Do Unto Me As I Do You

Larissa angrily paced the floor waiting for HIM to come home. From time to time she’d walk over to the window to see if his car pulled up in the driveway. “Larissa stop staring at the clock. You’re just making yourself even madder.”

It had only been five hours since she stepped off the plane to surprise Lance with a visit. It had been three in a half hours since she made it home and changed her clothes to surprise Lance at his club. It was now an hour since she was the one to receive the surprise, Lance dancing and making out with some trick he met on the dance floor.

“He must be out of his damn mind to continually cheat and be so careless about his indiscretions. Urgh! And supposedly I have the smart one, so far that remains to be seen.”

She’s known he had cheated all along. She had hired a detective to track him and his going ons. When the P.I. retuned with pictures of him and his nasty women, Larissa’s first inclination was to track him down and put her foot all up in there. After searching his favorite haunts for three hours, cooler heads began to prevail. She wanted to chew him out for all the dirt he did—the cheating and lying. She wanted to his ass for being so sloppy in hiding his indiscretions. You would think being number seven on Forbes’ list of highest paid celebrities would afford some decent help to cover his tracks, but evidently not. It was all she could do not run to the nearest tabloid and air his dirty laundry.

Larissa glanced at a picture of the couple during their earlier days. Picking up the photo, she stared into his eyes. That was initial drew her into him. His eyes seemed to be caring and sensitive. His eyes were hiding a story. A story filled with lies, skanky women, hotel rooms, and late nights. She carefully traced his eyes in the picture with her finger. Many women were drawn to him because of his eyes, but unlike Larissa, they would never discover the truth behind those eyes.

Larissa flipped through television channels and stopped on an NSYNC special. “You chicks just don’t know the half.” A young girl looked excitedly into the camera and gushed, “Lance is my favorite. He has such gorgeous eyes.” Larissa started laughing out loud. “Gorgeous eyes? Heffa please!” She angrily stood up and yelled at the screen. “I betcha didn’t know that this punk ass muthfucka you are so enamored of wears colored contacts.” His true eye color was brown. Lou Perlman said we can’t have three guys with brown eyes. Being the new kid he didn’t have much of a vote. Plus at that time what Lou said, goes. With those odds against him, needless to say his ass got voted of the island. Green it is.

As she sat in a chair with legs crossed, she remembered how hard it was to pretend to be clueless while everyone knew about him. She deserved an Oscar for playing the dutiful fiancée, forever behind her man. How embarrassing for her, yet she could’ve received the Oscar for her glowing performance. He played her for a fool. But the only thing that kept her there was his money and what he could do for her. She was originally there for love, but she found herself falling out of love. He caused her pain and so much hurt.

Her thoughts were disrupted when she heard voices, both male and female coming closer to the house. The door lock slowly clicked and females came bolting into the house.

Larissa jumped up from the couch. “Who in blue hell are you?” The guys followed behind the girls. Chris was the first to step into the house followed by Justin. “Hey why is… everyone… standing in the door…?”

Larissa waved to both of the guys and pointed for them to stand beside the young women they brought in. “Come on in. Stand over there.” Chris and Justin reluctantly stepped off to the side next to the girls. The laughter from outside broke the silence. Joey and JC nosily entered the house. Their faces soon dropped when they saw Larissa standing against the couch. Larissa pointed at them and directed them to stand with the rest of their friends. “You two over there.” Lance wasn’t too long behind them. “Why are…you…?” He saw Larissa and started to head back out of the door. “STOP! Right where you are. Back it on up like you did at the club earlier tonight.” Lance walked towards her. “Larissa you didn’t tell me you were coming…” She stopped him dead in his tracks with the raise of an eye brow and a heavy dose of the evil eye.

“Does that mean that you would have cheated on me yesterday instead of today?.....I can not believe this…How dare the five of you bring these…women…into this house!”

A blonde young woman with very dark roots and silicone enhancements decided to be brave and step forward. “Uh guys why is your maid talking to you like that? This is your house.”

Larissa laughed heartily. “Tell me you did not just say that. No you’re not as stupid as you look. I know for a fact you did not say what I think you said!” Larissa looked to the guys. “Will someone please tell this bitch what’s up?”

The young woman not fully understanding the situation persisted. “Our help knows their place. You should fire her on the spot.” Joey kept whispering to her to shut up. “She’s his fiancée. Just be quiet.”

“Hold that thought!” Larissa ran into the kitchen and found the biggest knife she could and stated waving it at the girl. “Do you wanna say that shit again. With my current attitude I could just start swinging, slicing, and dicing. I’d really hate to waste your sugar daddy’s money by accidentally carving out those implants he so generously bought you!”

Larissa stood tapping her foot. “Lance you’d better do something to correct this situation.” He ushered the girls out and told them to have the driver to take them home. Lance closed the door and watched as Larissa returned the knife to its rightful place.

“Now that they’re gone let’s have an adult conversation. I just did that to scare them out of the house.” Justin whispered to Chris, “They aren’t the only ones who are scared. Chris tried to pull JC and Joey towards the door. “You know it’s kinda late we probably should leave you two alone.”

Larissa gave an innocent smile and grabbed the guys and led them to the couch. “Please sit down. What I have to say to Lance can be said in front of you too. I mean really, if you’re around him when he’s doing dirt, surely you can stay while he gets chewed out too.”

Justin became uncomfortable and shifted in his seat. “We wanted to tell you but that’s between you and Lance. We tried to tell him to stop, but he didn’t…”

She didn’t want to hear that, she shut Justin down by throwing him a hand. “Attention a Black woman is talking. You need to sit down and shut the fuck up. The time to talk would have been six months ago, Justin. Not this moment. Now sit yo ass down.”

Justin quickly sat down, “I’m…Just…Sitting here…quietly.”

Larissa took a deep breath and gave an apologetic look to the guys. “I’m sorry Justin that was rude of me. I’m taking my anger out on the wrong person. I can’t find fault with you all. You were looking out for your boy. Ya’ll are friends and that’s what friends do for each other. I know I’d do that for my girls.”

Larissa put her hand to her cheek and sadly shook her head. “But, you guys hurt me. I feel wronged because I thought you were my friends too. Every last one of you had a girlfriend you broke up with. And who was there helping each of you pick up the pieces. ME! I did nothing but be there for you all. We are family.”

Larissa threw her index finger in the air and made a circle. “WE are supposed to look out for each other. You let me down. You were wrong for that. But then again maybe not. You guys are his friends not mine.”

JC got out of his chair and walked towards Larissa with arms outstretched. Larissa stepped back. JC sighed, “I guess we deserve that. We are your friends even if it doesn’t seem like it now. We’re sorry we hurt you. I hope someday you can forgive us.”

“Larissa, I’m sorry but I never had sex with any of those girls, I just had oral...”

“Hold up player. Oral sex, Intercourse whatever. It’s still sex that you were having with someone else other than me and it’s still Cheating, Lance.”

“I had many internal battles baby. The first trick I found out about I was gonna jack you and her up but I truly don’t believe I’ll do well in prison. There’s really no need to have a Jerry Springer moment.” She walked over to the TV and turned it off.

“Then I was like should I sell all his clothes, car and have a hit ‘em up sell, but then I thought naw, you worked really hard for that stuff and I used some of my own money for a few of those things.”

She then paced the floor and stopped in front of JC. “Then I thought maybe I should bust out all the windows on your cars, and slash all of your tires. However I discarded that thought because of the whole jail thing…So you see my dilemma Lance. Your deeds definitely deserve a payback, but what’s a girl to do?”

Lance stood up and walked over to her and grabbed her arms slowly taking in her hands. “Rissa, I’m sorry. I’m horrible and I know this, but I really do love you.” Lance touched the engagement ring that was on her hand. “I really do want you as my wife. I feel it’s as real as the day I proposed to you. I’ll change. You have to give me another chance. I’ll prove it to you.”

Larissa mood changed as she stared lovingly at him and hugged him. “I know you’re sorry. And it took a whole three months to get over this and get over you. The only reason I came here was to tell you we’re through.”

Lance sat speechless for a moment. Silence loomed in the air. He calmly focused his attention towards her. “We can work this out. I love you. That’s not about to change for me.”

“Well it has for me. I can’t love someone who treats me so badly. Love doesn’t live here anymore. I’m moving on…without you.”

“You can at least give me a second chance. I can be a better man. I can be the man you need.”

“No Lance, that’s not gonna happen. My baby needs a father who…”

Lance’s eyes got wider and started to tear. “You’re pregnant? How far along are you? “

Larissa placed her hands on her belly and began rubbing her belly in a circular

pattern. “You know that’s the funny thing about secrets. What’s done in the dark always comes to light. Hey Chris, Justin when did I tell you I was pregnant, two weeks ago. No! JC didn’t I tell you guys three weeks ago?”

Lance whipped around his friends with a hurtful look in his eyes. “Why didn’t you guys tell me?” Larissa watched as Lance plopped into a chair.

Chris started to stammer, “She said she was going to tell you and that she was gonna make it a big surprise for you. Surprise?”

Larissa began rubbing Lance’s shoulders, “Oh baby, don’t be mad at them. There’s no need to be angry with them over that. I only told them, not Joey because he usually can’t keep a secret.”

She placed her mouth to Lance’s ear. “Are you surprised?”

“Truly,” he muttered still amazed about the pregnancy news. “But wait James, there’s more.” Lance knew her news couldn’t be good if she was calling him by his real name

“It looks like Joey’s daughter will have a sibling to play with?”

“What Joey’s girlfriend is pregnant?” His fiancé moved from behind him to face him.

“No, Kelly is not pregnant. I’m just saying interesting things happen when you don’t take care of home. I’m a beautiful girl and if you don’t want me there are others who do want me. Right Joey?”

Lance’s face grew red and his bottom lip began to tremble as Larissa continued to speak.

“While you were out being The Man and doing your dirt I though I’d get a shovel and start digging some dirt too. You were so busy with performing, cheating, running your management company, and oh yeah…cheating! You forgot about me.”

Lance stared questioningly at her. “You could’ve cheated with anyone, why Joey? Why my best friend?”

Larissa leaned in closer to Lance’s face and whispered quietly. “I’m not ready to tell you why. It really hurt every time I had to hear about you and some trick you met at the club. There is so much pain and humiliation to it all wouldn’t you agree? Kinda hurts like hell doesn’t it?”

Lance spoke quietly as he rubbed his hands together. “Yeah it stings quite a bit. You never said why you did this to me?”

Larissa narrowed her eyes at him. “Do unto me as I do unto you. Let me remind you James, you are the one that started this shit, I just ended it. You have no idea the things I’ve lost because of you. Trust me it’s more than you can ever fathom. I lost my self-respect, my dignity, my self worth, my friends, the ability to trust and love. While you up until this point had lost nothing. However now we are in a similar boat. No winners, only losers.” Larissa gathered her things and headed for the door and looked back. “So you want to know why I did this to you…Because I could. Larissa slammed the door behind her never looking back.

THE END