She's calm. He's chaos. She stutters when she's nervous. He makes her nervous on purpose. She swore she'd never fall for someone like him. But with every glance, every teasing comment, every time he says her name just to hear her stumble, she starts to wonder if maybe love was never meant to sound perfect. Just honest.

After years of surviving under the roof and shadow of her adoptive mother, Audra is finally claiming her freedom with nothing but a beat-up Honda Civic and the weight of her past.

"How are you supposed to keep your man with your hair in that mess, Tamia?" "And has your hair been looking like that all week?" She went on talking about my hair now, considering it was blown-out instead of well kept, hot combed and straightened the way that she liked. "No, mama." I dragged, annoyed completely now with all of my peace gone in this moment. "I just got out of the shower and I just finished washing and blow-drying my hair." "I'm going to hot comb it and then flat iron it when I'm finished doing my skincare." "Yasin's not going to be home until tomorrow probably anyway." I threw in there but of course she wouldn't chastise him about why and where.

"You no tell this girl that I said, I want no relations with a darkie?" She spat to me, making my eyes go wide. What? I thought to myself and Gio tried pulling me away but I snatched away from him, knowing I heard right this time. "Wait, what?" I spoke out loud and Gi grabbed me roughly, trying to pull me away again. "Why you saying these things? She's beautiful." I heard his abuelita sticking up for me as she stood to her feet and all the guys began to as well, telling their mom that she was wrong for what she was doing. "That puta heard me." She spat, pointing her finger at me. "You're too dark." She held up a brown paper bag that she was drinking her beer out of. "You no match this bag or lighter, you're too dark." "You look too much like his father. I no want you around me." She shooed me off, instantly breaking my heart into a billion pieces as I looked up at Giovanni who was looking down at me with hurt in his eyes. "Baby, please." He begged and I shook my head at him in disgust before putting my attention back onto her. "Get that darkness out of here, Giovanni. She's a demon." "Only demons have her color." She kept on going and I felt sick to my stomach in this moment as I stood there in complete shock.

"Woah, slow down. What?" I heard him say and I furrowed my eyebrows, looking up. "Ma.." He trailed off and I already knew it was his mother. "That has nothing to do with you." He said and I sat up because I could hear him getting angry. "What's wrong?" I asked him and he put his phone on speaker. "I can't believe you got that little.." She trailed off, too angry to even get her words out. "..whore pregnant, Sage." "And then the little slut gets an abortion, I hope she knows that she will rot in hell." She said and my heart dropped. He hung up the phone on her before she could say anything else. "Baby." He looked at me as I bit my lip, standing to my feet. "Olive." He stood to his feet as well. I quickly walked to the bathroom and closed the door behind me before Sage could catch me. I broke down crying as he stood on the other side of the door. "Babygirl, I love you." "I love you too." I told him, breathing heavily. "Don't cry, love. Nothing she says matters, she's just mad because I love you so much and there's nothing she can say to change that." "Open the door for me please?" I wiped my face before I slowly opened the door for him. "I'm done with her." He said, shaking his head. He pulled me to him, wrapping his arms around my waist as he shoved his head into my neck. "Until she can learn to respect you as my lady, she's out of our life."

Tomboy

"I know I should've talked to you about it but I-" I started but stopped, looking down at my feet again. I had no excuse. The only thing on my mind was graduating, I never put his feelings into perspective. "Dominic, I'm sorry. I was being selfish and only thinking of myself but baby, I promise if you give me another chance.." I trailed off, breathing heavily. "..if you give us another chance, I'll never do it again. I promise." I tried to grab his face but he roughly pulled away from me. "Don't touch me." He spoke sternly, breaking me even more. "Look.." He trailed off, looking away again. "Me and you..we're done." He spoke, finally looking down at me. "Dominic." I pleaded. "Don't say that. Please." "Na', this shit is over, T." He went on and I began to sob.

"If you were really my best friend, you'd see that you were the only person I've ever wanted to be with. You've been dating everyone else while I'm just sitting around waiting for you to open your damn eyes!" I yelled at him as tears streamed down my cheeks. He looked at me with wide eyes, clearly confused. He then held a sympathetic look on his face when he saw how passionate I was about this entire situation. I can't believe he didn't realize all these years that he was the one I wanted to be with all along. "How was I supposed to know Riley? You didn't tell me shit!" He yelled back at me but still held his same sympathetic look. I shook my head at him, wiping my face as I backed away from him, stepping into a pile of snow in the process. There was already snow on ground but more snow had just started to fall from the sky. "Look, I have to go. My mom wants me home for dinner." I said turning on my heels and walking away towards my house. I didn't even bother looking back but I knew he was still standing there. I wondered if he'd run after me or if he'd sweep me off my feet like I always imagined but no, nothing. Just broken dreams and maybe even a broken friendship. *For hopeless romantics

"Could I talk to you for a minute?" I went on to ask Stokeley as he sat alone in the basement with a blunt in hand. "No." "Here we go again.." I mumbled to myself, discreetly rolling my eyes. "We just talked about this last night and you apologized, now we're back to square one." "Don't care." He blew smoke from his nose. "Alright." I nodded slowly. "..and you know what, neither do I." I spoke up, tired of him and his shitty, weird attitudes. He was just a big ball of negative energy and I was sick of it. Mostly because all he was going to do was turn around and apologize then expect everyone to forgive him. "Who you talking to like that?" "You." I snapped, fed up as he looked up at me with his eyebrows raised. The room grew silent, making this more dramatic than intended. He then stood to his feet, looking down at me with a scowl plastered on his face. "You better watch yo' mother fucking mouth." Deciding I wanted no trouble with him, I grabbed my stuff to go. "Sierra, I'm leaving." I spoke once leaving out of the basement. "Why? What's wrong?" She asked as she sat on the couch with Johnny in the living room. "I'm tired of him and his shitty ass attitude." I spoke truthfully, pointing towards the basement door. I was done curving my tongue. "Just because you lost someone important to you doesn't mean you can treat everyone around you like shit. We've all lost people." Everyone looked at me with wide eyes as if they'd never expected me to be this way but it was just how I felt. I needed to let it out. Unlike some people I didn't hold things in. "I'm leaving. I'll see you back at home. See y'all." I spoke, excusing myself and walking out of the front door.

Hendrichs is an egotistical man hiring a skilled mechanic for his automotive shop, more specifically a male mechanic. Shane finds herself going for the interview, with a hundred percent confidence she will get the job. Pride meets Fierce when he does not think she can do the job, nor does he want her to be a part of the business. Wanting to prove the man wrong, and in desperate need for the job, she asks him to allow her to prove her skills and if she does not measure up, she'd resign with immediate effect. With no pay for the work she had done. This is an offer he cannot resist, and thus finds himself taking the offer. What he did not know was that, he had finally met his match. #1 Urban Drama - 07.30.22 #2 poc - 03.23.23 cover by: @xoroyaltywrites