Revealed

105. Jeremy

Stella, Solie, and I all sit patiently in the car as the sun begins to set. The sky becomes a sort of orange color and the blackbirds fly in a group horizontally across my line of sight.

I look over at Solie who's sleeping in the front seat. She looks so peaceful, it reminds me all about her kidnapping and the time we had spent alone together. Peeping into my rear view mirror I notice Stella on her phone. She's scrolling away and seems very involved in what she's doing.

"It's a really good book."

I cough a very awkward cough as if I wasn't just watching her. "What?"

"The book I'm reading. It's really amazing."

"Is it?"

"Yeah. The main character is a guy. He's looking for his true love after she goes missing, but he never finds her. His life becomes miserable without her. And when he does find her..."

She stops speaking. I raise an eyebrow and turn my body round to face her.

"What happens?"

Stella smirks and continues reading the novel. She casually scrolls to the next page leaving me with nothing to go off of.

I roll my eyes and chuckle before I adjust myself in the seat and stare at Solie again. She fixes her position with her eyes still closed. I smile.

It doesn't take too long before I see Faine, Melissa, and Sharon walking back towards the car. I start the engine and when I look back over at them, I notice another person with them, sort of elderly looking.

"Hey, Stella, who's that?"

Stella looks up from her phone and squints her eyes to see the four of them better.

"That Sharon, Faine, Melissa, and Mama."

"Mama?"

She faces me as she speaks now. "Yeah. Mama Dee. You know, Solie's 'mom'. The one that owns the bakery you tried to rob." She says 'mom' with air quotes.

I quickly unbuckle my seat belt.

"Shit."

As the four of them reach the car, I step out to join them and so does Stella. Solie still rests in the front seat.

"Jeremy, this is Mama Dee. She just needs to talk to Solie for a sec," Melissa says so calmly like it wouldn't piss me off to bring her here.

"She's asleep," I respond with a straight face and a firm voice.

"That's fine," Melissa shrugs and walks over to Solie's window and hits it while yelling for Solie to wake up.

"WHAT THE HELL MELISSA?!" I'm furious.

Solie slowly lifts her head off the seat with squinting eyes as she tries to get used to her environment. Melissa totally ignores my shouts because she continues what she's doing.

"Solieeee! Mama needs to talk to you!!"

She opens the door and Solie practically almost falls out, but I push past Melissa and catch her before anything bad can happen.

I shoot Melissa a death stare and she quickly backs up with her hands in the air as if to say "sorry..."

"I don't mean to cause trouble. I just really need to talk to Solane."

"Umm... lets sit in the car and wait for them," Sharon whispers loud enough for Faine and Melissa to hear. Stella, Sharon, Faine, and Melissa all fit themselves into the car as I help Solie out.

"Mama?" She sounds confused as she speaks.

"Solie... my love..." Mama goes up to give Solane a hug. She doesn't hug her back. Maybe because she's not in the right mindset yet from just waking up, or could there be another reason?

Mama pulls away.

"I'm so sorry for what I said. I didn't mean it. I was just angry and frustrated at you."

Solie looks down to her feet and sighs. "Mama, it's fine. I don't want to talk about this."

"But the thing is it's not fine. I'm supposed to be the role model. But instead, I was the aggressor..."

Solie does a soft chuckle. "What?"

"You get what I mean..."

Solie cringes her face and uses her hand to block the sunlight blinding her eyesight. Mama watches her pleadingly but gets no reaction. Then, she looks up at me, tilts her head, and mouths the words, "Please help."

All three of us stand in silence before Solie breaks it.

"Okay, Mama. I forgive you. Let's just pretend it never happened. Right now I really have to leave, okay?"

Mama sadly bows her head and sniffs. "Of course. I'll see you at home?", she asks with a shred of hope in her voice.

Solie bites her lip. Totally inappropriate right now but after what she just did, I feel like biting that lip for her.

"We'll talk later." She opens the car door and sits down again. "Love you," she says not too excitedly before closing the door.

Mama stands there for a few seconds and then proceeds to leave accordingly. I get into the driver's seat.

"Wait, where's Neal and Nickson?", Stella points out.

Solie and I look back and for the first time notice that they're not in the car.

"Oh my... ughhhhh," Melissa groans. "What the fuck man! Where the hell could they be?! They don't know anyone here!" She crosses her arms over her chest and pouts.

Solie giggles. "Mel, we will get to the party, okay? Plus, it's better to go later than earlier anyways. You, of all people, should know party rules. Number 1, never go alone. Number two..."

"Never go early.." Melissa rolls her eyes as she finishes Solie's sentence and sighs.

"Well, I'll go look for them," Faine offers as he opens the back seat door. I do the same with my door.

"I'll go with you. You girls stay here. We'll be right back."

Solie stretches her body over the driver's seat to grab my arm. She smiles.

"Be careful. I love you."

I pull myself over to kiss her before saying, "I love you more," and securing the car to leave.