Shattered (11 page)

W
e ain’t show up to the rooftop party until after one in the morning, but you couldn’t even tell it was that late since everything was still popping around the city. They never lied when they said New York never sleeps. When we stepped off the elevator, the DJ was pumping a Pharrell and Clipse song. The crowd was still packed and celebrities was everywhere. Trina Boo gave me and Meeka a little pep talk in the cab ride over, reminding us not to act starstruck when we saw celebrities.

“The trick is to treat them niggas the same way you’d treat a nigga who wants to smash. Period. They ain’t nobody for real,” she had said.

And I tried my best not to do double-takes when I saw them, either. Taryn took me to the bathroom once to do a few lines, and that was just what I needed to give me that extra boost to work the room. Competition for attention was fierce. A girl stepped on my fucking foot with that same green-and-blue Versace dress I left back at Trina Boo’s, and I wanted to kill her ass.

“You all right?” Meeka asked when she saw me bend over to check my foot.

“Yeah, I’m okay.”

“Girl, look. You see who that is on the couch?” Meeka said slyly, talking with a glass in front of her lips.

I looked over to where she was staring. “Who is that?”

“That’s the dude that just got traded to the Giants from the Redskins. I can’t remember his name.”

I knew exactly who she was talking about cuz his face was all over the news in D.C. Not only was he and the owner not getting along, but the dumb muthafucka put his credit card inside a waitress’s shirt at a bar downtown and she sued his ass. “Are you sure that’s him?”

“Girl, that’s him.”

I stared at the dude and knew that if nothing else I recognized his face. I followed Meeka over there since he was chilling by hisself and my foot was still hurting.

“Thank you for saving these seats for us,” Meeka said, squeezing in on his left.

He looked at her like she was crazy. I sat on his right, sandwiching him in, and then I took my shoe off and rubbed my foot. That shit still hurt.

“Why you looking like you lost your shih tzu?” Meeka asked.

His forehead folded up as he stared at the crowd. “I don’t know what you talking about.”

“You miss D.C., don’t you? Tell the truth,” Meeka said.

He snorted and shook his head. “Fuck D.C.”

“Damn. Like that,” she said, her neck snapping back and her top lip curling up.

“Yeah, like that.”

“What’s in your cup? I’ma get your ass another drink. You want something stronger?”

He laughed and shook his head.

“Now that’s better…I’m Meeka, and this is KiKi,” she sang and fluttered her thick lashes.

I flashed him a fake smile and rubbed my toes.

“You look like you in pain,” he said to me.

“Some stupid bitch stepped on my fucking foot, and it hurt like hell.”

“And she probably still dancing, while you sitting over here crying like a baby,” he said with his country accent before laughing.

I rolled my eyes, then smiled. “What’s your name again? I’m not even gon’ play like I remember.”

“X,” he said, showing us his tattoo with his bama-ass.

“Oh, that’s right.” Xavier Moreland. Mr. Million Dollar Man himself. He threw away a blank check with the Redskins when he cursed the owner out in the locker room while a reporter was still around, and then he turned around and pulled that dumb stunt with the waitress. I bet we could trick his stupid ass out of some money if we wanted to.

We sat on the couch with X, watching people plot, then pounce on different celebrities, just as we had. Everybody tried to play it cool, but it ain’t take much to notice vultures in the room, swooping over from one failed opportunity to the next. Meeka gave me a look that let me know what she was trying to do. I gave her a not-so-sure look back. Then she said, “Don’t you wanna leave this joint? It’s the same old, same old. You look bored anyway.”

I knew she wanted to pull a stunt with this dude, but I wasn’t really up to doing all that. The last party I did was the one uptown when Ryan walked in, but Meeka still ain’t know what happened after that, so she had no idea that I wasn’t even feeling doing this shit. But when X said, “Yeah, let’s go,” I ain’t have no plans to let Meeka go by herself. When X stood up, me and Meeka followed him. While we waited for the elevator, I sent Peaches and Trina Boo a text, telling them what was up.

Peaches sent:
SEND ME THE ADDRESS AND BE CAREFUL.

Trina Boo sent:
BE CAREFUL AND CALL ME LATER.

X called his car service. As we waited for it to pick us up, he asked us where we was from.

Meeka said, “The District, baby!”

Then he smiled. “I should’ve known.”

“Yeah, you should’ve known. We got the baddest bitches, right?”

“Yeah, y’all bad. I like your little thick ass,” he said, slapping Meeka’s butt.

It didn’t take us long to get to his hotel of choice on Fifth Avenue after we climbed in the town car. We ordered drinks at the bar, then headed upstairs. As soon as we got in the room, I sat on the couch. I ain’t want no part of their little excursion. Meeka pushed X to the bed. For her to be so much shorter than him, you’d think she was the one who was taller and stronger by the way he fell on the bed. I had never seen Meeka so excited before. It had to be the dollar signs in her head. Don’t get me wrong, X was sexy as hell, but I knew she was more turned on by the possibility of what she could get out of him. She took his clothes off, and I couldn’t believe how sick his body was. Arms and legs like Bamm-Bamm. His stomach was cut like a statue.

I sent Peaches a text with the address I found on a notepad beside the couch, and then I watched Meeka straddle him. My finger accidentally hit the video recorder button. Before I knew it, I was sitting on the couch making a bunch of mini-movies of Meeka’s performance. Hell, if nothing else, I was gonna have something to show Peaches and Trina Boo when we got back. I smiled to myself.

“Hey, KiKi, come here,” X said breathless. I walked over to the bed. “You don’t want none of this?”

“Not this time,” I said.

“Not this time?” he repeated, smiling.

He did have a massive penis. I recorded Meeka sucking it.

“What you doing with your phone?” he asked.

“Nothing, I just sent a text to my girl so she could know where we was at and that we was safe. I’m putting it up now,” I said, making sure I got X’s face clear as day before I put the phone down.

“Come here,” he said again, but I smiled and walked back to the couch. I ain’t want none.

When Meeka was done, she climbed on top and gave X a joyride, the kind where she put her ankles under his shoulders and leaned back to hold his ankles. I smiled at her using one of my favorite moves. I went to the bathroom. By the time I came out, they was done.
Damn. He couldn’t hang?

Meeka winked and then went to the bathroom.

“Your girl good,” X said, knotting the condom and then wiping his dick with the sheet.

I shook my head as he went to the bathroom behind Meeka. I saw his jeans on the floor by the bed. As soon as the door closed, I checked his pockets. His dumb ass left his wallet. I took a picture of his ID with my phone just in case Peaches and Trina Boo ain’t believe it was him. Even though I could’ve easily taken his Black Card, I took all the cash out and stuffed it inside my bra. I stood up when I heard them laughing in the bathroom, then Meeka moaning. They was making me horny, but I wasn’t gonna break. I rubbed my nose and went to the wet bar. I opened a small bottle of tequila, swallowed it, and sat back on the couch. I knew Meeka was doing him, but now I was ready to go. That shit was sounding too good in there.

I closed my eyes and took another sip. My phone rang. The screen said, “Unknown.” I ignored it. When it happened again five minutes later, I started not to answer it cuz I ain’t do unknowns, but since it was after four in the morning, I knew it wasn’t a bill collector.

“Hello?”

“KiKi.”

I was shocked to hear Audri’s voice. “Hey, babe. Where’s your phone?”

“Hey…I’m in the hospital,” she whispered.

“What?” I said, standing up.

“Some niggas robbed me. Beat me like a dude and shit, too.”

“Oh my God, Audri,” I said, sitting back down. I felt so guilty for picking a fight with her earlier. I felt guilty for cheating on her with Taryn. I felt guilty for not even telling her I made a trip to New York with my girls. I just felt like shit. “You okay?”

“I had to get twelve stitches on my forehead cuz they pistol-whipped me, broke my arm, and bruised my ribs, but other than that, I’m all right.”

“Where are you?” I asked, shaking.

“At AtlantiCare.”

“Oh my God. I’m coming as soon as I can, okay?” I said, rubbing my forehead, wondering what happened and just how bad she was. Audri gave me her room number and told me the address, and as soon as she hung up, I looked up the directions on my phone, and then I called Peaches. She tried to calm me down.

“We can leave first thing in the morning, KiKi. Ain’t nothing gon’ change between now and a few hours.”

That wasn’t what the fuck I was trying to hear from her. I hung up and knocked on the bathroom door.

“Hunh?” Meeka said, sounding winded.

“My bad, Meeka, but Audri just called me from the hospital. We gotta go.”

“Oh, shit. What happened? Wait, I’m coming out.”

Ten minutes later, she came out and put her dress back on, leaving X in the shower. I told her everything Audri said as we walked to the hotel elevator and that Peaches said we could leave later in the morning.

“Well, what you wanna do?” Meeka asked. “She’s our ride.”

Meeka was right. I guess we just had to wait. I felt so helpless and wanted to get to Audri as soon as I could. We took a cab to meet the girls back at the party. Peaches and Trina Boo came down soon afterward. Taryn had left earlier with some of her girlfriends. I was pissed at Peaches for not wanting to drive through the night so I could see my girl.

“Well, at least I got Xavier’s number,” Meeka said. “I know that shit by heart: 646-555-3303.”

“Y’all bitches crazy!” Trina Boo said.

Even I had to smile at that. “Wait until you find out just how crazy we are.”

I showed them the videos I made on the phone. They cracked up laughing at Meeka giving him the best that she had.

“Damn, look at Meeka go. Go, shawty, it’s your birthday, it’s your birthday. You should post that shit up on the Internet,” Peaches said. “Or you could blackmail his ass for some more dough.”

“No, don’t do that. You gon’ mess up my good thing,” Meeka said.

“Oh yeah…I took some money from his wallet, so I don’t know about all that…,” I said.

“Damn, bitch! Where’s my cut?” Meeka said, laughing and holding her palm out. “All that work I did.”

I gave her half and said, “Job well done!”

“Damn, I miss y’all,” Trina Boo sang and gave out hugs.

W
e ain’t get to the hospital ’til eleven cuz of a big-ass accident on the turnpike that had traffic backed up all the way to the Verrazano Bridge. It ain’t help that we ain’t leave Trina Boo’s apartment until nine o’clock. Bitches talking ’bout they had to eat and shit.
Was my baby eating?
When I walked into Audri’s room, she was sleeping peacefully.

“She probably high as hell right now,” Peaches said. “You know they got her on some pain medicine.”

Meeka said she wanted something to drink so the two of them went to go find a vending machine. I kissed Audri on her cheek and then sat with her for a while. When she woke up and saw me, she smiled.

“How long you been here?” she whispered.

“For a little while. How you feeling?” I said, kissing her.

“Sore as shit. Them niggas beat the shit outta me.”

I wished I could take her pain away. Audri told me how she was in the parking garage at one of the casinos when some dudes attacked her, stole her wallet, phone, and her car. She told me Myra, Cha-Cha, and Whitney was on their way back to D.C. in a rental now that their pockets was full from the party where they performed in the wee hours that morning.

“The doctors said I can leave today, though.”

“Good,” I said.

“Hey, you’re up!” Peaches said, walking inside the room.

“Hey, Audri,” Meeka said, following her.

Audri smiled. “I ain’t know they came up here with you. Wassup?”

“You all right?”

“Just a little fucked up, that’s all,” she said, smiling.

“Yeah, we came to check on you,” Peaches said.

Everybody knew that I ain’t plan to tell Audri that we was in New York, so it all worked out. After they discharged her, we all piled in Peaches’s truck. Audri was confused about the luggage in the back when we put her suitcase back there, but she ain’t say nothing about it since it was Peaches’s truck. Audri was quiet the whole ride. I knew she was in a lot of pain, but she just seemed like she was in her own space. I sat in the back with her and pushed the front passenger seat up so she could have plenty of space to stretch her legs. It ain’t seem like there was nothing I could say to make her feel better. After a while, she fell asleep.

When we stopped at a rest stop in Maryland to use the bathroom, I asked Peaches if she had some coke with her. She looked at me sideways, then took her necklace off and handed it to me. I went in a stall and took a couple hits. It was just what I needed. Back at the truck, Audri had turned to the side so that most of her body was stretched across the backseat. I ain’t wanna wake her up, so I let her stretch her legs across my lap. I felt guilty about the thoughts I had earlier about Peaches. I mean, maybe she ain’t realize just how bad my situation was. She was always there for me when I was in a bind, like now.

When Peaches dropped us off at Audri’s, I helped Audri up the stairs and to the elevator, taking tiny steps cuz it seemed every move she made brought her more pain. We walked to our bedroom, where she collapsed on the bed and went back to sleep.

Over the next few days, the pain medicine had Audri like a zombie. When I came home from work or school, she was laid up, looking depressed. One time I saw her using her free hand to knock balls around on the pool table. I guess I hadn’t even thought about how blown she must’ve been not being able to play pool. Then out of the blue, Audri confessed the true story about what happened that night in Atlantic City. She said that she had got caught cheating.

“They threw me out, and then them motherfuckers beat me up and stole my car.”

No wonder she was so fucked up about it.

“Now, I’m losing money sitting up in here with a arm that don’t work.”

“You gotta stop feeling sorry for yourself,” I said. Her depression was blowing me.

“You don’t understand…the kind of work I do can’t be done from home. Ain’t got no ride. My dancers talking about finding another manager and shit…You can’t really help me.”

She rolled the ball across the table, knocking the yellow one down a hole. Ain’t this a bitch? After all I been doing around here, trying to nurse her back to health. Spending all my pennies to make sure we had food in here, to put something on the bills even if I couldn’t pay the whole damn thing, and she had the nerve to say I wasn’t really helping.

“You know what? Fuck you!”

I grabbed my leather jacket and stormed out.
Just cuz your gambling ass fucked up, now it’s my fault?
In the car outside, I called Meeka to see what she was doing, but she said she was helping her mother rearrange some of the rooms in their house. I called Yodi to see if Mommy was around. She said Mommy was gone somewhere with her new boyfriend, Isaac. Damn. I ain’t feel like going to Peaches’s shop. Then I thought of my sister Toya. Even though I ain’t hardly fuck with her, she lived less than ten minutes away in a towering building over on Columbia Road. I bit my lip and looked upstairs to Audri’s window. I ain’t feel like going back in there with an apology right now. I dialed Toya’s number. She answered on the second ring.

“Hey, sis. You busy?”

“Hey, Shakira. Not really. What’s up?”

“I just wanted to come by and say hi. I’m not too far.”

I could hear the shock in her voice, but Toya just said, “Okay.”

I headed over and found a spot to park. Once inside, she seemed happy to see me, which was strange. She even gave me a hug.

“When’s the last time we seen each other?” I asked, sitting on her couch. She had a simple apartment, no lavish decorations or anything, but you could tell she definitely wasn’t struggling and that shit wasn’t cheap. That’s always been Toya.

“Had to be the spring, I think.”

“That’s fucked up. You know I live right around the corner?”

“I didn’t know that. You want something to drink?”

“Yeah, what you got?” I knew she had a nice selection with her alcoholic ass. I followed her over to the kitchen where she had a mounted wine rack. All types of wines. Since I was having a hard time deciding, Toya opened the refrigerator and took out a bottle of white wine.

“Here, try this.”

“Sau-vig-non blanc,” I sounded out.

“Girl, it’s so good,” she said, untwisting the cork.

“We’ll see. Sound like some bourgie shit to me.”

She laughed and poured two glasses. She seemed in a good mood, unlike her usual self. I took a sip of the semisweet wine and sat back down on her couch.

“It taste all right.”

“I love it,” she said, smiling like a cheerleader.

“You love wine, period.”

She laughed again.

“Why you in such a good mood? I hope this wine make me feel like you.”

She smiled and shook her head. “Girl, I just got a promotion today!” she said, doing a little dance.

Damn. “Congratulations.” I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. Good shit always landed in Toya’s lap. Even though she seemed like she had an attitude most of the time, I knew it was cuz Toya was frustrated about not getting something she wanted, especially when she thought she had worked hard to have it. I mean, on some level, I guess I could understand it, but on the other hand she just seemed like she was always trying to be something she wasn’t meant to be. On top of that there had been a wedge between us since that incident happened with her ex-boyfriend Demari back when we was young.

“Thank you,” she said before taking a sip. “But what’s up with you?”

“Nothing much.”

“I’m glad you called me. Sometimes, I be thinking that it’s not right that me and you never really hang out.”

She was right. Me and Toya acted more like distant cousins than sisters who had the same parents. But let’s be honest, that’s probably all we’ve ever had in common. If I told her about the kind of shit I had to deal with in my life, she’d treat me like a stranger with the quickness.

“It ain’t too late,” I said before swallowing the rest of my wine.

“You’re right. Oh my God,” she said, slapping my leg. “Alvin Ailey is in town. We should go see them!”

“Who in the hell is Alvin?”

“No, it’s a dance company. You still like dance, right?”

I nodded.

“Oh my God. We gotta go see them.” She jumped up and grabbed her laptop and sat back down. In a few seconds, she had a clip of the dance group on the screen. I was so mesmerized by the way they moved. There was so much passion. Every movement seemed like it represented a word. Almost like sign language, I guess.

“I’m booking us some tickets now. And you can’t say no!” Before I could stop her, Toya had whipped out her credit card.

I felt weird. I mean, I ain’t never been to nothing like that before. I wouldn’t even know how to act. The Kennedy Center ain’t seem like a place meant for me to be.

“Okay, we can go Friday. Do you have to work?”

“I mean, I can switch days with somebody.” I figured I can at least do that if Toya was willing to buy the tickets.

“Good. Done,” she said, closing her laptop.

I gave her a closed-mouth smile. How bizarre was this? Me and Toya going to the Kennedy Center. Toya gave me a hug to make the situation even more weird.

“Here, drink some more,” she said, filling my empty glass to the brim.

And I did until I was finally ready to go home and face the music with Audri.