Fast Life (24 page)

K
yra was in bed one night, the television off, as she sat up with her knees to her chest. Her gaze was fixed on the phone that rested on the nightstand. Makai had warned her not to use it, and she knew what would happen if she disobeyed his orders and he found out. The choices and consequences bounced around in her head:
Do it, or don't do it
.

Kyra dialed, held the phone to her ear and listened to it ring on the other end. It was already on the fourth ring and there was still no answer. She glanced at the clock on the wall and noticed that it was late and recalled that it was a weeknight. She figured her mother was asleep, with Matthew, or spending the night at the hotel, and all hopes of reaching her were crushed. As she went to place the phone on the hook, she didn't know how long it would be before the next time she could muster the courage to call.

“Hello?” Geneva greeted. Her tone was fixed to appease any caller when Kyra heard the unexpected voice of her mother. Her mouth felt as if it were wired shut, and all she could manage was silence. The only courage she needed now was the courage to speak.

“Hello…? Hello?” her mother repeated into the phone, waiting for a reply.

“Mom?” Kyra's voice cracked on her response.

“Kyra, Kyra, is that you?”

“Yeah, it's me, Mom.”

“Oh, I'm so happy to hear from you! I've been trying to reach you at Natasha's forever, but you two are always out. You two aren't getting into anything you don't need to be in, are you?” Geneva, no longer Mrs. Jones, rambled on with excitement.

“You've been tryin' to reach me at Tasha's?” Kyra asked, confused. Natasha had specifically told Kyra that her mother hadn't contacted her, and Charlene, Natasha's mom, hadn't mentioned anything.

“Yeah, ever since you got there. Well, when I find the time—you know how things are down here. I figure you're almost grown, though. You don't need me checkin' up on you all the time.” Geneva sounded happy as she talked.

“Oh.”

“Why did you ask me that? That is where you're staying, isn't it?” Her mother was starting in on another interrogation, sounding somewhat suspicious for a moment.

“Where else would I be stayin'?” she lied. She didn't want to risk hearing the reaction she was sure to hear when her mother discovered where she had really been all this time. “So how are things down there?”

“Things are good. Business is really thriving, and Matthew and I are engaged now! Can you believe it?”

“Fa real?” Kyra tried her best to sound enthusiastic, but her voice rang false.

“Yup. I tried reaching you. I left a few messages to call me with Charlene, but I didn't get in touch with you to tell you until now. You and Natasha seem to be having a ball up there.”

“When's the wedding?” Kyra inquired.

“We didn't set a date yet. Truthfully, I wanted you to help me plan it when you come home in August.” Kyra didn't like the idea, but she couldn't manage words to protest it. “Kyra, are you there?” Her mother's question brought the dead line back to life.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry. Congratulations with everythin'.” She kept up her attempt to sound upbeat.

“Thanks, sweetie.
So,
how are things up there?”

With that question, Kyra broke down. The reason why she didn't know, but she couldn't stop the tears from coming.

“Kyra?” Geneva sounded worried when she picked up the sniffles from the other end of the phone line.

“Mom, things are so bad. I want to come home. Things are so bad….” She softly cried into the phone.

“Baby doll, what's wrong?”

Kyra became as alert as a cat when she heard the front door open and shut, signaling that Makai was back from running the streets.

“Mom, I gotta go.”

“Kyra, wait….”

“What are you doing?” Makai asked as he entered the room. Kyra had returned the phone to the cradle only seconds before he made an entrance.

“Nothin', just about to go to bed.” She clicked the light on her side of the bed off and turned her back to him so that he couldn't see her moist eyes as he prepared to join her.

She lay there all night with her head spinning. Her mother's words regarding her undelivered messages didn't make any sense, and she wanted answers. She needed them, and little did she know she would get them soon enough. The only question was, was she ready to hear them? Could she handle the truth?

 

It was a humid day. Clouds blotted out the sun, but the heat was just as powerful as if it were visible and shining. Makai woke Kyra up that afternoon, demanding more than asking that she accompany him to the pool. Even with only three and a half hours of sleep, she didn't dare refuse his plan and made sure to quickly change into one of her many swimsuits and get ready to go.

At the pool, Makai glided in the water while Kyra sat poolside in a lounge chair, pretending to read. She kept her eye on him over the top of her
Glamour
magazine. She had an inexplicable suspicion that he was somehow responsible for Natasha's deception.

Too hot to sit out any longer and realizing that Kai didn't seem to be coming out of the pool anytime soon, Kyra waded in. She swam over to him as he soaked in a small whirlpool tucked behind a waterfall.

“It's hot as hell out here.”

“Yeah, it is,” she agreed as she took her seat next to him.

They sat quietly behind the waterfall, looking at the distorted images through the water. Her eyes kept darting to his face and then away, looking straight ahead. She wanted the answer without having to ask, but her distress went unnoticed, or so she thought.

“Speak your mind, baby girl.”

“Kai…baby…what did you tell my mom about me comin' to Chicago?” she cooed, trying to sound innocent while probing at what she wanted to find out. She was dancing around the information she truly wanted to uncover.

“Why you ask that?”

“See, I talked to her yesterday and…” Her mumbled words made her sound ashamed of what she had done.

“You called her from the house?”

“No.”

“Where, then?”

“A pay phone down some blocks.”

“Did Bryce or Rick go witchu?”

“No. They went to get some food or somethin', I think.” She lied again, surprised at how well her mind was adapting to the art of trickery and how quickly her mind managed to spit out a lie.

“Mmm, hmm. Don't sneak off without them. I told you about that shit before.” He looked at her from the corner of his eye. He undoubtedly knew she was lying, but he gave her a break. After all, it was her mother.

“I'm sorry, baby.”

She had to bite her lip and look away to keep from screaming out for him to give her an answer that very second.

“I didn't tell her anything. Think about it—when have I talked to her?”

“True…true…”

“Tasha is the only person I know of who's been talking to your mom.”

“What? I don't get it.”

“You wouldn't.”

“Tell me?” she begged as she grabbed ahold of his arm.

“It's simple. I paid Natasha and her momma to play along and say that you were staying wit' 'em. Charlene called your mom up one day at her office, chitchatted wit her, and next thing you know you were on your way here wit' me. You handled the rest of the work from there, really. I knew you weren't really dumb enough to stay on that island.”

“You paid them?” Kyra wasn't able to grasp the news right away. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. When she first saw Natasha and Charlene, they'd acted as though her being in town came as a surprise to them.

“It was business, fair and square. But the answer is yes, I paid them.”

“How much?”

“What?” A passing girl in a string biking had snatched his attention from the topic at hand.

“How much did you pay them?” Her voice was firm.

“Five grand each.”

“Five grand each…five grand each…”

“That's how it goes, baby girl.” Makai pecked her cheek with his lips and then swam out from under the waterfall.

After a long shower back at the suite, Kyra returned to the bedroom, where Makai was up, eating a bowl of sweet cereal and watching an old episode of
The Sopranos
. She disappeared into the closet only to come out in an all-black outfit. Her hair, which had grown out, was pulled back into a ponytail and she appeared ready to go out, not to go to bed.

“Where you trying to go?”

“I need to go see Tasha real quick,” she said. She was going regardless of what he said.

“For what?”

“I just need to talk to her, that's all.”

 

Kyra's Benz screeched to a halt in front of Natasha's home that night. The pounding music system that was loud enough to wake the neighborhood was silenced when she took the key from the ignition.

Kyra jumped out of the car, slamming the door, and marched her way to the front door of her traitor. The house looked dark inside, but she didn't care if anyone was asleep. She was on a mission.

She planted herself on the porch for about two minutes, ringing the doorbell and pounding on the door as if she were the police. A few neighbors were stirring in reaction to the commotion outside, but she wasn't worried. In that type of neighborhood, nobody was quick to call the Chicago PD.

Natasha swung the door open, and her face looked disgruntled by the obnoxious disturbance. “You better get the fuck on…Kyra? What are you doing here? And why the hell are you knocking on my door like you the police?”

She opened the door as a signal for Kyra to step inside, but Kyra simply stood on the last step, glaring at her friend. They both stood in the night on the porch in silence, neither one knowing what to say.

Just as Natasha was getting around to posing a question, Kyra lunged at her without warning and pulled her down onto the lawn. She stumbled and fell to the ground, taking Kyra with her.

On the ground, Kyra was like a wild animal, clawing and slapping while keeping a tight grip on her betrayer's hair. Natasha fought back the best she could without injuring her. She just wanted Kyra to get off her, not hurt her. The girls rolled in the grass, grunting and yelling, drawing attention to their squabble.

It was an even fight.

Natasha straddled Kyra's body and lifted her fist in the air as though she was going to strike again when she stopped herself. “What the fuck is your problem!” she shouted through the heaving of her chest.

“You sold me out….” Kyra was exhausted from the exchange of blows and only muttered a reply.

“What?” Natasha softened her eyes from their hard glare to a look of bewilderment.

Her body flinched when the sprinkler system switched on, soaking the lawn and the girls.

“You sold me out for Kai. You and your mom lied for him,” Kyra muttered again, choking on the water that was splashing in her face.

Natasha regained her footing and let Kyra go. She looked down at her friend, who was rubbing her jaw, and looked down the block, becoming aware of the small crowds that had formed. Her neighbors were motionless in the privacy of their porches as they gazed at the girls for their own personal source of entertainment after dark.

“Come on.” Natasha reached down to help Kyra up so they could head indoors, but Kyra refused her helping hand and got up on her own. Natasha knew they couldn't discuss anything involving someone as made as Makai out in the open like that. Anyone could be listening.

Once they were inside, Natasha slammed the door shut and stormed through the living room. Kyra followed her closely while keeping enough distance between them.

“You're lucky my ma is working third shift tonight,” she warned as she picked up one of her mother's cigarette cartons from a side table next to couch. She put the Newport cigarette to her lip and lit it, puffing on the tobacco and blowing the smoke up to the ceiling. Kyra just stood there silently, scowling at her friend as her body dripped.

“You're fucking crazy.”

“Bitch, fuck you.”

“Oh, so I'm a bitch now?” Natasha asked with a surprised expression.

“Apparently you've been one.”

She climbed the stairs to her room and Kyra followed.

“Not everyone has it easy like you do,” Natasha stated as she took a seat on the edge of her bed. Her back was to Kyra as she bent over and snatched a used towel from the floor.

“Who the hell said I had it easy?”

“Please, Kyra, you've always been better off. Your mom has a good job and Makai spoils the hell out of you. Even when Marcus was here you always had more.”