Eye for an Eye

Chapter 22

"oh my god, this is just like highschool all over again! get the fuck out the bathroom ari! I need to do my skincare routine" Aaliyah, her younger sister, yelled and continued to bang her fist against the door until arielle swung the door open, putting a hand on her hip and sneered her eyes at her. the past two weeks, arielle was staying at her dad's house and it felt like she was sixteen all over again. she didn't feel comfortable staying at simba's house without him, it just didn't feel right and plus, she didn't have anywhere else to go so this was her only option. she trailed her eyes over aaliyah's face, rolling her eyes at her new image. she was heavily influenced by social media so she was currently wearing baggy jeans, a vintage baby tee, doc martens and her hair was dyed black with a blonde skunk strip in the front and she groaned, disapproving of her look.

"ugh, you need to find your own personality. you look like every girl on my pinterest feed right now" she retorted and aaliyah looked her up and down, scoffing.

"tuh, you literally look like a homeless person right now. you never heard of a brush?" she said, lifting up a knotted curl from arielle's head and she smacked her hand away. since arielle has been staying at her dads house, she hasn't groomed herself in a couple days due to her mind being on simba and speaking of him, she also hasn't went down to the hospital to visit him again since the first time she was up there. she was afraid to ask him about the whole middle school spiel because he just told her that he was transgender so she just wants to wait it out a little longer, just too see if he would eventually tell her and she knows that he probably won't but she wants to give him the benefit of the doubt; since she told him that they should start being honest with each other.

"once I fix this" she said, circling a hand around her face. "I'll be more original than you will ever be" she said, a smirked plastered on her face and aaliyah snorted, tossing her head back.

"right. but you should hurry up. don't you have court in a few days for your serial killer ex? and you might go to jail right? for assaulting him? and aren't you homeless? yikes, I think you have bigger problems to worry about, instead of me being "unoriginal'" she spat, using air quotations and arielle's smirked grew bigger, raising an eyebrow at her boldness.

"yeah your right, but aren't you late for your AA meeting? it would be shame for them to find out you took $50 from dad's wallet last night just to buy a bottle of vodka and cry your precious heart out to your girlfriend because she's a liar, a cheater and a thief. you came back with no money and I know you like to drink the cheap shit, it runs in the family so clearly, she took the rest to buy a baggie of low grade coke from utica ave that isn't even gonna numb her tongue, let alone get her high but hey, maybe my problems aren't that big after all" she said, fake pouting and aaliyah gasped, shoving arielle into the wall and arielle bounced off it, shoving her back but before they could lay another finger on each other, their dad rushed in and separated them, giving them stern looks.

"hey! you guys are too old to be acting like this."

"she started it!!" aaliyah yelled, swiftly grabbing a chunk of arielle's matted hair and arielle pulled back before she could get a good grip on her and slapped her.

"you fucking bitch!" arielle screamed, trying to hit her again but johnathan kept both of his hands on each of their chests, letting out a slow breath, his blood pressure rising.

"both of you, stop! I don't care who started it! stop acting like fucking children." he screamed, bass booming in his voice and it echoed throughout the house, making arielle and aaliyah wince.

"rose, if you're gonna see your boyfriend, go and aaliyah, finish getting ready and get in the car before you're late for your meeting, again" he said through gritted teeth and aaliyah huffed, slamming the bathroom door closed to finish getting ready and arielle rolled her eyes, heading downstairs to grab her belongings. a couple minutes later, arielle and her dad were by the door waiting for aaliyah to come down and when she did, she quickly grabbed her coat and brushed past them, leaving the house. they watched as she skipped right past their dads car and started walking down the block.