Retaliated

Chapter 39

Retaliated: The Final Chapter

~Arlie P.O.V.~

It's been a solid three days since Tilly Beans and I came back up from Compton. In those three days, she hasn't said much, just a simple one or two word answer to any question I asked h er but she might as well have been dead inside and it was beginning to show on the outside.

Every aspect of her had changed like someone flicked a light switch. Her voice was so quiet and weak, sounding nothing like the angelic voice she had. Eyes that were nearly dull of all color and she was starting to lose weight, making me grow with more concern as each hour passed by.

"Tilly Beans?" I called out, gently pushing the door to our room open to see her sitting on the balcony chair. "Mami?" There was still no response so I approached her, reaching down to touch her arm where I was greeted to skin that was nearly ice cold. "Mami, you gotta talk to me please. I'm worried about you." I said as I took a seat at the foot end of her lounge chair.

"Hm?" She mumbled, bringing her sullen eyes up to mine and it was actually breaking my heart to see her like this. All I've ever known her as, is the confident, strong willed, silly, sweet, sensual woman that made her Tilly Beans so to see her like this... it didn't feel right. If anything it was like having a stranger sitting in front of me.

"This is gonna be the third day in a row where you haven't eaten anything. That's not good for you and I'm concerned."

"Oh." A slight shrug of her shoulders to follow.

"Oh? It's not just oh, you need to eat something."

"I don't care, Trell. I just don't anymore."

"You need to though. I haven't seen you crying or anything, you've just been sitting out here. What's going through your mind day in and day out while you're out here?" I asked keeping the firmness out of my voice. She dropped her eyes down to the cushion beneath us, her finger following along the thin seam delicately.

"It's upsetting how the initial deaths don't affect me anymore. I've grown so used to family dying around me- I'm just always alone." She spoke slowly but meticulously. "I was looking so forward to seeing them grow up and now... that's taken away from me." I reached out and pulled her to me in a hug, rubbing her back, I was quick to notice it becoming slightly more boney, not too bad but it wasn't the same. "I feel like I've lost everything."

"I'm so sorry for your loss, I really am. I can't imagine how that feels especially in the manor that it happened but never say you're alone. You've got people like Sweets who would never leave your side and now you've got me right here with you. People like Sweets, Varo, Lexis, Nelle Bells, Ginot and all them, we aren't ones to just drop you. We've been your family since the day you came up here and you've rode for us hard so we ride for you too. I love you more than you probably realize and I'd go to any length just to make sure you were safe and happy. Do you understand that? Anything you want or need, I'll make sure you get it one way or another." I said right into her ear. She wrapped her arms snug around my neck, burying her face deep into the crook of my neck. "I told you, I got you and I'm not playing when I say that."

"Anything I want?" She asked and I smiled to myself. "Like anything-anything?"

"Yes, Mami. What you have in mind?"

"When I have something in mind I'll tell you... You haven't told anyone what happened, right?"

"No. I haven't talked to anyone besides Sweets but even then I didn't tell her." Tilly Beans' news isn't my news to be spreading around. I'm just glad I have her talking more than she has been these past few days. "Can you please eat something? Even if it's just a few slices of apple or half a banana, just something so I know you've got food in you." Pulling apart from her a little bit, I picked her head up with my forefinger to keep her eyes with mine. "Please, Mami? How are you supposed to stay slim thick if you're letting the thick part of you wither away." I saw that small crack of a smile and that made me a whole lot happier. "Thank you for that small crack in your frown but on some real talk."