Chapter 1
He had it coming. And she did too. They all did.Every single last one of them. I didn’t even flinch when the judge banged his gavel and sentenced me to 12 years in federal prison. Truth be told, if I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a damn thing.
As I lay here in my cell, the only thing I can hear are the soft moans of the women in the cell next to mine. All I can think about is the look on his face when realization dawned on him. The moment he realized that I knew. I knew everything. He didn’t try to deny it. He didn’t even try to defend himself. For that, I am thankful. It probably would have just pissed me off even more and made things worse. As I think about everything that transpired, all I can do is smile. I’m about to tell you what happened. I have nothing but time, so I guess I’ll start from the beginning.
The sound of the bell ringing was like music to my ears. I was ready to go. Mylon and I had plans to go hit the mall after school. Trudy was having her graduation party tonight, so we had to find something fly to wear. When Trudy threw a party, everybody and they mama came. Honestly, I don’t know how she convinced her parents to let her throw a graduation party after the last party she had. They still had stains in their carpet from that shit. My mama would never.
“Come on man, let’s go!” Mylon was standing at the bottom of the stairs, tapping the invisible watch on her wrist.
“We gotta go! You know them other bitches will snatch up all the cute shit!” she said with her hands on her hips.
As I descended the last step, I rolled my eyes at my impatient best friend.
“The mall ain’t goin’ nowhere. Chill.”
She smacked her teeth and rolled her eyes. I chuckled lightly as she started to walk away from me towards the front doors of the school. I caught up with her and hooked my arm around hers and walked her to my car. I fished my keys out of my purse and hit the unlock button.
“I’m hungry. Can we please get some food first?” Mylon says dramatically.
“Yeah. We can stop at the food court when we get to the mall” I reply.
“Bet. I want some Chinese food” she says rubbing her flat stomach.
I really don’t know how she isn’t as big as a damn house. She eats like two grown ass men. I have no idea where it goes though. I just shake my head at her as I put my seatbelt on and start the car.
When we arrived at the mall, of course it’s packed. My anxiety instantly starts to flare. I hate big crowds. I don’t particularly like people either. The only reason I’m even going to Trudy’s party is because Mylon begged me too. See she was the problem child. I was the “good girl”, so her mom wouldn’t even let her go unless I went with her. I wasn’t gonna let my best friend miss out on the hypest party of the year just because I am somewhat anti-social, so I here I am. At this crowded ass mall, headed towards the food court with Mylon walking beside me talking 1000 miles a minute. About what, I could not tell you. I stopped listening as soon as she started talking about Ro.
Ro is one of Mylon’s friends. She’s beautiful with the perfect body. She’s one of the most popular girls at our school and Mylon has known her since the first grade. I can’t fuckin stand her. She is ratchet as hell. She’s loud, obnoxious and likes to bully people she feels are weaker than her. She’s a bitch. All bark no bite. Mylons doesn’t know that I absolutely despise her friend. When Ro comes around, I don’t speak. I just pretend to listen and I chime in every now and then just so that it seems like I’m paying attention. In reality, I don’t give a fuck what they’re talking about.
“Ro said she’s gonna hook up with Troy tonight” Mylon was saying.
“I bet she is” I mumbled to myself. Ro was a hoe. Period. I saw her fuckin’ Gerald, who happens to beTroy’s friend, behind the gym at school last week during lunch period. Again, I wouldn’t share that little fun fact with Mylon. I’ll just keep that information to myself. After all, it is none of my business. It’s her coochie getting passed around, not mine.
“That’s nice” I said stiffly. Mylon turned her head to look at me.
“Why you have to say it like that?” she asked looking confused.
I just shrugged my shoulders. “I’m not saying it like anything. I honestly just don’t care who she’s hooking up with. That aint my business.”
Mylon rolled her eyes. “I know. I was just talking.”
“I know”, I said, “ What I don’t understand is why you keep telling me all her business. She’s your friend, Mylon, not mine. I don’t want to hear about who she’s fuckin. I really don’t care. She can keep on passing around that ratchet coochie. That’s on her. I just don’t want to hear about it every time she decides to give it to someone new”.
Mylon just looked at me. “Damn”, is all she said. I laughed.
When we finally get to the food court, we walk straight up to the Panda Palace window. Thank goodness there isn’t a long line because I am starving. I don’t eat the bullshit they serve us at school for lunch. I spend the whole lunch period either roaming around the school or sitting up under the tree in the courtyard reading a book.
Mylon orders her food and I order mine. She pays for them both.
“Thank you, sister!” I tell her with a huge smile on my face.
She waves it off as no big deal. We buy each other food all the time. It’s actually how our friendship started. I was short $0.68 on a burger and she was in line behind me. She paid for my burger and hers. I had just moved to Springstown, GA from South Florida, so I didn’t know anyone. She was the first person I met. She sat down next to me and we spent almost two hours eating and talking. We had a lot in common and she was super excited to learn that I would be going to the same school as her. We planned to meet up that Monday morning and ride to school together. We’ve been friends ever since.
We rush through our food and throw away our trash. We start walking towards the east end of the mall where our favorite store is. Body Central is where they have all the fly ass dresses that Mylon likes to wear- short, tight and flashy.
As soon as we walk in the store, Mylon sees a dress she likes, squeals, and runs off. I just shake my heard and head towards the clearance section. My parents are rich. My mom teaches Physics at the local community college and my dad is a dope ass producer. He has worked with some of the biggest starts in the industry. You’ve probably heard of him. He’s never around so he tries to buy my love. The black American Express card in my wallet is courtesy of daddy’s guilt for never being around. Although I can, I don’t wear expensive clothing. I think it’s stupid to spend more than $20 on a shirt. I am more of a comfortable dresser. Give me a pair of nice jeans and a T-shirt and I’m good. The only things I splurge on are my shoes. I love dope ass shoes. They are my addiction. I think I have about 113 pairs of shoes in my walk-in closet at home.
There is no way I’m going to be able to walk out of here in piece if I just pick out my usual, so I decide to try something a little different. I pick out a pair of cocaine white skinny jeans and a red crop top. I planned on pairing them with my red and white Jordan 13’s. I’ll straighten my hair out and wear my big gold hoops and I’m all good to go.
After picking out my items, I go in search of Mylon. I find her in the shoe section looking at a pair of pink and gold stilettos. They’re gorgeous, but the pointed heel on them look uncomfortable as hell. I could never.
“Are you getting them?”, I ask her.
“I don’t know”, she says holding them up to the dress she picked out. The dress is Gold with pink lace on the neckline.
“What do you think?
“A little over the top for a graduation party in my opinion, but it’s hella cute” I say.
“Good,” she says giggling, “Over the top is what I’m tryna do. Ima be the baddest bitch there!” she says with a huge smile on her face.
I shake my head and grab the dress and shoes from her and head to the front counter to check out. I put my stuff and hers up on the counter and pull out my wallet to pay for everything.
“I can pay for my own stuff, Mel” Mylon says from behind me.
I wave her off and continue to stick my card in the chip reader.
After the transaction is approved, I sign the receipt and grab our bags. I turn around and Mylon is standing behind me, but she’s staring out of the window of the store. I look to see what she’s looking at and I laugh.
Mylon is in love with Mario Sanchez. And everybody knows. Except Mario apparently. All they do is stare at each other. They never say anything to each other besides “hey”. It’s ridiculous if you ask me. Just get it over with already. I roll my eyes at the dumb ass look on her face. Lord, please help my friend. She’s so weird. I grab her by the arm and we exit the store.
“So you gonna go say something to him or just stand there and look?” I ask her.
“Shut up!” She says laughing, lightly slapping my arm.
He turns in our direction and when he sees Mylon, he smiles. He waves in our direction. Mylon waves back, turns on her heel, and starts walking off in the opposite direction before I can even register what just happened. Finally, some progress. They’ve gone from staring to waving. Progress. I give Mario one last glance before I turn to go after my friend. Surprisingly, he’s still smiling. He’s still staring. He looks me up and down. My blood runs cold. He makes it back up to my face and then the motherfucka winked at me. Shit.
…
