A Love Story

by David Weaver

  situations. And finally, on this day, she realized that she would never have to question a situation again.

  A single tear rolled down her cheek and paused; as if it were alive and wanted to witness what true love felt like before it evaporated off of this planet. In his ear Alicia calmly whispered, "I'm sorry," and gave him a kiss on the earlobe.

  "Ahem! Ahem!" Porsha was staring at the both of them thinking, they belong together, they're both crazy as shit.

  They flipped the television back on and watched the latest developments on the case. ******

  Alicia was a screamer.

  "Eeeee! Eeee, eee, eee, eee, eee, eeeeeee!" Alex found it funny when she first made

  those sounds, but he had tuned her out now that he was approaching climax. She had her hands clenched around his neck; not choking him, but holding on for dear life. He was sliding into her like a pile driver, hammering away at her insides.

  "Eeee! Eeee! Eeee! Eeeeee!" Alex was about to come, but he couldn't help it anymore; he burst out laughing instead. Alicia stared at him, and if looks could kill, then Alex would have been her second body in as many days.

  "Hahahahahaha!" He was laughing so hard that he had tears running out of his eyes.

  "What the fuck is so damn funny?" Alicia bellowed as Alex continued laughing.

  "I'll tell you what's funny! Hahahahaha! I'll tell you alright! Hahahahahahaha!"

  Alicia was starting to get teary-eyed because she was very self-conscious when it came to intimacy. She couldn't help the sounds that she made.

  "Baby I'm sorry..." Alex stated. "It's just... you sound so sexy when you do that shit, that it turns me on and I had to laugh to keep from busting too quick."

  Alicia shook her head. "You don't mean that Alex... you're just trying to make me feel better after you made fun of me!"

  Alex kissed her on the lips. "Shawty listen to me... I would never try-"

  Alicia interrupted him, "Oh shit!"

  She immediately starting putting her clothes on, mad at herself for being caught out of position. When Alex saw what was going on, he followed suit and started getting dressed as well.

  Damn!

  They were at a rest stop off of I-75 in the back seat of a stolen Pontiac. They were headed to Miami and had two AKs and two pistols laying on the car seats. And there was a police officer approaching the car. Alex jumped into the passenger seat and Alicia got in the driver's seat. The tints were dark so the officer wouldn't be able to see into the car until he walked up on it.

  He tapped his chubby fingers on the window while keeping one hand close to his service weapon. When Alicia rolled the window down, recognition instantly set in as to who they were. He grabbed his service weapon, but Alex had already beat him to the draw.

  Pop! Pop! Pop!

  He would have let off more rounds, but the officer had already hit the ground.

  "I hate cops!" Alex said as Alicia floored the gas pedal on the Pontiac.

  "Me too, but what the fuck are we gonna do Alex? The whole I-75 will be shut down in the next hour!"

  Alex thought for a second. "Let's hit the next rest stop. I got a plan shawty."

  Alicia followed the directions given to her.

  ****** The plan was simple. Circle around to I-75 going North and find a vehicle with an out of state license plate. When the family gets out to use the restroom, pop the trunk to remove their luggage, and insert themselves in the place of the luggage. Take a knife and make small holes through the seat and puncture the fiberglass trunk for ventilation.

  They were in the trunk of someone's white Cadillac Deville on their way to Atlanta GA. The space was cramped, but it was far better than the police car. They could hear jazz music infiltrating the vehicle, and with that info determined that it was an older couple who'd taken a family trip. The trunk smelled of car wash sponges and spare tire. It was dark except for the speckles of light shining through the ventilation holes.

  Alex caressed Alicia's face. "Shawty... you know everything's gonna be alright don't you?"

  Alicia absorbed his voice, savored his words and touch; and basked in his presence.

  "Alex baby, I really don't know if anything's going to be alright ever again due to

  everything that we've done. But what I do know, is that I love you. I love you Alex and I never want to live without you in my life. If something happens to you, I also want it to happen to me. I'm a ride or die bitch, so it's in my nature to not fear death and cease

  breathing if I can't ride for you."

  Alex couldn't see her face too good in the dark trunk, but he could imagine her laying there teary-eyed from speaking from the heart. He thought about how long they'd known each other, and knew that she couldn't possibly love him like she claimed; but figured he'd play along anyway.

  "I love you too shawty. I love you too."

  Chapter 6

  They ended up staying in a cheap weekly room at the Inn town Suite on Piedmont Road. Alicia paid a stranger, a guy she'd seen walking to work, to get the room in his name. Alicia and Alex were both laying on the bed, staring at the ceiling while listening to CNN. So far, they had heard reports that there was a manhunt underway in south Florida. The FBI had alerted the coast guards in case the couple tried to flee the country.

  "I really, really love you Alex." She kissed him on the neck and rubbed her soft hands across his chest. He put his arms around her and pulled her on top of him.

  "I really, really love you too shawty." She kissed him once more, then laid down on top of him and closed her eyes. After a couple of minutes had gone by, Alex felt a warm tear drip onto his neck. He knew that she was crying, but he didn't disturb her. Instead he absorbed the love.

  He soaked up all of the love that had been stripped from him when those folks came and killed his son. Alicia understood him, and in his book, the heavy platform of love could only be supported by the foundation of understanding. He thought back to the rapid whirlwind of events that had just taken place and sighed. Guilt tried to brush against him but he shook it off. His mother's voice tried to resonate through his force field, but he tuned it out.

  "Listen to me for a minute..." Alex

  whispered into Alicia's ear. "We gon have to get the fuck out of the United States shawty. And that's the truth if we don't plan on going to prison and getting the death penalty."

  Alicia wiped her eyes and sat up so that she could face him. Her leader was speaking and she wanted to pay him her undivided attention.

  "I know baby... and I don't wanna be anywhere on this planet if I can't be with you. If you were to die, then I'm taking my life too. There is no me without you Alex."

  Alex rubbed his hand across Alicia's shoulder in a circular motion. He enjoy every moment that he shared with her and was slowly starting to feel attached to her.

  "Check this out shawty," Alex started as he sat up in the bed, "We need to stack as much money as possible in the next 30 days and get the fuck outta this country. That's just what we gotta do, no ifs, ands, or buts. So since we ain't got no time to waste, we need to get started ASAP. What you say bout that shawty?"

  Alicia smiled at Alex, her smile a borderline grin that she was attempting to suppress.

  "Man, what chu grinning for shawty?"

  Alicia started laughing at him, her laughter massaging her deadly soul and injecting a thin veil of sunshine into the otherwise grim atmosphere.

  "I'm laughing because you sound a little bit country, that's all."

  "Country?"

  "Just a little bit Alex, just a little."

  Alex's face was heating up as a surge of anger rushed through his body. Then he remembered that he had laughed at her earlier, and realized that she was just paying him back. He took a deep breath and lay back on the pillow.

  After a few minutes, Alicia lay back into her man's arms. They lay there on the mattress and dwelled on their situation. They knew that if they got caught, they most certainly would get the death penalty. So in order to stay ali
ve, they would have to eliminate every possible threat that came their way.

  "How much money do you think we need to stack up to live good overseas?" Alicia asked, with a sense of calmness in her voice.

  Alex glanced at the pile of money that they had already accumulated, and shook his head. "We'll need to get at least another $700,000 if we plan on living comfortable."

  Alicia didn't even flinch, she was motivated and ready to handle her business. She was no stranger to putting in work, she had been involved with stick-ups, set-ups, hold-ups, just about every grimy job that was available to her. She had even done murder for hire jobs and never thought twice about it afterwards. The only difference between the work that she had previously done compared to the stuff that she'd done with Alex, was that she had previously been low-key.

  No one had even known she existed except for the bosses that she occasionally dealt with. She knew that she had gotten tacky lately, and a part of her resented it, but the other part of her told her that she had never had so much fun in her life. Every since Alex came into her life, things were looking brighter, despite the dim circumstances.

  Love had made her loosen her grasp over situations that she would normally have handled incident free. She stared into Alex's eyes trying to read his thoughts. She indeed had a layer of love for her man, but her love for him would disappear if he ever attempted to betray her. She would never accept betrayal from the people close to her. She set it in her mind right then that if he betrayed her, she would kill him.

  She looked at the clock and said, "Well, we better get started now. 700 stacks is a lot of money, but if we get started right away, we should be able to get that with no problems."

  Alex nodded his head in agreement.

  "You right shawty, let's get it."

  ****** It was Alex's idea to steal two motorcycles for their getaway vehicles even though Alicia was against it.

  "Alex, I don't trust anything on two wheels. If either one of us makes a mistake, it's over. I would rather we get a car like we're supposed to get."

  But Alex was adamant about using the motorcycles as escape instruments.

  "Shawty. Can you ride a motorcycle?"

  "Yea, I can ride one, but-"

  "No buts! On the bikes we'll be able to cut through back alleys and slim side streets. Hell we could safely ride the wrong way up a one way if we needed to ditch the police on a high speed chase! This is what it is shawty. We using bikes!"

  Alicia was pissed, but she backed down from the disagreement. She knew that any in cohesion before a job could cause the entire job to fall apart, and getting jammed certainly wasn't in her agenda for the day.

  "Shawty, we got two minutes! No bullshit! Don't try to do no crazy shit! We in and we out!"

  "O.K. Alex, damn... let's stop talking about it and get to it."

  Alex went silent for a moment while he stared at Alicia. He hadn't even done

  anything yet and already had beads of sweat collecting on his forehead. A rivulet of sweat slid down the side of his face and splashed against the dilapidated pavement.

  "Alex, are you o.k.? What's on your mind?"

  "Shawty, don't kill nobody. We don't need no extra heat! If we avoid the heat, we'll be scraight!"

  "O.K. O.K. O.K. I got it... are you ready now?"

  ******

  "No alarms! Hands on your fuckin heads! Now!"

  10 seconds had went by.

  Alex ran to the counter with a duffel bag.

  "Fill it up bitch! Now! Nothing slick or you die!"

  20 seconds.

  Alicia ran to the opposite counter with her

  duffel bag. "Fill it up muthafucka! No silent alarm, or I blow this bitch up!" There were only a few customers in the Bank Of America, but to the robbers wearing motorcycle helmets, it felt like there were a thousand people in there. The tellers were scared to death and generally followed the robber's instructions.

  40 seconds. The robbery was moving along smoothly, even though Alex was swinging his AK back and forth like a madman on speed. He was focused, and knew that he couldn't afford any mistakes at that point.

  One of the tellers had been robbed before and knew not to panic in those types of situations. When Alex's bag got to her, she calmly tipped the silent alarm and carefully loaded the duffel bag with both small and large bills. She had a slight smirk on her face.

  "Hurry up bitch before I kill your

  muthafuckin ass!"

  1 minute, 20 seconds.

  Alicia's bag was filled up when she caught the teller with the smirk on her face. She instantly had a bad feeling about the

  situation.

  "Aye! Leave that bag, I got plenty right here!"

  Alex was too busy looking around the bank like a deranged lunatic to pay any attention to Alicia or the teller’s facial expressions.

  "Boy, leave that bag! Let's go!" Alicia screamed as she back out of the bank.

  1 minute, 30 seconds.

  "I ain't leavin shit shawty!"

  Alicia swallowed hard, her throat feeling like her entire life was trying to choke her. She backed out of the bank and heard sirens in the distance. She started her motorcycle up, and feared that she was going to have to go back into the bank to get Alex out of there.

  1 minute, 45 seconds.

  She took one leg off of the bike so she could go get him when finally he ran out of the bank.

  "Whooooooo! I know we got bout a hunnid fitty stacks! Go! Go! Go!"

  They sped off, leaving a cloud of smoke behind. Alicia was happy that they were finally leaving the scene of the crime. They were speeding along the congested streets of Atlanta until an unmarked police car tried to swipe them out of nowhere. Another car came off of a side street and starting chasing them. Alicia took a left through a narrow back alley, because she knew a car couldn't fit back there, Alex was right about the bikes, she thought as she gained momentum down that alley.

  Alex took that same exact route, then Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. BOOM! 4 dye packs went off inside of Alex's bag, which he had sitting on his handle bar. The bag wasn't zipped up all the way and the dye temporarily blinded him. He crashed his bike into the wall and fell off of it. Boom!

  Colored money flew everywhere like confetti at the Super Bowl. The celebration of the law enforcement's latest victory.

  Damn, Alicia thought when she glanced back and saw Alex on the ground in a heap. She quickly debated whether she should go back and shoot it out with the cops to try to save her lover and fallen comrade. But she also knew that she wouldn't be able to hoist his heavy body in the middle of a shoot out and get away.

  A sheet of sadness covered her like a thick fog that she couldn't see through. She instantly felt lonely as she cut through the streets of Atlanta on her stolen motorcycle. After about 6 minutes, she ditched the bike at a vacant gas station and boarded the Marta, duffel bag in tow, with regret eating through her psyche. Now she had to worry about him snitching to reduce some of the trouble that he was in.

  She knew she should have changed her cell number and treated him like he had the plague, but something inside of her wouldn't allow her to be disloyal. Something inside of her told her to weather the storm as much as she could before the walls started collapsing on her. She wasn't going to be completely naive though, she made a phone call and had her cell number routed to a landline. The landline was call-forwarded back to her cellphone to make it more difficult to track her location.

  This way, she would know as soon as the police tried to raid the landline spot. It would be much harder for the police to catch her when she had the upper hand. She exited the bus at the Underground, unsure of which direction she should go next. She knew for certain that she wouldn't be going back to the Inn Town Suites again. That would be the equivalent of going back to shoot it out with the cops.

  It simply was not a sound decision.

  She knew that there was a manhunt going on in Florida, but she didn't know if they had her description in the national database or
not. Everything she saw on TV about herself were drawings that didn't look like her. Still, she wasn't going to stick around and find out. She hailed a cab and caught a ride to the Greyhound station.

  As soon as she entered, she was

  overwhelmed with the sense of misery that the passengers radiated. They were shells of their former selves, all standing or sitting around holding onto deep, dark secrets. The people's expressions were those of people who had been wronged by life and were desperately attempting to escape.

  Alicia took her ponytail down so that her long hair fell over her face. Through the splits in her hair, she caught sight of some of the filthiest and most miserable people on the planet. She sighed, blowing a few strands of her hair out like a teenager. She glanced around at a few more of the downtrodden faces and knew that she fit right in. She was going to leave the country, but she needed to get to where the borders were being crossed. Florida was out of the question, and Arizona was too far and far too hot.

  She stood at the Greyhound ticket counter, defeated, but feeling victorious. She stood there sad, but feeling happy. Alicia stood there at the counter completely indecisive, yet she made a decision.

  "One way ticket to Houston Texas please."

  "Will that be cash or credit? And for credit, we'll need to see some ID. There's been a lot of fraud going on lately and I can't afford to have anyone rob us for another $100."

  Alicia smiled at the Greyhound clerk, the absurdity of stealing $100 sending eerie shivers through her body.

  "Cash," she said.

  "I will definitely be paying for my ticket in cash."

  ****** "Excuse me." A stranger was standing over Alicia while tapping her on the shoulder. She had been asleep in the Greyhound station for who knows how long.

  "Ma'am, two or three buses have already loaded, I don't know..."

  "Awww shit!" Alicia exclaimed as she grabbed her ticket and duffel bag and ran out of the door.

  She saw a bus with one last passenger getting on it and ran to it as fast as she could.

  "Is this the bus to Houston?" She asked the bus driver.

  He was standing outside of the bus collecting tickets and smoking a cigarette.