Plausibility (38 page)

“I like to know who my kids are with and what they are up to,” Liz countered.

Quill blew out a puff of air, willing herself to keep her mouth shut. Was she for real? She spent 14 years not knowing where she was, and she was going to make an issue over an afternoon.

“I’ll call or text you later,” Quill promised, seeing the fancy BMW pull into the drive.

Liz stared after her. What else was she supposed to do?

Quill had the best day she’d had since she was forced to live with her mother. They smoked so much weed and laughed the entire day. The tattoo hurt like a mother fucker, but she loved it as she stared at it through the mirror on her dresser later that night. It was in the exact same place as Seri’s, minus the word vengeance. Hers too said one simple word, “Julius.”

By the end of September, Quill
didn’t like her new school any more than she had. She hated it more, actually. The only thing she did like about it was Whisper and Sam now too. At least she had him during one of her classes.

Blain asked her to the homecoming dance and she, of course, declined. She wouldn’t be going to any high school dance. She did have to fight with her mother over that too. She was excited to take her two girls dress shopping. Quill opted out of the shopping day and, instead, hung out at the yard getting stoned with her friends.

She was pissed again the following weekend. She didn’t care about the homecoming football game. She didn’t care about football, or Reese cheering. She did care that her dad and Seri were coming. She hadn’t seen Seri in almost a month. She would have put up a bigger fight had Seri not been coming to watch Reese and the game too.

Aquilla showered and entered her room wearing a towel. “You scared the fuck out of me. What are you doing here?” Quill yelled, jumping at the sight of Seri sprawled across her bed with a big smile.

“I missed the fuck out of you. That’s what I’m doing here. Do you have a problem with that?’

Quill smiled. “No, but only because I missed the fuck out of you too.”

Quill slid on a pair of panties, dropping the towel.

“Quill! What the hell did you do?” Seri yelled, coming off the bed.

“What?”

Seri spun her around to see if her eyes were playing tricks on her. Quill wasn’t as slick as she had thought. She forgot about the mirror right behind her.

“Your parents are going to freak. They’re going to blame me,” she worried, especially Manny, he saw her tattoo often. Liz might not know about it. Okay. She could handle Manny as long as Liz didn’t catch wind of it. “Where the hell did you get that? You’re not even 18, and I know your mother didn’t sign for it.”

“A friend did it, and my parents aren’t going to find out, and neither is Monica,” she warned.

“Why the hell would you do that, Quill? Why would you put his name on your body?”

“You already know why. I love him. I’m always going to love him. Even if I never see him again, I will still love him, and the quill signifies that I will always love you unless you don’t stop bitching at me about it.”

“Sometimes I curse the day I ever met you,” Seri claimed.

“Whatever. If you would have never met me, you’d be dead, very lonely, and you wouldn’t be fucking my dad.”

“Yeah
, well, about your dad,” Seri smiled, holding up her ring finger.

Aquilla’s mouth automatically fell open. “He proposed to you?”

“Yup, and I said yes.”

“Oh my God, Seri
, I don’t even know you. You don’t even know him,” she remembered their short romance.

“Relax, I’m not marrying him tomorrow.”

“When?”

Seri shrugged her shoulders. “A year or so
, I don’t know.”

Aquilla pulled out her baggy hidden in the closet.

“Celebrate?” she asked, dangling the bag in the air.

“Where the hell did you get that?” Seri scolded.

“A friend, twist us one before we go to this stupid game,” she coaxed, tossing the little pack of papers.

“No. We’re not doing this. I can’t believe you bought a bag of weed. How much are you smoking, Quill?” Seri wanted to know, worried. What the hell did she do? She created a monster.

Aquilla took the bag and sat down beside Seri. “Yes, we are doing this, and I smoke it about every day. How often do you smoke, Seri?” Quill asked with cross-eyes as she licked the paper closed. “Come over to the window,” she nodded.

Seri followed, shaking her head in disbelief. The
y smoked about half of it while discussing Seri marrying her father.

“You’ve known him for like a minute, Seri. I can’t believe he bought you a ring,” Quill said in disbelief.

“I know. Me either. I was floored; I wasn’t expecting it…at all.

“You’re not my Seri anymore. I don’t know who the hell you are,” Quill assured her.

“I am your Seri. I will always be your Seri and I am madly in love with your father.”

“Well, one good thing about it, as long as you are with my dad, you’re never going to leave me. Does that mean I get to call you Mommy Seri?”

“I wouldn’t leave you even if I didn’t love your dad, and fuck no. Don’t you ever call me mommy. Where did you get that shit? You need to hook me up.”

“I’ll send you home with some. There’s Visine in my nightstand drawer,” Quill offered, looking at Seri’s eyes. Her mom might be gullible enough to miss it, but her father wouldn’t. He would be giving them both the look.

<><><>

It was a good damn thing Seri was at that game with her. It was fucking cold out. Quill was missing her tropical island more and more. She had a feeling she wasn’t going to like winter in the north. She hated it alre
ady and it was only down to 50. She couldn’t imagine 20 or even 0. She would freeze to death.

She and Seri sat on the bleachers beside each other
, huddled together talking. Neither of them cared about the game and discussed their lives. Quill told her all about Whisper, and how she judged her on her looks. She told her about going to her house and almost falling over at the sight of the mansion. Her parents were apparently both successful lawyers. Whisper spent a lot of time alone or at the yard.

Seri told her about Monica constantly thinking she needed to talk about the shooting, her recent resume for an all-girls correction facility and the new house that she and Manny had put an offer on.

“I need to run to the car. Come with me,” Seri beckoned.

“Where you guys going? Don’t you want to see this? We just intercepted,” Manny exclaimed, not understanding how they could not be into this game. It was intense.

“I need to run to the car. We’ll be back,” Seri explained.

“Why are you going to the car?”

“My purse is in there.”

Manny tilted his hips for his wallet. “Do you need some money?” he asked, thinking they were going for drinks or snacks.

“No. I don’t need money. I need a tampon.”

“Oh,” he said, looking around her to the field. He just had to ask.

Quill and Seri made their way through the dark multitude of cars. Theirs was parked toward the back in the grassy part. The game was a big deal and people came from everywhere to watch the Bobcats go up against the Lions. It wasn’t such a big deal to either of them. Seri laughed when Quill stepped into a pothole, landing her right on her butt.

Quill didn’t even have time to see what happened. She could hear Seri’s muffled scream and turned in the direction of the shrill. Her eyes darted, trying to focus on the two silhouettes. She could tell that he had one hand over her mouth and the other one held a gun with a narrow rod on the end. Quill knew it to be a silencer. The game was so noisy. Nobody would hear the gunshot. This couldn’t be happening again. How the hell did Seri keep getting held at gun point? People go lifetimes without ever being held up, and Seri just happened to be the once in a blue moon, or twice.

Quill could do nothing this time. She wasn’t close enough to do anything. What did he want? She had to react, but how?

“Quill?” she heard the voice.

Her feet felt like butter in the sun. They were going to collapse below her legs. Her stomach found a nice tight knot and made its way to her throat.

“Julius?” she managed to mutter.

He didn’t speak. He just stared. He couldn’t speak. She couldn’t speak. It was him. Julius was there. He came for her. She knew he would.

“Julius
, let her go,” Quill finally remembered the gun being held to Seri’s head.

“What are you doing with her, Quill?” Julius didn’t understand. Why would she be with the bitch that split them up?

“She’s my friend, Julius. Please let her go,” Aquilla begged, taking a step toward him.

“Your friend!?! She’s not your friend, Quill. You know what she did. She deserves to die.”

“Julius, NO! PLEASE! I’m begging you. Let her go. For me,” she tried.

“How can you say she is your friend? She shot your own father. She’s a cold blooded murderer, Quill.”

“No, she didn’t. She didn’t kill anyone, Julius. She only did what she had to do.”

Julius let go of Seri and shoved her in front of him with the gun now in the exact same place she had just been shot.

“Tell her!” he demanded, shoving the gun in her back. “Fucking tell her who pulled the trigger,” he demanded.

Tell her what? “Seri,” Quill questioned. “What is he talking about?”

“I’m sorry, Quill.”

Quill looked into her eyes with pure confusion. “You shot him?”

“Quill, he pulled a gun. Either I shot him or he was going to shoot me. I wanted to tell you.”

“But you didn’t.”

“Now can I do away with her?” Julius asked.

“No. Let her go,” Aquilla demanded again. What the fuck just happened
? It was all too much. Julius was there. He was right in front of her. Seri shot and killed her father?

“She’ll come after us, Quill. We can’t just leave her.”

“Come after us?” Quill asked in a daze. Did he come to take her away? What about Seri, her mom, her dad, and Reese. What would Whisper think?

“Yes, we can’t just leave her.”

“Quill, listen to me,” Seri tried, right before Julius sent a left hook right into her ribcage. Seri hit the ground. She’d been sucker punched there a hundred times, never had it ever felt like that.

“Julius, you idiot!” Quill
yelled, dropping to her side. She was worried he did something to her injury.

“Let’s get out of here, Quill,” he ordered, “before I do blow her head off.”

Quill looked up to him. He wanted her to leave with him?

“Quill, please listen to me,” Seri begged. “Do not get in that car with him. Please, Quill.”

“I have to, Seri. I don’t belong here. I belong with Julius,” Quill spoke softly, kneeling beside her on the damp grass.

“Quill, no you don’t. You belong right here with your family who loves you. Please don’t do this, Quill.”

“Come on, Quill,” Julius warned. He didn’t like being exposed out in the open like he was. He needed to get his Quill and get the hell out of there.

“I’ll call you. I promise,” Quill said as Julius pulled her to her feet.

“Quill, no, Quill, stop!” Seri yelled. She managed to get to her feet, holding her side, and to his window before he pulled away.

“Juliu
s, you’re off the radar. Nobody’s looking for you. All charges have been dropped. If you take her, you’ll go down. I will fucking take you down. Don’t take her. I’m begging you. She’s doing well here. Leave her alone. Please.”

“You expect me to believe a word you say? I will always be under the radar. I’m a Chavez.”

“No. I swear. All charges were dropped after your note to Quill was read. Quill, please get out!” she begged.

“Seri I am fine
, Julius would never hurt me. I will call you, I promise.”

“Quill!!!!” Seri screamed after the taillights.

Julius made it as far as the next dirt road and pulled in. It wasn’t his plan. His plan was to get her as far away from there as he could. He couldn’t help it. He had to. He shoved the car in park and reached for her. She came to her knees and threw herself in his arms. He rubbed her back as she sobbed in the crook of his neck.

It was him. It was really Julius. She couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t stop crying. His arms, his smell, his hands,
and everything about him were real. Julius pulled her away from him and kissed her lips. “God, I missed you.”

Quill couldn’t stop crying.
This was what she wanted. This was what she had been waiting months on. Why did she feel so sad? Why did her family’s faces keep lingering in her mind? She didn’t care about them. Did she?

“We have to go
, baby,” he said, sliding her away so that he could put the car in gear.

They drove in silence, both deep in their own thoughts for around 20 minutes.

“Throw it out the window, Quill,” Julius demanded when her cellphone rang.

“Julius, I have to answer it. Let me talk to her. I don’t want them to call the cops.”

“Quill, the cops are already there,” he assured her.

“No. They’re
not like that. They love me. Please, Julius. Let me answer.”

Julius didn’t reply. He sighed
, a deep breath and turned his attention to the road.

“Mom
, I’m fine. I promise,” Quill answered. She could hear the wheeze in her mother’s lungs before she ever spoke.

“Quill, where are you?”

“We’re on the road. I’m not sure where we are going, but I will call you. I promise.”

“Quill
, get out of that car. NOW!” her father yelled, frantically taking the phone from Liz. Seri stood helplessly watching. She felt horrible for not being able to stop him.

“Dad,
I’m fine. I will keep you updated, okay?”

“No. Quill, it’s not okay. I’m giving him one hour to have you standing in this front door and I’m calling the cops.”

“Please don’t do that. I am fine. I belong with Julius. Please try to understand that.”

“Quill, you belong right here with your family, and Seri. For God
’s sakes, Quill, please don’t do this.”

“Don’t call the cops, Dad. I will call you in an hour.” Quill hung up. What was she supposed to say? She was hurting her family…again.

“You call them mom and dad, Quill?”