Seeing Red - Chapter 14: Chapter 14

Classical music poured out like a broken dam when Reece parted his front doors.
Notes, as sharp as knives cut my ear, and the ears of everyone else beside me.
He stood at the entrance for a moment, back straight as a ruler, hands glued to the either side of the twin doors. His head shifted from left to and then to the right, as if someone had aimed a slow-mo button at him.
That or time as I knew it had dissolved.
"Reece?" I called to him.
"Is that classical music?" Pete asked, next to me. I eyed him. He looked down at his ripped jeans and buttoned up plaid, orange shirt, or so he told me it was. "I'm not dressed for classical music."
"I wasn't aware that this was a black tie party," Nikko murmured to me. He was also dressed more urban than anything.
"It wasn't," I mumbled. "Reece?" I called again.
This time he turned around and his face was ghost-white, eyes twitching, lips not deciding if they wanted to frown, smile or jump off of his face altogether.
He said nothing. He just turned back around, using the right door as support and peered into his home again.
"Why is classical music playing, if this isn't a black tie party?" Liza asked. "You know what," she growled and stepped up the stairs and approached her brother.
"It's not classical, actually," Kenzie said on the left of me. "It's before the classical period."
I – we – all stared over. Kenzie blinked a few times. "It's Vivaldi's Four Seasons that's playing," he said.
I blinked now.
"It's spring that's playing," he continued. "Concerto in E Major. Allegro is about to end, it seems."
um.
Kenzie eyed me. Then his eyes shifted to everyone around him, staring in silence as the music rises to shocking levels of crescendo, before it dulls and comes to an end. And then another piece softly begins.
He shrugged his shoulders. "I like Vivaldi," he said.
Lola shook her head, coming down the steps. She held the bottom of her white dress with her right hand, because her other hand was balled into a fist. "If you know what's good for you, turn around and go home," she said. "It's not worth the high blood pressure."
I looked back Reece, who had dared to slip in between the walls that held his door in place.
I looked back at Lola, who was still wearing her mean mug, eyes still filled with rage and fire. Red.
I looked at the step in front of me. I went up one. Lola vice gripped my hand. "Ashley," she warned.
I looked down at her. Her face was still clothed in the same frown it had when she first stepped out of the house. It was clear that something rocked her hard enough that it wasn't going to dissolve any time soon.
I had to see what that was.
"Let me go, Lola," I said, slowly, delicately.
She gave me one final look, pleading with her eyes narrowing slightly, her lips moving as if she wanted to move, but they got stuck together before she get out the syllables.
Then, she unfastened her hands from my arm and allowed me to slip away from her hold.
I took one more final look at my friends and my brother. All eyeing me carefully, like you would a piece of music. Overly analyzing it, to see what happens next.
I said nothing. I turned my attention back to the double doors and to Reece. He was bathing in the white light that leaped out of the house.
I took another step. The music danced around me louder. Another step. It grew louder still. Another step. Another crescendo. Another step and I didn't know if the music was in my head or not and my brain was deliberately turning up the volume.
I climbed up and up to another stair and another until I stepped through the double doors of Red Manor and the music had latched itself to my skin.
And in between those double doors and in the foyer of red manor, painted so elegantly white, were a city of people, dancing.
Men, in their expensive black suits and woman, in their different dresses, shaded in dark and light greys in my head, with frills, and dress tails that could swing from the heavens of the foyer.
All waltzing to Vivaldi's Spring. Carrying on with different conversations in their groups on the side, discussing things that made them smile and laugh. As an all black band played.
All of this with their faces painted Black.
They had their faces painted black while elegant classical music played in the background of their party.
Even with all the noise, including my thoughts, I still heard foot step s rushing next to me.
Call it instinct, intuition or just dumb luck and incredibly good timing, but I threw my left arm out and stopped someone from rushing forward.
I didn't need luck, or intuition to know who it was.
"Kenzie," I said. "Now is not the time."
Kenzie gripped my hand harder than Lola did and threw it to my side. "If now ain't the time, Ashley, then when is the time?" he asked, demanded.
"They think of us as gansgters, don't prove them right," I replied, all while still watching careening white people dance and laugh, with sparkling drinks resting in their hands, like a baby in her mother's arms.
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing," Kenzie asked, and it would have been a shout if the music and chatter wasn't so loud. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing, Ashley King?"
"I am," I said.
"Ashley?" Reece said after me.
I ignored him. Instead, I spun around, jogging down the staircase and rocketing into my pocket for my cellphone.
"What are you doing?" Nikko asked. My eyes were on my phone's screen. I was trying to remember the number. "What's going on in there?"
I didn't answer him. "Dial Red's Urban department, for me Lola," I asked her.
She took my phone and put in the number, handing it back. I clicked the call button and after a few rings, someone answered.
"This is Ashley King, reporter of RED NEWS, and fiancé to Chief Executive Officer, Reece Red," I said. "I need a full news crew at the Red Manor immediately. I want a helicopter here as s-"
He gripped the phone away from me, sending me spinning around, before Pete caught and steadied me. "This is Reece Red, cancel all of those news cameras and do not accept calls from anyone besides me until this night is over. Anyone not complying with this message will be terminated effective immediately." He hung up and placed the phone in Lola's hands.
"How much of this did you know about?" Lola asked first. She asked what I wanted to, but couldn't. I was still so, so, so very shocked.
"Know about what?" Nikko asked.
"Yeah," Pete said, hand still on my shoulder. "What's going on exactly?"
"Screw it," Nikko mumbled. "I'm seeing for myself." Pete followed him, as did Liza.
"I'll give you time to fix this," Lola said to Reece, as she handed me back my phone and stalked to the front entrance with the others.
Kenzie was seated on the staircase with his phone to his ear. Whispering. Unusually, since Kenzie always screamed into the receiver while on the phone.
"I know what you're thinking," Reece said, clawing my attention back to him, back to his face.
I wanted to say it looked like Remorse, but I had had a hard time explaining his features. Fear? Guilt? Secret happiness thinly veiled by a frown? I didn't know anymore.
"Then tell me," I said. "Because, I'm not sure what I'm thinking myself."
"I had nothing to do with this," he tried to explain. He pointed back between the doors and my eyes followed them back to the door, where Pete was on the phone and Nikko's hands were going through his hair.
When he recoiled, I returned to his face. His hair had started to barricade his eyes. "I had no idea this is what they meant by party."
I snorted. "Funny as it is," I began, "I don't think you did have anything to do with it."
"really?" he said. He let out a gust of wind, laughing slightly and wiping fake-sweat from his forehead. 'God, I thought you would think I was behind this."
"No," I said. "You don't have the incentive to do it. A blackface party at your house, and inviting me and my friends? That's a Public Relations nightmare." I smiled. "Handle it. I'll be here waiting."
He smiled and went to kiss my cheek. I allowed him.
"Thank you for understanding," he said, smiling, before he took off jogging back up the steps, making his way through the others and entering the fray.
My eyes snapped over to Pete as soon as Reece was gone and I curled my fingers, signaling for him to come over.
He nodded, dashed down the stairs and fumbled over a few words before. He got himself together and sighed. "I'm so, so sorry you had to see that," he said. "I...I can't imagine how that must feel."
I didn't respond to it. "Pete, we take down RED Corp tonight."
Pete straightened his head, and his tie. He swallowed. "We are?"
"Yes," I replied as soon as his mouth closed. 'We are going to destroy RED Corporation tonight. Nikko will video tape the party, you will pose as a party goer and get quotes from various members of the party to place in the article," I said.
He nodded quickly and went to run off, but I caught him by his short sleeve. "Have Lola watch over Kenzie. Make sure he doesn't do anything that might land him into prison."
Pete nodded wildly and took off again.
My attention returned to my phone. I dialed Erika and placed it to my ears. After three rings, she picked up.
"Ashley?"
"Where are you?" I asked, pivoting 360 degrees to make sure no one was watching.
"Why?" she asked. She didn't sound like she was sleeping. I could hear faint music in the back, although I couldn't make it out.
"Red Corp is having a blackface party," I said.
"They....what?"
"I have Nikko videotaping it. Pete is undercover. I need you here to make this an official Urban Life & Times bust," I informed her.
"Ashley, this is crazy," she said. Then she stopped talking, and all I could hear was a bit of violins in the background of her room. "What will Reece think?" she asked.
"Reece is a job," I said, as quickly as possible. "My loyalty is to Urban, to you and to my fellow black people. I will not stand by and watch this go unpunished, and if it means destroying Reece and his family, so be it." I closed my eyes and tried to calm my breathing. "This was always about taking them down. For what they did to your father. And to mine."
"Find Lola," she said. "Find Lola. She'll know what to do."
My frown got deeper. Any deepr and it would fall off of my face and land in my shirt. "You aren't coming?"
"I'm under investigation, Ashley," she noted. "I," she sighed, "I can't be anywhere near that house. It will look suspicious. It gives motive."
"If this is about you and I not speaking after I ran off with Reece, then I'm sorry," I said. "But I think this more than makes up for that."
"Find Lola," she repeated again. "Find Lola and you'll be good." She hung up.
I went to speak again, but the busy tone took over and I found myself standing at the bow of a parking lot, in this rich neighborhood, with elegant music blaring all around me and that I had chosen Erika over Reece. Not shocking, but still. That was a static decision. One I don't think I'll be able to come back from.
And did I want it?
Reece was rich. Reece was attractive. Reece was trying to understand me and my people. Pete was the white guy that never judged, Reece was the second. They prove that they aren't all terrible. Even if there is a ballroom full of them who are.
"Ashley."
"Yes," I said, nearly dropping my hone. It was Lola.
"We have work to do," she said. "Go inside. Wait by the staircase and for the signal."
I arched my brow. "Signal?"
"Yes," she said. "Now stop asking questions and do as I say."
I don't-."
"There is literally zero time to arguing," Lola bit. "I know what's happening here and you don't."
"What does th-"
"Arguing again," she barked. "Go." She took out her own phone and started dialing.
'Fine," I grumbled and stalked up the stairs, but stopped by Kenzie.
He looked up and snorted. "Racism in C-Minor."
"You said E-mjaor," I corrected. "And we're gonna get them. We're just going to do it in ways that will hurt them.,
"How that?" he asked.
"Their pockets," I responded. "After tonight, their advertisers will drops out and every rich, spoiled brat that is here will see their trust fund go the way of the dinosaurs...and apparently human decency."
"This is just one of these shits," Kenzie said.
I shook my head. "One of what?"
"They having these parties all over this country," he said, laughing almost. "We just happened to be at one."
"I can't speak to the amount of black face parties that take place in America," I said. "But this is...bizarre, even for rich people."
"How many do you think your boy have been to?" he asked "cause if they was comfortable with throwing it at his house, you'd assume they thought he'd be trill with it as well," Kenzie said.
"Reece wouldn't have invited me here if he wanted to play dress up," I relied. "And he sure wouldn't risk getting shot in the face by you."
"Does it matter?" he said. "You lie down with dogs, you're gonna wake up with flees."
I said nothing.
"He gonna get it from them. And then he gonna give it to you."
"I enjoy how much effort you put into it," some guy said to me by the staircase. White, and his face was painted black. Black suit. Champagne in his hands. "I wouldn't have liked painting my entire body black" He pointed to his hand. "Paint is a bitch to get off."
I tilted my head. "Excuse me?"
He laughed. "You even have the black voice down pat." He pointed at me as if we were pals. "I respect this kind of dedication."
"You go to these often?" I asked.
"No, no," he replied. "Only when it's a s big as this."
I nodded. "Are they usually  this big?"
"Not really," he said. "But when they are they are a lot of fun."
"Why?" I asked. "Why are they so much fun?"
His smile glitched. "African-Americans fe-"
"Black people," I said. "Americans aren't the only black people on earth who might be offended by the portrayal."
He nodded slowly, carefully. "Well,  then, black people take themselves so seriously. It's just...fun to poke fun at them sometimes."
"Well, joke away," I said.
"You too," He sung, as he floated away to talk to some other women, faces all painted black.
"This some bullshit," I mumbled to myself, grabbing a glass off of a waiter's – black – tray and hosing it on back down my throat, throwing the glass to the side and listening to it shatter as it fell to the ground.
"That's littering," a woman said coming down the staircase from behind me.
Anna was wearing a long black dress that showed off her right leg. She placed herself on the opposite wall, on the same level as I was. She was not in blackface. "You're don't seem to be enjoying the festivities."
"I can't imagine why," I answered.
"I assume you're wondering why, I myself, am not wearing blackface," she asked.
I was picking my nails. "Not particularly."
She answered anyway. "I admit to not really liking you Ashley – you took my job and my boyfriend and more importantly his money and connections – but God knows I'm not racist."
"Comforting," I responded.
She crossed one of her legs over the other, so the slip went straight up her though, stopping just shy of her hips. "Planning on doing any reporting?"
I looked at her in her face this time. She had the nerve to be smiling right now. "I'm still considering if I should go Martin Luther King peaceful route, or the Malcom X fuck some shit up route."
Her smile turned to a smirk. She looked over my shoulder and, I'm assuming to the guests. She went down a step, and onto the ballroom floor ."Careful, Ashley," she said. "You wouldn't want to make it seem like you have a hidden agenda with Reece, would you?"
She looked up at me. "Up on that high horse of yours about exposing truths, when you yourself have hidden agendas."
"You're just hell-bent on being the classic villain of this story, aren't you," I asked her, stepping down from my step, where she was.
Anna smiled and touched my shoulder lightly. "It replenished my electrolytes, really. You are a worthy adversary."
"How about you-"
"Ashley!"
We both snapped our necks to Reece, who was wiggling his way through the crowd, but it was like a maze of people down there. I looked back to Anna, but she had disappeared.
My eyes flew back to the floor, and I saw Anna approaching him.
His eyes were still to me, but Anna stopped him from going any further. Then, she whispered something in his ear, and he finally looked at her, eyes a bit wide. Hands, going to his side.
Before I could even try to go over, a woman screamed.
The ballroom's attention turned to a man on the floor, with Kenzie standing above him, fist balled.
"Kingsley?" I heard Reece shout, and took off , with Anna behind him to their friend.
Kenzie, jaw clenched, walked out of the ballroom, to the outside.
My eyes blinked over to Lola, who was approaching me quickly.
When she got close enough, I whispered, "What is it?"
"Follow me," she said and started up the staircase, jogging, with me jogging behind her, two steps at a time for the both of us, even in her heels.
When we got to end of it, I gripped her by her hand and spun her around. "What's going on?"
"Everything," a voice called, and out of the shadows of the second floor of Red Manor, Erika came, wearing a fiery red dress. "Everything is happening right now."