"You really don't remember us?" Ebony asks, "Girl we grew up together."

"I don't remember."

"Well your parents both died right after you disappeared," Ivory adds in, "Everyone was saying they died from heartache. Everyone was upset when you disappeared but when the Richardsons died...it was just a tragedy."

These people get all sensitive at that moment. They are all looking down, reminiscing and shit. I'm shocked.

Lady Richardson was a real person. She existed. Not only did she fucking exist before but Team Underwood also known as Atlanta High Society knew exactly who she fucking was. They were best friends with this girl. It all made sense now how Lady was so fucking perfect. She fit right in with these people.

"I'm kind of hot," I state.

It's the only words that come out of my mouth because right now it's the only thing I'm thinking about. I'm heating up. I knew what happened when I got to hot. When I got too hot I changed. I couldn't change in front of these people. It couldn't work like that.

I try to move away but Tempest blocks me. She gives me that same look that scared me when I was Demarco. It has a similar effect on Lady.

"Not so fast," Tempest states.

I'm cornered. The High Society members make a circle around me. Miles is smoking. The smoke gets in my face. I cough. I am sweating. I am a wild animal cornered in this bathroom with no where to go and I don't understand it even for a second.

"It's hot."

I'm steaming up. I'm so hot. I'm feeling a little faint.

"Why aren't you dead?" Savannah asks.

"Oh my god Savannah. You can't just ask someone why they aren't dead," Ivory retorts relatively quickly.

Tempest puts her finger in front of my face at that moment. She points directly at me almost as though she is accusing me of some shit. It could be worse. They could have all known that I really wasn't Lady Richardson. They could all know that I was pretending.

"What happened to you?" Tempest asks me.

Her voice is deep, shocked and bothered. I'm cornered.

"I don't know."

"What you got some kind of Amnesia?"

"Maybe."

That would work! Amnesia.

Tempest squints, "And you just showed up here huh? Amnesia and all? Huh..."

I don't know what to say. My eyes roll in the back of my head. I'm losing it. I'm trying to fight back Demarco. He keeps trying to come through. He's panicking. The more he panics the more he is breaking through. I keep trying to keep it under control like Malachi said. I have to keep it under control. I couldn't allow him to get the best of me.

Luckily I'm saved. It's Storm. He pushes through the girls.

"Yo. Chill. Give her some space..."

Storm pulls me out of there just in time. I feel less hot when he does but my body is still overheating. It's taking longer than before. That was definitely a good thing. I was barely maintaining though. I wouldn't be able to keep this up for long. I needed to get out of here ASAP.

"I have to go," I say at that moment.

I run out of the bathroom. I run all the way to the front of the exit. I'm running so fast that I am tripping over my goddam dress. Cupid had taught me how to walk in heels but he definitely didn't prepare me for running in them.

"Are you serious?" he asks.

"I have to go."

"I love you. I mean...I loved you and I lost you. I'm not going to just let you run away right now," Storm states.

For so long I wanted to see Storm look at me how he was looking at Lady Richardson. I wanted him to run after me and swear his love to me. All of those things were happening right now at this moment. The man of my dreams had just told me he loved me.

But a bitch was hot. Too hot.

"I'm sorry."

I start running away. This Cinderella's carriage was about to change back into a pumpkin. The difference is as I run away I don't drop a glass slipper. Those slippers were way too fucking expensive to drop.
I do end up dropping something though. I drop the sketch. I drop the sketch of my dress.

~

By the time I get home I look crazy. I don't even bother explaining to my Uber driver why there is a grown man in a dress, sweating off his make up. I look motherfucking crazy but right now I don't care how crazy I look. Right now I am pissed. No I am aggravated.

My cousin hadn't told me the whole truth.

I get into my house and I'm screaming up the walls.
"SHE WAS A PERSON! SHE WAS A FUCKING PERSON!" I scream.

I find him in the bedroom. Malachi has his legendary suitcase out and is frantically packing it for whatever reason. He looks scared of something. I don't know what but at that moment he seems so scared. I am throwing my dress off frantically, wiping my makeup off. I feel so stupid by the time I am putting on basketball shorts and a t-shirt.

I walk over to Malachi. He was really leaving. What the fuck?

"I can't stay," he says again.

"Oh so you come into town, you start a whole bunch of shit and you just leave?" I ask Malachi.

"You don't get it. The company that created the pill...they found me. I can't fucking leave. Where are the pills?"

Malachi goes into the bathroom. He grabs the pink pills. He throws them in the suitcase. He randomly runs into the kitchen to get his other contraptions. As he does that I take the pills out of the suitcase and throw them underneath my pillow. I'm not sure why I do that.

I don't want to do that.

But something in me is telling me to take the pills. Hide the pills. Don't let Malachi take the pills away.

And I listen to the voice in my head...I listen to that feminine voice.

He comes back in the room.

"Malachi what the fuck drug did you give me?" I ask him.

" I didn't tell you the whole truth."

"No shit."

"Listen. I was working on a miracle pill. These people gave me a whole fucking team of the best scientists in the world. A way to communicate with spirits. We thought we were making some groundbreaking shit. It was the first step. Who knew what we could do with the pill afterwards? Feel me? You could do a lot of shit with a pill like that. Maybe one day we could bring back the dead."

Holy shit.

What the fuck had my cousin gotten himself involved in now? This stupid motherfucker.

"I"m telling Grandma."

It's the only thing I can think of right now.

"Listen. I didn't think it was going to be this bad. I didn't even think it was going to work. Hell I used a friend of mine to experiment. You take parts of a dead person's DNA. A piece of hair in their brush. You do some gene splicing. You create a pill. Easy shit. Right? That's what I thought. But I freaked out when I saw that it really looks like her. I couldn't take it."

"Lady Richardson?"

"Yeah."

"Storm told me he was in love with me tonight. He told Lady he was in love with her."

Malachi gets quiet, "I know."

"Malachi who is Lady to you?"

"Tell Grandma I love her."

"Malachi. What the fuck happened to Lady?"

"It's ok now. It's ok."

"MALACHI! Stop ignoring my questions,. Why did Storm and his friends think she was murdered?"

"Ask them!" my cousin says.

Ask them? He wants me to ask Storm and his friends? My mouth drops open at that moment.

There is a knock on the door at that moment anyway. It distracts me but it scares the fuck out of Malachi. Malachi damn near jumps out of his fucking skin when he hears the knock on the door. What the fuck is he so scared of?
"It's them."

"Who?"

"Team Underwood. Cous. I love you. You know that right?" Malachi asks.
Malachi is sweating like a prostitute in church. He is breathing hard. There is another knock on the door and another. The knocking gets harder. Banging. Someone is banging on the front door almost like they are about to start breaking it down at any moment. I'm panicking. This shit is not happening right now.

"Why you saying this shit like I'm not going to see you again?"

"Because I can't have you involved in this," Malachi explains, "I came here being selfish wanting to find out what happened to Lady. I should have taken the pill myself. I just couldn't take looking at her for too long. I'm sorry cous. I'm sorry. I'll fix things. I swear I'll fix things."

"Malachi you scaring me."

"I'm just keeping it on 20," my cousin says, "Stall them for me."

With that my cousin starts climbing out of my window to the fire escape. He takes his suitcase with him. I can't believe this is happening right now. I can't believe that Malachi is acting like this right now. Everything doesn't make sense and I don't know where to start.

I walk over to the door. My heart is racing. My palms are sweating.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

The knocking gets louder and louder. I make my way to the door and open it. Behind the door there are two pale white men with suits on and glasses. I feel like I just entered the Matrix. They don't have facial expressions. They look like they are waiting on an elevator. I take a deep breath as they stare at me.

It's not Storm and his friends like Malachi had assumed though.

"May I help you?" I ask.

"We are looking for Malachi Carter?"

"Whose we?" I ask.

"CIA."

They show me badges. The fuck did my cousin get himself involved in. CIA? Really Malachi? Why the fuck was the CIA at my damn door looking for him. I take a deep breath. We are in real deep trouble if they catch him.
"Malachi isn't here," I state.
"Have you heard from him?"

"No."

"Really because he has you down as his emergency contact."

"Is Malachi in trouble, sir?"

"Malachi has some property that belongs to the government. Some pills. Pink pills to be exact."

I shrug.

"No Malachi. No pills."

"Do you mind if we come in for a moment?" the agent asks.

The pills were still in the house. Why am I not letting them just come in and take the fucking pills? Why am I not just getting over this. Maybe if they took the fucking pills they'd leave me alone. They'd leave my cousin alone. If I was smart I would lead them into the bedroom. If I was smart I would give them what they wanted and just leave.

"It's not a good time," I tell them.

The agents look at me. They are suspicious. Unless they had a warrant I wasn't going to let them in. They had no probable cause. I knew my rights.

"Well then," one agent says, "Sorry to interrupt you. If you hear from Malachi please give us a call."

The agent hands me a card. I look at it. I shove it in my pocket.

"Will do. Have a good day."

Why was I protecting the pills? Why wasn't I giving them over?

"No problem. Oh and sir. I believe you have a little bit of lipstick on your teeth..." one of the agents tell me.

I panic. I slam the door in their faces.

This wasn't good. This definitely wasn't good at all.

~

I end up in Cupid's Bow the next day. I tell Cupid what happened with the CIA showing up at my doorstep. I tell him all about Malachi picking up and going on the run again. Luckily my cousin knew that they were after him. He was smart enough to get away before they came.

"But I still have the pills..." I finish my story.

"Well I don't know what to tell you boo," Cupid tells me, "You need to take them."

"Did you not hear the part where I said the CIA is involved?"

"I heard the part where you said that Storm Underwood is in love with Lady. People in love fuck. You know what that means? That means you have a chance to fuck Storm Underwood. Matter of fact. Scratch that. You'd be making love to Storm Underwood. Ain't no jury in the world would indict you for taking those pills," Cupid pushes me crossing his arms.

"With what's going on with my cousin, I don't care," I explain before getting a little heated, "I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT STORM UNDERWOOD."

"Um...Demarco."

"What?"

Cupid is staring behind meat that moment. He stares behind me and he sees someone. I get nervous thinking about who has just walked into the store.
"He's standing behind me isn't he?"

Cupid nods.

The awkward moment is even more awkward when I turn around and see Storm standing there looking like a million dollars. He has DSQUARED bomber jacket, a long shirt with a plunging neckline and Jordans that haven't even dropped in stores yet. I don't get it. Does he look sexy all the time? I can hardly even look in his eyes because his pecs are popping out of his shirt. With as busy as his schedule I have no idea how he manages to work out like that.
His stare continues for a few awkward seconds. Cupid is no help! He disappears in the back. I'm clearly looking back at Storm after getting caught talking shit about him.

Then I remember how Storm embarrassed me with his sister. Why the fuck would i care.
My attitude switches on almost immediately.

"What bro? What are you looking at me like that for? Stare somewhere else," I say aggressively as possibly.

I might be smaller than Storm but I was no punk.

"Really all that?"

"You can here staring. If you want to say something, say it. If you got a problem say that too."

"You just told your friend that you didn't give a fuck about me," Storm says.

"And I meant it," I respond.

I'm blunt. Rude. Coarse. I'm all the things I could never imagine I'd be with Storm. I don't care though. Right now I'm in the worse mood seeing Storm and I refuse to be that gay dude who falls in love with a straight dude just so the straight dude could use him.

"Dam. It's like that?"

"It's like that."

There is a pause.

"Damn."

His response is shocked. I don't think a lot of people shut Storm down like this. Hell it might be the only time. I can't even believe I'm doing it. There is this sass inside of me that I had never felt before. For some reason it just lingers there. Normally I would have been just happy to see Storm. i would have smiled and kissed his ass.

"Is there something you want?" I ask him, "I'm busy..."

He raises and eyebrow, "Ok. You're giving me attitude. I deserve it. I'll admit that. I came because I saw a sketch and it belongs to a friend of mine. It looks like the sketches that you do. Her name is Lady. Do you remember designing the dress?"

I nod, "Yeah...she's a friend of mine."

"So that's why Malachi is back in town?"

"Look I don't know the history between her and Malachi. I just made her a dress."

"True it probably isn't important. Look. I don't want to make you mad. i can tell I'm pissing you off. I just wanted to know if you could give me her contact information."

"Actually I can't." I respond, "Sorry. Out of luck."

"Well at least give her mine when you see her."

He was obsessed. Seeing him like this is annoying as hell to be honest. He must have really loved her. I hate the idea of it even though with a pill I can become Lady all over again.

And I feel bad for him.

I know how it feels to be obsessed with someone and have them just drop out of your life...

"Sure," I state.

"Thanks."

He's still standing there. He's just staring at me. I don't get it.

"Is there something else?"

"Ok. I want to be honest with you. I also came here just to apologize about what happened that night. I'm not going to make excuses for my behavior and I wanted to hit you up after to check on you."

"But you didn't."

His right eyebrow shuffles upwards. There is tension all over his face. It must be hard for him to be having a conversation like this.

None-the-less he sucks it up and stares me right in the face like a man.

"I wanted to. I swear I did. I'm not like that man..."

"Like what?"

"Like them," he responds, "Believe it or not. I really vibed with you. I haven't vibed with anyone like that ever."

"Not even Lady?"

There is a pause.

"Did she tell you something about us?"

"Just that you two have history. Is there something I should know about you?"

He hesitates, "Look. I don't want to get you involved. I just want to apologize. There is so much that you don't know and I kind of want to keep it that way. That's why I never hit you back up. This world I live in is not good for someone like you," he explains, "You're a good person. This lifestyle completely doesn't work well for good people."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

At that moment Cupid comes out.
"Demarco! Demarco your grandmother is on the phone."

"Tell her I'll call her back."

"Demarco now."

I was having a serious heart to heart with Storm. I didn't have time for this.

"Cupid, did you hear what I just said?" I ask him.

I turn and look him in his eyes. That's when I notice Cupid's expression. Tears. Why the fuck was Cupid crying? This had to be serious. As long as I've known my best friend I knew he wasn't the type to break down and start crying.

"It's Malachi. He's dead."

To read the next chapter in advance go to www.crushedcrown.com