Around the Way Girls 11

by Treasure Hernandez

  “After I fixed our plates, I went to see why he hadn’t gotten up, but he was gone.” Fly blinked back a few tears. “They left this shit on his bed.” She handed Kali the handwritten note that she’d found on her little brother’s bed.

  Although Fly had already told her about the ransom note over the phone, Kali still read the message aloud with tears in her eyes. “‘One hundred thousand dollars or he’s dead!’” Ten-year-old Braxton was like her brother too. She couldn’t believe someone had kidnapped him. “Were any of the doors or windows unlocked?” Kali went into detective mode.

  “No. The alarm was set, too!” Fly had been racking her brain for the past few hours thinking about how the fuck someone could do her like this. Anybody who knew her knew how much she loved her little brother. He was more of a son than a brother; she had practically raised him. “I swear to God whoever did this is dead!” She hit the couch.

  “Did they leave a number?” Kali studied the paper to see if there was anything familiar about the writing that stood out.

  “Nah.” Fly shook her head, causing her mess of curls to shake wildly. “I’ve been by the house phone and my cell phone all day.” She paused briefly then began to cry uncontrollably. “Man, they better not hurt him, Kali. They better not touch a fucking hair on his head!”

  “We will get him back, I swear.” Kali nodded. “I’ll be right here with you until they call,” she assured her bestie.

  “Even when they call, I ain’t got the money. You know I don’t be saving my shit like that.” As the severity of the situation set in, Fly began to get more anxious and nervous. Although she’d made good money in the streets the last five years, she wasn’t as smart as she should’ve been with her finances. Fly spent money just as fast as she got it. Her vices were name-brand clothes, designer shoes and bags, and expensive cars, all of which were the reason her nickname was Fly; baby girl stayed fly.

  “I got you, sis.” Kali slid the duffle bag she was carrying across the couch and watched her friend open it.

  “I can’t take your money.” Fly was amazed by the amount of dollar bills neatly stacked in the bag, but she was even more amazed that her friend would so easily share her earnings. In the ghetto, where they’d come from, a dollar was hard to come by and even harder to part with.

  “Braxton belongs to both of us. I got you.” Kali put the bag on the table next to the incense that was beginning to burn out, and she moved closer to her friend. “I got you,” she repeated.

  “I know you do, K, and I really appreciate you but—”

  “No buts. I got you.”

  “When I get this situation taken care of I’ll get this back to you, I swear.” Fly wiped her runny nose with the back of her hand.

  “We’ll discuss that later but, for now, let’s wait on this call.” As Kali spoke, both women looked down at the two phones resting on the gold coffee table in front of them.

  Seconds turned into minutes and, before either of them knew it, three hours had passed.

  “What’s next for you, Kali?” Fly asked.

  “What do you mean?” Kali was in the kitchen raiding the refrigerator. So far, her search had turned up nothing but a bottle of vodka, a few bottles of water, a half-eaten sub, and a few condiment containers.

  “I mean, since you’re retiring and all, what’s the plan? Are you going to travel? Are you going to finish working on your law degree? Are you going to get married and have babies?”

  “Girl, you know I’m not getting married or having babies until my man gets out.” Kali closed the refrigerator and returned to the couch. “Five more years and I will be married, barefoot, and pregnant, which is why I need to get out of the game now. I don’t want to be caught up in nothing illegal by the time Bird gets out.”

  Just the thought of Bird getting out and them being able to get married made Kali’s heart skip a beat. She was so glad that she had decided to stay in school that semester and met Matt. With his help, they had been able to appeal his case and get his sentence reduced to ten years. Now, five years into his bid, Bird was at the halfway point. He had been doing very well on the inside. He’d been taking business courses and had plans to start his own construction business when he got out.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know you want to be on the straight and narrow with your Goody Two-shoes behind.” Fly rolled her eyes. “But that still doesn’t answer my question. What are you gonna do in the five years until he gets out?”

  “I’m going to get the hell out of Detroit, go back to school, and get my law degree,” Kali answered in a matter-of-fact tone.

  “Okay, good. Just in case me or Jamaica get caught up in some shit, it’s good to know we will have you to save our asses!” The two girls busted out laughing.

  “Once we get Braxton back, y’all could come with me. We can just pick a city and start over.” Kali’s eyes lit up at the thought.

  “Detroit is home. There ain’t no other place for me.” With a smirk, Fly lifted up her shirt to expose the tattoo of the city on her side.

  “What has Detroit brought us besides pain, tears, and heartache?”

  “Money, power, and respect!” With a yawn, Fly closed her eyes.

  Kali wanted to rebut that, but she decided to remain silent. She knew her girl hadn’t slept much the night before and needed to get some rest. She grabbed her phone and started surfing the Web. Before she knew it, sleep had found her too.

  * * *

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  The banging noise snapped Kali from her slumber. She looked at the time on her phone and yawned. “Damn, it’s almost midnight.”

  Boom! Boom! The knocking started again. Kali jumped up and wiped her eyes. Fly was on the other end of the sofa, snoring. Boom! Boom! As the banging continued, Kali ran to the door and opened it without so much as peering through the peephole. She never did anything that stupid, but she thought it could’ve been Braxton.

  “Hit the safe, bitch, and nobody gets hurt!” a masked man said with his gun pointed at Kali’s chest as another masked person in oversized pants and a hoodie followed him.

  “What the fuck is this?” she screamed as the man pushed her back into the house. The second gunman followed silently.

  “You already know what it is!” the boy yelled. “Like I said, hit the safe and nobody gets hurt.”

  “You got the wrong house. Ain’t no safe in here, man.” Kali shook her head.

  “Stop fucking playing!” he shouted before sending a jab at Kali’s face. She winced in pain but continued trying to deter him.

  “Don’t do this. This ain’t what you want,” she mumbled before spitting blood onto the floor. Her lip was busted from the hit.

  “Wake that bitch up,” the man directed his accomplice. Without a word, the other person shook Fly violently until she opened her eyes.

  “What the fuck is going on?” she asked, trying to fully assess the situation.

  “We came for the money and the dope. Crack the safe!” he demanded.

  “There is no money, no safe, and no dope!” Fly declared. “You got the wrong house, my nigga.”

  “I see now y’all bitches like to play games.”

  “I swear to God there ain’t no dope or money in here.” Fly raised her right hand toward the sky. She never kept dope in the house, and her money was gone just as fast as she received it; therefore, she was 100 percent sure they wouldn’t find any money.

  “Shut the fuck up!” the gunman hollered at Fly. “Go check the crib.” He pointed at the other gunman. “Turn over every mattress and pull everything out of all the closets.”

  The room remained silent as the second intruder rummaged through the house for nearly twenty minutes.

  “Did you find anything?” the gunman asked his flunky, who had returned to the living room. When the person shook their head, both Kali and Fly felt a sense of relief. However, the feeling was short-lived when the gunman noticed the duffle bag on the coffee table. After a quick glance inside he smiled widely. “Tho
ught there was no money in here,” he said to Fly.

  “That’s for—” she tried to explain but, before she could finish her sentence, the gunman hit her repeatedly on the head with the butt of his gun. Kali screamed in utter shock as she watched the man hit her friend like that. She heard a cracking sound as the metal connected with the side of her friend’s head. She felt helpless as she watched her best friend fall from the couch onto the floor. Within seconds blood was staining the entire area rug beneath the coffee table.

  “Please, just take the money and run!” Kali screamed. “I need to call an ambulance. She is badly hurt!” she cried.

  “Where is the rest of it? I know there is plenty more where this came from.”

  “Please, just take that money and get the fuck on. She needs help!” Kali couldn’t believe what was going on. “Please, please, just leave!” she screamed again and made a move toward Fly.

  “Leave her be or I will pump you with bullet holes, bitch!”

  “Do what you have to do then. It is what it is.” Kali tried to sniff the snot running down her face. “I won’t just sit here and watch her bleed out!” The way she saw it, she was damned if she listened to the gunman or damned if she didn’t, so fuck it; she was going to try to help her friend.

  She knelt at her friend’s side. “Come on, Fly, don’t do this to me.” She turned her best friend over in the hope of getting her to regain consciousness. Her head and face had been hit pretty hard, though. She had swelling, and she was bleeding profusely.

  “I said leave her be!” the gunman yelled, but Kali had no fucks to give.

  “And I said it is what it is!” she spat. “We’re here now; there ain’t no turning back, so do what you have to do!”

  “Where is the rest of the money? Where is the dope?” the gunman asked.

  “Nigga, there’s a hundred thousand dollars in that bag! Just take it and get the fuck on,” Kali cried.

  “A hundred thousand is cool but I know there is more and I ain’t leaving until I get it.” The gunman laughed.

  “I don’t have anything else to give you,” Kali mumbled with tears rolling down her face. “Just kill me, nigga!” Kali stood up to get in the gunman’s face. At this point, she felt she had nothing else to lose.

  “You sure you ready to die just like that, Kali?” She heard a familiar voice come from the other gunman, causing the hairs on the back of Kali’s neck to stand straight up. She turned to face the direction the voice came from.

  “Really?” Kali said while gasping for air. “It’s been you this whole time?

  “Yup. I told you your time was coming.”

  “Oh my God.” Kali was still in disbelief of who was behind all of this. “That was you calling me all those times? Why are you doing this?”

  “Because you’re a selfish-ass bitch, that’s why!” Jamaica screamed as she took off her mask.

  “Selfish? What the hell are you talking about? I been there for you through everything since we became friends. I’ve shared the business with you. I’ve laughed and I’ve cried with you. I thought we were like sisters.” Kalie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She felt angry, hurt, and confused all at the same time.

  “See, and that’s exactly what I’m talking about. It’s always ‘I, I, I’ with you.” Jamaica started pacing back and forth while aiming her gun at Kali. “‘I want to get out of the business. I want to move on with my life. I want to do better.’” Jamaica twirled her hair with her free hand and tried to sound like a spoiled valley girl.

  “So, all this time, you were just pretending to be my friend? What about Fly? Were you pretending to be her friend too? You just stood there and watched this other nigga bash her head in like that.”

  “Let’s get shit straight here. I never pretended to be nothing. I always keep it real. I was a ride or die for you and Fly but I got tired of always being the third wheel around y’all two. I got tired of you walking around like you’re so much better and smarter than everybody and Fly walking around like she’s the hottest bitch in Detroit.”

  “Jamaica, I wish I knew what the hell you were talking about because we never left you out of anything. We do everything together. It’s been just the three of us for years.”

  “Yeah, okay. That’s why you two have been hanging out all day today, and she hasn’t been taking my calls, right? For all I know you two are making plans on having her get in touch with the connect and cutting me out, and that ain’t gonna happen on my watch. I ain’t going back to stripping and selling pussy to survive and pay for my shit.”

  “Jamaica, it’s not like that at all, though. It’s never been like that,” Kali tried hard to convince her so-called friend.

  Just then, Fly seemed to be waking up and began moaning. “We need to get her some help.” Kali looked over at Jamaica and over at the first gunman, who had taken a seat in the living room and was watching the conversation unfold.

  “No, you ain’t gonna sit here and bark out orders at me! I’m in charge here.”

  “Okay, so what are you going to do, let our friend just lie here and bleed out? That’s messed up, Jamaica.”

  “You know what? Fuck you, Kali! Fuck you and fuck Fly! I’m done with this shit.” Jamaica raised the 9 mm handgun and pointed it right at Kali. She pulled the trigger, and two bullets ripped through Kali’s shoulder and hand like hot shards of glass. Kali screamed out in pain while falling down to the floor beside her friend. She watched as Jamaica stepped over Fly and aimed the gun right at Fly’s stomach.

  “Please don’t do this,” Kali begged for her friend’s life.

  “It’s too late, Kali. You can’t save her now,” Jamaica said before firing.

  Bop! Bop! Bop! Three shots rang out and then the house went silent. Jamaica instructed the gunman to grab the duffle bag and wait for her outside. Then she walked over to where Fly kept her liquor bottles. She threw a bottle to the floor, pulled out a pack of matches, and struck two of them.

  Jamaica leaned over Kali. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of Braxton. Both of you bitches can burn in hell!” With those final words, she tossed the matches onto the puddle of liquor and set it ablaze. She ran out of there as fast as she could.

  Kali blinked rapidly, trying to get her bearings. She grabbed on to her friend’s body and tried to muster all the strength she needed to pull herself up. However, the more she tried, the more her body seemed not to cooperate.

  “Fuck!” she spat, not wanting to believe her story would end here, especially like this. She began coughing as the room filled with smoke. She wasn’t ready to die, but God must’ve had other plans0.

  She prayed that God would watch over Braxton and Bird. She asked God to make sure they would both move on with their lives and be happy. She closed her eyes and felt the heat from the flames take over her body just as everything faded to black.

  The End