novelxo Chapter 6: "Lady"
Chapter 6: “Lady”
Before Lady and Desi became best friends, no one knew of Lady or her story. Lady was always quiet and shy. She didn’t really have any friends and she stayed to herself. It wasn’t that Lady didn’t want friends, she actually longed to have somebody she could talk to and laugh and play with. Somebody who would be her escape from the hell she was raised in.
Lady was the second and final daughter of Georgia and Larry Towns. She had an older sister, by the name of Adella who was seven years older than her. You would’ve never thought that they were related as Lady was quiet and meek. Meanwhile, Adella, or affectionately known as “Della”, was the life of the party. She always had a party to go to and she never had to worry about being lonely because there was always somebody’s man on her arm or her eyes were on someone else’s man while with someone else’s man.
Georgia and Larry Towns met over thirty years ago, one night in a local club that Georgia was a bartender at. Larry was a regular customer at the club, who’d always come in every weekend. Georgia always thought Larry was an attractive man; tall, standing at about 6’0, maybe a little bit taller. He was a black man and Georgia was white. She always had a thing for black men so that was a plus for her. But she still tried not to look his way or give him any attention, as she would always see him with a different woman almost every weekend he came into that club. It wasn’t like he had a preference, either. Some of the women would be cute and petite, others would be fat and sloppy but still cute. Georgia always saw Larry as a womanizer and the stories she would hear about him didn’t sway her, either. She thought he was very handsome but, nevertheless, she stayed away.
Until one fateful night, when Larry came into the club and he was alone. This was a surprise from what Georgia would always see and she could also tell that Larry was visibly upset. Georgia began talking to him as he approached the bar and as the conversation carried on, she found out the real reason why he was upset. Larry found out that one of the many women he was dating was actually married. This made him so upset because he never wanted to mess with a married woman and he felt bad, thinking that he was the other man the entire time. Georgia was empathetic to Larry and as she began to comfort him, the night turned into a one night stand as Larry invited her to come back to his apartment. Nine months later, Georgia gave birth to Adella. That very same month, she and Larry got married.
It took seven years for Georgia to get pregnant again and by the time she gave birth to Lady, her and Larry had become extremely toxic to one another. Even though they were married, Larry always had other women. Of course, Georgia would find out about them over time and this would cause them to argue and fight. Over the years, Della and Lady would see their mother constantly getting physically abused at the hands of their father. Sometimes, Larry would even abuse his own daughters. After every fight, Larry would always threaten them and tell them to not say anything. Every year that passed as Della and Lady grew, they always knew not to tell anyone that one dark and dirty secret: that their mother was a victim of domestic violence and they too, were victims of child abuse. By the time Lady had turned ten, she wanted out. Especially after the incident that caused her to have a permanent scar on her left cheek.
On the night before Desi and Lady had met each other and officially became best friends, Lady was assaulted by her father, on accident. It was around 12 a.m. in the morning when Lady was awakened out of her sleep to the high-pitched screaming of her mother. As always, she knew this meant her mother and father were arguing and more than likely, it was over the same thing. Either he had been out cheating or was caught in the act of it. Normally, Lady and Della would pretend to be asleep as they knew better to not get in between their parents when they were fighting. But suddenly, Lady started hearing dishes slamming and breaking. Either they were being thrown on the floor in a fit of rage by her father or they were being thrown against the wall. The sound made Lady sit up in the bed she shared with Della, instantly. Della continued to sleep. Either she heard the sounds and chose to ignore them or she actually was asleep.
Lady heard another dish break and she heard her mother scream out, in fear. She hopped out the bed and ran as fast as she could to the kitchen, thinking she was going to attempt to save her mother. Lady stopped as she stood in the entrance of the kitchen and could see her mother, cowering in the corner right between the refrigerator and the back door to their balcony. Georgia was covering her face but, Lady could also see the blood stains on her sleeves from possibly hiding her face from the dishes Larry was throwing against the wall by her or maybe worse. Larry stood about three feet away from Georgia and continued to grab plates and glasses out the cabinet and throw them against the wall at Georgia, while he cursed her out.
Lady screamed out, “DADDY! STOP!” and at that same moment, Larry was caught off guard by Lady screaming and was also about to throw a plate. At that same instant, because Larry was startled by Lady’s yelling, the plate that he was throwing was suddenly hurling towards Lady’s direction. Although Lady put her arms over her face and tried to duck, the plate broke against the wall and a stray piece flew past her face in the process. When Lady let down her arms, she could also feel a stinging pain in her face. Lady lightly touched her left cheek and not only felt the deep scar but she also had blood on her fingertips.
Larry saw this and immediately stopped what he was doing and called 911. Georgia and Lady were rushed off to the hospital moments later, where Lady received stitches and a huge bandage across her face. Georgia’s wounds were also taken care of.
The next day, Lady was in school and as she tried to keep her focus on her schoolwork, she still couldn’t wrap her head around the night before. She asked her teacher for a bathroom pass just so she could go and cry in the bathroom stall. She didn’t want to cry in front of her classmates or her teacher. As Lady sat in the bathroom stall, crying her eyes out, she began to have all of these thoughts. Lady hated how her father treated her mother and she hated her mother for putting up with his craziness and abuse. Lady wished really, really hard that she would have the opportunity to run away and escape the madness.
Lady soon got that wish. Later on that day, she arrived home from school to find five police cars, as well as helicopters flying around in the sky. Lady also could see her older sister, Della, speaking with a police officer. Lady could tell Della was distraught, as the police officer continued to hand her tissues to wipe the tears away from her face. Lady got the sense that something bad had happened.
Della had arrived home before Lady did and walked into their apartment. She immediately saw both of her parents’ dead bodies, laying in the living room. Larry had been shot twice in the chest and Georgia had turned the gun on herself, committing suicide. Della and Lady were sent to Mississippi to live with their aunt for a couple of years after the loss of their parents. By the time Lady turned sixteen and Della was twenty-one, they decided to move back to Atlanta. Their aunt had passed away a year before and left them with enough money to do as they pleased. Della wanted to move back to Atlanta to go to school and Lady followed right behind her. Della got them an apartment that she was able to pay the rent up for about six months and she began to put in applications for school. Della also enrolled Lady into the local high school where she would end up attending the same school as Desi.
Desi and Lady tried to start a friendship again but Desi eventually ended up learning a valuable life lesson: people change. Some for the good and some for the worse.