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Running my fingers through my hair, I dug my nails into my roots. " Hey, it's...Liyah." I said hesitantly.
"Liyah?" He asked, surprised. "I haven't heard from you in years."
I laughed half-heartedly. "I know."
"I miss you, girl. You gotta stop disappearin' on me for so long."
A brittle smile came on my face but disappeared within seconds. "I miss you too, TJ."
"What you need from me, Princess?"
"You still sell X-"
I was interrupted when Ari came running into the room, crying her eyes out. "Momma! I fell!" She lifted up her pants showing me her bloody kneecaps.
"Uh, never mind," I placed the phone back on the hook and reached for her...
~*~*~
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Her fair face crumbled in confusion. "What the hell have y'all been doing?"
"Trying to find some answers," I snapped. "Whatever is going on our group and we are trying to figure out what is." I leaned forward in my chair so that I was making eye-contact with her. "So, tell me what you know about Denise."
She closed her eyes and looked away from me again. "Okay, fine," she said. "I don't know what happened to her if that's what you think," she began. "But I do know she was running around with this boy named Wayne--the rapper in the group."
"Well, he's not the rapper anymore."
"Wayne worked for Melvin. Him and his cousin TJ, and his friend Damon."
"Damon who?" I asked. She couldn't have been thinking about the Damon I knew.
"I don't know his last name. I only met him once." She took a sip of her tea before continuing. "But they all worked together. When I found out De was dating Wayne and I found out Wayne was working with your daddy, I pulled her aside and tried to warn about what she was about to get herself into, but she never listened to me. She let whatever Aaliyah told her about me get to her head and she thought I was lying. Then, I found out she was on drugs. She was too far gone after that."
