Pitbulls in a Skirt

by Mikal Malone

  Derrick cocked his gun and cut the light on revealing how truly dirty and nasty the apartment really was.

  “I’ma ask you one time. If you don’t tell me what I wanna here, you gonna have four more holes in your face. Now where the fuck is Carissa?”

  “I’m telling you the truth! I don’t know where that bitch at,” Key said, clearly intimidated by Derrick’s presence.

  “So why the fuck are ya’ll all huddled up on the sofa like some fucking bitches looking guilty?”

  His comment caused me to look in that direction. When Carissa and I came to the apartment, they were all spread apart and now all five of them were huddled on the couch like they were in love. That’s when I saw my girl’s hand behind of one of the back pillows on the sofa. They were using their bodies to conceal the bump in the sofa, which was Carissa.

  “Derrick!” I screamed. “She’s behind the pillows on the sofa.”

  “What?” He moved toward them.

  “They’re hiding her under the pillows of that nasty ass couch!” I said as tears ran down my face.

  All of them immediately looked shook. Derrick moved toward the couch, and knocked one of them in the face with the gun. I knew right then they were some punks who were only willing to talk shit to women. But when a man approached them, they had their heart taken.

  Throwing the pillows on the floor, Derrick lifted her limp body. I noticed the blood flowing from her head and instantly filled with rage. They probably snatched her back on the way out the door and covered her mouth. In one motion, I cocked my gun and put two in Key’s head. His friends scattered trying desperately to avoid being next.

  I was about to pull the trigger again, but Derrick grabbed me and told me to come on. I didn’t care if war was about to be staged. They violated in a major way.

  “We can finish this later.” Derrick’s voice bought me back to reality as he cradled Carissa in his arms.

  We ran down the hallway and I didn’t take a breath until we were on the elevators, and I saw Carissa open her eyes.

  Chapter 17

  Finally

  January, Friday, 9:15 p.m.

  ZaKayla

  Zakayla was on cloud nine before she went to the doctor’s office.

  She had everything she wanted including the man who, over the past two years, she fought to have. He had given her everything she ever wanted.

  She wasn’t remorseful at all about how Thick treated Yvette. She believed all the stories he told her about how nasty she was and how she constantly cheated on him. In her mind, they would’ve broken up eventually. Zakayla truly believed that she was capable of treating him the way that he should’ve been treated, since Yvette clearly could not.

  All her happiness was squashed when the doctor entered the cold exam room and pissed on her dreams.

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Taylor, but you’re not pregnant. Take this chart and accurately record your cycle so you can tell when you’re ovulating. Don’t give up.”

  “Are you sure? Maybe you should check it again,” she begged looking the small chart over.

  “I’m positive, Ms. Taylor,” he smiled placing one hand on her shoulder. “But if you monitor your cycle more closely, your chances to conceive will be increased.”

  In her mind, lying to Thick about being pregnant was the only way she could’ve convinced him to leave Yvette, and it worked.

  “Girl, it’s negative again,” Zakayla told her friend Lacretia while driving home.

  “Well you know what you have to do, right?” she asked.

  “What?”

  “Just keep fucking him!” She laughed. “You’ll get pregnant girl.”

  “I know, I know. But he thinks I’m three months pregnant now. The further along he thinks I am, the harder it’s gonna be for me to pass another pregnancy off on this one. The times will be too messed up.”

  “I understand all that, but at least you’ll be pregnant. Thick ain’t thinking about when the baby is born, he just wants to have a baby. But I do wish you hadn’t told him it was a boy. Men are so stupid! A woman would’ve known that it was too early to tell.”

  “You’re right. But the damage is done. And I’m starting to think I can’t have kids,” she responded, as she pulled in the parking lot of her apartment complex.

  “You can have kids, girl. You’re healthy. Don’t even worry about that. Anyway, has he talked to his ex?”

  “No….but he said she’s been fucking up big time. He has her running one of his shops in D.C. But she ain’t been coming to work lately. Ever since he dumped her for me, she’s been falling apart.”

  “His ex-girlfriend sells drugs for him?” Lacretia yelled through the phone.

  “Yes, girl. I told you she was a dumb bitch. I wish Thick would ask me to do some bullshit like that. I would cut his ass off so quick he wouldn’t know what happened.”

  “Well maybe he was using her all along. Like you said, she didn’t even clean her own apartment.” Lacretia laughed. “I’m surprised he stayed that long.”

  “Right, girl!”

  Deep in her heart, she knew Thick still cared about her and him leaving her was a chance she was willing to take. Unlike Yvette, she didn’t tell him she wasn’t ready to have a baby. She paid close attention to everything he said, and made sure she was everything that Yvette wasn’t.

  “Well let me go. Thick wants me to cook this big ass meal for him tonight. Girl, my man is so fucking greedy.” She laughed. “Good thing that nigga is paid, otherwise he’d eat us outta house and home.”

  “Well call me back later.”

  “Okay. I will.”

  When she ended the call, she grabbed her purse and parked the 2008 Silver Navigator Thick had purchased for her. He said it was a gift for being pregnant with his first baby. When she stepped out of the truck, she dropped her keys on the ground and bent down to pick them up.

  She had her back turned when she was grabbed by her hair and dragged along the ground toward the woods near the complex. Zakayla fought desperately, kicking and screaming the entire way.

  “Shut the fuck up, bitch, before I slice your throat,” one of them yelled.

  She did what they said, hoping it was just a robbery.

  “Take everything,” she cried. “You can take my truck, my purse and everything.”

  “Don’t worry. We will be taking exactly what we came for.”

  She was able to see that there were three of them, but their faces were covered with black ski masks. Repeatedly they kicked her in her face and stomach. The pain took over Zakayla’s entire body as she begged them to stop. Judging by how hard they were kicking her, she could tell that they wanted her dead.

  When she thought it couldn’t get any worse, one of them slid off her rings, including the engagement ring that Thick had just purchased for her. She slid back and forth in and out of consciousness.

  “This is what happens when you fuck with a man that don’t belong to you!” She heard a female voice say. Although she was face down in the dirt, with the grass partially covering her face, and blood dripping in her eyes, she could tell by the curves in their bodies that they were all women.

  When she saw two of them running toward the light, a few feet over from where they took her, she thought she might survive. That’s when the third person hit her in the head with a bat, she was knocked unconscious.

  When Zakayla came to, she was in a hospital room with flowers and cards surrounding her. When she tried to lift her head, she couldn’t move it. Moving her eyes down as far as she could, she saw the tissue from the bandages on her face.

  She looked as far as she could to the left, and saw Thick talking to Cameron, Dyson and Lavelle. She smiled a little seeing that her man was right at her side.

  When Thick saw her eyes open, they all ran to her side.

  He held one of the only parts of her body not covered in a cast. “You need anything?”

  “Some ice,” she said, barely above a whisper. “What happened? What’s wro
ng with me?”

  “I’ll let the doctor tell you, baby,” he said as he moved toward the door.

  When the doctor entered the room, he asked them could he be alone with her for a little while. When everybody was gone, he addressed Zakayla.

  Terror consumed her. “What’s wrong with me?” She knew that something definitely happened because of her being jumped.

  “Zakayla,” the doctor started, his tone even and comforting. “I’m Doctor Polanski and you’re at Howard County General Hospital Center. It’s remarkable that you survived.” He smiled. “But you’ve suffered an extensive amount of damage to your spine. And there’s a real possibility that you’ll never be able to walk again.”

  “No. No,” she said as tears fell, soaking the bandages on her face.

  The look on the doctor’s face made matters worse. She could tell that he was far from finished telling her about everything she needed to know.

  “What else?” she asked, unsure if she would be able to take it.

  “Well, Ms. Taylor, we’ve brought in the best reconstructive surgeons around.”

  “For what!” she cried. Her voice faded away as soon as it left her body.

  “For your face, Ms. Taylor. For your face. It appears that whoever has done this to you took a blade and sliced your face over fifty times.”

  Zakayla felt weak, as the doctor appeared to be moving further and further away from her. She felt like she was moving into darkness, and decided to let it consume her.

  The more she tried to talk, the more it appeared to be in vain.

  Within minutes, she was unconscious.

  Chapter 18

  I’m Trying

  January, Saturday, 12:18 p.m.

  Yvette

  Today was the first day I felt like going on.

  I never realized how much Thick meant to me until he was gone. I unplugged my phone weeks ago because I couldn’t bear to see the calls from everyone but him. If he wasn’t calling me, I didn’t feel like talking.

  The first thing I did was move everything out of my apartment, and into the basement. The only thing I had left, was my mattress and TVs. I didn’t want anything in my place that reminded me of Thick or the life I had with him. I decided that today I was going to get in my car, buy me some new furniture, and start all over. And because I hadn’t eaten much in weeks, I’d lost a lot of weight. So I’d have to buy some new clothes. I didn’t realize how much weight I lost until I tried to slide in a pair of old jeans and they fell off.

  When I plugged in my phone, I was afraid to check my messages. I’d been ignoring calls from everybody since Thick dumped me. People got tired of me ignoring my calls and started knocking on my door but I didn’t open it. All I wanted to do was be alone.

  For the first week, I did nothing but cry. And when I couldn’t cry anymore, I thought about killing myself. The third week, I thought about killing him, but put that idea out of my mind because I loved him too much. I wanted to talk to my friends but I put that out of my mind too. I was too embarrassed because I knew they knew how long I played his fool.

  I decided to check my voicemails. And just as I thought, my mailbox was full. The first message I heard was from Cameron, then Lavelle and then Dyson. I erased them all. I’m sure they were wondering why I wasn’t taking care of my responsibilities with Emerald City, but I knew they understood too. And because I wasn’t sure how I was gonna handle things yet, I didn’t want to listen to their messages. The next voice I heard made me sad all over again, but I listened anyway.

  “What’s up, Yvette, it’s Thick. Now I know we got problems, ma, but this ain’t got shit to do with our business with Emerald City. I need you to be strong and handle this shit like I know you can. I still love you. One.”

  “He still loves me? Yeah right! Fuck him. I ain’t doing shit else for him. He lost his flunky! If I do decide to go back on the block, it’ll be for my girls and not him,” I said as I erased the next few messages from my mom and my friends. I was good until I heard the last one of Mercedes crying.

  “Yvette….please pick up! It’s Mercedes! Girl, I had to do something tonight. They tried to kill Carissa. I’m at the hospital with Derrick and her now. She’s gonna be okay. But I’m so scared. We miss you out here, girl. Please pull through! I love you.”

  What the fuck? Here I was wallowing in my own self-pity and my girl ended up in the hospital. I jumped in the shower, only because I had to. After spending three weeks in the house alone, I wouldn’t have been any good to anybody smelling the way I did. I threw on some brand new cotton men’s Gap sweatpants, a sweatshirt, and my Timberlands. Then I grabbed my .38 and my black North face coat. I was on my way out the door, when I saw all three of my friends getting off the elevator. It had only been three weeks since I’d seen them but it felt like ages. The moment they saw me, tears filled their eyes and mine too. We embraced each other before we walked into my bare apartment.

  “Damn, girl,” Kenyetta said. “You got rid of all your shit!”

  “It looks like a brand new apartment in here. All we gotta do now is paint,” Mercedes said.”

  I didn’t say anything. I just stared at the scar on Carissa’s pretty face. I felt like shit for letting my girl down. She must’ve seen the hurt in my eyes.

  “It’s not your fault. It could’ve happened to any one of us,” Carissa said. Even after she’d gone through something so traumatic, she was still trying to console me. I knew we were tougher than a lot of dudes and Carissa just proved it.

  “Yeah but it didn’t happen to one of us. It happened to you. I’m so sorry, Rissa,” I said as I hugged her tight.

  I removed my coat and tossed it on the floor.

  “Damn, girl! I thought I was lunching when I first saw your little pea head, but now I’m sure. You did lose a rack of weight,” Carissa said.

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Mercedes said giving me the once over.

  “So how much weight have you lost anyway? You look good!” Kenyetta asked.

  “She does!” Mercedes added. “She trying to hide that banging ass body in that big ass coat.”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t weighed myself, but I’m sure about twenty-five pounds.”

  “Yeah. I bet Thick would be all on that now,” Kenyetta added.

  When she said that the laughter stopped. Just the mentioning of his name fucked the entire mood up and made my heart skip two beats. I realized even more how much I missed him and still loved him. I guess it was too early, even after three weeks, to be fully over somebody.

  “I’m sorry, girl. I hit a bob before coming up here so I’m still saying stupid shit,” Kenyetta apologized.

  “Don’t worry ‘bout it,” I said. “I’ll get over his fat ass sooner or later.”

  “Well….we got a treat for you,” Mercedes said as they looked at one another and smiled devilishly.

  “Well are ya’ll gonna stand there looking stupid and shit or are you gonna tell me what’s up?”

  Just then, Mercedes walked up to me and told me to hold out my hand. When I did it, she placed three diamond rings in my hand, one of which was an engagement ring. At first I didn’t know what I was looking at; but when I focused on the size of the rock in the engagement ring, I knew I’d seen it twice. Once at Tiffany’s, and again when I was begging my man not to walk out my life. So I knew exactly who they belonged to I just wondered how they got ‘em.

  “How the fuck did ya’ll get these?” I laughed observing them closely.

  “Let’s just say his pretty little girlfriend ain’t pretty no more,” Mercedes said.

  “Yeah…..a few days after that thing happened to Carissa, we blamed that bitch for it. We figured if Thick was in the picture, you wouldn’t be all messed up and shit, and would be on your job. So we took our frustrations out on her. I think Dyson and them know we had something to do with it, but we been denying it.” Kenyetta laughed.

  “So what ya’ll robbed her or something?” I asked.

 
; “Fuck no! What we look like robbing her ass? Her money can’t fuck with ours! We sliced her fucking face up and took her rings as proof,” Mercedes laughed.

  “Is she alive?”

  “Yep. But she paralyzed. And she will never look the same. That’s for sure,” Kenyetta added.

  “Damn, ya’ll some fucking pitbulls!”

  We laughed.

  Mercedes said, “But you ain’t heard the worst part.”

  “I didn’t?”

  “Naw…The bitch lied about being pregnant. She probably ruined your relationship over telling Thick some bullshit and she wasn’t even pregnant.” Mercedes laughed.

  That hurt. I was happy that my friends handled business for me, because I would’ve done it for them. But knowing that my world was ruined on the strength of a lie, tore me apart inside.

  My curiosity was peaked. “How do you know she lied about being pregnant?”

  “Well….when Thick asked the doctor if his baby was gonna be okay, he looked at him like he was fucking crazy. So he found out right then that, that bitch was a fucking liar.”

  “So what he do?”

  “Dropped a few Gs for her hospital bill and left her ass stranded. He pissed ‘bout that shit,” Carissa added. “You know how bad he wants a kid.”

  “Yeah…that’s why he loves Lil C so much!” Mercedes added.

  I knew I shouldn’t be, but I was happy that his world ended in a matter of seconds, like mine did. For some reason that news gave me the strength I needed to resume my position in Emerald City. As far as I was concerned, he got exactly what he deserved.

  “Well what’s going on with Emerald City?” I asked.

  They were real quiet before answering. I could tell by the looks in their eyes, that they needed me back just as much as I needed them.

  “Shit ain’t been the same. I had to kill Key because him and his brothers were getting ready to rape Carissa. If it hadn’t been for Derrick coming back, I don’t know what would’ve happened,” Mercedes said.