Fast Life

by Cassandra Carter

  “Wow, Kyra. You worked magic on me…I look completely different!”

  “So I take it you like it?” Kyra smiled at her success.

  “Of course I like it! It’s too cute.”

  “Hey, you two, I’m about to head out. Kyra, make sure you lock up,” her mother said from the doorway. “Oh, don’t you look nice, Angel.” She admired the new style of her daughter’s friend for a moment and was gone before she could hear any reply.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Jones.”

  “Bye, you guys!” she yelled from the front door.

  “Bye!” the girls shouted back together as they listened for the click of the closing door.

  “So are you ready to go now?” Angel turned to her stylist, eager to reach the party.

  “Yeah, let’s be out.”

  Xscape was packed. Bodies filled the building from the windows to the walls. The room was scorching hot. It was like walking into a human oven. The music was loud and pumping through the crowd, which swarmed the dance floor and moved with the beat.

  “Oh, look. I think that’s them over there,” Angel said, pointing across the crowd to a group of young men sitting at a table not too far from the bar. It was so dark and so hazy with smoke they could barely see.

  The girls squeezed their way across the crowded dance floor, catching the attention of other young men.

  “Hey, what’s up, everybody?” Kyra excitedly greeted the crew.

  “Hey!” Justin stood to embrace her. He was unsure she would come, but was happy she’d made it.

  “Happy birthday!”

  “Thank you.”

  “Happy birthday, Justin,” Angel added meekly.

  “Angel?” He turned to the unfamiliar girl next to Kyra.

  “Yup. It’s me.” She waved shyly.

  “Q! Your girl’s here.” Justin nudged his brother, who was engaged in a leisurely conversation with Michael. Quentin hadn’t been paying any mind to the party, but when he looked up, his jaw dropped. He jumped up and in less than a second was all over his girlfriend.

  “I’m sorry, baby. I wasn’t even paying attention.” He gently took her hand in his.

  “It’s okay.”

  “Damn, you look so good.” He stepped back and looked her body over from head to toe.

  “Kyra made me over.”

  “Well, thank you, Kyra.” Quentin made sure to emphasize every word.

  “You’re welcome,” Kyra said with a smile. She was happy they were both enjoying her work.

  “Would you like to dance, baby?”

  “Yes.”

  Quentin and Angel headed off to the dance floor and were swallowed by the crowd.

  “They’re so cute together,” Kyra commented.

  “Yeah, they are,” Justin agreed.

  “Damn, will they come on with the drinks?” Michael interrupted.

  “We can drink here?”

  “Yeah.” The birthday boy informed his guest of the lenient drinking rules at the club.

  “Oh, fa sho I want some.” Kyra was long overdue for a night of letting loose and wilding out.

  “Okay, well, I’m about to go dance. Come and join me later?” He gently held on to her hand until they parted.

  “I will soon. Promise.”

  Kyra walked over to the bar and ordered herself a shot. One shot became two, two became three and, on her sixth shot, Justin intervened.

  “Sweetheart, I think you’ve had enough.”

  “I’m straight. Just let me get one more.” She motioned for the bartender to give her another round.

  “I got something better.” Justin watched as the bartender refilled her shot glass with 102-proof gin.

  “What?” Kyra then swallowed the shot and her face became twisted.

  “Come dance with me. It is my birthday, you know.” His proposal was sincere, though it was also a means of distraction from her alcohol consumption.

  “Okay.” Her stumble was slight but noticeable when she stepped down from her stool.

  As soon as Justin led her into the crowd, she pressed her body deep into his and began to grind her hips and move her body to the beat. His hands rested on her waist as he moved with her to the sultry tunes. As the songs changed, Kyra grinded, shook, vibrated, snaked, popped and hip-rolled Justin into desire.

  As “Girls Dem Sugar” by Beenie Man, with the smooth vocals of R & B songstress Mya, emanated from the speakers, Kyra turned around and guided Justin until his back was against a wall. She began to grind against him, and stared him dead in his eyes while she did it. He looked at her as he ran his hands over her arms, down her sides and to her butt.

  “I want you,” she whispered in his ear, and softly bit down on her lip. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He didn’t bother to reply. His eyes said it all.

  She leaned up and kissed him, pressing her lips to his and eventually working in her tongue. He kissed her back without hesitation, and the kiss grew in intensity until Kyra stopped. She felt eyes on her. She looked over and sure enough, there was Veronica scowling at her and looking like she was fired up with anger. Kyra smirked at her and grabbed Justin’s hand.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” As they made the walk to her house from the ferry dock, Kyra stumbled with almost every step. The alcohol was having a noticeable effect on her speech and balance.

  “Yessss, I’m fine. Damn, no, you’re fine.” She slurred her words and laughed for no apparent reason.

  “Come on. Let me help you.”

  “I’m fine.” She refused any help with a gentle shoo away.

  “You’re drunk.”

  “I’m not drunk. I only had, what? One drink?”

  “More like six shots. I already know your ass is ripped.” Justin placed her arm over his shoulder to help her walk to her porch. He placed her on the first stair while he stood on the ground.

  “Come on. Let’s go inside.” She tugged on his shirt like a little girl.

  “I better not.” He didn’t move.

  “But I want it…. I want youuuu.”

  “But you’re drunk, and that means that I’d be taking advantage of you, which I don’t do. If you really want it that bad, we can get it poppin’ when you’re sober. I can wait.”

  “I’m…I’m…” With those last words, Kyra lost her balance and landed in his arms.

  They stared into each other’s eyes, and when she moved in for another kiss, he spoke out.

  “I really need to get you inside.”

  Inside the pitch-dark house, Justin managed to find her bedroom and tuck her under the covers. He moved the hair from her sleeping face as she lay peaceful and admired her allure for a moment before he stood. He was readying himself to leave when he stopped and decided not to.

  He took a seat in one of the wicker chairs and made himself as comfortable as possible. If she woke up and was disoriented, he wanted her to see him and know where she was. He wanted to be the first face she saw when she opened her eyes. His party was the last thing on his mind.

  He double-checked to make sure everything was just right. He made sure the blankets covered her enough so that she wouldn’t get chilly in the early morning when the temperature was low. He then ran his hands over her hair and gently over her face. He studied its restful look for a moment and then kissed her forehead, leaving her to sleep undisturbed.

  At the crack of dawn, Kyra’s eyes flickered open to the pain of a splitting headache. She slowly sat up and realized she was still in her clothes from last night.

  Damn, what happened last night? she thought as she staggered out of bed and stretched her body. She then looked over at her sitting area to see Justin asleep in a chair. Her eyes bucked open and she jumped back, startled by his presence. She didn’t remember anything from last night, especially not why he was in her bedroom. She patted herself down to make sure all her clothes were still on. Everything was intact, and she let out a sigh of relief. Now she could rest assured that she had no regrets.

  She tipto
ed over to him and gently shook his arm to see his eyes slowly open. He looked at Kyra and then jumped up to wipe his chin.

  “It’s okay.” She let out a small giggle.

  “Good morning,” His voice was groggy.

  “Good morning. So, um…if you don’t mind me askin’, how did you get in my room last night?”

  “You don’t remember anything from last night?”

  “I remember a little about your birthday party, but I’m still at loss as to how you got here.” She sat down on her bed and rubbed her temples.

  “I brought you home last night from my party. You were drunk off ya ass, and Angel and Q had already dipped out. So I brought you here, and I was so tired I just crashed right here. Plus I wanted to make sure you were a’ight.” He half lied, covering up the true reason for their current situation.

  “Oh, damn. I hope I didn’t ruin your birthday or anythin’.”

  “Not at all,” he reassured her as he sat next to her on the bed. “You want me to get you some Advil or something?” He would’ve had to be blind not to notice the painful expression on her face.

  “Please?”

  “A’ight, where do you keep it?”

  “In the medicine cabinet in the bathroom.”

  Justin came back into the room to find Kyra finishing up changing clothes. She turned to him, tying a knot in her silk robe as she carefully strutted over to where he stood captivated.

  “Thanks, Dr. Hartwell,” She smiled at him as she slid the bottle of capsules from his hand.

  Her smile suddenly froze and her face changed to a serious expression when she noticed him staring at her silk-wrapped figure. Justin placed his hand on her chin, cupping it with his fingers, and brought her face steadily toward his lips.

  “Kyra?” her mother called as she entered the house.

  “Oh shit!” Kyra whispered in fear. Justin bit his lip and huffed in frustration.

  They stood there with panic in their eyes.

  “Shit! Here. Get in the closet!” Her voice didn’t pass the volume of a whisper as she shoved him toward the door to the storage place of her clothing.

  “I’m not getting in a damn closet!”

  “Get in the damn closet!” she ordered, finally pushing him in and shutting the door.

  She could hear her mother’s footsteps making their way to her room as she darted under her covers, closed her eyes and faked being asleep.

  “Kyra!” her mother yelled again, but then stopped when she saw Kyra asleep in her bed. She didn’t disturb her before retiring to her own room.

  Kyra waited for a moment. She barely breathed as she peeked out from under her blanket. She scrambled to the closet and freed Justin only after she heard the door to her mother’s room shut.

  “Shh! We have to get you out of here,” she whispered.

  Kyra shut the front door quietly after giving Justin a quick hug goodbye before he ran across the lawn and into the street. His sloppy plan had miraculously worked. It was only when she was in the kitchen pouring a glass of water to take her medicine that her mother startled her.

  “What was that noise? I thought you were asleep. You scared me half to death,” she asked her daughter, standing in the hallway decked out in her heart-print pajamas.

  “Nothin’. I just came to get some water, that’s all,” Kyra lied, taking a sip to relax her frenzied nerves. She was sure she was caught.

  “Well, just to let you know, I just got in, so I’m probably going to be out of it for the rest of the day.”

  “Did you have fun?”

  “Yeah, it was fun. I had a really good time.” Her mother yawned before leaving the room. Kyra sighed in relief when she heard her mother’s bedroom door close again. She fell back against the counter with her heart pounding for more reasons than one.

  CHAPTER 10

  “Your mobile device is currently out of service. Please contact your service provider to reactivate your device. Thank you.”

  That was the automated voice Kyra heard when she dialed Natasha’s number on her cell phone. She even tried to call Makai, but she got the same annoying, robotic voice. He’d had her service disconnected. After all, he paid for it. He paid for everything.

  “Bitch!” She quietly voiced her anger through her clenched teeth.

  This nigga done went and disconnected my phone! Damn, it’s been what? Only a few weeks after I told him that I was pregnant, and he had it disconnected. I bet it was done even earlier but I just didn’t know since I haven’t used it in a hot minute. It’s all good, though, ’cause I don’t need him to do shit for me anymore. I can activate my cell later if I get a job or somethin’. Damn, listen to me, “If I get a job.” Whateva. All I know is that I’m single, which suits me just fine. Fuck Makai, fuck Mercedes and, matter of fact, fuck Chicago, too.

  It was Sunday night, and Kyra was fresh out the shower when the phone started ringing off the hook. Her mother didn’t even budge to get it.

  “I got it!” Kyra said, sarcastically rolling her eyes. She hurried to her room to answer the line, picking up on the last ring. “Hello?”

  “Hi. Is Kyra there?”

  “Yeah, this is her.”

  “Hey Kyra, it’s Tasha.”

  “What’s wrong?” Kyra was concerned as she fixed her towel around her dripping body after detecting the melancholy in her friend’s voice.

  “Burger King done messed with my check and I don’t have enough money to make it down there this summer.”

  “Oh….”

  “I’m so sorry. I really wanted to come down,” Natasha said sincerely.

  “It’s okay. I really wanted you to come, too, but I understand.” But Kyra was still disappointed.

  “There’s always winter break or something. Maybe I could make it then.”

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  “I’m sorry to call you with this bullshit.”

  “It’s cool.”

  “So…how have you been?”

  “I’ve been a’ight,” Kyra lied.

  “That’s good. I just wanted to hit you up right quick to see how you were doing, but I gotta go. I wish I could talk longer, but I gotta hop in the shower.”

  “Fa sho.”

  “And Kyra?” she added.

  “Yeah?”

  “You know your cell phone is off?”

  “Yeah, I know. Kai’s punk ass disconnected it.”

  “Damn. He knows he’s messed up. But ey, I’ll hit you back then.”

  “One.”

  Kyra was feeling down as she slipped on her pajamas and prepared for bed. She was getting tired of things going wrong in her life. It seemed like nothing went right. She’d moved here from a comfortable life in Chicago, her relationship with Makai had gone up in flames and her relationship with her mom was shaky. To top things off, Natasha coming to see her wasn’t happening, either.

  It was lunchtime on Monday at school. Kyra and Angel were strolling and conversing, when Veronica purposely bumped into Angel and made the few papers in her hands go flying. Angel watched helplessly as her assignments scattered all over the rain-soaked ground.

  “Ooops. My bad.” Veronica snickered with her hand over her mouth.

  Angel moved to pick up the papers, but Kyra stopped her.

  “No, Angel, don’t touch them.”

  “But…”

  “Don’t touch them! Let this bitch pick them up,” she snapped.

  “I wish I would pick up shit for your ass. Fuck you.”

  “I said pick them up!” Kyra snarled, shoving her adversary to the ground.

  “So what happened when you took her home? You hit that?” Michael asked.

  “Yeah, you didn’t get in till the next day. You’re lucky Dad didn’t find out,” Quentin stated.

  “No, I didn’t ‘hit it.’ She was all out of it, drunk and shit. I did stay the night, though.”

  “So you stayed the night and you didn’t even hit it?” Michael was shocked and disappointed.

  “Pr
etty much.”

  “Well, I don’t know about you two, but I got some Friday night,” Quentin proudly added.

  “Yeah, Angel was looking real good.”

  “Hey, nigga, back off my girl,” he joked with his friend while Justin turned his attention to a rowdy crowd forming not too far away from their table.

  “Hey, y’all, what’s going on over there?”

  Veronica stood back up and pushed Kyra. Kyra then punched her in the jaw. Veronica grabbed a handful of Kyra’s hair and tried to hit her, but Kyra wrestled her down to the muddy ground and began to go to work. She was clawing, slapping and punching anything she could see. Veronica reached up and got in one good hit: a punch to the mouth that caused Kyra’s lip to bust open and start to bleed. Still, Kyra was an unstoppable force. The two continued to fight and the crowd cheered them on until Justin and his boys came and split them up.

  Justin picked Kyra up off Veronica and held her back while his former girlfriend stood back, disheveled and bleeding.

  “I told you to stay away from my man!” Veronica hollered as she held her now-dirty and ripped-open cardigan sweater. She sobbed in defeat.

  “Fuck you! He’s not your man!” Kyra screamed. She had streaks of mud on her face and her hair was wild, adding to her temporarily crazed persona.

  “Veronica, you trippin’. Me and you have been over and you know it,” Justin added.

  “We see how hard you are when your crew ain’t here to back your bitch ass up! Just be grateful I couldn’t get my razors on the plane, bitch!” Kyra continued to rage as she spit blood from her mouth toward where her enemy stood.

  “What is going on here? You two! Inside! Now!” shouted a short, old, bald man in a gray suit. He was Mr. McKnight, the school principal.

  The girls were led to the main office and seated in front of the principal’s desk. Kyra moved her seat as far as possible from Veronica’s and shot a look of utter hatred in her direction. The room was thick with tension. The principal shut the door and closed the blinds before finally taking a seat at his desk.