It'll be

CHAPTER TWENTY

Razaiah walked into school, Sage behind her rambling about a video on TikTok. She stopped in her tracks when she saw the girl she had helped a while back in the car crash, down the hall, leaving sage to take more steps ahead of her.

"You left me talking to myself," Sage complained, finally realising her cousin had stopped and locked her screen. She let her eyes roam to the direction that Razaiah's eyes were stuck on. A pale, big-eyed girl with bone straight blonde hair, and the cutest book bag. She was going through her locker, her eyebrows scrunched up.

"You know her?" Sage questioned, the both of them now eyeing the girl from a distance.

"She was in the car crash." She lowly said, not taking her eyes off of the girl who was oblivious of her on lookers.

"Well, go introduce yourself." Sage urged, then without waiting for her response grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the girl's locker.

"Hi," Razaiah greeted, a smile on her face. She was curious about how everything had played out.

"Hey," the girl responded, slightly smiling, but the eyes didn't partake in it.

"I was at the car crash." Razaiah put it bluntly, not knowing how else to put it.

"You were?" Her demeanour changed immediately, and Razaiah now had her full attention. "You were!" Now it was more of a statement rather than a question like before. She was excited, now that she understood what she was talking about. "Thank you so much for saving our lives..." she pulled her in for an unexpected tight hug. The realisation had killed every speck of her timidness as she spoke on. "That was a terrible night. I'm so glad you stopped to check on my cousin and I, Keith describes you..."

"Keith?" Sage cut her off mid-sentence in question.

"Yes, Keith, he goes here too, I should introduce you..."

"Yeah we have to go, we have some things to do. We'll see you around." Sage said and cut her off again, and they left off hand in hand, sage feeling the need to physically support Razaiah after what they had realised. She was afraid that this would trigger her and was prepared to be there for her all the way.

"Oh how lucky I am." Razaiah said lowly, sarcasm abundant in her tone.This made sage squeeze her hand gently, not really sure what to say.

She was in the cafe at school at lunch sipping on a pink lemonade as she read a novel, waiting for sage. All round her was lost, and nothing was real anymore as she continued to sink in to fantasy land. She heard a chair being pulled beside her, but prying her eyes off the words that seemed more like heaven, was no easy task.

"So you saved my life, huh?" The voice that no matter how much she tried, wouldn't evaporate from her mind and memory made her freeze. It took a second for her mind to pause and catch on what was going on. Keith sat on the other side of the table, with a smirk on his face that she felt he didn't deserve. He never deserved anything good. After all he had put her through, she didn't think that the gift of life should have been wasted on him. Funny enough God had allowed her to help him. She wished she had listened to her parents to drive away.

Taking her time, she closed her book, and put it in her bag and stood up to leave. It crossed her mind to pour her lemonade all over him, but she didn't. Partially because He scared her to death, and partially because she cherished her drink.

He called out to her hopeful for a response. She didn't budge, rather, she kept on walking to the exit, where she bumped into her cousin on the way out.

*******

Sage was drove her, keo and Normani home, as for once, their schedules matched. Sage was quiet not wanting to say the wrong thing, so she showed her support by doing all of Razaiah's little favorite things, playing her favorite artists, stopping for some Chick-fil-A which she would definitely get in trouble for but she risked it just for Razaiah.

Razaiah knew what she was doing and was so glad that for once she didn't have to go through another one of her crisis alone. Sage was truly a saving grace for her. she was like a fountain supplying her with water at all times. She wondered how she got through life without her.

She drove through the gates, and slowly down the long driveway. She brought the car to a halt, and her cousins in the back seat jumped out, leaving Razaiah and her in the car.

"I can never get away from him can I?" Razaiah spoke, her eyes void and distant, staring at nothing in particular. She was stuck in a trance, her mind like a blank page, all emotion gone in her, and her whole life felt like a rut.

"Rizzy..." Sage muttered silently, knowing full well that nothing could ever depress whatever she was feeling. She brought her in for a hug, and brushed her fingers over her tight curls. This was like the trigger for her tears. They sat, long amidst Razaiah's sobs, waiting for her to finish.

"Everything's going to be fine." Sage said. "Everything has to be fine Rizzy."

*******

The elevator dinged and opened as she got to the floor the penthouse was on. She walked into the house, and slid her shoes, from under her feet. The silence that Thickly covered The house slightly creating a coat of worry around her neck. She walked past the living room, towards the home theatre, where her aunt spent most of her days off in.

She found the whole tribe of ladies in there, wine glasses in hand watching the 'divine secrets of the ya-ya sisterhood' for the millionth time.

'Princess Diana finally graced us with her presence." Margo, one of her aunts friend said, as she paused the movie, making the rest of them turn to her.

"Meghan." Kelis sighed, rubbing her forehead trying to chart out her next step. "Baby, where have you been." She didn't want to be too hard on her. She was, after all, an adult.

"With Drayton," Meghan answered, trying to appear unbothered by the scrutiny the four ladies had her under.

"She asked where, not with who." Kendra, the one who seemed fired up more than the others, stood up from her seat.

"We were in his family's lake house." Meghan corrected herself. The thick air of tension like hands strangling her.

"Child..." Kelis sighed again. "I will let the sisters handle you." She walked out of the theatre just as Kendra asked her, not so politely to go to the front of the theatre.

Her aunt left her for her friends to shred her into pieces. She gulped, as she waited for them to land on her.

"I have seen millions of guys like Drayton hale in my life." Margo started, before sipping her champagne. "They seem like the epitome of perfect. They see your light and they want to dim it."

Meghan wanted to differ with her, Drayton wasn't at all like that. He was the one pushing her to do more and better. He was indeed defect less. Of course, she never had the guts to say it out loud.

"Your introduction to him was purely for content creation purposes. To build the foundation of your music career. Rosie threw in her two cents.

"We are creating content." Meghan defended, trying to get the ladies to understand, but before she even opened her mouth she knew they wouldn't get her. "We just wanted to take a break for the weekend."
"who's idea was this, because I can bet my soul it was that white boy's" Kendra said.

"What are you anyways , girlfriend/boyfriend, are y'all courting, what are you doing?" Kendra knocked her out with this. She kept quiet, repeating the question in her head faster and faster.

"Um, were taking things slow..."

She was stopped before she could even finish. "Keep on lying to yourself. If he wanted to he'd snatch you up for himself."

"We haven't known each other that long aunty."

"Oh so y'all haven't known each other long enough to be exclusive but long enough to be sleeping with each other?" Margo questioned, as she stood up, gathering her things along with the others.

"You are smarter than this baby. If I were you, I'd avoid him."

These were the last words they left her with. She watched them walk out, as she stood in the same position, until they banged the door closed.