In Due Time

Redondo

I'm dressed in a button up shirt and slacks. Stacey is wearing a nice sun dress, we sit in a booth at In-N-Out, waiting on Arizona and Cairo.

There are people coming in and out, hence the name, different minorities. People from across the nation. Across the world.

Then there's us.

The Cali natives. Here to squash shit, not visit a world famous diner.

I order some fries, animal style. A burger the same way.

Stacey picks off my plate.

"Stacey." I say.

"Yes, Cal?"

"Is there anything else I need to know before they show up?"

She takes a deep breath. "If you read all of the messages, you know everything."

"I didn't read them all."

"You didn't?!" she pulls at her hair. "How far did you get?!"

"First page, then I stopped...why?"

"Shit!" An asian man looks our way, makes a grimace, looks off.

"What?"

"Even if you did read them, you wouldn't know about...the little problem."

"What little problem?"

"I...Last month...We...Me and Cairo, we found out..."

"What?!"

"I...I'm so sorry..." she starts to cry, I hand her a napkin.

"What the hell is it, Stacey?"

"I was pregnant."

I stop everything. Stop thinking. Stop breathing. I feel throw up rising in my throat, I go outside to the parking lot. Release that shit in the grass. Stacey is right behind me.

"Pregnant?! Stacey...You're lying...Tell me you're fucking with me.You're fucking with me right? Just a fucking joke."

She shakes her head, cries some more. "I'm so sorry...We couldn't have you or his girlfriend finding out...We skipped school...stayed with his cousins here...They do home abortions here in Redondo...I didn't have a choice...I got sick...Had to go to the hospital...They brought me down to a hospital in Del Amo...Cairo didn't come with me...Stayed here...The day after I got out I went back to Pepperdine...Cairo wanted to have sex...Doctors said we shouldn't...We did anyways...His girl caught us...Hit me...I had to come back down to Del Amo to pay my hospital bill...Didn't want them to send it to the school...I didn't have enough money to pay my bill and go back up to Pepperdine...So I've been staying here...Still didn't pay my bill in full...Need $400...I'm so sorry, Cal."

"So that whole party in Watts thing was a lie?"

She nods.

I shake my head. Too much shit to take in. Too many lies. I can't look at her.

I walk back inside, see Arizona and Cairo at our table. Arizona sees me, smiles. Tells us to come sit.

I sit across from Arizona, Stacey sits across from Cairo.

Lovers across from Lovers.

"Thanks for coming here, today." Arizona says.

"The fuck is they doing here?!" Cairo says.

"What?" I ask, looking at Arizona, then at him "He invited us here."

"The hell I did!" He says. "What is this bitch talking about. We're here for our anniversary."

"Who the fuck you calling a bitch?!" I raise my voice.

"Ro, calm down!" That was Stacey. I look her. "I mean Cal. Cal, calm down." She mixed our names up. Arizona looks at her, then at me.

"What's going on, Arizona?"

She looks at me, then whispers. "We all just need closure."

"So you wrote the text?" Stacey asks.

"What text?" Cairo asks.

Now we're all looking at Arizona. She says, "Can we just end this?! I want my life back. The way things used to be. Just me and Cairo. Just you two. We can just stop communication all together, okay? I just sent the text so we can all be on the same page."

Silence.

"Me and Cairo are finished." Stacey says.

"Me and Stacey are finished." Cairo says.

"You and I are finished." Arizona says to me. I nod.

"We're done."

"So all of this is over right?" Arizona asks. We all nod. "Okay." she gets up, followed by Cairo, they're leaving.

"Oh wait," I say. "I think it's fair that we all pay a fourth of the hospital bill."

"What hospital bill?" Arizona asks. Cairo cuts his eyes at me. She looks at him "What hospital bill, Cairo?"

He sits her back down, explains the abortion to her.

"You got her pregnant?!" She cries, wiping her face over and over. I feel so bad, so helpless. But we have just agreed that we aren't each others shit no more. They don't fuck with us, we don't fuck with them.

But damn.

Stacey and I leave In-N-Out.

"Wait I want to get a shake to go." She says, turning around.

Arizona and Cairo are coming out of the door.

Everyone stops for a second.

Cairo. Stacey. Arizona.

It happens so fast I didn't know what to fucking do.

Arizona lifts up her UCLA hoodie. Pulls out that glock. Points it at Stacey.

Too fast. Too damn fast. She pulls the trigger.

People scream, a car crashes into another, minorities fleeing in all directions.

Stacey is on the ground, gasping for breath. Cairo is on his knees, trying to get her to wake up.

Arizona walks behind her boyfriend, points the gun at him.

Stops.

Remembers how much she loves him. How much pain she's been through, how much more pain she would go through if she squeezed that trigger.

She puts the gun up to her temple. Closes her eyes. One tear falls.

I scream.

The second explosion.

Arizona's lifeless body falls to the sidewalk.