by Kiki Swinson
“I used to,” she answered.
I thought to myself, Yes, she answered me. And she did it without an attitude.
“Did you go to school for it?” I threw another question at her.
“Yeah, I went to school so I’m certified,” she replied.
I thought to myself, Yes, she answered me again. Keep going, Lauren, keep her talking.
“So, what do you do now?” I questioned her once more.
“Look, you better stop asking me all these damn questions before Matt comes in here and starts swinging on the both of us,” Lisa warned me. I saw fear in her eyes.
“Why does Kanan let Matt puts his hands on you? Why didn’t he stop him from hitting you like that?” I asked her, almost in a whisper. I expressed extreme concern.
“Why would Kanan bitch ass help me?”
“Isn’t he your man?”
“Fuck no! He ain’t even my type!”
“But I saw y’all together in the car the other night.”
“That was because I was making a pickup,” Lisa huffed.
“But I thought—”
“Listen, let me tell you something really quick,” she interjected. “I’m fucking Matt. And that’s why none of those punk-ass niggas in there stopped him from putting his fucking hands on me. Everybody in there is scared of him. Now lean your head back so I can put this makeup on you before he comes in here and sees that I ain’t doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”
My mouth fell wide open. I swear I couldn’t believe my freaking ears. “Okay, wait a minute,” I said. “You and Matt are together? Y’all are fucking?”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought until you showed up to get your baby.”
“He didn’t tell you about me?” I continued to whisper.
“Of course he did. He told me everything about how y’all hit it big with that last score and when it was time to divvy up the money, you ran off with it and left him with nothing.”
“Yeah, but did he tell you why I did it? And that he fucked another bitch behind my back and got her pregnant?” I spat, but I did it quietly because she and I could still hear Matt in the other room making his list of demands.
“Yes, he told me about Yancy and the baby but he said he didn’t love her and that she trapped him.”
“He’s a fucking liar! He’ll tell you anything so he can seem like he’s the victim,” I hissed through clenched teeth.
“Look, I don’t know what happened. All I can tell you is what he told me.”
“Did he tell you that he killed my fucking husband?” I asked her. By now tears had filled up my eyes.
“Listen, all he told me was that he was going up to New York to find you and get his money back and pick up a couple of kilos of dope, that’s it.”
“Did he tell you this was my fucking baby and that he kidnapped him?” I bit down on my teeth. I was freaking livid by this point. This chick was being so fucking nonchalant about Matt’s behavior. What the hell was wrong with her? Was I the only one who thought Matt was out of his damn mind for doing what he did?
“We can’t talk about this anymore. Lean your head back, please,” she said nervously as she pushed my head backward.
I lifted my head back up. “Do you know that he made me have sex with him last night?” I asked her. I wanted her to know the truth.
“I don’t wanna talk about it,” she replied, dabbing one of the makeup brushes into a slot of golden brown foundation.
“Answer this question, then,” I said.
“What?” she asked while she continued to dab the brush in the makeup.
“Do you love him?”
She hesitated for a moment and then she said, “I’m not sure anymore. I mean, he’s surely showing me that his heart is still with you.”
“I don’t give a fuck about him. He and I are over. I just wanna get out of here and take my baby with me. You can have him,” I expressed, hoping she’d hear the pain in my voice and know how sincere I was.
“Y’all two are awfully quiet in there. What’s going on?” Matt yelled from the other room.
The sound of his voice scared the shit out of me. It struck fear in Lisa too. “Ain’t nothing going on. I’m in here working,” Lisa yelled back, and then she pushed my head back by giving my chin a nudge.
I held my head back just in case Matt decided that he wanted to come in and check on us. I closed my mouth and I closed my eyes too. I wanted to say something else but I was too afraid to open my mouth. Afraid that Matt would hear me and try to take my life on the spot. No way. Nohow. This didn’t stop me from thinking long and hard about what Lisa had just told me. I was shocked to find out that Matt was fucking her. He was either one bold-ass nigga for treating her the way he did, or she was one stupid-ass bitch. Who sits back and lets their man fuck their ex-girlfriend in another room? I wouldn’t tolerate that shit under no circumstances. But now it all makes sense, about why she was gritting on me every time I caught her looking at me. Matt was making her jealous by being with me and she just let him do it. What the fuck was he thinking? Damn, I wished I could’ve asked her more questions. I was interested in knowing how the fuck they met and how long she’d been putting up with his bullshit. Hopefully, I’d get another shot at it.
18
CHANGING FACES
I don’t know how Lisa did it, but after we stopped talking she did a total makeover on me. It only took her fifteen minutes to apply the makeup on my face and green-colored contacts to my eyes. I couldn’t believe it, but when I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror, I honestly saw a different person. It was scary. I couldn’t figure out why this talented chick wanted to be with a loser like Matt. She literally made me look like another freaking person.
“Nice job,” Matt said, startling Lisa and me as he peered around the bathroom door.
“You scared me,” Lisa said as she held my hand against her chest.
With my son in my arms I jumped a little bit, but I didn’t say a word. I did glance at him through the bathroom mirror.
“Turn around,” he instructed me.
As badly as I wanted to tell him to kiss my ass, I didn’t. I turned around as I was told. He looked at me for a good ten seconds and then he said, “She’s gonna need a wig to complete this look.”
“You know I only got the long one with the blond highlights in it.”
“Well, put it on her so I can see how it’ll look,” he told her.
Lisa scurried out of the bathroom and returned a few minutes later with the wig in hand. I sat back down so Lisa could place the wig on my head. While she was working her magic, Matt asked, “Lauren, are you ready to repay your debt to me?”
Why the fuck did he just ask me that damn question? Does he really think I’m looking forward to robbing a fucking bank so he can get back the money I took from him when I left town? I wanna take my baby and leave this place and never come back. That’s what I’m ready to do, I thought to myself.
“Lauren, did you just hear me talking to you?” Matt asked me as he stood in the doorway. His tone changed so I looked up.
I immediately plastered a fake smile on my face, hoping this would stop Matt’s train from crashing into me. I knew that at any moment he could start throwing punches at me, even while I had my son in my arms. So, I went into Operation Kiss Matt’s Ass before he spazzed the hell out. “Yeah, I heard you. I was just thinking about how I’m gonna go up inside that bank and try to take all the cash they got. I mean, that shit is insured anyway. So why not take it?”
Matt smiled. “Now see, that’s the Lauren I know. I be telling niggas all the time how you get down. You’re about that money. But they don’t understand how we used to operate. But we gon’ show them, right, baby?”
Nigga, I am not your fucking baby! I thought to myself. I swear it felt like I was about to throw up in my mouth. I wasn’t his fucking baby. Those days were over for good.
I only wished Lisa would get up the nerve to leave this bastard. He didn’t give
a damn about anyone but himself. He continued to disrespect the both of us. He was so fucking evil! I just wished he’d fall to the floor and die right here. No one liked him. So no one would miss him. It would be a win-win for all parties involved.
“Stand up and turn around,” he instructed me after Lisa finished arranging the wig on my head.
Reluctantly, I stood up and gave it a whirl, and then I faced the mirror because I didn’t want to look at his sorry ass. “She doesn’t even look like herself,” Lisa commented.
“Nope. She sure doesn’t. You did a bomb-ass job, Lisa. I knew you could do it,” Matt praised her.
Lisa smiled. But that smile quickly faded away when Matt grabbed me by the arm and said, “Come on, baby mama, let’s finish getting you ready so you can go out there and make the doughnuts.”
I saw Lisa cringe at Matt through my peripheral vision. She was not at all happy at the way he grabbed me or the fact that he called me his baby mama as he escorted me out of the bathroom. I wasn’t happy either, but what could I do? Tell that nigga to go burn in hell and then watch him beat the shit out of me before I get a chance to leave the house? I had just seen how he beat the hell out of Lisa. I wasn’t trying to take her place.
While Lisa stayed back in the bathroom to clean up, Matt took me to the bedroom and told me to lay my baby down on the bed. I didn’t want to lay my baby down. I wanted to hold him as long as I could. But I knew I couldn’t defy Matt, so I did what I was told. Thankfully, he was asleep.
After I laid little Derek down on the bed, Matt handed me a black button-down shirt and a pair of black joggers. I looked at the clothes after I took them in my hands. “Whose clothes are these?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter, so just put them on,” he told me in an irritated manner.
That was my cue not to say another word about it. I got undressed in front of Matt and changed into the clothes he provided me with. I looked down at myself and wasn’t at all pleased with what I saw. The clothes were a little bigger than I had liked. But I kept my mouth closed and assumed the clothes belonged to Lisa because she was a little thicker than I was. I had the frame of Meagan Good while she had the frame of Kim Kardashian. So there was definitely a difference in the way these clothes fit me versus the way they’d fit her. Matt could care less, though.
“You ready to go over the drill again?” he asked me.
“Yeah,” I replied as I stood before him.
“Now, I told you that you and Preech are going inside the bank while Juice waits in the car. I want you to walk in first and walk straight over to the bank manager while Preech stays at least ten feet behind you. He’s going to act like he’s filling out a bank slip near the end of the counter area while he watches for other bank customers to leave the bank. Then, when the coast is clear, he’s going to shut down all the tellers and have them move back from their stations. I want you to stand there with the bank manager just in case she tries to do something. There is a distress alarm underneath her desk, so you’re on her before she gets to touch it.”
“Okay, I will.”
“Good. So then right after Preech gets everything under control up front, I want you to get the bank manager to lock the door. Then I want you to march her ass in the back where the vault is and I want you to clean that motherfucker out. Try to get that half a mil like I told you was there. It’s gonna be real simple if you follow everything I say to a T,” Matt conveyed.
“I will. I’m running everything through my head right as we speak.” I said. But in reality I was running another plan in my head. And it had nothing to do with robbing the bank and bringing all the money back to him.
“Once you get the money, you’re gonna duct tape and tie that bank manager up in the vault. She’d fuck up the entire mission if you let her walk out of there freely,” Matt warned me.
“Trust me, I’ve got everything under control,” I tried to reassure him, but for some reason, he didn’t look fully convinced. I left it alone though.
“Here, take these gloves. You’re gonna need them,” he told me.
I took the gloves from him and put them in my pocket. “Preech got both backpacks with him in the den,” Matt continued.
“A’ight,” I said like I was ready to go. But in actuality, I just wanted to get my baby and leave this godforsaken place.
Matt said a few more things to me and then he told me to follow him back into the den area. I looked back at my baby one last time before I left the room and gave him the biggest kiss ever. “I’ll be back to get you, little man,” I whispered to him before I stood up and walked out of the room.
Matt led me back into the den area. Lisa was in the kitchen cooking something that was smelling extremely good. “Lisa, when you’re done with that I want you to go in the room and look after the baby,” Matt yelled.
“All right,” she replied nonchalantly without even looking up from the pan she was using to cook in.
“So are you niggas ready to get this paper?” Matt asked with excitement as he clapped his hands together.
“You know I’m ready,” Juice replied with eagerness.
“You fucking right, I’m ready. I ain’t made a lick like this in a long time. So I’m ready to get paid,” Preech chimed in.
“Good. Well, let’s get this show on the road.” Matt jumped for joy. I could see the anticipation in his face. I was sure all he could think about was how much money this score was going to bring him. This was a classic scene out of the Ocean’s Eleven movie.
All the laughter and excitement came to a halt when another news broadcast interrupted the televised show that was on. “Look, they talking about her and that nigga we wasted again,” Juice blurted out as he pointed at the TV. Every one of us including Lisa had walked out of the kitchen to listen to what was being said. The news reporter mentioned that they finally got a chance to speak with someone connected to the case and, several seconds later, turned the camera to Quincy. My heart completely stopped when I saw his face in front of the camera about to be interviewed. He was standing outside of the police precinct with a man who appeared to be his attorney. Quincy looked very worried and confused. He even looked like he cried a lot of tears before he decided to stand in front of the camera. I will say that it was brave of him to do this. I waited there patiently to hear what he had to say. “So, Quincy, will you please reiterate to all the viewers what events led up to your friend’s being kidnapped while you were in the Huntersville section of Norfolk,” the reporter said.
Quincy took a death breath, looked straight into the camera, and then he said, “Well, I met this lady named Chantel on the bus coming back from New York City. She told me that she was coming here to visit her grandmother. But after we got here she changed her story and said that she was really here because her ex-boyfriend took her newborn baby and that she wanted to get him back.”
“Did she tell you what her ex-boyfriend’s name was?” the reporter asked him.
“No, she never told us.”
“Who are you talking about when you say ‘us’?”
“My roommate Trevor. He was the one that drove us to the house in Huntersville. It was Chantel’s idea to sit in Trevor’s Jeep and watch the house to see if she could find some kind of sign that her baby was inside there. But after about thirty minutes, Trevor got tired of sitting there and decided that he was going to knock on the door.”
“What happened after he knocked on the door?” the reporter wanted to know.
“Someone opened the door, but Chantel and I couldn’t see who it was because of where the Jeep was parked. So after Trevor said a few words to the person standing there in front of him, he turned around to leave but the person grabbed him and dragged him into the house and slammed the door shut. I immediately freaked out and took out my cell phone so I could call the cops but Chantel told me not to. She said that if I called the cops, it could mess her chances up for getting her son back. So I put my phone away and told her that she needed to do something about ge
tting my friend out of that house and do it now. So she got out of the Jeep and went to the back of the house. I got out and followed her and as soon as we stepped on the back porch the back door swung open and someone grabbed her and then another guy started shooting his gun at me, so I took off running.”
“Did you get a look at the person who was shooting at you?” the reporter asked.
“No, I didn’t. It was completely dark outside and once he started firing his gun I ran and didn’t look back.”
“Did you get hurt trying to get away?”
“No, ma’am. And I thank God for it because the guy was very close to hitting me with one of those bullets,” Quincy said, and then he let out a sigh of relief.
“Is there anything you wanna say to the kidnappers of your friend and the woman Chantel?”
“Yes, ma’am, I wanna say to the guys who took my roommate and Chantel to find it in your heart to let them go, especially my roommate. He’s a college student and he has a full life ahead of him. He wants to finish school and become a doctor. I don’t know too much about the lady, Chantel, but she seems like a really nice person, so let her go too. And give her her baby back so we can all go home. That’s all I’m asking,” Quincy said, and then his eyes started shedding tears. The white man dressed like an attorney placed his arm over Quincy’s shoulders and gave him a gentle pat.
The cameraman turned the camera back toward the news reporter. After she was given the cue to talk, she said, “Well, you heard it here first. The young gentleman named Quincy Lloyd is sending a plea to the kidnappers in hopes that they will release his friend and the young lady named Chantel. So folks, if you’ve seen or know where these two people are, please contact the missing person’s division of the Norfolk City Police Department. The number you can call is 877-MISSING1. They have operators on standby to take down any information or leads that you may have. Let’s get these two people back home to their loved ones. I’m Sherry Paige with Channel Ten News and this has been an exclusive.”
Immediately after the news segment ended, everyone in the fucking room started looking at one another. Matt opened his mouth first. “Why the fuck is everyone looking at each other like they’re fucking stupid or something?” he asked sarcastically.
