5ive Star Bitch

by Tremayne Johnson

  “Mascato,” she answered.

  I fixed us drinks and sat down next to Jill on the couch.

  “Is that your phone ringing?” Jill said.

  I looked around and didn’t see it. “Where is it?”

  “Sound like it’s coming from your bag.”

  I went into the dining area and grabbed my phone out of my bag. “Hey Doctor OConnor.”

  “Hello, Cherish. I have your results back from the lab. You got a minute?”

  “Sure, Doctor OConnor,” I went back to the couch to sit down.

  “Well, Cherish… usually all your results come back negative, but today they didn’t.”

  My heart dropped and I stood up. What the fuck did he mean, today they didn’t? “What’s wrong Doctor OConnor?” I felt sweat building on my forehead.

  “You tested positive for gonorrhea.”

  “What!”

  Jill jumped up and almost spilled her drink. “What happened?”

  “Doctor OConnor, please tell me you’re playing an awful joke on me, I’ll forgive you.” I said.

  “I’m sorry, Cherish, I’m not joking. You tested positive.”

  “Positive?” I couldn’t believe what he was telling me. This had to be a bad dream. There’s no way I could test positive for an STD. I was only fucking one dude.

  “Yes, I’m going to recommend a prescription for an antibiotic and you can pick it up at your local pharmacy. All you need to do is take the medication as prescribed and everything should be back to normal.”

  I stood there in awe, shocked, in disbelief, holding the phone, staring at nothing, just thinking.

  “Cherish,” Jill tugged at my arm. “Cherish, what happened?”

  I couldn’t even look her in the face. “I tested positive for gonorrhea,” I mumbled. I couldn’t come to grips with the words that had left my mouth. I was devastated.

  “Gonorrhea?” Jill was just as surprised as I was. “Are you for real?”

  I put the phone back to my ear. “But how Doctor OConnor, I haven’t had any symptoms. As far as I know, I’m good. Maybe we need to do the testing over.”

  “It’s not a problem doing the testing over Cherish, but I’m pretty sure we got it right the first time. And the reason you haven’t had any symptoms is because you’re asymptomatic. Meaning, you won’t get the symptoms but the disease is still prevalent. What you need to do is let your partners know what’s going on.”

  “Partners? I already told you, I’m only sleeping with one person. I don’t believe this shit!”

  “Okay, well then he’s been having unprotected sex with someone other than yourself. It’s not the end of the world Cherish. If you hurry and get the medication I prescribed you can get rid of it in two weeks, but you must let him know.”

  “Oh, yeah… I’ma let his ass know alright,” I pressed end and tossed the phone onto the couch.

  3

  9PM VALENTINE’S DAY EVENING

  I mashed my foot on the gas pedal pushing my truck to speeds over eighty miles an hour. I was on my way to Marlon’s house. He lived in Manhattan in the Trump Building on One Forty Riverside Boulevard. He was renting a suite on the top floor for forty five hundred dollars a month. He stayed there throughout the season, but during the off season he vacated to his home in Atlanta.

  Keyshia Cole’s song I Remember came on the radio and I turned the volume to the max. I loved this song. I gripped the steering wheel and focused on the road, but my mind was elsewhere. For the last eight and a half hours the only thing I could think about was that horrifying phone call I got from Doctor OConnor. I still didn’t believe it, but I made sure to get the medication he prescribed.

  My mind was in shambles. Marlon had been lying to me; and to think, we only had unprotected sex one time. The one time I tell him it’s okay to take the condom off, look what happens. Just the thought alone made me bang my hand on the dashboard. I made a stupid decision and I was paying for it, but Marlon fucking deceived me. He looked me in my eyes and told me a bold faced lie, and for that, he was going to pay.

  I was wearing That Dress. No, literally, I had on the same dress Elizabeth Hurley wore in Nineteen Ninety Four. It was designed by Versace. It was a little black dress. The sides were open and gold safety pins held it together. It was hot. I brought it at an auction Marlon made me go to. I paid eleven thousand for it. It was some type of charity event.

  Now that I think about it, I did a lot of things that I did not want to do. I only did them because Marlon would insist. I hated his friends—his so-called friends—and I hated the events he made me go to. But I went, and when I attended, I made sure I was the baddest bitch in the room. I smiled and I represented my man well, every time. And this is what he does to me? This is how he repays me? I couldn’t wait to get to his house.

  I pulled into Marlon’s garage, parked in my reserved spot and took the elevator to the top of the building. Marlon lived on the twenty first floor. The ride up was fifty three seconds exactly. That was if it didn’t stop.

  I stepped off the elevator carrying a bag with Marlon’s Valentine’s gifts. Yeah, I brought him a few things. He was sure to love them. I just knew it.

  The closer I got to his door, the angrier I became. I was fuming, but I was trying to hide it. I wanted to wait it out and see if he would come clean; I knew he wouldn’t, but there was a glimmer of hope. I just couldn’t believe Marlon would do this to me. How could I trust him after this?

  I rang the buzzer and a few seconds later the door opened. I pushed my way inside, carrying bags on one arm and my purse on the other. “It smells good in here,” I said.

  His apartment was huge. He hadn’t done much to it, but it was comfortable and it was his. He had a few pieces of furniture imported from Italy, a few paintings and pictures on the wall, and a big ass flat screen television in the middle of the living room.

  Marlon was in the kitchen, dicing something at the counter. He looked up when he heard my voice. “Hey baby,” he dropped the knife and rushed to help me with the bags. He leaned in to give me a kiss and I almost pulled back, but that would have been a sure sign of my attitude, so I played it off. I was disgusted when his lips touched mine. Lord knows who else he’d been kissing, or what else he’d been kissing. I put my purse on the glass coffee table and he tossed the bags onto the sofa.

  “Happy Valentine’s Day, babe,” Marlon said, wrapping me in his arms.

  I felt smothered. His scent usually made my pussy wet; today it was making me cringe. Everything about him irked me. His voice, his touch, that majestic smile; even his appearance made me want to throw up in my mouth. It took everything in me to put on a happy face and act like nothing was wrong. “Happy Valentine’s Day, babe,” I replied.

  He helped me remove my coat and then he hung it up in the closet by the front door. “You ready to eat? I made you something nice, something special,” he said.

  I had something special for him too, he just didn’t know it. “Sure, chef Marlon, what did you cook?” I followed him into the kitchen.

  He removed the lids off the pots and showed me his meal. “I got some coconut shrimp, black rice, Cajun salmon; broccoli, and for desert…” he opened the refrigerator and pulled out a cake, “Your favorite; strawberry shortcake,”

  I fake smiled. But I did love me some strawberry shortcake.

  “And…” he reached into a brown bag that was on the counter. “I got this for us to sip on. I’ma get you drunk tonight,” he winked, holding up a bottle of Dom Perignon.

  If this nigga thought he was going to get me drunk and give me that dirty ass dick of his, he had another thing coming. He’d be lucky if he ever touched this kitty again.

  “You got it all planned out, huh?” I said.

  “Yup,” he smiled and I just wanted to slap the shit out of him.

  After we ate, Marlon went into his bedroom and returned holding a small black bag. I already knew what he got me. We had talked about it a few months ago.

  “You go
first, babe, let me see what you got me, and then I’ll go,” he said, putting the bag on the table.

  I smiled at him, “You sure?”

  “Yeah, go head…”

  I walked to the sofa and grabbed the bag with Marlon’s gifts. I couldn’t wait to see his face when he opened them. He was about to get the surprise of his life, and he didn’t even know it.

  “Okay, open this one first,” I told him, handing him a box out of the bag.

  He sat at the kitchen table and tore the wrapping paper off the medium sized box. “What is this, babe?” he shook the box and put it to his ear.

  “Just open it, Marlon.”

  He opened the box and his eyes got wide, “Handcuffs?”

  “Yup,” I licked my lips and started to unbutton his dress shirt. “Let’s play cops and robbers. I’m the cop and you’re the robber.”

  “Babe, I don’t know about this one, I never been in a pair of cuffs.”

  “Pleeeease,” I fake begged him just to stroke his ego. “Let your first time be with me.”

  Marlon smiled. I could see his dick getting hard through the dress pants he wore. I had him.

  “Alright, c’mon, but be nice,” he said, palming my ass.

  I finished taking his shirt off and then I told him to put his hands behind his back so I could put the cuffs on. “You ready for gift number two?” I asked, and he nodded yes. I pulled the second box out of the bag and put it on the table.

  “How am I supposed to open it with these cuffs on?”

  “With your teeth,” I told him. “Here,” I put the small box to his mouth and he ripped the wrapping paper off of it with his teeth.

  “Condoms?” he said.

  “Yeah, condoms,”

  “But what do we need condoms for, Cherish, I thought we were past that stage?”

  “I thought we were too, but you can never be too safe,” I smiled. “You know what they say, ‘safety first’.” I could see he wasn’t feeling that idea by the vague expression on his face, but hey, he wasn’t the one in charge here, I was.

  “Handcuffs, condoms… this wasn’t exactly how I planned to spend my day.”

  “Who you telling,” I mumbled.

  “What you say?”

  “Nothing, babe,” I reached in the bag and pulled out the third gift. It was a red envelope addressed to Marlon. I placed it on the table in front of him. “You ready for gift number three?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “Nope,” I grabbed his belt and started taking his pants down.

  “Whoa, whoa… what you doing?”

  “Relax, Marlon. I’ma take care of you. Just sit back and enjoy the show,” I said, pulling his dress pants off.

  “You could’ve told me to turn the heat on if you knew what you had planned.”

  “Oh, the heat is about to get turned up; believe me.” I smirked. Marlon was sitting at his kitchen table naked and handcuffed, exactly the way I wanted him.

  “What’s that?” he asked, looking at the envelope.

  I grabbed the envelope off the table. “I’ll open this one for you,” I said. Right before I went to open it, my phone rang. I looked at my caller ID and saw it was Raquel. “Hey, Raq,”

  “You alright, Cherish? Where’s Marlon, tell that no-good-muthafucka I’ma fuck him up when I see him,” she cursed.

  “I’m alright, Raq. I’m with him now.”

  “What did he have to say?”

  “He doesn’t know that I know yet,” I whispered. “I’m about to give him a nice surprise. I call you back after I’m done.”

  “Okay, bye,” she hung up.

  “Cherish,” Marlon called out. “How long you are you gonna keep me in these cuffs, it’s starting to get uncomfortable.”

  “Not long,” I lied. I walked back to the kitchen table, picked up the envelope and ripped it open, “Happy Valentine’s Day, babe!”

  There were two things in the envelope; one was his check book and the other was a piece of paper. I shoved the piece of paper in his face so he could read it.

  “What the fuck is that?”

  “Oh, you can’t read now?”

  “I can read, but what the fuck is Suprax?”

  I shook my head. I was on the verge of explosion; ticking away, like a fucking time bomb. “It’s the fucking prescription for the STD you gave me, you dirty dick muthafucka!” I cocked my hand back and slapped the side of his face as hard as I could. It didn’t do much because Marlon was a big guy. He was six foot three and weighed over two hundred pounds.

  He looked at me like I was the crazy one. “What are you talking about, Cherish?”

  “Don’t play stupid now, Marlon, you might as well come clean.”

  “Come clean about what? I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. Take these fucking handcuffs off me!” he shouted.

  “You lied to me, Marlon… you fucking lied!” I screamed and the tears just came out of nowhere. They were pouring down my face and I couldn’t stop them. I didn’t want to stop them. I went into the kitchen and grabbed the biggest knife I could find out the drawer.

  “Cherish, calm down…” Marlon watched me get the knife. He tried to stay calm, but I could see the nervousness in his eyes. I could see the bitch in him.

  “No, Marlon,” I said, gripping the long, stainless steel weapon. “You calm down. Who’s the bitch!”

  “What bitch!”

  “The bitch you been fucking that burned your stupid ass!” I snatched his boxer briefs down and put the sharp blade to his limp dick. “Keep fucking playing with me and I’ma cut this muthafucka off!”

  “Okay, okay… Cherish, stop… please…”

  Yeah, I had his ass begging now. The ball was in my hands, literally. I really didn’t give a fuck if he didn’t tell me who the bitch was, because eventually I would find out. And when I did, I was going to fuck that bitch up too! But for now, his ass was going to pay. He was coming out of his pocket for every tear that fell from the wells of my eyes. Every sob that escaped my lips would be compensated; oh yeah, his ass was going to pay and he was going to pay big time.

  “What’s her name, Marlon?” I put the tip of the blade on his meat.

  “Cherish, if you don’t get that fucking knife off my dick, I’ma fuck you up,” he tried to ice grill me.

  “Are you fucking serious? You’re gonna talk shit to me while I got this knife in my hand, like I won’t cut yo’ ass!” I swung the blade and cut him in his chest. It wasn’t a deep wound, but the blood spilled instantly.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you! Bitch, you cut me!” he yelled.

  “Yeah, I cut you muthafucka! You better stop playing with me, Marlon… who the fuck is she!”

  “Help, somebody help!” he screamed at the top of his lungs.

  I laughed, “Nobody can hear you, Marlon, we’re on the top floor, stupid.”

  “Cherish, you fucking cut me,”

  “So what, Marlon… I’ma do a lot more if you keep acting like you don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about.”

  He just stared at me and I watch the blood trickle down his chest.

  “Okay, take the handcuffs off first.”

  “No, Marlon!” I grabbed my phone, snapped a bunch of pictures of him in his birthday suit and backed them up on my phone.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Shut up!” I got the check book out of the envelope. “Since you’re playing stupid, we’ll do it the hard way.” I wrote a check for two million dollars and showed it to him. “If you don’t want these pictures to get anonymously leaked to every media outlet in the world, I suggest you sign this check.”

  “Two million dollars, you must be kidding me!”

  “Oh, that’s too much?” I wrote another check and showed it to him.

  “Three million dollars? Cherish… you’re out of your fucking mind. What are you on, drugs or something?”

  “Now I’m on drugs?” I ripped that check and wrote another one. “I
can do this shit all day, and yes, I’ll keep going higher,” I said, shoving the check in his face.

  Marlon looked at the check and then looked me in my eyes. He was searching them to see if I was serious. He glanced at the knife I held in my hands. It had his blood on it. He knew I was serious, but he wouldn’t budge.

  “I’m not giving you anything, fuck you!” he yelled.

  I clenched the knife, raised it and slammed it hard into the wooden table chair Marlon was cuffed to. The blade was only centimeters away from his dick. “Well, you sit here and you think about it,” I said. The box he brought me caught my eye, so I grabbed it and opened it. It was an engagement ring; a nice one too. I couldn’t believe this nigga. “I guess this ring was your special surprise, huh? You were gonna ask me to marry you?”

  He nodded yes.

  “Well, my answer is hell fucking no! But I will keep this. Maybe I’ll pawn it or give it to someone who can use it.”

  I grabbed my bag and his house keys, got my coat out the closet, and left Marlon handcuffed to a chair, butt naked and bloody in his own apartment. I thought I’d give him a few hours alone to really grasp the situation. I’m pretty sure he would come to his senses after some ‘me’ time.

  “Bye, Marlon,” I waved, “Happy Valentine’s Day, babe!”

  “Cherish!” I could hear him yelling my name. “Cherish! Don’t leave me like this! Cherrrrishhhh!”

  4

  Twelve Hours Later

  “Marlon, are you here?” I hollered, entering his apartment. I didn’t see him, but it smelled awful. “God, it stinks in here,” I put my hand over my nose. “Did you take a shit, Marlon?” I walked through the living room and I saw him in the chair, on the floor. He must have knocked it over trying to get free, I guess. The closer I got, the stronger the stench was. “Eww, Marlon… that’s disgusting,” I almost threw up when I looked down.

  It was shit and piss in the middle of the kitchen floor and he was lying in it, sleeping like a baby. I kicked his arm. “Marlon, wake up!” I saw his chest moving up and down, so I knew he was still alive. He moved around a bit and then his eyes popped open.