Casting Down Imaginations (15 page)

seventeen

Anaya

“Come on baby, please answer the phone,” I begged under my
breath as I listened for Reese to answer. It’d been two weeks since we had sex
and I still hadn’t talked to him. I was starting to worry. Why wasn’t he
returning any of my phone calls? Was he okay?

“Pick up,” I whispered. “Please pick up.”

“Hello?” a female voice answered.

What the hell?

“Who is this?” I demanded, wanting to know what slut had the
nerve to answer my man’s phone.

“Who is
this?”
she answered back, obviously just as
offended as I was. I didn’t care. I was ready for her to say something smart.
It’d been a while since I beat a chick down, and I was already ready to fight.

“Don’t be asking me who I am. Who the hell are you, and where
is Reese?”

“No,” she corrected me. “You don’t ask me who I am. I ask the
questions. Now who the hell are you?”

“Look,
skank!
I don’t have time to play with you.
Where is Reese?”

She hung up.

I was so angry that my chest got tight. Who was this psycho
chick and why was she answering my man’s phone?!!

I redialed his number and she picked up on the first ring.

“Put my man on the phone!”

She chuckled. “No, no, Boo Boo, you have it twisted. Reese is
my man.”

“Who is this?”

“This is Lexi.”

I laughed. “Lexi? That tired ho from the concert? Please,
Reese ain’t with you, honey. He has come back home.”

She smacked her lips. “Back home? I know this ain’t Anaya. He
dropped you as soon as I came in the picture. I thought that night in Dallas would have shown you that. How dense can you be?”

“Dense? Let me tell
you
something about
dense
.
Reese was only with you while I was gone. As soon as I came back, he forgot all
about you.”

“Oh, really?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, if that’s the case then why is he with me right now?”

“Whatever. You probably just stole his phone.”

“Wanna bet?”

Her tone made me second guess myself. Maybe he really was
with her.

“Look, put him on the phone.”

“Or what? What you gon’ do? You gon’ fight or something?”

Those were the only words I needed to hear. “Give me the time
and place,” I said smoothly.

“Come to
your man’s house,”
she said, and hung up the
phone again.

It was on now. It was time to fight.

**********

Lexi’s car was the first thing I saw when I pulled up to
Reese’s apartment complex. I recognized it from the concert a few weeks ago.
The night that she
thought
she stole my man.

Ready to cause major drama, I jumped out of my car and
marched up to his apartment and pounded on the door.

“Come out!” I yelled. “Come out! I got something waiting on
you out here!”

As soon as the door opened I had my fists up, ready to make
contact with her face. I stopped when I saw it wasn’t her.

“Where is Reese?” I asked the strange guy who emerged from
behind the door.

“What the hell are you yelling for?” he asked angrily.

I was so mad that I couldn’t keep still. It was all I could
do not to run past him and dare the chicken to stop hiding.

“Where is Lexi?” I asked. “She here? Tell her to come
outside. I got something for her.”

“Don’t be bringing all that noise over here,” he said,
irritated. “She ain’t here.”

I peeked inside the living room. Reese and Lexi were nowhere
to be seen.

“Who are you?” I asked him, wanting to know what he was doing
there all alone. Reese didn’t trust anyone that much to leave them alone with
any of his belongings. What was this guy up to?

“I’m his cousin,” he said. “You Anaya?”

I nodded, happy that he was familiar with me. That meant that
Reese must have been talking about me.

“You’ve heard of me?” I asked, smiling.

“Yeah, Lexi was talking about you before they left.”

That was not the answer that I wanted to hear. “They?”

“Yeah. Her and Reese went to go grab some tacos.”

“What did she say about me?” I wanted to know.

He laughed, his southern accent coming across thick. “She
said she was gon’ cut you the next time she see you. Something about you
calling Reese phone and wantin’ ‘ta clown. I don’t know.”

I nodded. “Lil’ girls always talk big game over the phone.
Let’s see what she does face to face. When they gon’ be back?”

“They should be back in a few minutes,” he told me. “But on
the real though, if I was you I wouldn’t be here when they get back unless you
got a gun or somethin’. She got a switchblade, and I know she know how to use
it. That girl crazy.”

“Are you serious?” I asked him.

He nodded. “Yeah, man. I know that girl from ‘round the way.
Her and her cousins be doing some crazy stuff, man.”

I told Reese’s cousin to tell my boyfriend to call me when he
got back and then returned to my car. I wanted to wait on her just to see if
she really was all that Reese’s cousin said she was, but I valued my kidneys
too much to gamble with them. Her car was cute, I guess, for a chicken like
Lexi anyway. But it was nowhere near as cute as my Eclipse. She already thought
she had my man. I couldn’t let her think she could compete with me on the car
level, too. Oh no. It needed something.

I walked over to her car and dug the tip of my biggest key
into the paint, leaving a deep groove. It felt great. I did it again and again,
each mark sending adrenaline though me. It was almost like getting high, but
better. Weed never made me feel this good.

I finally stopped after I decorated all of the doors and the
trunk of the car, as well as the hood. That should teach her not to act up with
me.

I walked to my car feeling cocky and confident. She might be
crazy, but if pushed, I could be just as crazy. There was nothing that any
female could do to me that I couldn’t do back.

Once inside my car, I pulled out my phone and dialed Reese’s
number. No answer. Pissed, I threw the phone in the passenger seat and drove
away. She was obviously with him. Maybe keying her car wasn’t going to be
enough to bring him back to me after all.

eighteen

K
aren

“Hello?” I answered the phone.

“What you doing, baby?” Terrance asked.

“Studying.”

My answer was dry for a reason. I hadn’t seen or heard from
him since the night I refused to have sex with him. He hadn’t even made the
time to say goodbye to me before he left to go back home. The least he could
have done was called. He was lucky I even answered the phone.

“How did you do on your finals?” he asked.

I rolled my eyes. I wanted to stay mad at him, but I
couldn’t. Just when I thought I was getting a grip on my strength again, here
he came, throwing me off track.

“I’m good so far,” I told him. “I have two more to take, and
then I’ll be done for the semester. Finally.”

“Cool, cool,” he said. “Well look, I ain’t gon’ keep you long
on the phone. I know you gotta study. I just wanted to know if you had a way
back home for the holidays.”

I decided to be inquisitive. “Why?”

“Cause, mama. I’m gon’ come pick you up. That is, if you
ain’t already got a ride or nothin’.”

I weighed my options. I could take a six hour bus ride on a
hot and stinky bus filled with potentially dangerous strangers, or I could ride
with Terrance in a cool, air conditioned truck. The latter sounded so much more
appealing.

“Let me think about it, Terrance,” I told him. I had to play
it cool. 

“Alright, have it your way,” he told me. “But let me know.
Don’t wait until the day of because I might already have plans.”

“I’ll call you as soon as I decide,” I said. “Now I have to
get back to studying, okay?”

“Alright. Love you.”

The “L” word was loose with him. He’d said it over and over
again when he was here. But as soon as I denied him, both he and the “L” word
were nowhere to be found.

“Love you, too,” I said.

I hung up the phone, feeling guilty. I’d only said it out of
obligation. Maybe that made me no better than him.

nineteen

Anaya

“So, Ms. Patterson, how do you like the place?” Mr. Pier, my
soon-to-be landlord, asked me.

I was supposed to be in class taking an exam, but instead I
was getting the grand tour of my new apartment. At this point I could have
cared less about school. College wasn’t my future, so it didn’t make any sense
to invest any more time in it. My present and my future were wrapped in finally
being independent. I already had a car, so the next thing I had to have was my
own place, away from those funky dorms. Mr. Pier had already shown me the gym and
pool, and now I was checking out my spacious closets, washer and dryer,
fireplace, and patio deck. What was there not to like about the place?

“I think I like it a lot,” I told him.

He smiled. “Great. When can you move in?”

“How about today?”

“Whoa,” he hesitated. “How about we get you to sign the lease
first and make your security deposit.”

I was in a rush. “How long do I have to wait?”

“Well, as soon as your check clears we can get you a pair of
keys. How does that sound?”

I was relieved. “Great.”

Concern came over his face. “You look a little young, Anaya.
I don’t get very many college students as young as you moving into this place,
at least not without a roommate. Are you sure you can afford it?”

I thought about the seven hundred dollars that I’d owe him
every month. It’d be tight, but I could do it. All of the utility bills were
included in the rent, including cable, so at least I’d have something to watch
on TV until I got some furniture. It would be great. Besides, no one could put
a price on freedom.

“I’m sure,” I said.

He nodded. “Alright. If you’re sure. Let’s go to my office
and get started on the paperwork.”

I followed Mr. Pier outside across the parking lot to his
office. Once inside, he went over the lease with me, and I gave him the
security deposit and first month’s rent. It hurt to spend a thousand dollars in
less than five minutes, but I knew I would get over it soon. I was finally on
my own and I still had plenty of money left over. Tomorrow I would be moving
into my very first apartment!

“Do you have any more questions?” Mr. Pier asked once we
finished everything.

I stood to my feet. “No, sir. Everything looks great to me,
thank you.”

He nodded. “Okay, Miss Patterson. I’ll be going by the bank
first thing in the morning to deposit these payments. You can come by around
noon to pick up your keys and move in.”

I kept my composure in front of my new landlord and remained
as calm as I could. Once I left his office and was out of his eyesight, I
danced all the way to my car. Besides having sex with Reese, this was the best
day of my life…

Uh oh…

I placed my hand over my stomach in reaction to its sudden
churning. My eyes started to water. I was nauseated.

I tried hard to swallow as saliva filled my mouth. I began to
gag. Before I knew it I was running over to a bush and hurling my guts out
behind it.

Confused with dizziness, I walked to the car and sat inside.
I sat still for a few minutes and attempted to collect myself. It had been
awhile since I’d thrown up like that, and I didn’t know what caused it.

I made a mental list of everything that I had eaten in the
past twenty-four hours. The only thing that could have made me sick was the
fish that I had at the cafeteria last night, but it should have made me sick
last night instead of almost a whole day later. My body must have just taken a
while to reject it.

Maybe…

Yeah, that’s probably all it was. Nothing else to it.