Brutal Love

Chapter 7

The shower was nice. It was the first shower I'd taken in a week. My aunt didn't want me to take showers because she thought I would waste the water. So I only got them once a week. I spent a good 10 minutes in the shower, most of which I used to scrub all over and hard too, to get the dirt and stink off. I got out of the shower and grabbed the towel that was hanging on the back of the door. I dried myself off and wrapped it around myself before going into the room I found myself in this morning. All of the bag of clothes were in there. Tre must've put them here while I was in the shower. He also layed out an outfit on the bed. It was a blue skirt and a plain black slim fit t-shirt. Off to the side was a pair of black knee socks. I wasn't a big fan on skirts, I don't even know why I bought it. I thought for a moment. He said to dress up. But not too fancy.

"Why not? It's only for a couple of hours. It's not like I'm going to die if I wore it." I said to myself.

I dropped my towel and got dressed. I decided to leave my hair wet and let it air dry. I put it in a high ponytail and made it into a singular ringlet (not that I needed to do that since my hair is naturally curly). I put on my glasses and took a look at the finished product. Not bad. Before turning away I thought about if I should put on makeup. I decided against it. I never wear it anyways so why should I start now? I put on my beat up pair of black and white converse and left the room.

At the bottom of the stairs, I was met by a calmed down Tre Cool. He looked up from his phone and smiled at me.

"Wow, you clean up nice." He said.

"You're not so bad yourself, Papa Cool." I replied with a smirk. He was wearing a black button up collared t-shirt and black dress pants. He also had a blue bow tie on. "We're matching. Did you plan that?"

"Maybe. I thought it'd be cute." He looked at his watch. "Well, let's get going." He held out his arm. "Shall we?"

"I think we shall." I said and linked arms with him. We walked out of the house and to his car. Like a gentleman he opened my door first and then ran around to the other side and hopped in.

"A little music?" He asked. I nodded. "In the glove compartment there's an aux cord and a folder of CDs. You can choose."

I immediately got the aux cord and went through my songs to find a good one while Tre pulled out of the driveway. I wanted to play a Green Day song but I didn't know how he would feel about listening to himself

"I like that one." Tre said, leaning over and looking at my phone. He tapped a song and it started playing.

Wherever you go

You know I'll be there

"Poprocks and Coke, one of my favorites." He said.

If you go far

You know I'll be there

I'll go anywhere

So I'll see you there

We sang along to it and the next song and the next until we pulled into a driveway which I assumed belonged to the Armstrongs.

"Alright, we're here." He said as he unbuckled his seat belt. I unbuckled mine and when I touched the handle, Tre had opened it. "M'lady."

"And they say chivalry is dead." I joked as he helped me out of the car. When Tre closed the door, another car pulled into the driveway. I saw that it was Mike. "Look it's Mike." I pointed.

"Alright, let's go." Tre said, pushing me up the path and towards the door. "We have to get inside before him."

We made it to the door and he knocked on it frantically. I looked over my shoulder and Mike was helping his kids get out of the car.

"Welcome to chez Armstr- " Billie said as he opened the door. He was interrupted when Tre pulled himself and I inside and past him. "You win Tre. Hey, Winnie."

"Hi Beej." I said. I looked at Tre who was standing in the doorway with a smug smile on his face, presumably waiting for Mike. "And what did he win?"

"Well, Mike and him have a race every Saturday. Whoever gets inside first gets $50 and they get to slap the other in the face."

"Why?"

"Because Tre is always late so they made this bet. So far this is the first time he's won in a month."

"Oh Mikey my boy, are you ready to pay up?" Tre sang as Mike walked in, putting his child on the floor.

"Hey Winnie." He said to me, completely ignoring Tre. "This is my wife, Brittney and my kids, Ryan, Brixton and Estelle. Guys, this is Winnie." They all said hello to me and all the attention was kinda scaring me a bit. I moved a bit closer to Billie until his wife came in the foyer to greet us all.

"You must be Winnie." She said. "I'm Adrienne. We're so glad you could join us and you look lovely by the way, dear." She bent down and hugged me. I was taken my surprise but I lightly hugged her back. "Now, dinner will be ready shortly."

"I'll come help." Said Brittney and her and Adrienne disappeared into the kitchen.

"Alright, Estelle, can you take kids and go find Joey and Jakob?" Mike asked his daughter. She nodded.

"Winnie, you should go with them." Tre said. I looked at him a little nervously. "It'll be fine, Billie's kids are awesome just don't fall for their charm." I rolled my eyes and smiled.

"Come on." Estelle said, beckoning me to climb the stairs. I quickly hugged Tre and then followed her up the stairs.