My Thug Love

Chapter 11: Arie

ARIE

I wake up in a dark room on what feels like a king size bed. I've got a massive head ache, I try to rub my head but my hands wouldn't move and I felt heavy chains on me.

"What the fuck?" I ask out loud. I stand up on the bed and try to reach the ceiling. I hope it's a ceiling fan with a light on it. These damn chains are so fucking heavy. There's no light in this bitch, I sit back down on the bed and put my right leg off the side. I step off the bed and walk slowly. "Fuck." I bump my foot on a door frame. I feel around on the door and find the door knob. I try to twist it but it's locked 

"BRUH WHAT THE FUCK? LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT OF HERE! Saum Aoy Khnhom  Chenh! SAUM!" I scream while banging on the door.

"Aye shut that Chinese shit up!" I hear a deep voice yell from the side.

"Bitch, I'm Cambodian don't get it fucked up. Let me the fuck out of here, it's dark in here." I scream back.

It got quiet and the light on the other side turned off. I walked back to the bed and laid on it. I started playing with my chains. "I'm sorry, King." I whispered to myself as I started to cry. King is dead and it's all my fault. If I would've moved with my sister to New York this wouldn't have happened. I'm not even gonna be able to go to school to let Hazel know I'm alright. 

" Am I just a fool?" I started to sing. "Blind and stupid for loving you. Am I just a silly girl? So young and naive to think you were, the one who came to claim this heart. Cold hearted, shame you'll remain in the dark." I busted into tears. Why does he do this to me? All I ever did was love him, I stayed here and ruined my life just because I felt that he loved me. 

I heard the door unlock and the knob on the door twist. I wiped my face and sat up on the bed. I'm still in King's blue t-shirt but it's stained with blood and is torn on the right sleeve. It's so humid and hot in here, my hair curled into waves. Andre walked in and sat beside me on the bed, I looked straight at the wall and acted like I didn't see him. 

"So you gone act like this baby girl?" He asked me while touching my hair. I slapped his hand, "I ain't ya baby girl, don't touch me." I snared. I heard him laugh a little bit, I looked out the corner of my eye at him and he grabbed me by my hair forcing me to lay on his chest.  "Andre leave.." "No, you with me now Arie and you're gonna stay here til I feel like you can leave." He cut me off. "You can't force me to stay here." I said struggling to get up. "Yeah I can and I will." He yelled. "When you takin' this gold color out your hair?" He asked grabbing a handful of my hair. "When are you going to LEAVE ME ALONE?" I asked trying to move my hands.  These damn chains so damn heavy on my arms. "What the hell is up with these fuckin' chains?" I asked trying to move my hands. " Well, so you don't hit me when I hit you and so you can't get away." He explained. "Why do you want me so bad? When I wanted you, you didn't give a fuck about me, you ain't care. You didn't care til I was gone." I said, "No one cared til I was gone." I whispered 

Andre got up and walked out, leaving the door open. I got up and held all the chains in my arms, I walked out of the room and looked around. I know this nigga ain't bring me to no trap house. I walked down the hall and looked in all the rooms. There was a couple of rooms were there were drugs and one with guns another with a bed in the middle of the floor. I go to the end of the hall and there was a room with a pad lock on it. I looked around to make sure no one was here, the hall was empty. I put my chains on the floor and held my hands over the lock, and started banging the lock until it broke. Surprisingly, no one heard me. 

I walked into the room and turned on the light. "Oh my God." I saw covering my mouth, the room was full of pictures of me, my sister, my mom and my dad. Pictures I never seen before, pictures I haven't seen in more than ten years. Why does he have all of this in here? Like what the fuck, Andre. I looked back out into the hall, still no one out there. I closed the door and walked to the middle of the room and looked around, I kicked a few corona bottles out of the way. Andre sits in here and gets drunk thinking about us, not me and him but my family and I. All these pictures, this means someone must've been watching us the whole time. There's pictures from before my mom died, when Sovanna and I were toddlers.

It's like everyone forgot about me, except for Andre and King, King didn't leave on his own he died. I can't even have the security of knowing that he left voluntarily, I can't get him back. I can't get anything back, I'm stuck here, all alone. 

I walked over to one of the walls and saw the picture Sovanna and I took the morning of our father's death, everything changed in the matter of minutes. We were all so happy, full of life. After that first gun shot everything was different. I didn't smile for years, I was looking for love to be honest with myself. It took me a while to realize all I needed was to love myself.

I look around at the pictures and see our yearbook pictures from freshman year at Alt. school. I had braces and and Chinese bangs, so did Sovanna. Damn, you could tell we was Asian. We weren't that popular but everyone knew us. maybe because we were always fighting or how we got there. She had lot of friends but I really didn't have any friends that were girls, she was really the female friend, until Hazel came after Sovanna left. I hung around a couple of boys but I stopped hanging around them because I beat up their girlfriends.

All these memories from high school, I didn't even get a chance to say I finished, that I could do something. Mama would've been so proud, when I was little she'd tell me how important it is to get a education. She'd say I can't be pretty and dumb, that's not how it works, I have to be pretty and smart. I miss her, she was so beautiful and full of life. She had dark brown hair not too curly and not too straight, and she was palish but it was pretty. Her smile lit up anyone's day no matter what.

My dad wanted me to be a boxer because I was always fighting, he said I could be the female Muhammad Ali. That always mad me laugh after a fight, he swore he was going to send me to boxing camp, I wish he had though. I miss my aupouk, I had to learn English, Khmer and Greek when I was growing up. It was easy because in kindergarten Sovanna and I learned together. We were the only mixed kids that couldn't speak English but we were smarter than most so it was okay.

I look around at the pictures again, there's one picture Sovanna and I at a party. I was smiling really big and Sovanna was blowing one of those party things. We looked so happy, I was hugging tight on her. I never wanted her to leave, even after I said all those harsh hurtful things.

The door knob on the door twisted. "Who broke my fucking lock?" I heard Andre yell. His words are slurred, he's drunk. He opened the door and saw me standing there. An evil smile spread across his face. But for once I ain't scared.