Skeletons (17 page)

36

Asteria

E
ric surprised me by showing up at the hospital when he heard about what happened to Jovanna; needless to say Keith would have never shown that kind of concern.

“How are you holding up?” he asked as we embraced.

“I am holding up just fine, thanks for coming.”

“Does anyone know exactly what happened?”

I shook my head, “The police just said that she was shot in the parking lot of Harrah’s and they would have to wait until she wakes up for questioning.”

“Is there anything that I can do?”

“Just be here.” I answered hugging him tighter.

“Don’t worry I will always be here for you.”

The doctors said that the bullet missed her spinal cord by two inches and that Jovanna was lucky that she didn’t lose the ability to walk. They were able to retrieve the fragments inside of her body, but she would be out of commission for weeks as she recovered and that she may have a lifetime of pain. The doctor suggested that we come back tomorrow after she’d rested from the surgery. Mike and Santana left right after hearing that Jovanna would be alright. Eric and I left an hour later so that we could get some rest. I was hurt that Santana didn’t talk to me, but I figured that it had a lot to do with Tabitha.

Eric and I got back to my house and relieved my neighbor from babysitting Latif.

“Do you mind if I take a quick shower to wash this hospital smell off of my body?” I asked.

“No go right ahead.” Eric yawned as he made himself comfortable on my bed.

Stepping into the shower I let the hot water run down me, easing away the tension that was in my neck, arm and back muscles. It had been a long hard week and I just wanted to wash it all away and let it flow down the drain losing it all in the sewers of St. Louis.

Eric stepped inside of the shower, wrapping his strong arms around me.

“I have dirt that needs to be washed off too.” He whispered in my ear.

I turned facing him staring into his eyes, trying to get lost in them. “Are you real?” I asked.

Smiling Eric pressed his lips against my own; his kiss was filled with desire. “Does that seem real enough to you?”

Eric took the vanilla scented soap pouring it into his right hand and rubbing it on my back and neck until it worked up a thick, rich lather. He then ran his and down my thighs one by one, massaging them intentionally taking his time on each and every inch; down to my toes.

As the sounds of the hot water hitting my body took over my ears, the smell of the vanilla acquired my nose, the taste of Eric’s soft lips and moist tongue seized my tastes and the touch of his thick, pulsating dick as it rubbed against my back tempting my skin.

“I want you Asteria, but I only want to take you if you promise me that this is more than just sex. I’m too old to involve myself in a relationship that is built around sex.”

Giving him my thirsty tongue only to come up for air to say, “If that is all that I wanted I would have gotten that a long time ago.” I smiled.

Eric aggressively pressed my bare breast against the warm, steam-covered glass shower door lifting one leg around the bend of his arm he entered me like a thirsty man drinking from a cup of cold water. I gasped at the force in which he took me, but it wasn’t disrespectful and hurried as it had been with Keith. Eric took his time with me, leading me to the bed and making love to every inch of my body; speaking to me softly, making love to every inch of my mind. And with each thrust he made me forget about the hurt, anguish and despair that kept me running back to Keith.

Making love to Eric was the fantastic, but waking up in the morning seeing him still there felt even better. I felt as if we were a family as we made breakfast together while Latif sat at the table coloring. Eric wrapped his arms around me and kissed me on the cheek while I scrambled the eggs and we talked about traveling together while we ate. He left for work and promised that he’d be back tonight; unlike Keith who never promised to return.

“Someone must’ve gotten them some this morning.” Londyn joked when I walked into the salon smiling from ear to ear.

“That would be none of your business.” I winked.

Aaron came up and hugged me, “I am so happy that you finally got you some girl. I got tired of seeing you coming up in here looking like a sour puss.”

“Speaking of sourpusses,” Londyn whispered, “I think that Keith is up to his usual ways.”

I looked outside to see Pandia sitting on the patio smoking a cigarette; she looked as if she’d lost her best friend.

“When will she learn?” Aaron said. “Keith is sexy, but damn he isn’t sexy enough to put up with all of that. Hell Pandia already looks homely, but give her a few more years she is going to be downright haggard!”

“Let me go talk to her.” I sighed heavily.

“How is Jovanna? We heard what happened.” Londyn asked with concern.

“She is going to be in the hospital for awhile, but the doctors think that she will be fine.”

“Have you talked to her?” Aaron asked.

“No, she was still asleep when I called this morning. Eric and I are going to visit her tonight.” I answered as I walked outside to my sister.

“Girl it is too cold to be sitting out here.” I fussed as I tightened the belt around my coat. “What is going on?”

Pandia took a long drag from her cigarette, “How is Jovanna?” her eyes were swollen and bloodshot while her voice was light,distant and weak.

“She is going to be fine, but my question is how are you?”

She sucked her teeth, “I went through some of Keith’s check stubs so that we could refinance our house next month.”

“Okay and…”

“And apparently this mother fucker has another child that he has been paying child support for.” She held up the check stub for me to see what I already knew. “Four hundred and fifty dollars a month.”

I swallowed hard, “That is crazy Pandia.”

“That is why he has been working all of that overtime to compensate what his lousy ass has been paying child support for some bastard child of his!”

It hurt me to hear her say that about my son, but I knew that it was the truth no matter how much I didn’t like it. “It isn’t the child’s fault Pandia. Stop blaming other people for what Keith does.”

“Fuck that bastard kid.” She spit, “I hope that bitch that had the baby by him knows that he has herpes”

Blinking hard was all that I could do to keep myself from going off, “Herpes?”

“Yes herpes Asteria; Keith has it and he gave it to me some time ago. Why else do you think that I’ve been staying with him through all of the bullshit that he has put me through? Thanks to his lousy ass I have a lifetime disease so who is going to want me now?”

I couldn’t breathe, herpes, does that mean that I have it as well and I that could have given it to Eric.

Pandia put the cigarette on the ground and stomped it, “I can’t wait to see him.”

Me either, I thought.

I called my gynecologist as soon as I got into my office and she agreed to see me within the hour. Dr. Franklin was an old family friend and the first to discover the lump in my mom’s breast before she was diagnosed with cancer. The checkup was painless and it revealed that I didn’t have anything to worry about which was a relief.

Pandia looked at me crazy when I got back to the office after the appointment. I lied and told her that I had to make some deposits at the bank when she asked where I’d been. I felt bad that my sister had herpes but I still felt that it was her own fault for staying with Keith even though she knew that he was cheating on her. I blamed her for being dumb and staying with a man who slept around on her.

I knew that I was wrong for sleeping with her husband, but she was wrong for staying with him and putting not only her heart, but also her body in jeopardy. As much as the sound of his voice made me sick, I had to call Keith and ask him how he planned on dealing with the fact that Pandia knew about the child support that was being deducted from his check.

“What do you mean what am I going to do? I am going to tell her the truth.”

“What!” I exclaimed.

“I am going to tell her that I got some chick knocked up and the girl refused to get an abortion.”

“What if she wants to see the baby?” I questioned.

“If she wants to see the baby then I am going to tell her that the bitch moved out of town and that I’ve never even see the baby.”

I sighed, relieved, “You are real trifling Keith; now my sister has to live with herpes for the rest of her life because you just can’t keep your slimy dick in your pants.”

“Herpes, what are you talking about?” He scoffed.

“Don’t play stupid Keith; Pandia told me that you gave her herpes and that you told her that you got it from one of your trifling whores that you have been with.”

Keith laughed, “Your sister is using a lie to get the truth.” He laughed again, “I’ve always told her that she should have went to the police academy instead of me. Look I don’t have herpes, Pandia doesn’t have herpes. I used protection with everyone except you.”

Why would Pandia lie to me, I thought then I began to panic; Keith was right, Pandia was using a lie to get the truth.

“I have to go.” I said as I rushed him off of the phone.

I knew that it would happen sooner or later, I knew that I couldn’t keep my secret locked away in a closet forever. Slowly my skeleton was about to show her ugly head.

37

Jovanna

T
he pain that radiated throughout my body woke me up; I looked to my left to see Justin talking to his brother Sam only rushing to my side when he saw that I was awake.

“Jovanna!” he kissed me on my forehead. “Baby are you okay?”

I coughed; it hurt to try to talk.

“Don’t say anything save your strength.”

“Hey kid, how are you?”

I gave Sam weak thumbs up.

“I am going to go get the nurse to let her know that you are awake.” Sam said.

Justin kissed me all over my face; it felt like I’d been in the ring with Floyd Mayweather. Fighting through the pain I reached up and touched the right side of my face which was swollen down to my lips. My neck was so tender and swollen that I could still feel exactly where Chad’s hands were gripping it. A single tear ran down my face when I saw the look of hurt on Justin’s face.

“What happened sweetheart?” he asked, “Why did you lie to me?”

I shook my head.

“Please Jovanna; please don’t lie to me any longer.” He begged, “Whatever it is I’m sure that we could work through it, but I cannot take the lies.”

Justin put his head down on the bed and sobbed; my heart was in more pain than my body because as much as I wanted to tell Justin the truth, I knew that he would never understand. I had to lie to protect him. Three nurses walked into the room and asked Justin to step out while she checked my wound, my vitals and cleaned me up. I was relieved to see him go because I couldn’t stand seeing him hurt so much any longer.

The police came to take a statement from me, but I lied and told them that I didn’t know who did this to me and that I didn’t see his face. I told them that I was attacked in the parking lot when I was coming out of the casino. After they took my statement Justin came back into the room carrying a large bouquet of roses and a big white teddy bear. Kissing me on the cheek he asked how I was doing.

“I am fine.” I managed as I winced from the pain.

“Your friends came when you were back in surgery.”

I smiled.

“They really love you.”

“I know.” I whispered, “I see that you went to the gift shop.” I said looking at the teddy bear.

“I know how much you like stuffed animals. Jovanna, why were you at Harrah’s that night? Why did you lie about going with Santana?”

I didn’t have words to say to him, but when I looked at the amount of worry in his blue eyes I started to cry.

Justin took my hand in his and said, “Jovanna, my mother struggled with a gambling addiction that fueled her alcohol abuse but we got her through it so I know that I can help you get through this.”

“A gambling addiction?”
I wondered to myself.

“I know the signs, missing jewelry and your maxed out credit card. At first I thought that you were having an affair, but when they said that you were found at Harrah’s Casino it began to make sense to me.”

The tears flowed down my face even harder.

“It is okay we are going to get through this because I love you, but Jovanna I cannot take you keeping secrets from me any longer. I need you to promise me that the lies and the secrets are over.”

Chad had his money and was most likely halfway back to Memphis by now so I didn’t have to worry about my secret getting back to Justin so I made the promise of no more lies and I was grateful not to have to worry about my well-hidden secret coming out of the closet.