The Lipstick Clique

by David Weaver

  Milan started to laugh uncontrollably. “Hahahahahaha! Ahhhh hahahahaha!” She was on a high unlike any high that she had ever experienced. She was on PCP, weed, a line of coke, and was considering going to grab some meth after she left the robbery scene. She was beyond delusional, and her controlled recreational drugs had become uncontrollable highs.

  Finally, when she saw a tear rolling down Lena’s face, she unlocked the door and opened it for her to get in. When Lena jumped into the car, Milan smiled at her briefly, and went straight to sleep.

  Lena panicked. There was a huge crowd gathered outside and standing around the vehicle. She heard sirens in the distance. She knew from what her mommy told her about robbery, that if the police was to catch them; to never tell on anybody no matter what they say. She knew that if the police caught them, that they would both be going to prison for years. She didn’t care, as long as she got a chance to be with her mommy when she was released.

  Lena knew that she could do the time in prison with no problem, but she also remembered the things that her mommy had told her about dodging prison by any means. She knew for a fact that she wouldn’t be able to just sit in that car for long. She also remembered the phrase that her mommy always told her to repeat. I am The Lipstick Clique. I don’t need anyone else with me to become and remain that. All I have to do is get to the money. She stared at her mommy sleeping, and thought to herself, man my mommy is really tired.

  Milan laid there peacefully as if she was in the comfort of her own bed. She was leaning back against the seat snoring, with her lips slightly parted. There was cocaine residue on her steering wheel, and the last of the weed and PCP was burned down to a roach. Lena took the money that her mommy had told her to get and placed it in Milan’s lap. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get the guns as well, but next time I’ll make sure I have everything you ask for. For right now, I’ll let you keep my gun mommy… I love you so much!”

  She sat her gun down in Milan’s lap next to the money and took off running. Her cheap sneakers slapped against the pavement and bounced back up like a basketball as she made an effort to escape the crime scene. As a young child, she didn’t realize how much trouble she had just caused by being naïve and ignorant. She was already having it rough; she wasn’t even fourteen yet, and already she didn’t know where she would lay her head for the night.

  When she turned the corner, she saw that she had a straightaway to run, and it was about two blocks long. But once she cleared that straightaway, she would be able to duck off into the trees until she could figure out her next steps. In the distance, she heard massive commotion as the police and ambulance arrived on the crime scene. She ducked off into the trees and sat on the ground taking deeper breaths than a marathon runner. Above, she heard the helicopters whizzing by, but still she didn’t fret and didn’t worry. She believed what her mommy had told her; that she alone, was The Lipstick Clique.

  __________

  5 was intoxicating. He was the type of man who wore his confidence around his lips, and sprinkled it across his every word and breath. He was standing at Danielle’s pool table only inches away from Treasure’s face. She was trying to ignore him, but was having the most difficult time doing so. She slid the stick across the table and made contact with the cue ball. It drifted off to the left when in her mind, she wanted it to go to the right.

  “Why don’t you come home with me Treasure?”

  Treasure fidgeted nervously before regaining her composure. She stood up and walked around the table away from the sexy man who was starting to soak her panties without even trying. When she made it around the table, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, she saw that 5 was walking around the table himself and was almost standing right beside her. “Damnit 5… you don’t know anything about me. I don’t understand why you’d want someone you had no information on to join you at the place where you lay your head. I guess it’s just that southern hospitality stuff, but still… you should know in your line of work that not knowing enough about a person could be your downfall.” Treasure said as she stared into his eyes.

  He stared back into hers comfortably. He exuded more confidence than almost any man she’d ever met, with the exception of Malcolm Powers. She was sure that if he ever got his strength on par with his, that he could easily overtake him in that department. 5 exhaled short breaths while he invaded Treasure’s personal space. He inhaled hers and made them his own to exhale. He made absolutely no apologies about it whatsoever. He was a thief, but not like the thieves that described her former crew. He was the type of thief that only took things that were begging to be taken.

  He took her breath away.

  He was the type of dude that got what he wanted, whenever he wanted it. Treasure knew that she could use a confident person like that around her every now and then. She tried to glance away when his staring became a little too intense. But when she tried it, he reached over and placed his gentle hands on the crest of her jawline and pulled her stare back towards him softly.

  Gently he spoke. “Treasure, you say I don’t know you, but you see… I know you very well. See, that was me who was standing outside the getaway car the night that me and my brothers went to go kill that guy. And I also know that it was you who was sitting in your crew’s getaway car, confused as hell. I don’t think my brothers paid any attention at all… but I did. I guess you and your crew had come to rob the guy. That was fine because my crew simply came to kill him. I’m sure that we got paid more individually than you all could have gotten collectively out of his garbage bin.”

  Treasure felt her heart fall to the floor. She broke out in a light sweat, and tried to control her nervousness long enough to figure out what her next move should be. If this guy had blown her cover, then he knew about her affiliation with the girl that she had just shot. She took a deep breath and figured that the safest thing for her to do was just grab that pistol and try to take out everybody in the damn house.

  5 remained calm. “Baby, there’s no need to sweat. Your secret is fine with me. Besides… you showed me which team you were really riding for when you killed your home girl. You know… that night I was curious about you all, so I followed you to the hotel. Then I followed you a little more when I saw that you and them had split up. That’s how I met you at the store that day; it was on purpose. Haha… I hope this doesn’t frighten you, but I was absolutely captivated by your presence and beauty. I don’t care about the bullshit. If you really want to be down with somebody, then you should be down with a nigga like me. Shit… I’m the realest nigga alive who’s still walking these streets, and I don’t know how long I have left to walk them.”

  5 held his hands out palms up, gesturing for Treasure to come and embrace him. She stared into his eyes looking for deceit of any type, and when she could find none, she began to search his face for authenticity. She smiled. There was no denying his realness, because it was written all across his face from his left ear to the right one.

  She gently enclosed herself in his embrace. And so it began.

  Section 2

  Milan

  Milan was facing the death penalty, and a minimum mandatory sentence of life in federal prison. She had been locked up for 6 months already, and was going crazy every day thinking about how she would have to cope with doing life in confinement. All of the drugs had escaped her system, and she was left with a sober mind that didn’t feel too friendly. Her cellmate was a girl who had been locked up for selling fake IDs at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Her name was Vicky, and she had an extremely vibrant personality.

  “Milan, I’m telling you girl! I was getting money selling those fake IDs! One day I had three pimps come in there and buy $3,000 worth of IDs. I was getting rich off of that hustle. You should try it one day!”

  Milan had never told her what she was in for, but she was sick of her thinking that she was balling with her few thousand dollars a week hustle. As far as Milan was concerned, Vicky should have just
gone to college and obtained a job that would pay the amounts of money she was talking about. She was sick of her running her mouth.

  “Vicky! Do you know what the fuck I’m in prison for?” Milan said with an attitude.

  Vicky had never heard Milan yell before, so it startled her quite a bit when she did. She sat up in her bunk bed and tuned in to Milan so she could hear what she had to say. For someone who barely speaks, to start talking… this had to be something epic.

  “Bitch, I was with a group of bitches getting real money, ho! I’m talking about hitting a lick for $700,000 and it only took us 5 minutes to get that! I’m talking real shit bitch. A million dollars in a night was nothing to us. We went after whatever we wanted, and made sure we did whatever it took to get it! That’s what kind of shit we were on. We weren’t on no dumb and stupid shit!”

  The room got silent as Vicky sat there thinking about everything that Milan had just told her. Vicky was sitting there trying to picture how her life would be if she could do one job and come back with a million dollars in one night. She smiled and grinned at the thought of it, because a thought like that had never entered her mind before, and it probably wasn’t going to happen again. Nevertheless… she was curious.

  “A million dollars in one night? Got damnit Milan! Bitch you made more in one night than I made in my entire hustling career. Maybe you’re right… I was out committing the dumb and stupid crimes. I wasted my time.” Vicky said sadly as she reached under her pillow and re-read the federal indictment containing the charges that had been listed against her.

  Milan felt bad. “Vicky… that’s not how I meant it. Your crime is equally as important as mine were, because all of us had to have an ID in order to make things happen. So in a sense, one community always supports the next one.”

  Vicky smiled at Milan. It was an eerie smile with a glimmer so bright, that it reminded her of Lena’s adoring gaze. When Lena crossed her mind, she felt a sharp pain enter her heart. She knew that she had let the young girl down; had inspired her while being influenced by drugs that had greatly hindered all of her logical ideas and thoughts. She hated that she had done that to her, but what was done – was done. The only thing she could do was try to make up for it later if she ever got out of prison.

  Milan exhaled and lay back against the hard pillow as softly as possible. Her tone lowered as she thought about the wide array of options and consequences that had been proposed to her by the federal government. So far, the options had been for her to work with them to help prosecute a few of their targets or just accept the 57 year plea deal that she had been offered. If she went to trial, she risked getting the death penalty.

  “Vicky… to be perfectly clear, it really doesn’t matter whose crime was more important or which crime was on par with the others, because none of them were worth our time. We are being held captive by the United States government because we violated their rules and regulations. If I had it to do all over again, I would have never done those things. Had I known that I was going to be in a situation where I could potentially never have a family of my own, I would have never traveled this road. I thought I didn’t give a damn about anything, but nowadays it seems that I care about everything.”

  Vicky lay back in her bunk and relaxed, with Milan’s words heavy on her heart. She thought about them and somewhat agreed with Milan. She knew she couldn’t fully agree because she wasn’t facing the death penalty. Since she wasn’t facing the same consequences, she couldn’t possibly feel the same remorse. She was only facing 24 months in federal prison, and even that would be cut down to 16 months with good time and the halfway house. She was really just ready to do her time, and then go do something bigger.

  The intercom in the room beeped twice, then a stream of static followed. After a few seconds, a loud voice bellowed into the room. “Milan Drimp, you have an attorney visit. Milan Drimp, attorney visit.”

  A deep feeling of dread ran through Milan as she slowly lifted herself up from the rock solid sleeping mat. She just knew that this particular day was going to seal her fate. So far, she hadn’t given her lawyer any indication that she would be signing a plea deal. The only thing that she was adamant about was the fact that she wanted to get the least amount of time possible. And if she had to go all the way to trial to try and get that, then so be it.

  She got up off of her bunk and grabbed her indictment papers from under her pillow. She had several things outlined and circled that she felt the lawyer could attempt to fight and address. But every time she met with him, she always forgot to bring any of those issues up. This time though, she knew it was ride or die season. She would have no other option that day.

  __________

  Milan sat down on the stool in front of her attorney with her wrists and ankles cuffed together. She took a deep breath as she watched the correctional officer remove the cuffs from one wrist so that she could use that hand to write with. She knew, based on that hint alone, that they were about to try to force her to sign something. She stared at the blank space on the floor next to the table while the lawyer drummed his fingers against the desk.

  “Milan,” he spoke when the correctional officer walked out of the room, “I have a sweetheart deal for you today! I promise you that it won’t get any better than this!”

  Milan’s eyes perked up at hearing the lawyer speak so positively. “Really? You have good news for real?”

  The lawyer opened his briefcase and pulled out two sets of identical documents. He slid one set to her and opened the other set so that she could read along while he explained it to her.

  “As you can see, on page one, you are guaranteed to not get the death penalty. It also guarantees that you won’t get a life sentence. It stipulates that you get sent to the prison in the state of your choice, and that you get enrolled in drug treatment programs.”

  Milan’s attention faded as she scanned the paper, looking for the bottom line. The lawyer was still going on and on about what was guaranteed, but she was only looking for the amount of time she would have to do. She flipped from one page to the next, and kept going until she saw the final page that required her signature.

  It was an offer for 27 years in prison.

  Suddenly, she felt herself about to throw up. She thrust the papers away from her and took deep breaths in an attempt to calm her nerves. She closed her eyes and counted like the instructions in the self-help book that she was reading had taught her. She counted and counted, but eventually, it got to the point that she didn’t even know which number she was on.

  “Milan, are you ok?”

  “Am I ok?!?! What the fuck do you mean am I fuckin’ ok?! You come to me talking about sign a 27 year deal so that I can go to prison and you have the fuckin nerve to ask me am I fuckin ok?!? How dare you!” Milan spat nastily while she gave the lawyer the side eye. She took her free fist and flung the papers to the floor. She took the same fist and started banging on the table to get the officer’s attention.

  “Milan, I have to advise you to calm down. I have to –”

  “You can’t advise me of shit! You’re working for them! I know you are! You’re working for them! You’re just trying to put me away! Fuck you! You bastard!”

  The lawyer kept a calm disposition while Milan continued her outrage and accusations. When he finally had an opening, he tried to get another sentence in. “And you can work too –”

  “Shut up! Just fuckin’ shut up!! You stupid bitch! I don’t wanna hear shit you have to say to me! I’m disgusted that I am in a situation so terrible, that I had to resort to accepting assistance from the got damn devil. Ughhh!” She hawked up a load of saliva and was attempting to spit it at her lawyer when she felt the officer’s hands grab her body and remove her from the table.

  “Get off of me! Get off of me you fucks! Get off!” The officers ignored her and continued to pull her out of the legal room. Once they got into the hallway out of the lawyer’s presence, they slammed her against the wall like they would do a grow
n man. The lead officer took his open hand and slammed it against her face with all of his strength.

  The force of the impact stunned her, and for a second it felt as though she had done a line of the most potent cocaine. She couldn’t feel her face. The second officer got in her face and nudged her head against the wall with his forearm. “Bitch, you better calm down or we’re going to really give you something to cry about. Who did you think you were fooling, huh? Walking around your prison cell with nothing but your panties and bra on. You sure do think you got all the sense don’t you?”

  The officer reached down and wrapped his hand around his crotch. He held it there while he held her against the wall. “You know… I oughta take you into the closet and fuck the shit out of you while you got these handcuffs on. There is nothing preventing me from doing that. You’re an inmate, you don’t matter!”

  Tears were Milan’s only solace. She hated the treatment that she and the other women prisoners had been forced to endure on a daily and nightly basis. One of the girls in her unit had been a virgin when she came to prison, and was now 18 years old and pregnant by one of the guards. She hated the way the correctional officers used their strength to break the rules and take advantage of the female inmates. She hated it with a passion.