Selena’s Lesson

“Oh come on, Deyanna. Don’t be delusional.” I tell my girlfriend of nine months. She’s pacing around the kitchen, her strappy heels clicking on the vinyl flooring. The too-familiar click-clack echoes around my cheap California apartment.

”Delusional?!” She answers, furious. “Now I’m delusional?! I just wanted honesty. Did you go to that damn party or not?” She stops pacing around the kitchen of my apartment to face where I’m seated in a chair at the dining table. 

Even angry, she has a glow about her. Her gorgeous golden eyes edged with a sharp winged eyeliner pop against her tan skin and curled, jet black hair. The soft blushed features on her face could pull any man she wanted, just like the curves tucked into the tight black dress she now wore. The dress lightly grazes the floor as she stamps a foot on the ground, her thigh peeking out of the slit running down one side of the dress.

Deyanna always dressed like she was meeting the president, no matter the occasion. It’s only one of the many things I love about her.

She snaps her fingers, to wake me from my daze. “Answer me. Did you go?”

I look her in the eyes. “Yes, I went. But only because my friends were begging me to. You said you wouldn’t care, to do whatever. That I should do what I wanted.”

”But I did care, how could you not hear the fuckin’ sarcasm in my voice? I also told you that we’re not twenty-three anymore. We shouldn’t be going to parties like we’re in college.” She says with a cross of her arms, then taps her black manicured fingernails on her arms. One of the spaghetti straps holding up her dress slips down her shoulder slightly, and I clear my throat to concentrate.

”I’m sorry, I guess I just misunderstood.” I hang my head.

”Misunderstood? Damn it, Lukas, I’m trying to get you to change. To understand and teach you an important lesso-“ Deyanna gets cut off by her phone ringing from a call. It echoes throughout my small apartment. Sighing, she walks to the kitchen counter to check it. 

Turning back around without looking at me, she says, “Shit, I have to take this. It’s important.” Then she walks into another room.

I rub my fingers against my temples. I really don’t understand why she came by my apartment for this. I don’t like arguing. But I do understand her frustration. 

Deyanna had been invited to the same party by a few of her old friends, but had declined for the same reasons she gave me when I called her to inform her I was going. From the other room, I can hear her talking. It sounds like she’s trying to converse quietly, but I can make out what she’s saying. I listen in on the rest of the conversation. 

“No, father. Yes, I know he did it. No, I can’t prove it, but if you bring him in I can make him-“ There’s a long pause of silence. “Yes, he’s my boyfriend.”

Taken aback, I start to get up, before deciding it’s probably a bad idea. So I just listen.

“Father, listen, he’s not going to change. I thought I could handle it a different way thi-“ I hear her sigh. “Fine, I’ll explain the rest when I see you. Okay, see you later. Yes, I love you too.” I hear her tap to hang up the call and try to dissolve my face into something neutral, as if I hadn’t been listening.

She walks quickly back into the kitchen, grabbing her keys and purse. “I have to go. Something important has come up.”

”Wait, Deyanna!” I say as I jump out of my chair to grab her arm. “What about the party? Are you still mad?”

Turning to face me, her face shifts into anger and she rips her arm out of my grip. “I’ll deal with you later.” She answers and bolts out the front door of my apartment, leaving me to sit and ponder her phone call.

Hours later, I’m pacing the kitchen as Deyanna had, racking my brain over what her conversion could have meant. It had certainly been about me, but what did she mean by ‘I know he did it’ and ‘bring him in’? Is her father a cop or something? What did I do?

Only further confusing myself, I stuff my wallet in my pocket. Then grab my own keys off the wall by the front door, and leave for her apartment.

Pulling up the street to her expensive Cali apartment complex, I see her car parked on the street outside her apartment. I park my car behind hers on the curb, and try to catch my breath. I run a hand through my shaggy brown hair and step out of my car to make my way up the stairs to her door.

Once I make it to her door, I take another deep breath and reach my arm up to knock. But before my knuckles even make contact with the door, I hear her yell that it's unlocked. I turn the knob and let myself in, wondering how she knows I’m here. 

Not a single light is on. Some of the windows are casting small rays of sun around the house, illuminating parts of it in a golden glow. I hear the sound of pages flipping from her living room and make my way towards it. There in the dimly lit living room, Deyanna sits beautifully in a lounge chair, wearing the same dress. The leg on the slit side of the dress is completely exposed, and is draped across the other leg elegantly. She looks like a model. 

Flipping through a magazine with her acrylic nails, she doesn’t even glance my direction; making it feel like something out of a movie.

“Deyanna?” I stop in the entryway to the living room.

“Hm?” She responds.

“I, well, I’m sorry about the party. I understand, lesson learned. But I heard your conversation on the phone earlier at my place, and I don’t mean to pry, but it’s been bothering me.”

“Mhm.” She hums.

I clear my throat, feeling powerless. ”Well, um, it was about me, right? I just wanted to know what you meant by-“

She interrupts me with a sigh and tosses the open magazine onto the coffee table in front of her chair. Without looking me in the eyes, she nods her head in my direction.

I open my mouth to speak when something black covers my head and someone kicks the back of one of my knees. I groan and crumple to the ground. 

“Deyanna!!” I cry out. I hear her heels clicking out of the room. Then someone kicks me in the head, knocking me out.

I awake in a chair. My hands and shins are tied to it, and the dark cloth is still over my head. My right temple is throbbing and I can feel dried blood in my hair. 

I start to tug at my wrists and a man in front of me speaks, making me jump. “Ah, he’s awake.”

The man has a deep voice that echoes off the walls. He rips the cloth off my head and the single light in the room above me blinds me, making my head pound harder. Squinting, I groan and try to look around. It looks like I’m in some abandoned warehouse, God knows where. I see a few men stationed around the room like shadows, but recognize none of them. 

Finally taking a look at the man in front of me, I realize I don’t know him either. He’s tall and has a muscular build, despite the few gray hairs sprinkled throughout his black hair. Dressed in an expensive, mahogany button-up shirt and black dress pants, he’s clean shaven, with short wavy hair. His facial features are sharp, with high cheekbones and a rugged smile. He looks like he’s in his forties.

Suddenly terrified, I try to rip my wrists from the chair. The man crouches in front of me with a grin. “Oh, you won’t be getting out of that.”

“Where am I?! Who are you?!” I scream at him. Then I remember Deyanna. “Deyanna?! Deyanna, where are you? What is this?!”

“Oh, she’s fine, trust me. But you won’t be when she’s done with you. Your future is in her hands now. You know my daughter told me everything, right? You’re lucky I’m not handling this myself.”

Yet again bewildered, I look at the man crouched in front of me. “What, in God’s name, are you talking about? What was that phone call about? I don’t understand!”

The man stands and takes a few steps back. “You will.”

Then I hear a familiar click of heels on the smooth concrete floor.

Emerging from the darkness behind her father, Deyanna stops behind him. “That’s enough, father.” He steps to the side, out of her way, and simply nods. She looks flawless like always, her face set in a neutral expression.

“Hello, Lukas.” She says softly.

”Deyanna, let me out of this chair. I didn’t do anything wrong, I swear!” I answer while tugging at my restraints.

She closes the few feet between us and smirks. “Didn’t you?”

I stop fighting the rope around my wrists. “I-I really don’t know what you’re talking about.“

”So, you don’t remember a certain college graduation party a year and a half ago? Like the one you went to last night?”

My throat starts to go dry. ”Yes, but I only remember going to it. What’s that got to do with anything?”

Slowly, Deyanna begins to slowly circle my chair. “You don’t remember spiking that girl’s drink? After you told your friends she was out of your league and would never sleep with you? Or how she punched you in the face when you asked her to sleep with you? You got mad and left her there.” She snaps.

Everything from the party starts flooding my memory. “Oh.”

She pauses to the right side of my chair, narrows her winged eyes, and wrinkles her nose. “Oh? That’s it? You have nothing else to fuckin’ say?” 

Tears begin to form in my eyes. I’d somehow forgotten all about that girl. I know I should have never done such a thing, but I’d never do it again. This explains why Deyanna didn’t want me going to that party.

Deyanna steps in front of my chair and crosses her arms, then taps a painted acrylic nail on her cheek. “What was her name, Lukas? Hmm, Selena? Yeah, Selena.”

I don’t have the heart to look her in the eyes, so I close my eyes and bow my head. I feel a hand grasp my left arm, then an acrylic nail gently lifts my chin up. 

When I open my bright blue eyes, Deyanna is leaning over me, her face just a breath away from mine. I look into her golden eyes and see nothing but rage. “Selena. Glasses and bobbed hair, remember?” She whispers and pulls away. 

Everything starts to slowly and frighteningly piece itself together in my head, when she speaks again, confirming my bewildering thoughts. “Well, nice to finally meet you. My name is Selena, not Deyanna. And your next lesson?”

She draws back her arm and balls her hand into a fist. “Don’t fuck with the mafia.”

Then Selena punches me straight in the face, knocking me out cold.