The Lipstick Clique

by David Weaver

  When he opened his eyes and saw his Mom, he felt a sense of relief. But it was only temporary. His mother fell to the floor crying and screaming. For a second he was dumbfounded; he didn’t have a clue as to why she was causing so much commotion. Then he moved over so that he could stare into the face of the victim. His heart stopped cold when he saw that his sister had been the recipient of the stray bullet.

  __________

  Snowflake was paranoid. She was sitting in the passenger seat of Skye’s car, and her head was turning so rapidly, Skye was almost starting to wonder if she was trying to set her up.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you? Why the hell you keep looking around like that, bitch?”

  Snowflake glanced at Skye with tears in her eyes. “Because he’s going to kill me! He’ll kill me if he catches me in your car! I know what line of business you’re in, if you came here looking for Danielle… and I’m desperate to be down! I’m not even from Columbus, Georgia. I’m from Columbus, Ohio! So all I’m trying to do is take my white ass home and bring some money back with me! This damned dude keeps taking my money from me and-”

  Skye held her hand up. “Wait… You said you knew what kind of work I was in? What kind of work am I in?” She asked her wide-eyed.

  Snowflake did a double take when she detected the serious tone of Skye’s voice and the deadly look on her face. “Uhm… well… I know that Danielle keeps a lot of money at her house from all those robberies that she puts together, so I was assuming that you were about to rob her or something. The other girl you asked about is probably your partner or something. If you let me rob her with you, I’ll take you straight to her house!”

  Skye was troubled that a random stripper had access to so much information. She was immediately concerned about Treasure’s well-being and couldn’t help but to pray that she was alright. She knew that she would have no other option but to play along, so that she could find out where her best friend was located. “O.K. then… you know how to use a .380?” Skye asked her.

  “A 380? What is that?”

  Skye shook her head slowly. “A .380 is a gun. I-”

  “Oh yea!” Snowflake interrupted. “I have one of those in my purse!” Skye frowned as she watched Snowflake rummage through her huge purse in search of the handgun. After a few seconds, she pulled it out. “Yea, this is it right?”

  Skye simply glanced at the gun and 2 seconds later, she knew it wasn’t a .380. “Well, that’s a 9 millimeter, but if you know how to use it, it’ll work just as well. You’re in! Let’s go get this money Snowflake.”

  Snowflake smiled from ear to ear. She was really just excited because she would finally be able to get away from the DJ’s grasp. The DJ had tricked her to get her into that position. She’d met him on Facebook one night when she was going through a lot of emotional stuff back at home. She remembered the conversation well.

  You’re from Columbus?

  Yea. I am… What about you?

  Yea, I’m in Columbus right now!

  Oh, that’s cool… what part?

  I’m over off of Victory Drive right now… what about you?

  Victory Drive? I’m over off of West Norwich Avenue.

  Where the hell is West Norwich Avenue? Damn you out there with them rich folks I guess.

  What? I was about to say the same thing about you…

  Oh you being funny… Ain’t no damn rich folk staying off of Victory Drive, everybody in Columbus Georgia knows that!

  Georgia? Oh I thought you were talking about Ohio! That’s where I am.

  Oh damn… my fault… I guess I saw how beautiful your picture was and couldn’t do anything else but wish that we were in the same city!

  And that’s where it began. She felt comfortable knowing that DJ Bazzy lived in an entirely different state than her. She was able to talk to him about stuff that she couldn’t tell her immediate friends. She was able to find a friend and relief from her troubled life with the smooth talking DJ. But that comfort of knowing that he lived hundreds of miles away soon turned to something different.

  After a while, she started thinking about him with every waking second. Started wondering about how he would feel in person, about how she would feel if his arms were wrapped around her body. She started to imagine how life would be if she could spend it with her new best friend instead of her hating family. The only thing she knew, was that something definitely had to give.

  She shuddered as she thought about how the smooth talking DJ had convinced her to visit him. It was supposed to be for only one weekend, but she had been unable to return home ever since. The first time Snowflake brought up to him that she was ready to return home to Ohio, he had spazzed out and showed her a completely different side of him. “What the fuck you leaving me for?!!!! Everybody in my life always tryna got damn leave me!! You’re no better than the rest of them. You act like you’re down, but you’re just faking!!”

  Immediately, she knew that he was slightly off, but she also felt bad about him thinking that she was trying to leave him. It was an extremely confusing situation and the only thing she was trying to do was get up enough money so that she could leave him and go home. She felt that she had turned into a slave for the insane DJ; one that was forced to dance in strip clubs and give up all the proceeds to him. The one time that she’d tried hiding the money and escaping, he caught her at the Greyhound station and proceeded to beat her senseless.

  He had blacked out both eyes, busted both lips and swollen her face up so much, that when he was done, even he couldn’t recognize who he had been punching. The only thing she wanted to do was get out of the city of Columbus, GA, immediately. And if it meant she had to run away with Skye and rob the two girls; then so be it!

  __________

  Skye pulled up next door to the address that Snowflake had given her and saw the car that Treasure had been driving parked on the side of the house. As far as she concerned, Snowflake’s duties were over and done with, and it was officially time to knock her wig off for thinking that she was about to rob her best muthafuckin’ friend in the world. There was just no damn way possible that anything like that was going to happen. She pulled her pistol out and snapped her fingers because she realized that she had forgotten her silencer.

  If she popped Snowflake right then and there in the car, it was sure to make a big horrible mess, and the sound from the pistol was sure to scream loud enough to alarm Treasure and Danielle that something foul was amiss. She was certain that Treasure was going to question where the sound came from, and wouldn’t have time to answer her deep investigative questions. Shit… I’ll just have to shoot this bitch when we make it to the doorsteps, and explain myself later. I won’t be able to shoot her now and still make it to the door… fuck! I can handle this, I’ma big girl.

  “You have your pistol ready?” Skye asked Snowflake. Before she got a chance to answer, her door swung open.

  “Bitch you must have lost your muthafuckin stupid ass mind!” DJ bellowed at Snowflake angrily. As cool as she pretended to be, and as confident as she had seemed prior to arriving, she had turned from Snowflake to Raindrop in a few seconds. DJ wasn’t bullshitting. He had on Timberlands and fake Gucci blue jeans, and the pistol in his hand looked like an old big ass Colt 45.

  Skye was startled by the way DJ had popped up on them out of nowhere. That was one of the number one rules that Treasure had set when she created The Lipstick Clique: one must pay attention to their surroundings whether they were on the job or off. Robbery was a crime, not a hustle, and to properly make a continuous living off of a crime, you had to think like a criminal every single step of the way.

  “You two bitches thought you were going to rob these hoes without me didn’t you?! Well I got news for you muthafuckaz! I’m going to do the got damn robbing tonight! You’re more than welcome to watch, but I’m about to blow these bitches heads off!” He exclaimed before he stormed off towards the house that Treasure was in.

  Skye would die before she allowed so
meone to harm Treasure, so she grabbed her pistol tightly and opened her driver’s side door. “Where you goin Skye? I’m telling you he’s crazy!!” Snowflake screamed to deaf ears. Skye ignored her and shut the door while she was talking. She took a couple of steps and out of the blue, she felt a body and a strong set of arms wrap her up entirely.

  There was one hand covering her mouth, allowing no volume or breath to be released from it. There was a lip next to her ear and it whispered gently the most forceful words. “Bitch if you make a sound, I will tie you up and gut you from your throat to your clit. I will split you wide open. Fuck wit’ me and see.”

  Skye stood deathly still and remained library silent as she watched another man pull Snowflake out of the car and put her in that same death trap. The DJ stopped when he heard the small noises and turned around frowning. “Ya’ll muthafuckas’ better get back in that –”

  But he didn’t get a chance to finish because a third man wearing all black walked up to him on his blind side and fired a pistol into the back of his head with no hesitation. The man kissed his tattoo and stared at the DJ as he writhed and shook on the ground like a fish out of water. He asked no questions and he showed no remorse. It was obvious that he had done this many times.

  The other two guys walked Skye and Snowflake to the front of the car and stood there while they waited for the shooter to walk over. He stood there for a second and smiled. “You… I don’t recognize. But you… I do recognize. You were with the girls who stole my car from the car wash earlier. And you came to rob my sister? Now that’s a no-no.”

  Skye attempted to speak; tried to explain to the man that she wasn’t trying to rob anyone, and that she was only there to see her good friend. But the guy wouldn’t move his hands from covering her mouth. She tried to scratch and bite, but that only made the man use even more force and power to contain her. Finally, she gave up, her body betraying what her intentions really were.

  The man kissed the tattoo on his hand and raised the pistol to Snowflake’s head. “I didn’t see you earlier, but it won’t matter. You were about to rob my sister, and that’s beyond more than enough for you to earn this bullet.” He cocked the weapon, and before he could fire, he heard footsteps running in the background.

  “Grimmer, 5, Meatloaf, what the hell are y’all doing out here?” Danielle had heard the commotion and had immediately run outside trying to see what all of the noise was about. Treasure was in the distance behind her, walking carefully. She had first been prepared to go the other way because she thought that it may have been the police outside. But when she realized that it was Danielle’s brothers, she went ahead and jogged to catch up.

  5 spoke up. “Baby girl… they were about to try to rob you two. They stole a car from Grimmer at the car wash earlier, and we caught them with their pistols out and getting ready to intrude on your home. I think –”

  “Bitch is that why your white ass has been staring at me all fuckin week?” Danielle asked Snowflake in disgust. At the strip club, Snowflake had always stared at Danielle; it didn’t matter if she was counting money or changing outfits, she was always watching. She glanced down and saw the DJ lying out with a pistol next to his hand and shook her head. “You and that negroe were going to get together and try to rob me of everything that I hustled for… what a got damned shame.”

  Treasure saw her old best friend standing there and shook her head. She looked at the dead man on the ground and suddenly didn’t know what to believe anymore. She looked at the guns that 5 and Meatloaf had seized from Skye and Snowflake’s hands. She examined the look on Skye’s face, and couldn’t tell if it was genuine or not. The last time she saw her friend, she was turning her back on her. And if she turned her back on her back then, there was no telling what she would do or say if she was given the opportunity to speak.

  However, Skye was still her best friend, and it was still supposed to be The Lipstick Clique for life. They were a clique who prided themselves in riding for each other. They were a clique of women who operated a tight ship and had no room for error. They were supposed to be the best of friends no matter what situation was presented to them.

  Grimmer glanced at Danielle’s face and saw disgust written all over it, but he could tell that Treasure didn’t have the same level of disgust on her face. He spoke. “Hey Danielle, why is your friend looking like that? Is she sympathizing with them or something?”

  Danielle glanced at Treasure inquisitively. “Hey, these girls were about to rob us; maybe even kill us… you know that right?”

  Treasure wanted deep down to be able to save her friend, but she knew that if she saved her friend’s life, that she would end up losing her own life as well. The Dirt Mob was a group of professional killers, and a family that ran by such tight southern principles that she was surprised that Skye and Snowflake had managed to stay alive for that long. She stared into Skye’s eyes and tried to see if there was any fear in them. There wasn’t.

  “I completely understand Danielle,” Treasure said quietly.

  5 said to Grimmer. “Maybe we should torture them and find out who they worked with in the past. Find out what they’re about, pick their brains. We may learn a few things from them. What do you say Grimmer?”

  Nervously, Treasure spoke up before Grimmer could even have a chance to ponder the situation. “I say just kill ‘em. I don’t see a point in knowing who they worked with. They’re obviously amateurs, so whoever they worked with will be amateurs as well, and they’ll be found out just as easily. Let’s just do it. Shit, fuck it. I’ll do it.”

  Treasure reached out to Grimmer and took the pistol from him. She walked up to Snowflake and Skye and stared at them both evenly. The look she was trying to give them said that she was only trying to save her own life instead of all three of them going out. But she was sure that neither of them would understand. 5 smiled at Treasure when their eyes met. She couldn’t deny that there was an attraction to him, but she knew that they both lived fragile and temporary lifestyles.

  Holding the pistol, she found herself back in very familiar territory. Once again, she was in a situation where she was about to do something that she didn’t want to do, influenced by a man that she was fond of. The difference between this time and the last time was as simple as daylight. What she was about to do was nothing new to her. She would kill Skye and Snowflake, without a second thought; would probably go fix a sandwich and sit back like nothing had happened. The difference between this time and the time that Benji had asked her to do it, was that now, her heart had turned ice cold.

  Back then she cared about Benji enough to kill for him, but nowadays, she didn’t need too many reasons to kill a person. Life had become monotonous for her; she felt that she would need to close this chapter of her life in order to have a fresh start. Closing the last chapter completely would mean closing off the life of unorganized random crimes that her and The Lipstick Clique had been committing. It would mean turning her back on her friend the same way that her friend had turned her back on her.

  Treasure thought about her list, The Fuckit List. It was a list of things in her life that would confuse her if she allowed them to. It was a list of things that hurt her and made her angry. There were various things on The Fuckit List, and she was sure that there would be plenty more things to come. In short, it was a list that was filled up with the things that made a lady say fuck it.

  She grabbed Snowflake’s head and pulled it towards the ground like a pelican. Then after she instructed Meatloaf to hold her in that position, she did the same thing to Skye. Quickly and without a second thought; she fired a bullet hole into the back of both of their scalps, leaving them slumped over in the dirt.

  For the first time since making his acquaintance, she saw a smile briefly caress the cheeks of Grimmer. The smile quickly faded away, and his rough exterior came back as soon as it left. She stood there staring at the bodies on the ground and felt sorry that she had to do that to her friend, but The FuckitList was powerful. She
was sure that there would be a lot more material added onto that list. She handed the gun back and grabbed Danielle’s arm lightly. “Let’s go back in the house, we were having a good ass conversation.”

  __________

  Milan was sitting in the car laughing at herself when she saw Lena running out of the pawn shop carrying a bag and a gun. She watched Lena run all the way up to the car door, waited until she put her hand on the door handle, and then hit the electric locks, locking all doors. Lena gave the door handle a tug, and when realizing that it was locked, she tapped the window forcefully with her fist. Milan unlocked it, waited on Lena to reach for it again, and locked it back.

  “Mommy!! Stop playing!!!” Lena screamed as she continued hitting on the window.