The Frequency Of Compulsion/GXG/ Grip The Series: Book One

TWENTY-ONE

L E A N A

I continued to lean against the island whilst my sister spilled the events of her week, which consisted mostly of the bullshit she had to deal with concerning these patients at the hospital.

I'm glad my ass don't got no white coat.

"And I got another surgery coming up," She uttered with a glance back at me as she continued to stir the seasoning in her pot.

"When your schedule gon cool down again?"

"Ion even know at this point, but sis I'm tired, I might just pull for my vacation days," She answered, turning down the fire under the stove and adding her cold rice. "Oh, and Jabari got a chess game coming up, he wants you there,"

"When is it?"

"Next week Tuesday at eleven," She voiced and I tapped the nails of my right hand against the island as I thought over how best to clear up my workload to be there—because I had to be there.

"Okay,"

"Now, what's going on with you? How the club flowing with the new security guy you told me about?"

"Good—better, he fixed the shaky ass pole,"

"Sebastian finally picked up someone who useful with their hands?" She questioned, amusedly.

"It wasn't even Sebastian it was Keys, one of them new security I was telling you about, she the new head of security down there and she got him,"

"Yeah, Mr Gerald told me bout her when I went to pick up my car after that oil change," She voiced, adding in her meat before looking back at me over her shoulder, while her hand continued to stir under the fuel of muscle memory. "Mr Gerald said y'all got sumn, that true?"

"That man be delusion," I shot down immediately, and she hummed in that 'you hiding something' way, while turning her gaze back to the quick meal she was preparing. "She just cool,"

"He said she feeling you,"

"She is," I confirmed, not wanting to spill too much because I didn't want to awaken the recurring relationship topic.

"And you feeling her?" She asked, making me know my attempt was too late, and I sighed as she turned off the stove, and guided her full attention to me as she shifted to face me, looking into my eyes.

"She cool,"

"You gon start lying to me now?" She asked, and that had me rolling my eyes, cause her calling it out is an automatic shot to any intention I had to lie or downplay shit. This was—we are supposed to be each other's safe place and we were.

She been that for me for years.

When I started stripping, when I dropped out of school, when I went back, through every break up and every other change in my life small or big, without judgment, just pure love, and that reminder is what had me dropping my guard with a sigh.

"I am feeling her a lil," I confessed, and she smiled, looking so happy, I couldn't help but release a smile my damn self.

"What's a lil?"

"Mr Gerald likes her and he don't like nobody, so—she's just cool, feels like a friend,"

"But you would, you know, give her sum tho?" She asked with raised brows, pulling an unplanned breathy laugh from me.

"Yes, if it got to that, I am attracted to—she look good,"

"That's good, and maybe that's what you need this time around to be friends first," She expressed, making me frown as the words settled on a suppressed part of myself to awaken it.

THE WILL TO TRY

What she was saying pushed down the suffocating feeling of fear, I mean me and Keys could just vibe no strings attached and I ain't have to worry about all that extra shit. And if she was running game, that would also weed that shit out.

Friends

Ringing sounds throughout the kitchen, snapping me out of my thoughts and Mya quickly moved to grab her phone, answering it and heading back to her food. By her tone, I knew her husband was on the other line, and that fact had my own eyes drifting to my phone sitting on the island next to me while Mya and I's conversation roamed in my mind.

Her conversation...Mr Gerald...Latoya...Keys...

A soft sigh slipped from me as I lifted my phone into my hand, turning it on and unlocking it before fear-fueled hesitancy has my finger pausing as a million things run through my mind.

Friends

Friends...and with that I scrolled, finding her number that has been in my phone since that day she fixed my car, untouched and disregarded until now. I quickly open a message chat.

-

K E E Y A

My scroll through Instagram continued in an attempt to keep my sleep-avoiding body entertained, and that—that was also the reason for the blunt I was currently smoking, the chase to catch up to the slumber I was desperately in need of. This was my second one since I got out of the shower, and it was starting to seem like I was going to spend another night awake as trauma and PTSD continued to be a reckless disruption.

I returned the blunt between my lips to take a puff in the same breath that a buzz from my phone prompted vibrations to run against the hand holding it, then a notification dropped down...a text from a—

-Unknown Number

Hey.

A frown settled on my face as I removed the blunt from my lips, while shifting to bend one of my knees as my back continued to lay flush against the headboard. My mind wondered who it could be, and there where many options since when I moved, my number changed too, and that curiosity is what had me going to the chat.

-Me

Who this?

I watched as the three dots appeared, then disappeared, only to appear once again, and my lack of sleep had me losing interest fast as my thumb readied itself to exit the chat, and then...

-Unknown Number

Compulsion.

A breathy laugh of disbelief left me as I stared down at the text I ain't expect. This woman constantly surprised me, she was so easy to read but so hard at the same time, a walking contradiction. So I couldn't really assume what her texting me meant...

Let me keep this shit casual.

And with a press of the lit end of my blunt in the ashtray on my nightstand, I tucked it behind my ear, guiding my other hand to the phone to quickly type a response before she could switch up.

I gave her my number weeks ago.

-Me

I know you ain't having car trouble this early in the morning.

-Unknown Number

I ain't

-Unknown Number

Just save my number

-Me

How you gon boss me around on my own phone?

Those three dots appeared, then disappeared and this time they didn't return and a small chuckle left me at the fact. Instead of sending another text, I quickly saved her number before placing my phone away and grabbing my lighter to re-spark my blunt.  

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I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.