Black & Ugly (36 page)

Black and Ugly

answered it. It's mothafuckin' false 'cuz never would I want you around me for anything you can do for me.

You can't do shit for me. You ain't even got your own car. I think your tracks are too tight or something because you real funny tonight. You probably wearing a pair of my old panties right now."

"Stop, Sky!" I yell at her as I begin to breathe hard and start crying.

"Stop what? It's true. You been biting my style for too fucking long, trying to steal my man and shit behind my back."

"Your man left right in front of you," I remind her.

"Yeah, but you helped, didn't you? Did you fuck him real good? It's okay, Parade. You might as well be honest now. He dumped me. He fuckin' dumped me tonight and it's all your fault."

"Sky, calm down. Why you always got to turn stuff into something about you?" Daffany asks.

"Yeah. You doin' shows, Miss Sky," Miss Wayne adds.

"And what about you, Daffany? You have some fucking nerve. When you gonna tell everybody that you HIV positive instead of spreading that shit around? A whore with HIV, ain't that something?" she says as she shakes her head.

"What?" Daffany yells as she sits up. "It was you?

You stole my papers?"

"I didn't steal your papers. I saw them lying on the floor and I grabbed them up, thinking they were important, and they were."

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"So why didn't you tell me?"

"I forgot. And like I said, when the fuck are you gonna stop playing games and stop spreading that shit around?" Everyone is quiet and she continues, "All y'all funny. You think that just because I don't say nothin' I don't know shit." She stands. "Y'all thought the joke was on me and y'all were gonna make me embarrassed, but I turned the shit around, didn't I?"
Silence.

"And Cannon," she continues as she looks at him,

"stop playing with that girl's feelings because anybody as fine as you don't want anything to do with Parade.

Dump her right now while it's easy," she demands as she walks toward the door, "and don't worry, I'll let myself out."

"Hold up for a second, Sky," Cannon interjects so calmly that his voice is like a knife cutting the tension in the air. "I haven't gotten my turn yet." She turns around, looks at him and laughs.

"What?" she says as if he's joking.

"I said I haven't gotten my turn yet."

"Oh, so what, y'all planned this?" she asks, looking around the room then sitting back down on the couch.

"So what, y'all told him all my business and now he wanna play too? Okay," she continues as she wipes the tears from her face. "Shoot."

"Thanks," he adds real calmly. "Ask me, Parade.

It's your turn so you have to ask me something." I take a deep breath and try to focus on the game although I don't want to play. I'm also trying to figure
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out why he's doing this. Maybe he wants to calm everybody down and figures this is the best way to help.

"Is it true," I ask as I feel tears forming in my eyes,

"that you think I'm attractive because I really need to know if you're playing games with me and I need to know right now. You heard about my faults and you know about all my secrets. You've met ugly Parade Knight who slept with her best friend's man because she admired her so much that she wanted to see what it was like to be like her. And I was wrong. I'm sorry, Sky," I continue as I turn to look at her. "I wish I could take it back but I can't. So, Cannon, knowing all this, knowing who I really am, I'd like to know - do you really think I'm attractive and do you really care about me because if you don't, I can take it. You taught me a lot about myself and no matter what, I'm better now than I was before. So, true or false, do you really care about me?"

He grabs my hands and says, "Parade, I came here on business of the worst kind. At first I thought you were just another pretty face. With that being said, I'll answer the first part of your question by saying that no matter what happens, I've always thought you were beautiful, and not just because of how you look, but because of who you are on the inside, too. I love your eyes, your smile and the way you make me feel," he continues.

Miss Wayne pushes me from behind while whisper-ing, "I told you so."

"But the quality I love most about you is your com-T. Styles

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mitment to your friends and the people you care about.

I don't know what happened to make you do what you did to Sky but I can definitely say that if he left her, she helped. She's the most selfish person I've met in my life." He looks at Sky, back at me then says, "But I can feel the love in you and that's tight, it's real. Maybe in another time and another life we can be together, not as boyfriend and girlfriend, but as man and wife." His response blows me away and I turn around to look at Miss Wayne and Daffany, who are also crying.

Sky holds her head low.

I wipe the tears from my face and say, "Thank you so much, baby. That means so much to me. It's your turn."

He takes a deep breath and his entire expression changes as if he's becoming another person.

"Truth or dare, Sky?" he asks real coldly like he never said any of the nice things that just exited his mouth.

"Truth," she says, shrugging like she doesn't want to play anymore.

"Is it true that you murdered Melony Walker?"
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35

Parade

"WHAT'S GOIN' ON, PARADE?" SKY asks. "Why he askin' me that?" She cuts her eyes at me, wondering if I sold her out.

"I don't know, Sky," I say real slowly, "but maybe you shouldn't say anything else." I look at Cannon and back at her.

"No, maybe she should," he says as he pulls out a gun and places it on his lap. "Baby, get on the couch with everybody else. I'm so sorry I gotta do this." We all jump on Miss Wayne's pink couch, which can comfortably seat six people, but because we are so scared, we cram tightly together and hold one another closely.

"I want everybody to calm down," he explains, growing irritated by our whines and cries. "And if y'all are cool, only the person I'm looking for will get hurt." His comment doesn't do anything but make matters worse. We may have had our problems, but I think I can speak for everybody when I say nobody wants anyT. Styles

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body to die.

"Why ...uh ... I don't understand this, Cannon," I say as my cries join those of my friends. "I don't understand why you're doing this."

"I know, it's real fucked up, baby," he says as he places the gun back in his lap with the barrel still facing our way, "but I'm a hit man, paid to kill the person who murdered Melony Walker. I have my own ideas about who did it but I need to be sure. That's where you ladies come in. Mr. Walker is very serious about taking care of whoever killed his wife, so there are several things we must discuss first. Number one, I'm going to kill somebody tonight. I need you all to understand that."

"Cannon, please don't do this!" Miss Wayne yells.

Cannon silences him with his stare.

"Number two, the rest of you will be responsible for convincing me that you won't bring heat back on my client by running to the cops and opening your mouths.

If I'm not convinced, not
totally
convinced, I'm putting a bullet in all four of your heads tonight." Our cries and pleas for him not to kill us grow loud-er, and Cannon is still visibly irritated, but remains professional. All this does is make him appear even more insensitive and scary.

"So you did lie to me? You lied to me about who you are."

"No, I didn't. I told you I'm in the disposal business.

So how did I lie?" he says as he looks at me, awaiting a response.

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I don't have one. Even if I did, I wouldn't say it because I am too embarrassed and hurt by his ultimate plan. He did tell me he was in the disposal business and that he was responsible for removing trash, but never in my wildest dreams did I think that meant killing one of us.