Page 73 of Just Like Summer

“Get the fuck off of me! Get off of me! You nasty ass nigga!” she shouted, kicking and padding the carpet for her bag. She never took the gun out. Just like Cairo had directed when he gave it to her weeks ago.

Martez pinned her down and glared at her with darkness she never encountered before. “I found your momma’s ashes. I poured that traitor ass bitch in the toilet and shit on her. Fuckin’ with the nigga that took my pops from me. Yeahhhh, you just like her.”

Kamilla hawked a spit in his face. “Fuck you and your daddy. Get the fuck off me!”

Martez licked the glob of spit from his face and grinned. “You’re going to make this fun for me, aren’t you? You ask your nigga how your pops died? Huh? You asked him who fuckin’ did it?”

Stupidly, Martez released her right hand while attempting to pull her shorts down. Too blinded by his demons to see that Kamilla was going for the kill. Her fingers inched inside the bag while Martez continued his attempt.

“That bullet your pops took was for him. I was trying to kill C4, got me an OG in the process. Then came to your house and watched your mother grieve like they watched my momma grieve,” Martez confessed, pulling her shorts down.

Tears threatened to cloud Kamilla’s vision but this wasn’t a time to cry. She had to survive. The bedroom door flew open and a deafening ring of three shots rang out before Martez’s lifeless body dropped on her.

“Get him off!” she cried. “Get him off! Get him off! Get him off!”

Cairo kicked Martez’s leaking body off her. Before he scooped her up off of the ground, he stuffed the gun in the back of his pants. Scooping her up, he held her trembling body close.

“His stuff. I need his stuff. He took his stuff,” Kamilla whimpered. The smell of gunpowder and burnt flesh only adding to her disgust. “I need his stuff.”

Cairo fixed Kamilla’s shorts before rushing her out the room. “I’ll get it, go with Nate.”

A dazed expression came over her while she stood in the doorway watching as Cairo removed everything that was once KP’s from Martez’s body.

“We got to go,” Cairo urged, knowing that because this commotion ended with a body, things were about to change and quickly.

Kamilla moved throughout the space in shock. Still shaking, still taking in all the damage Martez had done while trying to cypher through his last words. The spot where her mother’s urn was located was empty. He’d really desecrated her resting place. As she was rushed out the house and gently pushed into Cario’s car, she sat paralyzed. From the car to the shower, Cairo scrubbed her trying to rid her of any evidence of the crime. He’d taken her clothes, put them in a bag of bleach, and handed it off to Dania to discard.

In the room, he dressed her and she finally muttered, “He killed KP.”

“Mariposa,” Cairo called, trying to pull her out the stupor so he could direct her. The next moments were critical. “Baby, look at me.”

“He killed KP…he was trying to kill you,” she whimpered, a tearful snap of the eyes to him.

Cairo didn’t have time to relive that night and give her the heartbreaking details. Right now, he was throwing himself on the sword to save her. To keep her magical. To keep her innocent and free.

“Kamilla. I need you to hear me. You’re going to go with Dania,” he spoke evenly.

“No. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not leaving you! You need to tell me!” she fired back. “I’m not leaving you, Cairo. I’m not-”

The hyperventilation cut her words short as she snapped into the sobering reality. “Leaving! I’m not leaving! No! Tell them it was me. Tell them he was trying to violate me. I shot him in self-defense. Tell them!”

“Kamilla!”

“Tell them, Cairo! Tell them!” she sobbed, fighting his hands from holding her. “You can’t leave me! No. Tell them! Tell them!”

Kamilla didn’t stop until he firmly grabbed her tear-riddled face with both hands. She whimpered. “Baby, tell them. Please.”

Cairo shook his head. “No. You’re going.”

“Don’t make me be without you. We can talk about it. You can tell me why, just don’t make go,” she begged. “You’re all I have left; don’t make me go.”

Cairo fought tears of his own. Letting her go would be the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life. The weight of releasing her to save her was heavier than anything else he’d ever wore. He shook his head.

“Mariposa,” he crooned, knowing that once she left his sight, this would be the last time he said it. “I need you to steal the fuckin’ moon. I need you to go to school and make a nigga proud. That’s what I need you to do. I love you, with every part of my soul. Do you understand me? I love you so much I won’t make you wait. Go get our moon and you hold on to the muhfucka, aight? On Azul.”

Kamilla’s lip quivered as Cairo placed a final kiss to them. “On Azul.”

“Go,” he demanded, releasing her. “Dania! Get her out of here. Now!”