Solid ||Bryson Tiller||

Nine

Keona's POV

I just got my hair done and I was looking good if you asked me. I got a part down the middle. Anna was on her phone texting away, which reminded me...

"What you wanted to tell me?" I asked.

"What?" she looked up from her phone with a confused look on her face.

"You wanted to tell me something the other day..." I trailed off.

"Oh! Elijah ass! He won't stop texting me. I told him he done burned his bridge." She said. "This him I'm texting now."

I shook my head. "What he do?"

"Cheated." She kept her eyes on her phone.

"Okay, well what you wanna do now? Go home, or do something?" I asked.

"I really don't care." She shrugged.

I nodded and decided to just go home. When we made it home I went in my room with Anna behind me and jumped in bed. I was tired. I had to wait behind three people.

"You know yo brother asked me to go to a school reunion with him." She said.

"What school reunion?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Ion know, but I said yeah." She put her phone down and my phone began to ring. It was an unknown number, but I decided to answer.

"Yeah?"

"Wassap. This Keona, right?" the deep voice asked.

"Who's asking?" I raises an eyebrow.

"Um, this is Deondre. Is Keona there?"

Ooh, Deondre from the mall. I forgot I gave him my number.

"Yes, this is she." I said.

"How you doing? I called the other day, but you didn't pick up." He said.

"Oh, my bad, I didn't know it was you."

"So, um, you doing something this weekend?" he asked.

I got butterflies, "Um, no, not that I know of. Why?"

"Can I take you out?" he asked.

"Take me out where?"

"It's a surprise." He chuckled. "Yes or no?"

"Um... yeah, okay." I said.

"Aight, I'll text you later."

"Okay," and click.

"Girl, who was that?" she asked.

"Deondre. He asked for my number when we went to the mall." I explained.

"Okay, and?" she said wanting me to elaborate,

"He wanna take me out this weekend. I told him yeah." I said.

"And what about your brother?"

"I don't need his permission." I rolled my eyes.

I know he my big brother and I aint see him in years, but that don't mean I'm gonna do what he says. Not completely.

"Ima go cook dinner. Come on." I got off the bed and walked out the room, plugging my phone to the AUX cord, playing Drake. Anna helped me with dinner. We was preparing to make shrimp and rice. I soon heard some keys and the door knob turning. "Hey, brother!" I walked out the kitchen to give Que a hug, but the first thing that caught my attention was this girl. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at Anna, who made a face and looked at Que. "Um... who's this?" I pointed at the girl.

"Janiya." He said. "She gon be staying here for a lil while. Let her borrow one of your big shirts just for tonight." He went to the hallway to the guest bathroom and started to run a bath.

"Um..." he got some explaining to do and this girl smells so pissy, oh my God. I went to my room and went through my drawers, searching for a shirt. Once I found one, I put it over my shoulder and stepped into the guest bathroom and sat it on the sink. "Jacquees, explain."

"Keona, not right now, aight? She's an old friend of mine and I'm letting her stay til she straight. Make her feel welcomed, aight? She just lost her dad, so she a lil traumatized right now." He got off his knees and looked me in my eyes and kissed my forehead. I made a face. I like yo hair. Now I gotta go. I'll be back for dinner." And he walked out.

I sighed and looked in the mirror. I tilted my head to the left and looked at the hickey Bryson gave me. I smiled to myself. He's so cool. He looks as if he's stuck up and mean, but he's nice... to me. I shook the thought of him out my head and walked out the bathroom back into the living room where Janiya was left.

"Um, the shirt in the bathroom down there..." I pointed down the hall.

She walked down the hall and into the bathroom, closing the door.

"What's wrong with her?" Anna asked.

"Que said she just lost her dad... I know how she feels." I said remember the day I got the call that my dad was murdered. They never found the people that killed him so they closed his case.

"Yeah... you think you slick hoe! I seen that hickey on yo neck this morning." Anna laughed and I blushed.

"Shut up!" I covered my face.

"Major, huh?" she asked.

I nodded.

"You like him?" she poked me.

Yes. "No."

She made a mhm face, "Yeah, whatever, but Que said make sure we watch her too."

I nodded and went in the kitchen checking on the rice and shrimp. It was smelling good. 20 minutes later, Janiya walked out the bathroom with my jersey on and her dirty clothes in her hand.

"You can put yo clothes the in the hamper in the closet right there." I pointed.

She did as she was told and walked towards me. She was very quiet.

"So, are you hungry? Dinner's almost ready?" I asked, putting a small smile on my face to lighten up the mood.

She nodded and I pointed to the high chair, "You can sit... so how long did you know Jacquees?"

She looked at me, "For a little while..."

I nodded. I know something aint right. This got something to do with his "business", but I'll talk to him about that later.

"Well, I'm Keona and this my friend, Anna." Anna smiled and took out her phone. "Consider this home."

She shook her head and covered her face starting to cry. I know she must be going through so much right now. I comforted her, "Shh..." she started to cry hard, breaking down. "Anna, give me some tissue." This girl was going crazy, shaking and all. Anna gave me the tissue and I lifted Janiya's face and wiped her tears and nose. I started to cry too bc I felt her pain. We cried for a good two minutes then got ourselves together.

"Um, ima just skip dinner tonight. I wanna be alone." Janiya said rubbing her eyes.

I nodded, understanding completely. She walked out the diner room and disappeared into the hallway.

"You good?" Anna touched my shoulder.

"Yeah. Let's eat." I cracked my knuckles and went into the kitchen, grabbing a plate, putting some white rice and shrimp on it. I opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. I sat at the island and prayed over my food, then began to dig in. Anna sat on the island by me and was on her phone.

"Do you think she's an old friend of your brother's? She looks about our age." She said.

I shrugged. I already knew it was a lie but I'm still grieving thinking about my passing father. I still can't believe he's gone though. I shook my head at the thought, cleared my thought, and scraped the remaining of rice in the garbage. I sat on the couch and took out my phone and decided to text Deondre.