"I know ma. Stop fronting. Tell me you miss me." He kissed her in between his words, in love with the way her brown eyes dazed. "I miss you. And your mouth tastes like pickles." She spoke softly, a smile taking over her face once he laughed. "You wanna taste it again?" He stuck his tongue out at her, and she closed her eyes after sucking it into her mouth. She cradled the side of his face, rubbing over his prominent jawline as the kiss deepened. Dayvon's hands went underneath her tank top, breaking the kiss for a moment to get it off. The way he rubbed on her body made her moan again, missing the feeling of his hands on her skin. He hadn't touched her intimately in so long. She'd missed him.

"You can't see the future. I might have a chance. You don't know for sure." He mumbled, making her expression soften. "M-my mom used to tell me t-that birds still sing even after a storm. Why shouldn't people feel as free t-to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them?" Samir stopped talking for a moment to regather himself so that he didn't stutter, but Nina froze completely. "You don't have to settle with him Nina. It's been five years an-and you're not a-as happy as you should be. You smile differently with me.. and you cry a lot with him. I just think that you deserve to enjoy your time with someone other than h-him for a minute because there's still sunlight out there for you too, even if you can't see it yet." How did he become her source of 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞 so 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐥𝐲? A short story.

"𝘿𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙢𝙚 𝙪𝙥 '𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙄'𝙢 𝙞𝙣 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚" 𝙖 𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙢𝙚𝙯𝙮𝙚𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙝𝙤𝙚. Published: December 2, 2022 Completed: March 22, 2023

Mariah had just been transferred to a hospital in Chicago when she met Dayvon Bennet a Chicago drill rapper and a member of the black disciple gang, when they met her life changed. cover by @K4SHMAYY