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As the months rolled by, Cali and Aleesha’s relationship became more and more serious. Although they didn’t officially live together, Aleesha spent more time at Cali’s apartment than her own. Cali wanted her to move in, but Aleesha felt more comfortable keeping her place knowing that if things didn’t work out between them, she wouldn’t have to go through the stress of finding another apartment.
It was nearing the end of Aleesha’s sophomore year in college, and she decided to get a second job to keep her busy during the summer. She heard of a dispensary looking for female workers and knew that it would be the perfect job since she loved smoking weed. All she had to do was get a doctor’s recommendation, so one day, she and Cali went to the referral clinic. They both were seen by the doctor and received their recommendations within an hour. They hit up a couple of dispensaries, trying different top shelf grams and purchasing knick-knacks like bongs, pipes and lighters, then made their way to the dispensary where Aleesha wanted to work. She went inside to talk to the owner for a few minutes, was hired on the spot, and started working the very next day.
After a couple of weeks of all work and no play, Aleesha decided to take the weekend off, and spend it with one of her female friends. So she called Milasia up, and they planned an exciting weekend together in San Diego.
It was late in the evening on a Friday night when Aleesha made it over to Milasia’s. She was spending the night since Milasia had to work, and they planned to drive to San Diego the next morning. Usually, if she spent the night at Milasia’s she would accompany her to work, but this particular night, Aleesha didn’t feel like being in the club environment. So after Milasia left, she spent some of the night relaxing, watching Netflix and eating snacks.
After a while, Aleesha got bored so she invited Cali over to keep her company. He came and chilled with her for a while, and at about a quarter to twelve he left because he got a call to go handle some business. He planned on coming back, but since Aleesha was feeling tired, they said their goodbyes and she promised to call him once she and Milasia made it to San Diego.
Right as Aleesha was about to slip off into a deep sleep, she got a text from Milasia. She told Aleesha to unlock the door because her boyfriend Ronnie was coming over, and that she would be home within the next hour. As soon as Aleesha went to unlock the door, Ronnie was knocking on it. She let him in and ran back to the couch to cover herself up with the blanket. She was wearing a tank top that exposed her nipples and cleavage, and shorts so small that half of her ass cheeks were visible. She didn’t want to be strutting around half naked in front of a man besides her own, especially since the man was with one of her friends. She laid down as he took a seat on the La-Z-Boy.
“Wassup, Aleesha? Passion told me you would be here,” Ronnie said, referring to Milasia by her stripper name. Ronnie was a bulky six-foot-five light-skinned guy with long hair that was styled in zigzag braids. He was one of the toughest members from one of the most ruthless crip gangs in California, Running Down Dear Lane, or RDDL for short. He and Milasia had been dating for quite some time, and were madly in love.
He took out a pre-rolled blunt and a small vile of liquid that looked like perfume, and as soon as he opened it, Aleesha could tell it was PCP. He took out a cigarette and dipped it into the vile, then set it on the end table to dry.
“Yeah, you can go wait for Mila in her room,” Aleesha said, not trying to sound too rude. She wasn’t trying to associate with her friend’s man, especially since she wasn’t here, or be around that disgusting smelling drug.
“Nah, I’ll wait out here. You tryna smoke?” he asked Aleesha as he lit up his blunt.
“No,” she answered. She wasn’t sure if he had dipped his blunt in the water, and she wasn’t trying to take any chances.
“Aight, mo’ fo’ me,” he said as he took hits from the cigar.
Aleesha felt uncomfortable just being in the room with him, so she wrapped the cover around her and went into Milasia’s bedroom. She laid on the bed and was sleep within thirty minutes.
While she was dreaming, Aleesha woke up from an excruciating pain she felt coming from her vagina. She tried to move, but her body felt like it was being held down by something. As she opened her eyes, Ronnie was on top of her making grunting noises.
“What the fuck!” she screamed once she realized what was going on. She tried to push Ronnie off of her, but he was too strong.
He grabbed both of her arms, put them above her head, gripped her hands together with one of his hands and held her down. “Shut up,” he said as he continued to forcefully fuck her.
“Stop! Get off of me,” Aleesha screamed as she tried to fight him off. But the more and more she tried to move, the more he restrained her and the more brutal the pain became. “Please stop, get off of me!” she pleaded as she began to cry.
“Shut the fuck up!” Ronnie yelled as he continuously rammed his dick into her.
“No, stop, please,” she kept begging.
“Didn’t I tell you to shut the fuck up?” he yelled as he hit her repeatedly in the face with his fist.
Aleesha’s nose began to bleed and she could taste the blood from her busted lip as she screamed from the beating. Ronnie began to choke her to quiet her, and before she slipped into unconsciousness, he let his grip go. She began gasping for air and choking at the same time.
“Shit,” he said with a grunt as he came inside of her.
Ronnie rolled off of her and laid on the bed for a couple of seconds, as Aleesha rolled off the bed and onto the floor to catch her breath. He put his dick back in his pants, and walked out of the room without saying another word.
Once he was gone, Aleesha turned on the light, and began to gather her things. She couldn’t stop crying and could barely walk, but she knew she had to get out of here. Right as she was grabbing her keys to leave out the door, Ronnie came back into the room. He backed her into the corner, and pulled a gun out and pointed it at her head.
“Bitch, if you say anything to anybody, I’ll kill you,” he threatened her.
“Okay,” Aleesha fearfully cried as she clutched her things.
He left out the room, and Aleesha knew she couldn’t face seeing him again. She opened the bedroom window and climbed out, then ran to her Kia, and raced all the way home. As soon as she got there, she cleaned her face then took a bath to soak her body, all the while still crying.
It was around 4 in the morning when Aleesha finally got out of the bath. She put on some sweats and a t-shirt, and laid in her bed. She tried to fall asleep, but couldn’t because of the dreadful events that had taken place. The more she thought about it, the more teary-eyed she became, and the filthier she felt. She couldn’t believe out of all people, it had to happen to her. She sat up in the bed and tried to watch TV, but was so scared that she became paranoid, so she grabbed her cell phone and went into the living room.
She thought of calling Cali, and as soon as she was getting ready to call him, another call came in. It was Milasia. She didn’t want to answer it so she continued to let it ring. Milasia called back twice after, but stopped when she realized Aleesha wasn’t going to answer her call. Aleesha sat her phone down next to her on her sofa, and turned on the TV. She stared at it and became lost in her thoughts.
Hours passed as Aleesha sat on the sofa staring at the TV screen, until her HTC EVO began to ring again. When she looked at it, it was 7 a.m. and the name displayed on the screen said Mila. They were supposed to be getting an early start to avoid the weekend traffic, so she knew that’s why she was calling. Aleesha kept letting the phone ring and go to voicemail, and after about the tenth time, Milasia finally gave up and stopped calling. Three minutes went by, and Aleesha’s phone began ringing again, but it was Cali this time. She opted not to answer it, but knew she couldn’t avoid everyone forever, so she gave in.
“Hello?” Aleesha said halfheartedly into the phone.
“Babe, where you at? Sis said she been blowin’ yo phone up all this mornin’. I thought you was stayin’ the night over there and y’all was leavin’ for Diego?” Cali asked.
“Babe can you please come over?” she asked as she broke down crying.
“Babe what’s wrong. What happened?” he asked with sincerity and worry in his voice.
“Just please, hurry up.”
“Say no more, I’m on my way.”
Even though Cali lived a good twenty five minutes away from Aleesha, he made it to her place in ten. As soon as he got out the car, he ran up to her door and started banging on it like he was the police. It didn’t take Aleesha long to answer it, and as soon as Cali saw her face, he could tell something was wrong.
“What the fuck happened to you?” he asked angrily as he looked at her swollen lip. Aleesha didn’t say anything as she looked down at the floor. “Babe, who did this to you?”
Cali could tell Aleesha didn’t want to answer him, but he couldn’t hurt the person responsible if she didn’t. He led her to the couch, and wiped her tears from her face. “Babe, tell me who did this to you,” he said in a softer, sincere voice.
“I told him to stop,” she said as she cried and continued to stare at the floor.
“You told who to stop, what happened babe?”
“Ronnie.”
“Ronnie what?” he asked ,clinching his fist together, fearful of what she might say.
“Ronnie raped me,” she whispered loud enough so he could hear her.
“What!” he yelled as he hopped off the couch. “I swear on everything I love I’m ‘bout to kill this nigga,” he said, rushing toward the door.
“Cali, wait!” Aleesha yelled after him.
“What you mean wait?” he asked as he turned around to look at her.
“He threatened to kill me if I told anybody.”
“What?” Cali asked, getting even more hyped. “Man, don’t worry about shit babe, you ain’t gotta worry about this nigga ever again,” he said, opening the door.
“Cali, please don’t leave me here by myself,” Aleesha cried out, afraid.
Cali walked back over to her and tenderly kissed her lips. “I’m sorry babe. I’m not gone ever leave you alone again. Come on,” he said as he helped her off the couch.
***
They arrived at Milasia’s and Cali instructed Aleesha to stay in his Range Rover. He went and knocked on the door, and Milasia answered it.
“Wassup sis?” he casually asked.
“Nothin’. You talked to Leelee?” Milasia asked, concerned.
“Yeah she in the car, she not feelin’ too good. Ronnie in here?”
“Yeah, he in the room sleep. Why?”
“Nothin’, I gotta discuss some real important business with him.”
“Okay, he don’t like being woke up out of his sleep so if he has an attitude, I told you so,” Milasia specified.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go holla at Aleesha real quick,” Cali said, trying to hurry up and get inside the apartment.
“Why, what happened?” she asked worriedly.
“Nothin’, she wanted to talk to you about Diego and to see if y’all was still goin’?”
“Yeah, if she wants to.”
“Aight well go holla at her so I can talk to Ronnie real quick,” Cali said, trying to get her out of the apartment.
“Aight,” Milasia said as she walked to his vehicle.
Cali walked inside the apartment and shut the door behind him. He went to Milasia’s room and saw Ronnie laying in the bed through the crack in the door. He walked in, shut the door behind him and pulled out his Colt .45 firearm. He walked over to Ronnie, and hit him with the butt of the gun right in the middle of his forehead.
“Oh shit. What the fuck!” Ronnie yelled, waking up. The gash from the blow he just received started leaking as he swiftly sat up in the bed.
“Yeah, get up bitch,” Cali told Ronnie as pointed the gun at his head.
“Man—” Ronnie began to say, but before he could say anything else, Cali bitch slapped him with the gun, knocking a tooth loose. “Ah!” he yelled out in agony.
“Shut the fuck up!” Cali yelled as he grabbed Ronnie by the shirt. “You think it’s cool to rape women, cuh? My bitch especially?” he asked as he hit him again with the .45.
“Man, didn’t nobody rape her, she wanted to fuck,” Ronnie said, getting lightheaded.
“Cuh!” Cali yelled as he hit him again with the pistol. “So you callin’ my girl a liar?! And you put yo hands on her!” he stated as he hit him in the head again, opening the wound and making it bleed more as Ronnie yelped from the pain.
“Man it wasn’t like that,” Ronnie retorted, about to pass out.
“You a mark ass nigga, cuh. I let you get away with all the shit you did to my sister, ‘cause her stupid ass always stopped me. But you ain’t gettin’ away with this, cuh. You don’t even deserve to breathe in my presence.”
POW!
The .45 went off as Cali shot Ronnie in the temple. He let go of Ronnie’s shirt, and let his lifeless body collapse onto the bed.