Skeletons (11 page)

23

Santana

T
abitha made me want her even more than my fantasies already did. Pulling away our breathing was shallow as we reluctantly released our embrace as not to get caught while we were in the elevator.

“I bet Mike doesn’t make you feel like that.” She smiled, “I also know that your panties are drenched.”

“I feel like I peed on myself, but I could feel how hard your nipples were through your shirt.”

We giggled like two school girls until the elevator opened and Mr. Gold and his assistant walked in.

“Good morning Mrs. Montgomery.” He addressed me, ignoring Tabitha.

“Good morning Mr. Gold.” I spoke, “Good morning Julie.” I addressed his assistant.

Tabitha, feeling disrepected, stepped up to Mr. Gold with her hand extended, “Hello Mr. Gold I don’t think that we’ve been formally introduced, my name is Tabitha Gray.”

Halfheartedly Mr. Gold shook Tabitha’s hand; I had to admit that she had balls to approach him. “Nice to finally meet you Tabitha.” He said, “I hope that you are keeping a professional profile while you are here.”

“I always keep a professional profile Mr. Gold; maybe you haven’t seen my resume.” Tabitha said through silted eyes.

“Professionalism is very important and if you want to stay in this company always remember that.” He continued. “Fraternization amongst employees is strictly prohibited we are here to work not play.”

Tabitha looked uncomfortable for the rest of the ride to our floor where we got off and said goodbye to Mr. Gold and Julie.

“Did he really have to treat me like that?” she huffed as we walked to my office.

“That is just how Mr. Gold is, always has been and always will be don’t be offended.”

“Whatever, but thanks for having my back.” She rolled her eyes and went to her desk where she stayed for the rest of the day.

Mr. Gold called an impromptu meeting to discuss some of the expense accounts which he and Julie have been watching closely that he wanted copies of everyone’s receipts for the month. After the meeting I headed back to my office, but noticed Tabitha crying as I passed her desk. Not wanting to disturb her I walked past her as if I didn’t notice and sat at my desk. A moment later my phone rang,

“This is Santana.” I answered with my eye toward the door waiting for Tabitha to come in as she normally did.

“Santana Montgomery?” the female on the other end asked.

“Yes, how may I help you?”

“You can’t help me, but I can help you.” She said, her voice was light and airy almost childlike, but filled with pain.

“Excuse me?”

“Tabitha is not who she appears to be, you better watch your back, better yet you’d better watch your bank account.” She spoke.

“I’m sorry, but who is this?”

Click. The phone went dead.

Riding home that evening I kept a close watch on the rearview mirror wondering who the strange women that called me and how she knew about Tabitha and I. When I got home, Mike and the kids wanted to go to The Olive Garden for dinner since I didn’t feel like cooking anyway I decided that it was a great idea. For the first night in a long time Mike and I actually talked and laughed like we use to, but it was still in front of the children that we connected. The problem was that I don’t want to connect with him as mother and father; I wanted to connect with him as husband, wife and lovers.

During dinner my cellphone rang, it was Tabitha I left the table telling Mike and the kids that I had to take the call.

“I’m sorry about earlier.” She said. “It is just that I had a bad morning already and Mr. Gold just made it worse. He made me feel like I am nothing.” She explained. “All of my life I’ve had to put up with people shitting on me and treating me as if I am nothing.”

“That is okay, you can’t let what that old fool says disrupt your entire day like that Tabitha.” I said, “Is that why you were crying at your desk this afternoon?”

She was silent for a moment, “I didn’t mean for you to see that.”

“What was the matter Tabitha?” I asked truly concerned.

“I may have my car repossessed.” She said.

“Repossessed, but why?” I asked.

“Because I can’t pay my car note due to being out of work for three months before I started working for you.”

“They are not willing to work with you?” I asked.

“Yeah right not in this day and age.” She scoffed, “But don’t worry about it I will find a way.” She said.

“You can’t be without your car honey; is there anyone that you can borrow the money from? Your parent’s maybe.”

She laughed, “Girl I haven’t seen my parents in years. To them I was never good enough that is the reason that I moved to St. Louis in the first place.”

“I know the feeling of not having supportive parents.” I said thinking of my own.

“Maybe I can sell some of my jewelry or clothes to get the fifteen-hundred dollars that I need in order to keep my car.”

“No, don’t sell your things Tabitha.”

“How else can I get the money?” she asked.

“I will let you borrow it and you can pay me back whenever you can.”

“No I couldn’t take that much money from you Santana.” She gasped.

“It is a loan and besides I can’t see you without your car.”

“St. Louis buses run all day then and is the Metrolink.”

“Don’t worry about it sweetie, I’ll give you the money tomorrow morning.”

She began to cry, “Thank you so much Santana, you are such a good friend.”

“No problem. I am out to dinner with Mike and the kids so I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Okay, thank you so much.”

Mike eyed me as I sat back at the table, “Was that Mr. Gold?” he asked.

“No, it was Asteria and her boy troubles as usual.” I lied.

Mike may have paid for dinner that night, but by the look on his face he did not buy the lie that I was selling.

24

Asteria

I
had not talked to Keith since the night he left my house over a week ago. He wouldn’t answer my calls, texts or emails and as much as I hated him for cheating on me with Keisha I hated not being able to at least talk to him. On the outside I seemed perfectly fine, but inside I was dying without him. I missed his touch, his kiss and the way he sent me to the moon with each stroke of his dick. Every time I thought of him and Keisha together I wanted to throw up. I couldn’t believe that he would betray me like this.

Every day that I walked into work Keisha made it her business to smile and speak to me as if her ass were not sleeping with my man. Pandia questioned me on why I changed my mind on firing her and I just told her that I was going to give the girl one more chance to improve.

Saturday was my day off so I went shopping with Jovanna and Santana meeting them at the Galleria in Clayton which was not too far from my house and the salon.

I hugged Santana before I looked at Jovanna; I was still pissed off at her for what she had the nerve to say to me the last time we were together.

“Hey Asteria, I’m sorry for how I came at you the last time.” She said, “I was bogus and out of line for what I said to you. I’m under a lot of pressure and I took it out on the wrong person.”

Smiling I hugged my best friend, “It’s cool girl, I figured that you were stressing about the wedding.”

Santana looked confused, “Are you guys keeping secrets now?”

We all laughed, “Now we just had some silly ass words between us. It is squashed now.” I said.

“I was about to say because we have been friends with one another for far too long to be keeping secrets.”

“You guys know everything there is to know about me so I have nothing to hide.” Jovanna smiled.

“Yeah, the two of you know me better than my own husband.” Santana added.

“Best friends never keep secrets from one another.” I said knowing that my own skeleton wanted to come out of the closet.

After shopping we had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory then parted ways. Pulling up to my house I was amazed to see Keith’s squad car parked in its usual hiding space behind the building next to the huge oak tree.

The smell of his cologne was in the air as I walked in and sat my bags down at the door.

“What are you doing here?” I asked as I walked into my bedroom seeing him lying across my bed watching television.

“Where is Latif?” he asked.

“With your wife, why?”

“I see that you’ve been out spending more money.”

Rolling my eyes at him I began to take off my coat and boots, “If you came to see my son you need to go home because that is where he is.”

“I came to see you.” He said as he walked towards me wearing nothing but a pair of Sean John boxer briefs. “Did you miss me?” I could not help but notice the huge bulge that threatened to be released from his underwear.

I wanted to tell him no and to go to Keisha’s house, but my tongue wouldn’t cooperate with my mind so I whispered, “Yes.”

Grabbing my ponytail Keith pulled my mouth to his and gave me all of his tongue while unbuttoning my pants with his other hand. My body was his for the taking no matter how much my mind wasn’t.

“Are you still seeing Keisha?” I breathed as we lay naked next to one another in pools of our own juices and sweat.

“No.”

“Is that why you are here?”

“I missed you Asteria.”

“You really hurt me Keith; how could you do that to me and with that hood rat of all people.”

“What I did with Keisha had nothing to do with you, just as what I do with you has nothing to do with Pandia.”

“Keith do you even love me?” I asked through the lump in my throat.

“Why do you ask me shit like that?” He said rolling over to begin his usual ritual of leaving me after he satisfied himself.

“Because I don’t know how you feel about me; you know exactly how I feel about you. I gave you a son, yet you won’t even give me your heart!” I cried.

“This is exactly why I didn’t want to come over here. This type of shit is why I fuck with hood rats like Keisha, because they know where they stand with me and bitches like her know when to shut the fuck up!” “Look Asteria,” he said as he sat on my bed with his head in his hands, “I cannot do this any longer.”

“What do you mean?” I exclaimed jumping out of bed naked.

“I mean that if this is how it is going to be then I’m done with this whole thing. We shouldn’t have even started this shit in the first place!” Keith began putting on his clothes.

“Keith, but I love you is it wrong of me to want you to love me too? Is it wrong of me to want you to give me all of you just as I give you all of me?”

“I cannot give you all of me Asteria!” he yelled, “I am married to your twin sister! Why is that so hard for you to get through your head?”

“How hard was it for you to have walked away from this three years ago?” I yelled back with tears streaming down my face.

“I never meant for it to have happened, I never meant for us to have taken things this far.”

Grabbing him by his hands I pulled myself to Keith and kissed him on his thick lips, his soft cheeks and his warm forehead, “But we have lasted for a reason, we are meant to be together Keith. You said it yourself that you are not in love with my sister. You said that you would leave her and that we would finally be together as a family. You said those things to me. I believed you and I’ve waited for you.”

Looking at me in disbelief, “Asteria, that is your sister don’t you even care about what that would do to her? She is the only family that you have left!”

“Pandia has it all Keith, she always has. I don’t have shit, but I don’t care,” I cried, “All that I want is you.”

Pulling away from me Keith continued to get dressed, but I stopped him, pushing him onto the bed while I climbed on top of him.

“I want you to want me too.” I said as I kissed him passionately.

I knew that Keith didn’t love me and that he would never leave my sister, but at this point I was willing to get in where I fit in for my man even if that meant sharing him with every woman in St. Louis.

25

Jovanna

J
ustin spoon-fed me ice cream while we cuddled on the couch watching a scary movie. Chad called me several times during my shopping date with Santana and Asteria, but I hit ignore every time. Since I changed the number on our home phone we didn’t get any more late night calls. Chad was not playing he wanted his money and he didn’t care what he had to do to get it.

“Can you believe that in four months we will be Mr. and Mrs. Justin Thompson?” he smiled kissing me on the cheek.

“I can’t wait.”

“I am glad that you finally took some time off of work to relax and spend some time with me. I was starting to miss you Jo.”

Smiling I said, “I was missing you too Justin, I missed eating ice cream in the middle of winter with you.”

Justin put the bowl on the table and began tickling me, “I see that you have jokes!”

I laughed so hard that I couldn’t breathe as he tickled and kissed me all over my half naked body.

“I love you Jovanna.” He said kissing me passionately.

“I just wished that your family loved me too.” I sighed.

“You are not marrying them, you are marrying me.”

“I know, but I still would like to have a good relationship with them, but because I’m black they act like I’m no good.”

Justin sighed and sat back on the couch, “They are small minded people who are holding on old fashioned values that mean nothing in this day and age. There are plenty of interracial couples now days.”

“What if we have children, they won’t have grandparents on either side.”

“You are right, since your parents are dead and my parents are dumb.”

“That makes me kind of sad Justin.” I pouted. “Maybe we shouldn’t have kids.”

“You don’t get off that easily; I’m knocking you up as soon as I get that ring on your finger.” He smiled.

Leaning over I kissed my future husband until I heard a knock on the front door, instantly my heart sank.

“I’ll get it.” Justin got off of the couch and walked over to the door. Looking out of the window there was a mail truck parked in front of the house. “Hey it is a certified letter for you.” He said tossing me the manila envelope.

“I wonder who this is from.” I said as I looked for the return address.

“Open it and find out. I’m going to the bathroom.” He said as he made his way to the backroom.

My eyes widened as I thumbed through the photos in the envelope; in my hand I held two photos of a younger me dancing at the Honey Lounge. I remember who those pictures were taken as a promotional sign for the club. On the last photo there was a message written in thick black ink:

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS, BUT THIS ONE IS WORTH TEN-THOUSAND. I WANT MY MONEY BY THE END OF THE WEEK OR SNOWFLAKE WILL FIND OUT WHO HE IS REALLY MARRYING.

Shaking, I tore the pictures up into pieces and threw them and the envelope in the fireplace then lit a fire. Just as the fire grew Justin walked out of the bathroom, “So what was in the envelope?”

“Just some promotional junk, I tossed it into the fire. I have no desire to see anything that has to do with work for a while.” I managed a smile.

“Are you alright honey? You look like you seen a ghost.”

“I’m fine Justin; let’s get finished with what we started.” I said as I walked seductively towards him.

“I think that it would be a better idea if we held off for the night, that ice cream did a number on my stomach.”

“Gross nasty butt!” I laughed smacking him on his ass.

As we settled back on the couch and began watching the movie my mind wandered back to when I was known as Marquita, and the day that changed my life forever.

August 1999

It had been almost one month since I told Tasha about the safe that was hidden in Chad’s bedroom closet, but I knew that she had not forgotten. She said that she wanted out just as bad as I did and we devised a plan to get the money from Chad without anyone else knowing.

It was almost nine o’clock in the morning when Tasha and I left our apartment, we told Sunny and Lacey that I was going to class and Tasha was going to do laundry. Since they stayed so high they didn’t question anything of us leaving. We were silent in our own thoughts as we walked to Chad’s house. I could sense regret in Tasha, but I was determined to go through with my plan even if it would cost me my life.

“What are you doing here?” Chad asked when he opened the door to me standing there. The plan was for Tasha to hide behind the bushes until I made it inside then I’d make sure the door remained unlocked so that she could enter.

“I just wanted to talk to you daddy.” I answered with a smile on my face.

“This early Marquita?” he asked looking around to make sure that I was alone.

When I entered his home I stepped out of my heels before walking on the plush, blue carpet. Chad was still in his night clothes as he walked towards his bedroom, I made sure to leave the door unlocked for Tasha to enter.

“What is going on this early in the morning that made you want to come and talk to me?” he asked as he lay down on the king-sized bed.

“I just missed you, I know that things have been kind of strange between the two of us lately and I wanted to just come and lay with you like I use to do.”

“Did you miss daddy?” he asked as he wrapped his big arms around my body when I laid next to him.

“Yes.” I answered, fighting the urge to vomit.

“Show daddy how much you missed him.” Chad said as he lay back on his back, pulling down the silk pajama pants exposing his small dick.

“
Where are you Tasha?
” I thought as I began to kiss and lick his foul-tasting member, “
Please girl don’t make me have to do this by myself.
”

Needless to say, Tasha never came.

When Chad finished he fell asleep and I laid there angry not only at Tasha, but also at myself for giving Chad another piece of me. I knew that if I didn’t take what was mine and leave right now, I never would. Getting up out of bed I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a knife hiding it behind my back. Chad was snoring when I got back into the room, I tip-toed to the large closet that was filled with expensive suits and shoes. My nerves made me want to heave all of what Chad made me swallow, but I held my own as my eyes darted frantically around the closet in search of the black safe.

There it was to my right, behind several shoe and hat boxes. My hands shook as I moved the boxes to the side and pulled on the handle to the safe hoping that it was unlocked, but it wasn’t. Looking at the electronic keypad I tried to think of number that Chad would have used to unlock the safe. First I tried his birthday 041071, but that didn’t work. Then I tried the digits of his pager number 559871 but again that didn’t work. Wiping the sweat that was pouring down my face, I thought of what his pin number would have been something that was important to Chad. Then I got an idea: 7467 or PIMP and it opened. However, just as I opened the safe I heard,

“What in the fuck are you doing?” Chad was standing behind me naked as the day that he was born; he grabbed me by my hair pulling me out of the closet. “You stupid bitch! You think that you can steal from me and get away with it!” I tried to get away from the grasp that he had on my hair, but he threw me into the dresser hitting my head.

Chad then grabbed me by my throat and began choking me as a clawed at his face. He only let me go when I put my fingers into his eyes and tried to scratch his eyeballs out, breaking off two of my nails in the process. Grabbing his eyes Chad backed off of me and rolled onto his side in pain.

“You better run bitch because if I catch you I’m going to bury you out back with my dead dog!” he yelled. Coughing and holding my throat I managed to stagger back to the closet towards the safe. I hurried as I could hear Chad coming towards me with the force of a linebacker he tackled me to the floor inside of the closet. I kicked my feet frantically, kicking him in the face a few times as he grabbed for me legs. Chad was stronger than he appeared, but I was not weak and I was not going to allow him to kill me without a fight.

He turned me over to my back, punching me across the face. I screamed as he pulled my hair and slammed my head into the softness of the carpet. I thought that I would lose consciousness, but the thick carpet acted as padding to the hard floor underneath.

“Say your prayers bitch!” he said as he began choking me again, I reached inside of the safe and grabbed the long knife landing it into Chad’s side. He called out in pain as his grip loosened around my neck and he fell to the floor.

Laughing at my trembling hands as I held onto the knife he said, “Bitch if you are tough enough to use it you’d better kill me because if I get up I’m coming for you.”

In the pit of my stomach I knew that Chad meant what he said as he lay on the floor holding his injured and bloodied side. I felt a sense of power as I stood over my adversary with the long blade in my hands.

“Who is the bitch now, bitch?” I spat blood from my mouth onto the carpet as he lay cowering on the floor with blood with a pool of blood underneath him. “You better kill me.” He whimpered.

“You’ve done nothing but take from me since the first day that I met you, but you no longer hold control over me. Today is a new day, today is the day that I make you my bitch and today is the day that I take back what is due to me!” I ran over to him and hit him over the head with the butt of the knife twice until he fell asleep on the carpet lying in a puddle of his own blood. As his body hit the floor I looked in the mirror at the crazed manic that stared back at me. I was covered in blood, but for once I was not terrified. I felt liberated.

Grabbing a plastic bag I went back to the safe making sure that I kept a close eye on Chad while he lay knocked out on the carpet. I filled the bag with stacks of our money, but I didn’t take it all, just what was due to me. I used one of his luxury suit jackets to wipe the blood from my face and arms, and then I tossed it to the floor next to him. Looking around his house which at one time meant so much to me, I thought that this would be the last time that I would ever see this place and Chad again.

Rushing back to the apartment, I noticed Tasha was sitting on her bed with tears streaming down her face. When she saw me and my battered face she embraced me tightly.

“I’m sorry girl, but I was scared.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I said as I took two stacks of cash out of the bag and put it in her hands, “Take this, but I have to go Tasha.”

“Where is Chad?”

I looked at her blankly, “He is still at home and I have to go.”

“Take me with you.” She pleaded.

“No, you have to go your own way.”

“Where are you going?” she asked as I grabbed a few pieces of clothing out of my closet and stuffed them into my book bag. My hands trembling from fear.

Tasha hugged me one last time, “Take care of yourself Marquita.” She whispered.

I rushed out of the house and ran to the bus stop with only what I could carry in the book bag on one arm. When I got on the bus, people looked at my bruise-covered face, shook their head then looked the other direction not waiting to get involved. I went to the Greyhound station and boarded the first bus to anywhere U.S.A. which took me to St. Louis, far away from Marquita, Chad, Tasha and my past.