more life / b.simmons (2)

31

ben grips the steering wheel tightly, his palms sweaty. the neighborhood is no long in view, and he wants to turn around. he wants to go home and stay in with his family, but instead he's in his car.

his phone rings, an incoming call from kyra. ben answers it through the car. "hello?"

"can you pick me up?" kyra asks. kailens house is only five minutes from here.

"sure, i'll be there soon," ben says.

"were you already in the car?" she asks.

"mhm."

"where you going?" she asks. just like her damn mom.

"out. i'll be there soon, k. love you."

"love you too," they hang up and ben groans. this is clearly a sign that he should call the dinner quits and never see evelyn again, but he just can't.

he hits the right to kailens neighborhood and drives up to her house. ben texts kyra that he's outside and waits for her to come out. resting his head against the window, he sighs. ben knows why he wants to go—just to catch up—but that feeling isn't as strong as his feelings for going back home to amari.

ben doesn't notice kyra come outside, and it's when she opens the door that he jumps. "what if i robbed you? you would've been done for," kyra states, jumping in the front seat and putting her seatbelt on.

"but you werent."

"yeah, but if i was, i would've caught you lacking. would've taken the benz and everything," she says, shaking her head. "do better, dad."

ben rolls his eyes and puts his hand on her head, gently squeezing. "how was kailens?"

"it was fun, we didn't really do much, though. i'm mad that i haven't seen mom," she says, connect her phone to the aux. ben swallows the lump in his throat and remains quiet as they drive the short drive back to their house. "but you're dressed nice. where you going?"

"dinner," he says, licking his lips.

"ooh, can i go? i'm starving," she says, scrolling through her music. kyra clicks on DS2 by future and shuffles the songs. when ben doesn't respond, she looks over at him. "can i?"

he grips the steering wheel tighter and lets out a sigh through his nose. "not today, no," he says.

"can you bring me back food, then? or can we stop real quick?"

"i'll bring you food back, kyra," he says. she smiles and turns up her music, rapping along with future.

a few minutes later, they pull back into where ben just left from. he pulls into the driveway and kyra leans across the middle console to give him a hug before getting out. "love you," she says.

"i love you too," kyra jogs up to the door and lets herself in, and ben doesn't drive away immediately. instead, he stares ahead of him at the door and weighs his options. the house is a mere ten feet away from him. the restaurant is a couple of miles.

ben sighs and leans back in the seat and closes his eyes for a brief moment, twisting the ring on his finger.

inside, amari looks up when she hears the door open and expects for it to be ben. when she doesn't hear his heavy feet but instead fast ones, she knows that it's kyra.

kyra rounds the corner and once she sees her mom, she runs over and jumps into her lap, nearly hitting adrian who quickly moves out of the way. "i missed you!" kyra yells, holding on tight to her mother.

amari smiles and kisses kyras forehead. "i missed you too, baby. but you're too big to be on me like this," she says, pushing kyra off of her. kyra drops her head onto amaris shoulder and drapes an arm around her torso.