I had barely slept the whole night. My nerves were shot and my head felt like an explosive went off inside. Erik had fallen asleep and I didn't want to wake him so, I didn't move. I laid still staring out the window, until 6:00am when I had to go in for work.
I dressed in scrubs I had at E's place but I knew my head wasn't in it today. My boss knew also. I assumed the whole staff knew about the fire because everyones eyes were fixated on me from the moment I walked into the hospital.
"You got this Princess...You got this" I mumbled to myself.
I was about to start my shift when my supervisor called me into her office. I was in there for about half an hour until we concluded our meeting. When I left her office, I bumped right into Lauren.
"Hey...What are you doing here?" she asked while hugging me.
"On my way back home....Well....To E's place" I corrected myself.
"I'm surprised you even came in" she retorted.
"Yea I feel horrible...Sick to my stomach literally....Joan just approved my leave of absence....3 months"
Lauren looked at me and nodded her head in approval.
"You need a break Shon...It's been a crazy couple of weeks" she added. "Go get some sleep...and me and the girls will come by later after my shift okay?"
I nodded lowly and hugged my best friend for a second time. Shortly after, I gathered my things and headed back to the condo in my truck. I didn't even make it inside before I felt the urge to throw up again.
Once I did, and I cleaned myself up with wipes and travel sized mouthwash I had. I walked into the lobby and saw some of E's boys waiting. Their faces turned sad when they saw me.
"Hey sis...How you holding up?" Ronnie asked while he hugged me.
"As good as I can be I guess...Thank you" I responded, trying my hardest not to get choked up again.
A few of the other boys greeted me and apologized for the loss of my house. It was early so I was surprised to see them all bright eyed at 7:30am.
"What yall doing here so early?" I asked curiously.
"Waiting on your mans...Just got some intel about some important shit he wanted handled asap so...Here we are"
"Ill go see if he's ready" I said, walking to the elevator. As I pushed the button for the doors to open, Erik stood on the inside with a look of exhaustion and frustration on his face. He perked up a bit when he saw me.
"Hey beautiful...I was wondering where you were" He leaned down and kissed me.
"Hey...I went to the hospital but they sent me home...I got a 3 month leave of absence." I informed him.
He gave the same nod of approval as Lauren did, then shifted his mode back to business.
"I gotta go take care of something real quick but I'll be back okay....Ain't shit upstairs so I'll bring you some food on my way back"
"I'm good baby....I can't really keep anything down right now"
"I'm gonna ignore that...and bring you some food anyway...Pretty sure you haven't eaten since yesterday" he commented while glaring at me.
He wasn't wrong.
"Okay...Thank you honey....The girls planned to stop by later, is that okay?" I asked innocently. He gave me a look as if I was crazy to be asking. Without hesitation, he placed his hand on my cheek, then pulled me in closer from the back of my head.
YOU ARE READING
Loving the Real E
Художественная прозаAshante, a young woman in her Mid 20's, copes with the struggles of growing up in the streets of NYC. The daughter of the cities biggest, most ruthless drug dealer, who was killed in a car crash along with her mother when she was 17, (and also the n...
