The Games You Play : A Hood Love Story

Loren (9)

September 15th
"Girl, do you ever stop texting that nigga?" Layla chuckled and snatched my phone out of my hand. "Y'all so damn ugly." We both laughed.

"Can you believe it'll be a month in two days."

"Yes bitch. You never shut up about him." She laughed harder. I blushed and rolled my eyes.

"I'm sorry it's just-"

"Girl don't apologize." She interrupted me and smiled. "You deserve to be happy girl. I'm so happy for the both of you. He's been down ever since what happened to Niejah-"

"What happened to who?"

"He hasn't told you yet?" I nodded my head from left to right. "It's not my story to tell. When he gets comfortable, he'll tell you. Just don't ask, it gets him really emotional. But he obviously trusts you or he wouldn't be with you. You just gotta give him some time." I simply nodded.

*Ding*

"EEP!" I ran to the front door and opened it and there he was. The way the sun was shining on his skin was so beautiful. Jayvin smiled at me with his pearly whites. I ran right into him to get my hug and I squeezed him. The way his body molded to mine made me feel so loved and safe. He chuckled as I swayed back and forth. He could tell I was so happy to see him.

"Hey pretty girl." He whispered in my ear and chuckled. I looked up at him and he was hovering over me still smiling.

"Hey." I blushed. I puckered my lips and he picked me up and gave me 3 intense kisses. I held his face in my hands and smiled some more. Then, I grabbed his hand and led him into the living room and sat on his lap. He gave Layla a dap.

"Well since you're here that means my cousin's home and I don't wanna sit here and watch y'all fuck anyways." She chuckled as she got up. Jayvin and I laughed and rolled our eyes. Layla laughed at us and gave me an air kiss. "Bye bitch."

"Bye girl!" She left and closed the door. I looked right at Jayvin and I was obviously cheesing very hard.

"What girl?" He smiled and kissed my forehead.

"Why'd you ask to come over?" I asked.

"I just really wanted to see you that's all." He leaned up to give me a kiss. I kissed him with my hand on the back of his head. He came up for air and smiled at me. He moved down to kiss my neck and that's when it started happening. Flashbacks. With every single kiss he was giving me, it was slowly coming back. He slid his hand down my back-

"No." I grabbed his wrist and tightened my grip. He looked at me in shock.

"Baby, that hurts." I looked at my hand barely noticing how tight I was gripping him. A tear fell down my face. He went to wipe it and I swatted him away. I was so embarrassed. I broke away from him and ran upstairs into my room and slammed the door. I don't know how the hell I ended up on the floor but there I was crying. I moved up to my bed thinking about how Jayvin would think I was crazy and probably never want to see me again. And then-

*Knock Knock*

"Baby?" I smiled at the sound of his voice. He was still here. I sniffed in and wiped all the tears off of my eyes. I walked up to the door without opening it.

"Yeah?" My voice cracked.

"Can I come in?"

"I'm so embarrassed."

"You never have to feel like that with me." I remained silent. "Please baby, just open the door and let's talk about it." I still stood there in complete shock at two things. One, I couldn't believe what just happened. Two, that he was still here after it happened. I still didn't open the door. "Please?" His plead sounded so gentle. I took a deep breath and opened the door.

*************************************************
Jayvin

She opened her bedroom door and I walked in. I don't know why I expected to see pink everywhere but it was nothing like that. Her bedroom color scheme was red and black. She had made posters of her Angelo and hung them up all around the walls. There were also some rock band posters to go with the colors of her room. Her ceiling was covered in pictures. I've got to admit, I've never seen no shit like that before. She was super creative.

I looked at her and her eyes were red. I didn't want to touch her because she'd just squeezed the shit out of my hand and ran away from me. But I wanted her to know she was safe with me. She sat down on the carpet and patted the spot across from her as my queue to sit down. When I sat down, I just looked at her. She had tears threatening to fall down her face. It's amazing how a person's experiences make them who they are. Here I was looking at this beautiful person and you'd never think anything happened to her with the way that she acted. She constantly thinks about her brother, she takes care of her dad and she cares about her friends. She cares about me. You can tell that underneath all of that, there's nothing but pain. I just wanted to make everything go away. But certain things are out of my control. I hate that. But I made a promise to love and protect her. I don't care what I need to do to help her feel safe again, but it's getting done.

"Baby?" She wouldn't even look me in the eye. I grabbed her chin and held her face up. "Look at me." She just stared at me with deep sorrow in her eyes. "I wanna hold you. May I?" I held out my hand.

"Yes." She let out a sigh of relief. "Please." She grabbed my hand and I got up and took my shoes off. I led her to the bed and drew back the covers. I laid down and she laid right next to me and wrapped her arms around my torso. She started bawling and I didn't know what to do except squeeze her a little tighter. She sobbed for 15 minutes straight. It broke me on the inside to see her like that. When she finally calmed down, I wiped her face.

"You listening to me?" She nodded. "I don't know who it was and I don't know what happened." I lifted her chin up looking directly into her eyes. "But I do know it won't happen again. I would never hurt you and nobody will get close enough to you to harm you as long as I got something to do with it. You hear me?" I never had such a strong will to protect somebody in my whole life. At this moment I knew she was the one for me. It's weird to say because I'm only 18 and I'm young. But I don't care. You don't really understand when you have "the one." And I didn't. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if she ever ended up like this from something I had anything to do with. Now I feel like even more of an asshole for keeping shit about being in the gang from her. She moved her head back down right onto the middle of my chest. She was silent and then-

"Promise me." She whispered and squeezed me tighter.

"I swear to God, Loren."

"I believe you." Those three words went such a long way with me.