When Times Get Hard

Part 13- Open Arms

Aaliyah's POV

I pull up to this random kinda sketchy looking park but it seemed out of the way which was great for me. I text J and she told me she was there so I left my car parked in the corner and walked over to her car and got in.

"Hey wsp, how you feeling?" She asked sounding concerned

"Um I'm ok, kind of confused, a little worried, and hella stressed out" I said trying not to cry

"Yea I can only imagine, let me see the new phone though" she said with a big smile that made me smile in return as I handed her my phone

" ok big baller, this shii nice"

"Wait don't you have that same phone"

"That's not the point" she said causing us both to laugh

"Anyways I just really wanted to apologize to you and know I'm deadass cause ion even apologize fr but I for real didn't think all this shii would happen I don't know why yo folks don't fuck with me cause they don't even know me but if it's gon cause you pain and shii we don't need to be rocking yk" she said in the most sincere tone I've ever heard her have she really seemed to care which was kinda shocking to me I wouldn't lie

"I wanna agree with you so bad and ik it's probably the right thing to do but to me YOU haven't done anything to me. Hell you seem to be the only person who hasn't at this point" I say looking at her sad eyes

"Yea you a coo person but I don't think I could handle if sum happened to you because of me like that's dumb don't ruin yo life for our new friendship"

"Can we just like be cool on the low or something? You just seem like such a good person and someone I think is cool to be around"

"Ight I guess, mane but the second shii goes left I'm leaving you alone fr cause you got real shii going for yourself... oh and here" she says while pulling out a wad of cash from her pocket handing me some money

"Um what's this for? And why do you have so much money just in your pocket?"

" Don't worry bout why. And that's for the price of your phone because to be fair it's partially my fault yo shii got fucked up in the first place"

"Um I can't take this, that's a lot of money to just hand someone" I say trying to hand her the money back but she refuses

"Nah it's nun for real, just take it please it would make me feel so much better bout the situation. Save it, Spend it I don't care but please just take it from me"

I finally just accepted the $800. And we sat in silence for a minute looking out the windows.

"Um so how's your brother" I asked nervously because I hadn't heard anything about it since that night

" Oh he's recovering, he should be home Ina couple days as long as he isn't too stubborn" she laughed a lil

"Well that's good, I'm glad to here that but that means you've still been home alone huh"

"Yea but it ain't bad, I've been home alone since I was 8. I'm 18 now if anything I'm more protected" she said as she patted her waistband

"I don't know what you mean by that but if you ever need a lil company just give me a call or a text"

We sit the car a for a little longer. After a hour she said she had to go see her brother and I knew I could stay away from home forever. We hugged and said our goodbyes and she drove me back to my car.

I FaceTimed Kennedy on my way home since she had been blowing my phone up.

"Ight girl I just pulled up to the house and I don't know what I'm finna walk into so I'll talk to you later" I tell Kennedy as I put my car in park