Fast Life (8 page)

I
n a multimillion-dollar mansion on the other side of Prince Paul Island, Quentin, Michael and Justin were all seated around Quentin's large bedroom engaged in a lively conversation while playing a video game.

“Where did you go earlier?” Quentin demanded. “We were looking for you, but we couldn't find you anywhere. Some people said they saw you walking with the new girl, and the only new girl I know of is Kyra.”

“Yeah, I walked her home.”

“And…did you hit that or what?” Michael nosily added.

“I just walked her home. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but not everyone sticks their dick in everything that moves.”

“Oh, you got jokes.” Just then, Michael's cell phone ring tone sounded. He took it out and examined the caller ID. “It's Nicole.”

“See, he got one of his hoes calling now,” Quentin laughed.

“That's not funny. She be straight stalking,” Michael said, putting the phone back in his pocket. The look on Michael's face when he had first told his friends about his night of sex gone wrong had been memorable.

“Forget both of y'all. Just take a look at you two. Quentin, Angel is too much of a goody-goody, dawg. And J, man, you were strung out on Veronica for the longest. Now here you go trippin' off that new girl. Before we know it, you're going to be taking her out, buying her things, straight tricking your dough and you
still
won't get some!”

“A'ight.” Justin stood up and began to speak. “As much as I
hate
to say it, yes, I loved Veronica, and yes, she had me messed up. But you can't say I didn't get her ass good. Yeah, I have money, and yeah, I got status, and she thought she could get some to add to her own. But did I ever buy her shit? No. Did I take her places? Hell no. Why? Because I found out what she was doing around the way a while back. I was just using her after that, until I got tired of her. Then I dipped. And as far as Kyra goes, I'm not even going to tell her about my cash flow. I want to see if she'll like me for me. I'm sick of all the gold diggers. From now on, the fact that my family owns the island is on lock, you got me?”

“Okay, okay. Yes, you were kind of pimpin' when it came to Veronica. I'll admit that,” Michael said.

“I don't know what it is, but Kyra does something to me,” said Justin. “She's just…different. I don't know how to explain it. We all know I've been with my share of girls. We all have. But I'm for real on this one.”

“Oh, I think I'm going to be sick.” Michael gagged, faking as though he were going to vomit.

“Mr. Hartwell, the barber is here.” One of the maids who tended to the estate made the announcement from the doorway of the bedroom. Her hands were folded on her apron and her face was stern.

“I'm not cutting my braids, Harriet, no matter what my father says,” Quentin protested. His father had been pestering him for months to cut his hair.

“No, it's cool, it's for me,” Justin clarified. He hopped up from his seat and handed off his controller.

“See, there that shit goes right there! I told you!” Michael pointed and snickered at his friend's decision to change his appearance.

“Shut up. It's not even like that. It's just…time for a change.”

 

The next day, Kyra awoke with a plan in mind. She decided to take what she creatively dubbed a “chill day.” Things had been moving too fast lately, and she desperately needed to slow things down. It was time to take it nice and slow, nice and easy.

She woke up at her usual time and got dressed in her uniform, creating the illusion that she actually intended to go to school that day. She walked outside in the rain and saw her mom off. She made sure her mother was out of sight before she backtracked home to take off her uniform. She was in no rush to do anything.

She watched HBO movies and ate almost an entire half gallon of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. It was mid-afternoon when she went out onto the front porch and sat in the swing. She watched the rain fall as she inhaled the smoke of the rich tobacco from one of her hand-rolled Cuban cigars.

She was intently watching the wet scenery when she spotted a dark figure approaching her house from the road. She sat up and leaned forward, hoping to see who it was. The rain fell so hard it was almost blinding.

“Who are you?” she called out with a hint of fear in her voice as the unknown figure crept across her lawn.

“Girl, chill, it's me.”

It was Justin. He walked onto the porch and dropped the hood of his black sweatshirt. Kyra's eyes grew wide and she threw the cigar butt into the rain.

“Oh my God, what did you do?” she shrieked as she stood up and walked over to him for a better view.

“What? You don't like it? I cut off my dreadlocks. It was time for a change.”

“Change isn't always good. But in this case it is.”

“So you like it, then?” Justin asked curiously, secretly scared she would say no.

“Yeah, it looks a'ight.” She smiled as she ran her hand over his freshly cut hair.

That was an understatement, because to her it looked really good.
He
looked really good. She could clearly see all his facial features, and the rain glistening on his face was adding to his appeal. He was looking too tempting.

“So why didn't you come to school today?” he asked as he leaned on the railing of the porch.

“'Cause,” she sighed, “I just needed a day to myself.”

“I thought you might've been sick or something. I came by to check on you,” Justin lied.

“Thank you. You didn't have to do that.”

Silence fell between them.

“Look, I know you said you needed a day to yourself, but do you mind if I join you? Being by yourself can get lonely, don't you think?”

“Sure. I don't care.”

“I can start tutoring you if you want. I brought my stuff,” Justin said, swinging his backpack down to the porch.

“Okay, that's cool. Come on in.”

“Nice room,” he commented as his eyes explored her furnishings.

“Thank you.”

“You have an awfully big bed….”

“Don't even try it. We're studyin'. Now let's get started.” Kyra laughed.

Justin removed his math book from his bag. “Do you want to do this over there?” he asked, motioning toward the chairs and the small glass table.

“No, we can do it right here,” she said, hopping onto her mattress. “It's more comfortable.”

“Now, what we're studying is trigonometric graphs, identities, and equations….”

As Justin began to explain what they were and how to solve them, Kyra zoned out. She stared at his face, his hair and the large diamond earring that hung from his ear. Either it hadn't been there before or she hadn't noticed it. She stared at his well-defined biceps, making their presence known through his wife beater. She stared at the tattoo on his arm and the smoothness of his skin. She stared at his lips. They were moving, but she heard no sound. She made note of how soft they looked and thought about what it would be like to kiss them. She looked at the thin beard along the edge of his jawline and at his thin mustache, tracing his face until she stumbled across his big brown eyes. She couldn't tear her gaze from them.

Justin felt her stare and looked over at her and stopped talking. His gaze met hers, and she didn't look away. He then leaned in and kissed her, freeing his tongue to caress her mouth. Her tongue pushed back, and he slowly laid her on the bed. He continued to kiss her and began to work his way to her neck, then spread her legs and laid his body between them. Kyra couldn't believe she was doing this. The only person she had ever been with was Makai, and here she was about to have sex with a boy she had only known for two days. Still, her body wouldn't let her buckle under the guilt when his hands glided over her body and began to work her shirt up over her head. She shook under him.

“Don't be scared. It's okay,” he whispered reassuringly in her ear as he eased his shirt over his shoulders.

He began to kiss her chest and his hands unbuttoned her shorts to ease them down. He skillfully managed to take her panties along with them.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” He looked into her eyes as he lay ready to penetrate. With a nod, he pushed himself slowly into her body.

Kyra gasped for air as he began to slowly push himself deeper into her. She dug her nails into his back. She felt her body heat rise and she couldn't contain her pleasure-induced moans. She felt her body become tense with excitement as he placed his lips to her ear. She couldn't wait to hear what he had to say.

“Kyra! Kyra! Wake up, Kyra!”

The thrill ended when she snapped out of her daydream to see that she was still sitting on her bed, fully clothed and staring at Justin as he shook her.

“Oh, my bad, sorry.” She looked away from him, extremely embarrassed and so ashamed. She couldn't believe what she had just fantasized. She had never even considered being with another man besides Makai, and her erotic dreams had always been reserved especially for him.

“Did you even hear anything I just said?”

“Maybe we should do this later. My mom is goin' to be home soon, and she'll trip if she sees you in here. Thanks for comin', though.” Kyra began to rush Justin out of the house.

“Girl, what's wrong with you? Are you okay?” Justin barely managed to get the words out as Kyra was practically shoving him toward the door.

“Yup, I'm fine. See you tomorrow. Bye!” Kyra threw his things at him and shut the door. She leaned back against the door and took a deep breath. She was in dire need of a cold shower.

 

The schedule for the remainder of the week was unchanging for Kyra: wake up, go to school, exchange glares with Veronica, come home, call her friends in Chicago and get no answer and then be bored to death until she went to sleep.

After the day Justin came to her house, she felt different around him, almost uncomfortable, and avoided him. She wouldn't speak to him, and when he spoke to her, she replied with one-word answers. It wasn't that he did anything wrong, but she felt as though she had made a mistake by thinking the way she had. She couldn't deny that she was attracted to him, but she didn't want to make any moves she would later regret.

It was Friday, and Kyra was stuck at home. Angel invited her to a movie, but she declined. Instead, she opted for sitting in her living room in her red Scooby-Doo pajamas and watching “106 and Park.”

Ring, ring!

The shrill ringing of the phone interrupted the daily countdown of the top hip-hop and R & B videos.

“Hello? Mom, where are you?”

“I'm at work. I have a lot to do, so I'll be home late.” Her mother sighed into the phone, the stress evident in her voice.

“Oh, okay.”

“I just wanted to call you to tell you not to wait up and to make dinner, because we all know that if I'm not there to make it for you, you might starve to death. Are you going anywhere tonight?”

“Nope. Just stayin' home.”

“Say what? It's a Friday night and Kyra Jones is at home. I must have the wrong number,” she joked.

“Ha, ha! Real funny, Mom.” She chuckled a little bit. She knew her mom was right. In Chicago, Kyra was nowhere to be found on a weekend.

“All right, well, I'm going to go and try to get all this work done. I'll talk to you later. Love you. Bye.”

“You, too. Bye.”

Kyra hung up the phone and then picked it back up when the show was over. She decided to call Mercedes. She hadn't talked to her once since she'd moved. She dialed the number and waited for an answer. It rang about four times, and just when she went to hang up, someone answered.

“Who dis be?”

As soon as she heard her boyfriend's voice, Kyra hung up the phone. She moved her fingers shakily and called Natasha. She couldn't believe what she had just heard.

“Whaddup?” Natasha sounded as though she had been awakened from a light nap.

“Tasha…” Kyra choked as her throat began to tighten. It was a clear sign of her oncoming tears. “You asleep?”

“Yeah, girl, I got this job down at Burger King for me to be able to come down there this summer. It's been whuppin' my ass. BK ain't no joke. But you sound like something's wrong? You okay?” Natasha said. She was becoming more aware of her friend's tone of voice.

“I just called Mercedes, right, and tell me why somebody picked up and it sounded like…it sounded just like…Kai. I swear it was him, and you know I know his voice. It was him. I swear it was. It
was
him! What the fuck?”

“Oh shit,” Natasha mumbled under her breath.

“What, Tasha? Tell me. Please just tell me they not really messin' around, Tash. Please.”