unexpected.

ch.17

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you. Happy birthday Nique and Andre, happy birthday to you."

"Make a wish MoMo." Marcel whispered in my ear as DeAndre and I stood over our candlelit cakes.

I smiled, shut my eyes closed tightly, made a wish, then blew my candles out.

That was 13 years ago today.

And now I was spending my 18th birthday in the hospital.

Marcel came out of his coma a week a half ago, and I couldn't have been any happier. The internal bleeding stopped, but we had to wait a long and hard 4 weeks for him to come out of the coma on his own.

Just as the doctor told us, miracles really do exist.

We went through with the whole open heart surgery just so Marcel was guaranteed a functioning heart. No ones told him about not being able to play football, since both ma and dad decided to hold that off until necessary.

Unfortunately the police haven't been able to find the guy who shot him, but there's still hope that one day he'll be caught.

"Sorry I couldn't get y'all anything this year." Marcel said, frowning to DeAndre and I.

I shook my head grabbing his hand as I sat next to his hospital bed. "No no. You know that isn't important Marcel."

"Bruh, don't even trip. Ain't no presents matter," De said, "All that matters is that you get healthy and get ready to come home soon."

I nodded in agreement, looking at De from over my shoulder then back to Marcel again. "Exactly." I mumbled.

The room consisted of me, De, ma, and Trey. Dad was out picking up gramma so she could spend our birthday with us, especially since we haven't seen her in so long.

We ate cake and DeAndre and I spent most of the time on the phone with family members thanking them for their birthday wishes.

Something inside of me really hoped I would get one from Chris, but I'm sure he's forgotten about me now.

I now sat in one of the chairs in the room next to gramma. Everyone was just talking and enjoying one another's company.

"How you doin' baby?" She asked me.

I smiled a bit looking over her and resting my head on her shoulder. "Just fine gramma, how are you?" I asked.

"Glad to see my babies. I've been praying so hard for all of you. Your father while he was away and Marcel in a time like this."

I nodded looking over to him talking with Trey. My family really is my everything, I've got to realize that they're much more important than any boy will ever be.

"I love you, you stay sweet as pie forever okay?" She said to me, caressing my cheek gently. I closed my eyes and nodded again. "Always g-mama."

Chris' POV

I've been in the studio more than ever lately. It was always a way to get out all the emotions I was feeling.

It's been almost 2 and half months not speaking to Nique and as much as it killed me, I thought it would only be right to respect what she wanted even if I didn't agree.

"Yo what's good witchu?" Red greeted me as he came through the door. We dapped eachother up and I shut the door behind him.

I shrugged, stuffing my hands in my pockets. "I'm alright, been better but I'm still living."

He turned around and looked at me, sort of suspiciously. "You ain't good man, I ain't seen yo ass in weeks. Talk to me." He said, sitting down on my couch.

I groaned, plopping down in a bean bag nearby.

"So what's up? Tell me whatchu been doing lately."

I ran my hands over my face and breathed out heavily. "Making music. Thinking. Taking care of Ro."

He nodded, kept his eyes on me then said, "Nigga, you missed the AMA's this year. You ain't been out for a cool minute. Somethings up." He chuckled.

I rolled my eyes and rested my head back on the cushion. "Ion know man. I just been thinking about her lately." "Nique?" He asked.

I nodded slowly. "Yup."

He rested his hands behind his head and looked at the ceiling, "I knew it. I do miss the lil bit though."

We sat in silence for a minute then he sat up. "Why don't I go visit her for you, see what's up?"

I looked over to him and he looked back at me. The idea wasn't too bad, especially since Nique was pretty fond of him.

"You really gon do that for me?" I asked sitting up a bit.

He rolled his eyes, then looked at me like I was dumb, "Cmon bruh, you know I gotchu through whatever."

I got up and dapped him up. "You a real one. I really hope she hears you out." "Psh, that ain't gon be no problem Breezy. All the ladies love Red." He said, smirking a bit.

"You a fool." I laughed, punching in his arm.

Ain't nobody but Red know about Nique and I've been going crazy not being able to talk to anyone about it, so now having Red here to support me, it's bringing back all the same feelings from the night I first FaceTimed her.

Red and I ended up chillin at the house for a while till he suggested we go out to help me relax with everything that was going on.

There was never a time I wasn't in the mood to go turn up at a club, so that's exactly where we went.

"Oh my god, is that Chris Brown??!" I heard some chick yell, even over the loud music playing.

I ain't even bother giving her the attention and kept doing my thing in the VIP. I took a hit from the blunt in my right hand, then inhaled the smoke through my nose.

There's a lot that I wanna be focused on right now. My child, this tour and Nique of course, but I just pray I'm able to balance it all at once.

_________

this chapter is EXTREMELY short and i truly apologize. i just have not been able to have any ideas come to my mind and tbh it was hard asf to even figure out how to finish this chapter.

but hopefully somethin works out for me and i do better next time.

remember to give sum comments bc i always love yalls feedback. 💛