“Hey, daddy!” I said, smiling. I was a daddy’s girl, and since I’ve been at school, I didn’t always make time for him when I was away or even when I was home. So I never tried to miss a call.
Knock-Knock
I heard a knock on Roon’s door and looked at him because I was curious about his bitch. But shouldn’t she have a key? Roon must have felt me burning a hole in his head because he looked at me and shrugged. He slowly got up and made his way to the door.
“What do you want?” Roon asked as he cracked the door. I couldn’t really hear the person on the other side, but Roon never moved over to let whoever it was in.
“Quel, did you hear me?” My dad said. I was so busy focusing on Roon’s unexpected guest that I tuned him out.
“Huh?”
“I said there was an incident, and I had to rush Bre to the hospital. She’s lost a lot of blood.”
“What?! What happened?” I yelled. I know I haven’t talked to Bre in a long time, but she was my little sister, and she carried my niece (I learned through Kiara, who learned from Keisha). She was already going through a lot, I would hate for anything to happen to either of them.
“It’s a long story, but it was her boyfriend. I know it was him.”
“Her boyfriend? What did he do?”
“Fuck is Quel doing over here? You on some get back or something, nigga. A sister for a sister, huh?” I heard Wayne shout as he pushed himself inside the apartment. Once he got inside, he looked at me then back at Roon with a disgusted look on his face. I wasn’t in the mood for their childish squabble.
“I don’t know, but Bre’s friend Ricardo found her on the floor bleeding. Look, I see her doctors coming over. Just get to Washington Hospital Center as soon as you can. Let Wayne and Eric know, I’ve been trying to call them. And also call your mom.” The way my dad said to call my mother made my body quiver. Was Bre okay? Was the baby okay? What happened, and will they make it?
“Okay, I’m on my way,” I said, then ended the call. My heart was racing so fast, and I could barely think. I was scared and felt guilty for not checking on my sister more. Was she in danger? What was going on with her boyfriend, and what did he do? Lord, please protect Bre and the baby, I don’t want to lose my sister. As much as I wanted to cry, I couldn’t because I had to be the strong big sister. Once Wayne found out he would be the angry big brother and Eric would be a hothead. I was the only one out of the older siblings who was level headed.
“What are you doing over here?” Wayne asked me. I couldn’t even speak right now; I needed a minute. “Quel, what’s wrong?” He asked as he got closer to me. I felt the tears well up my eyes. I was trying my hardest to not cry, but I guess I wasn’t as strong as I thought I was.
“Rah, what’s wrong?” I heard Roon ask as he walked over and grabbed me. I cried out as soon as he touched me.
“Dad said that Bre had to be rushed to the hospital because she was losing a lot of blood. Something about her boyfriend did something, and her friend, Ricardo, found her bleeding. He doesn’t know if she’s going to make it.” I said, I probably was exaggerating the last part, but that’s how I felt. We rarely got calls like this, and with everything going on this year, it’s like shit was crazy.
“What?” Wayne said, and right then, I saw his eyes turn solid black. He probably only heard “her boyfriend did something” and was in his angry big brother mode.
“Come on, and let’s get to the hospital,” Roon said. He grabbed my hand and led us out of the apartment. “Wayne! Snap out of that shit and let’s get to the hospital. We’ll take care of that nigga once we have all the details we need. You know I got Bre.” He said when he saw Wayne was still standing still. He knew how Wayne was too. We didn’t have time for that right now, we needed to be there for our baby sister and niece. Wayne finally broke out of his angry trance and walked out behind us. I started to call Eric first because I honestly didn’t know how my mother would respond. She was still feeling some type of way about Bre, and I didn’t know if she would want to be there for her or not. I hope she would because, at the end of the day, she was her daughter and would always be.
27. Eric
I had to ignore my dad's call for the third time because I needed to be focused. Tino, Tiffany's father's job required me to be focused and didn't leave room for any error. Even though he felt like my little sneaker job was useless, it actually worked out in his favor. It made it easier to move his product without getting any attention. His buyers would come to the store to purchase some shoes that would be filled with his drugs stuffed in the paper packaging that came in the shoeboxes. And he even got one of the managers in on it too! I was already feeling like I was getting myself into such deep shit, but it felt like it was too late to get out of it. And not to mention Tiffany's crazy ass and her clingy ways was really driving my ass crazy. It seemed like if I wasn't at work or doing a job for her father, I was around her. She was always calling, and if I didn't answer,
