temptation «:|:» the weeknd

forty-four

forty-four

Abel pressed the button that would open his garage door, pulling down the mirrored sun visor. He looked into the mirror that allowed him to see who sat directly behind him in the backseat, and he gave Hawk the death glare.

Valerie felt as if he needed to calm down so she placed her hand on his right thigh just as he had pressed the button again to put the garage door down.

All four of the passengers in the car sat in utter silence for a long and overpowering minute before Abel finally declared, "Valerie. Empress. Go inside, we'll be there in a minute."

"No, Abel. If you wanna blame someone, blame me. I won't let you take it out on him when I'm the one that asked him to be here."

"Go in the house, Empress."

"I swear to god, Abel–"

"Valerie, take her in the house right now, please."

"I'm not a fucking child, Abel! I can do whatever the fuck I want!" She yelled, violently forcing the backseat door on the right open as she got out with Hawk trailing behind her.

Valerie opened the passenger door and gave the younger girl a demanding look that made her want to crawl up into a ball. She really hoped Valerie would take her side on this one. Feeling helpless, she rolled her eyes and opened the door that connected the garage to Abel's loft. The alarm immediately sounded throughout both floors, but it didn't matter because Valerie was quick behind her to shut the door and punch in the code.

The police arriving was not something Empress was particularly against with the way Abel was eyeing Hawk. Even if there wasn't exactly a home invasion, she couldn't help but feel as if her older brother was invading in on her privacy. It was the same thing, really.

"Valerie, we have to go out there. Before he hurts him."

Valerie laughed at her preposterous remark. She knew that Abel was upset with the whole situation, but after their little chat in the car, she trusted that he wasn't upset enough to hurt Hawk. "Babe, relax. He just wants to talk to him."

Empressed joined in on the laughter, however a bit more uneasily. "Seriously? For a second there, I thought he was going to kill me too."

"Sweetheart, you most definitely are gonna catch one with him so prepare yourself. What were you thinking? Inviting Hawk knowing we were picking you up..."

"I know, I know. I had it out for myself but I couldn't help it. Hawk is just too sweet and supportive, and I'm really starting to like him."

Valerie cooed at the young girl that she was starting to think of as a baby sister. Empress and she were alike in too many ways and it made it difficult for her to remember that she had her own baby sister at times. "You know how happy I am for you. But Abel... He doesn't take things like this as lightly as I can."

"Okay, but I'm grown and I'm capable of making my own decisions and mistakes. I didn't need him to make them for me the past nineteen years of my life and I don't need him to make them now."

Wincing at the inadvertently cold words that departed from Empress' mouth, Valerie shook her head and frowned at the young girl. It was a miracle that Abel wasn't present in the room by now with the loft's walls being so thin. She understood where Empress was coming from in a way because she sounded a lot like Valerie in the past. "Look, babe. I know you think you're super grown and no one can tell you anything, but that man has learned to love you and put you before all of his boys. You are his blood and he has every right to feel the need to be protective of you. You have to understand that... "