Neriah
2 weeks later...
I avoided Jacq at all cost. Every game, every practice, every team dinner, I act like he doesn't exist.
He came in thirty minutes late looking like someone had been keeping him up all night, as usual. Ever since he tossed me out, he's been looking like shit.
He comes to practice late so coach has benched for the past five games and doesn't let him do shit in practice til he starts showing up on time.
The dark circles, the hunched circles, the pale look. Jacques is just another victim of Will's evil ways and is showing all over him.
I cry here and there because I love him but there's nothing I can do, the damage is already done.
"Hi you guys I'm professor Dean. I'm a professor at central Michigan University where your friend Neriah attends. As you know I've set a exercise for her, just so I see how well she's been studying. Neriah each of these young men here all have actual symptoms of some kind or medicaid issue. They each are holding a card that have symptoms they suffer from or have suffered, from written on the card. You must answer correctly. Or your grade drops by a letter." I looked at her with wide eyes. I have an B right now. I don't my grade to be below that. "Do you need me to repeat anything?"
"No ma'am."
"Okay let's get started. Mr. Iman you're up first. Remember not to give her to easy hints." He looked down at the card and cleared his throat.
"This happened to me during the second game of the season. I had a pain near my hip. The pain was so bad I could feel it in my ass." I laughed. "I fell to the floor since the pain was so bad. I couldn't squeeze my legs together because my groin hurt so bad-"
"Oh I got this. Is it groin pull?"
"Yes." He flipped the card over and I was right.
"Yes, okay." Iman gave me a high five before sitting on the bench.
I stepped in front of Kevin. "Mr. Kevin it's your turn."
"I also felt this pain in my ass." Everyone laughed. "I kept playing after I noticed this pain and you cussed me out after you told me not to. I soon felt the pain in my thighs. Every time I walked the joints in my left knee popped."
This one is easy. "A pulled hamstring."
"Correct."
I wiped the imaginary sweat off my forehead.
Jacques
I watched Neriah laugh and joke with everyone as she went down the line. I miss her so much. The day after I kicked her out I couldn't even think straight. I'll never forgive myself for the way I did her. The money she stole from me magically reappeared the second she drove off down the street.
I got a text from an unknown number saying to check my bank account. I called my bank and the lady on the phone said everything was there. She checked her computer and she said my account hadn't been touched since I took the $20,000 for neriah before I left.
I feel so bad the image her face while she was crying keeps me up. I went back or and got her clothes and hung them back up.
Then I noticed something was different about the house.
She had decorated everything and left a little note saying she appreciates everything I have done for her about and instead of spending the money on herself, she spent it on me.
She had got my living rooms together and my dining room. Are really pimped ya boy out. Then I went to my room and there were Versace shopping bags in my closet
I say down and put 2 and 2 together and realized Will must've done this. She tried to tell me and i fell for it.
That made me feel even worse.
I'm still mad she didn't tell all that shit and Will did. But I guess something like that would be hard to tell someone.
She don't even talk to me.
She doesn't even look at me.
I sighed as the guilt ate at me more.
Right as she got to me the doors to the court opened and the sound of hard bottom shoes filled the room.
Third person
"Ms. Calvin may I have a word with you?" Will Came around the bleachers with his security right behind him. Neriah backed up and turned to an exit but his security came through the doors and blocked her from leaving.
"Mr. Cox with all do respect, this is a closed practice." Coach said standing in front of him.
"I know. I'm the one who made the rule. I just need Ms. Calvin for a moment." She stood in the same spot like a statue. "Come here." She back away even more. "I'm losing my patients with you."
"What is the hurry boss? Can't this wait till after practice." Coach asked. He's known Will since he became part of the NBA counsel and knew Will is up to no good. Coach had walked in on him having an affair with Malory his assistant in his office. And to make sure he wouldn't tell, Will beat him with the paper weight from his desk. Coach had countless surgeries so he could get his teeth back.
(Side note: Remember, Neriah briefly told coach about her situation with Will after she and Jacques were dumped in the middle of nowhere to die.)
"I been waiting to talk to her for quite some time now." Will stepped towards her.
Neriah shook her head quickly. "You don't have anything to say to me that I Wanna hear." A single tear rolled down her face catching everyone's attention.
"C'mon Riah, we can make this talk as quick as possible." He reached inside his suit jacket and pulled out his six round pistol just enough for her to see. Neriah knew how this was gonna end and she was ready.
This morning she made a trip to a local gun store a few blocks from the hotel. She may not be able to hit him back but she knows a bullet will stop him.
She took a basketball from the floor and threw it at Will's face as a way to get a head start.
He yelled in pain as he grabbed his nose.
She ran for the locker rooms that were inside the court, leaving him with a broken nose.
As she ran off, Will shot in her direction twice making everybody hit the floor.
Neriah ran to the locker room and locked the doors to buy her some time.
She climbed on top of the bathroom sink and struggled to get the lock on top of the window undone.
"Neriah I'm going to fuckin kill you!" He kicked the door, trying to get inside.
She could barley get her fingertips on the latch. "Dammit." She stood on the edge of the porcelain stink trying to keep her balance without slipping. She used the tips of her nails painfully to pull it open it. "Thank you Jesus." She hopped down and pulled the window up.
She took a breath nervously as the drop down below looked dangerous. A fear of heights had always stopped her from doing many things but this time she had to be brave.
"Open this got damn door!" Will stepped back and shot at the lock.
By they had got inside Neriah was no where to be found.
--
She ran off through the parking lot as fast as she could.
"She's getting away!" Will shot out from the window but missing every time. "Shit." The gun ran out of bullets but he didn't realize one grazed the side of arm. He ran back out the bathroom and to the court where half of his men held everyone at gun point.
"You all aren't going to tell a soul about what you saw here. Or I'll make you and your families disappear." Will gave a good hard look at Jacques specifically. "Put extra security on this one." He pointed at jacq. "Now the rest of you hurry we got a girl to catch."
--
Neriah saw the top of the hotel as she ran down the street holding her arm.
She had been staying there with no problems at all.
She figured out that Malory and Will came to the hotel to have their secret affair. Malory always boasted about having a rich lawyer husband and flashed her 25 karat ring to everyone when they asked about her marriage. Will always gloated about Lorraine and how wonderful of a wife and mother she is; but both ended up sucking each other's faces off in hotel room 228.
Malory had a room next door to Neriah's room, 227. She heard Malory screaming Will's name all hours of the night. He'd always leaving at leave at 3 in the morning making neriah extremely paranoid.
She made sure not to have her TV to loud so they wouldn't know anyone was next to them. Neriah made sure not to speak to loud when she was on the phone making room service calls.
The walls were paper thin and she didn't want to risk Will finding her. Especially since they were right next door to each other.
Will tried his best to find her but all his ways of tracking her down were gone.
He put a bug in her phone so he could track her every movement. But Neriah crushed her phone in the elevator and flushed it down the toilet once she got to the hotel.
The tracker on her car only works when the car is on. But neriah came out in the middle of the night when nobody would be in the parking lot, and crawled under her car and ripped the device off, and tossed it in the middle of the road as a mac truck came driving by. She gathered up the pieces and tossed them in the dumpster at a McDonald's parking lot down the street.
Neriah even took the extra step in trading her car in for a 2007 Mustang, something that wasn't her style. Just incase Will noticed her car in the hotel parking lot.
Malory thought she saw neriah that time in the hallway but when she asked the girl at the front desk if a Neriah Calvin checked into the hotel, The girl at the front desk couldn't find anyone under that name. The girl even showed her the screen and nobody by that name existed in their data base. She even looked a Javeon Ceddy after malory demanded her to keep looking but there was no match.
That's because Taylor put the room under her name and deleted it from the computer once Malory started asking about Neriah, as she described what she looked like she dragged the data entry into tee recycling bin on her desktop.
--
Neriah ran across traffic trying to get to the hotel as fast as she could before Will could beat her there.
"Watch it!" A man yelled out his car window.
"Sorry!" She made it to the hotel and ran into the lobby where Taylor waited with a extra hotel key card to her room.
Neriah grabbed it and kept running. She ran passed the elevator and took the emergency stairs with ease. Neriah had used the stairs as a source for exercise.
She ran down the hall to her room, swiped the card, and locked all the locks once stew was in.
She pushed the balcony doors open to see Will's car pull up to the front.
She grabbed the shot gun from under the bed and waved out the door to the times to give the signal.
She listened for heavy foot steps to come down the hall. "Neriah I just wanna talk to you." Will walked passed the door not knowing which room she was in.
Neriah unlocked the locks quietly. She left the latch on so she could peak out the door without him getting in.
She only saw the back of him but he was close enough. She tilted the gun to the side so the barrel fit through the Crack.
"No. I wanna talk to you Will." He snapped his body in her direction. His eyes met the barrel of the gun.
Neriah's finger trembled on the trigger as he stepped closer.
"We can talk. But you gotta put the gun down baby." She swallowed the knot in her throat.
"Fuck that. I'm tired of doing shit your way. We're on my terms now." Will raised his eyes in amusement.
"Alright I'll a play your game." Neriah closed the door and opened the latch. She opened the door again and put the barrel to his head roughly.
"Go sit in the couch." Will smiled as he followed her orders.
He sat on the couch smiling.
Neriah closed the door with her foot and but kept it unlocked this time.
She sat at the small dining table with her elbows on the wood to rest her arm as the graze on her arm became more painful. She kept her aim right at his face, fighting through the pain.
"What did you wanna talk about? Because I have a lot I want to say." He laughed at how serious her face was.
"You think I'm playing with you Will?" She chocked the gun. His smile dropped. "I want you to leave. Me. The. Fuck. Alone."
"I can't do that." He crossed his right leg over the left with his hands resting on his thighs.
"And why is that?" She kept her eyes locked on his.
"Because of the little agreement your father and I made." Neriah frowned. "I take it that you knew nothing about it?" His smile returned, showing his one gold tooth.
"What are you talking about?"
"Your father sold you over to me. He followed you one night after you went to came to my house for our usual meet ups. After I was done with you he came knocking on my door trying to check me. He asked me 'why you never came home' and asked 'why a grown ass man was spending so much time with a little girl'. Well the way you be riding me, you wasn't no little girl in my eyes. I told him, I didn't really give a Fuck if he knew you were sleeping with me for money or not. He wasn't mad after I told him. He actually wanted a cut from the money." Neriah kept a straight face after hearing that. She knew her father knew Will but she didn't think he knew what she her and Will had going on. "So after a long conversation we made an agreement. I get to do whatever I want with you and he gets 10% of whatever you make for me. You ever wondered why your parents never went looking for you? Or why nobody put anything out about you disappeared when I dumped your ugly ass at that homeless shelter? Your parents gave you away for money. You ever wondered why they stopped giving a Fuck about you?" She kept her face still. "You're worthless. But you hold a lot of value. The empire I have is based off your amazing stealing skills. And from my empire comes your full ride to one of the best schools on the east coast. You can try to fight it sweet heart but we're meant to be together. We're like bonnie and Clyde. Your the brains of the outfit and I'm the face. But because you wanted to become a "child of God" all of a sudden you have cost me money. That caused you to be painted with blood and bruises, Because you won't listen to me." Neriah was ready to pull the trigger, sweat formed on her forehead and Will smiled even harder. She slightly began to pull it trying to ease some of the anger that was building up, but she needed Will to confess to a few more things. "Oh that's what you want to talk about? You should be proud that you can take a hit. You look better with scars all over you anyways. I should beat the skin off you for being with ol pretty boy. It was a shame you guys had to break up over a little money. I should've made sure you and your Lil boyfriend were dead before I put you down in that hole." Neriah laughed.
"It was you who took that money. I fuckin knew it. You always pull dirtbag shit on me right when I'm finally happy. You always take that one thing that makes me take my focus off you. You like to see new sweat. You like to see me beat down and crying. People like you never make it far in life. But you used me as a stepping stool to get you where you needed to go. You're fuckin welcome. If it wasn't for me you would've been on your knees suckin dick while somebody called you their bitch in some dirty ass prison bathroom. I should beat the skin off your ass for making Jacq believe I'm some kind of monster. But in all actuality it's you bitch. I stole that shit so you wouldn't kill me or my family. I know they ain't shit but I'd break my back twice for them. I stole shit so I could survive. I gave my everything to you Will! Everything! Now the tables are about to turn."
Neriah unzipped her jacket revealing the wires taped to her chest.
Will's smile turned into a angry frown.
"You stupid bitch." He jumped up from the couch, knocking neriah and the gun to the floor. He punched her in the face harder than he's ever had before.
Neriah grabbed the gun from next to her and shot him in the chest.
He screamed out in pain clenching his chest.
She got up and Stood over him and unloaded the rubber shells on him.
She pulled the trigger and the clipped shot blanks. Neriah reversed the gun and smashed his face in with the end.
Officer Hernandez came in the room and pulled Neriah away from him.
Neriah
"William Cox you are under arrest for the attempt of murder of Jacques Zion and Neriah Calvin. You are under the arrest for domestic violence, robbery,....." I smiled as the officer slapped the handcuffs on Will.
"Neriah Calvin you are under arrest for robbery. Anything you say or do can be used against you in n the court of law....." Will locked eyes with me as they dragged him out the room.
"I'm gonna kill you bitch. You better hope they lock me up for life cause I'm gonna gut your ass like a fuckin fish when I get my hands on you." Neriah smiled as they brought her out the hotel room.
I used that card Hernandez gave me after I overheard Will plotting to kill me next door.
These walls are paper thin so you better watch what you say.
I told her the whole story about Will and I. She told me since I confessed she'd have to arrest me. She wanted to put cuffs on right then and there, but I knew busting Will was important to her, so I made a deal.
She let me help her arrest Will then she could rest me. She took me up on my offer. I already met with the judge. She's only giving my six months in a county jail for helping. She could've given me six years and I wouldn't care. Since my green card is basically fake. She gave me a real one, but that means I can't step or the American border. That means I can't ever go back to Jamaica.
As long as Will got what he finally deserves than I'm cool. I have nothing to lose except my education. Which I made a deal with the dean. He'd fail me for my next quarter but will pass me for this semester and let me keep my internship while I'm in jail.
I smiled as Will broke down crying in the hallway.
Third person
Paparazzi took pictures of Neriah and Will as they walked out the hotel.
Neriah smiled for the cameras.
Jacques and the team waited behind the yellow caution tape, watching the scene.
"Bitch I swear I'm gone kill you. I swear to God." Will shouted in the air.
Neriah stopped in her tracks and turned to the cameras.
"You guys came for a story right?"
"Yes!" The paparazzi says in unison still taking pictures.
"William Cox is a fraud. He used me to steal millions to become the "family oriented" man you thought you knew. He used to sell Crack back in Detroit for money. Since he wanted to expose me, his real name is Ester Graten. He was listed as America's most wanted for three years in a row starting in. He got a couple of nose jobs and cheek filers to change is appearance. He has two other kids. He gave his daughter YaMina up for adoption since she kept crying at night. He has a 2 month old daughter name Es who he takes care of the most and she lives 11 hours from here. If you want this man to be the mayor of your city than vote for him." Will ripped away from Hernandez and charged at Neriah. But she moved out the way and stuck her foot out to trip him. He landed right on his already broken nose right in front of a bunch of hungry reporters.
Neriah proudly escorted herself to the police car and got in.
"Free my girl Neriah!" Iman yelled as a officer closed the car door.
Neriah looked in the rear view mirror to see Jacques staring at the car.
She shook her head and watched Will throw a temper tantrum as the team of officers threw him in the back of the car.
Neriah felt the weight lift off her shoulders as she felt free.
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