Never Leave Me Alone

Chapter 13

It’s been a month since that night and things between and Antonio has gotten even better. Every day with him still felt like the first. I still got butterflies around him and still blushed like crazy when he said something nice to me. Things never got old. Not only did me and Antonio’s relationship get better but also life in general. Things just seemed too good to be true.

Mr. Harper laid off on me a little with some of my work hours and decided to give me a few days off. I was glad because I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle all those work hours and go to school at the same time. Yes, I was back in school. Well not technically since I haven’t started yet but I will in a few weeks. I was sort  of guessing that was one of the reasons Mr. Harper had me working so much (besides the fact that I just stopped going) to try to get me to see that finishing school was important and better then working at the corner store for the rest of my life.

Since I was off today, I decided to cook breakfast for Antonio. It has become a regular thing for me to do on my off days (which weren’t many to be honest).

“Hey baby,” Antonio said while wrapping his arms around me.

“Hey,” I said as I turned around to meet him with a kiss.

“Hmmm… What are you making?” he asked as he grabbed a spoon and dipped it in the pot to get a taste.

“No, no, no! Wait!” I tried to warn him that the grits were hot but failed.

“Ah shhhh… hot! He yelled. I couldn’t help but laugh. I mean he should have known the food was hot because for one, the food was still on the stove and for two, it was actually steaming.

“It’s not funny man! What is that anyway? He asked regaining his control.

“It’s grits. What, you never had them before?”

“No,” he said shaking his head.

“Well, I’ll let you taste them after they cool down some,” I said putting the emphasis on the word after just to be funny.

“Yeah, if I could still actually taste something. I think it burned my tongue.”

“I bet,” I said setting down the plate I just fixed in front of him.

He quickly grabbed his spoon and filled it with grits. He almost shoved it in his mouth but thought twice and decided to blow his food a little before eating it.

I laughed. Good choice.

He just shook his head at me as he ate.

“This is really good,” he said in between bites, “How come I’ve never had this before?”

“You’re asking me?” I asked jokingly.

“Well, not really,” he said as he slid away his finished plate.

“So what are you doing today?” he asked.

“Just hanging with the girls.”

“Cool,” he said as he looked down at his watch.

“Man! I’m going to be late for work! He quickly got up to leave but not before giving me a small kiss on the lips.

“See ya later babe!”

“Okay,” I said as he ran out the door.

I got up and quickly cleaned the kitchen then went upstairs to get ready. Shalonda and Maria were going to meet me here so that we could hang out. I took a quick shower then went in the room to find something to wear. I wasn’t really in the mood for dressing up so I just threw on a t-shirt and some jeans. Leaving down my long curly hair, I applied a small amount of mascara and lip gloss before going back downstairs. Hearing Shalonda pulling up outside, I knew I was just in time.

“Het girl,” I said opening the door.

“Hey,” she said smiling, “Is Maria here yet?” Now I knew that girl ain’t see Maria car out there yet but I decided to answer anyways.

“Nah, not yet. You can come in though, we’ll wait for her.”

“Okay,” she said. She walked over to the couch and took a seat. I sat across from her.

“Sooo…how are you?” she said as she crossed her legs and overlapped her fingers over her knees.

“Shut up and stop being weird we just talked yesterday so you know how I’m doing.” I smiled at her and she smiled back.

“Yeah, I know. Soo, um, I , uh…”

“Just say what you want to say girl.”

“I think me and Trevon are breaking up,” she said quietly.

“Really? What happened?” I asked. She didn’t look too happy about it.

“I just didn’t think it was right, ya know? I mean I know we made up and you say you’re okay with it and all but it doesn’t feel right anymore.”

“Okay,” I said softly, “as long as you’re happy.”

I thought it was sweet of her to care about my feelings (even though she was a little late with that) but I really did just want her to be happy.

“Yeah I am.”

After that we sat there forever making small talk as we were waiting on Maria.

“Where is that girl at?” I asked checking the time. We were supposed to leave a long time ago yet we were still here.

“I don’t know,” said Shalonda.

“Let me text her again.”

I pulled out my phone and sent Maria yet another text message.

Girl where you at? Are you still coming with us? If so let me know.”

We waited another five minutes but still no response. I was starting to have a weird feeling so I decided to call Marcus because I knew she wouldn’t just ignore me like that.

“Hello?”

“Hey Marcus, is Maria still home?”

“I’m not home right now but she told me she left like 20 minutes ago. Why? What’s up?”

“Oh nothing, she just ain’t here yet. She might be close now though since she left 20 minutes ago.”

“Aight then, let me know when you get in touch with her. I wanna know if everything is alright.

“Yeah, I’ll do that,” I said.

“Cool. Talk to ya later then.”

“Alright, bye.”

Just as I hung up the phone I received a text from Maria.

“Hey Shalonda, Maria just texted me,” I said while standing up, “She said meet her at Philly’s.”

“Why she ain’t just meet us here like we planned?”

I just shrugged as I grabbed my stuff. I locked all the doors. Behind me and followed Shalonda to her car. She decided to drive.

Before we knew it we were pulling up at Philly’s. I seen Maria’s car but we were the only ones there. I found that kind of strange. Maybe she was just leaving her car here and riding with us? I didn’t think that that was the best idea though. If she was going to do that, I would rather her leave her car at me and Antonio’s house like we planned on doing, rather than an empty parking lot. I pulled out my cell and sent Marcus a text letting him know we were with Maria.

“Sooo, what’s she going to do?” Shalonda asked obviously thinking the same thing I was thinking.

“I have no idea.”

“Well let me go ask her,” she said getting out of the car. She walked up to Maria’s car and knocked on the window. I just sat and waited but did not expect to see what I saw next. I saw someone pull Shalonda’s head down and slam it against the car door. I watched as her body hit the ground.

“Shalonda!” I yelled as I opened my car door and got out. I didn’t have time to run over to her before I felt someone hit me hard against the back of my head.