Plausibility (35 page)

“I kind of like that idea right there. I don’t need to do anything else.”

“Come on, Seri. Please,” Quill begged.

“Quill, I can’t do that shit with you anymore. I’m dating your dad.”

“Oh, don’t you even try to pull that shit. You’re not my mother. Don’t try to act like you are just because you’re fucking my dad.”

“Quill, your dad would kill me if he found out I smoked weed with you.”

“He’s not going to find out. Do you really think I’m going to go tell him?”

“I fucking hate you,” Seri exclaimed, walking back inside. Quill knew what she was doing. She smiled a victory smile and waited for her to come back with something.

“I knew you loved me,” Quill smirked, taking the half a joint from her.

“I’m not staying out here with you. If you get busted, YOU brought it with you.”

“Uh-uh, you’re burning with me,” Quill insisted, grabbing her by the back of the shirt. “Just stand at the door and keep an eye out.”

Quill and Seri smoked as fast as they could all the way down to nothing.

“Go brush your teeth and spray shit on you,” Seri demanded.

Quill kissed her cheek. “Thanks, I needed that,” she said, slipping around her. She avoided eye contact with her father as he walked from the master suit.

“You smell like weed,” Manny accused, walking behind Seri and wrapping his arms around her.

“Hmmm, you smell good enough to eat,” she countered.

“And I really wish you wouldn’t smoke that stuff with my daughter,” Manny busted.

Shit…

“I’m sorry, that girl is evil. I had to,” Seri apologized, hoping he wasn’t mad.

Manny laughed. Phew….

<>

Quill showered and climbed into the bed with Reese. At least it was a king sized bed. She wouldn’t have to sleep close to her. Reese hung up with Lil and turned the magazine she had been flipping through.

“Look at this guy, Quill,” Reese said, turning the page toward her to see the most ridiculous, skinny guy, wearing purple pants she’d ever seen.

Quill burst out laughing. She laughed so hard she was moving from the bed and sitting on the floor. That, in turn, made Reese laugh and she too was doubled over in pain.

Seri rolled her eyes as her and Manny went to the master suite. That girl couldn’t hold her weed to save her ass.

Aquilla and Reese spent the next day at the pool while Manny went to his office. Seri was with them briefly but had to go when she got a tip on whatever it was she was working on.

Manny took them all to the New York Symphony that night. Aquilla loved it. She had emotions being pulled that she never knew existed. She could tell that the rest of her party was bored and wasn’t being drawn by the music the way she was. She didn’t care. She ignored them and was amazed by the sound radiating from the dome. The sound of 18 flutes engaged together created a sound like no other.

She couldn’t stop talking about it as they walked down the city-lit sidewalk.

“We should go to a concert,” Reese decided. She would much rather be banging her head to some rock music.

“Have you ever been to a concert, Quill?” Manny asked, looking back at her trailing behind checking out the storefront windows.

“What do you think?” she sarcastically replied.

“Quill, stop it. How’s he supposed to know how you were raised,” Seri chastised her attitude.

“No, Manny, I’ve never been to a concert. Will you please take me?” Quill retorted with the fakest smile she could muster.

Manny laughed. “I would love to take you girls to a concert. Find something going on, Reese,” he beckoned.

Reese was already on her phone, looking for an upcoming concert. “Lady
Ga Ga is playing Friday night,” she announced.

“Count me out,” Seri assured.

“Oh My God! Katy Perry’s playing Thursday. Can we go, dad?” she asked, excited. “Never mind…sold out,” she added, disappointed. “There’s nothing this week.”

“Well, find something coming up. We’ll plan it in a couple of weeks.”

“We start school in two weeks,” she reminded him.

“You’re only an hour and a half away, Reese. Find something on a weekend,” Manny explained.

“Are you working tomorrow, Seri?” Quill asked, still trailing behind.

“Nope
, spending the whole day with you two. What do you want to do?”

“SHOP!!” Reese yelled.

“Quill?” Seri asked, needing her input.

“Yeah, we can shop. I kind of wanted to go in that store back there,” she said, pointing with her thumb.

“That Gothic store?” Manny asked.

“I don’t know what it is. I just saw a really cool studded belt that I liked.”

“We might need your credit card,” Seri smiled up at him.

Manny smiled back. He loved having Seri on his right arm. Her arm looped through his was a perfect fit. “You’re going to have to earn it,” he quietly spoke where only she could hear.

“I’ll show you earn it,” she threatened.

<><><>

The girls got a late start on their shopping journey. Neither Quill nor Reese would get out of bed. They stayed up late watching movies together in the shared bed. Seri was starving and was tired of waiting. By the time they got started, it was after lunch. She protested when Reese wanted to go in a store right off the bat.

“No way, not until we eat,” Seri demanded. “We’ll hit it on the way back.”

Reese had a giant slice of pizza and Seri and Quill both had salads. Reese gave them both a hard time as she stretched the cheese from her pizza, telling them they were idiots and didn’t know what they were missing.

They came out empty handed in the first two stores and then Quill bought the $92.00 belt. Manny was going to kill Seri. She was sure of it, but damn. She couldn’t tell the girl no. She was just getting ready to text him and ask what her limit should be
, when she felt the sharp object prodding her back. She froze and looked up to see Quill and Reese a couple of feet in front of her.

“Did you really think you were going to send me to jail? You dumb little cunt,” the voice growled in her ear. “Tell your little girlfriends there to walk in this store, and I promise not to hurt them,” he demanded, holding her to him by her hair with what she knew was a gun in her back.

“Quill, walk in this store,” Seri said with a shaken voice.

Quill looked back. She knew what was going on. She sensed it. Reese had no clue. She was looking in the storefront, gazing at a display full of really cool Jewelry. 

“Why would we want to go into a harmonica store?” Reese questioned, looking up at the sign that Seri was demanding they enter.

“Go, Quill,” Seri demanded, reading the look on her face.

Reese looked too, sensing something wasn’t right when she saw the guy behind Seri.

“Come on, Reese,” Quill demanded, walking back toward Seri. The guy looked dead in her eyes as she turned her back to enter the store. He had no idea where the hell she came from or how the hell she got to him that quick. It was like a flash of light, and then he felt it when she jumped in the air and her foot came right
down on the side of his leg. The breaking sound was horrific, but not as horrifying as the sound of the gun. Quill saw the blood before Seri even hit the sidewalk.

Seri felt nothing for a few seconds. She thought maybe it had missed her at first, but then quickly changed her mind. The blood on her hand, the sudden pressure and then the excruciating pain that followed was unbearable. It felt like she was being branded by a hot poker.

Aquilla knew there were screams and people running, but it all happened so quickly that she couldn’t really comprehend what was going on. Seri hit the ground at precisely the same moment as the guy holding the gun and his leg in agony. He screamed in pain with a look that Quill will never forget. He was hurt, yet pissed. He aimed the gun right at her head, but again she was quicker and kicked it out of his hand, sending it sliding into the street of stopped traffic.

“Reese, call dad,” she demanded, going to Seri’s side.

“Fuck, Quill,” Seri yelled, holding her back. Quill moved her a little, to see where it had gone in. There was so much blood, and although it was to the right side, she was terrified that the bullet had hit an artery.

“You’re going to be okay, Seri,” Quill promised as she removed her t-shirt and applied pressure to her back. She didn’t even care that she was knelt beside her wearing nothing but her bra. It seemed like forever before they heard sirens, and they still seemed to be so far away.

“Quill,” Seri whimpered, letting her head drop.

Quill screamed at her. “Open your eyes, Seri!!! Open your fucking eyes!!!” She hadn’t even realized she had tears that were streaming down her face. Seri couldn’t die. She just couldn’t. She would have nobody without Seri.

“Quill, you’re going to be okay. I promise,” Seri gurgled.

“Don’t you die on me!!! Don’t you fucking die on me!!” she screamed as the paramedics pulled her away.

Someone grabbed her from behind when her shoe went across the bastard’s face that had shot Seri. He was still holding his leg, writhing in pain when his face was sent to the sidewalk by the heel of her foot. Quill dropped to her knees and wailed as someone wrapped a thin blanket around her naked body. She could only watch as the two guys and one woman worked to control the bleeding, get Seri on a stretcher and load her into the ambulance.

The girls were escorted to the hospital by a police officer. They had wanted to take them home, but Quill refused. She was going where Seri was, even if it meant death. She wouldn’t stay without her. She couldn’t.

Quill was covered in Seri’s blood. The hospital staff refused to let her enter through the waiting area, afraid of the chaos her bloody clothes would cause, and escorted her to a bathroom to clean up. She was given a blue scrub top to cover her bra.

Reese went with her, but was still in shock. What just happened? She watched in a daze as the blood ran from Quill’s arms into the basin and down the drain. Quill looked at her through the mirror.

“Can you grab me some paper towels?” Quill asked, trying to sound level and relieve the worry written all over Reese’s face. She bent and splashed the cool water on her face, staring at Seri’s blood being rinsed from her skin.  Reese pulled towels from the receptacle and touched her on the arm with them, breaking the worry running through her own mind.

“Is she going to be okay, Quill?” Reese asked, worried. She liked Seri. She was glad that she was seeing her dad. He hadn’t dated in a long time, and the one time that he did get serious with a girl, Reese had hated her, and did everything she could to end it.

“I don’t know, Reese,” she spoke honestly. There was so much blood. She couldn’t keep her mind from going back in time, seeing her father’s blood, lying on that cold tiled floor. Seri couldn’t die. She just couldn’t.

Emmanuel was storming through the double doors, dressed in full business attire when the girls emerged.

“What the hell happened?” he asked Quill.

“Excuse me, sir. Are these your daughters?” the officer asked before Quill could explain.

“Yes,” he answered, turning to the uniformed cop.

“We need to get a statement from them. Can you please follow me?”

“I need to go to Sarah. Where is she?” he wanted to know. He didn’t give a flying fuck about his needed paperwork.

“We need to speak to the next of kin,” a nurse interrupted. “Are you her husband?” she asked Manny.

“No, but she lives with me,” he replied.

What the fuck? Seri never told Quill she was living with him. She didn’t even know him. The thought crossed her mind that she was going to kill her, but was quickly washed away with guilt. She may already be dead.

“Do you know of any family that we can call?” she asked.

Manny turned to Quill. They hadn’t talked about her family. Why hadn’t they talked about her family?

“I’m her sister,” Quill lied.

The cop turned his attention to Quill. She wasn’t his sister. They all knew who Sarah Strokes was. Her sister was murdered.

“How is she?” Quill asked, ignoring the officer’s scrutiny.

“Come with me,” the nurse nodded.

All but the officer followed her to a small room with four chairs. He waited in the hall. “Please sit down,” she offered. They all sat, except for Manny. He couldn’t sit. He had to know what was going on. His nerves wouldn’t allow him to sit.

“Sara was shot with a hollow point bullet,” she began to explain.
“These bullets are designed to expand upon hitting the body and may fragment. They are designed to stay in the body and not exit. They are the most lethal.”

This wasn’t sounding good. Aquilla wrung her hands as she listened.

“The entirety of the bullet's kinetic energy is transferred to the body which causes___.”

“We don’t give a shit about the anatomy of a gunshot wound. How is she?” Aquilla demanded to know, wanting her to cut the analysis and tell them if she was dead or alive.