Hiding Place || Tori Kelly

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continued

6:28 PM

Irie sat on her knees in the booth half of the table beside Tori playing in her grape juice after a long day of absolutely nothing. They laid around the beach until 3. And only came in because the rain got heavy. Today was their lazy, lounge, jet-lagged day. Tomorrow was supposed to be for all the real action. "Mommy," Irie asked, swirling her straw around the plastic cup for the hundredth time.

"Yes, baby," Tori replied, picking her head up from its resting black on the dark brown wood. She watched her child play with the cup, almost knocking it over a few times as André sat across from her on his phone with no care. Tori snatched the cup and sat it on the other side of the table, without even a single reaction from André. Not even a glance up.

"Why can't I go to regular school?" Irie asked, finding something new to play with on the table. Tori hadn't really explained her job, past the fact that she had a different type of job, so she expected questions like this.

"Well, you know how you go to the studio with me sometimes?" Tori asked. Iriella nodded, drawing on the pad and paper she'd managed to slip out of Andrés loose held hand. "Well, I sing in front of a bunch of people a lot. And Daddy and I travel a lot. So, you have to come with us," Tori explained. Irie 'ohhed' and continued to draw, not being fazed by her mom's job, but also not processing what that means. Tori placed her head back on the table with her eyes shut, feeling quite nauseous, in hopes that the cold table would aid in her wellness.

"Daddy," Irie called as she started to draw her flower.

Nothing.

"Daddy," Irie said again, this time getting a little wild with her lines and ultimately scribbling out her picture. "Daddy!" She screamed. This time, though, causing Tori to open her eyes and look up to see her husband still on his phone. "Daddy!" She yelled for the last time. Tori couldn't believe André was blatantly ignoring his daughter and did what any sensible mother would. She kicked her husband under the table. André looked past his phone with a scowl to his wife.

"Answer her," Tori growled, not caring about the faces he was making. Irie started to go on about an arcade she'd seen when they were coming back from getting dinner. With little to no interest at the moment because of her sickness, Tori laid her head back down. After shutting her eyes, Tori was soon dead to the world. Too bad, it didn't feel like it lasted that long. An incessant beeping forced Tori out of her slumber in a mood. She sat her head up and looked around to see the room was empty, but a phone was vibrating on the table. She picked it up not caring about who the phone belonged and answered. "Hello?" Tori groggily greeted.

"André?" The females vice asked, waking Tori up immediately.

"No, may I ask who's calling," Tori politely asked. She heard a bit of shuffling in the other end before the girl took a deep breath.

"Madison. Who is this?" She asked, copping a bit of an attitude. Tori was taken aback at the sudden mood change but decided to play along.

"His wife." Tori bluntly replied as the room door started to open.

"Wife? He didn't say he was married," Madison replied. Tori could hear the shock in her voice and started to get angry.

"Oh, he didn't. Well, that's okay, because, with his track record, he won't be married for long," Tori said hanging up as her husband and daughter came into the room. André saw Tori with his phone in hand and anger on her face.

"Babe?" He asked, trying to act innocent.

"Madison called. This is why your phone's broken. Why do you insist on trying me, Murillo? Do you want to be a single father? A bachelor again? Because we can make that happen!" Tori yelled, dropping his phone on the wooden table, causing the piece that André taped in to pop back out.