CAN'T TRUST HIM: ANDREA HIBBLER

 HER COMPILATION

After six months of being with Wayne, things still seemed to be going okay. He was a little insecure because Jada knew a lot of guys and fucked a few, and his short stature didn’t help his confidence one bit. Jada’s phone rang and it was Faith, asking was she still coming out for Twan’s birthday to have drinks. “Of course I am, I’ll see ya’ll at the Dew Drop around ten’ish. She hung up the phone and turned to find Wayne giving her a mean mug.

 

“Everything is cool Sweetie, I’m going to have a few drinks and come back, I promise I won’t be long,” she said as she kissed him.

 

“You know you can come if you want.”

 

“I may,” he replied. “I gotta go but I’ll call you.” He smacked her ass and kissed her again then grabbed his keys off the mantle. It had been a while since she had been out so she was excited to see everyone. To keep Wayne at ease she didn’t go out as much. She turned on the Bose sound system, so that the volume could be heard throughout the house while she heated up some spaghetti and got dressed.

 

“If I ain’t in the front…at least I’m gonna be, by your side.” She sang pulling out the casserole dish from the fridge, swishing her hips as she punched numbers on the microwave.

“Whew, that was on time.” she rubbed her stomach rinsing the plate placing it in the dishwasher. Continuing to two-step up the stairs reaching the closet, she mixed and matched different things until she finally decided on fitted dark blue jeans, a cream sweater and brown flat knee boots.

 

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She slid her coat off, and placed it on the back of the bar chair. Faith came up from behind and gave her a hug.

 

“Glad to see you. Come on, we are over here.” The girls cut through the crowded dance floor and up two small steps to a platform that overlooked the bar.

 

“Hello everybody,” Jada said with a wave before sitting down. Steve knew she had a dude but still was excited to see her; he revealed a huge grin and winked. The music was jumpin’ thanks to J Dub and Sauce the Great while the drinks flowed all night. Time passed and it was one o’clock in the morning. Wayne hadn’t called or texted Jada all night and it was getting late, so she gave her farewells and Faith walked her out.

 

They didn’t get out of the bar doors good, before they were met by Wayne. He stood before them with a crazed look in his eyes. The two women turned to look at each other and looked back at him. Just that fast, Wayne pulled out a .22 and pointed it at them.

 

“She’s good, I got her. You can go ahead and bounce!”

Faith was stunned and froze in her tracks like a statue. He grabbed Jada’s forearm and kept the gun pointed on Faith. “I’m good.” she said handing Faith her keys and off with Wayne she went down the street until they reached his maroon Honda Accord. Keeping the .22 caliber pointing at Jada, he instructed her to pull off.

 

“Drive!” the demonic voice yelled as he mushed her in the right side of the face making her neck jerk to the left. Jada heavily accelerated running a stop sign. Tonight she’d been with friends and family. She had grown to trust Wayne and had not thought to bring the .38 out with her.

 

“Who the fuck do you think I am,” he spewed “You must think I’m a joke.”

 

Jada turned and looked at him in a state of confusion trying to keep her eyes on the road and him at the same damn time. She glanced back and forth with her peripheral view of him, then to the road again.

 

“What are you talking about?” Jada replied. He grabbed a hand full of her hair and pulled her head back and down. Her head was in the little opening that was between the front seats. This made only the view of the sagging upholstery and dome light that was missing its cap, visible.

She gazed at the roof of the car with hundreds of scenarios playing out in her head. “Out of all the guns in the world, this ni**a pulls a .22 on me.” Jada was familiar enough with guns to know that at least if he had a bigger gun he’d kill her and not paralyze her. The thought of being paralyzed and not dead was even worse to her, so she decided to be cool.

 

“I can’t see.” she cried out, as tears ran down her cheeks. She pleaded for him to let go. By now, they were sitting in the middle of Wittenberg Avenue in front of an alternative school. Kissing her in the mouth he slowly let go of the grip he held on her hair. She drove in silence while he continued to hold the gun on her, screaming cuss words going on tyrants. She drove only a few more blocks and he grabbed her arm and bit into it like a clamp in a wood shop. The excruciating pain forced Jada to swerve and she pulled over. Wayne threw the car in park and pounced onto her, biting her three more times; on the right arm, left forearm and then again on her back as she turned toward the driver door window. With faint, cracked screams echoing out, he finally let go as he slid his teeth out of her flesh. She felt the warm blood as it trickled down her back. After she had driven a while, he told her to go to a spot in London Estates. It was a place he sometimes sold dope out of and he already knew the fiends wouldn’t be there because they were in the process of moving to another spot.

 

No sooner than they had gotten inside and the wooden door closed behind them, he punched her in the mouth and caused it to bleed profusely. She held back her cries and tears only covering her face leaning downward towards her right side. That infuriated him so much that he pointed the gun at her temple and demanded she move her hands or he’d shoot her where she stood. When she finally moved her hands he began kissing her aggressively in her mouth and shoving his hand down her pants. The more her lip bled, the more it seemed to entice him. As she attempted to wipe the blood away, he grabbed her wrist and slammed it backwards. This made her knuckles bang into the door. He licked up the left side of her face, from her chin to her hairline, as he pressed his tongue forcefully against her skin. His teeth roughly connected with parts of her face leaving a slimy trail of saliva. She froze not breathing, and not knowing if he would try to bite her eye out. Then he reached back and open handed smacked her, with the side of the gun in his palm. He slammed into her cheekbone.

 

“Sit down and rollup!”

 

The residue from the cigar tingled inside the cut on her lip. The cream cashmere sweater she wore was droopy and damp since it was immersed in her blood and tears. He sparked the blunt and told her to take off all of her clothes. Once she was naked he handed her the blunt making her smoke.

 

“Fix your face,” he said walking behind her. He pressed the front of his body against her chocolate nude backside. In his right hand he still gripped the .22, as he wrapped the other hand around her. He rubbed her left nipple softly then pinching it so hard that the pain made her choke on the smoke. Letting go of the grip he once held on her nipple, he grabbed her by the hair again and forced her to the back room. In it, all that remained was a mattress on the floor, and an orange and green floral fitted sheet that covered the window with two tacks, one on each end, for a make-shift curtain.

 

He climbed on top of her shoving his evil spirit inside. Staring at the ball of light that protruded through the sheet, she wept and thought about Eugene. She wished he was here and what had she gotten into with this deranged lunatic? After he finished raping her, Wayne ordered her to put her clothes back on and followed her back into the living room, where she got dressed. He continued beating her until the sun came up.

 

“C’mon we’re leaving!”

As they rode through the streets of Springfield, Jada knew she had to make a move at some point. Tired and beaten, she decided she was going to run for it and if he did shoot her…oh well, it was, what it was.

 

They approached the intersection of Euclid and Fountain, which was a two-way stop. Jada didn’t bother slowing down for the stop sign, she opened the door, rolled out of the driver’s side, got up off the ground, running as fast as she could until she tore through Faith’s screen door on Rose Avenue and fell on the floor. Twan ran down the stairs with an A-K, not knowing what all the commotion was about. Faith came out of the kitchen, “What the fuck! He’s a dead man!” she yelled as she helped her cousin up off the tan carpet and onto the couch.

 

Jada attempted to talk, but she almost hyperventilated as she tried to articulate in broken words. That is all that would come out as tears covered her face. Twan went to the kitchen and brought back a glass of ice water then left out the back door, A-K in hand. The screeching noise from his tires could be heard inside the house. Faith grabbed a cold towel as she simultaneously patted Jada’s head.

 

“Don’t worry, don’t you worry.” Faith said repeatedly rocking her cousin in her arms. Jada finally managed to tell Faith that all she wanted to do was take a shower and change. Faith raced to the linen closet and her room to get more towels, wash cloths, and a change of clothes.

As Jada lathered up the washcloth, she began to wash her wounded body. The soap burned as she dabbed the bite marks that covered her body. As she washed her hair she could see patches of it going down the drain, which made her start to cry again. She cupped handfuls of water as she rinsed her mouth out. She could feel the tissue and swollenness of the inside of her mouth and lips, as her tongue glided over them. She turned around so that the water could run on her back and this almost made her jump out of the tub. She rang the washcloth out as tight as she could and the water stung the deep bite on her upper back. She wept for another forty-five minutes before she finally got out of the shower. She was in a state of shock, still not believing the ordeal she had just endured. Too ashamed to go downstairs, she could hear the collage of conversation from A’lyce and Kansas, downstairs, talking to Nikki and Simone. Even though they were the closet people to her she was too ashamed to face them so she went and crawled in Faith’s bed and slept.