"Malia!" Brooklyn stood outside of Malia's door, knocking loudly. "You've been ignoring me for two days now and you blew off work! I need to you to come open the door!"
She knew it was 9 in the morning and she was being very loud but Malia was being very uncharacteristic and Brooklyn didn't like it.
She heard shuffling behind the door, then Malia appeared on the other side. The first thing Brooklyn noticed was Malia's choice of clothing. She wore a full sweatsuit and even a scarf, which she never did.
"Do you have a cold?" Brook asked, giving Malia a bear hug. "I missed you so much."
Malia hissed and Brooklyn pulled away instantly. "Be careful, Brook."
"What..." Brooklyn trailed off, eyes running up and down her body. "What's wrong?"
The other woman pulled the hoodie over her hands, shrugging a little bit. "I have a cold and my bones hurt a lot."
"Mm. Okay." Brooklyn didn't believe what she was saying for a second but played it off, knowing she'd find out. "Are you coming in tonight?"
Malia nodded, opening the door to let Brooklyn inside. "Yeah. I work from 8 to close. What do you work?"
"Same as you." Brook quipped, looking around the messy apartment. "Your house is a complete mess."
She sighed. "Brook not right now."
Brooklyn took her shoes off, deciding that she was better at being nosy than anything. So she walked further into the apartment, taking note of how things were out of place when they normally weren't.
"Are you going though a quarter life crisis?" Brook asked, crossing her arms.
"No, Brooklyn."
The curious friend turned her nose up. "I know you're lying to me."
Malia shrugged, carefully and slowly sitting on the couch with a grimace on her face. "Brooklyn, can you just be quiet for like 2 minutes?"
"Did Ja hurt your feelings?" She asked. "Because if he did, then I'll talk to him."
Malia sat back, wanting to burst into tears because of how much pain she was in. The woman thought she was past the phase in her life where she needed to hide pain but here she was.
"No. He didn't do it and don't text him."
"So, I was right?" Brooklyn sat down next to Malia, affectionately rubbing her thigh. "You're lying and something else happened?"
Malia clenched her eyes shut. "Brooklyn, please."
"What's wrong?" The other woman asked, leaning closer and rubbing her shoulder. "Lia, talk to me."
She wasn't sure why but the mental and physical pain wearing heavily on her body was a bad enough feeling. Then, when Brooklyn asked her what's wrong, the tears began to stream.
Malia's body and heart hurt and she wanted to throw up but she was able to gut out words. "Devon came by here 3 nights ago when Ja left."
Brooklyn didn't even need a few seconds to register what happened because she knew. She knew and she felt even more terrible that she had to go through it alone. "He... hit you?"
Malia nodded, blinking tears away as she fought to catch her breath. "Literally beat the absolute fucking hell out of me."
Devon beat Malia because he could. He did it because she actually thought she could get away and be around other men. Lastly, he beat her because he was bigger than her and she couldn't do anything about it.
