"And if the sky should ever die.
We'd make our own light,
You and I."
~John Mark Green
••
Silence.
It's been silence over the most busy town in the US. From the Ajayi's, the Wilsons and most importantly Sade.
Time passes by rather slowly for the couple but to Sade it felt like he'd lived months- the days dragging on endlessly and pulling out the misery etched in his bones, so much so it was torture.
He leaned over the sink, shaving off his bush of a beard and his tired eyes met his reflection in the mirror- appalling but not surprised. He's become everything he wished he could avoid when moving to New York but his precious niece and her husband had to ruin that, turning him into a bum and a fucking— motel jumper with no place to go.
He combs his wooly, already greying hair out, walking out of the motel not too far from his former home. It's nostalgic how the motel being close to his former residence feels like home itself, calming almost.
Lighting a cigar and puffing a cloud of smoke in the early hours of the morning, he leaned against the side of the building having prefer the smoke filling his lungs than the emptiness left by family.
He scoffed, almost choking on air.
He leaned against the brick wall of the motel after calming down as he smoked his stick. In a way, the alcohol and tobacco were his only companion and family right now.
And at the way Funmi and the Ajayi's abandoned him, he felt alone and bitter but it didn't matter to him, now that he had more important things to do.
••
She couldn't deny the peace that came with isolating themselves a little while after her fall out with her uncle. She needed this to recuperate and spring back up for the family that mattered, hers.
Pierce and her stayed in separate beds at the time being, where as she was slowly learning to forgive and he was agonisingly slower in making amends but regardless, the peace that came with focusing on their family seemed to be enough in the moment.
They joked, laughed lightly, took walks with Eric and occasionally cooked together if the day felt right.
Things were looking up and she wanted to rub it in Sade's face so badly but she refrained and instead avoided using the telephone, busying herself by folding up Eric's clothes even as he continuously unfolded them with his little baby hands.
"Eric." She whined. Her feet were killing her and she needed to get her assignments done. "Stop!"
Two more years, she told herself and she would be done with college. She liked the idea of going to school at first, she viewed it as fun. Now she understood it was only fun for the unmarried non-mothers and boys.
Eric giggled, oblivious to the word. Her lips pressed into a thin line as she picked him up, "You're just one years old and you're out to get me." She mustered her most intimidating face, stuck between a pout and a glare as Eric stared back with wide eyes.
YOU ARE READING
Not more than strangers✔️
Short Story|Completed| What happens when you drop a pebble in still water and the rippling effects of its presence can't be ignored. Meeting someone would have been coincidental, could have been fate or perhaps a mistake like bumping shoulders in a mass of peo...
