Caught Up in the Drama (15 page)

“Mama!” I was horrified.

At the mention of suing, the man in the navy suit turned a deep red and started nervously fidgeting with his briefcase.

“I told you I was not playing with you. You might not have called me back, but I know you got my message.” My mother wagged the paper at Mark. “You get a retraction in this paper. And either they cut that crap out or the video comes off the air now!”

Sisco, who had stopped to take in the commotion, finally stomped over to them. “What's up, Mark?”

The director looked extremely flustered. “I can't deal with this. I can't deal with this,” he kept repeating.

“Well, somebody's going to deal with it,” my mother said.

“Look, old lady, don't come up in here on my set trippin',” Sisco said.

My mother stopped her rant and stared at him like he'd gone stone-cold crazy.
“‘Old lady'?”

“Yo, you heard me.”

“
‘Yo'?
Is that how your mama taught you to talk to someone, Crisco?” my mother hissed.

“It's Sisco,” he said, not as sure of himself now.

I wanted so bad to say or do something, but I was frozen in place.

My mother wagged the paper in his face. “Let me tell you something—”

Sisco knocked the paper away. “Somebody better get this b—” Before he could finish his sentence, my mother had taken her purse and swung it as hard as she could, knocking Sisco upside the head.

“I know you were not about to fix your lips to call me out of my name, you disrespectful little ingrate!” She continued to pummel him with her oversized purse.

I stood there, dumbfounded, not believing the scene that was unfolding in front of me.

Sisco, who was acting tough a minute ago, was covering his head and screaming, “Stop! Get her off me!”

His boys, who usually had his back, were cracking up laughing. Even B, the bodyguard, was laughing.

“All y'all disrespectful,” my mother said, finally stopping
her attack. “You think you're going to corrupt my child? Not as long as there's breath in my body!”

“Mrs. Harris, will you calm down?” the navy suit—wearing man said.

“No, I will not calm down.” Her chest heaved up and down as she tried to catch her breath.

“This is ridiculous,” Taraji said, finally speaking up. She spun toward Mark. “I told you all getting some high school girl was a bad idea, and look at all the drama we've had since we brought her on board.”

I was shocked, because my mother never got this worked up about anything. But I guess the video, the tabloid, and now being disrespected by Sisco had pushed her over the edge.

“Camille, get your stuff and let's go,” she demanded.

“But, Mama—”

“Did that sound like a request to you?” she snapped. “Now I hadn't planned on acting a fool, but this little ingrate wants to call me outta my name.” She glared at Sisco and held up her bag in warning. “Whew, you lucky I know Jesus, or else I'd be sending you to meet Him.”

“Camille, I think it's best if you leave,” Taraji said. “For good.”

Sisco had pulled himself together and was now looking like he wanted to punch someone. As everyone stared at me and my mom, I thought about all that I had sacrificed. I'd lost my dignity, my boyfriend and my friends. And for what?

“You know what, Taraji?” I finally said. “I couldn't agree with you more. I do need to leave.” I headed out the door after my mother.

Alexis

Everything inside me told me this wasn't the answer. But at this point I didn't know what else to do. When Angel was pregnant, she ran away from home because her mother was planning on giving Angelica up for adoption. The road trip to find Angel had landed us all in a bunch of trouble. But she'd returned safe and sound, and her mom had ended up not giving the baby up for adoption. So, if you really thought about it, her plan had worked. That's why I couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, if my mom and dad freaked out about me coming up missing, they'd see that breaking up was not the answer.

I called Tyeesha to leave her a message, since neither
Jasmine nor Angel had cell phones. I didn't want them worrying about me.

“Hey, Tyeesha, it's Alexis. I need you to tell Jasmine and Angel not to worry. I'm okay. You guys will just have to trust me. Hopefully, I can explain everything later.” I hung up and began putting my plan into action.

I'd worked everything out. I had called my old friends from St. Pius, twins by the name of Mari and Marlee. They'd graduated last year, but they were the only ones I still kept in touch with. They were going to meet me at the Galleria Mall.

I had driven my car to the mall. I was going to leave it in the parking garage. That way it would blend in with the rest of the cars. I didn't want to have someone spot it and call the police or something.

After parking, I made my way inside the mall. I was supposed to meet the twins in front of Starbucks at two o'clock. Of course, they were late, so I killed time by window shopping in nearby stores. Once I spotted someone I knew from high school, and I turned so she wouldn't see me.

About two forty-five, the twins came bouncing toward me, their arms filled with bags. “Hey, Alexis,” they sang, giving me their signature air kiss. Both of them wore all white and looked like they'd just come from a tennis match. With their bouncy blond curls, they looked like they should be doing a shampoo commercial.

“Long time, no see,” Mari said.

“We've missed hanging out with you,” Marlee added.

Sometimes Mari and Marlee were more trouble than they were worth, and I had all but kicked them to the curb when I'd started hanging with the Good Girlz.

“Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. But thanks for doing this,” I replied.

I'd already given them the rundown on what I was doing. I'd told them I was basically running away from home to teach my parents a lesson, so I needed to stay with them for a few days. Their parents were divorced, their mother traveled all the time, and so they were basically on their own. They'd graduated from high school last year, but neither one seemed in a hurry to figure out what she was going to do with the rest of her life.

“This is so cool,” Marlee said excitedly.

I groaned at their giddiness. Maybe I should've really run away. But I was too much of a scaredy cat to make it out somewhere on my own, especially after what had happened when we'd tried to find Angel. Some creepy guys had chased us down an abandoned dirt road. We'd gotten away, but not before being scared out of our minds.

Nope, chillin' at the twins' house was about as far as I was going to run. And I wasn't planning on staying long. Just long enough for my mom and dad to get worked into a frenzy.

“Why are you guys late?” I asked.

“Oh, my God. Nordstrom's had a sale, like out of this world,” Marlee squealed. “Look at these Prada shoes.” She pulled a pair of black wedge sandals from one of the bags. “They were forty percent off.”

Both girls high-fived each other. They were probably five times richer than me, but something about finding designer stuff on sale gave them a rush. I took a look at the shoes and shook my head. Even at the sale price, the shoes were still four hundred and seventy dollars.

“Let's go,” I said. “Please?”

“Okay. Here, put this on,” Mari said, pulling a long Hannah Montana wig and a big hat out of one of the bags.

“What is that?” I asked.

“It's your disguise.” Marlee giggled. “If we're going to do this, we need to do it right.”

This was too stupid for words. “Why would I need a disguise?”

“Duh? Because you're hiding, remember?” Marlee replied.

“I'm hiding from my parents. And trust me, they're not hanging out at the mall.” My mom did most of her shopping in New York and Paris boutiques, and my father had all of his stuff made. He wouldn't be caught dead at the mall.

“But what if there are surveillance cameras?” Mari asked.

“Maybe in the parking lot, but I doubt they have surveillance cameras at Starbucks,” I said, wondering why we were standing in the middle of the mall arguing about this.

“Well, someone may see you walking to the car with us.” Mari had a look of exasperation, like she couldn't understand why I was giving her a hard time.

“By the time they sift through the videotapes, I'll be back home,” I said.

“You are no fun,” Marlee pouted.

I had to once again ask myself what I had gotten into. This was not a game, but they were acting like we were on some kind of scavenger hunt.

“Well, at least wear the hat. It's so cute. Another sale,” Marlee sang.

“Okay, fine, whatever.” I took the hat and put it on my head. “Can we go now?”

“Yes,” they giggled and led the way outside to the parking garage.

After Marlee took me up one row of cars and down another, we walked back to the front of the Galleria, where she told me they'd valet parked.

“So, what was the wandering through the parking garage for?” I asked.

“Surveillance cameras,” Mari sang.

I just groaned and waited for the valet to bring their Range Rover around.

They giggled and talked about useless stuff all the way to their River Oaks mansion. Yet hiding out at home didn't work much for them. Before long they had lost interest.

“I'm bored,” Marlee said after we watched back-to-back episodes of
Making the Band 4
.

“Me, too,” Mari echoed. “Let's go to the club.”

I had gotten into so much trouble the last time I'd gone to a club with the twins. They'd popped some pills—something I'd had no idea that they did—and Marlee had ended up passing out. It had been one of the most frightening things I had ever experienced.

“Ummm, that would be no,” I said. “We're hiding out, remember?”

“You're hiding out, dang,” Marlee said. “I'm bored. How long has it been?”

I glanced down at my watch. “Three hours,” I said in exasperation.

“God, it feels like three days,” she said as she fell back on the sofa.

“Look, my dad was supposed to have picked me up an hour ago, so by now they're blowing up my phone and they probably just think I'm late.”

“Maybe we should call the TV stations and tell them to
put out an Amber Alert,” she said, referring to the statewide notification system when a child has been abducted.

“Number one, I haven't been abducted,” I said. “Number two, someone has to have seen you get kidnapped for them to do an Amber Alert.”

“Hey, I can call Damien,” Marlee said, talking about her wannabe thug boyfriend. The only problem was, it was kind of hard to be a thug when your parents owned six McDonald's.

“He might know someone that can fake-abduct you,” she said.

“No,” I replied, stopping her. “I'm not going through all of that. I'm not trying to get on the news. I'm not trying to scare my parents any more than I have to. I just want them to freak out enough to realize this whole splitting-up thing is a big mistake.”

Marlee stuck out her bottom lip. “How do you know they're gonna even call the cops? It could be three or four days.”

“Yeah, that's how long it would take for our parents to notice we were really gone,” Mari echoed. “They'd just think we were off somewhere with our friends.”

They burst out laughing like it was funny. I stared at them both in disbelief. This situation was actually quite sad. Yet anyone on the outside looking in would see us, three rich girls, and think we had it going on.

“You guys can do what you want,” I finally said. “But if it's okay with you, I'm just going to stay here and chill out.”

“What about tomorrow? Are you going to school?” Mari asked. “We have to teach our Pilates class tomorrow at four. Do you wanna come?”

I sighed. “I've run away,” I said slowly, so they could grasp it. “No, I'm not going to school. I don't want to go to Pilates. I'm
just staying here.” At this point I wanted them to go out just so I could get some peace and quiet. If I had to put up with this all night long, I would lose my mind. “You guys go out and have some fun.”

“Okay,” Marlee said, jumping up. “It's ladies' night at the Polo Club.”

“So are we really going to leave her here?” Mari asked, standing to follow her sister.

“She said for us to go on and go.”

“Yes, please go,” I repeated, with a little more force than I had intended.

“Well, I'm going to go take a shower,” Mari said.

Yeah, I needed them gone so I could think.

They both bounced upstairs, and I leaned back. This plan had to work. It had to bring my family back together. If it didn't, I didn't know what else I was going to do.

Camille

This could totally not be happening to me. I could only wonder what I had done to deserve this. I stared at the front page of the tabloid. There it was, big as day—a photo of my mom hitting Sisco with her purse. I wanted to die.

I'd arrived at school to find it taped to my locker. I quickly tore it down and spotted Dee standing at the end of my row, laughing hysterically with her friends. I so couldn't stand her!

“The chance of a lifetime and you blow it,” she said, shaking her head. “Then your crazy mama attacks him.”

“Go away, Dee,” I replied, tossing the paper into the big steel trash can.

“That article said you're accusing Sisco of attacking you.
As if.
” She looked disgusted.

“You don't know what you're talking about.”

She walked toward me, gloating. “All I know is Sisco can have any girl he wants. Trust, he doesn't have to attack some ol' stuck-up pretend-diva.”

If this girl knew what was good for her, she'd get out of my face, because God knew, I was at my breaking point.