(RECAP)
"I don't know you. I don't want to know you." Her face broke as tears began streaming down her cheeks. Yoli sat down right there on the spot hunched over, arms folded across her chest. Her head dipped chin digging into her chest, dejected.
Jaquan walked by gathering Rashida up in his arms carrying her past us. She was crumpled up in his arms, her powerful legs hanging limply. Shawnee was still flushed, unsure of what to do as my cousin carried the defeated woman past Renee who stood there taking in the whole scene impassively. Some people including Mintzy and Antonio were approaching cautiously regarding us as I looked to Renee.
"What're you gonna do?" She asked me.
"Go home." Police sirens were audible in the distance.
...to be continued.
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MAXIMUM BADONKADONK Ch. 07
Featuring: Renee Kelly-36D-32-50 (25 years old)
Akemi-34B-26-38
Tressie Fisher-48EE-44-48 (23 years old)
"So where we at?" Renee asked.
Yoli was arrested after a good hour of hashing things out with me, Renee, Jaquan along with several pedestrian witnesses of the heinous street beating delivered to one Rashida Sikes. Yoli sat dejected with some leery cops flanking her on either side, dutifully standing to be handcuffed when instructed. There was no emotion on her face as she was marched past a crowd of spectators placed in the back of a police cruiser.
Rashida was taken to county where she received medical attention sporting swollen eyes, a flattened nose which was miraculously not broken and a cut lip. A number of blood clots in her mouth guaranteed an overnight stay from the laconic doctor conducting the examination. She would be okay physically, but mentally was another thing.
Rashida Sikes had been publicly humiliated and destroyed. I obviously wasn't allowed inside her hospital room leaving Renee to sit with her until relatives arrived. Jaquan remained behind with little Daisy Kelly leaving Renee to ferry Rashida to the emergency room after the cops declined to call up an ambulance.
Their denial had come on the heels of her refusal to speak about her assault, while Yoli's arrest was prompted out of immediate public outrage.
Shawnee Thompson said her awkward farewells before driving home as I wondered if I'd see her again. Renee and I didn't talk much when she brought my camera bag out of the apartment before we took Rashida to the hospital. In fact no one talked during that car ride as she drove holding her best friend's hand.
"Did you hear what I said; where are we?"
"Where we were before all this shit happened tonight. If you're asking about the website, everything's ready to go whenever you want. All you have to do is login and launch it."
"That's not what I'm talking about; tell me what I'm talking about?" Strains of Love Galore by SZA were playing inside Jaquan's car. Renee Kelly remained stoic throughout the whole ordeal and was sitting there staring out the windshield.
"You stood back and watched Yoli beat your best friend bloody; I guess you wanted her publicly shamed because of the shit with Jaquan a while back."
"Why do you say that?"
"I saw your face Renee; I saw you when I was trying to pull them apart. You could have cared less, and I understand it. I don't wanna do the passive aggressive thing with you; I'm gonna call it a night." My hand went to the door, but she covered my hand with her palm. I settled back in the passenger seat.
"Ever since I was little, people treated me different because I was "light bright" and when I realized these people were just color struck, it was a hard pill to swallow. Like I've said before, I went hard in the paint trying to prove my blackness, but certain people made it hard to breathe in school. Mostly the dark skinned sisters, so I just let it go and became that princess. Petty fucked up and entitled, kinda lonely too. Rashida was my girl, dark chocolate, sassy, "strong and independent" to a fault. So you know what I found out?"
"Just tell me."
"She's just like those girls that gave me hell back in school. It's my fault really because I realized I was color struck too. You see, Rashida Sikes was my "black friend" as fucked up as that sounds. She fucked Jaquan because she wanted to and nothing more. It was a clout chasing dream to screw the mulatta queen's king."
"I'm turning in, drive safely."
"No."
"Excuse me?"
"I want us to launch the site right now, together. Then I'll go home to Jaquan and Daisy."
"Okay, we can do that Renee."
Renee sat on the couch watching as I set up the laptop bringing the site up. In the light of my cousin's dining room I noticed splotches of blood on her top where she'd cradled Rashida's head as she drove to the emergency room.
She'd become an enigma of sorts I the last few days as I found myself becoming increasing reticent of her presence. I wondered if she realized this or even cared as she sidled up to the laptop staring at our collective handiwork. She stopped me from launching it at the last second.
"What?"
"Are you sure everything is done?"
"Yeah, everything is linked through the social media accounts and the new clips and trailers have a hyperlink imbedded leading viewers directly to our online doorstep. All you have to do is turn it on Renee. Isn't that what you want?"
"Once we turn this on, there's no going back for any of us; we'll be uhm, pornographers. No more minutes long clips and teasers, you'll have to come up with new content on the regular and deal with the intangibles of such a life. Are you ready for that?"
"I was doing this before we got acquainted, but this is your baby more or less. You paid for the work to be done and I've delivered. If we don't activate this football, then what was all the shit we've gone through worth? You got my cousin involved and I never wanted that. It's too close to home and my parents wouldn't understand, but I've never felt more creative in my life. Tell me you didn't feel the same way when you were doing that photo shoot for Shawnee."
'What're we waiting for?"
We pushed the ENTER button together.
Once the site was active, Renee switched off the laptop closing it. She flattened her palms on top of it unplugging and packing it up as I watched. She looked deeply contemplative before tucking the new laptop under her arm regarding me.
I noticed a return of the savage war paint makeup.
"I'm borrowing this for a few days, okay?"
"Well I told you a few days ago that I wanted to earn that laptop; I still consider it yours anyway."
"This is your laptop; I'm just borrowing it; but you still have something to earn."
"Oh yeah, what's that?"
Renee captured a handful of my shirt pulling me into a sensual kiss. Her tongue slid into my mouth swirling about for a few seconds before she relented. Renee wiped a finger along her burgundy painted lips staring deep inside me with those slanted cat like eyes surrounded in smoky eyeshadow. I was caught in her gaze, heart thumping in my chest.
Renee turned on her heel walking out of the living room without another word. The heavy steel door slammed shut moments later. My eyes didn't follow her because I was glad she was gone. For the first time in a while, I didn't use my laptop opting to have a bite to eat and a movie before dropping off.
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I woke up midday sometime after eleven sitting up on my cousin's much used couch scratching my head. I picked up my phone finding ten or eleven calls from Shawnee probably looking for answers, gossip, or both. Jaquan also texted to remind me of my mother's imminent return the following day. While I was looking at that text, several rows of texts from an unknown number began appearing one after the other confusing me.
A few of them contained heart emojis and other nonsensical items like memes. I figured I was getting spammed deleting a good number of them. This seemed kind of futile as more popped up, all delayed seemingly because my phone had been switched off during the night. I glanced over at the table finding my original laptop and equipment, but let it sit there undisturbed.
I was still rattled by the insane donnybrook that left Rashida lying face down in her blood. I thought about her personality figuring that she wouldn't be able to return to work anytime soon after being publicly humiliated. No one would've ever guessed Yoli capable of beating the larger woman into submission in such decisive fashion. The guilt I felt was overwhelming as the catalyst for Rashida's assault.
It made me shudder inside being so clueless to the lithe yellow bone's true nature.
I'd been on the crazy train the whole time we were interacting oblivious to the danger of it all. Yoli's infatuation with Renee Kelly had shifted to me with disastrous results. She'd warned me not to be seen with Rashida, but I hadn't taken her serious in the least. About viewing the women side by side would come to the same conclusion given Yoli's flighty personality.
"Hello?" My phone started ringing. It was Shawnee Thompson aka Ms. WTF.
"Hey man, how come you didn't call me back?"
"Sleeping much; you understand the concept, right?" Her resultant chuckling was expected.
"Sorry, so you gonna be there?"
"Where?"
"Renee called, set up a shoot for this afternoon around three." I remembered her confiscation of the laptop sitting upright scratching my shoulder.
"I think I'm gonna sit this one out if you don't mind."
