Trip

8

Avery's POV

I can't even let Kamari go anywhere without me being right behind him. If he gets up to go to the bathroom, I'm right behind him.

"You know I'm not gonna let you be up in the house 24/7 right? You gotta get back on your grind baby girl." Kamari says.

"Who is gonna want to hire me Kamari? When they ask about my old job I'm not sure I'll be able to handle talking about it."

"A lot of people would. And I'm not finna let you give up on school and your career."

"I guess."

My phone starts to ring and I look down to see who it is. 'Ma' pops up on the screen. I press the green button, my hand shaking a little bit. It's the first time we've spoken since she put me out.

"Hello?"

"Avery, we need to talk again. You gonna come back home soon?"

I pause. "I'll come by later."

"Okay. Don't bring that boy around here either. He ain't nothing but trouble."

"His name is Kamari, Ma."

"Just don't bring him over here. I'll see you later then."

"Okay, see you then." We hang up.

"Your moms mentioned me huh?" Kamari says.

"Yup. She doesn't want you to come with me when I go back to the house later." I say.

"And you know I'm still coming, right? I don't trust it. And regardless of what she says, you're still living with me."

"Of course, you see how attached I am to you after you left me here by myself last night, right?" I say, mocking him with a straight face.

I walk over to the fridge and start pouring some water into my cup. Kamari follows me and wraps his arms around me, not moving for a while. He always does this, especially when he feels guilty.

"Okay back up Kamari." I try to shrug him off but he still doesn't move.

"You're annoying." I say while trying to take a sip of my water. He finally lets go of me and we go sit back down on the couch.

I look up at the TV, trying to figure out what movie is on. Kamari turns toward me.

"I gotta go back to the hospital soon to check on Leo, you coming with me?" He says.

"Yeah."

"Aight, then after we can head to your mom's."

"Imma go shower." I stand up and start heading upstairs.

Kamari's POV

I walk into the front doors of the hospital with Avery's hand in mine. We go to the front desk to get our visitor badges and then head up to the fifth floor on the elevator. Leo is in stable condition right now, but he's in a coma so of course, everything is unpredictable.

I look over at Avery. She's staring at the wall of the elevator, probably lost in her thoughts. I squeeze her hand and she looks up at me. I still don't know what I'm gonna do to get out of the game. Every time I look at her I think about it.

We get off the elevator and walk down the hallway until we finally get to Leo's room. Ced and Sean are here too. I dap them up and they say hey to Avery.

"I know this shit is still crazy man, but like I said before Leo is gonna pull through. I just know it." Ced says.

"I hope so." I say, moving closer to Leo. I start moving my hand towards his, but all of a sudden the monitor next to him starts beeping loudly. It startles me and I jump back a little. We all look at each other in shock. In a few seconds it starts beeping even faster.

"Aye somebody help!" Sean runs out of the door to get all of the nurses' attention.

Several nurses start to rush in and tell us to leave the room. We go back downstairs to the waiting area to sit down. I'm shaking and I feel like I can't breathe. Avery is holding my hand trying to comfort me, while Ced and Sean are reassuring me everything will be okay.

I don't hear anything they're saying to me, the rage takes over my body and I can't control it. I wish I could find the person who did this, off them, and just be done with this shit for the rest of my life.

•2 hours later:

After I calmed down and we all sat and talked for a while, a nurse started walking toward us.
"Hi, are you guys the family of Leo Thomas?" She asks.
"Yeah we are." Sean says.

"We've been doing everything we can for him, and we thought we would be able to remove the two bullets in time. One was in his upper left chest and one is near the left lung. He can't breathe on his own and will only be able to live if he remains on life support. I'm so sorry."

I put my head in my palms. Avery rubs my back gently.
"Can we still see him?" Ced says.

"Yes of course. We have Cedric Brown listed as the decision maker for his health insurance. Only Mr.Brown can decide whether or not Mr. Thomas will stay on life support."

"Yeah, that's me."

"Ah, okay. I'm glad you're here Cedric. You all are free to go back up to his room. Again, I'm so sorry. Our team is here to support you every step of the way." She touches him lightly on the shoulder and smiles softly at the rest of us before going to help other patient's families.

When we get back up to Leo's room no one says anything for a minute. Avery squeezes my hand.

We all know what Ced is going to decide. There's no point in keeping him on life support if he's not really living.

Ced turns to me and gives me a blank stare.

"This is our decision, not just mine. I need both of y'all to contribute." He looks over at Sean.

"Imma call Clarence and Chris." Sean says after a few seconds. He steps out of the room.

"We can't keep him like this Ced. We can't. I know he would tell us to let him go." I say.

"I know. All I can think of is the war we gon be in with Mario and his crew. This shit ain't ever gonna end man. I don't wanna think about who's next." Ced says.

"Mario gonna get his. What goes around comes around."

"Fasho. Clarence and Chris probably gonna agree with us about this whole life support thing."

"This shit is the fucking worst." I go sit down in the chair next to Avery. This day feels like it's never gonna end.

~To be continued...

 Author's Note: Sorry for the wait! I hope to upload the next chapter next week. Please let me know what you think about this book!