Read Best Dressed Lie (Keisha Jackson) Online
Authors: Kimberly Batiste
It was two days after the catastrophe and Randy never
showed up. Zan went out and bought me some clothes and
personal items, She was afraid of going to Randy’s place. The
hospital was in the process of discharging me. I did not want
to go back home. Zan offered me a room at her place and I
accepted, despite her nasty cats.
“I’m so excited you’re staying,” she said, piling on her
lipstick. “You can sleep in Jason’s room. I cleaned it up nicely
for you. I changed the sheets and put the TV from the family
room in there. I also cooked your favorite meal; spaghetti and
meatballs.”
Everything was happening so fast. I went from attending a
company picnic, to driving home and nearly getting killed.
Zan was acting very cheerful trying to make me feel better,
but the truth was I almost died a couple of days ago. I needed
answers.
“I don’t know. I should be asking you that,” she said,
defensively.
It was strange that he had not called or been to see me. No
one seemed to be interested in what happened to me. Zan was
acting weird,
almost disinterested and unconcerned with
what happened. This was especially odd since she was the
nosiest person alive. I decided to wait until after we left the
hospital before asking any more questions.
“Miss Jacksons, your discharge papers are ready. The
transporter will wheel you down stairs,” said the nurse. She
gave Zan the side eye, because she had half an unlit cigarette
in her hand. “Thanks, Doctor,” Zan said, waving the unlit
cigarette at her.
“Nurse, not doctor,” she replied, giving Zan an unpleasant
look.
“Thank you,” I said, barely smiling. The Nurse signed me
out, and then and nursing assistant wheeled me down to the
discharge window.
“Miss Davis we need for you to pull your car to the front,”
the person at the window requested.
“Sure,” Zan said having a cigarette craving.
The closer my wheelchair got to the door, the more my
delusions kicked in. I started having flash backs. “Stop,” I
yelled, “There’s a man standing there waiting!” I leaned
forward; my heart was beating like a drum.
“Where?”
“Wait!” I said, looking back at the assistant.
“Miss Jackson, are you okay?” she asked, tilting her head to
the side. I slowly closed my eyes. When I opened them again,
he was not there anymore. I was feeling paranoid and shaken
up.
“Yes, I’m fine, just ready to go home.” The last thing I
needed is for them to put me back in the hospital. I was dizzy
and seeing things but I didn’t want to go back in.
Zan finally pulled up to the front entrance blasting church
music.
“We’ve been sitting here for fifteen minutes, Miss Davis,”
the nurse’s assistant said.
“I had to take a smoke!” she said, annoyed. “And I prayed,
if you must know.”
“If you ask me, you need more than prayer,” the orderly
mumbled low enough for only me to hear.
Once I got into the car, Zan could not wait to drive off.
My seatbelt was not on nor was I situated.
“Do you have any idea what happened to me? Better yet,
who did this to me?”
“Why are you asking me?” she said, defensively. “How
would I know? It is an insult to think your best friend knows
what happened and didn’t say anything.”
“I never said you knew, I just asked if you knew. Honestly,
I’ve been through a lot the past few days and I don’t want to
relive it right now. I’ll leave it alone, for now.”
“So, when will it be a right time?” she said, putting out the
nub of a cigarette. “I want to know what happened to you,
Keisha.”
Zan’s phone started ringing. “Who’s calling me?” she
mumbled, looking at her caller ID.
“Hello?”
“Zan?” a woman’s voice said.
“This is Zan. How can I help you?”
“If you breathe a word to her about what happened, I’m
going to reveal to her how much of a liar her best friend has
been.”
“I’ll drop it off next week,” Zan said, trying to keep me
from knowing who was on the line.
“She’s with you?” the woman asked, surprised.
“Yep, you’re right.”
The woman paused before continuing, “He needs to see
you as soon as possible.”
“Okay, I’ll call you later,” Zan said in a high-pitched voice,
pretending.
“Who was that?” I asked.
“Oh, that was Jason’s foster mother.”
“What did she say?”
“She’s bringing Jason home to visit, next week.”
“That’s great. I should be up and out by then, hopefully,” I
said.
“Keisha, you’re family. You can stay with me as long as
you need to.”
I did not know what was up with Zan. She was being
weird and sweet at the same time.
“Thank you for being there for me Zan. I really
appreciated the love and support. You’re my best friend and I
love you with all my heart.”
“You’re going to make me cry,” she said, looking straight
ahead.
In the middle of our sisterly love moment, I heard my
phone rang. “Is that my phone?” “The hospital had it packed
with the clothes you had on when you arrived.” Zan pulled it
out of her purse and glanced at the screen. “It’s an
unidentified call. Should I answer?”
“Sure. I don’t see why you shouldn’t,” I said, frowning.
She answered and got straight to the point, “Look stupid
bitch, stop calling this phone!”
“Keisha, are you ok?” he said, hysterically. He did not
recognize Zan’s voice.
The call was breaking up.
Zan hesitated. “Who is this?”
He stuttered, “Ba…baby hello can you hear me? I’m on my
way to you baby,” he said, anxiously.
“Do you realize Keisha almost died?” she snapped. “Keisha
almost died because of you!”
“Keisha I need to speak with you in person.”
I heard his voice and snatched the phone from Zan’s ear.
“Shut up,” I screamed, bursting into tears. “I don’t want you
near me Randy, you really hurt me. Why didn’t you protect
me? I needed you Randy.”
“Okay, that’s enough. Give me the cell. Randy, don’t call
this damn phone again! You got that?”
“Zan stay out of my business and give Keisha the damn
phone, and…”
Before he finished what he was saying, Zan disconnected
the line.
“Here,” she said, passing me the phone. “Keisha what do
you mean, you almost died because of Randy? Where did you
hear that?”
“The burglar told me! I want to talk with him about it first.
Will you please respect that?”
“Fine I won’t say another word about it,” she said,
throwing her hand up.
I know Zan wasn’t going to let anything go. I wasn’t
surprised when she said, “No, I’m gone say what I want to say.
Keisha, this man is the reason you almost died and you’re
actually willing to hear what he has to say?
“He was not at the hospital with you. He never called.
Where was he when you were getting the shit beat out of you,
all because his broke-ass was out borrowing money! What
about…”
“How did you know he borrowed money?” I interrupted. “I
never mentioned anything about him borrowing money, Zan.”
She had a blank stare on her face. “You were hysterical
when the ambulance brought you in. You were screaming
something about money so I figured he was connected.”
“Oh…Okay,” I said, suspiciously.
We arrived at Zan’s apartment complex. As we drove
closer to her unit, we saw a 2002 red Toyota Camry parked in
her parking space.
“Mommy, Mommy,” he screamed, bursting out of the car,
running towards Zan. He was biracial and has stunning green
eyes. He was around nine years old, but had the height of a
two year old. He was born a midget.
I was a little confused. Zan said his foster parents were
supposed to bring him home next week. At least that’s what
she told me after the conversation in the car with them.
“Mumskin,” she said, bending down and spreading her
arms for a hug.
She walked to the driver side, brushing his foster parents
off. She did not introduce us.
“I’ll call you,” she said, quickly taking his hand and
walking off.
They pulled away in a hurry. It looked like they were
infuriated about something, and I wanted to find out why and
what. “You could have introduced us!” I yelled out the cracked
window.
Zan threw her hand up. “She said she had somewhere to
be,” she explained. “See how she lied? She told me she was
bringing Jason over next week.”
“Where does she live? I asked, curiously.”
“About an hour away.”
“That’s not what I asked. What city do they live in?”
“Oh, Macon, Georgia.”
“Mom, I’m hungry.” Jason interjected, propped up on the
middle console.
“Okay baby. Once I get Miss Keisha situated inside we’ll
grab something to eat from Long John Silver.”
My mind was a wreck. I was jumping from one topic to
the next. Seeing Zan with her son, made me so sad. I relived
the miscarriage and tears rolled down my cheeks.
“Why are you crying Keisha?” Zan asked, aggravated.
“I didn’t get that chance…” I hesitated. “That chance to be
a mom. I always dreamed that one day, Randy and I would
marry and have a family. I cannot believe he caused this.”
“So you’re admitting he’s to blame?”
“Mommy, I’m hungry now,” Jason whined.
Zan ignored Jason. She was eager to know what pain
Randy caused.
I wiped the tears from my eyes. “I don’t want to talk about
it.”
“Jason, take your things inside the house. Mommy has to
help Auntie Keisha out of the car.”
“But Mommy,” he whined more. “I thought we were
getting food.”
“Now, Jason,” she said, pointing her finger at him.
“Yes, Ma’am,” he mumbled, holding his head down.
Jason got out of the car dragging his things. “Boy, pick
your things up off the ground,” Zan snapped. “Do I need to
give you something to whine about?”
He sobbed, “No ma’am.”
“What were you saying?” she asked.
“When we were at the hospital, I found out I suffered a
miscarriage,” I sniveled, patting the tears under my eyes.
Zan gasped. She covered her mouth with her hand in
disbelief.
“I’m sorry,” she said, rubbing my back.
“Well, my son is visiting. I don’t need any distractions
during his stay,” she said, selfishly. “My main concern is to get
you well and spend some quality time with my Mumskin. I
will get your things and take them inside. Jason is ready to
eat.”
“Okay.”
I was shocked at her response to my miscarriage. She was
very nonchalant. This not the Zan I know. She would’ve been
willing and ready to find the underlying cause of this. We
finally made it inside. The first thing I noticed was an awful
stench in the air.
“It smells like a truck load of stale cigarettes in here! Can
you spray please?”
“Whatever,” she said, throwing her hand up at me. “I’m
glad you mentioned cigarettes. That reminds me, I need to go
to the store to get cat litter and a couple of other things, plus
food for Jason. Do you mind staying here with him until I get
back? I shouldn’t be gone longer than thirty minutes.”
“Sure. While
you
are
out,
will
you
pick
up
my
prescription? The pain is kicking in.”
“Okay. Mumskin, behave while I’m gone,” she said, kissing
him on the cheek.
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“He’ll be fine,” I said, smiling.
As soon as Zan left, her damn cats leaped out from behind
the couch. “Yuck! Jason will you please put the cats in their
cage?” Jason went from Mumskin to monster. He pointed at
my black and blue swollen eye then started asking questions.
“Who hit you, a man?” he said, swinging his legs under the
chair.
“Jason,” I giggled. “You shouldn’t be asking those types of
questions. Go play with your video game and put the cats in
their cage. Okay sweetie?”
“Video games are boring and those cats smell! I want to
stay in here with you. Can I? I want to tell you about naked
people.”
Jason was a very talkative 9 year old. I called Zan to make
sure she didn’t make any stops.
“Hello,” Zan answered.
“Make sure you come straight home,” I said, giving Jason
the side eye. He was digging buggers out of his nose and
eating them.
“I just left home, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I’ll talk to you when you get here,” I said, staring
at Jason.
“Okay, I’ll see ya’ll soon. I’m pulling out of the pharmacy
parking lot as we speak.” She hung up the phone.
“What naked people are you talking about, Jason?” I said
in a sweet tone of voice. I felt bad for asking a minor about
naked people, but he had me curious about them.
“When I was about five years old,” he said, sadly. “I saw
a… I saw a man and lady naked in bed.”
“Does your mother know about this?”
“Nope, and you better not tell her either,” he said, pointing
his finger.
“Okay. That’s enough Jason. Sit down right beside me until
your mom gets here.”
“I caught my momma naked with a white man. He was
short like me. That’s why my nana took me to stay with her.”
I looked down at him surprised. I couldn’t believe what
came out of his mouth. “What?”
Jason was about to spill more of his momma’s business
and the doorbell rang.
“Jason go to your room. I’ll answer the door.”
“I want to see too.”
I snapped, pointing towards his room, “Boy, do what I told you
to do!”
I made my way to the door, unstable and in pain.
I slid the white sheer curtain back with my index finger. I
saw a glimpse of a two door light blue 2002 Altima.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me… Randy.”
“Randy,” I whispered under my breath. “Go away; I don’t
want to talk to you!”
“Keisha, just hear me out!”
“I don’t have anything to say to you Randy! You’ve hurt
me too many times. Just leave, please.”
In a crazy way I was happy to hear his voice. I missed him
so much. At that moment, I wanted to hear the lies more than
the truth.
“They set me up!” he shouted.
“I’m walking away from the door. Just leave now!”
In the midst of Randy’s begging and pleading, Zan pulled
up. I heard her slam on her brakes and screech to a halt. I
stood
in front
of the sheer
curtain
again,
watching and
waiting for her too curse his ass out.”
He noticed Zan and rushed over to her car not giving her
time to get out.
“The truth shall set you free,” he said, pounding his fist
into his hand behind every syllable. “Ya’ll hoes set me up!”
“Go to hell, you son of a bitch,” she said, getting out of the
car. She slammed her door and paced towards the front door.
“Keisha, open the door!” she shouted, beating on the door
like the police.
I slowly unlocked the door, confused. I wanted to know
what the commotion was between the two of them. As soon as
Zan heard the lock click, she barged in.
I stood
in the
doorway, guarding the entrance of the house.
“Zan is there something you need to tell me?” I asked,
folding my arms.
“Are you serious?” she said defensively, “I offered you a
place to live because your no-good of a man almost had you
killed. The nerve of you asking me about his no good ass!”
“Why did he say ya’ll set him up? Who are ‘ya’ll’?”
I stood there and listened. I saw Randy walking up behind
her. He placed his finger over his lips, signaling me to keep
quiet.
“The no-good of a man that will risk losing the only girl he
loves by revealing the truth,” Randy spoke softly looking me
right in the eye.
“What truth?” I said, annoyed.
“Jason! Call 911 baby,” she yelled. He was in his room
playing the video game. I did not think it was a great idea to
get this child involved.
Jason ran towards the door and stopped as if he saw a
ghost. He stood there staring at Randy and Randy stared at
him.
“Jason baby, do like Mommy said and call 911,” she
whispered, fanning her hand at him. Jason just stood there, he
pointed at Randy. We all stared at him, waiting to hear what
he was about to say.
“I saw you naked with my Momma too,” he said.
Zan laughed. “Jason what has Mommy told you about not
telling the truth?”
My body went numb. I could not believe my ears. “But
Mommy it’s true,” he whined, “I saw him in your bed.”
Earlier Jason told me he saw his mother naked with a
short white man. Never in a million years would I have ever
thought she fucked Randy too. Hearing no denial from Randy,
my eyes filled with tears. I waited for someone to say it wasn’t
true. Zan eyes teared up too. She slid her backside down the
wall, landing on floor.
“I can’t do this anymore,” she sobbed. “I can’t keep hurting
her. She deserves to know the truth.”
Randy stood there. I could tell he did not want me to know
how everything went down. Judging by the look in his eyes,
he was about to break at any moment.
He started spilling the beans, not giving Zan time to
explain herself. “Every since our relationship got rocky, we
stopped having sex. At first, I started watching online porn
and jacking off. It wasn’t enough, I wanted more. I wanted
sex. One day I was surfing the internet and stumbled on a
website where you can meet up with women.
“The first time I did it, she performed oral sex on me. I
became obsessed with it. I hooked up with women every other
day while you worked. I was spending so much money, the
owner of the site wanted to meet me and let me invest with
him. I knew we were having financial problems so I met with
him.
“He told me since I didn’t have any money up front, all I
had to do was help him get a job where I worked so that he
could cover his tracks. He didn’t want the authorities to get
suspicious. That meant I could hook up with women free.
Well, at least that’s what I thought.
“One night, I met up with a woman. I didn’t know her
identity and she didn’t know mine. It was kinky for both of us.
When I arrived at the hotel, she was blindfolded. She didn’t
want me to know her identity. She told me she wanted to get
straight down to business. She dropped down to her knees and
started sucking my penis. Then I sucked on her vagina. Once
my penis was inside her, the blind fold fell off. She looked at
me, signaling me to continue.”
I was so hurt and disgusted I went ballistic. “Who was
she? Or should I say who were they?”
“Zan… One of them was Zan and I’m sorry,” he cried.
I tried to slap the skin off his face.
“I deserved that,” he said, rubbing his jaw.
“Jason baby, go to your room!” Zan sobbed. She was sitting
on the floor with a guilty, pathetic look on her face.
“I will not stand here to listen to this bullshit!” I was
literally shaking as I gathered my things.
“Keisha, please hear me out. Let me tell my side,” Zan
sobbed.
I was an emotionally wreck at that moment. “Hear you
out? You’re supposed to be my best friend, my sister… How
could you…why would you do this to me?! Why?” I cried. It
felt like a demon crawled inside of me. I started yelling as if I
was possessed. “So, was that your naked picture sent by text
message to him?! What about the anonymous calls? Was that
you too? Huh? Answer me got damn it!” I wanted to slaughter
her.
“No Keisha,” she said, wiping her tears. “I was not the only
one he slept with.”
“You’re disgusting! I thought you were my friend?” I said
furiously, crying my heart out. Snot was running out of my
nose.
“She wanted to meet up again after that. She begged me,
but I wouldn’t do it baby!”
“Liar,” Zan yelled. “Tell her why she was beat! Tell her how
you owe BJ hundreds and thousands of dollars because you
slept with all those women without paying him for them.”
“If I owed BJ, he would have said something to me at work.
We work together remember bitch?”
“They fired him months ago! Liar!”
Randy retaliated, “Yeah? Tell her how you were in an
intimate relationship with both of them; Kayla and her fiancé,
BJ. You are pathetic Zan. You sold your own son! He was
never adopted!”
I had to sit down; I could not stand to hear anymore. The
pain was getting worse. I raised my hand, interjecting, “Please,
I can’t do this.” I said, choked up. “I don’t care who fucked
who, who lied, or who said this or that. Both of y’all are
disgusting! I loved both of you with all my heart.
“Randy, I gave you all of me. I made sure you had
everything you needed, even if meant my last dime. I tolerated
a lot shit from you, stressing out about rumors of betrayal.
Only to find out all of this time it was my best friend fucking
you. It takes a person with a depraved mind to do something
like this.
“How could you? How could you pretend as if you hated
each other to throw me off from the scent? How could you lie
to my face, when all along you were fucking each other? I will
never forgive you for this, never! Do you know the person
who nearly killed me? Both of you move out of my way so that
I can leave.”
Randy knelt down in front of me. He gazed at my puffy
red eyes, and then slowly wiped my tears.
“Don’t leave!” he said, grabbing my arm.
“I don’t care anymore, can’t you see that?” I cried. “You
ran
a
whorehouse!
You
slept
with
all
these
women
unprotected. You… you slept with my… my best friend. I hate
you!”
Zan interrupted viciously, “Randy, you’re a malicious,
conniving son of a bitch! You never loved Keisha! You used
her; you used all of the women and me. I am so glad she had a
miscarriage. You don’t deserve
to have a child
with my
friend.”
“Zan, Stop it!” I screamed. I hated him. He hurt me to the
core. I knew that finding out that I lost our child would
devastate him.
“Pregnant?” tears rolled down his face. “What do you
mean? Keisha was pregnant?”