Taleah
I woke up and hopped in the shower. I brushed my hair and put it in a bun, grabbing my phone and headphones. I washed my face and brushed my teeth before putting on perfume and heading downstairs for a bottle of water. I seen Gabriela and Cameron watching Mickey Mouse.
"Good morning."
"Morning."
"Morning auntie!"
"Morning y'all! I'm about to go for a jog. Y'all need anything from the store or some?"
"Nah. I'm cool."
"Can I get a Mickey Mouse snack pack please?"
"Sure."
"Well, now that she said some... Can I get a Clear Fruit and some hot fries? Here's the money." He pulled out money for him and Gabriela and put his hand out for me to take it.
"Keep it. I'm already living in your house, that's enough. It's one of the ways I'm thanking you guys." I pushed the money back his way.
"You don't have to."
"I want to. I'm going to go. I'll be back in about 10 to 15 minutes. Any specific flavor clear fruit you want?"
"Any flavor. It don't matter."
I walked out with my bottle of water and began my morning jog. As I ran, thoughts built up in my head. Will I ever love again? Are my dreams of having a happy relationship over? Have a family? Are my modeling dreams over? Will I be forever traumatized from that relationship? All these thoughts ran through my head as I jogged down the sidewalk. I felt my eyes get teary as my vision got fuzzy. I wiped them before I went into 7-Eleven. I grabbed a Welch's fruit snacks and Mickey Mouse snack pack for gabby. I grabbed a Watermelon clear fruit, hot fries, and snickers for Cameron. I grabbed 2 zingers hostess cakes, hot Cheetos puffs, Diet Coke, and parfait for Zolinah. I then grabbed a Big Mama's pickle, Reese's pretzels, Cajun chicken sandwich, tropical sprite, and a cookies n creme Hershey.
I checked out and jogged back to their place. Still don't feel comfortable calling it home. When I got there, there were multiple cars. They were nice too. I walked in to see multiple guys on the couch with Cameron, and Zolinah with Gabriela in the kitchen.
"Hey sis."
"Hey boo."
"Where you go?"
"To the gas station."
"I could've drove you there."
"I went for a jog on the way there though, and I asked before I left if anybody needed anything and they did so I went a got it for them. Here you go." I gave her the snacks for her and gabby.
"Oh Cameron, here you go. I couldn't see you, my bad." I walked around the couch and gave him his stuff.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. I'm about to take a shower, so if you need me, call my phone cause it'll stop the music on my speaker." I told Zolinah before running up stairs to my bathroom and turning the shower water knob to a medium-hot temperature.
I sat the gas station bag on my dresser and picked out my clothes. I grabbed a white shirt I got at the fair with my name spray-painted with yellow, then some plain yellow biker shorts that matched the color on the shirt. I grabbed my speaker and walked in the bathroom, sitting my clothes on the counter.
"What song should i listen to? Hmm." I said to my self. I chose Ghetto by August Alsina and turned on shuffle. As I got under the water in the shower, tears fell from my eyes. I rubbed my body scrub all over my body before getting out and wrapping a towel around me. I need to talk to Zolinah.
I placed on my clothes and yellow ugg slides and went downstairs. Zolinah looked at my face and went outside with me.
"Are you ok? What's wrong?"
"I think I'm going to move back to Paris. America isn't the right place for me."
"But neither was France. We struggled there. Scrapping coins to keep the house and our stomachs filled. We had sleep for dinner most nights. We're not even welcome with the family anymore and you know why. We spent 7 years here and 5 just to get naturalized, and now you want to throw it away cause that fraction of a man put his hands on you? Don't let him ruin your dreams for you."
"I'm feel like it's better there though. I can start my modeling career in Paris, even prove to the family I'm worth it."
"No. We don't associate ourselves with them no more, stop trying to please them. They want to disown us, so be it. They missed out on the biggest changes of their lives. We're in this together."
"I'm just so done with the world and what it's come to. I've been done dirty by so many people and I'm done with it. I've gotten beaten, bruised, broken, suicidal, depressed, disowned. There is so much more and I'm just so done with it."
"I'll give you some time to yourself. I know how it feels when somebody keeps messing with you and trying to tell you something that's not what you think, you don't wanna hear it after awhile. Just keep it in mind please. If not for me then for you. Think about Gabi." And with that, she walked back in the house.
I sat down on the swinging bench on her front porch as I thought about what she said. I sat outside for about 15 minutes just to have time to myself before walking back in. I'll just sleep it off.
