “I’m gonna go shower. Get dressed, we gotta go to the club for a little bit.”

  I know it’s pointless to tell him I don’t wanna go and he hasn’t left me alone since that night, which means this is his only option right now. It dawns on me that he’s never seen me dressed to go out anywhere. I only packed one club dress, so I guess I know what I’m wearing. My face is only slightly swollen, but I still have bruises. I hate wearing makeup, but I have no choice. I get dressed in one of the spare bathrooms and hear Kalil calling my name as I’m finishing up.

  “What you doing in there and why is the door closed?” he asks as he opens it.

  He stares at me in silence for a few seconds then shakes his head.

  “I need to focus on work, not my body count.”

  I smile and hug him then ask, “Who am I coming home with?”

 

  When we get to the club Kalil tries to make me follow him everywhere he goes. These heels were made to look pretty, not walk around. I leave him and go to the bar with Cari.

  “Since you’re here and you’re obviously on lockdown why don’t you help me make some drinks.”

  I smile and go behind the bar with her. I can see Kalil watching me. He’s in one of the VIP sections with a group of guys. After a while the bar starts to get crowded. Within ten minutes Cari and I are behind on the drink orders.

  “Since when does the bar get this crowded?” I ask.

  “Since you wore that dress and started serving drinks,” Cari says and laughs.

  I look around the bar at the guys who are there. Some are sitting, but most are standing. None of them are complaining about having to wait. A lot of them are watching me.

  “Maybe I should go?”

  “Good luck with that.”

  I look at each end of the bar. Both exits are blocked. I pass the drink I just mixed to the guy who ordered it and he holds on to my hand. He says something about my dress, but I ignore him. I tell him to let me go as I try to pull my hand away, but he squeezes tighter. Really guy? He pulls me closer to him and starts to say something, but stops. I have no idea where he came from, but Kalil is standing next to me. He pulls my hand away from the guy then pulls me behind him as he heads for the door.

  “Can’t take you nowhere.”

  I laugh as my phone rings. I don’t recognize the number, but I answer anyway.

  “Makynzee, it’s Coach.”

  Why would my gymnastics coach be calling me? I frown and begin to walk slower. “What’s wrong?” Obviously there’s something wrong. Why else would he be calling me this late?

  “There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll be blunt. Riley never left. Your mom kicked her out. She’s been living with me this whole time. Now she’s flipped out and I can’t talk to her. She won’t listen to me. She said if I don’t get you to her she’s going to kill herself and the baby.”

  I laugh. How else do you respond to something like this? I didn’t realize it, but I’ve stopped walking. Kalil is looking back at me.

  “Worst joke ever, Coach. It’s late. I’ll call you tomorrow.” I start to hang up, but he yells my name.

  “Listen to me! Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, drop everything and get to my house!”

  He’s serious and I’m dizzy. Kalil catches me. Did I just faint?!

  “What’s wrong, what happened?” he asks.

  “We have to go, Riley’s here.”

  Riley’s been here this whole time; literally right under my nose. My coach lives fifteen minutes away from Kalil’s club. I feel numb. All this time she let me think she had left. She let me think she’d abandoned me and left me with our mom. Our mom. She knew what happened. She kicked Riley out. Kalil is partially watching me. I guess he thinks I’m going to break down. I’m not. Not yet, anyway. I don’t even know what’s going on.

  “I thought Riley left?” he asks.

  So did I. I don’t want to talk yet. He has questions that I know I can’t answer. I plug my phone into his MP3 outlet and tell him I have a song for him, “Beautiful Surprise” by India Arie. He’s quiet as he listens. Smiling. His smile makes me feel better. He tells me he likes the song. It goes off as we turn onto my coach’s street. There are cops everywhere; news vans. My family’s demons are about to be all over national television. An officer stops us and tells us we can’t go any further. I tell him who I am. He yells for them to let us through. When we get to the house more officers pull me from Kalil’s truck.

  While strapping me in a bulletproof vest they ask, “You’re Makynzee Mitchell, is Riley Mitchell your sister?” I frown and wonder why I need a vest. “Do you have any idea why she would want to harm herself or her daughter?” What?! I reach for Kalil’s hand. Riley has a daughter. I have a niece. They’re staring at me, waiting for an answer. I feel like I’m failing a test I know I should be passing. Kalil squeezes my hand reassuringly and I find my voice.

  “I haven’t seen her since last year.”

  “We’re going to let you talk to her. She said she’ll put the gun down if she can talk to you. Is he family?” They’re pointing at
Kalil. I nod my head. “You’ll have to stay behind the lines with us, only the sister can go forward.”

  I don’t have time to ask questions or respond. They’re pushing me to the front of the cop cars and yelling that they have the sister. I see Riley, but this can’t be her though. This person is sitting on the porch as though it’s a beautiful day. A baby girl sleeps peacefully in her arms…unless you count the gun pointed at her head. Riley stands and smiles when she sees me. I can’t smile back. Someone yells that I can’t go any further, so I stop midstride. We’ll have to yell to speak to each other. Riley goes first.

  “Mak, look at you…you look so pretty.”

  She’s crying and smiling at the same time. I can’t speak. I’m still trying to accept that this is really happening. I just stare at her. She’s pointing a gun at her daughter and telling me I look pretty.

  “I’m sorry I left you with her, she was crazy. I tried to talk to her, but she got so mad at me. She called me a liar. She said if I ever came back to the house she’d kill us both. She had already started hitting us so I believed her.”

  I want to find Kalil. I need to see his face and know if he’s processing everything Riley’s saying, but I’m still frozen. My tears prompt Riley’s next question.

  “She still hits you doesn’t she? She said if I didn’t try to talk to you she would stop, I should’ve known she was lying.”

  I shake my head up and down and take a step forward. A voice on a megaphone tells me not to go any further.

  “Riley, what happened? Why’d you leave me?” She stares into space for a few seconds before looking back at me.

  “You had already gone back to school. I tried to tell her what Daddy was doing to me.”

  I feel like I should be sitting for this. There’s only one thing my dad could have been doing that would lead to this moment. I don’t want to believe it. I don’t want her to say it. I cover my face with my hands and she misreads my gesture.

  “He did it to you too? He promised me! He swore! He said if I kept him satisfied and didn’t tell he wouldn’t bother you!”

  She’s pissed and bordering hysterical as she yells things I block out. I have to stop her.

  “Riley, stop! Daddy never touched me!” I feel like I shouldn’t be calling him that. Suddenly the title seems dirty. She’s shocked. She smiles again.

  “Good.”

  I’m unable to comprehend what’s happening. My dad was a pedophile. My sister kept his secret to protect me. When she finally reached out to my mom she shunned her. She’s been here with my coach this whole time. They have a baby together, a baby that Riley wants to kill.

  “Put the gun down, Riley. We can talk without it.”

  She shakes her head from side to side. I know that look. When we were kids Riley would always get a certain look in her eyes when she was determined to do whatever she had her mind set on. This is the last time I’ll see my sister alive.

  I take a few steps towards her and say, “Riley please, don’t do this, don’t leave me again.”

  The megaphone voice commands me to stop again. Riley looks at them as she shifts the baby from her arm to her chest.

  “I never left you, Mak. I’ll always be with you, I love you.”

  “I love you, too, so don’t do this. Just talk to me. Stay with me and talk.”

  “I’ll always be with you.”

  She points the gun at the cops. They yell for her to put it down. She doesn’t. She’s going to make them shoot her. She grabs something from one of the patio chairs. It looks like a sheet. She throws it over her and the baby and starts shooting. What shouldn’t make sense to me actually does. If there are snipers, which I’m sure there are, they would have shot only her. The sheet blocks their view. A chorus of shots rings out and I drop to the ground. When they stop shooting I hear Kalil yelling for me to stay down. I look up at the porch. Everything’s quiet. Shouldn’t the baby be crying? I kick my shoes off and scream Riley’s name as I run to her. Cops grab me just as I reach the porch. I scream Riley’s name as I struggle to get free.

  Kalil grabs me and yells, “Get off her! I got her!”

  I’m pretty sure he just pushed a cop or two to get to me. I don’t fight him. I watch as one cop checks Riley’s pulse. Another has the baby in his arms. They both shake their heads from left to right. For a few seconds I go limp in Kalil’s arms. I want to leave. I need to get as far away from here as possible. My sister is gone and there’s no chance of her coming back this time. My niece is gone. I don’t even know her name. The cops ask me to go to the police station to answer some questions. Kalil asks if it can wait. They hesitate and look towards the guy approaching us.

  “Ms. Mitchell, I’m Detective Walters. We can come by your house tomorrow if that’s more convenient for you.”

  Convenient? Nothing about this is convenient. “My mom won’t be home until tomorrow afternoon, two at the latest, come then.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  I turn and walk away. My coach is next to one of the cop cars. A priest is saying something to him and he’s crying. When he sees me he calls my name. I ignore him. Riley would still be alive if he had called me before now. He yells that he’s sorry, that he should have told me. Kalil tells him to shut up. I’m glad he’s here.