Truth or Dare

by ReShonda Tate Billingsley

  “Now what?” I whispered as soon as he took off inside the house.

  “I just needed to make sure someone lives here.”

  “Okay, so now we know. Again, let’s call the cops,” I said, tugging at her arm.

  “How about I distract the guy and you go in there after her?” Shay said.

  “How about, you have lost your freakin’ mind. I don’t know who’s in there, what kind of weapon they have, and oh yeah, today’s my day off from my superhero duties!”

  “Look.” Shay turned to face me. “We don’t have much choice. Evian is in there. I know it,” she whispered. “I feel it in my gut, and we need to do what we can to get her out.”

  The guy opened the door back up. “Here’s that herb. It’s some real good stuff,” he said, shaking a small baggie in front of us.

  “Mmm, yeah that’s what I’m talking about,” Shay said. She looked over her shoulder at me to give me the cue. Then all of a sudden she fell to the ground, shaking.

  “Oh no,” I said, hurrying to her side. “She’s having a seizure!”

  “What? What you mean she’s having a seizure?” the guy said. “What am I supposed to do about that?” he yelled.

  “I don’t know! Here, grab her! Grab her!” I said as Shay shook violently on the ground. I had to give it to her—she looked like she was straight in the middle of an epileptic seizure. It was extremely convincing. The boy was freaking out.

  “Help me get her inside,” I said.

  “I’m not taking her in there!” he said, panicked.

  “Do you want her to die right here?”

  “I don’t care. I don’t know her!”

  “Yeah, but she also has this.” I pointed to a button on her necklace. “This is her seizure alarm. Anytime it goes off, the cops come. Is that what you want?”

  I was grateful that he didn’t realize that was actually a Tiffany charm necklace.

  “What cops?” he said. “Salir ahora!”

  “Huh?” I said.

  “Go! Leave! Now!” he repeated.

  “How do you expect me to get her out of here?” I said.

  This idea had seemed dumb at first, but it actually looked like it was working. Especially when the guy took a deep breath and said, “Fine,” and then opened the door. He muttered what I’m sure were curse words in Spanish.

  “Can you help me get her inside?” I asked, trying to lift Shay up.

  “Naw, mami. I can’t do none of that,” he said.

  “Fine!” I barked as I tried to get Shay up. She continued shaking. “Would you chill out?” I whispered.

  She calmed down enough for me to lift and get her inside.

  “I need a wet towel,” I said to him once I’d gotten her inside and on the dusty old sofa.

  “Look, no hospital,” he said.

  “Can you just get me a wet towel?”

  He reluctantly ran and got a wet towel.

  “Is there someone else here who can help?” I said.

  “No, just me.” He looked around. “¡Ándale!”

  Shay and I exchanged glances and that was our cue. As soon as he leaned over the sink and started wringing out a towel, we both pounced on him as he struggled to get loose. Shay broke free, grabbed a pot, and coldcocked him upside the head. Once he was down, I took off running and began looking room to room. When I opened the second door, I wanted to cry when I saw Evian tied to a post inside. She was dirty, her eyes were puffy, and her hair was matted, which for Evian, Ms. Clairol herself, was major.

  “Evian!” I said, racing toward her. “Are you okay?” I snatched off the tape that was covering her mouth.

  “Does it look like I’m okay?” she snapped.

  I gave her a pass because being held hostage was enough to make anybody crazy.

  “I’ve been held hostage for three days. It’s been a nightmare,” she said, struggling to free her hands.

  I quickly untied her hands. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  “Where’s Pedro?” she said.

  “We knocked him out,” Shay said, appearing next to me. “Let’s get out of here before he comes to.”

  Evian quickly unraveled the rope around her legs and untied herself.

  We managed to get out just as we saw Pedro stirring again. “Mmm,” he moaned.

  “Let’s go,” Shay said. When we raced outside, Quincy was right on the front lawn, filming.

  “Is she okay?” he asked. He didn’t stop filming though as we dragged Evian out. The minute we got her outside, Evian began sobbing even more.

  “Come on, it’s going to be okay,” I said.

  I knew she had to be scared out of her mind, but it seemed like when she saw the camera, she amped up her tears.

  I shook off that thought. Now wasn’t the time for cattiness. Evian had been through it. Then, suddenly, it dawned on me that I was the one who had saved her. I motioned toward Quincy.

  “Make sure you keep that camera on me,” I whispered as I limped past him. Yes, we’d just rescued Evian, maybe even saved her life, but no one should ever get it twisted. Maya Morgan was the real star of this show.

  Chapter 15

  I knew Evian had been through the wringer, but this chick was taking it to a whole different level. We had just pulled into our hotel and had barely gotten Evian out of the car when she spotted our chaperone.

  “Miss Martin,” Evian cried, running into her arms.

  “Evian! Where have you been?” Our lead chaperone hugged her tightly, relief blanketing her face. Shay had finally broken down last night and told her that Evian had been missing. Needless to say, she was an absolute wreck.

  Evian collapsed in Miss Martin’s arms and she guided her down onto the sofa.

  “I was kidnapped—it was so horrible. I thought I was going to die,” she sobbed.

  I couldn’t do anything but roll my eyes. She was so extra. Several people began gathering around us.

  “Oh my God, are you okay? Someone call the police!” Miss Martin shouted.

  “No, no. I’m just glad to be out of there,” Evian said.

  She’d laid with her head in Shay’s lap the whole ride back to the hotel. I had sat up front with Quincy so I hadn’t seen her crying, but I had definitely been able to hear that she hadn’t been as overboard as she was right now.

  Quincy was still filming. He was a true cameraman. Nothing got in the way of him getting his video.

  “You can stop filming now,” I told him.

  “Naw, Tamara told me to make sure I got everything,” he replied.

  “We got enough,” I repeated.

  “Look, I’m just doing my job,” he said, moving out of the way so he could continue filming. He was actually working my nerves, too.

  Hotel security came racing over, and Evian’s tears went up a notch.

  “Okay, ma’am, please tell us what happened,” one of the security officers said.

  Evian took a deep breath, like she was trying to calm herself down.

  “The other day, I was at the bar,” she began. “I don’t know what happened, but the next thing I knew, I was being grabbed.”

  I raised an eyebrow. Grabbed? We’d asked everyone about her and no one had mentioned anything about seeing her being grabbed.

  “Ma’am, I need to get more details,” the security officer said. “What did the person that grabbed you look like? Exactly where in the hotel were you? Did anyone see you?”

  Suddenly, Evian let out a loud sob. “I can’t! I just can’t talk about this anymore. I just want to go home. I thought I was going to die!”

  “Not now,” Miss Martin told the security officer as she pushed him back.

  “Police are on the way,” another security officer said.

  “I don’t want to press charges,” Evian cried. “I just want to go home.”

  “Oh, my God,” Shay said, hugging Evian. “Can’t you see she’s been through enough?”

  “Ma’am, it’s just a few questions,” the security offi
cer said.

  Evian clutched Miss Martin tightly. “Please, Miss Martin. I promise if you just let me go home, my daddy won’t sue you or the school.”

  At the mention of suing, Miss Martin tensed up. She knew that she probably would be in big trouble if this got out. She’d be smart to keep Evian calm. “Okay, that’s it,” Miss Martin said firmly. “We’re done. This poor thing has been through the wringer. She’s safe now, and I just want her to rest until we leave in the morning. I will get her settled, then I’ll come give a report.”

  Oh, Evian was good. I’d seen firsthand what she’d endured, so it wasn’t that I didn’t believe her. I just couldn’t believe how she was taking this to a whole other level. And I had the strangest feeling that this was only the beginning.

  Chapter 16

  “What’s up, cuz?” Travis said as I walked in the house. Instead of helping me with my bags though, he plopped down on the sofa. “Tell me everything I missed.” He crossed his legs and put them up on my mom’s Italian marble table.

  “You’re about to be missing those feet if you don’t get them off my mom’s coffee table,” I told him.

  He laughed. “Since you’ve been gone, I’ve gotten auntie and uncle wrapped around my finger.”

  “I thought you were going home?” I asked.

  The look on his face turned sad. “I did. But mama wanted me to come back early because she’s in the hospital and said she didn’t want me to spend all my days cooped up with her.”

  “Hospital? Is she okay?”

  Travis nodded. “Yeah, she’s fine now. She’s getting her treatment thanks to your dad, and hopefully, she’ll be back to normal in no time.”

  “That’s good,” I said, dropping my purse onto the counter. “But I’m going to lie down. I need to decompress after the horrible week I had.”

  He actually sat up. “Horrible? What are you talking about? What happened?”

  “I don’t even know where to begin.” I sighed.

  “What? So Cancun wasn’t the bomb? That’s all you were talking about was how much fun you were going to have.”

  “Yeah, that was before Evian got kidnapped.”

  “Your girl Evian?”

  “She’s not my girl,” I said, rolling my eyes. “As a matter of fact, she’s not anything to me but a pain in the behind.”

  “Back up. What do you mean, she was kidnapped?”

  I needed to get my story together. How I was going to tell everyone what happened to Evian without revealing my part in it with the truth-or-dare game?

  “She went off with this dude and she never came back,” I said.

  “What?” he repeated, sounding like a broken record.

  “Yeah. Messed up, I know,” I replied. “She went for a walk with this guy. Then just up and went missing. Long story short, Shay tracked her down, we went in and saved her, and now, she’s acting like she’s in some action movie, like she’s a damsel in distress.”

  Travis shook his head in disbelief. “Wow. So I did miss out on some fun?”

  “Trust, there was nothing fun about this whole experience. In fact, we couldn’t even enjoy ourselves because everyone was freaking out over Evian.”

  Travis didn’t know Evian well. By the time he had moved here, Miami Divas had already been canceled, so he really only knew her from around school.

  “Wow. I heard that her peeps were connected to the mob or something. You think that’s why she was kidnapped?”

  I shrugged. Truth be told, I was tired of thinking about Evian, period. “I don’t know how the kidnapper would’ve had any way of knowing that. But I can tell you none of us wanted to be the one to have to come back and tell her family that their little princess was missing, so I’m just glad we found her.”

  “We?”

  “Yep. Me and Shay. All by ourselves.”

  “Where were the police?” Travis was engrossed like he was watching a good movie.

  “We didn’t even call the cops. We found out where she was, went in, and saved her ourselves.”

  “Something isn’t adding up,” Travis said, skeptically. “What kind of bootleg kidnappers were these?”

  I shrugged. “I have no idea. I just know I’m glad it’s over.”

  “Wow,” he said again.

  “Can you say something else?” I don’t know why every little thing was irritating me, but it was. I’d been irritated on the whole plane ride home, then when we’d landed and Tamara had started blowing up my phone (I’d yet to call her back). Maybe I was just mad that not only had the Spring Break Fling been a bust, but other than Evian and Jay Blackmon, I didn’t have any real dirt I could use on Rumor Central.

  “It’s just a trip,” Travis said.

  “Naw, what’s a trip is how she has everyone feeling all sorry for her. She’s being such a drama queen behind all of this.”

  He laughed like something was really funny. “Can you let that girl have her moment?”

  “I’m the one that saved her anyway.”

  That made him sit up. “So, tell me about that. How did you save her?”

  I finally smiled. “Tune into the show next week because it was all caught on tape.”

  Travis laughed. “Of course it was. You weren’t about to go in with your superhero cape on and not be rolling. Because Evian isn’t the only one that likes to shine.”

  “Whatever, Travis. I’m tired. Can you get my bags?” I stood and pointed toward the door. “They’re in my trunk.”

  “Un-unh.” He reached up and grabbed the remote, then turned the TV back on. “Do I look like Sui?” he said, referring to our maid, as he put his feet back up on the table and got comfortable.

  “Ugh, you make me sick. Where’s my mom?”

  “Mama!” he yelled. “Maya’s back!”

  My hands went to my hips. “Excuse me?”

  He smiled. “She told me to call her mama.”

  “Ah, she’s not your mother. Aunt Bev is your mother,” I said with an attitude.

  “Dang, girl, chill out.” Travis laughed, then stopped when he saw that I wasn’t laughing. “Evian got under your skin for real.” I just rolled my eyes.

  “Aunt Liza, Maya’s back!” he screamed.

  “And stop yelling,” I snapped. “My mother hates when you yell in the house.”

  “Hey, sweetheart,” my mom said, walking into the living room. She looked her usual fabulous self in a long Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dress.

  I paused, waiting for her to go off on Travis, for yelling and for his feet being plopped up on her table.

  “When did you get back?” She walked over and gave me a hug.

  I just stood there. “Uh, don’t you see his feet on your table and him yelling like a caveman?” I said, pointing at my cousin.

  My mother squeezed my cheek. “Oh, lighten up, Maya. It’s all good, for sheezy.” She turned to Travis and giggled.

  My mouth dropped open in horror. “Mother, no. Don’t ever, ever, ever, ever say that again.”

  “Travis has been teaching me all the latest hip phrases,” my mom replied.

  “Why would he be doing that?” I asked.

  “Chill, cuz,” Travis told me. “Me and Mama, I mean Auntie Liza, we’ve just been hanging, bonding.”

  “And guess what?” my mom excitedly said. “He also taught me how to Dougie.”

  “Taught you how to what?”

  She raced over to the CD player, pressed a couple of buttons and the “Teach Me How to Dougie” song filled the living room. And then my mother, the prissy, sophisticated Liza Morgan, began doing the Dougie right in the middle of the living room floor. That was astonishing because my mother didn’t Dougie, Wobble, Cupid Shuffle, or anything other than waltz. At least she hadn’t before I went to Cancun.

  “Okay, does someone want to explain where my real mother is?” I yelled over the music as Travis jumped up and joined her.

  “Come on, Maya, join us,” my mother said, laughing and dancing.

  Both of the
m made me sick and I wasn’t in the mood to be playing around. Besides, my mom had never danced with me.

  “Where’s Daddy?”

  “Where is he always? Working,” she shouted as that stupid song continued to play.

  “Teach me how to Dougie, t-teach me how to Dougie,” Travis sang as he danced next to her.

  All I could do was stare at both of them. I shook my head as I turned to head up to my room. Now, I knew without a doubt, the whole world had lost its mind.

  Chapter 17

  “What’s up everybody? It’s your girl Maya Morgan back from the Spring Break Fling 2014.”

  I smiled as the camera did a slow pan toward me. I was actually happy to be back on the air. They’d been running teases of Evian’s story, and I was about to unveil my dramatic rescue of her. I knew that we’d have a lot of people tuning in because her story had been the talk of the town since we’d gotten back. Not that we didn’t already have a lot of viewers. But there had been a lot of interest in the story because Tamara had sent a sneak peek of the video of Evian’s rescue to all the major news outlets, not to mention Evian herself had been crying all over national TV.

  “Well, our spring break turned into a straight mystery,” I said to the camera, “as a former Miami Diva and personal friend found herself in the middle of a kidnapping caper. And of course, yours truly happened to be the one to track Evian down. I guess you guys didn’t know that I was a super sleuth as well as a super star,” I said, flashing a smile at the camera. “But don’t take my word for it, see for yourself.”

  I stood back as the video of our dramatic rescue began playing. Quincy had done a great job of editing it (along with the undercover video) all together to make it look more intense than it actually was.

  After the video stopped, every eye in the studio was glued to the screen so I could only imagine the reactions of all the people who were tuned in all over the country. Once the tape was over, my director, Manny, gave me the cue to continue.

  “And after the break, we have Evian here and she’s going to go live and tell us more about what happened and how she escaped,” I said.

  I tossed to the break and then waited for the assistant producer to bring Evian on set. Evian had done two other interviews, but she had acted too distraught in those. She was supposed to be coming on Rumor Central to tell “the whole story.”