Chapter 5
Makynzee
The next morning I’m awakened by Jay knocking on the door and calling my name. I look at the clock on the nightstand and see that it’s almost checkout time. I slip on the complimentary robe before opening the door and am greeted by her kissing the guy from last night. I know him from around the club and being with Kalil, but for the life of me, I can’t remember his name. We both watch as he walks away then she smiles as she comes inside my room. “We need to go, I think we gotta check out at noon.”
She sighs and falls back onto the bed.
“Mak, I think I’m in love.”
She slips her hands between her legs and squeezes them shut.
“Disgusting, Jay. We need to hurry.” I grab my clothes and start to get dressed.
“No, seriously, Mak. He’s like a porn star. I’m keeping him on speed dial for whenever I come here.”
I smile at her, knowing she’s dead serious. “Don’t condemn me to being here forever,” I say. We go to the restaurant downstairs and by the time we get to the car it’s after one and Jay is cursing silently.
“You should probably go back to the club.”
“Why?” I ask.
Instead of answering my question, she gives me her phone. I’m confused. It says she’s talking to me, but my phone is nowhere in sight. I look at her and she puts the phone to my ear and I say hello.
“You left without saying goodbye,” Kalil says.
I stop the car and punch Jay on her arm before asking Kalil why he has my phone. I already know what he’ll say.
“You left it.”
I guess I’m making a detour.
When I get inside the club I don’t see him. I call his name then go to his office. He’s sitting at his desk reading something. He looks up and smiles when I walk in. Unreasonably sexy. His smile is contagious.
“I didn’t leave my phone, Jay was supposed to have it.”
He gets up and brings the phone to me. “I got you a gift,” he says.
“Why?”
“Your birthday.”
He says this as if I should have already known the answer. I watch as he goes to a closet and grabs a box wrapped in blue paper. I wonder if he knows blue is actually my favorite color. Of course he doesn’t, he knows practically nothing about me. He gives me the box and when I open it I can’t stop the smile that spreads across my face. It’s a set of white Beats by Dre bluetooth headphones. I’m genuinely surprised.
“You didn’t have to do this.”
He frowns, but it doesn’t last.
“You’re in a better mood if you come in wearing your headphones and Cari said you broke your other ones.”
I wonder what else Cari has told him. “Thank you, I really appreciate this.”
“You’re welcome. What’s so good about music? What’s so good about those particular headphones?”
“Music makes me…feel,” I say as I go to my iPod on my phone. “No matter what you’re going through, music can describe it, it can make you feel better, it can make you feel worse, it just makes you feel.” I play “I’m a Star” by Chrisette Michele and say, “Listen to the words, you can’t tell me it doesn’t make you wanna smile.” He smiles. I love it. I open the case for the headphones and plug them into my phone. “With these you not only hear the beat, you feel it.” I reach up and put the headphones on his ears. He smiles even more. I think I seriously love this man. I barely even know him.
He takes the headphones off and asks, “Why you think you need to lie to me?”
“About what?” I’m confused.
“The only thing you haven’t lied to me about is your real name and that doesn’t count since I don’t know your last name.”
“I need my job. School isn’t free.” I look away from him. Suddenly he’s too close. I take a step back.
“If I told you that you could keep it would you tell me the truth?” He puts his hands on my hips. This bothers me for two reasons. The obvious being I love the way my body feels when he touches me. The other being I’m trapped and can’t move away from him.
“Can I?”
“Yeah.”
I look up at him. Those eyes would make me do anything he wants me to. “Makynzee Monique Mitchell. Mak for short. I turned 19 yesterday. I live with my mom and I’m working here to save money for college. If you wanna know anything else you can Google me.” He’s processing, quietly. It’s driving me crazy. I want to know what he’s thinking.
“Will Google tell me where you live?”
I give him my address and he frowns.
“That’s two hours away.”
I’m not sure if that was a question or a statement. “Give or take.”
“So this whole time you’ve been working all night and driving two hours to get home?”
This upsets him. I’m flattered. “It’s only three days a week.”
“It’s fucking dangerous.”
Only Kalil can make curse words sounds so enticing.
“OnStar.” I’m not sure if this calms him down or upsets him more. He’s quiet. His eyes bore a hole into me. I have to look away, but he says something. I think my mind is playing tricks on me because it sounded like he asked me to kiss him. I look up at him and he pulls my body to his. It wasn’t a trick. His lips are on mine. They’re soft. Thick. Juicy. I give in to my urge to bite them. I think he likes it. At some point he must’ve picked me up because we’re on the couch now. He’s kneeling in front of me as I lean back into the chair. I’m wearing a green sundress. He pulls it up to my thighs and slides me closer to him. I gasp when I feel him against me. He pulls away from our kiss to pull his shirt off then comes right back. I have to touch him to make sure he’s real. Physical perfection is an understatement in trying to describe him. His hands are all over me. My body’s on fire, literally burning up because of his touch. I feel his fingers slip inside me and I break away from his kiss to let out a soft moan.
“How are you so damn wet?” he asks.
Isn’t that normal? He sounds tormented by this fact. His fingers are gone. This upsets me. He’s not supposed to stop. I look at him and watch as he brings his hand to his mouth to lick his fingers. He looks pleased. I smile and he wraps an arm around my waist. He lifts me and in one swift movement my panties are gone. Reality sets in. I’m about to have sex with Kalil! He puts me down and opens his pants. I’ve felt it twice and yet I’m stunned by his size. Astonished. I begin to tremble. Seriously?! He notices.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m not on birth control.”
He kisses me and says, “We can try this some other time.”
He says this, but he doesn’t move away. Don’t all guys carry condoms? “Now,” I say. What the hell am I thinking?! I could get pregnant. Scared or not, I want him. I feel the tip of him against me and I tremble even more. He frowns. I’m embarrassed. I have to tell him. I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. He kisses me again. I love his kisses.
“You gotta talk to me,” he says.
“I’ve never done this before.” My voice has abandoned me again. Confused, Kalil backs away.
“When you say ‘this’ you mean like on a couch, right?”
“Period.”
He backs away more before standing and buttoning his pants. That hurt.
“You’re a virgin?!”
“So?” Why am I fighting back tears? He covers his face with his hands and lets out a chuckle. Nothing about this is funny.
“Not like this, Makynzee. Go home, take a few days off. I’ll call you when you can come back.”
Complete waterworks from me. I feel rejected and overexposed. I don’t even bother grabbing my panties. If the headphones weren’t still connected to my phone I probably would have left them too. Jay is asleep in the car. I’m devastated, so I let her sleep.
When we make it home my mom is waiting for us.
“How dare you disrespect and embarrass me like this?!”
I’m
confused, but not stupid. I know if she gets close enough she’ll hit me. As I dart behind the loveseat I figure she can only be mad for one of two reasons. We didn’t come home last night. I could have cared less about even calling. On top of that we were supposed to have lunch with her and Stanley. I know my mom. A typical parent would be upset about their child staying out all night. My mom’s far from typical. I glance at Jay then look back at my mom. Before saying, “I’m sorry, we forgot about lunch today, maybe we could do dinner, we could cook for you.”
She ignores me and asks, “Where the hell were you?”
I haven’t fully recovered from Kalil yet, so dealing with her isn’t what I want to be doing. I take a deep breath and close my eyes.
“We went to a birthday party, Mrs. Mitchell, it was too late to try and drive back, so we got a room.”
My Jay. Always looking out for me, but it doesn’t work this time. My mom ignores her. She’s out for blood. Mine.
“Who did you go out and fuck? When your daddy died, you turned into a slut! You’re probably glad he’s dead just so you can run the streets and not have to listen to anybody!”
I’m not sure when I grabbed it, but the flower vase from the end table is flying thru the air. She ducks just in time to avoid being hit. She’s shocked. My dad is my world. For her to say I’m glad and he’s dead in the same breath makes absolutely no sense to me. She looks at the vase lying behind her then up at me. She’s speechless. I’m not, but I bite my tongue and go upstairs. Jay is right on my heels. When we get in my room I break down and she hugs me. It makes me think back to when my dad first died and my mom started taking her anger out on me. I’d sneak over to Jay’s house and she’d hug me until I stopped crying. This time I can’t seem to stop. I don’t tell her that most of these tears are for Kalil.