Young Adult / This Can't be Life Chapters 2 & 3 (Analysis)
Talise:
I sat behind my desk drumming my finger nails against the wood frame trying my hardest not to be pissed off at Simone. She is infamous for pushing men away. No matter how good they treat her she always has an excuse as to why the relationship won’t work when she never even gives it a chance, so to say that I was stunned when Simone just up and left with Deon last night is an understatement.
Simone and I we were sitting under the cabana at the Sky Bar on Sunset having drinks at around nine last night. We decided to meet each other there before we turned in for the night. We were expecting Stacey to walk through the door at any minute, he’d just called and said that he’d finished his shoot in Marina Del Rey and was on his way. Stacey was always in and out and doing his own thing but when it came to Simone and me he was always there for us. He was hands down the hardest working hair stylist in Cali.
Surprisingly I saw Deon walk in first, Simone was usually the one that saw any and everything that was going on around us but last night I was on top of it. I gave her a heads up that he was walking our way heading straight to our table. I was definitely looking forward to their banter and I was curious as to the excuse she would give him for not wanting to talk to him this time. Simone was unwavering in her semi disdain for men. She was scared to let anyone in so she kept this armor around her that was impenetrable. I hated to see her like this but understood where it was coming from.
“Hello ladies, how’re you two doin tonight?” Deon asked standing at our table with Darryl Withers by his side, both basketball players with the LA Lakers.
“We’re fine thanks.” I replied while Simone just sat there holding a patronizing smile.
“I’m Darryl Withers.” He announced with an air of arrogance making sure he wouldn’t be ignored. We shook his hand as Deon kept his stare on Simone who had yet to say one word.
“What’s up Simone, you can’t speak?” Deon asked with a smile on his face. Simone never came off as rude it seemed to be more of a shy thing when that was the furthest thing from the truth. Simone was aloof and didn’t get excited about much especially a man.
“Hi Deon, nice to meet you Darryl Withers. I’m Simone Johnson.” She said putting the emphasis on their last names as Darryl had when he introduced himself. I kicked her under the table and tried to hold in my laughter. It was funny how this guy was throwing around his last name like we didn’t already know who he was. The way he said it made it sound like he thought we should get excited or something.
“You still not dating Simone? Or what is it tonight, not interested or not in the mood to meet new people?” Deon asked shining his beautiful smile on our table.
“Actually Deon tonight’s your night. You ready to go?” she asked with a smile on her face and her hand on her Rasta L.A.M.B. clutch handbag.
“Yup sure am.” He said before grabbing her hand and helping her up from the table. Darryl and I were both left with our mouths wide open as they walked hand and hand out the side door of the bar.
Darryl invited himself to a seat at our table, sat down across from me and immediately began to get on my last damn nerve with his arrogance. All he talked about was himself. He didn’t ask me one question and had the nerve to ask if I was going home with him. As I saw Stacey walking in heading toward our table I decided to get a couple of things straight with Mr. Feeling Himself Too Much.
“Why would I go home with you? First of all you don’t even know my name, didn’t even bother to ask. Secondly you don’t know one thing about me so I see how you get down and I wouldn’t touch your dick with my toe. Now if you’d excuse me I’d appreciate it. I’m expecting someone and you’re in his seat.” I smiled very sweetly, never once breaking our eye contact. He got up and walked off without another word and right in time for Stacey to slide right into his seat. I couldn’t hold my laughter any longer as I recounted the events of the past twenty minutes to Stacey.
A knock on my office door jolted me from my reverie. I looked up to see Jose Ramirez the VP of the company I work for standing in my doorway holding his briefcase. Most of the time he wasn’t a bad guy to work for, he has a bad reputation for being flirty with the women in the office but he’d never been inappropriate with me so we had no problems.
“Good morning Talise how’re you feeling today?” Jose asked.
“Fine thanks, and how are you Jose?” I asked trying to sound like I really gave a damn because I didn’t.
“Pretty good thanks.”
“So today is the big day, are you excited?” I stated as I got up, grabbed my briefcase and passed him as I headed out of my office and stepped into the hall.
“Well it’s not every day that you close on a ten million dollar project so I guess I can say I’m pretty excited. We’ve put a lot of time into getting this contract and since the time has finally come for them to accept us as their advertising firm and sign on the dotted line I guess I can say I’m excited. It was well over due. But you know Talise I can honestly say that without all the effort and overtime that you put into this project we wouldn’t have gotten this far. You really represented our firm well. With your face being the only one that they’ve really seen throughout these past few months I’m sure they’ve taken a real liking to you. Especially that….what’s his name?” He asked snapping his fingers pretending to jog his memory as we walked side by side down the hall heading toward the conference room where the meeting was to take place.
“Charles Immerson! Yeah that’s his name. I’m sure that helped a lot.” He finished with a snide smile on his face. I stopped and took a few breaths before I could even respond. Maybe I’m a little bit emotional because I’m about to come on my period but I couldn’t let this one go unchecked because what he was implying pissed me off.
“You know Jose I’m sure that the decision for Immerson Bradley and Williams to hire us as their advertising agency had nothing at all to do with Charles Immerson, how’d you put it?” I mimicked snapping my fingers faking the need to jog my memory as he did, “taking a liking to me, I believe that’s the way you phrased it. I know this business like the back of my hand, that’s why I’ve signed more than a few billion dollar companies with this agency because we do good business. If you think that the only thing we have to offer our clients are good looking women then I’m not sure how you became Vice President of this company nor do I know what to tell you, but I can tell you this; I’m sure that Charles Immerson didn’t build a multi billion dollar business by making deals with companies just because they have pretty representatives.” I replied in the calmest voice I could muster. The nerve of some people sickens me, you can’t just say whatever the hell you want to say and think it’s okay as long as you put it nicely. Shit nice will still get you told off where I’m from.
“I didn’t mean it like that, Talise please forgive me if that is the way it sounded. I’m just saying that you’re such a beautiful woman that any man would have a hard time telling you anything other than what you’d want to hear, so please forgive me, I know you know this business very well, actually a lot better than a lot of us.” Jose extended his hand to me. “All is forgiven?” He asked sounding like Antonio Banderas.
“Yes Jose, all is forgiven, just watch what you say to me. You know I can be pretty cut throat when I feel someone is offending me, and that sounded pretty offensive to me but I forgive you for not thinking before you spoke.” I gave him a slight smile, letting it go for the sake of having to see him every damn day even though he knew what the hell he was saying and meant every word of it.
“You can cut my throat all you like I’m sure it would be enjoyable. Now let’s get to the conference room and get this meeting started.” He said undressing me with his eyes. Until this point I’d never been the subject of his unprofessional advances and knew that I would have to get that in check real quick if it continued.
What was supposed to be an hour meeting turned in to a two hour meeting with Charles Immerson going on and on about his plans for his company and the future of his product. Basically all the shit that he could’ve saved for his staff meetings at his own company.
“Well I’m going to get out of here.” I said to Jose as we stood in front of the elevators after they’d closed and descended with Charles Immerson and his assistant inside. I was smiling and feeling giddy at the thought of the thousands I’d see on my next bonus check.
“Yeah I think I’m going to head out myself, you wanna go out for a drink?” I cringed at the thought and wondered why he had to ask me this.
“You know just to celebrate.” He added when he saw the look on my face.
“Thanks Jose but I’m so exhausted from all the events of the day. Plus I had a long night last night, maybe next time.” I said thinking not in this lifetime, especially after the way he was looking at me today.
“Well thanks anyway Miss Talise Miles you have a wonderful evening.”
“Thanks Jose, you too.” I said walking toward my office relieved that he didn’t try to push the issue.
“Hey Talise?” Jose called out.
“Yeah Jose?” I questioned turning back around.
“You make sure you get some rest, I couldn’t imagine seeing your beautiful face fatigued. Not that anyone would be able to tell but you know what I mean.” He said triumphantly thinking he had just given me a compliment.
“Yeah I’ll do that Jose you have a good evening.” I said dryly as I walked away not amused in the least bit by his form of flattery. Flatter me by giving me a raise, flatter me by giving me a bigger office, the sudden barrage of compliments were making me feel uncomfortable, and he didn’t want me to feel uncomfortable if he knew what was good for him.
Simone:
Surprisingly I awoke to my Blackberry alerting me of a new text message. Two hours had passed since I’d gotten off of the phone with Talise and I felt like a new person. My ears were no longer ringing from the blaring of the phone from Talise’s call and the nightmare was a distant memory. I picked up my Blackberry from my night table and wasn’t surprised to see a message from Deon. As my low battery signal beeped I typed in a reply message for him to call me and gave him my home number to do so. No more than two minutes later my cordless was ringing.
“Hey what’s up?” I asked smiling into the phone. Deon turned out to be a cool guy, not really my type but cool none the less.
“You Simone, you’re what’s up, what’re you doin today?” He asked.
“Why are you coming to hang out with me or something?” I teased.
“Yup, what’re we doin?” He asked.
“Does it matter?” I laughed.
“Nope sure doesn’t. What time you want me to pick you up?”
“I’ll pick you up at two. I’ll call you when I’m in front of your building. And oh, I hope you don’t mind going shopping with me.” I stated as an afterthought.
“I guess I’ll take my chances. Don’t be late.” He said sounding skeptical.
After hanging up the phone I felt invigorated. It was a beautiful day outside and the view of the Staples Center from my bedroom balcony made me chuckle, I thought it was pretty ironic. I walked into the bathroom and began running water in my spa tub, there wasn’t a better way to start my day than soaking in a hot bubble bath and letting the jets pound into my body. As I relaxed in the spa for some reason I let my mind drift and thoughts of my first boyfriend reminded me to keep my guard up and never trust a man.
Byron Boyd was my first boyfriend and if I were to be completely honest I’d have to say that he has really been the only boyfriend I’ve ever had. In high school I wasn’t in to boys and dating and they all knew it and thankfully they left me alone. It wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year that a boy finally caught my eye. Byron Boyd had just transferred to our school from Texas. He was a star football player and fine as hell and even he badgered and badgered me until I finally agreed to go out with him in the beginning of our junior year. By this time Talise had a boyfriend and I’d tagged along with them on so many dates that I know he was happier than I was when I accepted Byron’s invitation to go see a movie. Talise’s boyfriend being the quarterback of our football team and Byron the running back they became fast friends and nine times out of ten we all went on dates together.
Talise and I were virgins all throughout high school and it wasn’t easy holding onto my panties and my man when all the girls were fawning over him like groupies. Byron tried and tried but I was not giving it up. Once I saw the size of his dick it scared me to even think of what he could do with that thing. Talise lost her virginity on prom night and I wish she would have spared me every horrendous detail; her first time was not a great experience at all which made me even more apprehensive about having sex.
After graduation Byron got a full athletic scholarship to USC and of course I followed. Talise decided to go to Harvard in Boston while her boyfriend got a scholarship to Grambling State in Louisiana. It was hard when Talise left but we talked daily and in the mean time I stayed busy studying business and keeping my eyes on Byron. The girls in college were ten times worse than the girls in high school; they were on him like a magnet so I definitely had my hands full with my studies and keeping the chicks off of my man.
During our freshman year in college I gave my virginity to Byron who then became very obsessive, possessive and controlling with me. He had to know every move I made and with whom. At first I thought it was cute, I thought it was love, but then I just became afraid of him and did what he wanted me to do just to avoid a fight. In our third year Byron transferred to Howard in Atlanta after red shirting his second year due to a minor injury. I was heartbroken and thinking of following him to Atlanta when Talise told me that she was moving back home to go to Grad school at USC. She’d finished undergrad in three years and the timing couldn’t have been better
My last year of college flew by and before I knew it I was graduating and Byron was drafted into the NFL and was playing for the San Diego chargers. I decided to go to The Paul Mitchell School which was something that I had always wanted to do and with my business degree I knew that I would be able to run my own beauty salon and make it a success. Byron convinced me to move to San Diego with him and go to the Paul Mitchell School closer to him and like a fool I did.
Day by day our relationship went from bad to worse and finally came to an end when Byron came home after being on the road for over a week and I made the mistake of not being home. Talise and I were out shopping and my cell phone battery was dead. As soon as I walked in the door Byron beat me like I had stolen something from him. He stomped me like I was a man on the street and wouldn’t take me to the hospital after he’d finished with the grueling ass whooping. That night I stayed awake and watched him as he slept so peacefully, like he didn’t have a care in the world, like he hadn’t just beaten me like Mista beat Cealy in The Color Purple. If I hadn’t been in so much pain I would have killed him in his sleep. The next day he threatened to kill me if I wasn’t home when he returned from his game in Oakland but as soon as he left I called Talise to come and get me. By the time she arrived my wrist was swollen to about twice it’s normal size and I could barely move let alone drive otherwise I would’ve drove myself as far away from there as I could have as soon as he closed his eyes the night before. When Talise saw how I looked she was so enraged that she started tearing his house up and breaking all of his shit. I would’ve helped her if I could have but instead I pointed out things to break that she had overlooked.
When I finally made it to the hospital I was admitted with three broken ribs and a hairline fracture on my wrist from trying to ward off the kicks from his Timberland boots. Talise was pissed off at me because I didn’t want to file a police report but when Talise’s parents Mommy and Daddy Miles came down I had no choice. I knew they were right but I didn’t want to see him in jail or loose his career, I just wanted him to get help. He was only repeating the cycle; his mom used to get beat downs too and his parents are still together.
After I moved all my things out of his house I transferred to the Paul Mitchell School in Costa Mesa and moved back to LA. Byron’s lawyers offered me a high six figure settlement to drop the charges against him and I accepted under the condition that he got extensive counseling and went to anger management. Everyone seemed happy about that especially the District Attorney who seemed to be one of Byron’s biggest fans. Since then our paths hadn’t crossed once and I went on with my life and got my cosmetology license never forgetting what happened but never looking back.
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You have done an excellent job in bringing your characters to life. You bring us inside of their heads, let us know their experiences and feelings, and best of all they feel honest and genuine. I was drawn into the story, and the plights of the women involved.
But you really need to work on your grammar and sentence structure. There is important punctuation lacking and it results in run-on sentences. And there was at least one place where it looked like a sentence was left off.
I don’t know that this is especially appropriate for young adults. The subject is a little too mature, especially the part where Simone is physically abused by Byron.
Overall very well written, just needs some polishing.
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feel someone is offending me, and that sounded pretty offensive to me but I forgive - here I would delete the “to me”
Very minor grammar mistakes here and there, not many though. This is a great read. I enjoyed it to the last line here and will look for more.
Very solid characters. I love the loyalty between the girls, and Talise breaking up the house of Simone’s batterer. Very believable. Yes, one would lay there watching this bastard and think of killing him.
Very good read, very good chapters here.
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