Free Criminal by Terra Elan McVoy

really wasone little word from Dee. Yesterday had been so off, so wrong. The timing had been all bad, and we both knew it. I just needed one little hit now to make things right again, to get things straight. Just a “Hey, baby,” or “I love you”—something sweet from him since he hadn’t had a chance to say anything like that yesterday. Gaps between communication were normal, but never when things were this tense. Not when there was so much going wrong. I just needed to know he was all right, that he was thinking of me. That he knew I was going through a lot too and that all I had to do was keep hanging in there a little while longer. To be strong.
    It took a while for me to text him, but once I did, I couldn’t stop.
    NIKKI: D I just need 2 tlk 1 more time
    NIKKI: I dont want 2 mk u mad
    NIKKI: Its wrd here
    NIKKI: Where r u? Can u cm by?
    NIKKI: Im scared & alone
    NIKKI: D?
    After another hour of waiting without any response, I was about to climb the walls. This wasn’t like those other times when I was just missing him. I was at my momma’s. I’d had to talk to the police. Bird wasn’t speaking to me. He knew how bad things were. So why wouldn’t he even send me one little hey? The onlyexplanation was that his phone had lost its charge. Or, more likely, something bad had happened. Something awful. I yanked open drawers and cabinets, looking around for a phone book, wishing I could call his house. Even if Cherry had one, though, I still didn’t know his father’s first name. So after another ten minutes, I dialed Dee’s phone.
    Before it rang even half a time, he was shouting in my ear. “Goddamn you.”
    â€œDee—”
    â€œGod, God, God, God, God, God damn you. You can’t do a single goddamn thing I tell you, can you, huh? Not one single thing. ‘We need a break for a while, Nikki,’ I say to you, and here you are, texting me fifty times, crying, messing everything up.”
    I hadn’t been crying before. But now I was.
    â€œDee, I’m sorry, but I’m here at my momma’s and there’s no one, and I can’t go anywhere and I’m scared and I need you—”
    â€œâ€˜I need you,’” he fake whined. “You thinking at all about what I need, Nikki? Huh? You thinking about that? While you’re sitting in your momma’s pretty house, no one caring where you are or what you do?”
    I wiped my face. Hearing him, even if he was mad, was better than not. “Of course I am. That’s why I called—I was so worried.”
    â€œI don’t think so. I think all you’re thinking about, all you ever stinking think about, is your fat self and what can I do to pull you up. What you can get out of me.”
    â€œYou know I’ll do anything for you, Dee, I just—”
    He chuckled, low. “Yeah, well, what I really need is to just get the hell out of here for a while.”
    â€œAnywhere, Dee. Anywhere. I have some money. It’s not much, but it might last a little bit. We could get into South Carolina, maybe go to the beach.”
    Another laugh, this one meaner. “I ain’t taking you nowhere no more.”
    â€œI don’t . . . understand.”
    â€œUnderstand this, you hear me? I. Never. Want to see. Your face. Again. I’m changing my phone number, so help me God, if you try to call it one more time. You hear me, Nikki? I’m getting out of here, and if you so much as send me one tiny text or do anything else to mess up what I been trying to take care of, I swear to sweet Mary, mother of Jesus, that I will smash this phone so deep into your skull that it’ll print on the back side of your brain. You get me? Or do you need me to spell it out?”
    I was shaking. He was mad, scared, sure. Just like me. But it was because of everything going on. We just needed to calm down. This was what happened when we couldn’t press our