Chapter 14
It didn’t take long for Kenna to realize her dancing nerves came from spending time with Skylar, not so much going to the movies.
She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel after she pulled in front of Annalise’s house.
It had been dead silent during the drive, and Kenna felt like she should try to make the air around them less tense.
“Skylar—”
“We don’t have to talk,” she interrupted. “I just want to see this movie. We don’t have to make this something it’s not.” She looked down at her phone where the directions to the theater were. “Better hurry. The theater is fifteen minutes away.”
Kenna’s mouth hung slightly open as she tried to find the words to speak. Finally, she simply cleared her throat and nodded before whispering, “Okay.”
For some reason, tears burned the back of her eyes as she got out of the car. Skylar’s cool demeanor toward her caused dread to fill her. She and Damien had done a good job of ignoring the elephant in the room for the past month, but reality came and slapped her in the face.
Earlier, when she was on the phone with Annalise, she watched Skylar and Damien’s interaction.
She saw the love they had for one another—two peas in a pod.
She wondered how she would have felt if her father ever brought another woman around after the divorce.
She probably would have acted just like Skylar.
She moved quickly toward the front door and knocked. She only had to wait for a couple of seconds before it flung open and little arms circled around her waist, squeezing her tightly.
“Titi! Let’s go, come on!” Alanzo said, grabbing her hand and tugging.
“Whoa, hold on, big man. Can I talk to your gigi first?” Kenna asked.
Alanzo sighed dramatically. “I guess.”
Annalise appeared in the doorway with her face screwed up. “Boy, go get in the car.”
Alanzo bounded off toward the car and climbed into the back seat while Annalise and Kenna watched. When he was safely inside, Kenna looked at Annalise with a smile that slowly faded when she noticed the knowing look on the older lady’s face.
Kenna shifted under her gaze. “What?”
“Chile, don’t what me. I haven’t seen you in about a week. What done changed that quickly that you’re spending time with Damien’s daughter?” Annalise craned her neck to look back at the car. “And without him, no less.”
Kenna shrugged. She’d grown to love Annalise like an honorary grandmother, and she’d become accustomed to telling her pretty much everything too. It was hard not to since not much got past her.
“She wanted to go see a movie, so I offered to take her.” Annalise hummed her response. “I should get going though. The movie starts in like ten minutes, and Skylar’s GPS says it’s fifteen away.”
“Go ’head. Don’t have him out too late. He has school tomorrow.”
“I won’t,” Kenna called over her shoulder as she walked toward the car. As soon as she opened the door, she heard the kids talking animatedly among themselves. As she got in and buckled up, she asked, “What are you two so excited about?”
Skylar fell silent and resumed her post of looking out the window while Alanzo filled Kenna in. “I love The Wizard of Oz . I can’t wait to see this movie. Do you think the flying monkeys are in this movie?”
“I bet they are,” Kenna responded as she smiled at him through the rearview mirror.
Alanzo talked up a storm as she drove. He was excited about seeing the movie but also droned on and on about the basketball team he was now on, thanks to Damien.
Kenna did her best to entertain him, but a growing knot in her stomach stopped her from being all the way tuned into the conversation.
It was only intensified the more Skylar navigated them toward their destination.
When they got into the car, Skylar insisted on giving Kenna the instructions.
At the time, Kenna hadn’t thought much of it, but by the time they pulled into the theater, she felt like she had been duped.
“ This is the theater you bought tickets for?” Kenna glanced at Skylar wearily.
“Yup. Come on, let’s go. We’re already late, and I want popcorn.”
Warning bells sounded off in Kenna, and she felt anxiety pushing its way to the surface. Skylar had already gotten out of the car, and Kenna noticed Alanzo reaching for his door to do the same.
“Wait for me to come get you, Zo.” Kenna was able to push her mounting dread down just enough to make that demand.
She got out of the car and looked around.
This movie theater was one she used to come to as a kid.
She and Rashad would beg their parents for a ride to see dollar movies on Wednesdays.
The issue was, this theater wasn’t one most people went to anymore.
Now, it felt more like a trap house. Fiends littered the entryway of the theater and dope boys hustled on each corner of the parking lot.
When she opened the door for Alanzo, she pulled him tightly into her side and hurried to catch up to Skylar.
“Titi, what kind of movie theater is this?”
Ignoring him, Kenna called after Skylar, who was now entering the movie theater. “Skylar, hold on.”
Skylar halted for a moment for them to catch up, her attitude on ten. She was just inside the theater glaring at Kenna. “Come on.”
“Skylar, wait,” Kenna said, grabbing her by the shoulder. “Why did you want to come to this theater? There’s a better one closer to your home and?—”
Kenna saw the moment Skylar’s face lit up.
She wasn’t looking at Kenna. She looked just over her shoulder.
When Kenna turned to look, she saw a boy just outside the entrance of the theater waving at Skylar.
He looked rough around the edges and walked with a false limp as if he was a pimp.
Kenna smelled bad news, and it suddenly clicked why Skylar had them in the rundown part of the city.
“Hey, Big Len,” Skylar squealed like a schoolgirl in love.
Big Len? Really? Kenna thought as she watched the two embrace.
Two other boys materialized by his side. Kenna had been so focused on the tall lanky boy Skylar hung on like a stage five clinger that she didn’t notice the shorter boys he was with.
“Hey, baby. You made it.” Big Len grinned down at Skylar who had real life heart eyes for him.
“Of course I did. I invited you. Sorry it was so last minute?—”
Kenna tugged on Skylar’s arm, shooting daggers at her. “Skylar, you can’t be serious right now.”
Skylar pulled her arm away, and her eyes turned to slits. “Just go get us some popcorn.”
Kenna reared back like Skylar had slapped her before she grabbed the girl’s arm once again and dragged her and Alanzo away from the group of boys.
“Little girl, let’s get one thing straight.
I’m not your flunky. I’m not your damn maid, and you don’t get to order me around.
Now, I think it’s best we go. If you still want to see this movie, we can find a show at a different theater, but this, baby, isn’t the move, and it’s not cute.
” Kenna looked Big Len and his friends up and down with her face turned up. “At all.”
“Aye, who is this bitch?” Big Len called out with a scowl. He obviously heard what Kenna said.
Alanzo, who had been quiet this entire exchange, growled fiercely before running over to Big Len and punching him in his stomach. “Don’t talk to Titi like that.”
Big Len grunted while his friends looked like they were deciding whether to laugh or rough Alanzo up. Kenna quickly made her way over to them and pushed Alanzo behind her while Skylar did her best to diffuse the situation.
“She’s my daddy’s girlfriend. Look, she’s my ride, so be cool,” Skylar said.
Although it wasn’t the right moment, Kenna felt a swell of pride hearing Skylar so easily refer to Kenna as her father’s girlfriend.
Before Kenna could put her foot down about leaving, a group of men walked up to them. Kenna’s sense of dread heightened. She looked toward the exit, which they had managed to get several yards away from.
These men were older than Skylar and Big Len.
They looked to be around Kenna’s age, in fact, but they also looked like low-life thugs.
Something about the way the three of them walked up on them didn’t sit right with Kenna, and she immediately pulled Skylar’s arm to wedge herself between her and what she now felt like was a threat.
She didn’t know why, but something about the way the air shifted when Big Len noticed the men made her skin crawl and had those warning bells sounding more like sirens in her head.
“Aye, where’s my money, lil nigga?” the leader of this new group of men asked.
Kenna instinctively took a few steps back, prompting Skylar and Alanzo to as well. A silent prayer of thanks went up from Kenna that Skylar was wordlessly obeying her at the moment. She must have felt the shift too.
Big Len sucked his teeth, but Kenna could see the nerves bouncing around his body and in his eyes. She sensed it because her own body mirrored his at the moment.
“I’on got shit for you, homie. Move around.” Big Len tried to move around the older men while his friends laughed stupidly behind him.
“Skylar, we need to get out of here?—”
A noise that haunted Kenna both in her sleep and while she was awake sounded through the dusty theater.
It happened so fast, Kenna almost missed it, but her instincts took over.
Everything about the situation wouldn’t allow her to look away for more than a split second, so the familiar sound didn’t come as a surprise.
That didn’t mean it didn’t startle her. It almost paralyzed her as flashes of her brother lying dead in a pool of his own blood filled her mind.
Big Len’s body hitting the floor and Skylar’s screams kept her from planting her feet in place and going into a full-blown panic attack. Thoughts of her classmates who she should have tried harder to save crushed her but also forced her into action.