18. Ariana ‘Ari’ Monroe
Ariana ‘Ari’ Monroe
I loved that club life though. The fast money that I would get from the ballers.
The fact that I could have all my bills paid just off one night of work.
The bitches that I worked with at the club could be annoying sometimes, but I loved it.
Speaking of annoying bitches, I never had anymore problems out of Jazelle after I beat her ass in the locker room.
She didn’t say shit to me, nor did she ever look my way.
Mark made sure to keep us in different sections, so we never had to deal with each other again.
I guess the bitch accepted that Dolo had moved on because I heard little rumors around the club that she was dating a popular scammer in the Broward area.
Riot didn’t have to work tonight, so she was home with Amir.
That girl broke my heart the other morning when she came into my room, telling me that she was getting ready to move in with Dolo.
I shed tears when Riot told me that shit.
Our bond was so tight that I truly thought of her as a little sister.
After Riot graduated from high school, she moved in with me.
I was so used to being able to walk into her room, lay in bed with her, having our long talks, and things like that.
I’ve always told Riot that she didn’t have to help me out with the bills, but that girl has always left money on the dresser for me.
Ever since she came home from jail, and started working with Dolo, she would leave way more than enough money on the dresser for me, that I would tell her she didn’t have to leave, but she did it anyways.
I didn’t even tell Amir yet that she was moving out because I knew that it would break his heart. The way I cried, and carried on, you would have really thought that her ass was getting ready to die.
I wasn’t shocked that she was moving out though. My cousin was so in love. Plus, the night that Dolo came over to my auntie Keyshawn’s house, and he made the comment about Riot moving in with him, I had a feeling that the day was coming soon.
With low, tired eyes, I pulled through the gates of my community, and I drove in. It took another thirty seconds for me to make it to the back where my townhouse was, and once I arrived, I decided to back my car into the driveway like I would always do.
I didn’t get out right away. In fact, I sat here for about five minutes before I eventually pulled myself out of the car.
I grabbed my phone, and I opened the back door, so that I could get my duffle bag, and purse. Once I had both items in my hands, I turned around, and there was a figure standing directly in front of me. They scared the shit out of me to the point that I screamed.
My scream caused him to cock his head to the side and look at me like he was confused. I knew this person, but I didn’t know what the fuck he was doing here. How did this nigga even know where I lived?
He was one of my customers at the club. Spanish dude name Leo. He’s been coming to the club for about two years now, and whenever he came, it was always good vibes. He would tip me good too.
“Leo, what the fuck! What the fuck are you doing here?” I screamed at him, still holding this crazed look in my eyes, wondering what the fuck he was doing, and how he’d gotten here.
“Ariana, please. Why are you screaming, and why do you look so surprised to see me?” he slurred. His ass was drunk. It showed in the way that his words were coming out, along with the gloss in his eyes.
“Because I am surprised to see you, nigga! You’re at my home. How the fuck did you get here? How do you even know where I stay?” I asked, itching over, needing to get my gun out of the cupholder.
Now, any other time, I didn’t get out of the car unless I had my gun on me.
The tiredness that I was feeling right now had me slacking because I would never do some shit like this.
I’ve heard too many stories about strippers and bottle girls getting followed home from the club, and getting robbed, or murdered for me to ever get caught slipping like this.
I wasn’t trying to have either one of the things happen to me, so I kept my gun in my hand any time that I got out of the car, except for tonight.
“Don’t do that Ariana. Don’t do that!” his voice was shaky, looking like he was on the verge of tears.
I was surprised by his actions. Surprised that he was doing this shit. Leo always portrayed himself as a nice guy. The nigga was a little weird, and I could tell that he had a crush on me, but I never thought that he would do anything like this.
“Ay, you need to get the fuck on. I don’t know where you came from, I still don’t know how you found out where I live, but you need to go.
I’m telling you that if I get this door open, and I get a hold of my gun, I’m going to kill your ass.
You’re on my property, and your acting crazy.
I have every right to blow your fuckin head off!
” I snapped on him, and when I said that, you could tell that it pissed him off because he aggressively came for me, knocking the duffle bag, and the purse out of my hands.
I tried to move quickly, but he was much faster than I was, grabbing me, and his hand wrapped around my neck.
“All the money I spent on you. The tips that I gave you. You thought that I was doing those things because I didn’t have anything else to do with my time?
Ariana, I like you. I’ve been trying to get you to see that for years, but you wouldn’t.
I’ve always known where you lived. I just finally got the courage to come up to you tonight and say something.
Why are you acting like this?” this man was crazy.
I saw something in his eyes tonight that I’ve never seen before.
There was a crazed, obsessed kind of look.
He had a firm grip around my neck, and I was fighting, using my hands to pry his hands away.
Before anything could escalate any further, I heard a soft, popping noise come out from the distance, followed by a bullet piercing into the side of his head, which caused his blood to splatter, hitting me on my face.
His body dropped right at my legs, and I turned my head, so that I could see where the shot had come from, and my eyes landed on Riot, standing off to the side, where the walkway was to get into my home.
Her gun had a silencer on it, which is why it didn’t make that loud noise that a gun usually would whenever it went off.
She stood there in her pajamas, still holding the gun in her hands.
“Where the fuck is your gun at? Huh? Four o’clock in the fuckin morning, you got all that money on you, and you don’t have your gun on you?
That nigga wasn’t supposed to even get that close to you!
What the fuck is wrong with you?” Riot barked at me, rushing over, sounding like the big cousin, instead of the little cousin that she was.
“I was fuckin tired, Riot. Moving so fast and I left that shit in the cupholder. How did you know I was out here?” I asked her.
“I heard you when you when you screamed, so that’s when I looked out of the window, and saw what was going on. Raise the garage, so that we can lift him and put him in there. Ima call Dolo to get somebody over here to get his body out of here,” she demanded.
I was freaked out by this shit, seeing this nigga lay there on his back, eyes still open, but he was dead.
Not only was I freaked out by that, but my mind went left, wondering what could have happened if Riot didn’t get out here when she did.
The way his ass was choking me, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to get my car door open, go inside, and grab my gun.
I went for the garage, keying in the code that was on the panel. I didn’t have one of those garages that made a lot of noise when it opened, so it quietly opened, and I rushed back over to his body. Leo was probably a good 195 pounds.
Riot was small, but she was strong, so she was able to pick him up by his arms, while I grabbed his legs, and we walked him over to the garage, putting him down on his back.
Once he was down, I rushed back out to the driveway, grabbing my purse, duffle bag, and phone that were all knocked out of my hands.
I went back inside the garage, and once I was in, Riot closed the garage from the inside.
“Go grab a sheet, so that I can cover him,” she ordered, dishing out demands like this was the kind of life that she was so used to.
I quickly scurried away, and I walked into the house, jogging up the stairs because I needed to search inside the linen closet to grab some sheets. Before doing that, I checked Riot’s room, where I spotted Amir, and he was resting peacefully.
I left him there, closed the door, and I grabbed the sheets, and jogged back downstairs.
I made it back into the garage, where Riot was already on the phone, speaking in code, letting Dolo know that she needed him to send someone over so that they could clean up this body.
While she was talking to him, she had the phone cradled between her ear and shoulder so that she could take the sheets from me.
She expanded them, and placed them over Leo’s body, covering him.
“Okay. Yeah I’ll text the address to you right now,” she finished up the conversation, and then hung up the phone.
I was still in shock, so I went over to the wall, dragged my body down, and sat on my ass, extending my legs, keeping them placed in front of me.
“Who the fuck is this?” she asked, walking over to me, standing right in front of me.
“He comes to the club. I’ve known him for about two years now. I’m shocked because I didn’t think that he would pull some shit off like this. This man said that he’s known where I’ve stayed for a long time. That shit is freaking me out, Riot,” I confessed.
“As it should. Then, you got the nerve to leave the gun in the car. You cannot do shit like that, Ari. All it takes is a second. You’re one of the hottest bottle girls in Miami right now.
Niggas and bitches know that you’re out here making money.
You can’t get caught slipping like that.
Now a bitch going to have fears about moving in with Dolo because now I gotta be worried about you doing some dumb ass shit like that again,” she snapped, angry that I’d gotten out of the car without my gun.
Granted, I was upset with myself too, but I think that I was still in too much shock right now about what happened to really feel the anger.
Riot came over, and she sat down on the floor next to me. She threw her head against the wall, and she sighed.
“Who’s about to come over here?” I asked her.
“A cleanup crew. Dolo is coming too. You so busy signing me up for a gun class, that you should have been signing your damn self up. Uzi would have taught you on the first day not to get out the car without your shit on you,” she joked.
I didn’t even have a response for that, so I just leaned my back against the wall like she was doing, folded my arms in my lap, still shocked at this.
“Ari, relax. It’s cool. It’s handled. I know you, so I know that you’re about to get in your head about it.
You just can’t get caught slipping like that again.
Not when you got Amir that you have to be here for.
Hell, not when you got me, either. I’ll probably die if something were to happen to you,” she said, and I found myself smiling because I knew she was telling the truth.
I knew that Riot loved me just as much as I loved her. That’s why it was breaking my heart the way that it was that she was moving out.
“That’s how I feel with you moving out. I feel like I’m dying,” I told her, and she laughed.
“Ari, please. I told Dolo that when he gets on my nerves, that I’m going to come back over here, and spend the night,” she said, and I just shook my head at that because I could picture her saying that to him.
We sat in silence for the rest of the time that we were out here. I was talking to God during this silent time, thanking Him for allowing Riot to be here while this was going on.
Knowing that she was getting ready to move out, I really had to move smarter, and with caution.
I know that I was constantly saying that I wasn’t ready to put up my club shoes, but this situation really put a lot into perspective for me.
I knew that I was going to go to sleep tonight, wondering if my time in the club was coming to an end.
I had a son that I had to live for, and I didn’t want situations like this to be something that continues to happen.