“Give me names,” I said, cutting them off.
“N-n-names?”
“Girls you’ve done this to before.”
They rattled off a few, but I knew there had to be more. Either they had no clue or couldn’t remember. Maybe they found it hard to perform under pressure, but given their nightly affairs, I found that hard to believe.
“We’ll apologize to each and every one!” one of them said, holding both his hands up. “We’ll even turn ourselves in!”
“You’ll apologize,” I said. “Their names will be written in your blood. Write them on the wall.”
One of the skeletons vomited as he dipped his finger in his friend’s blood and wrote the name of the first girl he could remember on the cream-colored brick wall. It didn’t take long for them to finish, because between the two of them, all they claimed to remember was four.
As they turned around to face me—two shots were muffled as they hit their targets.
Lights fucking out.
10
Rosalia
Mozart played in the background as Cilla pranced around the condo’s state-of-the-art gym like a kick-boxing ballerina.
There was no doubt her inspiration came from a song, but what I wasn’t sure about was why.
She had lied to all the women who had come to take the exercise class. She told them that the girl who usually did the classes called in sick and she was taking her place. In truth, I had no idea where the fitness chick was—maybe running late—but I was certain she didn’t ask Cilla to take her place. Even if she wasn’t coming.
Standing to the back of the class, my workout clothes on, I watched the entire spectacle. Cilla was all over the place, punching her arms, twirling, kicking her legs, all while a symphony played.
Cilla had no clue what she was doing.
The women in the class looked at each other briefly but then started prancing around after her. “Light as a feather!” Her voice came out musical, and she moved her hands as a conductor would. The next minute, she had them kicking their legs out as fast as they could. “Pull from YOUR CORE! Those cannoli rolls are not going to disappear on their own! Who wants meatballs instead of two firm ass cheeks?” she screamed like a drill instructor.
I exploded with laughter, watching them follow behind her, copying all the stupid shit she was doing. It was bad timing on my part, though, because as my laughter filled the room, the music died, and the real instructor stood behind Cilla with her arms crossed.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.
Cilla came down mid-jump, her feet pounding against the floor as loud as cement blocks slapping stone. The women all followed behind her.Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
Another round of laughter barreled out of my mouth. All narrowed eyes turned on me.
“Teaching your class a lesson,” Cilla said when she caught her breath. Even though her moves were ridiculous, she was breathing heavy and sweating. They all were. “It’s not nice to be mean to someone for no reason. And it’s especially not nice, not to mention lacking creativity, to not like someone because someone else doesn’t like them. It’s so clear that’s what’s going on.” She narrowed her eyes at them. “Shame on you! Don’t you have a brain of your own? Fuck cliques! They’re for losers!”
Swiping her bag from the floor, she put her arm through mine and then led me toward another room that was filled with exercise equipment.
“Who fucking wants to do that class anyway?” she said. “I’d rather do spin.”
I laughed again. “You’re asking for trouble, you know that?”
Even though I’d only told Cilla the basics, since she was so intuitive anyway, I was starting to wonder if I should have added to what she’d already figured out on her own. She was confrontational, whereas I’d rather not deal with it.
“Maybe, but I’m having fun.” She tugged on me before she let me go. “We just need to find our third.”
“Third what?” I sat my bag down in the room. A few girls were stretching, getting ready for the spin class.
“Remember the movie we watched the other night? It had three girls. We need an extra.”
“I don’t think you won us any love,” I said, laughing again when I thought of them mindlessly following behind her.
