The CraZee Life (Lesbian)

Chapter 9

"Well, actually I don't s-" I began to say.

"Stop... I don't even wanna know what you're about to say. Whatever it is, please keep it away from your sisters. And be careful. I don't wanna hear about you being found dead or going to jail, okay?"

"You won't, Mom. I decided to stop. Me an-- well... I decided to stop. I wanna create a business or somethin'. Leave something for Britt and Joey when they get older."

"Good. I really hope you stick with that. Don't tell your sisters anything about them inheriting the store. I want them to think about school right now. You know Britt would ready to drop out today, if she knew she could have her own store." Mom jokes.

Both of us started laughing. "I'll see you later, Mom." I say, after giving her a hug, making sure not to touch her hands at all. I ain't want chicken juice on me.

"Tell Priest I said hi!" she screeches as I walk towards the door.

Once I hopped in the car, my stomach started to growl. Damn, I really hadn't eaten anything in a while. So. I decided to go to the nearby corner store. I needed some chips and a drink . I couldn't refrain from eating, any longer. Once I pulled up to the store, I noticed there was an arrest in progress. I pulled up beside a big SUV, so I could still go unseen by a police vehicle. I heard a lot of screaming and a woman giving them a hard time. Once they finally got her out of the store, I recognized who it was. It was Chris. She'd gotten arrested, probably in connection with Vicky's murder. I saw another shaken up woman, who looked to be of Asian descent. When I noticed her hair, I realized who it was—It was an old friend. I called out to her. "Cherry?" she looked up at me in confusion. She walks over to my car. "Who're you?" she asks.
"Zee. From high school." She takes a good look at me. "I think I vaguely remember you. You had to have known me, 'cause I don't even go by Cherry anymore."

"No? What do you answer to now? Jade?"

"Yeah. I got tired of people calling me Cherry Pai."

I chuckled in spite of myself. "That is pretty funny. Um, what happened?"

"My girl got herself arrested, yet again." she laments.

"Did they say why?"

"For possession and distribution of narcotics."

At least I can count on my freedom for awhile. I wasn't all the way sure that it was true that her arrest was solely related to drug charges. I knew that officers came to get you as soon as they had a valid reason to. So, yeah, maybe there are actual charges pending against her. I wondered how they would approach her about what happened to Vicky. They probably have interviewed all the folks closest to her, and have to know by now, that she dated Jade in the past. So there was probably some talk about how that relationship came to an end. So my guess was, the police were interested in talking with both Chris and Jade about Vicky. If they felt really good about Chris being the suspect, but needed time to gather more evidence, they'd put her away over those drug charges.

"Well, shit, what are you gonna do now?"

"I don't know." she says, glumly. The police had finally got Chris into the back of the cruiser and they left in a hurry. "I'm just gonna have to bail her out. I have half a mind to leave her ass in there. But I can't do that to her, even though I know those charges are legit."

"What's the point of bailing someone out if you know they're guilty?"

"'Cause she'll get mad if I don't. Start her howling in my face, thinking she's scaring somebody. Then she'll get to pretending she'll hit me, like I'm supposed to be scared. She fucking knows better to actually touch me, though."

I chuckled a little bit. She thinks Chris won't ever get actually get violent with her. Once you've killed, you don't fear anything anymore. I bet she doesn't know what Chris did.

"Um... okay. Well, hey, it was good seeing you. We should hang out again, like old times." I was being sincere, but I did have an ulterior motive behind this. I would be able to get more tea on Chris, and find out a way to use it to my advantage, to bring her to justice.

"Hand me your phone." she says.

I oblige, and watch as she puts her number in my phone.

She hands it back to me. "I'll hit you later today, so be on the look out." I tell her.

"I will. See ya later." she says, and hops into the SUV on the side of me. That's the car Chris was in when we first met up! I hurry and open the Notes App to write down what I remember. By the time I got into the app, she had already pulled off. I could only remember 3 letters and one number— CRP and a 1.

I close the app and go into the store and get the snacks I came here for. I walked out of the store, happy as a motherfucker with my Doritos and lemonade.

By the time I pulled up to Priest's house, I had scarfed all the Doritos down. I took a big gulp of my lemonade, before finding some baby wipes to clean my hands off with. After like five minutes, I got out of the car and knocked on the front door of her unnecessarily big ass house. I shook my head at how damn big it was. All this for one person. She comes to the door in nothing but underclothes. I scrunched my face up at her. "Clothes, ever heard of 'em?" I joked. On the lowest of keys, though, I liked what I saw. It was just like, I didn't know if we were on that level of familiarity with each other. I'd known her a super long time, but I'd never seen her in her underclothes, before.
"Oh, hush. I just got back from my dad's house. I was gonna hit the shower and here you go!"
We make our way into the living room. "Why'd you go over there? I thought you were on the outs with him." I remind her.

"Yeah, but then I took into account what you said. You know, how he probably is just trying to protect me. I was trying to explain to him that I appreciated him looking out for me on that front, but that I can live my life how I see fit."
"What's he say?"
"Well, he confirmed that he thinks he's protecting me from something bad, but genuinely doesn't see how I have an attraction to women. He doesn't seem to get that I'm not asking him to. I just want him to love me enough to not make it a big deal every time we're alone." she vents.

I sit on her couch, while she joins me, still talking.

"Okay... what is it that has you so desperately seeking his... tolerance? 'Cause I think you should just stop discussing this stuff with him."

"I can't, that's the thing. It's all the man ever talks about! I keep trying to explain it to him, and I don't know why. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment, or something. To make matters worse, I put all my faith in a book that tells me I deserve this punishment. I just want my dad to stop worrying about what kind of people I deal with."

"Well, none of that is on you. So, you shouldn't let it ruin your day. We both know you can't control your sexuality. So, if he wants to whine about it, you might just have to, like, shut the whole discussion down. I know he's your dad, but that doesn't give him the right to be all in your bedroom."

"Let my dad tell it, this stuff is in my control. He thinks I'm this way on purpose, Zee." she sinks into the couch. "I wish it was. That way I could just turn it off and end the torture."

I rolled my eyes. "I don't mean to offend you when I say this. I don't see how can you believe in something that makes you feel like shit for simply being who you are? It's so frustrating seeing you beat yourself up over it. I'm sure God still likes you. There's entirely too much shit going on for God to be worrying about what gender you sleep with."
"God can do all things. Even worry about petty stuff." she replies.
"Well, let's hope he's going in order— he's probably held up with all the big stuff right now."

She chuckles weakly. "Thanks for trying to make me feel better. You'd make a good therapist." she says, making her way to the kitchen. She comes back out to the living room with two blunts.
"Got a lighter, Zee?" she asks.
I furrowed my brows. "But I thought you didn't.."
"I changed my mind. Do you have a lighter?" she repeats.
"Yeah." As I pulled out my lighter, I couldn't help but think about how strange it was that Priest had pulled out some weed of her own. She went from barely wanting to smoke, to being the one to initiate the sessions. I think something might really be wrong with her. I'd have to keep a closer eye on her. For now, I'd seize the moment and enjoy the free weed.