ATL Hoe

Chapter 6: Welcome Home

Derek's three days of hospital watch were up and he was finally going home. My schedule those three days consisted of going to see him, going to class, going to see him, grabbing some food for both of us, and of course going to see him. I spent the night there by accident the night before after staying up late talking to him. Being in the hospital hadn't changed him one bit. He was still very closed off and would only tell me little about himself. Elias and I were still technically together even though he hadn't talked to me since I told him I was going to be there the whole week making sure D was ok. Hopefully since Derek wasn't in the hospital anymore things would go back to normal with us but right now I was focused on helping Derek.

"Do you need help?" I asked as he stood up and walked towards the bathroom.

"Wanna wipe my ass, too?" he asked sarcastically, closing the bathroom door behind him. Like I said, same old Derek. My phone started ringing and I pulled it out seeing Mia was calling.

"Hey Mia, whats up," I said.

"You still at the hospital?" she asked. Her, Jaiya, and Devyn had all actually been up there to see him. They didn't know him that well before but they all thought he was the funniest nigga alive after being up there. Nova had been MIA with some nigga so she hadn't met him yet.

"Yeah, he's getting ready to leave now. I'm going to take him home," I told her while I laid his clothes out so he could change out of his hospital gown when he got done in the bathroom.

"Ok, you coming home when you're done?" she asked.

"I was actually thinking of popping by Elias'. Since I'm done coming to the hospital every day, maybe he'll talk to me again," I said getting sad thinking about the fact that he was still mad.

"Yeah, you know I don't really fuck with him for that but like you said hopefully he'll come around," she said as Derek exited the bathroom. I waved my hand in front of my nose at the smell and fake gagged. He just laughed and rubbed his stomach.

"Yeah, I hope so. We're about to leave though so I'll talk to you later," I said and we said our goodbyes before hanging up. "You reek!" I looked over at Derek scrunching my face up at him.

"It's the hospital food, man," he said rubbing his stomach some more and laughing at me. He went and sprayed the air freshener they have in their though so it'd smell like ass and flowers instead of just ass.

"These are the clothes you came in with since you didn't let me go to your place and grab you something," I said rolling my eyes at him. I don't know if there was something he didn't want me to see or if he just liked his privacy but he refused to give me his keys so I could get him some clean clothes. He ignored me and undid his gown right there, leaving him in nothing but boxers and hospital socks. "Some warning next time," I said covering my eyes.

"You like the view. You was tryna see more till that phone call interrupted us," he said, reminding me of our date that I'd been trying hard to forget.

"Let's not talk about that night," I said, getting annoyed just thinking about it.

"Why?" he questioned as if he wasn't there.

"You literally told me you don't fuck with me and there was nothing between us," I said eyeing him. He slid his shirt on, then his pants.

"I ain't say it like that. I do fuck with you just the circumstances wouldn't allow me to take it as serious as I knew you deserved," he said shrugging and sitting down to put his shoes on.

"What circumstances?" I asked curiously. This was the first time we'd ever talked about it and I never thought that would be his excuse.

"It's a lot. Don't worry about it," he said, shutting me off once again. I nodded and didn't even bother pressing the issue. After today he'd hear from me every now and then but I had Elias to focus on so I wasn't going to stress about something that could've been.

The doctor came in and gave him his discharge papers and said for the millionth time he wanted to see him back there for the surgery but Derek still wasn't trying to listen. Once we got in the car I tried bringing it up to him again but he ignored me, too. As soon as we got to his house he practically ran upstairs to shower and I looked around never actually seeing the full apartment. I walked through looking at everything and trying to stop myself from opening cabinets because that'd be going too far. When I reached the upstairs his bedroom door was open so I walked in looking around the very minimalist bedroom. I noticed some photos around the tv and walked over examining them.

"What are you doing?" he asked, lowering the volume on the speaker so I could hear him. He had it so loud before I couldn't even tell the water had stopped. I looked up and saw him with his towel wrapped around his waist and the picture frame dropped.Luckily, he had carpeted floors so I scrambled to pick it up and he just stood there laughing knowing exactly why I had dropped it.

"I just saw you as a kid and wanted to look at it up close," I said before setting it down. I looked around the room uncomfortably as he walked past me to grab some clothes from his dresser. I could see all the muscles in his back as he dug through his drawers finding a shirt. When he turned around I quickly looked away and decided to leave the room all together while he changed.

"You don't have to leave, I'll get dressed in the bathroom if you want," he said before I reached the hall. I nodded my head and walked back into the room, sitting on the side of the bed waiting for him to come out the bathroom. When he finally did I patted the spot next to me on the bed making him sit down and finally talk to me.

"I need you to be one hundred percent honest with me. No smart remarks or sarcastic jokes. And no ignoring me," I started and he shifted on the bed, already knowing where this was going. "Why won't you have the surgery?" I asked, scanning his eyes for some type of emotion. He waited for a long time but I could tell his brain was working, probably trying to decide if he should tell me or not.

"I'm scared," he said honestly and looked me right in the eyes. I could see he meant what he said.

"I know it seems scary but doesn't leaving it alone and ending up dead from it seem scarier?" I asked, taking his hand. He shrugged his shoulders and looked away from me.

"Open heart surgery is no joke. They gotta do a lot to fix me, I don't know if I could ever trust someone to do allat inside of me," he said, glancing down at our hands. "I don't wanna die yet," he added.

"Would you rather die a coward or die actually trying to fix it," I said and realized how harshly what I said sounded once it was already out there. I knew Derek and I knew it'd take some harsh words to get it through his head. "At least fight for your life don't let it be taken from you because you chose not to do anything about it," I added since he was still quiet. He nodded his head slowly before looking down at me.

"Will you sit with me while I call?" he asked and I smiled happy that I finally got through to him.

"Of course," I said, tearing up some. It'd been a long few days dealing with him but I was happy he finally knew the importance of this. And I felt special knowing it was me that finally broke through to him after all these years.

***********************************************************************************************Derek is finally doing something about this heart condition! Do you guys think Amora will be able to just walk away after all she experienced with him?