Atlanta Noir

by Tayari Jones

  Maddie chuckled. “Yeah, right. Like, who doesn’t show for a threesome with two gorgeous teenage girls?”

  “What if he tells someone where he’s going? You told him not to, but what if he does?”

  “Emma, he’s like, thirty. He’s hardly going to tell anyone he’s about to commit statch. Plus, he promised to bring us cocaine. He’d be in like way more trouble than us if he did tell anyone. It’s all fleek, I promise.”

  When Maddie said it, Emma believed it. A week of planning. Of conspiring. Of researching, of setting up false Craigslist and Facebook accounts, of trolling for the perfect guy, of talking out every angle and contingency. And Maddie listened. She actually listened to Emma’s suggestions and seemed impressed. It had been the best week of Emma’s life. Just her and Maddie in their own private bubble. She just never thought it would get this far.

  Emma had to look away from Maddie’s studying gaze.

  “What?” Maddie asked. “You want to wuss out, don’t you?”

  “No! No, I don’t! I just . . .”

  Maddie took a step toward Emma, even throwing her arms over Emma’s shoulders. “I know you’re nervous. I am too. This is, like, a huge deal. But we can do this. We need to do this. Not only will it totally bond us for life, we’re doing the world a massive favor.”

  “We are?”

  “Uh, totally. This guy was like trolling the Internet for little girls! When we told him we were only seventeen, he totally didn’t care! He’s probably molested tons of girls. We’re like avenging them. We’re heroes.”

  “I guess.”

  “You can do this,” Maddie said with a sweet smile before lightly kissing Emma’s lips. “I’ll bet you even enjoy it.”

  “And if we get caught? The police—”

  “We are not going to get caught,” Maddie interrupted with utter certainty. “We’re like totally smarter than the police. We’ve got everything covered. No one’s even probably going to like report this guy missing. And if by some chance we do get caught, then your dad will get us off. We’ll just say we were two stupid girls who got in over their heads and when this big, black, ghetto asshole tried to rape us, we defended ourselves. Who do you think the jury will believe? Plus, they’d probably even, like, make a Lifetime movie about it. Gigi Hadid can play me and Victoria Justice can totally play you. But we’re not going to get caught.” She pecked Emma’s lips again. “You trust me, right?”

  “More than anyone and anything,” Emma said.

  “And I trust you. That’s what this is about, right? Bonding for life. No matter how far away life takes us, we’ll always have this. Tonight. Like a tattoo you can’t laser off. And there’s no one else I’d rather be tied to for life than my best friend. And like, of course you’re nervous. So am I. This is like a huge deal. But I was right about you punching your V card with Braeden, and like that night I’ll be right here with you. I so won’t let anything happen to you. Just like . . . enjoy this transcendent experience.” Maddie took Emma’s hand, entwining their fingers together. “With me.” She leaned in once more and tenderly kissed Emma. As always the act made Emma’s body sing, just as it left her desolate when Maddie ended the kiss. “We can do this. Now come on, we gotta get ready.”

  The chills, the doubt all but faded away with Maddie’s words. With that last kiss. Emma smiled and nodded. She may have been nervous, she may have been sick to her very core, but there was no way she wouldn’t go through with it. She just had to try and enjoy the experience like Maddie said. She’d enjoyed the planning. The talking to various men online trying to lure in the perfect guy, or avatar of transcendence as Maddie called him. Because that’s why Maddie wanted to do this. To transcend their boring, predictable lives. To prove they were more than what their parents, their friends, the school said they should or could be. It was to save their spirits. From a life of mediocrity and sameness. Emma almost believed her friend when she gave that little speech the day before. Almost. Still, Emma stood in that boathouse grinding up her mother’s tranquilizers and mixing them in a glass as Maddie set the stage.

  “You know, it’s too bad we can’t fuck him before we do it,” Maddie said as she hid the baseball bat behind the bar. “He kind of looks like Kanye. And I’ve never had a black guy.”

  “African American,” Emma corrected automatically.

  Maddie rolled her blue eyes. “Whatever, PC Principal.” Her phone chirped and she removed it from her black hoodie. “Oh shit! He’s here! He’s here!” Maddie cried out as if she’d just woken up on Christmas morning to find a new puppy. “OMG, this is like totally happening!”

  Bile rose up in Emma’s mouth.

  “He just e-mailed he’s parked down the street just like I told him to do. See? All going like steampunk. Okay, you finish taking care of things here. I’ll go get him.” Maddie began walking toward the door. “Tonight is gonna be fucking epic!”

  When the door shut, Emma could finally let herself crumple onto the plastic-covered couch. She let out shaking, weighted breaths as the adrenaline coursed through her every cell. I can do this, she thought as she rocked back and forth a little. Nothing mattered but Maddie. After a few seconds for herself, Emma forced herself to stand and return to the bar for the final preparations. They could leave nothing to chance. Their very lives depended on the details. She slipped on her new gloves and checked that everything was in its proper hiding place. She was just tucking the knife in the side of the couch when the door opened again.

  When he stepped in.

  Maddie was right—what else was new—he did resemble Kanye West, at least around the eyes. He certainly didn’t look like a child molester. In fact, he looked like a nice man. Early thirties, over six feet, full lips, muscular under his Atlanta Braves T-shirt and blue jeans, with braids down to his shoulders. He was just . . . a guy.

  “Victoria, he’s here,” Maddie said in singsong as she walked in behind the guy. “Jordan, this is Victoria.”

  “What’s up?” Jordan said with a nod.

  “Nice to . . . meet you,” Emma muttered as she turned her eyes to the ground. She just wouldn’t look at him unless she had to. It would help.

  “Told you she was prettier than the chick in the pictures we sent you. Victoria, Jordan was a little pissed we didn’t send him our real pics. I just hope you’re as big as the dick shots you sent us,” Maddie said with a smirk. “But we’ll, like, find out soon enough. Vicki, get Jordan a drink, huh? He has to catch up.”

  “Uh, right,” Emma said as she rose from the couch. “What would you like?”

  “Rum and Coke?”

  “Okay.” With her gaze still down to the floor, Emma moved toward the bar again. She mixed the drink with the tranquilizers as Maddie maneuvered Jordan to the couch. Just don’t look at him.

  “What’s with the plastic shit everywhere?” Jordan asked.

  “We’re like painting the whole place tomorrow,” Maddie said without missing a beat. “I thought it needed a change. I’m totes bored with it.”

  “Why? This is nice. Didn’t know people even had boathouses and shit.”

  Emma returned to the couch, her trembling hand holding out the laced drink to Jordan. “H-here,” she whispered.

  “You okay?” Jordan asked.

  “She’s fine,” Maddie said. “Her hands are just a little fucked up. That’s why she’s wearing the gloves. Plus, we already had two of those while we were waiting for you. You gotta catch up.”

  Emma sat in the armchair beside the couch, her whole body a coil that not even her jittering leg could help loosen.

  Jordan drank his alcohol but grimaced after one sip. “This tastes weird,” he said.

  Maddie took the glass and pretended to take a sip. “Tastes fine to me. Maybe you’re just like not used to imported rum. My stepdad has the stuff shipped in from, like Cuba or somewhere. That’s like fifty bucks of rum. You totally gotta finish it.” She handed it back to Jordan. “We’re pretty fucked up already. I mean, just look at her,�
� she said, gesturing to Emma. “It’s not rape if we’re all fucked up, right, Victoria? Her dad’s a lawyer, she’d know.”

  “Yeah, th-that’s right,” Emma replied quietly.

  “So finish it or leave,” Maddie said.

  Jordan glanced at Maddie, then Emma, then back to Maddie, who just raised an eyebrow. Emma silently prayed he’d get up and walk out. Just walk out. Please . . .

  But of course he didn’t. He downed the drink in one gulp. “Shit,” he muttered.

  “Vicki, get him another.” Like an automaton, Emma stood up, took the glass from Jordan, and returned to the bar in a daze. This time the drink was straight rum and coke. With that big a dose of Ativan combined with the alcohol, he’d be woozy in minutes. Plenty of time for Maddie to play with her food. “So, did you bring the coke like we asked?”

  Jordan pulled a tiny baggie out of his pocket. “Yeah.”

  Maddie took it from him. “Hope it didn’t, like, cost you too much. I’ll totally pay you back before you leave. You ever done it before?”

  “Once or twice. It ain’t my favorite,” Jordan answered.

  “We’ve never done it before. We’re totally about the new experiences, right, Victoria?”

  “R-right,” Emma replied. She handed Jordan his glass and sat down in the lounge chair again.

  “Like you being here. We’ve had threesomes before, but never with someone over twenty or—”

  “Black?” Jordan cut in.

  “Yeah. B-but not because we’re like racist or anything,” Emma said. “We just, there aren’t that many African Americans in Peachtree City.”

  “Yeah, it’s like literally 90 percent white,” Maddie said, rolling her eyes. “It totally sucks. That’s why I totally can’t wait to move to New York City. This town is so fucking boring, you know? Nothing ever changes. Nothing ever happens.”

  “I don’t know. Seems pretty nice, quiet, you know what I’m saying?” Jordan said, drinking his alcohol without protest this time. “You guys got the golf carts and shit. That’s cool.”

  Maddie smirked. “Try living here. You want anything remotely interesting to happen, you totally have to make it happen yourself. Like we did tonight,” she said with a seductive smirk. “Insanity is like doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, right? No wonder most people around here are on antidepressants. You can’t grow, you can’t transcend without like trying new things, you know?” She shifted in the couch to face Jordan, even putting her hand on his thigh. “What about you? Is tonight a new experience for you? Being with two girls at the same time?”

  “Uh, yeah,” he responded nervously, sipping his drink.

  “Well, don’t worry. We’ve done this before.”

  “Are you two together or bi or . . .”

  “Well, I’m pan,” Maddie said proudly, “and Vicki claims she is too, but I totally think she’s demi.”

  “What?”

  “Demisexual? She only likes fucking people she’s in love with, whereas I,” Maddie said, moving closer to Jordan, “like fucking anything and anyone. Everyone has such hang-ups about sex, it’s like pathetic, you know? We are just, like, totally animals after all, evolved monkeys. I’m all for giving in to my primal instincts.”

  Jordan shifted uncomfortably on the couch.

  Maddie frowned. “Oh, you’re like probably Christian or whatever. Victoria is too. Most people around here are.”

  “Wait. You don’t believe in God?” Emma asked.

  “Of course not. There have been like thousands of gods and the dude on the cloud with the beard is the only real one?” Maddie rolled her eyes. “We learned about Karl Marx in school. Religion’s an opium for the masses to keep us in line.”

  “What about heaven? Hell?” Emma asked.

  “It’s just a story to keep us from killing each other, duh! Like all the stupid societal conventions they expect us to follow. Well, fuck that! Rules are totally meant to be broken. Bitch, there is just the here and now. Just us and the moment. Why do you think we’re doing this?”

  Emma shut her mouth. There was never any arguing with Maddie. Even Jordan seemed to realize this as he just continued nursing his drink without a word of dissention. But Maddie smiled at her friend to reassure her. “Isn’t my best friend just like totally fucking beautiful, Jordan? I love looking at her, don’t you?”

  “Uh, yeah,” he said, staring down at the floor, his eyes obviously growing heavy.

  Maddie rose from the couch and sat in Emma’s lap, throwing her arms around Emma’s shoulders. “I, like, love her more than anything and anyone in this whole universe. We’d totally do anything for each other.” She caressed Emma’s cheek, and a shiver of lust ran through Emma. Even a light touch like that could garner a strong, wild, pulse-pounding, goose bumps–rising response. And when Maddie’s lips touched Emma’s, all was right in the universe. They kissed for several seconds, passionately, deeply, tongues exploring each other as they had a hundred times before, and Emma almost forgot about their guest, at least until Maddie broke the kiss and whispered, “Get into position. It’s time.”

  Be it the always-expert kisses or the weight of those words, but Emma couldn’t breathe for a second. It was as if she drifted out of her body and just watched as the person resembling her stood up and moved toward the bar to turn up the music. It was loud enough to wake the dead, but she could barely hear it. Maddie returned to the couch, all smiles for the slow-blinking Jordan. Drink. Music. The baseball bat.

  When Emma bought the bat that afternoon, it was heavy in her hands; now she couldn’t sense its weight. She was a ghost. Insubstantial. A robot with no emotions or free will. She thanked God for that.

  “Are you okay, Jordan?” Maddie asked with her patented smirk.

  “I don’t . . . I . . .” the guy said quietly.

  Emma’s ghost walked toward the back of the couch. She couldn’t see his face. She was glad.

  “Feeling sick? Yeah, that’s because of the drugs we slipped in your drink, you fucking pervert,” Maddie said.

  “What . . . ?” the man slurred.

  Emma stood right behind him, bat in hand. She couldn’t lift it. She just stared at her joyous friend, who practically glowed with excitement. Like she was a vampire feeding off her prey’s fear and confusion.

  “The drugs were Emma’s idea, so you couldn’t fight back. I kind of wanted you to fight back a little. But this is still . . .” Maddie shivered. “You’re about to fucking die, Jordan. We’re going to kill you and bury your body in the hole we dug today in the lake.”

  I can do this, Emma thought. I can do this . . .

  “No one is ever going to find you. Ever,” Maddie said with glee. “But we’ll know.”

  I can’t do this, Emma thought as part of her soul returned to her body, as tears filled her eyes. What the hell am I doing? I can’t do this.

  “You’re dying, and we’re killing you,” Maddie said, almost breathless in anticipation. “And there’s nothing you can do about it. Nothing. You’re powerless.”

  “Fuck you,” Jordan slurred.

  “Emma, do it now,” Maddie ordered, never taking her eyes off Jordan.

  I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this . . .

  “Now!”

  I can’t do this. I can’t . . .

  Maddie’s gaze whipped up toward Emma, determined, cold blue eyes connecting with the petrified green ones. Emma knew Maddie saw her terror, her reluctance, her weakness. A flash of disgust tinged those blue orbs, and in that moment Emma knew with absolute certainty that if she didn’t obey, she’d lose Maddie forever. Nothing was worse than that. Not hell, not prison, nothing.

  Emma swung the bat.

  A sickening crack not even the music could drown out filled the room as the bat connected with the back of Jordan’s head. He cried out in pain and doubled over on the couch.

  “Again!” Maddie shrieked.

  Emma swung again.

  Jordan coll
apsed onto the floor, clutching his bloody, broken head and babbling, “Why? Why?” between his cries of pain. The moment he fell, Maddie retrieved the knife Emma had hidden between the armrest and cushion. Panting like she’d just run a marathon, Maddie fell to her knees beside Jordan, knife in hand. “Why? Why?” he kept asking, pleading.

  Maddie stared down at him, eyes wild with bloodlust, with joy, with madness. “Because, why not?” She shrugged. “We can.”

  Maddie plunged the knife into his chest. Once, twice, Emma didn’t know because she had to turn away. Had to drop the bat and cover her ears to muffle his screams. They seemed to last forever, but only really for ten seconds. Somehow the silence was worse. It wasn’t until someone touched her arm that Emma opened her eyes and gasped. Maddie’s beautiful face was spattered with blood, her clothes soaked. But she didn’t seem to notice. She smiled bright enough to rival the sun before kissing Emma like a drowning woman. Emma let her, even tried to reciprocate the passion, but for once couldn’t.

  Maddie pulled away, smile still present. “I love you. I fucking love you forever and always. Thank you for doing this with me. I couldn’t have done it without you, Emma. I really couldn’t. Thank you. Thank you. I love you. I love you.”

  Emma almost believed her. She almost believed Maddie believed it. “I love you too.”

  Maddie held onto both sides of Emma’s face, hands still warm and wet from the blood. “I so want you right now, so fucking bad, but we need to keep with the plan. We’re so not done yet, right? You get the bleach, I’ll start wrapping him up.”

  “Okay.”

  After another long, lingering kiss, Maddie went to work. So calm. So collected. If they hadn’t planned every step out the week before, Emma would have just stood there as Maddie did everything. But Emma found herself opening a plastic trash bag and collecting everything used that night. The knife, the bloody clothes Maddie shed revealing her flawless body, the drug-laced glass, the wallet, cell phone, and car keys Maddie removed from Jordan’s pants. There wasn’t a detail they hadn’t discussed or overlooked that night. They covered the body in bleach before rolling him up in the plastic while wearing gloves. Everything, including their clothes and his wallet and cell phone, went into a trash bag Maddie tossed in a dumpster on her way to pick up Emma in the golf cart at Luther Glass Park after Emma had left his car at a nearby shopping center parking lot. Emma felt nothing, not even when she found a picture in the car of Jordan holding a little boy. She felt nothing.