We Come Alive 3

Rodeo

Sunday morning, the sun had already come into the blue sky and was beaming down on Texas. It shined through the curtains in Manny's bedroom. Manny groaned as she rolled over and became face to face with her best friend who was still sleeping. Manny smirked as she saw Clover was deep asleep with her naturally curly wild hair up in a bun with a silk bandana wrap around her edges so her hair didn't fly everywhere.

Manny poked Clover in the neck and quickly closed her eyes when she saw Clover stir awake. Clover glared at Manny before flicking her in the forehead.

"Stop waking me up." Clover complained.

Manny giggled as she opened her eyes and sat up. She got up like it was nothing and walked over to her makeup desk to put on her morning mask she used to clear her skin.

Manny could see in the reflection of her small table mirror, Clover get up and stretch. She was only in a white Calvin Kline bra and black Calvin Kline underwear. Manny on the other hand was only in small pink shorts and topless.

Clover walked over to Manny and used the full length mirror that was by the desk, standing at attention in the corner, to take out her bun and run her fingers through her hair.

"Love your nipple piercing. When'd you get 'em?" Clover asked, smirking over at Manny.

Manny chuckled softly. "Couple weeks ago. Just randomly got 'em. They didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. You should get one."

"Nah, I'm gonna get a tattoo. Dante's gonna take me to get mine where he got his." Clover shrugged. "I'm gonna get it on the inside of my arm on my bicep."

She held her left arm out and showed Manny where the tattoo was going to be. "It's gonna say, success isn't about winning. It's about staying in the game. It's what your dad had said to me right when I won 3rd ranked."

Manny nodded slowly, finishing putting on her mask. "What tattoos does he have?"

Clover sat down on the ground as she answered. "Dante has one rib cage tattoo that's on his right side. It's a heart rate going into his brother Tyrell's full name in cursive going sideways. Above is the Roman numerals for Tyrell's birthday and underneath were the Roman numerals for his death date. Next to the heart rate was Tyrell's writing that they traced from a note he wrote to Dante only days before he died."

"His brother died?" Manny asked, whipping around to face her. Clover nodded slowly.

"He was shot 7 times in a drive by. Was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Clover sighed. "And than Dante has this tattoo on his chest that it's rare to see because he's not shirtless often and it's kinda small, but it's a simple bow and arrow a couple centimeters below his collar bone."

Manny frowned. "Why?"

Clover heard her phone ding with a message from across the room. She got up and walked over to it to see who had texted her. "He says because like a bow and arrow, you gotta drag it back to shoot it off. So when life drags you back and pulls you back with negativity, you gotta know it's gonna launch you forward eventually. So just focus on what you want and aim for the bulls eye."

Manny smiled softly as she turned around and looked in her reflection of her mirror. She could see behind her, Clover leave the room and head down the hallway. Manny sighed as she looked down at her body and placed her hands over her stomach. She ran her finger tips up and down the side of her small bump thinking about the life that was inside. The baby that she didn't know what gender they were, what their name would be, or what they'd grow to be like, but no matter what Manny already knew she loved her baby.