Page 7 of Requiem

CHAPTER 3

ROMINA

THE PAST

Tears fall down my cheeks. I don’t bother wiping them. How many times have I cried over him? How many times have I let him break me and yet I still haven’t learned? “You stupid, foolish girl.” I let the tears come, knowing by dawn they’ll turn to dust just like the ashes from the fire roaring in front of me. I’ve let Zio down. He saw this coming. Tried to warn me, but my stupid heart and hormones got in the way.

If I loved a monster what does that make me?

I plop down on a rusted chair while staring up at the night sky. He twists me in knots. I want to be more than a girl who fixates on a man for her whole life. I want my revenge, but I also want to be somebody more. He wins by being the center of my universe. It’s time I became the center of my own universe, not him. “I’m kicking your ass to the curb, Roque. When I’m ready I will finish whatever this fucked-up thing was that we started. But on my terms.”

Standing, I turn mt back to the fire and walk into the small house. Memories of Zio are everywhere. I can’t forget all the things he taught me. I have some money in our accounts but not enough to hide or live forever. First thing Monday morning I’ll register to take my GED and SAT’s. This is a small college town where there’s a satellite campus to one of the best state universities. I need to get in, earn a degree and get a real job. One where I can support myself and blend in.

My hands pick up the envelope with the fake birth certificates, passports, and ID’s. I out Zio’s to the side, picking mine up. I’m no longer Romina, his Blue or the girl from Princeton. Who am I going to be next? Do I even want to be some revolving door? I want to evolve not revolve. I’m sick of hiding and the game. But I can’t win. Not like this. Not yet. All it took was a few months of his touch and his fake marriage to topple me. I’m not strong enough yet. Not by a longshot.

Jamie. Jamie Goodwin. American. Boring. Vanilla. Just like Ralph Smith was. I sit at the table, booting up the laptop we had left here. In no time Jamie Goodwin is on Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter. Sighing, I open a kitchen drawer, taking out an iPhone and charge it. I download TikTok and sign up Jamie Goodwin. I take it out to the fire and prop it up on an old trash can. I find an old Britney tune, “Stronger” and hot record.

Jamie Goodwin is now TikTok official. I snap some photos of the fire and post to Insta:#letitburn #noregrets.

“I’m too good at this.” I shake my head. All of it. The lies. The hiding. The fake personas. If only there was a way to use all these fucked-up skills into a way to make a living. Getting caught by the police is not an option. I wouldn’t be able to explain who I am and why I have so many unregistered guns and fake passports. The families would find me. Of that I have no doubt.

Too wound up to sleep, I grab a hooded sweatshirt and the keys to the car with PA plates that we kept in the barn converted to a garage. I grab a charger to my “new phone” and a burner just in case.

“Start you fucker!” My fist pounds the wheel. But the battery’s dead. Sighing, I slam the door and grab the keys to the car I drove down here in, parking it close. Popping both hoods, I apply jumper cables. “Yes! You sexy bitch!” I thump the Volvo SUV’s side. I can’t be too careful in case Roque taps into the closed-circuit cameras and makes my getaway car. I can’t drive it. Not for a long time. Hell, maybe I’ll sell it to a chop shop for cash.

I hop into the Volvo and drive with the windows down. I just need to clear my head of the image of that viper’s kiss on his mouth. Hell, they’re both snakes. But there’s still a stupid, foolish part of me that wants to cling to the memory of how he was with me when I was still his Baby Blue and he was my tame black-hearted beast who showed signs he could change.

After driving for thirty minutes to make sure this old battery gets a bit of a charge, I stop at a convenience store for fresh gas. My throats’ dry so while the gas pumps, I head inside for a soda and a pack of cigarettes.

“I saw you. You cheating bitch!”

“Stop! Leo! I told you it’s not like that with us. He’s my bio chem partner!’

“You playin’ me Keisha? You get wet for him, K? Like you do me?”

What the fuck?My sneakers pound the pavement as round the corner of the building. Some baller has a girl pinned to the wall. He’s breathing down on her face while his hand cups her sex while she struggles. His boys watch from a car with the bass booming. I glance through the glass windows of the store. The clerk is busy cashing someone out. I’m sure they can see what’s happening from the screens streaming from the security cameras. No one cares. No one stops to help the girl. People pumping gas look the other way.

I don’t hesitate. I come up behind him, kicking my foot between the back of his spread legs.

“FUUUCCCKK!” He drops cupping his balls. The laces of my sneaker and the top of my foot got him good.

“You okay?”

The girl looks at me. Wet tears are seconds from falling. Her caramel skin has turned white where his hands had her. There’s some at her throat and her upper arms.

“You’re dead girl.” I whip around. The guy is now on his knees still cupping his balls. “This is between me and my girl. Get your white trash ass out of here.” He reaches for the for the girl’s ankle. She whimpers in pain as his hands wrap tight. He’s big. Strong. So muscular he could snap her leg like a twig.

“Let her go. Now.”

“Back off bitch. I’ll deal with you next.” He’s about to stand. So, I do what I got to do, by swiftly kicking him under his chin. His head snaps back. Keisha screams and the boys in the car start cursing and getting out. Finally realizing barely five foot me just dropped their boy. I grab her hand, quickly running to my Volvo. “Get in!” I disengage the gas, letting the nozzle hang and peel out.

“Where’s the police station? You’re pressing charges.”

She shakes her head as I press the gas going through a yellow light that turns just as I move under it. “Why?” I can’t turn my head to look at her as I’m busy checking the rearview for their pursuit while trying not to get pulled over for driving like a street racer.

“Because no one believes girls like me. And even if they did, they wouldn’t care.”

My hands jerk the wheel to the right and I enter a maze of residential streets. After a few turns I pull over.

---