Wasted

When you waste love on the wicked, the innocent will pay.

All she could do was stare at her sister and her boyfriend sitting on her sofa calmly shifting through the channels on the TV. Gerald Fisher was bad. The law wanted him for the rape of a fifteen-year-old girl from their neighborhood; her name was Rhonda Mosley and she was Leslie's friend from school. Geneva, Leslie's twenty-year-old sister knew her. She had even given the girl a ride home a couple of times. How could she let this man in her house? She knew that he was on the run. The cops even came here looking for him but she told them that he beat her up and ran off towards Florida. Leslie saw the bruises on her sister's face, and knew what she said was true about the beating. She had two black eyes and a nasty gash on her cheek. Her lips looked swollen and bloody. Maybe they argued about the charges and he convinced her with violence that he had done nothing wrong. At least that is what Leslie thought at first. However, Geneva never thought that Gerald did anything, wrong. She said that he was perfect. She said that she would kill for him.

What had happened to her sister? She was her best friend. She was who Leslie wanted to grow up and be like. She was good. She was gentle. She was weak minded; that is what their mother called her. She said she wanted everyone to love her and would do whatever to make that happen. She never wanted her youngest child to go anywhere near her older sister after she hooked up with Gerald. Leslie always listened to her mother. She suspected nothing when Geneva called her and asked her come over and sit with her because she wanted some company. Their mother said it was okay and Leslie walked over to her sister's apartment not suspecting what awaited her inside.

Geneva grabbed her sister's hand and pulled her into her bedroom as Gerald watched them walk away. Once Geneva closed the bedroom door, Leslie snatched her hand away and glared up at her.

"You lied to them. You said he left."

"Why do you believe those cops and all that press about him? He would never rape anyone."

"The fact that he was with someone other than you does not bother you."

Geneva tried to smile to cover up her anger."You just don't understand love."

"No, you don't understand love. He is wrong. He is all wrong. He raped my friend and you are helping him get away with it by lying to the cops."

Geneva chuckled nervously. "I am standing by my man."

"What is wrong with you? Does love make you stupid because if it does I don't ever want to be in love. Why can't you see that he is bad? Everyone else can see it."

Geneva frowned at her sister and paced the room. "He is not bad. He loves me and makes me happy. I don't care what other people say about him. All that stuff about him raping women is a lie. They just don't want a black man to get anything; we are leaving here and going down to his mother's house in Georgia. "

"DNA does not lie. All those women did not know him and did not want him in their house. He followed them home and then he raped them. He was dating you during all of this. He had to have seen something. You are not that blind, you just choose not to see because you have to have everyone like you good or bad. You are helping a rapist Geneva. You are the worst that a woman can be."

The door squeaked as it slowly opened and the heavyset man that sat on the sofa stood in the doorway. His clean-shaven face contorted in anger as he stared at the two women in the room. When his eyes diverted to Geneva, Leslie knew that she was danger. As if in a dream, she felt her sister's hand come around her neck. Leslie bit down on the skin of her arm as hard as she could. The scream from her gave Leslie a small victory. She could hear Gerald running towards her and avoided her wide swinging arms. He fell into Geneva and they tumbled to the floor. Leslie ran out of the bedroom and into the living room. She unlocked the front door and threw it open. She ran down the empty hallway of the apartment complex checking behind her for her pursuers. She scampered down the stairs and out the door to the bustling street and bright sunshine.

Geneva applied the ice pack to the wound on her arm as she waited in the kitchen for Gerald to come out of the bedroom. Geneva removed the ice pack and stared at the teeth marks on her arm that came from her sister. This imprint would always remind her of Leslie every time she looked at it. Leslie was a fighter and she fought for her life but she could not fight them both. Once they got her down on the bed, Gerald told her to leave. Geneva walked out on her screaming sister hoping that the neighbor's did not hear her.  No one understood what Gerald did for her. He was good to her. Sure, they had their disagreements but for the most part, he treated her well. He just needed a break sometimes and went out to clear his head. She knew that women found him as irresistible as she did and he was a man. She could forgive his indiscretions, but to call them rapes. Geneva could not believe that.

The bedroom door opened and Gerald walked out while putting his shirt back on. He ignored Geneva as he walked into the kitchen and grabbed a butcher knife from the knife block. Geneva stared at him as he walked towards her and handed her the knife.

"We can't have any witnesses now. Your sister will talk and I can't have that. You're my girl right?"

A small smile formed on her beaten face and Gerald smiled down at her and caressed her chin.

"Go in there and finish her off,"

All Leslie could smell was the blood from her beaten face and her lost innocence that Gerald violently took from her. She heard her sister say something and then the biting pain of steel sliding into her chest made her scream out. She felt Geneva's hand cover her mouth as she continued slamming the knife into her chest until she stopped moving.

Geneva smiled at Gerald as he placed the last of the suitcases into the trunk and then opened the driver side door. He was wearing a disguise now He wore fake beard and green contacts. They were not looking for a man with a beard. He had checked for any cops but none was around. They were all looking at the highways and they were going to take another route that stayed away from the popular roads.

"Does your mother know that we are coming?"

Gerald smiled at her. She had surprised him. She did not hesitate to stab her sister for him. She loved him over everything good and right. She was perfect.

"Yeah I called her yesterday and she said that we could stay there."

Geneva smiled but it faded as the bite on her arm began to act up. She lowered her head and grimaced against the pain shooting up her arm.

Gerald touched the gash on her cheek. "I love you."

Geneva looked up and her heart soared. This is what Leslie could not understand. Love was what every woman looked for. It did not matter what he did to others. She knew that Gerald loved her.