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NOEL STARED at her daughter in suspicion arms crossed with her foot out and tapping against the tiles of kim's bedroom floor
"so you're sick today?" her mother inquires
kim lets a groan leave her lips as she hides herself further under the covers "my head hurts—"
"your nose is runny and your throat's tight; i heard you loud and clear."
kim takes her head out from under her blanket and gives her mother a drowsy smile and droopy eyes "so can i stay home?"
noel looks over at kimberly's room for awhile as she's thinking before she comes to a conclusion, her mother points an authoritative finger at her.
"fine. but i better not see a single b on that report card."
kim smiles as her mother heads for the door, "i have all a's—and love you!"
"mhm, love you too!"
kim waits until she hears the close and lock of the front door downstairs before she swings half her body off the side of the bed, upside down as she peers under "clear,"
leo rose up from under the bed, stretching his back, kim snickers when she hears all the cracks. "you really are like an old man lee, i guess all those years are catchin' up" she starts laughing harder when leo turns to glare at her
"akekeke, you weren't saying that when you were beggin' for my dick."
kim gasps and puts her hand on her heart, "and to think i was about to ask you on a date"
leo's eyes widen "a date?" "yeah, a date. you know, when a couple goes out and possibly fucks afterwards?"
leo nods immediately, "that sounds like a nice arrangement. we can do that."
kim pulls him down to bed with nothing but a smile on "i'm glad" leo gives her a kiss before resting his head on her chest "i've never been on a date before..." kim chuckles "really?"
leo lifts his head up, his whole demeanor tensing "you have?"
"yeah. with my last boyfriend." "oh" kim laughs at him
"relax, it'll be fun. i'll take your date virginity." they laugh before falling asleep tangled up in each others arms
cici followed him to the basement of daredevil plumbing & co, "bry c'mon, you have to gimme something, he's my dad"
bryan, her deceased father's boss, stops walking and turns around to face the blonde woman. "i can't tell you much, your father wasn't exactly the most open person" cici shakes her head "i know that much but what about his office? i know you keep the keys somewhere," cici persists and out of pity, bryan hands her the key "don't mess anything up in there"
cici smirks as she jingles the key in her hand "i'm not a child, motherfucker." cici shows him her middle finger before hurrying over to her father's workspace / as soon as she stepped inside, she looked through the drawers under his desk, the file cabinets and the high shelves on the wall but ended up unlucky
she didn't know what she was searching for but she had a feeling that it was somewhere here; she found her father dead and bleeding out in his work truck so it would be obvious for her to come—where did the answers lie?
she blew out a breath as she plopped down on the chair in front of her father's old desk, pouting and searching the room aimlessly with teary eyes
"i'm sorry daddy," cici says to the air, since she was sure her father wasn't listening
"i'm sorry that i could never understand before; but i accept you even though its too late." she knew her father was in love with men because she remembered that day like the back of her hand
it was her mother's funeral.
it was sad; she wasn't crying because she didn't really understand what was going on, she was only five and pure, one who knew not of death and its coldness
"daddy why are they putting mommy in a hole when she's only sleeping? is she in trouble?"
her father could only cry
after the service, her and her father went back to her mother's house where all of her mother's family was; cici's father let go of her hand for the first time in an hour, he said he'd go freshen up upstairs before he left her with her grandma, who was too, crying.
cici, but only a child, got bored with telling everyone in the house not to cry, so she went upstairs to follow her father
at the time she thought her father's groans on the other side of the bathroom door came from his crying, she was banging on the door "daddy, i wanna leave! i wanna wake mommy up, please!"
there was rapid shuffling before her father came out the bathroom,
with her mother's brother following him out
"bye cici," her uncle samuel, whose lips were wet, smiled at cici before he whispered in her father's ear
"that was fun; lemme know when i can get on my knees for you again"
cici shuts her eyes; she's ashamed.
the next day they moved; her father was in a hurry to leave and cici cried because they were leaving without her mother but her father ignored her—driving to florida from north carolina felt like traveling through space; the five year old's eyes never left the car window
"i'm sorry." cici repeats, standing up before grabbing her purse from atop the desk, a paper falls
"ugh jesus," cici bends down to pick it up before she places it back on the desk again, she plans to leave but a name on the paper catches her eye
