Sandcastles | Completed

21 | broken cycles

Elijah Baker

Kensley was still taking a nap when Lauren texted me.

I wish I hadn't checked it, allowed myself however long of quiet. When I told her not to call me again, the 'unless you ready to leave' was silent.

So her simple message: I'm ready, came at the wrong time.

Lauren was one of the only people I moved for no matter what I was doing, and she knew that. I'd known her since I was 15, and thought of her as more of a sibling than I did Marc.

I tried to slide my arm from under Kensley without waking her up, but it was pointless because she opened her eyes and rolled to look at me.

"Where you going?"

"My brother house. I"ll be back."

Her head fell back on the pillow, "Okay."

Marc was most likely at home, which was why she called me. She could leave on her own, but then they'd start fighting. Lani was at school though, and she usually only cared to not fight when Lani was there.

So maybe she was actually leaving this time.

The drive took less time than usual, a result of it being early in the afternoon. I didn't have to deal with school or lunch traffic and it helped me reach their house in about 20 minutes.

Outside, a nice percentage of the large brick house was black, and I couldn't help but laugh at the fact that she tried to burn their house down.

Upon walking in, the yelling reached my ears, "I can't speak to people?! It's Lani teacher! I can't say hey?!"

Lauren wasn't responding, so I went upstairs, and there she was, sitting on the bed while Marc tried to get her to see his point. She looked at me, and Marc followed her line of sight, becoming angrier at my presence.

"Whatchu' call him for?!" Marc demanded, "You must be fuckin' him. Every time he come over here like he supposed to be somebody."

"I don't fuck everybody I talk to. Maybe one day you can say the same."

"Eli gone leave before you piss me off."

He said that like it meant something to me, "Lauren what all you taking?"

"She ain't taking shit 'cause she ain't going nowhere!"

Lauren pointed to a few bags, "That's all. I'll get everything else later."

"Everything in here I paid for. If you wanna leave, you ain't taking nothing."

"Fine." She stood up, "Fuck you and everything in this house."

"Oh you bold now 'cause Eli here." He laughed, "He gave you some confidence huh?"

They were talking too much, and Lauren wasn't moving fast enough. I was expecting it to escalate at some point, but if we could avoid it, that'd be great.

I wanted to go finish my nap.

"Jamarcus you cheat on me like it's a full-time job. I'm fucking tired. I'm tired of checking phones, bank accounts– Who wants to live like that? Then you brought that woman in my house but that still wasn't enough for you."

"It's old!" He shouted back, "You act like it was yesterday!"

Lauren pushed him, making him stumble backward, "You don't fuck your daughters teacher! I don't care how old it was!"

Well, I'll be damned.

Christian never even did that.

I picked up the mentioned bags, and walked closer to Marc, "We finna go."