*✰𝖥𝖮𝖱𝖤𝖵𝖤𝖱 𝖬𝖸 𝖫𝖠𝖣𝖸| 𝖣.𝖲𝗐𝗂𝗇𝗀

01.) 𝙴𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚂𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚎

17 years later

Charlie Hendrix
September 14, 1987.
_______________

17 years later... here I am in the house where all the memories and magic happened. Never in a million years did I think I'd end up back up here in Charlotte, North Carolina.

I stood in my now old room that is now full of my big furniture and a box of my belongings that I have yet to open, even though it's been 2 weeks since we've moved back in. The room looked the same but yet different. The walls are not painted the shades of lavender and royal purple anymore, they were now painted the shade cream white.

My bed that was once covered with neon green sheets and lavender purple and neon orange blankets and pillowcases, was now covered with cream white sheets and pillowcases with a gray soft fur blanket.

The floors weren't made of carpet anymore, they were now made of mahogany wood pieces. All my kiddy finger drawings were gone.

Everything was different, Everything. And I didn't feel right... At all. Snapping out of my thoughts I turn around and I see my sister Cheyenne leaning against my doorframe with her arms crossed over my chest.

Cheyenne was my 15 -year- old little sister. She was born on December 15th, 1971. Growing up, we always got questions like 'why are you darker than her? 'Is she Mixed?' 'How come you don't look like your parents or your sister?'

I could tell those questions always bothered Chey, But as her big sister, I was always there to protect her. I never let anyone talk to her in a bad way, never let anyone treat her differently because she was lighter, and vice versa.

But all of that changed once we turned 12 and 13. It was like we grew apart and she had some sort of hatred towards me. To her, she hid it well, but everyone could see right through her, something was up. And to this day, I still don't know what that is.

" Hey chey, how are you liking your room so far?" I asked as my lips formed a smirk. I brushed a piece of my curly ginger hair behind my ear as I turned around to face her, placing my hands on my hips.

Her lips layered with brown lipstick pursed together as she frowned and walked into my room sitting on my bed and plopping down on her back.

"I can't believe momma made us move back here to this hell hole, don't nobody like us here." Cheyenne mumbled, annoyed as she picked at her freshly manicured nails.

"It's not like we had a choice chey, daddy wanted us to be closer. He felt like New Orleans was too far." I tried to explain to her as I sat down next to her on my bed, but she wasn't having that, sucking her teeth.

"Man that nigga is trippin' we still in the south, just 10 hours away." Cheyenne mumbled as she rolled her eyes and sat up on my bed, crossing her arms over her chest.

I chuckle and shake my head as I looked over at her. "Do you not realize what you just said, ten hours is pretty long, Chey."

"So? It ain't like he missed us anyways, he got two bastards at his house with his hoe ass wife." Cheyenne spat as she jumped up from my bed and walked over to my alcove, sitting down on it and looking at the evening sun as the birds flew past it.