Look at Me! by Jonathan Reiss

Author:Jonathan Reiss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2020-06-08T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

CARRY ON

It was just the two of them for the first time in a while. They slept late. It was about three p.m. when they woke up. Geneva was lying with her head on X’s chest. Abruptly, he told her to get up. X stood up, grabbed his phone, and walked out to the balcony to make a call. Geneva couldn’t quite make out whose voice was on the other line, but she could hear X prying for details, swearing again that he would let it all go, that he was over it. He just needed to know the whole truth.

A moment later, he charged back into the bedroom still holding the phone. Rob was on speaker. X demanded she tell him the truth or he was going to “kill her and this jit.” “Jit” is South Florida slang for “kid.”

Geneva remembered X grabbing a pair of purple-handled pliers and gesturing with them as he said: “kill this jit.”

X dropped the phone and pliers and then crawled toward her on the bed. She scurried away, scooting backward until she was up against the headboard. Then he stood up on the mattress and began beating her. This time wasn’t like the other times. X pounced on her like he wanted to damage her irreparably.

He proceeded to elbow, headbutt, and punch, threatening to kill her if she didn’t tell him the truth. He began hitting her with closed fists. She closed her eyes and balled up on the bed, trying to protect herself. She could feel his feet kicking her. His elbows slammed into her head. This was the worst it had ever been. The blows to her head continued, constant and steady, until she began to unravel. She threw up. Her vision went blurry and wobbly. He still didn’t let up. She said she caught a look at herself in the mirror and couldn’t recognize her face. An amorphous blob of blood appeared to drip from her pupil in the sclera of her eye as she wavered in and out of consciousness.

Just then, X snapped out of it. She remembered him lying on the floor in the fetal position. “What did I do? What did I do?” he repeated, rocking back and forth. He started to tell her how sorry he was, but mid-apology she began vomiting again. He grabbed a bag for her to throw up in and started rubbing her back, trying to comfort her, trying to apologize. This lasted only a few moments before he demanded once again that she tell him the truth.

Sunny Fashawn and Absent Will returned to the apartment. Sunny opened the door, and Will walked inside first. Sunny remembers that Will stopped short and reflexively muttered, “Oh shit.”

On the video she made retelling this story, Sunny sobbed as she recalled the state of Geneva Ayala when she walked into her apartment that day. She described her face as “huge,” the size of “a pumpkin with super implants.” She said she threw up in her mouth when she saw it.

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