Ms. Carter

Chapter 6

{2:00PM, Thursday Afternoon}

“The hell you mean he put his hands on you?!” Paris exclaimed through the phone in a high-pitched voice, I could hear her jingling her keys in the background. “Hell no, ain’t no man finna put his hands on my sister and get away with that shit, you know what, call Jay, I’m on my way.” Then there was a click and the line went dead, I blinked twice, still in shock, I’d barely been able to explain to Paris what happened, and I surely didn’t think she’d react that way to it either, there are rare times when Paris gets “hood” but when it’s needed, she go all out, and that’s when you can tell we’re related. I got up from the floor, wincing as I pushed off my right hand, I hope I didn’t sprain it when he pushed me down, glancing in the mirror I lightly touched the purplish, black bruise around my eye and then poked my lip that was swollen and bright red. I couldn’t go on stage like this tonight…but I had too, the money, it was about the money. The money is also the same thing that got me in the situation now, I dabbed at my face, covering the bruise with concealer, and holding a small bag of ice to my lip, trying to get the swelling down. I didn’t bother calling Jay because I knew Paris had already told her as soon as she told me to. I was still confused on why he hit me, he didn’t even let me explain, and even then I didn’t know where he put his money, he never let me in his house often, usually he came to mine or we went out front to talk. I reached down searching for my makeup bag, I frowned. Did I drop it somewhere? I wandered over to the couch, searching under it, and feeling around for it, I grabbed at something but it didn’t feel like a bag, it was a crumpled piece of paper, I snatched it up, reading over it slowly, taking each word in and looking at the lipstick stain on it. It definitely wasn’t my writing and it surely wasn’t my shade of lipstick. I glanced over at the table spotting my make-up bag, I reached over and grabbed it, causing something to fall over, I .looked at the item and took it up in my hands. I tube of lipstick…I looked at the bottom to see if it came from me, I wrinkled my nose, ‘Girl’s Night Out – Red,’ yea this definitely wasn’t mine, but it did look quite familiar, I noticed it on one of the girl’s vanity’s in the dressing room, I’d bring it today and see who’s it was and maybe that would solve this mystery of who wrote the note. I know whoever it was, must’ve took this money Marcus was talking about, and they had to had an intimate relationship with him too.

{9:00PM, Thursday Night}

I hadn’t left my house yet for work, but I was waiting on Jay and Paris to arrive, I was wondering why they hadn’t gotten here yet until I heard the tires screech in front of my door, almost as if someone was in a hurry to get here. I glanced out the window, spotting the two luxurious cars owned by my Jay and my sister, I watched the two walk out, staring each other down, I chuckled they hated each other but held so many similarities it was ridiculous, you’d think they were sisters if anything, both of them had a chinky look to their eyes, and had bad mouths, and a whole lot of sass and bank too. I cringed at the thought of both of them yelling at me for letting this happen, but I was more scared of the both of them going after Marcus, who knows what could happen, they probably already killed him by now. Jay bust through the door, looking over at me, taking the blunt from her mouth and tapping it out quickly, “where the fuck is he,” she stated calmly, staring at me with a hint of rage in her eyes, Jay was a loose cannon and anything said wrong could cause her to go into a rampage, and if she was armed, that’s never a smart idea. I answered in a small voice, turning my head away and looking down, “I don’t know…at the club maybe…” She scoffed, “Today was his lucky day wasn’t it then, but that’s okay, I got something for his ass, I know his sister live down in LA, I’ll just have a friend of mine visit her, shake Marcus up a bit,”she chuckled and walked out the door, brushing up against Paris and drove off, she yelled from the car, “Tell him consider this a fucking warning!” I widened my eyes and closed them, holding my face in my hands, crying silently, I whispered, “I knew I shouldn’t have told you guys, you two always over react.” Paris laughed harshly, shaking her head, “So it was okay for him to put his hands on you? Did you think we were just gonna let that slide? ‘Oh it’s okay, just a little tap on the hand and you’re free to go.’” I didn’t look up, I knew she was giving me that blank, cold stare she gave everyone else, especially when she’s upset, I replied solemnly, voice faltering some as I held back my tears, “W-well maybe I deserved it…maybe he had a good reason to hi—” She cut me off, practically yelling in my face, “Don’t give me that fucking bullshit Aaliyah! He had no reason to hit you, I don’t care how bad it was, he shouldn’t have laid a finger on my fucking sister! I can’t believe you’re actually taking up for him right now! You know how pathetic you sound? This doesn’t even sound like you, my sister would never let a man lay his hands on her, it’s like…it’s like I don’t even know who you are anymore…” her voice was calm and cool as she spoke the last line, I could hear the sadness and hurt spilling off her tongue like acid, each drop of her words like venom to my skin, sinking deep and stinging my soul, licking at it like flames from an open fire. It was silent, and no one spoke I stared at the ground, while she continued to stare at me, finishing her sentence with two simple words, explaining everything that would happen from here on out, “you’ve changed.” And she didn’t even know how accurate she was, and that this change was only going to get worse.