The money, drugs, and temptation - my life on the bad side

Kiki

"Well well, Laura, I am thouroughly impressed," says Andrew, slamming the door behind me. I jump around to see is tall built frame leading against the wall. His hair has grown out some, leaving the little fuzz now developing into a small afro, though the rest of him looks nearly idenetical to when we first encountered each other.

"You Jack-ass." I hiss, ready to punch him in the face. However, a small figure behind him makes me stop dead.

"Be careful, Laura, you wouldn't want to do something regretable in front of your baby sister, would you?" he asks, grinning like a mad thing. I scowl menicingly, but force myself to relax my fists.

"But really, I am impressed. I have yet to have any of my girls come back from Mama's - and so quickly! I can't imagine you were smart enough to pull it off on your own, though?"

Ignoring the slam to my intellegence, I reply cooly, "well it wasn't easy. And you know why I'm here. Please, let me take my sister back home, and I won't report you to the police. That seems like a fair trade, doesn't it?"

Andrew laughs. "Honey, I think I know well enough that any officer in the law industry can be bought off. And knowing the kind of man I am, I can't imagine it would take much out of my stash to do so."

"The kind of man you are?" I demand. "What kind of man are you, Andrew? Dishonest? Cruel and without integrity? A scum-hole who lives off of other peoples troubles and pain. Well let me tell you something - if I were you Andrew, I wouldn't be flaunting the kind of man you are, because you are nothing but a spiteful and selfish man-whore."

Andrew is stunned, though only for a second before the smirk returns to his face. "Bravo, Ms. Larel, you have wounded my delicate ego. Well, lets see what kind of a person your little Kiki would like to be with. Kiki?" He turns to my baby sister, a gleam in his eye I cannot identify, though it is familiar. "Why don't you tell your sister what you think of her?"

Kiki looks at me from behind his knees. She hasn't grown hardly at all, though her hair has gotten much longer and is now a darker brown. "You left me, just like Mommy." she begins. Though the tears in her eyes are true, her voice is stiff, rehersed. "Sir gives me whatever I want. And he loves me. If you loved me, you wouldn't have left me." her final words were true - she speaks them with a plea in her voice, begging me for an answer as to why I would do something so cruel as to leave her.

"Kiki, come here," I beg, crouching down and opening my arms for her.

She looks up and Andrew, as if for permission. He nods her forward and she returns the gesture in a more submissing manor, as if bowing.

"What do you think she is, a slave?" I whisper to him over her head as she slowly closes the gap between us.

He sneers at me. "Not a very good one."

I gap at him for just a second until Kiki is close enough for me to grab and envelop in a rib crushing hug. She still smells like herself only cleaner, and I bury my face into her hair. She wastes no time wrapping her tiny arms around my neck and bursting into tears.

"Why, La-la?" she asks, curling her body around me like a koala baby. "Why would you leave me?"

Her baby lisp is gone; she speaks cleaning and enunciates her words beautifully, something which I doubt came naturally in that little time.

"I'm so sorry, baby-girl." I say. "I will never leave you again, I promise. Andrew made me leave because he is a bad man, but he will not do that again."

"Andrew is good, La-la." though I know she can properly pronounce my name now, I find it comforting that she is still calling me by her baby name. "He is good. He taught me to be good."