Chapter 5 #3
I grabbed the one with the name Grape Extreme on it, which included flavored juice, a grape vodka, and a sour apple rum.
With that, I got two extra shooters of vodka from the counter, and surprisingly, I hadn’t even spent a full twenty dollars on my drink.
When I got back in my car, I poured the drink right up in the car, and sat out front, drinking it all, until I realized one drink wasn’t doing shit.
I then went back inside and grabbed another one from the cooler, but a different flavor.
As I downed it, I reminisced about how I’d fussed at my sister all these years about drinking and driving, yet I was about to do the same shit.
Shit, I thought about all those times I was fussing at her period instead of just listening and understanding her.
That’s when the tears started to stream down my face so fast that everything around me was blurry.
I couldn’t see anything, yet I felt every little emotion flowing through my body.
I knew I couldn’t drive like this, so I killed the ignition and just sat there in front of the liquor store with my hands on the steering wheel, hoping to calm down.
But sitting there didn’t help, and it only made me think harder about everything that had gone wrong in just a few weeks.
My sister, my job. I even got the ick for the man I felt was supposed to be my soul mate.
All that thinking led me to go back inside the liquor store three more times until I was way past the legal driving limit.
But I didn't care. I pulled off from the liquor store without a care in the world.
The streets blurred together, my thoughts bounced off the bottle sitting in between my legs, and the song Burning Blue by Mariah the Scientist made me reminisce about my sister even more.
I remember we were in my condo, and she was invading my closet as I got dressed for my first meeting with Hov. I was nervous, and she was ecstatic that I was about to be working with street Royalty.
I wonder if Hov will wear a suit to court. I wonder if Crew will be there. Ouu, I bet they both get their hair cut by Diego Cuts for court. I know Hov is going to look so good. You’re so lucky, Bria. I knew you would be a fire ass lawyer.
She was so excited, hyper, and upbeat about my job and that's how I wanted to remember her. Smiling, wild, and outgoing.
My mind stayed on her until the glow of the words RAW Night Club flashed across my window. My mind stuttered in that moment because somehow, I’d driven myself straight to the place where I’d lost my baby sister.
When I looked out the window, I noticed that fat, sloppy man Jinx who I felt killed my sister outside laughing with security guards.
His laugh was too full, too easy to be a man who would murder an innocent girl and take her away from her young daughter.
I slowed down to a crawl and then parked on the side of the street.
He then dismissed himself from the group of people and walked around the corner, so I pulled off and followed him in my car, watching his every move.
I pulled into a parking spot across the street from the sidewalk he was on, and I watched as he lifted his phone to his ear, strolling along like he didn’t have a care in the world.
I couldn’t stand to watch it anymore. My hand went for my purse, heavy from the steel inside and I stepped out and crossed the street, nearly getting rammed by a car whose horn blared at me, but I didn’t flinch.
Jinx slid into his car and started it up, music leaking faintly through the car doors and windows.
I was now determined to say what I needed to feel even a little bit of peace, so I yanked the door open and jumped inside, slamming it before he could react.
“Bitch, what the fuck are you doing in my car!” His reaction was too late because I was already inside.
“Get the fuck out before I smoke your ass.”
I pulled my gun from my purse, my hands trembling but steady enough to aim.
“You're not going to smoke me. I’m not an innocent unarmed girl,” I snapped.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Nigga, you killed my sister, and I want to know why. Why do you think you can just get away with murdering her?”
He looked at me and then smirked before it turned into a full-out laugh that made his belly bounce. He had that smug, cocky kind of laugh that made my stomach twist like I was a joke.
“Do not laugh at me, you bad-built bitch!”
He leaned back, eyes cold.
“And what are you going to do if I don’t, Ashley Banks? You think I’m scared of a bitch in a suit? You better get the fuck out of my car before I send you where your hoe ass sister is. I bet she wishes she hadn’t stolen my fuckin money out of my desk after I fucked her on top of it.”
Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow.
The gun went off before I could think. My whole body jerked from the recoil.
The smell of gunpowder and hot metal hit me in the face, burning my throat.
His body slumped forward, blood darkening his shirt as the smoke flowed between us.
For a moment, everything went quiet except the ringing in my ears.
Then it hit me what I’d just done. I just killed a man.
My chest caved in as I gasped, trying to breathe but failing. “Oh my God. Oh my God. What the fuck did I just do?” I pressed a shaking hand to my chest, but my breath came shallow and quick.
I reached for the door handle and then froze. My fingerprints. His blood. The gun. Everything screamed evidence as I looked down at my clothes, smeared with red, and panic ripped through me like fire. What if he scratched me? What if my DNA was under his nails?
I was trapped between staying here and getting caught or running and making it worse. My mind was spinning too fast to catch a thought, but one name cut through the chaos.
Hov.
Hov barely knew me, and with the case being over, I didn’t even know if he’d answer. But I had no one else I could think of to help with this kind of issue.
My hands were shaking so bad that I almost dropped the phone as I dialed his number. The phone rang only five times before the call picked up.
“Hello, what's up, Bria?”
Hov’s voice came through calm, but I could hear the concern underneath.
For a moment, my mouth wouldn’t move. Hov just sat on the phone, waiting for me to speak.
“Bria, you good?” His tone sharpened with worry.
“Hov, I don’t know if you can help me, and I, I don’t even know why I’m calling you about this after the case that you just beat.”
“Talk to me, Bria. What’s going on?”
I looked over at Jinx’s lifeless body beside me, slumped against the seat, and broke down even harder.
“Bria, you gotta stop crying so that I can understand you. What’s going on?”
“I, I, I just killed the man who killed my sister,” I choked up. “And I don’t know what to do, Jehovah. I’m sorry for even calling you. It’s okay if you hang up on me right now, but I don’t know what to do!”
“Where are you?” he asked, voice steady as ever.
“Down the street from the club Raw. I saw him, and I just lost control. I killed him. I killed a man. I, I’m going to prison for life.”
“Exactly where are you at by Raw?”
“We’re in his car. A black Bentley with tinted windows. He’s in the driver's seat. I’m in the passenger.” My voice cracked.
“Alright. Try to stay low-key. Let his seat back all the way, and you are going to have to drive the car somewhere discreet.”
“You want me to, like, sit on him to drive?”
I was disgusted.
“You to. Look, there’s an old building down the street from there that is a closed-down motel with a back alley. Pull behind there, and I’ll get you some help, but you need to move off that front street now and I'm on my way.”
“O, okay.” My heartbeat felt like it was in my throat when I hung up with Hov.
I did what he said and pushed Jinx’s seat back, climbed over his body, and started the car.
The smell of blood was already thick in the air, mixing with the burnt metal scent of the gun.
My hands trembled on the wheel as I drove toward the alley, hoping that Hov showed up to help me escape Bedford Hills as I helped him escape Ruckers Island for his case.