by Bell, Kris
“Before what?” Chloe interrupted. Her face was mere inches away from Isabel, but my girl didn’t back down. In fact, she smiled at Chloe who was getting increasingly irritated. I guess she wasn’t too happy to hear about Isabel’s new status as my lady. Oh well!
My phone had reached its five minute recording limit. I quickly reset the camera and continued filming.
Isabel turned to me with a sweet smile on her face. “Honey, will you please call the police and tell them there are vandals here who need to be taken off the premises?” “Sure thing, baby girl. Anything you ask.” I kept recording.
Apparently, that was all Chloe needed to hear to be pushed over the edge. She slapped Isabel hard across her face almost knocked her down.
Everything in me wanted to run to Chloe and pop her upside her head, but I stayed put, which was difficult. My hand gripped my phone so tight my knuckles turned white. I willed Isabel to get up and prayed that slap didn't hurt her.
“You think he loves you?” Chloe yelled at Isabel. Her tall frame towered over my girl as she struggled to regain her footing. Tara was right at her side waiting to pounce. “You’re so delusional. Do you not know me? I’m Chloe-fucking-Childs and no bitch can take my place!"
Isabel straightened up and faced my evil ex. The look on her face was murderous and when she spoke, it was through clenched teeth.
“I’m not delusional at all and you have no place to take.”
Without another word, Isabel punched Chloe in the face.
“Goddamn!” Rhys yelled.
Tiffany hurried towards Isabel and grabbed at her hair, catching her ponytail. That was enough for Tara. She slammed her shoulder into Tiffany’s side and pushed her off of Isabel. Both women fell to the floor. Tiffany was flat on her back slapping Tara and snatching her hair. Tara balled her fists and went straight for Tiffany’s face and chest, punching wherever she could.
While Tara and Rhys’ wife fought on the ground, Chloe had rebounded from Isabel’s punch and repeatedly slammed her into a wall where Tiffany and Rhys had once set a small decorative table adorned with a vase. Both toppled over as Isabel’s back made contact with them.
With Isabel planted against the wall and Chloe trying to wrap her hands around her throat, I was beginning to doubt Isabel's fighting abilities. But then she shocked the hell out of me and Rhys.
All at once, Isabel weakened her knees and fell straight to the ground. Since Chloe had been pushing up against her, she was taken by surprise and fell face first into the wall. Isabel then sprang up and pushed Chloe back, causing her to fall over the still tussling Tara and Tiffany. Isabel stalked over to her, ignoring her friend beating the shit out of Tiffany.
For the first time, reality set into Chloe as she tried to scoot away from the approaching Isabel. When Isabel reached Chloe, she punched her again. I heard a sharp crunch as Chloe’s nose broke and spewed blood all over her mouth and chin. They kept on fighting.
“Holy shit!” I muttered as I watched all four women going at it. I put away my phone and told Rhys to do the same. No one should have a recording of an ass whooping this bad to haunt them. Besides, we already had what we needed.
“Should we break them up?” Rhys asked.
I opened my mouth to respond, but sirens blaring outside interrupted me. Rhys and I ran to the window and sure enough, there were two cop cars parked outside. One of the neighbors must have heard the noise and called them.
I yelled to Isabel and Tara to stop. Right away, Isabel ceased and moved away from Chloe, who was no longer fighting. She lay on the floor panting heavily, glaring at Isabel with eyes full of contempt and fear.
Rhys and I managed to pull Tara and Tiffany apart before the cops came up the stairs into the apartment. Isabel had moved to the other side of the room and Chloe sat on the floor gingerly fingering her bloody nose.
A burly black cop made his way into the apartment, his experienced eyes scanning the room. “Alright, what’s going on here? Someone called 911 for a disturbance?"
"It looks like World War III in here,” another officer said as he took it the sight of a destroyed apartment and the four women who had obviously been fighting. His partner, a white guy with a thick moustache, looked too shocked to even say anything.
I walked up to the officers with Rhys right behind me.
“Officer, my friend here,” I began to explain, pointing to Rhys, “got a message from his estranged wife that she and another woman were trashing his home. When we arrived, these two women were still ransacking the place. My girlfriend, Isabel, told them to leave when the bloodied one on the floor slapped her. My lady defended herself against her attack, and that's when my friend's wife jumped in.”
“So I see,” Officer Moustache replied.
“Richie! What the hell?” Chloe yelled as she tried to stand up, but her legs were as shaky as a newborn deer. She managed to limp towards me and the officers. She pointed to Isabel and put on her woe-is-me face for the cops. “That fat bitch of a woman came in here and attacked us! This is my friend Tiffany’s apartment. She’s married to that loser over there. She has every right to destroy what’s hers.”
Tara spoke up. “My god, you are a piece of work! Officers, Rhys had put her out of the house over a month ago. Tiffany doesn’t live here anymore.”
The burly officer spoke to Rhys. “Is that true?”
Rhys nodded. “Yes! And for the record, my wife and Chloe started the fight. My friend and I were recording the property damage on our phones when they came out of the back room and started arguing with my friends. We caught everything.”
* * * *
It took about an hour for the cops to take our statements and to leave Rhys' home. More cops had to be called to help subdue Tiffany. When she realized Rhys was going to press charges against her and Chloe, she flew into the biggest begging rant I had ever seen.
“Rhys, please! I’m sorry! It was all Chloe’s idea! I never meant to hurt you! I’m sorry! Please don’t leave me like this! Don't let it end like this!”
She was on her knees, crying like two-year-old throwing a tantrum. When one of the cops tried to handcuff her, she elbowed his head and tried to run away. She didn't get far. As the other officers attempted to stop, she flailed her arms and kicked like a mad woman, screaming for Rhys to forgive her. My last glimpse of Tiffany was of her hogtied in the back of the squad car.
A part of me wanted to laugh at the sight of her there, but I pitied her more. She realized too late that she had spent a whole year being manipulated by another woman and, as a result, had lost everything. I may not have cared a great deal for my best friend’s wife, but I never expected to see her fall this far from grace.
Chloe wasn’t any better. When reality hit her and she realized I wasn’t going to help her get out of the mess she had put herself in, she called me every name in the book and tried to strike me. Her prideful nature wouldn’t let her beg me for forgiveness like Tiffany. She got exactly what she deserved: for someone to put her in her place.
Isabel had unleashed a year’s worth of frustration on Chloe, which resulted in a broken nose, busted lip and a slew of bruises. I’ll give Chloe credit, though; she fought like a champ, but in the end, Isabel was determined to leave a lasting impression on her. No longer would Chloe think she was a weakling, a “fat nobody.” Isabel made sure Chloe would remember exactly how she got her ass kicked should she try to mess with any of us again. The arrest was just an extra slap in the face.
After the last cop departed, I found my three friends on floor in Rhys’ home office, the only place the girls didn’t tear up. Tara sat next to Rhys and massaged his shoulders. She had been the one in a fight, and had a torn tank top and split lip to show for it. But she understood that Rhys was heavy with emotion. He had just seen his wife get beat up and arrested after all.
I sat next to Isabel, our backs against a wall, and held up an ice pack. She took it and held it up to her bruised face where Chloe had left a mark resembling a handpr
int.
“Thank you guys for coming over here with me,” Rhys said after a moment of silence. “I don’t know what I would have done if I had come home by myself.”
“Yeah. You probably would have been the one riding down to the police station hogtied,” I replied.
My boy gave a weary grin and laughed softly. “And where did the catfight come from?” he asked Tara and Isabel. “I mean, y’all were going to town on those women.”
“Yeah, we were, won’t we?” Tara said proudly.
“Well, Rhys, they had it coming. Tara and I weren’t going to sit by and let Tiffany walk all over you like that. You’re too good a man to put up with a woman who doesn’t respect you. As for Chloe, she definitely earned what she got. She has all of us into the ground for months. She needed to be taught a lesson.”
I grinned at my girl. “Oh yeah! What lesson was that?”
Isabel looked at me with a smile of her own. Even with a bruised cheek and tousled hair, I thought she was a breath of fresh air. My woman.
“The lesson was simple: Don’t mess with me and don’t play with my family.”
We all shared a laugh. But it soon died down, and we were again enveloped by silence.
Tara was the one who broke it. She had stopped massaging Rhys’ shoulders and sat with her arm around his waist and her head on his shoulder. I watched as Rhys hugged her back.
“So, what now?” she asked.
I looked at my boy, my best friend, and realized he would be fine. Judging from Tara’s sudden closeness to him, I knew she would give him the comfort and support he craved without question.
Then I looked at Isabel. I remembered how she had caught my attention at that party Rhys threw all those months ago. I remembered how she smiled and laughed with the other people at the gathering. I never knew a person as spunky and unassuming as her would be the very thing I needed in my life. I was blessed to call her my friend, and hopefully, someday, I would be blessed enough to call her my wife.
“We move on to bigger and better things, Tara.” I answered. I grabbed Isabel’s hand and smiled broadly at her before turning back to my other friends. “Bigger and better things.”