Try Me

Chapter twenty

"The hospital?...why?...He pops pills?! He had that shit coming then...He talks about me all the time! I'm not going down there to see him...I don't want to and you can't make me, I'm grown."

Akia sat on Tyra's bed, playing with the remote in his hand. They were watching a movie before Tyra got a call. Akia doesn't know what's going on, but it sounded serious. When Tyra got off the phone, she sighed heavily, putting it on mute and placing it face down on the dresser. She looked over to Akia with a confused face, basically asking why the movie was still paused.

"Is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine. Taija was trying to get me to go see Khalan. He overdosed or something, and now he's in the hospital—"

"Overdosed?! Is he okay?"

"Why do you care so much?" She raised an eyebrow and sat up from her lying position. Akia didn't care about her slight attitude right now, though. "Tyra, your brother is in the hospital."

"Okay? My brother is in the hospital so why do you care so much?"

"Why don't you care at all?" Akia retaliated. Annoyance was evident in his tone; this is the first time that he has ever talked to Tyra like this, and that is why it caught her by surprise. Her mouth dropped before she got off the bed to stand instead. "Tyra, I didn't mean to say it like that."

"YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT MY RELATIONSHIP WITH MY BROTHER!"

"I didn't say I did, but—"

"NO BUTS, AKIA! I DON'T CARE ABOUT HIM SO WHY SHOULD YOU?!" she continued to yell. She was on the verge of tears, and Akia found that weird. She was ready to cry because he sounded slightly annoyed, but not over her own brother in the hospital. Akia shook his head, got off of her bed, and started to grab his coat, phone, charger, and everything else he had brought over to her house for today.

"Where are you going?"

"I don't want you to be mad at me later, so I'm just going to leave for now," he mumbled before walking out of her room. Tyra stood in her room in disbelief for a second before she came back to reality. She started to follow Akia down the stairs. She watched Akia slip on his shoes and start to open the door, and that's when she grabbed his hand.

"So you're just going to leave? Because of a petty argument? Akia, you need to grow up!"

"I'm leaving because I don't want to argue. We argue every other day over Khalan. He's a grown man who couldn't care less about what we do, Tyra. All I asked was if he was okay." Akia took a deep breath before he continued, "And asking if someone who is in the hospital is okay is just decency."

"We can go see Khalan if you want. Now can you stop treating me like this, please?"
———

"I should slap the hell out of you, Khalan. Are you dumb?"

A recently awoken Khalan had his eyes squinted, looking around the unfamiliar, bright room. He looked to his left, and that's when he noticed the person who had been talking for the past minute was Taija. "I can get some water." These were the first words he had spoken. Taija was furious at the sight of her little brother in this room, and what made her more upset was the reason.

She tossed a water bottle that she had in her purse on the bed next to Khalan, then crossed her arms over each other and started to tap her foot repeatedly, showing how mad she was feeling at the moment.

Taija stood patiently watching Khalan down the water. She waited until the cap was back on for her to start questioning her brother.

"So you take pills?"