Casting Down Imaginations (7 page)

Reese
rushed over when he saw Adam curled in a ball on the floor.

“Dude,
what in the hell happened to you?” he asked.

Adam was
still struggling to breathe. “Your… your girl…” he managed to wheeze out.

Reese
looked up at me, confused. He held his hands out in front of him, trying to put
the pieces of the mystery together. His head went back and forth from me
standing to his homeboy lying on the floor. None of them could understand how
my little frame could have a grown man looking like he needed medical
attention.

“What
did you do?” Reese asked me.

I
grunted. “We need to talk,” I said.

He knew
where the conversation was going. I wanted to know who the tired chick on his
arm was.

“Anaya,
this is Alexis. Alexis, this is Anaya.”

She held
her hand out for me to shake. “Hi Anaya. Most of my friends just call me Lexi.”

I stood
there and looked at the both of them. It took her a minute to get my drift, but
she finally put her hand down.

“Reese,
I said I need to talk to you.”

Anger
appeared in his eyes. “Don’t be telling me what you need to do, girl,” he
snapped at me. “I’ll talk to you when I get good and ready to.”

Lexi
dropped her head to the ground. She better had, because I was ready to drop it
for her.

“Reese,
I am not in the mood. I need to talk—”

“I don’t
care about what kind of mood you in. I’ll talk to you when I feel like it.”

I was
mad enough to kick him in the stomach, too. “Reese…”

He made
a face at me, daring me to say anything else. I knew to be quiet.

“Well at
least give me the keys so I can go sit in the truck.”

He dug
in his pocket to retrieve his keys and threw them at me. I caught them in the
air.

“And
don’t mess with nothing,” he warned me, putting his arm around Lexi. The look
on her face told that she wasn’t cool with being put in the middle. But she
still was, and that made her my enemy.

I
stepped over Adam and picked my things up off the floor. My purse and book bag
ended up there, along with the towels that were on the table when Adam threw it
across the room. I held my belongings close to my chest, still feeling afraid
and violated, and ran outside to Reese’s truck.

I waited
over an hour for Reese to come out. His crew had already finished putting all
the equipment away and left while he was still inside. There was only his truck
that I was sitting in, and two other cars left at the building. If I didn’t
know any better, I would have thought he left with someone else. But Reese
loved his truck too much to leave it somewhere unattended. Never mind the fact
that I was sitting inside unprotected.

Finally
he and Lexi walked out arm in arm together. He rammed his tongue down her
throat right in front of me and then walked her to her car. If I would have
known it was hers I would have keyed it a long time ago. I watched in disbelief
as she scribbled something on a torn piece of paper, probably her phone number,
and gave him another kiss.

Once she
drove away, Reese walked over to the truck and got inside. I was so pissed off
I couldn’t even look at him.

“So I
guess we’re through, huh?” I asked aloud, my face toward the passenger side
window.

He
remained quiet for a moment. “I guess so,” he said, and started the truck.

“Are you
going to take me home?” I asked, fearing he would make me get out and call a
taxi.

He
sighed. “You can ride home with me, I guess,” he corrected me. “If you can find
me, after the after party.”

I
finally faced him. “After party? I thought you weren’t going to the after
party?”

“Well, I
am,” he said, and started driving.

“Reese,
I told you I didn’t wanna go to the after party. You said we were going home
right after the concert.”

“Yeah,
well… I changed my mind.”

Anger
rose inside of me and I couldn’t restrain myself any longer. Without warning, I
leaned over and smacked him hard across the face. He swerved and then had to
swerve again to avoid hitting another car.

“Aarrhhh!”
he yelled out, and grabbed me by my hair with his free hand to keep me still.
Some of it ripped from its roots. He used his blinker and pulled over to the
side of the road and turned off the engine. I tried to hit him again but my
arms weren’t long enough to reach him. Still controlling me by my hair, he got
out of his seat belt and backhanded me. My face flew into the window and the
taste of blood filled my mouth.

“What’s
wrong with you girl, hitting me?” he yelled. “I ought to

knock
you out!”

My hand
slowly went up to my face as I started crying.

“You
must have lost your mind!” he continued hollering, sitting back down in his
seat.

I jumped
on him and tried to claw his eyes out. “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!” I
scratched at his face, trying to vent out all the pain that he’d caused me that
night.

We both
screamed while I attacked him, me in anger and him in pain. I felt skin
underneath my fingernails, but I didn’t care. I wanted to hurt him for
humiliating me by running and telling his friends all of my business. For
embarrassing me by telling them what I do and don’t do. For clowning me by
dangling some other girl in my face. I had to make him hurt for making me hurt.

Reese
grabbed me by my arms and threw me over his shoulder into the back seat. I
turned back around and jumped on him again, but he palmed my face like it was a
basketball and shoved me back down into the seat.

“What’s
wrong with you, girl?” he asked me, breathing hard and holding his hands up to
his face.

“Urrrggggghhhhhh!”
I yelled out and jumped at him, but he knocked me back down. “I hate you!”

He
grabbed me by my hair again and slapped me once more. It tranquilized me. I lay
back in the seat motionless, crying hysterically.

“What’s
the matter with you?” he yelled.

I cried
and cried. “Why did you do that to me?” I asked, even though it hurt to talk.

“Do
what!?”

He
turned around and checked his face in the rear view mirror.

“Oh God,
girl! Look what you did to my face!” He used the tip of his shirt to wipe at
the blood that was running down his cheeks and temples. “You better hope to God
that don’t leave no scars!”

“Why
didn’t you just tell me you weren’t happy?” I was crying so hard that I was
shaking.

“What
the hell are you talking about?” he asked, still dabbing at his face.

“Your
boys,” I managed to answer. “You told them! You told them about me! Why did you
do that?”

“Lower
your damn voice, I ain’t no child!” he cut me off.

I
lowered myself back down in the seat, not wanting to get hit again.

“And
what are you talking about anyway?”

“Adam
told me you told—”

“Adam?
That’s what this is all about? You going through all of this drama over what
some dude said? Girl, if I ever, ooohhhhh… Don’t you ever bring nobody up in my
face, talking about what they said. I’ll put you out on the street for that,
you hear me? Adam ain’t nobody to me. I don’t care about what he said. He just
a pigeon.”

I
started to cry even harder.

“What?!”

“You
don’t even care,” I cried.

He
turned around and looked at me. For the first time the whole night I saw
concern on his face.

“Did he do something to you?” he asked.

I
couldn’t answer him. I just stayed in the same spot staring at him and
continued to cry. I felt my face swelling from the licks he gave.

“Did he
try to touch you?”

I didn’t
answer, but just kept crying.

He
muttered under his breath, narrowed his eyes, then turned around and started
the engine.

“Where
are you going?” I asked, holding my face. I was starting to get dizzy.

“To the
after party,” he said to me. “I gotta go handle some business. Nobody touches
what’s mine. And I’m gonna make sure that fool learn that tonight.”

I
stretched out horizontally in the seat and put my face down in an attempt to
keep my head from spinning. Before I realized it, I was asleep.

**********

I heard
thumps coming from somewhere. They were steady and constant, almost rhythmic. I
lifted my head, but its pounding caused me to return to my original position.
For a few seconds I didn’t know where I was, but the feel of the fabric on the
seats let me know that I was in Reese’s truck. Then it all came flooding back
to me. The concert. Being attacked by Adam. Reese and Lexi. My fight with
Reese. I guess he left me in the back seat asleep while he went in to the
party. Probably hooking up with Lexi, no doubt.

I heard
a loud pang. I stuck my head up just enough to see the door of a warehouse
looking building swing shut. Adam was running as fast as he could away from the
place, head back and knees up. There was another pang and a mob of guys ran out
after him. It was the rest of Reese’s entourage, with Reese jogging after them.

“Get
him!” he yelled out.

The guys
ran and caught Adam by his shirt and dragged him down to the ground. Adam was
trying hard to get away, but they outnumbered him. They carried him by his arms
and legs back to Reese.

I
couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it couldn’t have been good. Adam was
shaking his head no and trying to get away. All of a sudden Reese balled up his
fist and punched Adam hard in the stomach while the other guys held him.

I gasped
and turned away. I never would have imagined Reese to be the violent type that
he was proving himself to be tonight. I turned back to see Reese hit him again.
He gave three more punches before they let go of him, and Adam fell to the
ground. I watched as the others kicked and spit on him, then turned around and
left him there. His body lay limp as if he were unconscious.

I
thought they were all friends. What happened to make them want to hurt…

I
remembered.

Reese
asked me if Adam did anything to me.

The look
in his eyes when I didn’t answer.

Him
saying he had to go handle some business at the after party…

They
beat him up because of me.

I
watched as they made their way back to the building. I thought I knew them, but
I didn’t know any of them. They were crazy.

Reese
stopped at the door, signaled something with his hands to his friends, and then
walked toward the truck. I put my head back down and pretended to be asleep. I
didn’t want him to know I saw what happened. I didn’t want to even speak to
him. I just wanted to go home and put this relationship and this whole night
behind me.

I froze
in fear when I heard the keyless entry remote on the truck unlock the doors. I
relaxed my face as much as I could, even though fear was handling me like a
bull rider when he opened the door and got inside.

I
remained still and held my breath, then exhaled slowly as we backed out of the
parking lot and onto the street. I knew he didn’t turn the radio on because he
didn’t want to wake me. Even though my head was throbbing and the streetlights
were only making it worse, I was too afraid to go back to sleep. I didn’t trust
him. If he tried to touch me again I was going to do my best to break his arm
to ensure that it never happened again.