Chapter 11
I’d like to believe I’m not a bad guy. I’m as good as they come…I just make mistakes, and this one just so happened to be my worst.
I called Cassie back the minute after she hung up, but she didn’t pick up.
I called again, and then ten more times. I was losing it! She was demanding too much. Summer’s birthday was the following day, and I wasn’t about to tell her about my baby mama the day after her birthday as Cassie had demanded. It’s called post-birthday happiness. She’d still be joyful and excited the day after her birthday, and I couldn’t tell her at a time like that. I had to find a way to get Cassie to not come over.
“Amari! Can you come out? We’re having breakfast?” my mother asks while softly knocking on my door. She’s been respecting my personal space lately, and I’m grateful for it.
“Sure, I’ll be right there.”
I sigh in defeat and place my phone on the table. It immediately vibrates and I pick it back up. The number that sent the SMS is unknown:
11 Dale Avenue, 7pm tomorrow, or else, we take the girl, and we tell her about your baby.
Along with the text is a picture of Summer…a picture that she clearly didn’t know was being taken of her. Were the Vipers following her!? And how did they know about Cassie? Only the two of us know about that.
I dial the number over and over again, but it must be a burner because doesn’t ring once. What have I done!? By bringing Summer into my life, I’ve put her whole life at risk. I’ve let my guard down too much. Just yesterday, I ran out of the house to see her in the middle of the night. I was careless and selfish!
I know I have to surrender to protect Summer, but tomorrow’s her birthday. What will I tell her? That I’m missing her birthday to save her life? This is the first birthday we celebrate together… I can’t miss it!
“Amari, your food is getting cold!” my mother yells. I get up and drag my feet to the dining table where everyone is seated. I knew I’d have to think of a plan later, but all that was on my mind during breakfast was how Summer would hate me for the rest of my life after everything I’m about to put her through.
“Are you okay?” my mother asks. I look up and find Jamila and the nanny looking just as worried as my mother.
“Yeah, I’m great. Why…why do you ask?” I ask chuckling nervously.
“Well, you haven’t really had much of what’s on your plate. It’s unlike you.”
I look down on my perfectly untouched plate. I’ve lost my appetite and the pancake on my plate makes me want to puke. I have better things to do than to eat pancakes. I need to save Summer!
“Mom, can I be excused?” My mother frowns. “As in, can I go outside?”
Everyone around the table gasps. “I know, I know what you’re thinking but I need to…”
“Is this about Summer?” my mother asks approaching me. Jamila and the nanny watch us like hawks. “Because if it is honey don’t worry, I invited her and her father to have Christmas dinner with us tonight.”
I watch my mother with my mouth hung open. She what!?
“It was supposed to be a surprise, but I guess telling you now will give you some peace of mind. Is that what’s been worrying you?” She’s treating me like a little kid, and I hate it.
I nod my head and whisper a thank you. I glance at the nanny before walking off to my room and closing the door without locking it.
What am I going to do?
WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?
“What am I going to do!?”
I bury my head into my hands. I feel tears of frustration approaching, but I push them back as I hear my door squeak open. The person, who I’d say is really intruding my privacy sit next to me on my bed and places a hand on my back to comfort me.
“Relationship’s gotten tough, huh?” she asks. It’s the nanny. For some odd reason, my shoulders loosen up and I feel the need to tell her everything.
“It’s not that. I mean, she didn’t do anything, it’s me.”
“It can’t be that bad.” I look up at her and she frowns. “Okay, maybe it is bad.”
I spring off the bed and start pacing. “It’s horrible! Terrible! I don’t know what to do!”
“Shh, keep your voice down. Your mother is still out there.”
I stop in front of the window and stare at the woman who earned my respect when she let me go out to see Summer. “Don’t you think we took a risk that night I went out? What if the Vipers go after Summer now that they know where she lives?”
She chuckles. “The Vipers, huh?”
“Stop laughing! This is serious,” I say .
“Come on, are you really afraid of them!?”
“How could I not be!?”
“You’re being a coward!”
“They killed my father!” I yell. The room goes silent and the seriousness of this matter begins to sink in, deeper and deeper. “They killed the man who I knew to be the strongest man to ever exist! Now if that’s not enough reason to be afraid of them, I don’t know what is.”
The nanny looks away, and then back at me. “What triggered you?” she asks, finally seeming to take me seriously.
I grab my phone off the desk, unlock it, and show her the text. Her eyes widen and she shakes her head in disbelief. “Samantha has outdone herself?”
“Samantha?” I ask curious to know who Samantha is.
“What else do you know? What happened?” she asks.
“Why should I tell you? It’s not like you’re going to help me.”
She stands up and looks at me in disbelief. “In case you’re forgetting, I’m the one who let you out to see Summer. I only have the best intentions for you,” she honestly says.
“That’s exactly the problem! I understand we’ve lived together for years but we only just began to know each other, so why are you being so kind? I wouldn’t be surprised if one day I found out you’re a Viper too!”
“Amari!”
“It’s true! I don’t even know your name! I don’t know you at all so stop trying to help because you can’t, okay? Not this time!”
The kind middle-aged woman who I knew as my nanny turned to leave my room. She looked broken, and although I made it look like I didn’t care, I did. She had been nothing but kind to me, and I was throwing my frustration onto her.
“Julia. My name’s Julia,” she said before closing the door behind her. I let out a frustrated sigh and began smashing everything I could get in my hands against the wall. After doing damage to the glass vase, I found myself ready to break the frame with the photo of my family, including my father. Thankfully, I came back to my senses and held the picture close to my chest while breathing heavily.
“I wish you were here dad. I wish you could tell me what to do. I feel like I’m cursed.”
I held the picture close to me for a while longer before placing it back down where it belonged. I had to think…sensibly and rationally. I had to save Summer and at the same time make sure she doesn’t find out about Cassie nor the Vipers coming after her.
I couldn’t think of anyone else to call but Jason. He was probably still mad at me, but I needed him, and I hoped he would understand that. I called him a dozen times, and when he didn’t pick up, I tried to comfort myself with the fact that he may have been busy. It was Christmas after all. Jason and I were best friends. He’d never stay mad at me forever, right?
I sat alone for another hour trying to come up with an idea, but I had none. My mom had already tried several times to get me out of my room, but I told her I was planning for the new school year, and I’d join them just before dinner.
At around 5pm, I heard a car driving down the road. Following my instinct, I looked out my window and just as I had expected, my mother was already halfway down the road. Lately, she’s been going out a lot during the evening. She’s really come to believe that the Vipers will never target her at night. I believed differently. The Vipers were everywhere at every minute of the day. They were always one step ahead of us, and they had proved it by taking that picture of Summer.
I called Summer and she told me her dad would only be back at 7pm for dinner. I immediately pushed open my door and ran out to the living room. Julia was seated on the sofa with Jamila fast asleep on her lap. I opened my mouth to speak but closed it as soon as I remembered what I had said to her. Damn it ,Amari! You really need to watch your mouth.
“Julia, can I…”
“No.” She made no eye contact with me while saying this.
“Oh, come on, you don’t even know what I was going to ask for.”
“Fine, what do you want?” she asks looking at me like she’s ready to murder me.
“I want…I need to go see Summer. Mom’s out and her dad will only be back around 7pm,” I say.
“What a lucky coincidence. Your mother will only be back at 7pm as well,” she chuckles and chews on her popcorn. “But I can’t,” she says, draining every inch of hope that I had left in me.
“Why not?”
“Because, I’m a Viper!”
“What?” I ask with my eyes practically falling out of their sockets.
Julia shrugs. “Your words, not mine.” A sigh of relief escapes my mouth, but I still need to apologise for my actions and try to explain why I said what I said.
“I’m a bad guy, Julia. I don’t mean to be one, but I am. Since last night, I’ve been trying to find ways to tell Summer what I’ve done, and I can’t seem to find any solutions. That frustrates me and I guess…once again I’ve allowed my emotions to get the best of me, that’s why I said the things I said to you this morning.” My voice begins to break but Julia feels no sympathy whatsoever. I don’t blame her. She was so nice to me, and I threw it back in her face, like I always do.
“Julia, I’m sorry.” Tears form in my eyes, and she finally looks at me. I can’t read what the look on her face means. “No matter what I’m going through, it doesn’t make what I said to you this morning okay. I know that now, and I need you to give me a second chance, please.”
“Even if I do give you a second chance, what makes you think Summer will?” she asks.
“She loves me. She can’t leave me,” I sob. Julia’s face finally loosens as she lets out a loud sigh. She stands up with Jamila in her arms and takes her to her room to lie down. She comes back and shows me the space next to her on the couch. We sit without saying a word to each other, and all that is heard is my soft sobs.
“What have you done?” Julia asks with a concerned face. At least she wasn’t upset anymore.
“I…I made her best friend pregnant. And I’ve got her in trouble with the Vipers.”
Julia’s eyes widen. “What? How?”
“It’s my mother’s fault! If she had never taken me to that damn boarding school, I never would have met Cassandra Hall! I never would have made her pregnant!” I yell as the tear pour out.
Julia gasps and jumps off the couch. She paces up and down with her hand son her head.
“How did this happen Amari?”
“I don’t know…I was lonely,” I weep. I decided to spare her with the details of my uncle and aunt’s death which sent me into depression, and eventually into Cassie’s bedroom.
Julia’s face tells me that she never expected something like this from me. It tells me that she’s disappointed, and worried too.
“So, you were going to tell Summer…right now?” she asks. I nod, but she shakes her head disaprovingly.
“Isn’t tomorrow her birthday? Why would you want to tell her now?"
“Because…the Vipers. If I don’t tell her, they will.”
“The Vipers!?” The more information I tell her, the more Julia can’t believe what she’s hearing. I wouldn’t either. I’m a 16-year old with problems that most 25-year olds have. It’s unrealistic and unfair!
I nod and show Julia the text I got in the morning. “But it doesn’t say it’s from the Vipers. You can’t be certain it’s from them,” she says.
“Who else would threaten me like this, Julia. No one hates me more than the Vipers.”
Julia squeezes her face and looks away. “And besides. Cassie is coming over in two days with her parents to speak to mom. Summer will obviously know what’s going on when Cassie walks in hear with her tiny belly bump,” I add. “I’m in an impossible situation. I know my idea is irrational, but it’s all I got.”
“Impossible? Nothing is impossible,” Julia says strongly. She looks around the house, rubs her forehead in frustration and then storms off to her room. She returns with two pieces of paper.
“Don’t tell Summer. Tomorrow, you leave.” She hands me the two thin pieces of paper which are actually bus tickets. I look up at her in disbelief. “I planned on leaving Detroit for holiday with a friend, but that can wait. You and Summer need to get far away from here, a place where they won’t find you.”
I read the bus tickets while trying to take everything in. One name on the ticket catches my attention. “Chicago? We’re going to Chicago?”
“I have family there. I’ll speak to them. You’ll stay with them until it’s safe to come back.”
“No, no, no, no. I can’t do this. I can’t do this to you, Summer or myself. Julia these tickets must have cost you a lot, I can’t just take them from you. I can’t separate Summer from her father, and I can’t make her leave school. Julia, I can’t leave school! Look, I have dreams to go to college and become something one day. I’m not brave enough to do this!”
Julia grabs the tickets from my hands. “Listen to me,” she says lifting my face up aggressively. “If you don’t take these and leave for Chicago like I’m telling you to do right now, you can forget about all your college dreams, same applies for Summer! You have a better chance of making it in life if you leave for Chicago. You can start a new life there, get a job and be with Summer forever.”
“And what about my child? What about the baby that Cassie is carrying?” I ask. She sighs.
“If you don’t leave, that baby won’t have father anyway. They’re going to kill you Amari. So, you need to choose, are you going to stay and try and fight these guys alone, or are you going to save Summer and yourself and leave for Chicago.” Julia hands me back the tickets. “You only have tonight, so make a choice quickly.”
I slid the tickets into my pockets and then. Without her permission, I left the house and ran to Summer’s front door. I knocked once and she opened immediately. She was expecting me.
“Hey,” she says welcoming me in with a warm smile. She brushes her lips against mine before I can respond.
“I guess it’s our lucky night tonight. You get to sneak out, and I’m having dinner at your place,” she giggles.
“Yeah…it is,” I say forcing a smile, but she frowns.
“Okay, come on,” she pulls me to the couch and forces me to sit next to her. She takes my one hand into hers and our fingers intertwine. My blood warms.
“What’s bothering you? I can tell you’re not okay,” she says, searching my eyes for answers.
Should I tell her? Is now a good time? It’s the day before her birthday, it’s a horrible time. Julia did say that I shouldn’t tell her, and after she gave me these bus tickets, I’m convinced she said that with the best intentions in mind.
“I just miss you, that’s all,” I lie.
“Wrong! Try again, and this time, if you lie, I’m sending you out and bailing on dinner,” she threatens.
“No!” I yell like a little girl. Her laughter fills the room and I chuckle nervously while sitting upright. I take her other hand into mine and look deep into her eyes. “I have to do this, I have to do this,” I tell myself.
“Let’s go away, just for a while.”
“Away? Where are we going, and why?” she asks. This is clearly not what she was expecting. It’s not what I was expecting either. I thought I’d have the guts to come clean to Summer, but I didn’t, at least not yet.
“See, I’ve been stressing because I knew you’d be a bit hesitant about this, but here goes. I want us to go on holiday, for some alone time.”
She laughs and shakes her head. “I can’t leave my dad. What would I tell him?”
“That you’re going to Chicago for a few weeks with a friend,” I murmur, but she hears me.
“Chicago! Mari, that’s crazy far!” she exclaims.
“It’s only a four-hour trip with a bus, which I’ve already sorted out. I’ve got everything sorted out Summer-time! We’re gonna stay in a hotel, and we’ll go to arcades and…”
“Amari!” she yells, standing up and looking at me like I’m a creature from a foreign planet. “Have you lost your mind? What the hell is going on? Why do you want me to go to Chicago and why are you doing that thing when you ramble when you’re telling a lie?”
“I’m rambling? I’m not rambling! I’m just trying to get my girlfriend to want to spend time with me!”
I was definitely rambling.
“Oh, so now you’re going to try guilt trip me? It’s not going to work Amari. You know very well that if I had it my way, I’d spend every second of my life with you.”
“The come with me, Summer, please,” I beg her. She looks at me with worried eyes and slowly shakes her head.
“You’re hiding something from me Amari. You want me to travel all the way to Chicago with you because you’re hiding something. You know I hate lies!” she takes two steps away from me and I take two towards her.
“Stop moving!’ she yells.
“Summer, I am not lying to you. I miss you! I miss you and it hurts! I went out my way to get these damn tickets for us. It sounds crazy, heck, it is crazy! But I could go to bed and not wake up the next morning because of the type of life I’m stuck in. The Vipers are out there, planning the day that they’re going to come here put a bullet in my head, just like they did to my father!” Tears start running down my cheeks. Summer takes a step closer to me as her face softens.
“Mari don’t…”
“I don’t know when my last day on earth will be, Summer,” I say interrupting her. “It could be today, tomorrow…it could be anytime from now. But I do know that while I am alive, I want to be near you as much as possible. So, please Summer, give me a chance to do this with you, because I don’t want to do it with anyone else. I need you to do this with me Summer, please.”
Summer’s face falls. When she starts sniffing, I know she’s crying.
“Hey, come here. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to rush you or put you under pressure. You can make a decision whenever you want to,” I say, but deep down inside I’m hoping she’ll make that decision right now. And I’m hoping she’ll decide to leave for Chicago with me.
I hug her tightly and her sobs soon stop. “Never, ever say that again. You’re not going to die, okay?” she says. I nod my head and sit back on the couch with her head on my chest. I kiss her softly and run my hands through her hair while she wraps her hands around me…
I got back home just before my mother entered the door. This time, I had taken too much of a risk. My mother saw the main door close as she parked her car on the driveway, but luckily, she hadn’t suspected that I was outside.
“Where’s the green salad Amari!?” my mother asks for the millionth time. I told her I was bad in cooking, but she said green salad didn’t need you to actually cook, so she forced me to make it.
“Relax, here it is,” I say handing her the glass bowl full of leaves.
“Amari! There’s no tomato in this!” she yells.
“Well, it is supposed to be a green salad, isn’t it?” I ask. Julia and Jamila laugh from the living room. My mother smacks the back of my head and sighs. She was really going overboard to impress Summer and her father, which was no surprise. My mother loved to impress, and she always wanted to be on point. Apparently, that’s how she met my father. She was the perfect girl, perfect for marriage and to show off with. I’d like to believe my father saw more than that in her though.
“I’ll just add the tomatoes myself,” she says heading to the kitchen.
A knock on the door sends my mother turning on her heels and placing the green salad on the middle of the table, next to the turkey and all the other beautiful salads.
“No time for that! Mari, welcome the guests in. You too Jamila,” she says straightening out the table-cloth. Julia stands up and puts on her best smile for the guests.
I open the door ready to see Summer’s smile, but instead, I’m faced with a dark, bald-headed man. He’s cold face sends chills down my spine and my smile quickly fades.
“You…you must be Mr Johnson,” I say nervously. I hear Summer giggle behind him. I hold out my hand for Mr Johnson, but all her does is look at it and then back at me.
“Nice to meet you sir,” I say, trying to avoid any awkward silence between us. The man looks like his ready to chop me into pieces with an axe, and I want to dig a hole and hide in it until this dinner is over.
“Come on dad, be nice,” Summer says, pushing past him. I’m relieved that she’s finally decided to put me out of my misery, but when she unexpectedly hugs me, and Mr Johnson gives me an even colder look, I’m convinced that Summer is on a mission to scare me tonight.
The look on Mr Johnson's face tells me to let his daughter go, and so I do. Summer proceeds to greet Jamila, Julia and my mother, who surprisingly looks excited to see her. Unless she’s acting, she’s really good at that.
Mr Johnson shakes hands with everybody else except me. He digs out a sweet from his pocket and gives it to Jamila, who is over the moon. We take our seats around the table. Julia sits on my one side, Summer on my other, and her father directly opposite me. How on earth will I even chew with this man staring at me the whole time. Summer hooks her legs with mine and I say a silent prayer in hopes that Summer’s father won’t notice this.
“Merry Christmas everybody. Please, help yourself to some refreshments,” my mother says. Glasses begin to click against each other as help ourselves to lemonade, cranberry juice, and my mother’s favourite, orange juice.
“This is really special to me, Mari. I’ve never had something like this,” Summer whispers next to me. My mother had already started a conversation with Summer’s father.
“What do you mean Summer-time?” I ask. She giggles and takes a sip of the purple-red liquid in her glass.
“I can barely remember the last Christmas that my father and I actually celebrated together. Ever since my mom passed, Christmas has always just been the day before my birthday. No turkey or green salads with no tomato, none of that,” she says, clearly mocking my green salad.
“Well, I’m glad you’re having a good time Summer. I’m happy when you’re happy,” I honestly say. She smiles and I smile back.
“Who made the green salad?” Mr Johnson asks loudly. I cover my face with my palm, causing him to loudly laugh. His laugh is so loud that we all look at him in astonishment. Mr Johnson isn’t really the type of man you’d think ever laughs. The fact that my embarrassing salad got him to laugh counts a point for me.
“How did you and Summer meet?” he asks, leaving me astonished again. He’s actually talking me.
“Dad, you know this already,” Summer says embarrassed.
“Hush Summer, I wanna hear him speak for himself.”
I swallow the lump in my throat and put on a confident smile. “At school. She was making fun of me because I didn’t know how to talk to girls,” I say. The whole table bursts out laughing, and I finally realise why Mr Johnson asked me the question in the first place. Still, I made him laugh again, so two points.
“I wish we had invited Jason and his family over. He would have loved this,” my mother says. She’s always been fond of him, so her bringing him up at any time that she can has become a norm.
“I’m tired of waiting, let’s dig into this food,” Julia says. Jamila responds by ripping off a piece of turkey and placing it onto her plate. We all burst out laughing and serve a generous amount of food on our plates.
“This looks amazing mom. You’ve really outdone yourself,” I say rubbing my palms together. I reach for my meat, but Summer smacks my hand away.
“Pray, and then we eat,” she says. My mother smiles and nods approvingly.
“I see what you’re doing. One point for you,” I whisper to her. She giggles and softly kicks my leg underneath the table.
“I’ll pray!” Jamila offers. She recently learnt a short and sweet prayer, and I couldn’t be more proud of her.
“Close your eyes,” Jamila says, and we do so.
Her sweet voice starts: “Thank you Father, thank you Father, for the food, for the food. And the many blessings, and the many…”
Jamila stops.
“Blessings, and the many blessings,” I whisper, but she doesn’t catch my hint.
I open one eye to look at Jamila, who is seated opposite me, next to Mr Johnson. Everyone has kept their eyes closed, but Jamila’s are wide open.
“Jamila,” I whisper shaking her hand. I open both eyes.
Something’s wrong!
Her eyes are wide open as she struggles to breathe. Her hands shake against the table and a tear silently escapes her eye. I can tell she’s trying to speak, but the words won’t leave her mouth.
“Jamila! Something’s wrong with Jamila!” I yell.
Everyone’s eyes pop open. Mr Johnson jumps up from his chair and hides Jamila behind him.
“What are you doing!?” I yell at him.
“Who the hell are you!?” Mr Johnson asks pointing behind me.
All of our heads shoot backward and my mother screams when she sees the man wearing a balaclava with a gun in his hand.
“Time is running out, Amari,” the man mocks. He points his gun at me.
“Summer get out of here!”
The gun goes off. I cover my face waiting for the bullet to go through me. My mother screams as it hits me…it hits me harder than I thought it would. And I fall to the ground head-first. I open my eyes and realise that it wasn’t a bullet that hit me, it was a body.
“Julia, no!”
Her blood flows out of her neck and forms a pool around her. Her eyes roll back as she continues to choke on her blood. “Julia, Julia please don’t do this!” I beg.
She turns her tear-filled eyes to me and mutters: "Go."