Fireworks 3 and 4

Chapter 6ixty-Eight

    "So you have been given the bill of clean health?" Bri asked while sorting the snacks she'd bought from the store. "I wanted us to go out-out, but Desi was worried about you passing the fuck out on us."

    Desirae looked at Bri and shook her head.

    "What?" Bri asked defensively. "I don't know how an exhaustion diagnosis works. Shit. I'm a mother and feel exhausted every damned day, but the minute I go to lie down, I've got a two-foot butterball jumping on top of my stomach. No matter how much I want to rest, I have to keep it pushin'. I'm not sure how the official diagnosis of exhaustion works, though. Can you not go out and party unless you can walk up a flight of stairs without getting dizzy or some shit? What's the deciding factor that lets you know you're okay?"

    Mia emerged from the kitchen with a couple of poured drinks for her friends. "Apparently, I'm deficient in a few different areas, when it comes to vitamins and nutrients." She set the drinks down on coasters atop her coffee table.

    "Please tell me Drake didn't pay the doctor to tell you that you were deficient in Vitamin D," Bri muttered.

    Mia laughed and threw a pillow at her friend. "Stop it. It wasn't even Vitamin D. It was iron and other shit."

    "Speaking of being deficient in Vitamin D, though," Desirae said before clearing her throat, "you didn't give us the details on what happened the night you decided to unhook yourself from hospital monitors, like you were some vigilante in an episode of 24 or some shit."

    Bri arched a brow at Mia. "I know exactly where the fuck she went."

    If she hadn't been cautioned against drinking, Mia would've taken a sip then and there. "I don't even want to tell you guys where I was or why I was there, because you've been all judgey lately." She wrinkled her nose and sat down, tucking her feet underneath her.

    "Bitch, please," Bri remarked, swiping her liquor glass from the table. "Both of your asses needed judgement so I dealt it."

    Desirae giggled from the armchair she sat in. 

    "Aubrey got it into his head that it would be better for me if he left me alone, and I didn't feel like taking no for an answer," Mia explained, "so I did unhook myself from the hospital monitors and went to his house."

    "You didn't!" Desirae shouted.

    Bri leveled a look at Desirae. "Welcome to the bullshit I've been subjected to this entire time while you've been living in Persian man bliss."

    Desirae succumbed to a fit of laughter. "Oh my God."

    "Desi has been putting in cameo appearances to this shit but I've had to hear about this shit for this entire time," Bri went on. "The shit made me want to tear my own hair out, so I don't even know how you've put up with this shit, Mia."

    "I love him," Mia said.

    "No, you say that shit like it excuses him for everything," Bri said, her tone accusatory. "Some of the shit he does is so stupid."

    "He's...a man," Desirae said with a shrug.

    Bri weighed that for a minute, then finally shrugged along with Desi. "Well, shit. Touche."

    Mia laughed and sat back on the couch. "If I have to deal with any man's stupid, I want it to be his stupid. He's the one for me."

    "No doubts? No wish washy flaky shit?" Bri challenged, narrowing her eyes.

    "No doubts." Mia met her friend's stare and held it.

    "Well, fuck." Bri took a few sips of her drink. "Who has the remote?"

    That was the end of that. Mia's faith in her own relationship had been shaky, so her friends' faith had been shaky. For that matter, maybe the public's faith was shaky for the same reasons. As soon as they'd witnessed Mia's certainty, all judgement faded and they were able to ease back into the comfort that was their friendship. They were able to joke as they had before, tease each other as they had before, without feeling sensitive or cornered.

    Bri even stopped the Drake shit-talking. Later that evening, when she'd ingested multiple glasses of alcohol, she confessed to Mia, "I know I'm giving him a hard time but it's only because I love your ass. I want you two to work out, because when he's on top of his game, the two of you make sense. The two of you are goals. It's only when he falls off and starts acting like a total fuck-up that I have to question everything. So...as long as he stops fucking up, he's good with me. This is day one, because I count him trying to end shit with you as a fuck up."

    "Understood," Mia had responded. "And you and me both."

~~~~~~

     The time with Mia's friends was too short-lived. They'd both left without giving people in their lives much notice and they had to return to their lives. Their main concern had been making sure that Mia was okay. It had been jarring for them to hear that she'd collapsed on a balcony.

    "Let us take a minute to thank the Lord that Mia doesn't go having her thinking time on roofs," Bri had said, crossing over herself. "Or else we would've flown into town under completely different circumstances."

    Mia had playfully shoved her. She assured her friends that she was fine, she just had to continue focus on being healthy and resting whenever her body needed it. These were the words she said to them and really, all she could think about was the next time she'd be under her man, screaming his name to the ceiling. Health and rest were the themes she kept repeating when love and lust were really what were on her mind.

    He'd warned her that he was going to take a couple of days to spend with his son. It was adorable, how he was trying to make sure he wasn't neglecting his kid. 

    During that time, she focused on taking supplements that the doctor has prescribed for her. She kept her activity moderate, but still attended dance rehearsals. She slowly copied the moves from the back of the room, but didn't go as hard as she should be going onstage. There were so many things she paid more attention to, like the fact that she didn't fully stretch the way she was supposed to before dance rehearsals. A few dancers helped to guide her in this regard, and told her that they'd wanted to give her a heads up, but hadn't wanted to overstep.

    Slowly, her life began to piece itself together. She'd hit a plateau in her healing process, but she could feel the healing resume. More than once, she wondered what she would be going through if she'd allowed Drake to leave her. How differently would she feel if she'd just sat back and accepted that? 

    I don't have to waste time wondering how differently my life would be going if I'd accepted it, because I didn't accept it. I'm glad I didn't. 

    The next time she was lying in bed with his arms wrapped around her and the sounds of his soft snoring behind her, she basked in the feeling of love and safety that he provided for her. Her friends had briefly judged him for trying to walk away from her, but she knew why he'd done that. She knew what he was trying to accomplish and as he'd told her, that hadn't been easy for him to do. He was trying to overcome his own selfishness so she could live a happy life.

    What his silly ass is slow in realizing is that my life is happier with him in it, she thought, snuggling closer to him. And I'll mow down any hating or thirsty ass bitch that tries to get in between us.