“Hello?”
“I’m about to kill your daughter,” a gruff voice said on the other end.
“Who the fuck is this?” Blake demanded.
“You have much worse problems on your hands than knowing who I am,” the voice said. “Right now, your daughter is walking to her lunch table in the cafeteria holding her tray tightly. She’s smiling right now because she doesn’t have a clue that she’s about to die.”
“If you touch her I’ll—”
“You’ll what? Star sixty-nine me? I’m about to show you what it feels like to lose a loved one!”
Click.
Blake didn’t know if it was a prank call or what, but either way, he moved as fast as he possibly could to round up his men and send them to his daughter’s school before it was too late.
* * *
“You didn’t talk to them at all?” Brandy was saying to Tiara after they set their trays on the lunch table.
“Nope,” Tiara told her. “He didn’t even have a real reason why I couldn’t go. He was just trying to be controlling. I swear, as soon as I can, I’m out of that house!”
“You don’t seem too angry, though,” Brandy said, eyeballing her friend. “You’ve actually been smiling all day. What happened that you aren’t telling me about?”
Tiara’s grin was enough, and she didn’t even have to say a thing for Brandy to get it.
“Oh my goodness!” Brandy exclaimed and pushed her tray of food out of her way. She had suddenly lost her appetite. “Bitch . . . Did you guys fuck?”
Tiara nodded her head, still smiling like a maniac. Brandy stood up and went to the other side of the table to sit next to Tiara. She grabbed Tiara’s hands and looked into her eyes.
“How the fuck did you pull that off?”
“You know that small window in the basement at my house? I snuck out of it.”
“You mean to tell me you got that ass through that small-ass window?”
“Yes, girl! The struggle was too real!” They both laughed.
“Oh my God. I can’t believe you had the guts to sneak out of your house like that.” Her friend was in disbelief. “How did you even get past all of the security cameras and shit? You must’ve done some 007 shit for real, bitch!” The girls high-fived each other and laughed again.
“Seriously, though, that window is the only blind spot to the security guards. The camera will still pick it up, but I waited for it to rotate the other way. Mario was waiting down the street, and when I made it through the gate, we just spent the rest of the night together. It was so amazing.”
“Did it hurt?”
“Hell, yes, it hurt! But it was like a good pain, I guess. He was so sweet. He held me the whole time.”
“Did you suck his dick?”
“He’s my nigga. Why wouldn’t I suck his dick?”
Brandy squealed and clapped her hands together.
“That’s why you’re my bitch!” The two girls talked about Tiara losing her virginity for the rest of their lunch hour. Brandy told her that she was proud that she’d finally taken a stand for herself and done something exciting for the first time in her young life. The girls were finished with their food and were clearing out their table getting ready to put their trays in the lunch bins.
“Who are they?” She looked at the lunch ladies and the new lunch guys helping them take the food back into the kitchen. “I’ve never seen those guys before, have you?”
Brandy stood and looked up just as she was about to take her trash to the trash can. Since she’d started attending Burton, the lunch workers had been the same. Tiara stood up with her tray too and stared at the guys Brandy was talking about. There were four of them, and Tiara made a weird face.
“Why are there four of them? I didn’t know the lunch ladies needed that much help.”
The question hadn’t even been out of her mouth for a full second when the men noticed Tiara was staring at them. There were two black men, one white man, and one Hispanic. One of the black guys smiled sinisterly at Tiara before shouting, “Now!”
All four men then threw their lunch attire over their heads, revealing black suits and automatic weapons. Tiara saw it before it happened, but it was too late. She tried to grab Brandy when she took cover under their table in the cafeteria, but the bullets from the shooter ripped into Brandy’s body, making her twitch violently.
“Brandy! Brandy!” Tiara screamed repeatedly, holding on to her friend’s body when it dropped to the ground.
Brandy tried to say something, but it came out sounding like a gurgle. Blood poured from her mouth, and Tiara tried to apply pressure to her wounds. Chaos was all around her, and the screaming of her fellow classmates were coming from every direction. Tiara stared down at her friend, and all the commotion seemed to fade in the background. They were loud, but Tiara couldn’t hear them. The only thing she was focused on was her best friend lying in her arms choking on her own blood. Brandy feverishly reached for Tiara’s hand and squeezed it tightly.
“I love you, Brandy, You are my very best friend,” Tiara whispered, letting her tears fall on Brandy’s face.
Brandy gave her what was supposed to be a smile. “I-I love y-you too, T. P-please don’t f-forget me, OK?”
“I promise,” Tiara sobbed. “I won’t. Never ever.”
Before Tiara could say anything else, she felt Brandy’s grip on her hand slacken and watched her opened eyes go dim. Tiara let
