After leaving the laundromat, Ja'liyah followed Judith around the mall, and they sampled each restaurant's food on toothpicks. Eventually, they reached a store filled with window shoppers under the bright lights.
"See, Montgomery and Mobile don't have fine places like this," Ja'liyah says, stopping in front of a store no bigger than a bodega. She looks through the transparent window at the shelves and displays of luxury bags and flashy jewelry.
"Trust me, it's not as nice as it seems," Judith says before following her gaze to the mass of people polluting the small store. "The diamonds are just glass with layers of clear polish."
"Yeah, well, the girls back home won't know the difference; I want to bring back something that'll make them eat their hearts out." She pushes the door open and steps in with her cousin in tow. They look around the window shoppers, squeezing through them until they reach the middle. "See, that's flashy!"
She points to a thick handbag with a thin strap and crescent moon shape. She steps toward it while excitedly biting her lip, and Judy follows her.
"I've always wanted this," Ja'liyah says, and she folds her arms to avoid touching it. "This is Jackie Kennedy's Gucci purse. I saw her toting it years ago on T.V, and I just had to have it."
"Um, well, again, it's fake like everything else in here." She shoots Judith a dark look, her smile disappearing. "And I don't have the money for something like this."
"How old do you fucking think I am," she whisper-yells her question, and Judith blinks back from surprise. Ja'liyah shakes her head then says, "I make my own money, and I came this way from Alabama with more than enough to put more quarters in your machine, but I'm sure you forgot that."
"I didn't mean it like that," Judith struggles to assure her cousin. Her eyes are wide, and her lips are agape with a high level of fear that doesn't match the minor interaction.
"Uh-huh, right. Excuse me!" Judy flinches and clutches her laundry bag tighter when Ja'liyah yells for a sales representative.
Jesus Christ!
Judith looks around the room of people but only catches the eye of a few whose hostile glares cause her to lower her head.
A woman with a dancer's body sees her cousin waving her over from the left end of the room. She's standing with an elderly couple, and the smile she put on for them fades when Ja'liyah yells again.
"Excuse me!" Judith darts her worried eyes between her cousin and the worker who hasn't budged from her spot. Judy opens her mouth to speak, and Ja'liyah scoffs, shaking her head in disbelief. "Lady, I called you like five times, and all these people in here can see you being rude to a paying customer!"
She's probably ignoring you because not only are you yelling but you're dressed like you can't afford it.
The pitch of her voice grows shrill as she forces herself to continue without stopping for a breath, and her face turns red.
"Liyah, maybe we should go check on my stuff." The woman gently backhands her strawberry blonde feathered hair behind her left shoulder as she rolls her blue eyes onto the pair before her.
"Unbelievable," she mumbles and scoffs, folding her arms. Judith looks toward the window overlooking the rest of the shopping plaza.
David and Mary are standing in front of a busy kiosk. She has her hands in the seat pockets of her floral-stitched jeans, and his hands are tight around the bars on his crutches.
Is that...?
"Forget it; let's jet." Judith blinks out of her daze when her cousin walks across her line of sight. She hurries behind her and out of the store, instantly stricken by a wave of heat. "I don't even know why I bothered going in there. I mean, I know white people in South Carolina are racist as shit, but damn, did I not expect them to be on a whole 'nother level with the ones in Alabama."
"It feels like a sauna," she says in a desperate attempt to divert her anger. Ja'liyah looks at her with her brows drawn from confusion.
She follows her stare to the crowd of people around the kiosk and narrows her eyes just as Mary sits in the seat. The pale woman with her tar hair cut into a shag is standing behind her with a piercer gun in her left hand.
"What're you looking at," Ja'liyah finally asks, and they glance at each other. "Do you wanna get your ears pierced or something?"
"No, I," Judith stops and takes a deep, shaky breath. She licks her lips, then continues, but her voice is quivering again, "Remember when I mentioned being with someone before Jerome?"
"Yeah," she answers with a nod and a questioning undertone.
"Well, I think that's the guy I was dating, but I'm not sure. I'm seeing fuzzy shapes," she confesses with a nervous chuckle. They turn their heads to watch the scene, and Judith squints.
David's leaning onto his right side, propped upright with the help of his crutches under him. Her delicate hand is in his, and her fingers squeeze him when the woman presses the gun to her left earlobe.
"Yeah," Judith relaxes her face, and her voice softens with sadness. "That's him."
"Who's that white girl he's with?" Judy lets out a forced chuckle with her lips tightly shut, and the sound exits her nose like a dry cough.
"That's a girl I met when I got back on campus after Grandma's funeral," Ja'liyah whips her head to her, raising her brows in surprise. "She was my best friend - until she wasn't."
"What happened, and why's she with him," she asks. Mary yelps and they turn to look at her as she bursts into laughter. David shakes his head then mutters incoherence. "I can tell she was annoying as hell."
Judith scoffs in remembrance. "David was abusive, but I stayed with him because I knew him more than his family can say they did. She told me to leave him alone, and I didn't - I didn't think she understood. Next thing I knew, I saw her and him kissing on TV."
"And you're okay with this?" When she doesn't immediately respond, she returns her attention to her. Judith's eyes drift onto the smooth checkered floor beneath them. "You know what? Come on. You're not gonna sit on the bleachers watching your ex-best friend and ex-boyfriend become a thing."
Ja'liyah takes her wrist and guides her toward the couple. Judy darts her worried eyes between her cousin and Mary, then David.
"Wait, 'Liyah, I don't care about him or her," Judith shouts in a whisper, her words bouncing with her. "She can stay with the abusive - tyrant for all I care, and they can get married if they please. I'm fine."
"Yeah - right," she merely says, and Judy lets out a whimper of defeat when they reach the kiosk. Mary climbs out of the chair with a smile across her rosy lips, and with David walking alongside her, Judith's eyes land on the thighs of her jeans. "Hey, were you two dating?"
She releases her and folds her arms. They take their eyes off each other to look at Ja'liyah and Judith, and their smiles fall to straight faces.
Jesus H Christ. She's unbelievable.
"Yeah," he admits with uncertainty. Mary hooks her arms around his left forearm and stares at Judy. Her blonde sections by her ears sway like drapes against a breeze, and with each pass going back, her new diamond earrings sparkle.
"I thought you didn't like girls with pierced ears," she asks before words can exit her cousin's parted lips. Mary and David glance at each other, and the loving look in their eyes twists her stomach with sickness.
"Yeah, usually, I don't, but tonight we're celebrating," he confesses, and Judy furrows her brows. Ja'liyah shifts her gaze between each who speaks, silently spectating.
"He's taking me to his folks' house for their blessing; he and I wanna get married." Judith blinks back and looks around.
"Wow," she repeats under her breath, her heart pounding. David glances at Mary then downward as they wait for her to gather herself. With an awkward chuckle and tears ready to fall, she says, "You two haven't even been dating for a month, and already you're trying to jump the broom."
"Actually," Mary begins, then yelps when David pinches her inner arm. They look at him, and he clears his throat.
"It was nice seeing you, Judy, but we have someplace to be. I'm sure we'll see you around campus. Excuse us." He steps closer to her, and when she doesn't move for him, he silently stares into her eyes.
"You know I was expelled. I'm sure your white bitch," she says without hesitation and without turning her face. Ja'liyah blinks back, and with a proud smile, she nods her head. Mary scoffs in disbelief. She continues in the same monotonous voice, "didn't mind telling you I hit her."
"Racism is a - different color on you, and it's not very flattering," he states, and Judith crosses her arms, lifting her brow nonchalantly. "And yes, she told me about what you did after Dean O'Connell forced everyone off the campus, but he issued a statement last night saying that he'll let you and your other riot friends back."
"Yeah right." She rolls her eyes. "If he wanted me back, he would've called."
"I don't think her people can afford late-night television, Davie." Ja'liyah jerks forward to confront Mary, but Judith lifts her hand and stops her.
"Cut it out, Mary," he orders her. Judith hears her cousin wheezing, and she glances at her out of her peripheral. "Look, I'm only telling you what I know, and what I know is that he was on candid camera painting you out to be some hooligan who should be lucky to be given a shot back there. Check the news channel when you get home; it's probably playing again tonight."
"Okay, I will," Judith says in a softer tone, dropping her arms at her sides. She looks at Mary, then turns to her right and walks toward the escalators.
David looks around with confusion at the interaction, and he and Mary stare at Ja'liyah. She's wobbling in place, and her reddening skin is clammy.
Judith power walks with a scowl across her face.
Lying piece of - and to flaunt their relationship in my face is like a whole new -
Ja'liyah's eyes shut, and her legs give out under her. As she collapses, they quickly turn their heads to each other, then at Judith.
"Judy," they shout in unison, and she stops walking. She stands with her back to them and takes a sharp breath to calm herself.
She whips around with her mouth open and hateful words sitting on her tongue, but like an ice cube, they slip into her throat and stick. Her eyes flair when she sees her cousin lying on the floor in front of them, and she sprints closer, unaware of the curious stares from onlookers.
"'Liyah," Judith yells, then drops to her knees at her side. She takes her right hand off her stomach, and they watch her feel around her inner wrist for a pulse.
Oh, my God, please be okay.
She sighs a breath of relief when her fingers cross a gentle vibration.
"David, let's get out of here," Mary says to him, and they look at her. Ja'liyah slowly opens her eyes.
"Do you need a ride to the hospital?" His voice is softer than she remembers it ever to be.
Mary shoots him a dark look which he ignores, and Judith takes a breath to answer, but Ja'liyah sits up.
"If it isn't Lazarus herself." Judith and David share annoyed glares at Mary's comment before looking at her in her groggy state. "Okay, she's awake and fine, and I'm getting tired. Take me home."
"Could you drop us off at the hospital," Judith asks when he scowls at Mary.
"No, no hospital," Ja'liyah slurs, then slumps onto Judy's chest. She stares at her baggy pants, taking shallow breaths with sweat cascading off her temples.
"Yeah, uh, just help her to the car," David says before stepping past them with his lady in tow.
"Judith, don't take me to the hospital, okay?" She opens her mouth to object while shaking her head, but Ja'liyah interrupts her and says, "I'm fine. I missed breakfast this morning, and I overheated. I just need a little bowl of rice krinkles and rest."
She's lying.
Judith gazes down the side of her oversized shirt, then through the neckband. She notices her defined collarbone and tugs her shirt collar down to look above her chest.
Her green veins stain her beating chest in the shape of fireworks, and her sweat-laden skin barely covers her protruding ribcage.
With disturbance drawn over her face, she looks her in the eyes. Ja'liyah stares blankly at her, and with each shallow breath, her face grows a deeper shade of red.
"Don't - act so - confused," she says through labored breaths. "You're just as sick - as me. Maybe - more."