NOVA.
"You just missed him Novs," Vaughn chuckled as I stepped into the store.
"Oh, we aren't together anymore."
"Hell you mean the two of you ain't together anymore? He didn't hurt you or anything like that?" Vaughn furrowed his eyebrows and shifted the toothpick to the other side of his mouth.
Pressing my cheek against the heel of my palm,"It is what it is." He stifled a laugh.
"Just like that hm?" Vaughn wiped down the counter making me furrow my eyebrows how he said it.
"What do you mean?"
"You guys just gave up on each other." I was appalled by the bitterness in Vaughn's words.
"We're still friends." I spoke defensively.
"Friends? Right, because that's what you want-"
"I'm not the one who cheated." I felt my face redden.
Vaughn gave me a sympathetic look,"I've known Jahani since he was nine, how we met is a conversation you can have with him...but the kid's had a tough upbringing and that's not a reason for him to cheat but I think you should just hear him out. He's probably all choked up on his pride."
"How did the two of you meet?" I asked out of curiosity.
Vaughn chuckled,"That's a conversation you can have with him. Gives you a reason to talk to him."
"Mm, you're just full of ideas aren't you?" He shrugged his shoulders.
"I know you miss the boy so why not just call him?" Rolling my eyes and nibbling my lips. Even if Vaughn was right, I knew on my part it'd be best to not call up Jahani. "Maybe later." I sighed.
When walking through the house I didn't expect to push my bedroom door open to find Mom sitting on the edge of my bed. Since what took place at her house with Deon, I've been ignoring her. Staring at her harshly and tossing my keys on the top of my dresser,"I love what you did with your room. You've always been good when it came to decorating, you'd always shift the furniture around the house." She smiled at the ground, turning towards me when I noticed the sunglasses close to her face. Noel pulled them from her face revealing her black eye.
"What happened?" I knitted my eyebrows and leaned against the dresser.
"Nothing for you to worry about, everything's handled with Deon. You don't have to stress about it anymore, okay?" She played with the ends of my hair before pushing it out of my face.
I scoffed,"But I do...I'm left with what he did to me. You killed him right after telling me that he was my father." I whisper-yelled.
"I realize it was wrong of me to keep that information from you, but I didn't want someone like him to be your father." She sobbed, frantically wiping her face as if she was astonished by the fact that she'd been crying. "I-I can't explain how awful I feel for allowing something like that to happen to you."
Nodding slowly while playing with my fingers."You said that you handled it...how?" Noel's face went still as she sighed heavily.
"Um, I just had some trustworthy people who helped me." She swallowed hard and avoided eye contact. Lying to me, for what is my question. Knowing Noel she's gotten way in over her head, before I could interrogate her the doorbell rang making Noel to rush towards the window, "Somebody after you or something?" She sighed and shook her head. I knew that she was hiding something, she always was.
"Nova!" Nana called out to me as I furrowed my eyebrows. Walking out of my bedroom and down the hall to see Carter waiting on the porch with a duffel bag in his hand,"How ya been?" He smirked.
"Fine, what're you doing here?" Pulling my slouching cardigan up on my shoulder.
"To give you this," He handed me over the duffel bag, furrowing my eyebrows. "Caio left it behind before you died. I'm beginning to think that he was going to get hit, that's just my assumption, he left a letter and a key with specific instructions." Carter licked over his lips before backing off towards his car.
"Carter," I called out to him making him raise his head at me. "Thanks."
He nodded,"If you need anything just know I've always got you, with Caio being gone don't think you've got anything to worry about, alright?" Smiling widely and holding my arms open, he sucked his teeth before bending down to hug me.
"So he is nice?" He scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"Sometimes," Carter stuffed his hands in his pocket. "Be careful, these streets ain't nice."
"Stay blessed, love." If I was one of these other bitches I would've been swooned but I closed the door in his face and locked it back up. Nana had been yelling at the TV at the contestants of Family Feud,"Everything good?" She looked over at me.
"Yes ma'am." Going back into my bedroom to see Noel in the midst of a heated conversation, hearing yelling on the other end. I dropped the duffel bag beside my dresser and looked at her fearful expressions.
"Ok, ok." She sighed before ending the call, rubbing her hands over her thighs as I quirked an eyebrow.
"So you going to tell me what you did?"
"Uh. Maybe later, hun," Noel spoke with her trembling fingers typing away at her phone."I'll be back around tonight, alright?" She kissed my cheek.
"I might not," I responded as she'd already been making her way out of the house. Sighing as I kicked my bedroom door close and glanced down at my phone in my hand.
1(313)420-9087: Shits up with Noah.
Recognizing the number belonging to Carter as I pushed my hair out of my face frustratingly before stripping of the lounge pants into jeans over a white bodysuit. I jogged out of the house with the worries of Nana following behind me, biting into my lip as I set off towards Caio's old apartment. My chest tight the whole time thinking of what Noah could've done, knowing he's been alone and not handling things so well.
In my rearview the sun had been setting watching as the tangerine and pinks bleeding into the blue sky. When I got in the parking lot I locked up my car and walked inside with the shades on my face. Unlocking the door to the apartment is when I seen Noah in his usual somber state on the sofa with a bottle attached to his hand, the apartment a mess, he was in the same clothes that I last saw him in. When I was here last week. Carter had a worried expression,"He hasn't even said anything." Nibbling on my lip and closing the door with my foot before sitting my keys down and seeing the scatter of takeout along with empty liquor bottles.
Pushing some of the boxes away before sitting on the edge of the coffee table directly in front of him. Noah's red, puffy eyes met mine,"Wanna get cleaned up?" I suggested as he sniffled, tears rolling down his cheeks making me blink away the hot tears. Playing with the mass of rings on my finger as he staggered towards his feet. Once Noah seemed in slightly better spirits and cleaned up we came back to the living room to find that Carter cleaned up the place and was stuffing his face with Denny's,"I hope you bought enough." Noah sucked his teeth and went into the kitchen.
I sat on the floor rolling up,"Is there a reason why your eyes are burning the side of my face?" I didn't bother looking up at Carter who'd been staring at me.
"Nah," I rolled my eyes and began taking long drags, smoking away all of the stress. "Where's ya boy?"
"Don't test my nerves," Noah plopped on the sofa quietly, all of us there looking like a twisted sitcom. Stuffing faces and getting lifted. My phone lit up indicating that I had an incoming call, Jahani flashed across the screen as I bit into my lips.
Lifting it off the table and stepping on the balcony,"I don't want this distance...we needa talk about this, with you is where I belong. I'll admit that I fucked up and baby, I didn't want to put you through that. Can we work things out?"
"Time will tell," I crossed one of my arms over myself.
"I ain't got any left!"
Quirking an eyebrow,"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I-I'm going away, in a few weeks I'll be starting classes at U of M-" I ended the call, it was just like him to just be picking up and moving away from the problems. My world slightly began to cave in. Feeling torn between being the friend that supported him and the girlfriend who knew that distance only caused complications. But I suppose that title of being girlfriend was no longer there.
Knowing that he was going to be moving away only made everything harder, stuck between the feelings of wanting to resent him for the pain he put me through and wanting to just rush back to him before time slipped away from the two of us.
