Fast Life

by Cassandra Carter

  “What was it like up in Chicago?”

  “I don’t know. It was loud. Real windy…” She sat up and rubbed her arms as if she were cold.

  “No, I’m saying, I want to know what your life was like.”

  Kyra paused for a moment. She didn’t want to be reminded of her old lifestyle. Those days were behind her, and she didn’t want to bring them up. But after glancing back at the one she loved and seeing the eager look to know more about her on his face, she couldn’t help letting him in.

  “I was real popular, real selfish and even more stuck-up…. I got bad grades…. I would always hang out with Tasha. I knew her since I was little,” she explained of her past, making sure to cut out anything involving Makai, Mercedes or her family.

  “Yeah, you were stuck-up when you first got here,” Justin joked.

  “Shut up.” Her laugh broke her serious thoughts. She hadn’t really thought about how much she had changed until now.

  “I still love you, though,” he said, rubbing his hand lightly over her bare back.

  “I love you, too,” she cooed as she looked back into his eyes.

  “Come here.” Justin pulled Kyra to him and met her with a peck on the lips.

  That summer went by fast as the hot sun and sudden rains of the season marked each day, and Kyra and Justin’s now-exclusive relationship grew stronger in spite of their secrets.

  Most days, Kyra’s mother didn’t find her way home from the hotel, but Kyra didn’t mind the extra freedom. What with cuddling up to watch movies, cooking for her man and having daily sex, she barely had time for anything else.

  Too quickly, the new school year started. Once the word got around that Kyra and Justin were officially an item, Veronica was more jealous than ever. Her vicious stares were so frequent, they didn’t even faze Kyra anymore. Bottom line was that she had what she wanted.

  Kyra kept in touch with Natasha sporadically throughout the year. Natasha would fill her in on all the latest gossip in Chicago and would sometimes ask about Michael. She seemed touched to hear that he had slowed things down. She had quit her job at Burger King when she had gotten back from her vacation and started working at the local mall. Working in retail was a real improvement from the fast-food business for any teenager.

  “I don’t get how you can work.” Kyra held the phone to her ear as she turned onto her stomach in bed.

  “It’s not that bad. It sure as hell beats Burger King. I get discounts on my clothes and see all the new stock before it hits the shelves. I be geared out, girl! Get on it!”

  “I still don’t get it.”

  “That’s because you’re spoiled as hell. If you would even give it a chance, you would like it. Especially since it has to do with clothes. But who am I fooling? Putting your name and work in the same sentence doesn’t even sound right,” she said, and laughed hysterically.

  “What’s so funny about that? It’s not like I can’t do it or nothin’.”

  “Yeah, right. I’ll believe it when I see it.”

  “A’ight, bet, then. I’ll get a job. You’re gonna be feelin’ so dumb when I do, too.”

  “Yeah, okay. You let me know when you do.”

  “I’m serious!” Kyra protested.

  “Mmm, hmm.”

  “Bitch.”

  “You love me, though.”

  “Or so you think.”

  “Oh! It’s like that?”

  “Nah, you know I love ya like my sis, girl!”

  “Whatever.”

  “Dang, girl, it’s ten-thirty already. We’ve been on this phone foreva.”

  “I need to get some sleep for tomorrow. I have a test in chemistry,” Natasha sighed.

  “Damn, I heard it’s hard as hell.”

  “You ain’t neva lie.”

  “A’ight, then, I’ll talk to ya lata.”

  “Peace. Oh, and Kyra, tell everyone I said hi…especially Mike, okay?”

  “A’ight.”

  Kyra went to sleep that night with one thought on her mind: getting a job. She’d never really thought about work. She’d never felt the need to. She’d been the first and only daughter of a hustler, a real boss in the midwestern streets, and when he died, she’d taken on the role of a hustler’s girl. But now it was time for her to have some true responsibility. Not to mention a steady cash flow. After breaking things off with Makai, her budget had been obliterated. All her funds had dissolved.

  After school let out the next afternoon, Kyra found herself walking along the shaded lane hand in hand with Justin—Michael, Angel and Quentin by their side. When they reached the end of the lane, Justin turned toward her house, but she pulled him in the opposite direction.

  “Where are you trying to go?”

  “I gotta go take care of somethin’ real quick.”

  “What is it?”

  “Some stuff with a job.”

  “A job?” he asked in disbelief.

  “Yeah, you heard me.”

  “Where at?”

  “I dunno yet. I’m just gonna go pick up some applications from some places. Probably some boutiques or somethin’.”

  “Want me to come with you?”

  “Naw, I wanna do it myself.”

  “A’ight, then, do ya thang, baby.”

  “Hey, we’re about to be out. We have an apartment to look at, at four,” Quentin said.

  “Bye, Kyra, and good luck with those jobs,” Angel called.

  “I oughta get goin’, too,” Justin added.

  “Okay. Call me later.”

  “Okay, boo.”

  They locked lips for a moment and Kyra started to leave, stopping when she remembered her friend’s message from last night. “Oh, and Tasha said hi, especially to you, Mike.”

  “What?”

  “Bye!”

  “Wait, how are you going to do me like that? What did she say? Kyra!” Michael called out to her as she strolled down the street, smiling and chuckling to herself. The playboy of the island was head over heels for her best friend thousands of miles away.

  Kyra reached Providenciales and roamed the streets to find all the opportunities available. There were a lot of restaurants and stores around, as well as hotels.

  As she made her way through the streets, she spotted a store called Butterfly that she had gone to while Natasha had been visiting. She decided to stop in. It seemed to be the perfect place to begin her job search.

  Kyra strolled into the boutique and approached the front counter, speaking as professionally as she could. “Hi, are you hiring right now?”

  “Let me call the manager for you.” The young clerk picked up a phone from behind the counter. Within minutes, the store manager arrived from the back room.

  “Hello, how may I help you?” the manager greeted her with a mouth full of straight white teeth.

  “Hi, I was wondering if you happened to be hiring right now?”

  “Actually, yes, we do have a few positions available right now. Would you like an application?”

  “Yeah…I mean, yes, please.”

  “Here you go. Make sure you bring this back tomorrow as early as you can. The faster the better. The positions are being filled fast.” She handed over a two-page form from behind the counter.

  “Thank you.”

  “Have a good day.”

  “Where have you been?” Kyra had made her way back home to find her mother in the living room eating a bowl of chicken and rice.

  “I had to take care of somethin’.”

  “What’s that?” She nodded toward the form under Kyra’s arm.

  “Nothin’. Just somethin’ for school.” Kyra did her best to lie and hide the paper, but it was too late.

  “Here, let me see.” Rolling her eyes and taking a deep breath, Kyra surrendered the form to her mother’s outstretched hand.

  “A job application?” her mother cried, keeping her eyes locked on the paper.

  “Go ahead, you can laugh if you want. I know you wanna.”

&n
bsp; “No, no. This is…great. I’m just shocked. I didn’t know you were thinking about getting a job!”

  “Maybe that’s because you’re never home.”

  “Jobs can be very demanding you know. Especially mine. You try managing the money for one of the biggest, busiest resorts around.”

  “Whateva.”

  “But anyways, you’re seventeen now and a junior in high school. I don’t see why this wouldn’t be as good a time as any for you to get some work.”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “You are going to hand it back in though, right? There’s no use getting an application if you’re not going to follow through with it.”

  “Actually, I’m taking it back as early as I can tomorrow. The lady said that the jobs are goin’ really fast.”

  “Yeah, on the islands people are constantly coming in and out. Look at us.”

  “What?” Kyra demanded under her mother’s stare.

  “Nothing. I’m just so proud of you.”

  “For what? I didn’t do anythin’.”

  “Actually, you did. Do you remember when I told you I wanted you to come here so that you could grow? And you said you wouldn’t and that you could do it in Chicago?”

  “Yeah, I remember that.”

  “So you don’t think you have? If we were still in Chicago, you wouldn’t even think about thinking about a job. Plus, now you bring home decent grades and you may have a chance at college.”

  “I already told you—”

  “I know,” her mother interrupted, “but just think about it, okay? Let me know if you need any help filling out the application. I’ll be in my room.”

  “Wait. Where’d you get that from?” Kyra noticed a ruby ring on her mother’s hand that she had never seen before.

  “Oh, it’s nothing. I bought it the other day on Provo. Cute, isn’t it?” She lit up as she looked at the ring before finally leaving for her bedroom.

  The following day after school, Kyra was nervous as she walked into the Butterfly Boutique. “Hi, I’m here to return this application.” She turned on her charm as she handed over the completed form to the manager.

  “Oh, yeah, I remember you. Here, come with me.”

  “Huh?”

  “I need to interview you. You do want the job, don’t you?” the manager asked as she raised an eyebrow in Kyra’s direction.

  “Yes…but…” She was unsure as she looked down at her plain school uniform.

  “Don’t worry about it. You’re fine. Now come on, I don’t have all day to waste with you.” She marched off looking over the form.

  Kyra was a little taken aback by the manager’s sudden change in attitude from the day before, but she followed her to a back office. As she set her bag down at the side of a chair and took a seat, she wondered just what she had gotten herself into.

  “Kyra, where do you see yourself in five years?” The manager, Regina, suddenly threw the question at her as she scanned Kyra’s personal information.

  “In college.” She was thinking on her feet, saying whatever she thought would sound best for the job. She couldn’t believe what she had just said. Her mother probably would have jumped for joy if she had been there. But a stuffy little room in a dormitory with curfews and rules, stadium-style classrooms with old professors, and too-long lectures weren’t what Kyra had in mind for the rest of her life.

  “What college are you considering?”

  “Something in the…uh…Chicago area.”

  “I see here you haven’t had any work experience?”

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “Not even community service?”

  “No. I’ve never been in trouble with the law.”

  “You can chose to do community service, you know,” Regina said, letting out a hearty laugh.

  Kyra didn’t understand what was so funny. The only time people did community service where she came from was when a judge ordered them to. Who would even want to do it out of choice? she thought.

  “You make me laugh. I like that.”

  “Thank you,” Kyra replied, more confused than before.

  “From what I see here, things seem to be in order, and you seem well suited for the job, except for the fact that you haven’t had any experience. Would you say that you are responsible?”

  “Yes.”

  “I think that as long as you apply that, then you will be fine.

  I won’t give you the job right now, but I’ll tell you what I will do. I’ll try you out and see how you work for a few days. If I feel like it will work out, then I’ll hire you part-time, but if I don’t, then you know the deal. How is tomorrow? Saturday from two to seven?”

  “That’s fine. Thank you.”

  “Oh, and make sure you come in in something better than that next time. I’m sure a pretty girl like you has better things in her closet than a uniform.”

  Kyra walked out of the office with a smile on her face. I’ll show her.

  She returned home to share the news with her mother, who seemed to be happier than she was. She mentioned something about wishing they could go going to dinner as a celebration of her success, but Kyra really only caught the part where she said she wouldn’t be back until tomorrow because something “came up” at the office and she needed to go there right away.

  She dialed Justin’s number as she watched her mother load her overnight bag into her car and drive off down the road.

  “Hello?”

  “Justin?”

  “Hey, baby, what’s up? You hand in the application?”

  “Yeah, she interviewed me, too.”

  “Did you get it?”

  “Kinda.”

  “Kinda?”

  “I’ll tell you about it when you get here.”

  “Another one of those nights, huh?” he asked, referring to her mother’s constant absences from home lately.

  “Yup. It’s another one of those nights,” she sighed.

  “Okay. I’ll be over there in a little while.”

  “Bye. And hurry, you know I hate bein’ here alone.”

  Justin hung up the phone and looked over at his brother, who was sitting next to him playing a Playstation 3 basketball game.

  “I need you to cover for me.”

  “Damn, again?”

  “Yeah, her mom left again, and I don’t want her there alone as much as she doesn’t want to be there alone,” he said, finding clothes to wear for that night. His usual overnight bag would’ve been ready if he hadn’t put it to use only a few nights ago.

  “I feel you.” Justin threw on a white T-shirt and some dark indigo jeans, grabbed his bag and hurried his way down the side of the mansion from his bedroom window. He decided not to take his car but to walk to Kyra’s house. It would be easier and less noticeable. It was a long walk, and it seemed he made it almost every weekend, but to him it was always worth it.

  It took about an hour and a half for him to reach her home from the gated community he lived in. He walked up the dark, empty driveway to find her sitting on her porch in a peach-colored teddy, awaiting his arrival.

  He didn’t say a word as he walked up to her and greeted her with a kiss. He picked her up as she wrapped her legs around his waist and he carried her inside.

  Justin tenderly carried Kyra to her bedroom and laid her on her crisp, cool sheets as they kissed and tugged at each other’s clothing until they both were bare. Their sweating, panting, moaning and screaming went on for hours as they made love.

  As Kyra stood in the shower, Justin washed her back. He watched, captivated with the way the water and soapsuds flowed over her body.

  “Tell me about that job, baby.”

  “I gotta work tomorrow.”

  “So you got it, then?”

  “No,” she said. “She’s tryin’ me out to see how I work out or whateva.”

  “You got it.” He made his statement as though it were a solid fact.

  “Yeah,” she plainly affirmed.

  “So h
ow long you gotta work tomorrow?”

  “From two to seven.”

  “You want to do something when you get off? We could go to dinner or something,” he asked as he massaged her back and pecked her shoulder blade.

  “Nah, not really. I don’t really feel like goin’ out anywhere.”

  “You want me to come back over tomorrow and just chill here?”

  “Yeah. I doubt she will be here.”

  “I understand how it is when you parents are never around. Mine are always working, too. It’ll be a’ight, though.”

  “I really dunno why it bothers me. When she’s here, all we do is argue anyways.”

  “She’s still your mom, though. Everybody wants their parents around sometime.”

  “You know, yesterday she had on this ring. She can’t afford it. I know she can’t. I mean, I know what that stuff looks like and how much it costs. It was real, too. It had to have gone for at least a couple grand, and I’m just guessin’! Who knows how much it really cost.”

  “Maybe she’s seeing someone. Does she have a boyfriend?”

  “Like who!” she snapped, whipping around toward him.

  “Whoa, chill, chill. I don’t know who, I’m just saying that maybe it was a present or something?”

  “She’s still married to my dad, Justin. She still has his name,” she insisted.

  “He’s all the way up in Chicago, though, right? Maybe she’s lonely?”

  “Yeah but still…” She trailed off for a minute and then started again. “Look, I gotta get up for work tomorrow and it’s late. Let’s go to sleep.” She brought their conversation to a conclusion and turned off the water. She grabbed a towel from the rack and stepped out of the bathroom so rapidly, she left Justin stupefied.

  CHAPTER 13

  Kyra’s first day of work was busier than she expected, but she handled it well. She gave out helpful fashion advice to the customers as she managed to shuffle from shelf to shelf to restock items and keep things appealing to them. More people passed through the store than she had ever imagined. Even with being on her feet for five hours as well as being under Regina’s watchful eye, Kyra found working at Butterfly unexpectedly fun.