Write In The Middle Of It

"I don't believe this shit!!" Kevin yelled as he hobbled back up the steps with Prudence's assistance.

"It will be okay, Kevin, just call her on her cell and explain it to her," Prudence said consolingly. "Hell I'll even talk to her if you want." As they made their way into the apartment Kevin began hopping around knocking over things overturning stuff as he went. Prudence sat on the arm of the couch.

"She doesn't have a cell." Kevin snapped.

"She doesn't have a cell?" Prudence said in shock.

"Nah, she hates them." Kevin said as he continued his hopping.

"What kinda of women livin in the city doesn't have a cell phone?!" she asked following him with her eyes. Kevin hopped into the bedroom, came back out, looked in closets, on his desk, and then banged his injured foot on the coffee table as a beer bottle came crashing to the ground.

"Dammit!!!" he yelled.

Prudence chuckled to herself and then assisted him over to the couch to sit down.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Nah,” he said wincing in pain. "I think I may have sprained it. Go look in my jacket pocket," he asked her.

"For what?"

"My keys."

"You are going after her?!" Prudence asked again in shock.

Kevin's eyes got wide, "Uh hell yeah."

"Like hell you are." Prudence snapped.

"Why not?!" he yelled.

"You can't drive on that foot."

"You know how to drive a stick?" Kevin asked her hopefully.

"Unt uh." she said shaking her head.

"Fuck!" He yelled more in anger at himself than Prudence.

Prudence put her hand on his shoulder, "Listen," she said. "It ain't gonna do you no good anyway, trust me, I know, I'm a woman, an educated woman like Mekayla."

Kevin just smirked.

"And no matter what you tell that woman right now, as educated as she may be, she's not gonna believe you. So I suggest you sit here”, she said taking a pillow off of the couch and placing it on the coffee table.

"Elevate your foot,” she helped a wincing Kevin lift his foot on to the pillow, "and let her cool down. Call her first thing when the sun comes up. Shit you weren't doin nothin wrong. If anything you should be mad her coming over unannounced. And you can explain that to her later." Prudence got up, grabbed her purse, and pulled out her cell phone.

"What are you doin?" Kevin asked more out of confusion than concern.

"Callin me a cab. This way if her crazy ass comes back I won't be here." She walked over to Kevin and patted his head as if he were a child. "Trust me, y'all will be planning y'all wedding by Christmas."

"Let's hope you're right Pru." Kevin said under his breath "Let's hope you're right."

One-Week Later

Brett made sure to walk by Mekayla's fire escape in the alley at least once a day.

Even though there was no glowing light from her back door, he knew she was home.

Early Sunday morning, Brett watched Erik and Mekayla enter her building and to his knowledge no one had left her loft since. He wanted to call her but since the altercation with Erik, he didn't want to chance him intercepting the call. Brett wasn't in the mood for Erik's bullshit, but he was worried about Mekayla and really wanted to see her.

He wasn't sure what happened, but he hoped he wasn't the cause of it. He figured he'd give her another day or two. In the meantime, he would stick to his daily vigil by her fire escape, looking for her bedroom light through her back door.

Brett also realized that he hasn't seen Sadiah in over a week either. However to be honest, he hadn't given it too much thought. She was probably out on one of her binges, or maybe she checked into rehab again, maybe she met someone else, he really didn't care. Brett was glad she was gone. But he had no idea how far gone she was.

Pete and Daddy rotated shifts cleaning up the healing scars over Sadiah's eyes, which the doctors said may never open again.