The Lipstick Clique (3 page)

“O.K. This is what’s going to happen. Milan, you have 7 days to figure out what to do with that child. If you don’t have it figured out in that time frame, you’re no longer a part of The Lipstick Clique.”

Milan’s mouth dropped open in shock. There had been an unspoken code that The Lipstick Clique lived by, and it was centered and framed by loyalty. Treasure had never talked about a member of the Clique being dismissed, and to hear her talk of it at that moment sent chills through both Milan and Skye’s bodies.

“Furthermore… we will not be able to stay in the same room. My opinion is that we should all have a room of our own, with the exception of the child. She is to stay in your presence Milan, until you figure out what you want to do.” Treasure spoke, then turned and walked off to her room.

Skye looked at her sister and saw that her face was pleading for help. Pleading for someone to be on her side; pleading to be understood. But Skye just didn’t understand. She smirked at her competitive twin sister and went around and grabbed the bag of money from behind Treasure’s seat. When she walked back by her sister, she looked her in the eyes in an intense manner. “
Babygirl
, I really want you to get it together. We’re living life on the edge every single day. It’s a continuous ride or die session for us, and if we don’t focus, our session could be cut short before it’s time.”

Milan rolled her eyes as she watched Skye walk off towards the hotel room. She sighed and looked at the child in the backseat of the car. Even though she was angry and felt like expressing it, she couldn’t bring herself to hurt the little girl’s feelings more than they already were. “What –” she caught herself and took another deep breath so that she wouldn’t come off the wrong way. “Baby girl… what’s your name?”

The little girl’s eyes were lit up like a chandelier as she stared wide-eyed at Milan. She had nothing but admiration and adoration for the older lady that had endured so much just to look out for her. Already, in that little time frame, Milan had shown her more attention than her mother and father had ever shown her. They had been too obsessed with money to ever care about her, and as bad as she felt about what had happened to her parents; she wasn’t too surprised because that was the 5
^th
time their house had gotten shot up. It just so happened that this time, the shooters saw that everything was carried out correctly.

“My… my… name… is Lena. Are you going to abandon me in seven days like your friend told you to or are you –”

“Hold on little girl… Lena… relax! Let
me
fuckin’ relax. Stop fuckin’
bothering
me. Bring your ass on!”

They walked side by side to the front entrance of the hotel so that they could get their own room, per Treasure’s instructions. Lena had a small smirk on her face. She knew that she was going to enjoy spending time with Milan, no matter how short their time together was. There had been many nights where she had prayed for God to send her an angel, and that night, it seemed as if he had finally answered her prayer. She would be forever grateful.

__________

Skye walked into her room and took a deep breath. She was grateful to finally be able to be alone. Even though she loved her clique, there was nothing more soothing to a grown woman than being in her own place. It was mandatory. There was no need for three grown women to be cooped up all day and night together, so she was extremely happy.

She grabbed the bag of money and dumped it onto the floor. She glanced at the pile of 100’s and 50’s and wondered to herself what had been done to accumulate all of that cash. She knew that the only thing she was interested in doing was retrieving it. She didn’t care about selling dope and certainly didn’t care about the people that did sell it. She guessed that what Treasure had told her was true…
Money is the root of all evil, but evil is the root of all money.
They had been knocking heads off ever since those words were spoken.

She glanced at the clock and saw that it was going on 6 o’clock in the morning. She wondered what the other girls were doing, and soon fell asleep, still wondering. But not for long.

Boop
Boop
Boop
!
A fist was slamming against her door in a rapid-fire succession. Groggily, she tried to focus on the clock, to no avail.
Boop
Boop
Boop
!
That damned fist to the door had no compassion for her sleep whatsoever. Thinking that it was Treasure or Milan at the door, she hurriedly threw her shirt on and opened the door without checking the peephole.

There were two officers standing there. “Hey ma’am, we don’t mean to bother you… but is everything ok?”

What the fuck?
She thought as she glanced around to see how far away she was from her pistol. It was all the way across the damn room! She had no choice but to just roll with the flow.

“What do you mean officer?” She said in her most polite voice.

The second officer was trying to look over Skye’s shoulders as he prepared to respond to her. “Well… we received a report not too long ago of something that sounded like a gunshot coming from this area… if –”

“Gunshot?” Skye said genuinely startled. “I don’t know a damn thing about a gunshot! You woke me up from my sleep for that?”

The first officer glanced down at her thick hips and juicy thighs and smiled. “We’re truly sorry ma’am, you have a
very
good day… ump.”

Immediately seeing an opening, Skye rolled her eyes and slammed the door in the officer’s faces. She laid on the floor breathing heavily. She half expected them to kick the door down and whisk her off to jail for the rest of her life. Quickly coming to her senses, she jumped up, locked the door and ran over to get her pistol. She looked down and saw all of the cash laying around on the floor and a very dreadful feeling ran over her.

She was sure that the officers had seen all of the cash, and were probably about to return with some serious backup.
And what the hell were they talking about a fucking gunshot for? Shit!
She tossed some of the money into a bag and hurried out of the room to see what the hell was going on with her family. She ran straight to Treasure’s room, and a sense of dread overcame her when she saw that the door to the room was already wide open.

She pulled her pistol out and ran inside without knocking.

__________

“Skye!” Treasure said when she saw her run through the door with her pistol drawn. “Talk some damn sense into your crazy ass sister and her crazy ass
stepdaughter
! These bitches were in the hotel room shooting
pistols
! Now we gotta get the fuck out of this city, because we’ve been
spotted
! I just don’t understand this shit!!!” Treasure screamed as she grabbed her suitcase and headed towards the door.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Skye screamed, stopping Treasure at the door. “Did the police come over here and bother you Treasure?”

Treasure stared back at her in defiance. “No, but they came to
your
room! And that’s enough for me to get the hell on!” Milan took a deep breath and exhaled while Lena followed her lead and did the same thing. Treasure saw it and frowned at the two girls. “See…
ya’ll
about to piss me the fuck off around this bitch. No lie!”

Skye tried to soothe the situation over. “Fine, we can roll, but let me go get us another vehicle… please. This shit is hot as hell.” She had never seen The Lipstick Clique have so many issues, and she felt bad because it seemed that her sister was a major reason for the chaos. She felt even worse because she knew that whenever things got in Treasure’s way, she always removed them.

Skye turned to walk to the door. When she neared the door, her sister spoke up. “Skye I wanna help!” Skye turned around and looked at the sincerity on her sister’s face and felt a deep sense of compassion.

“I wanna help too!” The young girl said, copying Milan’s vocal tone and her physical mannerisms. Everyone stared at her without saying anything. “My name is Lena!” She said with a smile on her face.

Skye frowned and had to do a double take. The girl had only been under Milan’s presence for a couple of hours and already she had turned into a got damn mini-me! But if Milan was going to carry on as if that shit was cute, then Skye was surely going to teach those bitches a lesson. “O.K. then… fine.
Ya’ll
bring
ya’ll
asses on then.”

Treasure shook her head as she watched the three ladies walk out of the hotel room on a mission. She knew better than to just sit around and wait on them, because more than likely, they were going to need her help. She waited until she saw them jump into the car and start it up, then she went outside and got into the new car that she had stolen early that morning when everyone split up.

As soon as she got back to the hotel, she’d taken a cab down the street and stolen a Jeep Cherokee without any of the other girls knowing anything about it. She started it up and sped up until she got behind the car that Skye was driving. Instead of being patient, Skye had chosen to assume that they needed to steal another car, when actually one was already waiting for them, courtesy of Treasure.
Oh well,
Treasure thought as she bit her bottom lip. She grabbed her 357 magnum and followed their vehicle to the Publix supermarket.

__________

Skye pulled beside their target car and turned the ignition off. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. As a child growing up, she would never have guessed that she would one day be living a life so frantic and that the only activities that mattered to her involved firing a weapon. She was sad that her and her sister’s lives had come down to this, but there was nothing she could do about their circumstances. She gripped her palm around the steering wheel tightly, trying to release some of the tension bubbling in her body.

She said a small prayer and opened her car door to see Treasure standing there. “Oh shit you scared me girl! How the hell did you get here?”

Treasure pointed at the Jeep she had stolen earlier and smirked. “You knew I was already on top of my game. I was going to just let you crazy ass girls steal the car anyway, just for my entertainment, but I changed my mind. That young bitch is barely in puberty, and I’m afraid that she may fuck something up. Shit… she might fuck one of
ya’ll
up!”

Skye laughed for a second and inhaled the rich Georgia oxygen. “Damn Treasure… everywhere I go it smells like pine! This is nice. I –” She stopped talking midway when she saw that Treasure wasn’t listening, and was instead staring behind her. She turned around to see what was going on, and her lips dropped to the ground as well.

Milan and Lena had jumped out of the vehicle with their guns drawn and were jogging towards the Publix supermarket. “What the fuck are
ya’ll
doing!” Skye screamed as she started to break into a sweat. She opened the door to grab her pistol, but Treasure grabbed her arm. Startled, she turned around with her brows raised. “What is it Treasure!?” She asked, although she knew exactly what it was.

“Skye… we’re going to have to leave your sister behind. I’m sorry, but she needs a wake-up call. It just seems that these days, she just doesn’t give a fuck about anything except for a moment’s pleasure. She gets a rush, and we get the drama that her rush brings us. We just can’t keep running like this. Are you with me or not?”

Skye knew that this day would come. She knew it was going to come down to her having to choose between her own flesh and blood and her best friend, Treasure Brown. She gritted her teeth together and nodded her head. Treasure ran around and opened the door to the Jeep and started it up. Skye opened the door to the Jeep and stood there.

“Bring your ass on girl!” Treasure screamed as she slid her seatbelt into the clasp. She put the Jeep into reverse so that she could pull out and drive off, but Skye just stood there with a sad look on her face. Treasure understood that look the instant she saw it. It was the look of a woman torn. She felt guilty that she had even put Skye into a position to choose between her own blood and her friend.

Treasure didn’t have room for error or emotions, and she felt that she had to let it be known. But she would do it in her own style. “Skye… I love you. I’ll see you around baby girl. Shut my door.”