Can't Stop the Shine (10 page)

Swept back to the dance floor by people wopping to Slick Rick's “Bedtime Story,” Kalia craned her neck to see if she saw Mari in Colby's direction, but it was no use. When a guy with the smoothest skin she'd ever seen grabbed her hand and started dancing with her, Kalia gave in. The party was winning. She just had to go with it. Soon enough she had her hands around his neck, and he had his on her waist. They were dipping to the left and the right, she was sweating, he was sweating and neither cared. The deejay took them away in a mix of old-school hip-hop hits hot enough to make a tribute show for BET.

Twelve songs later, Kalia was still dancing with a dude whose name she didn't even know. The music was way too loud to even exchange “What's up?” She'd totally forgotten about her sister until she heard Mari's voice on the mic.

“I'd like to give a shout-out to my sister, Kalia. She's out there dancing with that fine-ass man. Kalia, you've got that fire, girl! Get it, girl.”

“Hey, that's my sister,” Kalia said to the guy with whom she was dancing.

He just nodded and kept dancing. She knew he didn't hear her. She looked hard at the deejay booth, trying to see Mari, but the nearly nonexistent lighting only allowed her to see a few feet in front of her. Deciding she needed to find her sister, she pointed toward the deejay booth and danced that way, pulling her cutie with her. By the time she got near enough to the booth to see inside, Mari was gone, but the music was pumping. She threw her hands up in the air, knowing the deejay was going to wear her out. He went from old-school to a reggae set and started blending dirty south booty shake. When he segued into some new Fire Records' crunk mixes thrown over a classic Biggie beat, Kalia went wild. She closed her eyes and didn't even see when her fine partner danced away.

She felt a set of strong hands grasp hers in the air. They moved together. When she opened her eyes, she was staring at a picture of Che Guevara against a barrel chest. The strong hands brought hers down to her hips and both sets rested there as she looked up into the face of her captor. Piercing brown eyes with the longest eyelashes she'd ever seen held her gaze.

She felt his well-lined beard graze her cheek as he bent down toward her ear.

“What's your name, queen?”

Every inch of her skin tingled at the sound of his baritone. She thought she said her name, but apparently he didn't hear it. Leading her off the dance floor, through the deejay booth and out the other side to a back room, he helped her sit in a chair near a desk.

“Whew,” she said, pulling her hands through her sweated-out hair. Kalia didn't even realize how whipped she was until she was sitting. “I must look a mess.”

“Not to me,” said the guy. “You look happy, like you just had the best time of your life.”

“What are you talking about? Wait. Who are you? What's your name?”

“I'm Malcolm, Miss Lady. What's yours?” he asked, stepping closer to her.

Looking at his short curly dreadlocks, gleaming white teeth and rippling arm muscles, Kalia felt a little warm, and it wasn't because she'd just finished dancing like she'd never hear music again. This brother was fine.

“Uh, I'm Kalia.”

“Do you go to Clark?'

Kalia wished so much she could say yes.

“No. I, um, well, I'm still in high school.”

“No kidding?” said Malcolm, moving back a few paces. “How old are you?”

“Eighteen.”

“Oh, that's cool then. I'm twenty, so that's only a couple of years. Are you thirsty? Want something to drink?”

Kalia was just watching his beautiful lips move, not really hearing what he was saying. All of her answers were a beat behind, and his last question didn't even register.

“Wait here,” he said. “I'll be right back, okay?”

Malcolm disappeared back through the deejay booth, which was being manned by a female deejay. Kalia had never seen a woman deejay before. She hadn't even considered that a woman could be one. Kalia looked around the small room she was in, noticing all the party flyers on the walls, many of them touting DJ Malcolm Lee. She was just putting it together when he walked in with two bottles of water.

“You're DJ Malcolm Lee?” she asked, taking a sip.

“The one and only.” He bowed.

“So this is your party?”

“Well I'm one of the deejays for this homecoming gig. DJ Fly Girl is out there ripping it now. She's got some serious skills.”

“I've never seen a woman deejay before. That's kinda cool.”

“She's one of the best in Atlanta. People don't even know yet,” said Malcolm. “So how do you feel? You looked like you were going to pass out there for a minute.”

“Is that why you kidnapped me back here?”

“Well, I did want to get you alone,” he said, stroking his chin, which barely hid his kilowatt smile. Kalia noticed an ankh ring on his ring finger.

“That's a nice ring,” she said, purposely changing the subject. “That's an ankh right? Egyptian?”

“Smart girl, I see.”

“Woman,” Kalia corrected.

“Oh yes, woman,” he said, hoisting himself on the desk next to her. She could smell the musky essential oil on his skin.

She looked up past his well-defined jawline into those lashed eyes again and quickly averted her face away from his intense gaze, hoping to avoid him seeing her blush. Her eyes landed on his watch, which, to her alarm, read 12:45.

“Oh my God.” She jumped up, knocking over ledgers and papers on the desk. “Is it really almost one o'clock?”

“Yes, little lady. It is,” said Malcolm, standing up.

“I've got to find my sister right now. We've got to go. We were supposed to be…” She cut herself off, not wanting to let Malcolm know about her curfew.

“Who's your sister? Oh wait, you said your name is Kalia, right? That was your sister on the mic. She gave you a shout-out.”

“Yeah, that's her. Did you see her when you went to get the water?” she asked, dialing Mari's cell phone, which went directly to voice mail.

“No, but I saw her and her girls talking to these two dudes in the poolroom about an hour ago. You want me to show you where it is?”

“Please,” said Kalia, walking out of the room.

The rush of hot-bodied air almost knocked Kalia over as they reentered the party, which was in full homecoming-night rage. People were wilding out. Arms and behinds were flying everywhere in a frenetic crunkfest. There were some funny smells in the air, which Kalia decided came from marijuana, liquor and sweat. Holding her around the waist, Malcolm steered her from behind, his body heat making the scene that much hotter. Kalia didn't mind the extra warmth at all. When they got to the poolroom, Mari and her girls were nowhere to be found, but they did see Dewayne with a cue stick in his hand, holding court with several mature-looking ladies.

“Hey, where've you been all night?” she asked Dewayne, tapping him on the shoulder.

Turning around to see a guy holding her hand, Dewayne grimaced and said, “Well, where have
you
been?”

Kalia looked from Dewayne to Malcolm and back to Dewayne.

“Dewayne, this is Malcolm. Malcolm, this is my neighbor Dewayne,” she said.

“What's up?” and pounds were exchanged.

Dewayne leaned over to Kalia. “I see you've made a new friend.”

“I see you've made several,” Kalia shot back, eyeing his tipsy-looking female friends who seemed to be splitting one outfit between them. “Look, have you seen Mari? We need to be getting out of here.”

“Last time I saw her she and her gang were across the room. That was at least an hour ago. I think they were headed outside or something. I heard Shauntae talking about going somewhere with some dude.”

“And you let them go?” demanded Kalia.

“Well, the Chosen One was kinda tied up rescuing distressed damsels, ahight?” he whispered, nodding to his lady friends.

“Well if the Chosen One doesn't help me find Mari, he's gonna be walking his butt home tonight.”

“All right. All right,” said Dewayne. After saying goodbye to his groupies, he followed Malcolm and Kalia to the front of the club.

“There she is,” said Dewayne, pointing toward the glass door. Kalia could see her sister arguing with Shauntae, who was being held from behind by a huge guy. He was rubbing his hands up and down her sides.

“Something is going on,” said Kalia. They were trying to make their way to the door, but the crowd was thick and their going was slow. They saw Shauntae pointing her finger at Mari and Mari with her hands on her hips. Their mouths were moving so fast, it was clear they were pissed with each other. Then all of the sudden, Shauntae flipped her hand in the air at Mari, turned and said something in the ear of guy who was mauling her, and walked off with him. As they burst through the door, Mari was just standing there looking after them.

“Hey, is everything okay?” asked Kalia, running up to her sister.

Mari turned and looked at Kalia to say something, then changed her mind when she saw Dewayne and Malcolm. “I guess. No. Whatever.”

“Where's Shauntae going?”

“Off with that guy,” said Mari, motioning to the couple, who'd just made it to his truck.

“Oh, that's Rafael King,” said Malcolm. “She'd better watch out. He's kinda rough.”

“I could tell,” said Mari, “and I tried to tell her. He was high and drunk and everything. Talking about how he wanted to give her a taste of something.”

They watched Rafael kiss Shauntae really hard, then pick her up like a rag doll and deposit her in the passenger seat of his black chromed-out Ford Explorer.

“Was she drinking, too?” asked Kalia.

“Yeah. She had a couple of something he bought her. She wouldn't listen to me. I told her that I saw him earlier grinding on some other chick, but she didn't care. She's just stupid. I mean how can you leave with a dude you just met?”

“Hey, where's Colby?” Dewayne asked.

“Oh, you won't believe this, but Sean showed up, and they left like two hours ago. She probably called him. I think that girl got a man,” said Mari.

“Well, good for her,” said Kalia. “Look, we gotta break out. It's like one in the morning.”

“For real?” said Mari. “Ooh, we better call home. You call.”

“I already did.”

“And?”

“We're in trouble,” Kalia whispered in her sister's ear before slowing up to walk with Malcolm.

“Oh well, whatcha gonna do?” Mari shrugged, walking with Dewayne toward the car. She looked back over her shoulder at her sister smiling up at the deejay.

“What's going on with them?” she asked, nudging Dewayne.

“I don't know. I'm not back there in their conversation,” said Dewayne, a bit annoyed.

“Ooh wee, somebody is jealous,” sang Mari.

“Well, at least I got some play tonight. It seems that everybody else did, too. Can you say the same?” spit Dewayne, speeding up, leaving Mari to walk by herself just as Kalia caught up to her. She turned to see Malcolm heading back toward the club.

“I know you didn't pull the deejay,” she teased. “My sister came to the party and kicked it to the deejay! You're like my idol.”

“Shut up, silly,” said Kalia, a bit embarrassed.

“I won't,” Mari protested. “I really needed a camera phone tonight. You need to see how you looked grinding all up on the deejay.”

“I was not grinding.” Kalia chuckled.

“So, did you get the digits?”

“Absolutely.” Kalia grinned.

“You got his, or did he get yours?”

“I gave him my cell number. Why?”

Mari stopped in her tracks. “Whaaat? Not my sister, giving out the cell number. Now you're joining the rest of us in the twenty-first century.” She giggled. “I'ma have to teach you how to text message pretty soon.”

“I know how to text message. Shut up,” Kalia said. “Listen, I'm really glad that you're okay. I mean, I can't believe that Shauntae left with that guy. He looked kinda hard.”

“Yeah. I think he's a real thug, and I'm scared for her, but I did what I could. She just wouldn't listen. I'll call her when we get in the car. Maybe she'll answer her cell,” said Mari, rubbing her eyes. “Really though, I'm sick of her. She's getting on my last nerve.”

“I hope she's all right.”

They'd reached the corner of the street on which the Camry was parked. “Look at that fool,” said Mari. Dewayne was leaning against the car, arms folded across his chest, scowl etched on his face.

“What's wrong with him?” Kalia asked.

“What do you mean? He saw you and Malcolm, duh.”