{ Anaela }
I woke Pouty up at three, cleaned up the hotel room, and dropped her back off at her house. We were both mentally beat and dragging. I decided that all today I was going to sleep in until it was time to go to the club to celebrate Pouty's safe going to Russia, and Mayah's birthday.
I slipped back into bed, burying my face into the covers. I was almost asleep when my phone rung. It was Dominique. I grunted, and flipped over to grab my phone.
"Cherries on my titties, this is Anaela," I tiredly answered. "What type of greeting is that?" my friend asked. I could hear Valentine in the background, talking excitedly about something. "Hey, what you doing today?"
"Sleeping then going out. Your ID is still being processed, so stay in today, cause I know Valentine likes to speed and-
"Oh, uh, I'll stay in," Dom told me. I thought nothing of it, yawning. "Well, if you don't need anything I'm about to go to sleep."
Dom sighed a heavy sigh, like all of the weight in the world was on her shoulders. If only she knew the type of secrets and pressure I had to hold. She was lucky to have Valentine's support and to be offered this type of protection. If anything, working with Valentine and I should make her into a stronger woman.
"Well, I'll see you when I can. Just call or whatever when my ID is in," she said at last.
"Ight."
I hung up and buried my face into my pillows, immediately falling into a deep, dreamless slumber.
I heard loud knocks at my door and forced myself up. I slipped on my house shoes and looked out the peephole. I hadn't even bothered to check my phone to see if anybody had called regarding the club. It was Ariana and Reneah outside though.
"Hey," I opened the door.
"Girl, we been calling. Be ready in two hours. Reneah and I been helping Mayah move," Ria said stiffly, forcing a smile. She wa sprobably annoyed that I didn't answer her calls. She looked tired.
I frowned, more awake now. "Damn, first Pouty was moving, now Mayah. Didn't she just get here, she's already leaving? Unpacking, or what?" I asked, my brain cells still warming up.
"She's unpacking. Her family's been living in a hotel until the apartment was open. And guess what- she's in Pouty's old apartment." I smiled sadly, then my eyes widened. The night Pouty- I'm sorry, Siara and I had couldn't be forgotten.
"Well, all I gotta do is shower and throw something on. I don't feel like fem-ing it out tonight," I admitted. "I'll be done in about thirty minutes, tell Mayah that I'll be over there soon."
"Is Dom coming?" Reneah asked unsurely, then glanced at Ria's look of annoyance.
I shrugged, then shook my head quickly, coming to my senses. "She still has a lot of..private stuff going on," I told the two. "I'll walk over to Po- to Mayah's when I'm done. Just leave the door unlocked or something."
"Girl, we ain't no fools. Mayah'll get robbed the first night she there if we do that," Ria laughed curtly. I sighed, "Well..just let me in when I get there. I heard it's sposed to get hotter later on today," I told them. I closed the door and locked my own door.
I went back to my room and started looking through my closet. These days it seemed like more of my masculine side was oozing out. People probably wouldn't even know I was a stem anymore, but who really cared about labels? I know Sissy's a no label. That life must be nice.
I showered then I threw on an all black fit with a striped black shirt to add in some flavor. I put on my black Adidas and then grabbed a jacket to leave in whoever's car we went in. If the sun was fully out I'd be baking in all this black, but it's whatever. It might be cold somewhere and I still wanted my fit to match.
I headed over to Pouty's old place, reminiscing about all of the old memories I had with her. This girl was like a cousin to me, I can't imagine that she'll be in Russia somewhere doing whatever people over there do without her fam.
I made it to Mayah's. Gosh, it was weird calling such a familiar place "Mayah's" now. I knocked on the door and glanced down at the time on my phone. It was dark out, it was 7:30.
An older Mayah look alike answered the door. I chewed the inside of my lip, she was a tomboy, or maybe a stud too.
"You must be Anaela? Mayah talks about you a lot," she smirked to herself. I smiled awkwardly and shook her hand. She let me inside of the house and closed the door behind us. She seemed like such a sweet lady and everything about Mayah and her didn't seem like it was from around here.
I wonder how they ended up in such a troubled place like Sunday Breeze. "Everyone is upstairs helping Mayah unpack. Her step dad and I have everything else covered as far as unpacking around the house. Are you hungry?" she asked me. I shook my head, offering her a polite smile. "No ma'am. Thank you."
I found my way upstairs, knowing that Mayah's mother is exactly what I would want in a mother. I said that about Dom's people too though, until I found out about how they treated her. I checked my phone for any random messages that Dom's ID had came through.
Nothing.
I put my phone away and knocked on a door that my friend's voices leaked under. "Come in," Mayah called out. I opened the door tentatively and it revealed Ria, Reneah, Sissy, and Mayah all sitting on the carpet next to a variety of boxes.
"Sorry that I'm a little late, Ria and Reneah had to come over to wake me up. I was out cold," I chuckled. "I noticed that you and Pouty weren't at school," Sissy slowly said, meeting my eyes. "We hung out...reminisced," I said awkwardly, hoping how much I was sweating didn't show. "Well, I'm glad you got to do that. I know how close you and her were," Ria commented, breaking the silence.
What was up with Sissy? Didn't she get her duo time with Pouty or something? Did everyone somehow know what we did? Did something else happen? Was I unwanted here, right now? I awkwardly sat on the floor a little away from everyone else and they eased back into conversation. It's probably just my social anxiety.
Yeahhhhh, this was going to be hard without Pouty. Honestly, Mayah seemed like the only one who wasn't giving me the cold shoulder. Well, not even the cold shoulder, the suspicious shoulder.
"We finna head outside," Ria told me awkwardly, not meeting my eyes.
I sighed internally, keeping a neutral expression on my face. Mayah closed the door behind everybody. Was she the cause of this or something? Was she going to tell me what was going on?
I sighed, my face crumbling as soon as everyone was gone. "What's up?" she whispered although we had loudly heard everyone go outside. We could still hear them laughing out there now.
"I don't know. It was odd of Sissy to ask me about Pouty like that. I don't know what's going on," I told her honestly. Was this the start of everything? Did I need to be suspicious of Mayah? Pouty's gone and now she's gonna break the friend group up?
If I'm the glue now, then I'm the cheap kind.
"When they were coming up the stairs, cause everybody was like here an hour ago, they were talking about how Pouty didn't tell them where she was off at and how something happened at school and you weren't there like usual. They were talking about how you were more of Pouty's friend than there's and that you're not even that close with them."
I sat back, taking this all in. I looked pissed off but in my head I was rationally thinking. Mayah could be causing all of this or this could be something she's heard. Regardless....I've known these girls since I was small, I can't imagine them just claiming something like that.
Mayah could be whispering into their ears and mine. I just need to get everything settled. I was never the type of person for confrontations though. What am I going to do?
"I also found something in the back of Pouty's closet," Mayah revealed. She pulled a stack of papers that were folded from her back pocket. She handed them over to me. I read each one quickly, then started to read slower. These were all suicide letters, saying how much Pouty hated me for flirting with her and being horrible to her. Is that the way I seemed?
I grew angry.
"So, they saw these letters?" I asked Mayah.
I looked at the handwriting. No mistaking, this was Pouty's. Pouty might have been beautiful but her handwriting sure wasn't. The way she had written this, from an outsider's perspective, you'd think I was harassing her for attention and trying to snatch the drawers right off her semi bald pussy, but in reality, I saw the struggle in my friend's words.
She was fighting an attraction to a gay girl.
I checked the date, this was from a little before Pouty told everyone she was moving. They must think I made Pouty move and that she didn't want to directly say that, and she didn't want to give them her whereabouts because of my alleged "stalking".
"Pouty liked me," I said aloud, "I never chased her or did any of these things." I looked over at Mayah. "This is wrong," I said, shoving the letters back towards her. I headed for her door knob but Mayah grabbed my wrist, spinning me around. "I might be new to the ways of your friends, and I'm glad that you've all accepted me in with open arms- even Pouty. But we have something to discuss."
"Like what?" I asked, trying to twist out of her tight grasp. "I was abused in relationships before. If you were really harassing this girl the way she's written it, you're gonna have to deal with me."
"Mayah, you alright in there?" her mother called from the staircase.
"Yes mom," Mayah said in a false cheery tone. She turned her attention back to me. She gripped my wrist tighter. I thought she'd burst my veins against my bones. I winched, the rest of my body pulling down as the pain continued in my wrist. "If I find out you hurt that girl..."
"I didn't," I gasped.
She let go and pain radiated up my arm. Tears rained down my face. "I thought me and Pouty were close. We even..."
"You even had sex, didn't you?" she asked, looking me up and down. "You're guilty until proven innocent, Anaela."
"Who gives you the right to waltz into our friend group and start making all of these wild accusations?" I yelled.
Her bedroom door slowly began to open, and someone peaked their head in. I didn't bother looking back. "Look, I don't know what was going through Pouty's mind but all the time that we spent together was filled with love, comforting one another, and trying to find a certain damn library book," I scoffed.
"So what do those letters mean, then?" Ariana asked, coming into the room. The rest of my so friends watched from outside the room. "I don't know. I didn't even know she had a diary. We were never best friends, we just had the same sort of personality," I shrugged. "We were both quiet and she was caring. Pouty's helped me through a lot of rough times."
"So what about the letters?" Reneah's repeated, hand on hip.
"I don't know, I don't even know where all of this came from," I threw up my hands.
"Hm...you've been more secretive lately since Pouty said she'd be moving. And then she doesn't tell us where she's actually going. And then you're gone all Friday doing God know's what?" Sissy chimed in.
"I've been secretive because I've been helping Dom, you can ask her. She has a lot of personal problems going on. I didn't get to really spend time with Pouty and wish her well on her moving until it was Friday. She called me up spontaneously and asked if I wanted to skip school with her. Her dad called while we were at the mall and wanted her home but let her stay with me. We even saw Valentine and Dom at the mall," I explained, taking in a deep breath to tell my side of the story clearly.
"So guilty until proven innocent or innocent until proven guilty?" Mayah asked everyone, staring at me. "What?" I asked, flipping around towards her. "I-
"We should get the authorities involved, Pouty could be hurting wherever she is. Obviously, even if Anaela is guilty or not, she was going through some tough things," Ria said seriously. "No," I said firmly, "we can't get the cops involved because of everything's that's going on with Dom."
"Dom has nothing to do with you," Reneah looked me up and down.
"She has everything to do with me, you guys don't understand. Her and Valentine don't need to be brought into this," I shook my head, thinking about how everything was breaking into pieces right now.
"I'm calling the cops," Sissy said seriously, "and that's something you'll probably never hear me say again." She headed downstairs and I watched her go. "Fuck, this is ruining everything," I said to myself. I pulled out my phone as everyone stole glances at me and offered their own opinions over my head.
I told Valentine to start setting up precautions for her and Dom. I told them that I also didn't know what was taking the ID so long or if it had went through to their fax machine. I shook my head again, looking down at my phone. This is crazy, I had never done anything harmful to Pouty except perhaps keep the legacy my mother's forced upon me from her.
"Look, they said they're on the way, they're bringing an investigative squad," Sissy told everybody, not even looking my way.
I shook my head again, texting Valentine.
Everybody was coming to me for protection but now I might be the one who needs it.