Moving On Is Hard [Trilogy]

Catching Up

::Issa::

Over the past few weeks or so, I’ve grown a little closer to Monique’s sister, Tallia. I mean we keep running into each other, and then our sisters are best friends, so it was bound to happen. We’re cool, but not on no ‘best friend’ type stuff, we associate with each other, but I can see us becoming good friends, I’m not sure of being anything more than that, after all I just met the girl.

Anyway, I have Isa with me, but this lil girl talks more than I remember, it’s like she don’t know how to be quiet for more than 5 minutes unless she’s sleep or watching a show she really likes or playing on her little tablet, but t.v. & her tablet doesn’t keep her attention for more than an hour, and then she’s back to being motor mouth. I love her though, and I wouldn’t trade her in for nothing in this world. Sure she talks a lot, but she could be like some kids, and not know how to say anything. A few days ago, she told me she needed a telescope, it surprised me, but outta curiosity I asked her what she needed it for, and she told me ‘to see the stars’ but she said it in a ‘duh’ tone, after that I don’t think anything she says will ever surprise me again. Like what 3 year old says stuff like that? “Daddy” Isa said walking into my room, holding her Minnie Mouse, she never puts it down. “Yeah?” I asked picking her up. “My belly belly hungry” I chuckled to myself, she always says what her body parts want. “Ok, do you want pancakes?” “Yes” she smiled, and we got up to get dressed and do our morning routines.

When we get to IHOP it wasn’t that crowded, mainly because it’s a weekday and the lunch rush or whatever hasn’t started yet, so we were quick to get seated. “Hi. My name’s Elena, and I’ll be your waitress, can I start you all off with anything to drink?” she asked placing straws and utensils on our table. Since I knew what we both wanted, I just went ahead and ordered our food and drinks. “Daddy, can I play candy crush?” Isa asked. I pulled out Tiana’s phone, yes I kept it, it has a child safe mode or something on it, but anyway I handed the phone to Isa and allowed her to play Candy Crush. After a few minutes of her playing, and me doing random stuff on my phone, our drinks came out. “Daddy… who is this?” Isa said turning the phone in my direction, apparently she closed the game out, whether it was intentional or accidental, I don’t know. How the hell do I explain this? “Uh… that’s a very good friend of daddy’s” I mean, it’s not a lie. “Do you like her?” why the hell is my 3 year old questioning me? “Yes, very much.” “Can I see her?” where the fuck is our food? “No” I saw her face fall “But she can see you.” “How?” her face showed confusion. “She lives in heaven.” “Can we go there?” Before I could answer, the waitress came out with our orders. Finally! “Do you need anything else?” she asked politely. “No, thank you.” She nodded and walked off, by the time I pulled the knife and fork out to cut Isa’s pancakes, she was stuffing her face with one of the small pancakes. “You don’t want me to cut it?” she shook her head. “You don’t want any syrup?” she nodded her head, and pulled the syrups in front of her, “Which one?” she pointed to the strawberry syrup, and I poured it over her pancakes, and allowed her to feed herself however she pleased, and I ate as well.

::Tallia::

I’ve grown a little closer to Issa, I wouldn’t call us friends, but we’re content with each other. He’s attractive, but he seems a little distraught about something, I just don’t know if it’s good or bad, it seems like he distances himself when it comes to certain topics or after a certain amount of time, I don’t think he notices tho, it’s almost like he does it absentmindedly. Other than that, he’s a pretty cool person. We’ve only had a handful of conversations tho, so maybe there’s more and he’s not opening up. Wait…. Why am I tryna figure him out?????

Anyway, I’ve been awarded full custody of Monique, she went to the last court hearing, and couldn’t even tell the judge, jury, or lawyers who Tramell was. That proved how bad of a father he was, and there were some other things that came up about him, that deemed him unfit to take on a child. Michelle even came to that one, begging for us to come back, but she had already signed the papers, and they had the paper work. Before granting me custody, they asked Monique to explain why she wanted to stay with whoever she wanted to stay with. She explained everything, from the time she was little when she slipped up and called me ‘mommy’ to the numerous times she felt uncomfortable around Michelle’s random dudes & even the time a few of them tried to rape her. The court room was in tears after she finished telling her story, and disgusted at our donors.

I ran into Morgan a few days ago while I was on a lunch break from work, and she looked more demented than before. She approached me, and wanted to know where I stayed at. Like that shit was gonna happen, I switched the subject, and asked about Blake. I felt bad for leaving him behind to deal with her, but he’s not my child, and my brother is no longer here. After realizing she was getting nowhere with me revealing my living arrangements, she stormed out of the wing shop, and I finished eating. When I was leaving work, I saw her following me, too bad I was going to school to meet with my advisor. I really don’t understand what’s wrong with that girl, she needs help, and a damn good psychiatrist.

Since it’s the summer, I’ve been working a lot more, but hell Monique ain’t ever at home anyway. Her friends keep having sleepovers & parties, and she goes, I don’t have a problem with it, she was a straight “A” student in school this past year, despite everything that we’ve been through. Anyway, 2 more years in college, and I’ll be an official graduate & I’ll have a degree in criminal justice. They eventually got my credits together, and changed my class schedule, so I’m still on track to graduate on time. I was gonna take summer classes, but I decided against it, that would’ve been too much. I have found a side hustle tho, since I’m always experimenting and doing Monique’s hair, I decided to get paid for it too, Monique & Agyei are the only two whose hair I do for free tho. But I only do hair in my spare time, I needed the money to help pay for this apartment and to keep Monique and I clothed and fed. DTLR was helping to take care of all of this, but it doesn’t help to have a few extra dollars roll in. “Lia?” Monique questioned as she walked into the living room with me. “Yeah.” “My friend, Deyjah is having a sleepover at her dad’s this weekend, can I go?” “Yeah, that’s fine. I’m dropping you off?” “What time you get off work Friday?” “Uh… 6 I think.” “Well, yeah, you can drop me off.” “Ok, and if Agyei needs a ride, let me know.” She giggled “I sure will” and with that, she walked off to the kitchen. I have two hair appointments later, so for now I’m just gonna chill.

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just a filler, sorry for the mistakes