Loving A Gangsta

Chapter 40 (Monday-September 21st)

Korrine's POV

Angel snuggling up close to me never gets old. She's been comforting me ever since she got home from school today, and I'm loving every minute of it. Her shoulder-length, thick curls are tickling my chin as her head lays against my chest, and her warm body is being molded into mine tightly like she never wants to let me go.

Of course we didn't tell her anything that happened, but Angel's far from dumb even though she's so young. She knows that something was wrong since I wouldn't come home, and a few scars on my face still haven't faded yet, which makes her ask more and more questions. I've just spent the whole weekend by her side, giving her my undivided attention so that she could feel better. I did it so that I can feel better to because she's really my life.

"Are you going to be home tomorrow?" she mumbles tiredly. She's bound to fall into a deep sleep any minute.

"Yeah, I'm going to be here every day, silly," I say, kissing her forehead.

"I don't want you to go stay at Messiah house for a long time no more. When I go to stay with Melissa, I don't stay that long," she says. Melissa is Messiah's daughter and Angel's best friend since they're only a few months apart and have been raised together since they came out of the womb.

"I know, and I apologize, baby," I say.

She snuggles up closer to me and yawns. "I love you, sissy." Her words fade as her eyes close.

My phone starts to vibrate alongside me, but if I move, I might wake her up as quickly as she fell asleep. I slowly reach over and grab it in the first attempt without even making her stir. A picture of Marcus holding me in his arms while kissing my forehead is on the screen. "Hey, baby," I say once I answer.

"What's up? I'm outside," he says.

"Come in. Angel just fell asleep on me, but I'm ready."

"Alright," he says before hanging up.

When I woke up this morning, he called me and told that he wanted to take me out a few hours after he got out of school, so when two hit, I got in the shower, got dressed, did my hair, and began to wait for him while Angel waited with me. It's the first time I actually got myself all dressed up and looking good like I used to do all the time. The scars on my face have been holding me back from even looking in the mirror. It's crazy how one incident can take me from my usual conceited self that couldn't take my eyes off my own face to someone that's now becoming insecure.

My door opens, knocking me out of my thoughts. "Marcus is headed in here," my momma says, coming over and wrapping her arms around Angel's body. Angel folds right into her, obviously knowing my momma's touch and welcoming it like any child would. It reminds me of when I was little. "Don't stay out too late. You know you have the surgery tomorrow."

"I won't, momma," I say just watching her beautiful face and shape as she effortlessly carries Angel and disappears into the hallway. One day, when I get older, I want my kids to love me just as much as we love my momma, and I want to have that same amount of love for them like she has for us. When I wrap my arms around them, even in their deepest sleep, I want them to feel in their hearts that it's me. A lucky man, like my daddy was to have met my momma, will give me the opportunity to birth his beautiful seeds, and she's the type of momma I'm going to be like.

"Knock knock, ma," Marcus says, entering my room with a large bouquet of red roses and small gift bag in his hand. He grin shows from his full lips to his brown eyes as he stops and stares at me.

This is the first time we're seeing each other since that night in the hospital. It's been almost two weeks since we've been able to look into each other's eyes, hold each other, feel each other's warmness, and enjoy each other's presence. My feet and legs working together on their own to get up and walk over to him is enough evidence to let me know how much I've deeply missed him. I jump onto his body and fold my legs around his waist, wrap my arms around his neck, and close all the space between us.