Holy smokes, what is this? An...an update? OMG, IT'S AN UPDATE!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!!!11!1 (Kidding. I'm so kidding.)
Hello, anyone who still gets up here to read stories! Yeah, it's been a good what, three/four months since I've updated? Yeah, that's what college will do to you. But it's alright because winter break officially starts after next week! Yay! And what better way to kick of the celebration than an update on your favorite story (Once again, I'm kidding. I know you like Little Red Riding Hood waaaaay better :P)
So, I am way too lazy to try and see who has reviewed, although I've read them all and am very grateful for them, so thank you! I hope all's been well with you lately as it has me (okay, not well, but much improved). And I hope you enjoy the newest chapter :)
Disclaimer: I don't own the Boondocks. Don't make me hurt you.
Old Soul
Chapter Eleven
"Engines. And friends. Turn them on. Turn them off.
Life. Death. Are they so different?"
-Ruby (The Path)
Cairo
The inside of Lena and Katrina's loft was small, but it was warm. Not to mention, the twins themselves were pretty easy on the eyes.
"Can I get you something?" Lena, the eldest, asked. "Some tea, another blanket?" As the loud, outspoken twin she had wasted no time in getting all of us settled while Katrina had hung back, obviously nervous and feeling out of place. According to Lena, their polar opposites were due to Katrina's birthday falling on the day after Lena's, which made her a cancer.
"You know how those water signs are," She'd joked, making conversation, as Katrina sat in the corner with her knees pulled up to her chest. "Ridiculous."
I'd felt a pang in my chest as I thought of Maya, whose birthday was in July. I still hadn't heard from her, which, you know, didn't have me nervous at all. Not. "Not all of them are that way."
Now, I spoke up.
"Actually," I tried, leaning forward in my chair. "Do you happen to have a cigarette?"
"Um, no." Caesar rolled his eyes, which had been focused on the door ever since we'd gotten there about half an hour ago, as if he were waiting for Cindy to walk through at any moment. Wait, what was I thinking? Of course that's what he was doing! He shook his head, his dreads flapping everywhere. "Kill your lungs on your own time."
"If you haven't noticed," I snapped. "We probably aren't going to live long enough for the damage to even do much."
"Aww come on." Katrina shook her head, her brown eyes sympathetic and her voice soft, as if she were hesitant about saying anything in the first place. "Don't think like that. Everything's going to be fine."
"Fine? Are you kidding me?!" When Katrina's face fell and her sister shot me a disapproving glare I sighed, shaking my head. "I'm sorry." Lena had told Caesar, Trey, Aubrey, and I about how her and her sister had gotten in the resistance, about how well they were about keeping themselves off the government's radar, and (probably the most important) how if anyone messed with her soft spoken sister, they'd have to answer to her. The last thing I was trying to do was get a beat down when there was already enough going on. "I didn't mean it. It's just that Riley and Cindy haven't gotten here yet, we haven't heard from Hiro and Duey in hours, and the others are stuck out in the boonies-"
"I understand that, but there's no reason to freak out just yet." Lena handed me a mug of tea before swishing back to the kitchen, her heels clacking loudly on the hardwood floor. "Things always get bad before they get better."
"Girl, boo." Audrey, another member of the resistance, smacked her lips and folded her arms over her chest. "We all gon die. Shit."
Her husband, Trey, shot her a look. "Aren't you the optimist."
"Maybe I should call Cindy again," Caesar said, feeling around his coat pocket for his phone. "It's been a good hour since-"
The doorbell rang, stopping him mid-sentence. We all exchanged glances, and I felt my heart jolt in my chest.
"Maybe it's Maya!" I yelled, leaping to my feet the same time as Caesar did with him shouting "That's probably Cindy!" We both raced for the door, shoving and pushing at each other so much that Lena, getting sick of the both of us, smacked us both in the back of the heads and knocked us to the side with a swing of her hips. She threw open the door.
Caesar and I stopped rubbing our heads long enough to look up. Our faces fell.
"Well damn. Don't look too excited," Hiro stated sarcastically, stepping past Lena. He turned to her, relieved. "Thanks. I'm glad you were actually home."
"Wait, where the hell have you been?" Caesar asked, his voice so shrill that if the moment weren't so serious, I'd probably be laughing.
"How'd you know to find us here?" I asked. Hiro rolled his eyes.
"I didn't know you guys would also be here." He shook off his coat and threw it over his shoulder as Lena closed the door, locking it. He glanced around. "I knew Katrina had a good computer. It's not like we can keep our aliases up with all that's happened today, and I gotta change them quick."
"All that's happened?" I gave Caesar a confused look, which he returned. "We all escaped the protest. And the computer back home was taken care of by Maya, right?"
Hiro snorted. "Yeah, she definitely destroyed that shit. But that doesn't change the fact that the wrong people know we're still alive."
"How is that possible?" I asked, crossing my arms. Hiro gave me a strange, almost sad look.
"Didn't anyone tell you? Maya, Cindy?"
"Tell us what?" Caesar asked, stepping closer. Behind him I could see the other four staring at us with curious eyes. Hiro sighed.
"Duey sold us out, man." He shook his head. "Duey ruined everything. We've gotta start over now."
I felt my eyes widen. I searched Hiro's face, sure that he was mistaken. Maybe he'd hit his head. I mean, it was Duey. He was my best friend. We'd been in this together. Hiro had to be wrong.
"Bullshit!" I snapped, feeling myself getting angrier and angrier the more I even thought about it. "How could you say that? Duey's as loyal as the rest of us!"
"Then I sure hope you learn the definition of it, because he ratted us out!" Hiro shot back, taking a step towards me. His eyes were narrowed. "He tried to kill me when I found him talking on the phone about us! He tried to kill Maya! We had to bounce when the FBI rolled up in there! If Maya wouldn't have burned the place down we'd probably be in prison right now!"
I blinked, my mind still clouded with disbelief. Behind me, the doorbell went off again. Caesar shoved past me, throwing it open. I didn't even have to look to know that Cindy and Riley were here, from Cindy's feminine squeal followed by Riley's unmistakable tone.
"Dis bitch stole a cop car!"
"Hiro." I swallowed the lump that rose down in my throat. "Hiro, where's Duey now?"
He shrugged, his hands falling to his sides. "I don't know, man. After he spilled the beans on all of us, I stopped caring about him. Then again," He added, with a sneer on his face. "I guess he decided you were good enough to spare, since he didn't turn you in. Aren't you special."
He gave me another look before striding past, dropping beside Katrina and offering her a smile. I watched her smile back before scooting closer to him, letting him wrap an arm around her shoulders. I turned back towards Caesar, who was kissing Cindy like there was tomorrow and Riley, who had sided up beside Aubrey and was trying to talk to her, unaware of the glare that Trey was shooting him from a few feet away.
I pulled my cell phone out, scrolling through the list of contacts until I got to Duey. I dialed it, holding the phone up to my ear, trying to ignore the feeling of dread that was slowly seeping though my insides. After six rings, there was a beep.
"Hey, Dues?" I said, my voice shaky. I cleared my throat before going on. "Are you alright?" When I was met by silence, which made sense being that I was on his voicemail, I went on. "It's Cairo. I just wanted to know if you were okay. A lot happened today and-"
A burst of laughter sounded from behind me.
"Well, I hope you're with Maya, or Jazmine and Huey. Everyone else is here, so unless you're by yourself-"
I wasn't making any sense.
"Just call me back and let me know you're safe." I sighed. "I'll see you soon?"
I flipped my phone shut between my fingers, rubbing the bridge of my nose. There had to be a reason. There had to be a reason for Duey to have done what he did. Hiro wouldn't lie, but Duey wouldn't betray us. He wouldn't betray me.
Right?
Maya
As much as Jazmine had irritated me in the past, I could see that she had the makings of a great leader. That was because, as shaken as she was, she didn't waste any time on channeling her grief into much needed bossiness.
She'd turned back around towards us as the last rays of the sun crept below the horizon, her eyes hard and unreadable. She'd shed off her jacket and placed it around my shaking shoulders before peeling off her jacket and shirt, leaving her with only a white tank top.
"What are you doing?" I heard Huey ask, voicing my exact thoughts. "You're going to freeze-"
"Shut up," Jazmine said, sinking to her knees, both ends of her shirt in her hands. She appeared to be studying Huey's leg. "Maya, go start the van. Crank the heat up. Make sure the back seat's cleared out."
I stood rooted to the spot, my eyebrows raised with surprise. Even Huey looked puzzled. It was either that, or deliriousness.
"Okay, this is probably going to hurt…" Jazmine bit her bottom lip before raising herself up on her knees, tying her shirt roughly around Huey's thigh. I flinched as he groaned.
"Jazmine, what the hell-"
"I'm making your ass a tourniquet so you don't bleed to death before we get you to the hospital!" She snapped impatiently, her head whipping around towards me. "Maya, start the damn van! Now!"
Too stunned to argue, I ran around to the front of the van, throwing open the door and shoving the key into the ignition. As it roared to life I could hear Huey and Jazmine bickering.
"-Can't go to the hospital!" Huey was shouting. "Do you want us to get caught?"
"I don't care! Do you think I'm going to let you die?" Jazmine shot back. I heard Huey roar out in pain again, which made me think that Jazmine was still working with his leg. "You don't understand, do you? I can't lose anyone else!" Her voice got quieter, as if she were trying to keep it from breaking. "I can't."
I peeked around the side of the van to see Huey and Jazmine staring at each other. Her hands were still gripping his makeshift bandage, and he lifted his hand to stroke her cheek.
"You're not going to lose anyone," He said matter-of-factly, although his eyes were soft. "Alright? Especially not me. Not yet." He sat up, wincing at his leg. "So calm down. Let's at least go meet the others and then decide if I'm going to go to the hospital. Okay?"
Jazmine nodded slowly, her hands letting go of Huey's bandage and sliding up his arm to hold his hand in her own. "We'll go meet the others but I don't care what you say. We're getting you help. I know they'll agree with me."
I stepped back, swallowing the lump that had risen in my throat. I backed up to the front door and slammed it shut, slowly walking back to them. When I turned the corner I saw Huey sitting up in the same spot, only Jazmine was a good few inches away and both their eyes were averted away from each other. I felt a small bit of satisfaction in the guilty expressions that they wore on their faces.
"I started the van," I announced, my eyes never leaving Jazmine's. "Do you want to drive?"
Jazmine stood up, rubbing her bare arms. "Sure. Sit in the back with Huey and make sure he doesn't fall asleep, if you don't mind." She gave me a feeble smile. "It usually means they're falling unconscious from massive blood lose if that happens. I've seen it before,"
"Really?" I couldn't help myself. "When?"
Jazmine offered me a sad smile. "It's a long story." She turned back towards the cornfield, her face falling. "I guess it would be safer to leave Duey here?"
I looked down at Huey, who was staring at Jazmine's back. "We can't take him," He said gruffly, although it was probably only from the pain he was currently experiencing. " How would we explain it? 'Oh no, officers, we just found him dead in the back of the van-'"
"We can't leave him like this though!" Jazmine shook her head. I watched her walk over to Duey's body, studying the way he laid face down in the icy grass. His elbow was turned at an odd angle, his white T shirt blowing in the wind. "No one deserves that."
"What about an anonymous tip-off?" I tried, feeling bad for how miserable Jazmine looked. I walked over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "When we get close enough to a pay phone, I'll call the police and tell them I spotted suspicious activity over here. They'll come, find him, and we'll say safe. It's a win –win solution." I offered a tiny smile. "Okay?"
Jazmine looked reluctant, but she gave a stiff nod. "Fine." She turned towards Huey, cracking her knuckles. I walked to his side, crouching down. I noticed how Jazmine glanced over her shoulder, giving Duey's body one final look. "Alright, then. Let's get out of here."
Huey
Since Jazmine, being herself, got everyone on her side about me going to the hospital, it was no surprise when a few hours later I was propped up in my own hospital bed, my leg casted and in a sling and my arm sporting its own brace. Since my leg was currently hovering in the air and my short ass hospital gown had no back, it wasn't too awkward.
"So, how do you feel?" Cindy asked from her spot on the foot of my bed, trying not to smirk. "Any better?"
"Of course." I rolled my eyes, trying to ignore Maya as she stroked my hair. I mean, it felt nice and all but what was I, a cat? "A blood transfusion, a broken leg, a fractured arm, two sprained ribs, and a bruised collarbone makes any man feel wonderful."
"That's lucky," Hiro supplied from his spot by the window as he flipped through a magazine. "You could've died. Most people do."
"Maybe God was on your side," Caesar joked. I gave him a look.
"Maybe I should slap you, then you can see who has your back."
"Ooh, you gonna hit me, cripple?" Caesar stood up, prancing around the room. "You gonna- OW!" I'd picked up the TV remote with my good hand, chucking it across the room and smacking him in the shoulder. "Really?! That hurt!"
"Yeah yeah." I tugged at my IV, my eyes narrowed. "What the hell do I even need this for?" I groused. Maya dropped her hand away from my head, grinning.
"What, you have a problem with needles?"
"NO," I said a little too sharply, making her, as well as Cindy, raise their eyebrows. "I just mean that, being that we're descendants from a line of ancestors who commonly suffered my type of injuries, who had nothing but some salt and a little bit of cloth to use as remedies, don't you think I could do without a cluster of fluids being forced into my bloodstream?"
"Nigga, please." Riley cackled. "Yo ass scurred."
I was, but I wasn't going to give them that to tease me for until the day I died.
"Well, when you put it that way," Caesar responded in an even tone. "They didn't have blood transfusions, so you'd probably die of blood loss. When they set your leg, you'd be bed ridden for months due to the unavailability of crutches or wheelchairs, especially since we're black. In fact-" He went on, his grin widening. "-since we are black, you probably wouldn't have even got any medical treatment. They probably would've just shot or hung your ass and threw you in a ditch, then set you on fire-"
"Anyway-" I interjected, shooting him a look. "The point is this isn't the way I'd planned on spending my evening, thank you very much."
"I don't think any of us expected this to happen," Maya said softly. "But it is what it is."
"Easy for you to say," I pointed out, not even realizing my manifested anger until it came spewing out. "Being that you aren't the one that has to find somewhere for us to live. You know, since you burned our house down."
No matter how even tempered Maya usually was, she didn't just let anyone talk to her any kind of way. Which was why I probably shouldn't have been as surprised as I was when she slid back, her eyes narrowed into tiny slits.
"I saved our asses, first off," She said, ticking off her statements on her fingers. "Secondly, if I wouldn't have come when I did, you and Jazmine probably would've frozen to death! Thirdly, thanks to Hiro, we all have new identities and information so that we could even afford bringing your ass here! And…er…fourthly, what did you do the whole time, besides, you know, lay in a damn ditch?"
"Sorry my leg was inoperable at the time!" I shot back, struggling to sit up. "Where do you think you get off-"
"Alright, everybody just calm down!" Caesar snapped as Maya threw herself out of her chair, running out of the room and slamming the door behind her. I eased back down, my heart still racing. "Damn, Huey, stop being so self righteous. We're all going to find a new place to stay. We are a team." He crossed his arms as Cindy and Hiro nodded in agreement. Behind Caesar, I saw Riley rolling his eyes. "I know you're into doing your own thing, but there's nine of us. We all have to be on the same page."
"Eight," Hiro corrected. Caesar glanced at him, as well as Cindy.
"What?"
"Eight," Hiro repeated matter-of-factly. "There's eight of us, remember? Duey's dead."
Cindy and Caesar exchanged glances; even Riley looked confused. "Duey died?" Riley asked. When Hiro nodded, he whistled. "Dayum. So like, do that mean I can get my own room now?"
"Riley!" I snapped.
"What?" Riley shrugged. "No one else had to share rooms! Shit, that was an injustice!" He crossed his arms, stll mumbling. "Nigga wuz snoring all loud an shit."
"Well if there's eight of us now," Cindy went on slowly, glancing around the room. "Where's Cairo? And Jazmine?"
"Er…Jazmine had some news to break to Cairo," I said. "You know, about…why she kind of had to shoot Duey in the back."
Everyone stared at me. Riley blinked.
"Sooo…I gotta share rooms with Jazmine now?"
I looked at him in disbelief. "Where do you even get this from?" I asked.
"Okay, I never did get the full story," Caesar said, dismissing Riley with a wave of his hand. "What happened today, exactly?"
"Well, while y'all niggas was out playin hide-and-seek wit da po-po's," Riley said from his chair as he picked up the remote from the floor, cutting on the TV. "Duey was callin da police and tellin dem all our business. Sooo den Cindy and I got home and he tryna shoot up Maya and Hiro and shit, but we knocked him out. So we left, but Maya stayed to destroy the hard drive since the FBI was derr. So den, she burned the house down, but I mean forreal? We really would've been able to stay there still? You gotta blow up erry'thang? Really?"
"And?" Caesar pressed.
"And Duey ass got in tha back of the van where Maya was drivin and tried to kill her ass again, but Jazmine got dat ass." Riley was flipping through the channels, his face smug. "Lemme find out Jazmine a G now."
"Why do you think he'd do this to us?" Cindy asked, her voice quiet. "I mean, what did we ever do to him?"
"I don't know, but we can't dwell on that anymore." Caesar wrapped his arms around Cindy's shoulders, resting his chin on the top of her head. "We've gotta look forward. Starting with where we're going to live next."
"I could always whip us up some credit cards." Hiro grinned at us. I cut them all down with a withering look, pointing to the door with my good hand.
"Could you at least check to make sure the coast is clear before yapping off about us breaking the law?" I snapped. The pain was making me more than irritated, and it showed. Cindy made a face.
"Geez, Horrible Huey. They did give you a morphine pump for a reason. Maybe you should use it."
"I don't need no damn morphine," I replied in a sharp voice. "I need for you all to at least act like you don't want to go to jail. Fuck that, get killed."
"He does have a point," Caesar pointed out.
"Fine. I'll be the lookout." Cindy untangled herself from Caesar's arms, skipping to the door. She winked at us over her shoulder before disappearing out the door, closing it behind her. I turned towards the other three. Well, Hiro and Caesar, since Riley was busy watching some Spanish game show and laughing at the way they screamed.
"We can't just keep using credit cards out of thin air," I told them in a quiet voice, trying to ignore the pain shooting up my leg. I sat up more, or at least attempted to. "In the system or not, we still affect the economy. If we make a loan under a name, then switch our names up, that doesn't only affect the banks, but the other interest rates of honest citizens trying to make a living. We can't do that."
"Then what do we do?" Caesar asked. "I mean, I'm sure we could go through the resistance forefront and ask for some funds, but I don't think that would work out."
"Were we able to pull any funds from our old bank accounts before you changed up our identities again?" I asked Hiro. He frowned, shaking his head.
"I tried. They were frozen." He began pacing, his hands clasped behind his back. "We're broke."
I sighed, gently tapping my forehead with my fist. "That is not what I wanted to hear."
"Wel, I'm sorry," Hiro said, a hint of a smile to his voice. "Did I mention the Sesame Street Fund of Crackhouse America wanted to give us their support?"
Caesar snorted. I rolled my eyes.
"Boo, nigga. Not. Funny," Riley threw in, his eyes never leaving the TV.
"We can't stay in Chicago," I said, sighing. "We just can't."
"Then what about somewhere in the south?" Hiro suggested. When the rest of us, even Riley, gave him looks of horror he shrugged. "What? It's cheaper to live there!"
"Yeah, cuz errybody marry dey own cousins so da money stay in the family! Hell naw!" Riley said.
"Well…besides that obviously logical reason," I said sardonically, rolling my eyes for possibly the one hundredth time that day. "The south is like bible country. They're more prejudice down there than republicans were towards Barack Obama back in-"
"You think everyone was prejudice towards Barack Obama."
"Well, they were!"
"Well fine. We'll stay in the north." Caesar snapped his fingers. "Mississippi?"
I gave him a strange look. "Are you kidding me?"
"Oh. Whoops." He gave me a grin. "I failed geography, remember?"
"New York?" Hiro tried. I turned to look at him, and Caesar did the same. We glanced at each other.
"Well, it is in the heart of the resistance," I admitted, nodding.
"And the cost of living is horrible," Caesar added sarcastically. "But I'm sure if we sell enough crack and the women don't mind sliding down a few poles, we'll be great!"
"Okay, the entire time we were in Woodcrest all you could talk about was going back to New York!" I shouted. "Why is it such a problem now?"
"How are we going to gettttttttt thereeeeeeee Hueeeeeeeeeeeeeeey?" Caesar asked, drawing out his words slowly for emphasis. "We'd have to find a place to live, which wouldn't be cheap. We'd have to stay somewhere else as we looked for somewhere to stay, which also isn't cheap." The door opened again, and Cindy stuck her head inside. "Cindy, tell Huey that we can't just up and move to New York City because we're too cheap."
I looked at Cindy. Her eyes were wide as dinner plates, but not with fear, or even worry. Instead, it was as if she had been…enlightened.
"Huey." She shook her head, as if in awe. "Huey, you've gotta see what's going on."
"What?" I gestured to the rest of us. "We're kind of busy, if you didn't notice-"
"No. You don't understand." She pointed towards the window, which faced towards the parking lot. "You've got to look outside."
I gave Caesar and Hiro a confused glance, which they returned. I looked back at Cindy. "Well, I can't really get up right now, so you're going to have to explain-"
"Oh shit!" Riley shouted. He had taken it upon himself to go to the window, peeking through the blinds. He yanked them up by the string, still staring outside. "Y'all gotta see dis shit!"
Hiro went over to the window and the door flew open again as Maya rushed inside. She locked it behind her and retrieved a wheelchair from the corner of the room, unfolding it and pushing it roughly towards me. "You guys saw-"
"Yes!" Caesar's eyes were about as wide as Cindy's. "What is going on?!"
"I don't know, but it's amazing-"
"Ow!" I cried out, not even trying to be strong. "What the hell?" Maya had loosened the small chain that kept my leg sling hooked to the ceiling without warning, so my leg fell like a block of lead to the bed. I gripped it with my hands, hissing in pain. "Damn, could you at least have-"
"Shut up and get in the chair!" Maya said excitedly, nearly pushing me off the bed into the dark blue wheelchair. I was barely in the seat before she was pushing me to the window. The others parted for me to come through as if they were the red sea. "You just have to see this."
"So I've heard." I looked around. "If this is so glorious, don't you think someone should go get Jazmine and Cairo for this?"
"Oh, I think they have the best seats in the house," Caesar said as I came up to the window, sitting up so I could peer out. "Look."
So I did. What I saw made my jaw drop so far I'm surprised it didn't hit the floor.
"What…what is that?"
Jazmine
I found Cairo sitting outside on the front steps, a cigarette dangling from between his index and middle finger.
I felt a lump rise in my throat, felt the urge to turn around and run back into the hospital, but instead I willed myself to move forward. I pulled my hat further down over my ears before shoving my hands into my jacket. My boots made firm clacking sounds on the pavement beneath me, my breath coming in shallow bursts that decorated the air with a thin fog.
How was I supposed to tell Cairo I'd killed his best friend?
Cairo had asked where Duey was when we'd all met up at a fellow resistance member's apartment, but no one had answered. It was as if they were leaving it up to me to tell Cairo the fate of him, like it was my responsibility.
Or maybe, in a way, they were looking out for me. They were letting me give him the news in my own way, in a way that might be more comfortable than them just telling him and Cairo hating me. Which I already knew he would do. I wouldn't blame him.
I swallowed as I reached Cairo's side, my throat already dry as a desert. I watched the way his shoulders tensed, the way he seemed to instinctively know I was about to be a bearer of bad news. He slowly looked up at me, his eyes glazed over.
"Cairo." His name escaped my lips before I could even stop myself. I froze, feeling my fingers shake confined within my pockets. He blinked before taking a long puff of his cigarette.
"Jazmine." He let the smoke pour from his mouth like a river before completely blowing it away. "Thank god. I thought you were a nurse who was about to nag me about smoking around the premises. As if I'd listen to her." He snorted. "She's only a nurse."
I felt my insides quickly flaring up as I remembered all the classes I'd taken in college to be a nurse. People always thought the doctors were the smart ones, even though it was the nurses who truly got to know the patients, who had to double check behind doctors to save their asses from giving out medications that could potentially kill someone. Instead I eased myself down on the step beside him, resting my hands on my knees.
"What are you doing out here?" I asked softly. "It's freezing out here."
"I like the cold." Cairo shrugged, taking another puff. "You smoke?"
I shook my head. "I quit."
Cairo raised his eyebrows. "Wish I had that kind of willpower." He leaned back, as if thinking. "Then again, I only smoke when I'm stressed."
I felt a smile creep on my lips. "You must be stressed a lot."
"Sometimes." He regarded me with a look. "So, what brings you out here on this fine October evening? Or…" He checked his watch. "Almost morning."
I sighed. My shoulders slumped. Oh, well. I'd have to tell him sooner or later. Might as well have made it sooner.
" It's…It's about Duey."
Cairo frowned. "Oh."
"Yeah." I bit my lower lip, balled my hands into tiny fists. "I…I…" I looked back up, embarrassed at the tears that were already filling my eyes. "I did something bad."
Cairo didn't look mad, at least not then. He looked worried.
"I-" I swiped at my nose, which was already starting to run. Gross. "He's dead. Cairo, he's dead. I killed him." I waited for a heartbeat to pass, to see if he'd immediately jump in, but he sat still, staring at me with those hazel eyes. "I didn't mean to." I sniffed. "Well, actually, I did. I mean, I didn't have a choice." I was suddenly rambling, the tears finally starting to fall down my cheeks.
"He tried to kill me. He tried to kill Huey and Maya. He tried to kill everyone in the house, and there was no other way to stop him. If there was, I would've done it." I swallowed down a sob, wiping my eyes, which were now so full I couldn't see straight. "I'm so, so sorry."
I started crying freely, giving up on stopping. I let my hands fall into my lap and just sat there, crying. With trying to get back to the others, with getting Huey to the hospital, I'd pushed it all out of my mind. But it was back, and worse than before.
There was no way around it. I was a murderer.
"I used to want to be a nurse," I heard myself blubber before I could stop myself. "I used to want to be a nurse so I could save people's lives, since so many people I knew had died. I wanted-" I let out a sob. "I wanted to feel as if I could do something good, even with all the bad that had happened. And…and I killed him."
I felt a warm arm slide around my shoulders and before I could grasp what was happening Cairo was hugging me to his chest, the cigarette lying on the pavement in front of us, the orange embers still dying on its tip. I tried to stop myself from crying so hard, but Cairo's niceness seemed to open up some floodgate, and I was suddenly sobbing into his chest like some maniac. Cairo smoothed down my hair with one hand, his other hand resting on my back. He waited for me to get some kind of hold of myself before he started talking.
"When Huey first left Chicago, before he came back," He said quietly, his voice making his chest rumble underneath my head. "I felt abandoned. I didn't have many friends, my home life wasn't what I wanted it to be…Duey just sort of fell into place." I closed my eyes, resting my head in the crook of his neck. "He was a good friend. He was loyal, he was trusting, and we both had each other to look out for. His mother, she could get abusive. When we were friends, I never let him be alone." He paused. "But then Huey came back.
"Huey and I, we might get competitive, we might argue a lot, and we might have our ups and downs." He shrugged. "But Huey's…he's a really good guy. He's tough, but he'll do anything for those he really cares about." I could feel him chuckle. "You probably know that by now."
I sniffed.
"Anyways, Duey is…was a lot of good things. But one thing he didn't like was sharing." Cairo shrugged. "I guess he couldn't deal with the fact that he had to share his best friend."
I sat up, not caring how red and puffy my eyes probably were, how shiny my face was. Cairo stared back into my eyes, making me squirm with the honesty I saw in them.
"I treasure loyalty over everything," he said firmly, as if trying to get it through my head. "If you don't have trust, you have nothing. Duey, he did no wrong to me personally. He left my name out when he was reporting everyone to the cops. I'm still safe. He thought we'd still be friends." He shook his head. "But he was wrong." I felt my eyebrows rise.
"Duey tried to kill my friends. He betrayed my friends. And for that he doesn't deserve my sympathy." Cairo rested a hand on my shoulder. "You're as much as my friend as anyone in there." He pointed up to the hospital windows in the general direction of Huey's room. "You're smart, you're tough."
I snorted.
"You are. Don't laugh at me, girl!" Cairo cracked a smile before returning to his serious state. "But most of all, you're loyal. How could I hate you when you've saved us all?"
I let out another sob.
"Don't you even sit there and think you're a bad person." He took both my hands in his, leaning closer so that our noses were inches apart. "You're not a murderer. You're not tainted. You're still Jazmine." He let go of my hands, let the space fall back between us, although he was still looking at me. "And Jazmine is a better person than Duey could've ever hoped to be."
I threw my arms around his shoulders, hugging him fiercely as I could. "Thank you so much," I whispered, only with me being the emotional wreck I am I could barely blubber out a few syllables without someone needing a translator.
Just break out the "friend" card if you ever want to see me turn into a human version of Niagara Falls.
I was so busy hugging Cairo and being relieved that he didn't hate me that we didn't even notice the footsteps until they were right in front of us, which at that point were followed by the words "Excuse me, ma'am?"
I sprang away from Cairo so fast it was as if I'd been set on fire. We looked up to see a woman with long, pale blonde hair and soft brown eyes staring down at me. I clear my throat and wiped the last traces of tear tracks away from my face. Her face wore an expression somewhere between nervous and awestruck.
"Are…are you Jazmine DuBois?"
My mouth fell open, and Cairo was on his feet in a flash. "Who are you?" He demanded, yanking me up by my sleeve. I stood beside him, still surprised. His arm came protectively around my shoulders. "How do you know her name?"
"Do not fear," The woman replied softly, shaking her head. She couldn't have been much older than I was. "I am with you in your journey. I am one of your own."
"Prove it," Cairo shot back. I stood rooted to the spot, my eyes darting from his tense, anxious face to her calm, serene one. The woman cast him a look before locking her eyes back onto mine.
"My name is Rachel Thompson," She said, taking a hand from behind her back. I flinched, thinking that she was going to attack us somehow, but instead she held out a single, long stemmed rose. I stretched my fingers towards it. "I am a part of the resistance. And I know of your father."
The dam inside of me, barely repaired, sent tears instantly rushing to my eyes. "My father?"
"He's gone, but he's long from forgotten," She said in her soft tone. "We will never forget him. And within his legacy lies you."
"Me?" I squeaked.
"We?" Cairo asked. He no longer looked suspicious, just confused. "Who is we?"
As if they had been cued, a crowd of people suddenly began emerging from the dark parking lot; first came a small group, followed by a bigger group, followed by even more until the pavement was covered with people. My first instinct was to back up a bit, until I noticed that they were holding candles, their faces lit in orange. Rachel smiled, and, to both of our surprise, she crouched down on her knees in front of me, placing her hands in front of her.
She…she was bowing to me? What was this, Woodstock?!
"We've heard about you," She whispered as the crowd behind her tightened. "We know of your struggles, of you taking down one of our betrayers. You are truly your father's child. You give us hope." She looked up, her eyes full. "You give us all hope."
My hand rose to my face, covering my mouth as I looked behind her. Some people were walking up and placing roses at my feet. Others were simply staring at me as if with the same enlightenment Rachel had.
But everyone…everyone was bowing.
I looked over the sea of bodies folded towards me, the candles that lit the night sky, and I looked over at Cairo, who had long dropped his arm. We turned towards the crowd, all of which were bowing, waving candles, and chanting.
"I…I'm Catholic," I said weakly, trying to think of something to say, but I was at a loss for words. How could these complete strangers, this collective mass of people, think of me as some hero? I looked back over to Cairo, whose face had lost the look of disbelief, settling into one of acceptance. Rachel shook her head.
"You are a woman of peace. It does not matter your beliefs." Her head lowered again.
"What is this?" I asked, looking back out to the now filled parking lot. I could see windows opening above us, could see the cars in the distance that stopped so that their occupants could look out curiously. "What does this all mean?"
The crowd was now singing, their voices loud and full of triumph. They lifted over our heads into the empty air above us. Cairo shook his head, amazed.
"Don't you get it?" He asked in a low voice. "This is for you."
"I mean, I know that," I responded, twirling Rachel's rose in between my fingers, tears dancing on my eyelashes. "But why?"
"Because," Cairo whispered with a shrug. He grinned down at me when I gave him a confused look. "Congratulations, Jazz. It looks like you're the chosen one."
Om nom nom. All that typing made me hungry.
I hope you enjoyed it. Please review!!! (Or don't. Whatever :P)
-Kelsey
