by Amarie Avant
“Hey, Liam,” Gabby’s sweet voice purred through the receiver.
“Hey. What do you got for me?” Liam’s heart began to pound, ready for Gabby to explain the paternity news for Raven Shaw and Alvin Jenkins.
“This new girl you’re messing with, is it serious? I should make you come over for the results,” Gabby said with a naughty chuckle. The Liam she knew while attending Brinton Academy was a big flirt. He was only serious when it came to his education; the rest of the time he was fun and games, like her.
“Come on, Gabby, get back on subject.”
“Man, when you called me, I was hoping it was to meet over the summer break for a weekend or something. How serious are you about this chick?”
“Very serious.”
“Okay. My auntie would have preferred inner cheek swab samples. Man, I had to go through a lot of stuff just to get her to do me a favor, so you owe me…” When he didn’t reply to her last attempt at seduction, Gabby continued, “Alvin Jenkins is not Raven’s father, not by a long shot,” Gabby said, and then she whimpered, “You’re not as fun, now.”
“Thanks, princess,” Liam got off the phone, going back into the living room. He wanted one more taco before heading into his room.
“What did Gabby say?” Shawn asked, aware of the paternity ordeal.
“And who you calling princess? I thought I was princess?” There was that clingy Jessica again.
“You are all princesses, just not my princess.” Liam said, and gave his full attention to Shawn. “Raven is not related to Alvin.”
He went to his bedroom, needing to think before telling Raven the bad news.
CHAPTER 15
That little bugger is not ruining my day, Raven mentally chanted her mantra. All day she’d had a smile on her face, could still hear Liam declare his love, but the minion, Joshua, stood face to face with her. Damned her short stature, her height had to be the reason he tested her so much.
“You are singing this song, Josh,” she said, pointing a loaded index finger at him. Again, she felt like jabbing one of those ever rolling eyeballs of his.
They were in the middle of the sanctuary. Ten other kids with questioning gazes zipped back and forth, no doubt waiting for his retort. Joshua’s response left Raven in shock.
He sang.
For a boy who often lip-synced, and had the habit of proving a point while doing so, Joshua had a raw talent. Raven looked up at him from the bottom of the stage in shock.
“He’s got talent,” someone said from over her left shoulder.
Raven’s gander unlatched itself from Joshua and she looked at William. Today, he had on a long sleeve shirt, and barely scratched at the alligator scales while watching Joshua.
“Yeah, he does. What are you doing here?”
The song ended. And with that, it seemed like Bill’s stances took a nosedive. He began to stutter, hardly able to tell her that his foster mom lived around the corner from Gertrude, and asked him to walk Joshua to and from the meet today.
She joked, “Oh cool. On the way to class, did you scare Josh into acting like a law-abiding citizen?”
Bill gave an awkward laugh as Joshua descended the few steps of the stage.
“Never,” Joshua scoffed. Then his tone lightened once more. “I have decided to live.”
Raven’s eyebrow rose, and then she recalled telling him that if he didn’t live first, there’d be no way for him to learn to love. For a nuisance, he was a genius. She smiled brightly at him.
~~~
After the choir rehearsal meeting, Raven stopped by Monica’s. Her friend had texted earlier today, and Raven didn’t want to come off as the clingy girlfriend, though all day she’d thought about how Liam had made love to her.
The living room stunk like pee, but Raven was getting used to it. She had to keep shifting on the black futon with the mattress sagging between the rails.
With a Steve Wilkos episode on in the background, Monica talked about prom. That’s all she ever talked about these days. Every few minutes she had to go take care of her busy little brothers and sisters. One of the children was tugging on the blinds. Another one sat on the vinyl kitchen floor, digging dirty little fingers into a store-brand box of cereal.
When Monica was cleaning the cereal off the floor, a toddler that Raven hadn’t seen before and was old enough to be potty trained, ran around the living room naked. The toddler waved a clean diaper in the air as he zipped past the television. Raven scooped him up and in a sugary voice said, “Let me help you into a new diaper. Okay?”
A few minutes later, Raven was satisfied with her work. Being the choir director of the town’s children’s church, she sometimes ended up having to babysit the choir member’s little brothers or sisters while their parents were at work. “There,” Raven said to the toddler. He ran toward the back of the apartment. The sound of cartoons blared as the toddler opened a door, then silence–not counting the kid wailing on the kitchen floor and Monica cursing as she shuffled around–came as the door slammed shut.
Raven turned back to the Steve Wilkos talk show. The results for the husband’s lie detector test were being read. His wife stomped off the stage. Humiliated, crying. Raven empathized with the woman. Glad that her notion of Grandpa cheating on Granny was wrong. Though, the real reason for their fight was worse.
Buzz…Buzz… came the vibration of Monica’s cell phone on the edge of the futon. It rattled on the railing, landing on the floor. Raven picked it up, ready to put it on the coffee table, but to her shock, she saw a string of text messages from Chris! Her ex-Chris! The last one was from him replying to Monica. As an uneasy feeling set in at the pit of her stomach, Raven slowly scrolled to the top and read the texts in order. With every word she scanned, Raven became angrier. Willing herself to stop didn’t work. Monica knew all about that night he tried to rape her.
She replied, “You should have just come over here (wink). That religious freak is waiting till she gets married, ugh.”
When Raven read a message about “the punk” beating up Chris, she almost smiled. It was the same date Raven noticed Chris in science class with the shiner. Liam had been the culprit.
Then Chris had texted last night, “We got ’em (smiley face).”
What did that mean? And who was we? Did Chris hurt Liam? Still in a trance, she read Monica’s reply, just this morning. “Meet up late tonight, your place. Hanging wit ReRe after school. And did I tell you she’s on birth control?”
The blood in her veins stung. Heart hammering, Raven stood up. How many times had she told Liam that Monica was her friend? This whole time! Raven closed her eyes and prayed silently. Jesus, I’m ready to take this girl out. Help me, please.
In the kitchen, Monica poured noodles into seven plastic bowls. “ReRe, I’ll just be a minute, and we can talk about…” Monica turned around. The smile on her lips faded when she registered the look on Raven’s face.
“You got a message from Chris?” Raven spoke coolly, holding up her cell phone.
“Chris, wh-why would he text me?”
Raven threw the cell phone. It bounced off Monica’s forehead. In a steely voice, Raven said, “Monica, I would love to bash that lying face of yours in, but all these kids don’t need to see their big sister get punched out.” Raven looked down at the hungry child who was still sitting on the dirty, sticky vinyl–still picking up pieces of spilt cereal. You just saved your sister… “Just remember to keep your ass across the street if you see me come around.”
What really irritated her was that Monica looked more scared than sorry. Yeah, that’s right. You’ve seen me whoop some ass, I’m holding myself back from you! Raven was afraid that if she hit Monica, she might not be able to stop. They’d been friends for four years. Told each other secrets–or maybe I just told you mine… Raven looked up at her, wagged her finger in Monica’s face, “You ain’t shit!”
“Whatever, goody two shoes,” Monica said as Raven turned to leave.
Raven’s h
air flung, she whipped around so fast. Monica flinched and closed her eyes. “Don’t’ worry. I won’t hit you. I feel sorry for you. You don’t value yourself. You go after everybody else’s boyfriend at school, and finally, I see it! Silly me.” Laughing for a moment at her own stupidity, she continued, “I’m glad I see you for the weak, insecure girl that you are.”
Monica blinked repeatedly.
With hands on her hips and top lip curled in disgust, Raven said, “Taking my sloppy seconds. Chris is going nowhere! And so are you!”
Turning around on her heels, Raven decided not to continue with the slut-shaming. Feeling lighter, she walked toward the front door. Contrary to what Grandpa Otis taught about never turning your back on an enemy, Raven was not afraid to turn her back on Monica. Her enemy. She wished the girl would try something…
“At least I have a momma!”
“Mother is just a name.” Raven turned back around, shaking her head. “If you want to get technical… I have a momma–Annette is all the mom I need. That woman you call a momma is only around when she’s pregnant!” Raven stressed every word. She turned the sticky knob and was met by warm sunlight.
On the short walk home, Raven called Liam, concerned about Chris’s recent retaliation. During first period this morning, Raven noticed Chris had the same black eye from last week. In fact, he’d had a couple of other bruises. Today he hadn’t been embarrassed like before. Today he got back that swagger he always had before. Had Chris and his friends jumped Liam?
Before reaching her street corner, Raven stopped at the bus stop en route to Brinton.
~~~
A little over an hour later, Raven hurried down the hall of the dorm rooms. Doing a double-take, she stopped at the door that had to be Liam and Shawn’s room. Music vibrated against the door like there was a party going on. Banging on the door, it was opened moments later by a girl with an extremely short mini.
“You must be Princess?” the girl said with a smile, letting Raven inside. She skipped back to the couch, not sitting ladylike at all.
Raven walked in and looked around at the living area, with paper plates and bottles of soda cluttered the glass table top in the dining area.
“Hey, Raven! He’s in his room,” Shawn didn’t take his eyes off the television, which was on a raunchy comedy movie where bikini-clad chicks were hosting a cliché carwash.
“Hi, Shawn.” Raven walked past the scene.
Peeking inside Liam’s bedroom door, she saw him lying back on a full-sized bed, bobbing his head to the sound of the music blaring from his earphones. Having never been in his room, Raven had a look around.
A laptop open on his desk had a screen saver of pictures of them at the beach. They had gone to Cape Hatteras at the beginning of April, when the lighthouse opened for the season. There was one candid photo of water glinting off Liam’s golden body as he got out of the water. He was looking off in the distance, oblivious of his appeal, which always made her breathless. It clicked to a picture of them on the tour at the top of the lighthouse.
As the screen saver changed scenes to a picture that Uncle Oscar had taken of them as kids at Rover Valley, Raven grinned. “Aww!” She had on dirty overalls, eyebrows bushy, hair in two French braids. Liam’s cheeks were so puffy. Hell, his whole body was so fat. When the picture faded away and another one of a face shot of herself came up, Raven’s eyes roved in the direction of a blow-up poster of a model on the wall. The model’s string bikini barely covered her nipples. Gosh!
“Hey, babe!” Liam said. “You like?”
She turned around quickly, hoping he hadn’t noticed her staring so long. Raven’s breath caught as she noticed a slight bruise on his cheek. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I’m all right.” Liam gave her a reassuring bear hug. When he let go, Raven lightly traced her fingertips over the mark with a frown on her face. He didn’t flinch.
When they were kids, she’d fought his battles. Now Liam had fought for her. Her heart swelled with a love so powerful she had to stop herself from jumping on him and smothering him with kisses. He was giving her that look… Raven feared that she might forget what she wanted to know, once they got started.
Kicking off her flip-flops, Raven closed the door and took a seat Indian-style on his bed. “No sex until you tell me what happened, starting with when you beat up Chris.”
Liam told her about how he stopped by Chris’s house and punched Chris, and the trio’s recent retaliation as her mouth opened wide in shock.
“Let me get this straight. You knocked on Chris’s door and beat him up in front of his mom?” Laughing, she imagined it.
“That’s all you got from the story I just told you? I didn’t know the boy’s momma was going to answer the door. She was cooking and walked away before he came out.” Liam laughed, too. “I see how that can be perceived. How’d you know?”
Raven huffed and lay back on his pillow, putting her hands behind her head. She had no intention of looking into his I-told-you-so hazel eyes. She rubbed her face with both hands and groaned, “I’m sooooo sorry.” Peeking at him, she added, “Monica set you up. Last night when she called me, she wanted to know when you were leaving. Today, I saw text messages on her phone. They’ve been texting each other for…a while.” She wouldn’t mention that “a while” meant her horrible night on the back of Chris’s pickup. A night she wished nobody knew of, not even Liam.
“You fucked her up, didn’t you?” The left side of his lip curved into a smile. He started tickling her ribs.
“No.” Raven pushed his hands away. “I let Monica know how I felt. Then I left.”
“What! You just left?” The grin turned into a frown. “Re, you used to beat down girls just for opening their mouth.” He used his index finger and tried to match her tone as he joked.
Raven slapped his hand down and laughed. “I didn’t sound like that!”
“If you say so. Not that I ever consented to your actions, but this is the first situation where beating the shit out of someone was warranted. What happened to that Raven, the one who used to hog tie a person when we were young?”
Raven thought about the last physical fight she’d gotten into because some chick had to talk dirty about a mother she didn’t know. There were bits and pieces of the fight in her memory. Not because the fight was years ago, but because it was as if she’d blacked out. And then the night Chris took her to “lovers lane.” The line between knowing her limitations had started to skew.
The old Creole’s voice slithered into her psyche. “I don't believe you've had the taste of taking someone’s life, Madame Raven Shaw–”
“I…” Raven tried to get the old Creole woman’s voice from her mind. “I didn’t want to attend the prom tomorrow night looking like a hot mess. Besides, we both can’t be in the picture trying to turn to our good side,” Raven joked, caressing his cheek.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is my good side, scars and all,” Liam joked, not noticing the worry just beneath the surface.
CHAPTER 16
The gymnasium at Bellwood High School was decorated with blue gossamer which hung from the high ceilings, down the walls with blue up-lighting behind it, casting a streaming river effect. The DJ, in a black tuxedo and top hat cocked to the side of his head, worked the turntables.
Raven stepped inside wearing a magenta halter dress and crystal-encrusted high heels. She looked around at friends and classmates, hoping she didn’t have to see her enemy. Swarovski crystal earrings and necklace sparkled each time the DJ’s floor lighting turned her direction. Liam stood next to her at the entrance as she handed their prom tickets to the faculty, looking his best in a tailor-made tuxedo, with a black embroidered pattern silk vest. All black except for a silk magenta handkerchief.
“Too bad I don’t have my cane,” Liam said as they posed. Raven had been moping all morning since Otis wouldn’t be there. He’d come to her house wearing a black Fedora, moving with an exaggerated limp, hold
ing a cane with a chrome-plated handle. Raven laughed at him for the second time. She knew his joshing was due to the fact that Grandpa Otis didn’t get to see her off to the prom.
They walked away from the picture booth and danced a few songs. Then Liam went to the overflowing punch bowl as Raven sat at a table with William, Trisha, and Samantha and their dates. Bill–who didn’t have a date–practically drooled over Raven. Even though he had one hand under his suit, scratching at his scaly arms, she couldn’t help but smile when he told her how beautiful she looked. He had that dreamy look of a boy in love. All he needed was a tube of lip balm and Vaseline. He would have been a rich dark brown if it weren’t for the nervous scratching. She was about to ask him if he wanted to dance, when she heard Chris.
“Hey, boo.” Chris slid into the empty seat next to her.
“I’m not your boo,” Raven replied sharply, turning her head back to William. She tried to continue her conversation.
“Can’t you get over it? I didn’t mean nothing by that night. You just looked too damn fine.”
“Go away!” Raven inched closer to William as Chris scooted closer to her.
“Raven, is everything okay?” William adjusted his bifocals, glaring at Chris.
“What you going to do, Alligator Boy?” Chris stared William down, and the nerd flinched. “I thought so!” He turned back to Raven, grabbing her by the arm. “Dance with me.”
“I said no!” Raven tried to pry his fingers from around her arm. She looked around. Liam was still in line getting drinks. All the teachers huddled in a corner, chatting. So much for chaperones.
“C’mon, ReRe, give me another chance.” Chris tugged on Raven’s arm until they both stood up.
“I think you better stop!” William pointed his finger at Chris. Standing up, he tried to plant himself in between Chris and Raven. Either due to irritation or nerves, William continued to scratch under his left sleeve, but focused on his enemy. It didn’t stop him from being shoved by Chris, and William fell into Liam, who helped him stand.