Between the Raindrops

7) Part the Streets

After hours of an intimidating interrogation, Markyse was finally freed. His palms were sweaty from pressing his fingers on the inside. His mother and the two young women were sitting in the lobby, awaiting his arrival. The trio arose to their feet when he entered the lobby, hanging his head lowly. Truthfully, he was ashamed to even be in this situation.

Stella stood with heavy emotions, her cheeks stained with white lines, indicating that she'd been crying ever since the officers took him away. She'd always been emotional like that, though. She feared that he would be incarcerated for a while. There wasn't a proper goodbye, as their arrival was unexpected. But now that he was out, she was almost calm. There was so much to talk about.

Tyla, also emotional, stretched her arms out to hug her poor son. She feared the worse for him as well. After all, the murder took place only a couple of feet from her home. Never in a million years would she ever expect her innocent son to be entangled in drama like a murder, but, life worked out that way sometimes.

"Markyse are you okay?" She grabbed at his face, gently searching for any signs of bruises or injury. "Nobody hurt you in there did they?"

"No, ma," he grumbled, grabbing her small hands and placing them back at her sides. He loved his mother more than he loved anything, but right now, smothering was too much for him. "I swear, I'm fine."

"If somebody did something to yo-."

"I said, I'm fine."

He turned back to Stella, whose emotions were still all over the place, nearly jumped into his arms, crying all over his shirt. She thought she'd lost him, which terrified her greatly. She couldn't wait to get to the bottom of this situation, so that she could prepare for their next steps ahead. She was convinced of his innocence, but in a place like New York City, anything could've happened. She knew that her boyfriend had a heart of gold, but it didn't make him incapable of being a killer.

Tahiry remained quiet, unsure of what her role in this situation was. She didn't want to overstep any boundaries by being too aggressive with Markyse, considering the fact that his girlfriend was in the room. Honestly, she wasn't very sure where the both of them stood considering the fact that their last encounter wasn't so pleasant. She should've known that Tyla was going to do everything in her power to make sure that Tahiry would carry his last name, but there was no point in trying. He loved Stella.

While most people always assumed that he wouldn't be attracted to a woman like her, he was. She was a genuine spirit that had given him positive vibes since the first day they'd met. That meant more to him than looks would ever do. What was the point of being with a beautiful girl who had no soul or personality? Not saying that Tahiry didn't, but not every boy and girl who were best friends had to fall in love. That was simply not their story.

Markyse loved Tahiry like a sister, but forged a relationship so tight, that he'd almost forgotten that he was once in love with her. He wasn't quite sure if those feelings had gone away yet, but he knew how he was feeling when it came to Stella. He used to keep labels off of their situation, but he could now proudly hold his head up and claim her as his woman. It brought a joy to his heart just to say it. Now that he was trying to remain faithful, the only way he knew how was to cut anybody out of his life who he felt could've had a chance with him. He avoided Tahiry purposefully because he knew he wouldn't be able to resist her.

His logic put a spell on her heart, because everything seemed so contradicting. How could you be in love with someone, but enforce all of those feelings on somebody else? Tahiry decided not to worry about it, he would feel it when she began dating somebody else. She knew it was coming soon.