Living Color

23. Vintage*

Akira gasps as she opens her eyes wide and sits up in her bed. She looks around the room and sees everything as it was before. She quickly hops out of bed and heads downstairs to see her mother eating breakfast at the table.

"Oh, good morning Akira. Hungry?" Sun asks as she smiles brightly at Akira. Akira runs her hand through her hair as she takes a seat across from Sun.

"What...what the hell happen?"

"What are you talking about?" Sun curiously asks as she leans in close. Akira shakes her head, "Never mind...forget it."

Ebonne lets out a sigh as she leans back against her headboard, "Who the hell was it this time?" She asks her self as she looks out her window.

Emanuel groans as he lifts himself up and sees himself laying on the floor of someone's living room, he looks beside him and sees Jason passed out. He gets up and heads over to the kitchen and sees David and Gary having breakfast and talking.

"Hey, what happen?"

"I'm not sure, I think something happen to someone last night." Gary says as he looks down at his phone.

"Have you tried calling anyone?!" Emanuel anxiously asks as he looks between the two.

"Yeah, but no ones been answering us. I think there all asleep. Wait...I just got a text from Akira." Gary says as he hears his phone ring.

Gary reads over the text and lets out a sigh as he leans back in his chair, "Fuck."

"What? What happen?" David asks as he leans in to try and read the text.

"It's Akira, she asked us to meet her at the park." Gary says as he sets his phone down on the table.

David frowns, "Why?"

"It was her last night."

"Fuck!" Emanuel yells as he punches the wall, which startles Gary. Jason snaps his head up and looks around to see who caused the ruckus.

Ebonne sets her phone down and begins to get dressed. She glances back at the nightstand beside her bed and sees the old photo on it.

Ebonne leans back against the closet frame, "Fuck."

Akira plops down on a bench at the park, she quickly wraps a scarf around her neck to shield her from the fierce winds and snow blowing. In the parking lot she sees two cars pull up, Ebonne gets out of her car as the rest of the boys get out of Gary's keep.

Gary runs up to Akira and gives her a comforting hug, "I'm so sorry Akira. What happen?" He softly whispers in her ear.

"One of the gasoline tanks under the house got loose and it was filling up the basement. My mom had some food cooking on the stove last night, and she must've forgotten about it. I smelt it as soon as I heard the explosion. I know it was that." Akira says as she leans back on the bench.

"Damn girl, you and Gary both need to be careful. We all do for that matter because some shit like that can happen to any one of us." Ebonne says as she glances at everyone.

"I don't understand why this is even happening. I thought nothing was supposed to happen until tomorrow...this is all getting out of control." Jason says as he shakes his head in disbelief.

Ebonne reaches into her pocket and feels the photo, "You guys, I was snooping around my parents attic and I found something. This would make it a lot easier for us to find out who had a connection with James." Ebonne says as she pulls out the vintage photo.

Everyone huddles around her and stares at the photo, Gary, Akira and Emanuel gasp when they see they're parents and Ebonne's mom smiling with James.