Paths

CHECKMATE

Nairobi rolled over peeling her eyes open, as she remembered that she was not in own her bed. She shot up quickly looking around the room when realized Kaier was no longer beside her. Her heart slightly raced as she threw the covers off her and jumped out of bed.

It slowed down when she exited the room and saw Kaier on the couch, taking a long pull from a backwood with his eyes closed and his head leaned back. She quietly took a seat next to him, not wanting to interrupt whatever he was thinking. From the smoke that filled the living room and the empty pack of woods on the table, she could tell that it wasn't his first one. She wondered how long he had been out of bed.

He opened his eyes that were extremely red and low, as he looked over at her. Without a word, he passed it over to her before closing his eyes again. Nairobi whispered a thank you before taking a long pull. She silently studied his body language as she exhaled and then pulled from the backwood again. She quickly looked away when his eyes popped open again, feeling himself under her stare. They sat in silence, passing the wood back and forth, Nairobi was unsure of what to say or if he even wanted to talk.

When the backwood turned to a roach, he sat up to roll another one.

"How many have you had?" She questioned finally breaking the silence.

Kaier shrugged, "four or five." He hoarsely responded, his voice almost gone from yesterday's turn of events.

"Maybe take a break, and we can smoke some more later?" She slowly let out, not wanting upset him.

After the first time she smoked after her father's passing. She used weed to numb her for almost an entire year. When she looked back she realized that she thought smoking her problems away would work but they only numbed her for the moment. When she was sober she was always right back where she started. She didn't want Kaier to end up the same way.

"Nah," He shook his head. "I'm good." He continued what he was doing.

Nairobi nodded in understanding, she wasn't going to tell him how to cope. Instead, she grabbed the pack of woods from him and then his rolling tray placing them in her lap, she began breaking the weed down. If wanted to smoke his feelings away then that's what they were going to do.

He sat back, watching her as she concentrated. Finally recognizing how much she had changed in the last year, he didn't think it was possible but she was more beautiful than when he last saw her. Now instead of one tattoo, she had half a sleeve, her hair was no longer bob length but past her shoulders and dyed to a ginger color that completed her chocolate skin perfectly. She had a double nose ring on her right side and a plethora of new ear piercings.

He wondered if the last year had treated her well, hopefully, better than it had treated him. He wouldn't say that he knew completely nothing about what had been going on in her life. While he was in jail Kaier would check up on her through Noah, and he even had his brother watching her on his page until she blocked it. He wasn't necessarily stalking her, he just wanted to know that she was enjoying her time in college, and from what he heard she definitely was.

At first, Kaier was angry with her after the things she had said and the fact that she had never come to see him. But during the few months he was incarcerated before he was able to get off, he had nothing but time to think. He realized that it was selfish of him to expect that. One thing about Nairobi was that she was always clear on her boundaries with him. It was his fault for expecting something different from her. Even after a whole year, here she was sitting in front of him after the worst day of his life, with no hesitation, she had shown up for him.

Kaier also knew about the time she had been spending with Jacobi. He wouldn't say that it wasn't a knife to the heart when he learned about it, but he couldn't say he was completely shocked. He also knew that it would be hypocritical of him to judge her when he had been dating Chicago.