BFF's

by Brenda Hampton

  “Please tell me something. Anything that you know right now would be helpful,” I begged.

  The nurse told me to wait, where I stood for a few minutes. She came back almost ten minutes later and touched my hand. “The doctors are still working on him. You have to believe that they’re doing the best they can. Just say a little prayer and everything will be all right. As soon as I know something, I’ll let you know.”

  I wiped my flowing tears and nodded. Wanting to go get Keith’s information and call his family, I got in my car. I felt so horrible because this was all my fault. I should have told Lexi about my feelings for him. I knew how possessive she was and it was my fault that things had escalated like this. I reached for my cell phone in my purse and called Kayla. She answered my phone and I was so glad she was at my place.

  “Kayla, Lexi stabbed Keith. I’m at the hospital. I really need somebody right—”

  “Oh my God!” she shouted. “Is he okay? Where are you?”

  “I don’t know if he’s going to make it, but I’m at Barnes-Jewish Hospital on Kings highway.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  Kayla hung up. I thought about calling Evelyn, but unfortunately, she just wasn’t that kind of friend. She was trouble and right now I didn’t need trouble. I put my phone back into my purse, and as soon as I started my car, I felt a sharp blade touching the side of my neck. I was getting ready to turn around, but Lexi told me not to bother.

  “How dare you cry over a dumb-ass nigga like this? What happened to us, Trina! Huh! Is this how you want to play me!”

  My whole body was stiff. I didn’t dare move. I did, however, look in the rearview mirror at her. She appeared very unstable.

  “Pu—put the knife down, Lexi. You don’t want to do this and you’ve already done enough.”

  “Is that muthafucka dead? That’s when I’ll know if I’ve done enough!”

  I had to think fast and do my best to calm her. I was nervous as ever and could feel sweat sliding down the side of my face.

  “Yes, he is dead. I didn’t want to tell Kayla that he was, but you killed him. It’s all over with and you don’t have to worry about him anymore. It’s you and me, again; forever and just like it was before.”

  I could hear Lexi breathing heavy. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect for anything like this to happen. How was I to know that I had been sleeping with a crazy bitch like her? She was way off.

  My eyes shifted as I looked around for a police officer, security guard or somebody to help me. Unfortunately for me, though, there weren’t too many people close by us.

  Lexi pressed the knife harder and I felt a sting. I could feel blood trickle down my neck and I had no idea how deep she had cut me. I did know, however, that I needed to do something fast.

  “It can never be like it was before,” she cried out. “You played me, Trina! I loved you with all of my heart and you plaaaaayed me!”

  “I’m sorry, but please know that I loved you too. I still love you and I promise you we can work this out. But if you do something stupid, we can’t. We can’t be together if you do something stupid and I know you don’t want that.”

  Right then, I saw a police officer pull his car near the emergency room entrance and get out. I lifted my hand, slamming it against the horn. It sounded off so loudly that Lexi jumped halfway over the seat and began swinging the knife around. She stabbed everywhere she could, missing my face and head by inches. I hurried to loosen my seat belt and tried to unlock the door with her all over me. The knife cut deep into my shoulder and when I fell out of the car, I yelled out for help. The policeman was already headed in my direction and before Lexi got out of the car, he pulled out his gun and aimed it at her.

  “Put the knife down or I’ll shoot,” he yelled.

  Lexi was too anxious to get at me. She ignored the cop’s warning and in a rage, jumped out of the car to get at me as I lay on the ground. Once she raised the knife in the air, the officer fired one shot that whistled right into her chest, blowing it wide open. As her limp body fell on top of me, I covered my mouth with my hands and screamed out as loud as I could.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Evelyn

  After meeting with Trina, I was kind of hoping my phone would ring or that Kayla would come knocking on my door to confront me. I prepared myself on what to say to her. It was along the lines of exactly what I’d said to Trina. Unfortunately, I hadn’t had the opportunity to spill my guts yet. Kayla hadn’t called, but Trina called about an hour ago, telling me she was at the hospital with her boyfriend Keith. She said he had been stabbed and that she had been injured as well. She didn’t sound good at all. It seemed as if there was more to the story that she wasn’t telling me. So trying to be nosy and to give her some support, I put on my summer dress and headed out.

  The moment I walked out the door, the wind picked up and blew up my dress. It was kind of flimsy and I hoped nobody got a peek at my turquoise thong. After I left the hospital, I planned to stop by Cedric’s house to see him. He’d been working from home lately and he said Jacoby wasn’t always there. That was a good thing, because we did need some privacy.

  I arrived at the hospital around nine o’clock that morning. I wasn’t sure where Trina was, so I called her on my cell phone to see what was up. She directed me to go to the waiting room and said she would be there shortly. When I got there, I saw Kayla sitting in one of the chairs, paging through a magazine. I eased over to her because I didn’t know yet if Trina had said anything to her. I wasn’t sure if she would come out swinging on me, so I paid attention to her expression. She lifted her head and smiled when she saw me coming her way. She then stood up and when I approached her, she gave me a hug.

  “It’s about time you got here,” she said.

  I sighed, knowing that everything was good; at least for now, anyway. “Trina just called me this morning. What happened and how long have you been here?”

  Kayla gave me the scoop about what had happened, but I was still a little confused.

  “So, this backstabbing, no-good fool had a girlfriend? If that’s the case, then he deserved what he got. A scorned woman is nothing to play with, and some men need to stop trying to date all these women at one time. I don’t understand why Trina is sticking by him. If it were me, I would be out of here.”

  “That’s not what happened. I’ll let Trina give you the details of what happened. But I can assure you that you’re barking up the wrong tree.”

  “I don’t see how. We see this kind of stuff happening all the time. Man cheats, woman gets mad and kills him.”

  Kayla caught an attitude with me. “Again,” she snapped. “That’s not what happened. If you want to know the truth about something, I’ll share this. Keith is really a good guy. He didn’t deserve this and that’s all I’m going to say.”

  “Well, I’m not sure if you know the meaning of a good guy. You think Cedric is a good guy, but we both know that he isn’t.”

  Kayla cocked her head back and frowned. “Are you okay this morning? You’re coming off real strong and your attitude is horrible.”

  “I’m fine. Maybe being pregnant has me on edge a little. You know how that goes.”

  Kayla smiled and lightly smacked her forehead. “Oh, forgive me. With all that’s been going on, do you know that I forgot you were pregnant? We haven’t spoken much lately, and I want you to know that you’re always in my thoughts and prayers, no matter what.”

  This heifer was so fake. Now, how do you forget that your best friend is pregnant? That made no sense to me and this was an example of the problem I had with Kayla. If it didn’t revolve around her, she wasn’t interested.

  As we were sitting in the waiting area, in walked a dark-skinned, attractive man with locks. I paused my conversation with her to take a look. He walked up to the snack machine and then to the soda machine. When he came over to us, I gazed up at his sexy self.

  “Here,” he said, handing Kayla a soda. “I figured you may want somethi
ng to drink.”

  “Thank you,” she said, and then turned to me. “Bryson, this is Evelyn. She’s my and Trina’s best friend. Evelyn, this is Bryson, Keith’s brother.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I said with a smile. He shook my hand and said the pleasure was all his.

  Bryson gave us the scoop on Keith’s condition. From what he said, Keith pulled through surgery and was now in serious, but stable, condition. His parents were with him. So was Trina.

  He looked at Kayla. “She told me to tell you to go home, get some rest, and said she would call you later.”

  “Well, you tell her that I’m staying right here. I want to make sure she’s okay. I’m not leaving until I know for sure.”

  Bryson smiled and walked away. If Trina wanted us to leave, I really didn’t want to stay. But I did so anyway, just so she could see me there during her time of need. There was no telling when I would need her to be there for me. It did bother me, though, that Kayla had always seemed to be there more for Trina than she was for me. It had been this way for a long time, so I added that to my list of gripes about her.

  About fifteen minutes later, Trina came into the waiting room looking worn-out. Her sweats were hanging low. Her tennis shoes were untied and she had on an oversized T-shirt that was too big. I couldn’t believe she was up here representing herself like this in front of Keith’s parents. I figured they weren’t impressed by their son’s choices in women. I cut her some slack, considering the situation, but still.

  She came up to me and Kayla with a somber look on her face. The first thing she did was thank me for coming and then she sat in a chair across from us and crossed her legs. She started to tie her tennis shoes and then slowly shook her head.

  “I can’t believe all of this is happening,” she said. “Keith is doing better, but he’s not out of the woods yet. He lost a lot of blood and she stabbed him like three times in his stomach. I don’t know how he made it through this. The more I think about it, I can’t help but to think about how all of this is my fault.”

  Trina covered her face and started to cry. Kayla rushed over to the seat next to her and hugged her. “No, it’s not your fault. I know Keith does not believe that, either. Some people just do crazy things sometimes and this matter was beyond your control.”

  I sat there clueless. Now, why in the heck would Trina think this was all her fault? It was Keith’s fault for being a player. Was she actually sitting there taking responsibility for him? I swear, I had some stupid-ass girlfriends. They needed to get their acts together. Maybe I was missing something, but this was ridiculous. Either way, I played along with it and offered my support too by going to sit next to her.

  “I don’t know why you see this as your fault, but it’s not,” I said, rubbing her back. “Calm down. You have to believe that Keith will make a full recovery.”

  Trina seemed to lean more toward Kayla, so I backed away. They looked at each other, and then Trina turned tome.

  “Can we go somewhere and talk?” she asked.

  I assumed she wanted to talk to me about my situation with Cedric, but I wasn’t up to hearing it right now. “Later,” I said. “We’ll talk later, especially since I think I already know what it’s about.”

  Trina stood up. “No, you don’t know. Let’s go somewhere and talk now.”

  She seemed adamant, so I stood up and followed her. We walked together to the cafeteria, where Trina sat at a table that was far away from others.

  “Listen,” I said, taking a seat in the chair across from her. “This is the wrong time to be bringing up my relationship with Cedric. If you’re worried about me saying anything to Kayla, I won’t. I told you I’m not going to tell her, but I’m shocked that you haven’t said anything.”

  “I’m not going to tell her. I truly believe that you should be the one to come clean. But I didn’t bring you here to talk about that. I wanted to tell you about a secret I’ve kept for a long time and through keeping that secret is why I’m here today. Maybe me telling you this will make you spill the truth. And believe me when I say it’s a very bad feeling when you know you’re responsible for hurting the people you care about.”

  I shrugged. “Yeah, well, some of those people have hurt me too. But what’s your secret?”

  Trina swallowed the huge lump I saw forming in her throat. “Evelyn, I’ve been involved—meaning intimately involved—in relationships with women for the past several years. When my relationship with BJ ended, I made the decision not to ever date another man, because he had done me so wrong. I started seeing that chick, Lexi, and our relationship got real serious. I kept that relationship a secret and then I met Keith. To make a long story short and without getting into more details, Lexi was the one who stabbed Keith. She was shot dead on the parking lot outside yesterday, and the police shot her in her attempt to kill me.”

  I hadn’t moved, hadn’t blinked . . . nothing. Did she just tell me she was a dyke? This had to be a joke. I assumed that Trina had fabricated this story, making it so tragic that I would be convinced to tell Kayla the truth.

  “That was pretty good, Trina, and it was also pretty low. I’m not going to tell Kayla what is going on, and if you think your little story about Lexi and Keith is going to move me then you’re sadly mistaken. And the whole gay thing is ridiculous. You love dick too much to go that route and I know that for a fact.”

  “Do you? Really? I guess you may need to open your eyes and reflect on the last several years, then. You haven’t seen me with many men, and if you have, there’s been no connection between us. I hadn’t talked about them and besides all of that, I would never, ever lie to you about something like this. As my friend, I wanted you to know the truth. I’ve been holding onto this for so long, and now other people’s lives have been affected.”

  I was trying to read Trina. What I discovered from the look in her eyes was that she was telling the truth. All kinds of crazy thoughts swam in my head, and I kept thinking about the many times I got undressed in front of her, how many times I hugged her, and the many times she put her lips on my cheeks. I couldn’t do this shit, and no best friend of mine could be this way and not tell me.

  “So, let me get this straight,” I said as more anger crept on my face. “You’re a lesbian, but you’re in love with Keith. Your girlfriend tried to kill him and then she tried to kill you. After twenty-plus years of friendship, you’re coming clean today because you feel guilty for destroying other people’s lives. Does that about sum up everything you’ve told me?”

  Trina stared at me from across the table. “I knew you wouldn’t get it, Evelyn. You just don’t have it in you to understand—”

  “Understand,” I said, raising my voice. “No, I do understand, Trina, and I understand things very well. I bet any amount of money that Kayla knows about this and has known for some time. The two of you have never been real friends to me, and I’m always the one being left out and dismissed like I’m not shit! This whole BFF stuff is a bunch of bullshit and it has been so for a very long time. If friends come in the form of you and Kayla, guess what? I . . . don’t . . . want . . . no . . . friends! To hell with you both and you can take your pussy-eating-ass back in there and tell Kayla what I said. The next thing you’re going to be telling me is the two of you are fucking each other and you want to hook up for a threesome. That wouldn’t surprise me one bit and the two of you deserve each other.”

  I stood and tucked my purse underneath my arm. “Give Keith my condolences. I hope that whenever he comes out of this, he realizes the kind of woman you really are and he runs like hell to get away from you.”

  I stormed off. Many people’s heads were turned in my direction and whispers filled the room, but I didn’t care. I got the hell out of there and called Cedric to see if he was home. He didn’t answer, but I still drove to his house anyway.

  I parked in the curvy driveway, right behind a car that I hadn’t seen before. I assumed that the car belonged to one of Cedric’s business partners, but
when I got to the glass doors that viewed into the house, I could see Cedric sitting on the couch in the great room. His head was dropped back and his eyes were closed. I thought he was sleeping, but as soon as I lifted my hand to ring the doorbell, I saw the long, black hair of a woman whose head was in his lap. It was apparent that her mouth was going to be burning too, and Cedric simply could not get enough. I was already in a bad mood, but he would never see me act a fool and go crazy about him being with other women. It did sting a little, especially after he seemed so decent the other night and had come off like he was getting serious about us.

  Instead of ringing the doorbell, I stood for a few minutes, watching the action. Cedric looked to be faking it and the woman kept looking up at him for approval. She appeared to be real young and she was probably the one who had given him chlamydia. I wondered if he was giving her money like he was me, and thinking about her cutting into his cash was what prompted me to ring the doorbell. Cedric snapped his head to the side and a few minutes later he tied his robe and came to open the door.

  “I see that you’re busy, but do you mind if I come in?” I asked.

  “It would be nice for you to call. That way you don’t interrupt me. What is it that you want this time, Evelyn?”

  “For starters, did you know that bitch Trina was gay?”

  I had to say something that would get his attention. He laughed and that was when I took the opportunity to ease inside. “I promise to be good and I have nothing to say to your midday trick,” I said. “I’m going to your office, so meet me there as soon as you can.”