I had been knowing Monique since the eighth grade, and she had always been that confident, smart girl with goals. She always had the latest shit being that she was the only child and her parents spoiled the shit out of her. One would think that since my life was the total opposite, I would envy her and not want to be around somebody like that, but being around Monique was what I needed because she was a true friend, and if I ever needed anything, she was there, no questions asked. We used to go out, act up, and do things that you do with your best-friend, but the moment she got with Lee, all that changed. Even college didn't keep us apart because I still made my way to Louisiana to visit her. It's crazy how one dude can lead you down a totally different path than what you were headed down. It really saddened me every time I thought about it, and that's exactly why I made sure to not catch feelings when it came to men. Being that my mom had put men before me and also seeing the shit that people around me were going through, it made me want to steer clear of men and that four-letter word. Love!

Yes, I had met a couple of men, but none of them were trustworthy, and they all wanted one thing. Thinking about this made the buried memories of my child hood resurface. Let's just say my childhood wasn't peaches and cream like Monique's. I shook my head at those memories because if I had to be honest, I was truly happy with my life for the most part, and I couldn't let that shit get to me. I had been doing a good job of forgetting the past, and I wanted to keep it that way.

"Girl, I'm hungry," I heard Monique say, smiling and throwing the thoughts of the past to the back of my mind. I turned and looked at Monique who was rubbing her stomach.

"What do you want to eat, bitch?" I asked her, happy that she was out of the house and hanging with me for a change.

Me and Monique had been at the mall for about two hours now, and I was just happy to see my friend out the house and having a good time. She thought I didn't know what Lee was doing to her, but truth is, I did. This wasn't anything new with Lee; he had been doing this shit for years, and Monique wasn't his first victim. I had known two chicks that dated him before Monique, and they all ran away before shit ended bad for them. Word around town was that Lee wasn't there all the way in the head, due to some shit that happened to him when he was a child. Nobody knew exactly what happened, but we did know he was a fucked-up person. I had tried to warn Monique about the crazy shit I had heard, but my friend was already deeply in love with him, and you all know how shit goes when a female is madly in love with a man.

"Bitch, let's go eat over there," Monique stated as I followed her finger to see where she was pointing at.

"You always want some damn Chinese food," I joked as we made our way over to the Chinese restaurant that was inside the mall.

Looking down at the food through the glass, my mouth got watery as I decided on what I wanted, pilling my plate up, I paid for the food and stood to the side as I waited for Monique to pay for her food.

"Let's sit over here," Monique said as she pointed at a table that was away from the crowd of nosey people. Following behind Monique as she led the way, my mind drifted off to a time when we had scheduled a date to the nail shop and she hopped out the car with some dark ass shades on, on a rainy fucking day. That had set off all kinds of alarms for me. That day I pleaded to her to leave, but let her tell it, "he loves me too much to kill me." I was concerned for my friend, and I really wanted the best for her, and Lee wasn't that. Looking at her, I could tell that this life she wanted everybody to believe was getting harder and harder to portray. I wanted to know if she was tired of his shit yet.

Once we sat down, I opened my plate and ate a couple of bites out of my food.

"Are you going to keep acting like the shit he is doing to you is ok?" I blurted out as I stuffed a piece of the Bourbon chicken in my mouth. I chewed as I watched her play in her food, never looking up at me, until she finally timidly spoke up.

"Jhaz, you just don't understand that I love him and I can't leave him. He loves me!" she said sounding like a woman that was trying to more so convince herself because I wasn't believing the shit. I may not have experienced love just yet, but I knew that the physical and emotion abuse Monique was going through wasn't it, and she needed to just let Lee's weak ass go.

Rolling my eyes, I placed my fork down and just stared at Monique with a blank look. Just hearing the things that she was saying was causing me to lose my appetite.

Why was it so hard for her to see her worth? To understand that what she was experiencing wasn't love.

"Look Mo, I'm really concerned for you, and I don't want anything bad to happen to you because you are blinded by the love you have for Lee. I don't want to wake up to bad news of how you were murdered by your boyfriend."

As I let those words escaped my mouth, the dream I had about a month ago came back to haunt me like it had been doing a lot more than I would like. It was as if my dreams were trying to tell me something. It was crazy how vivid the dream would be. It always started with me walking down the church aisle in all black, the person that I was approaching was unknown, but I knew the closer I got to the casket, it would be Monique I would see laying there while Lee was on the front row sitting with the family with this smirk on his face. He showed no remorse, and in my dream, the same hate I felt for him was tripled.

I instantly burst out in tears because the thought of it all was making me very emotional. Do y'all know how hard is to sit back and watch your best friend as she crumples right before your very eyes, watch as the life, joy, and excitement get sucked out of her every day? The shit was so fucking sad, and I didn't want to later think what if when it was too late, and Lee had already killed her.

"Why are you crying, Jhaz?" Monique questioned as she pulled her chair closer to me.

Being too emotional, I couldn't speak, so I grabbed her and hugged her as tight as I could and whispered in her ear, "I love you."

I felt like I needed to express that more and more every day because you never knew when the devil would come in to kill, steal, and destroy.

"I love you too, boo," she said as she wiped the tears away.

"Please be careful and always protect yourself," I mumbled as I tried to get myself together. Looking up, I stared at her like this would be my last time hanging out with her.

"Let's go out, Mo," I randomly said.

She looked at me like I was stupid. I couldn't remember the last time she went out because Lee had put a stop to that a long time ago. He said, "Hoes and single women went out." Yeah, I know y'all, he is one stupid ass nigga. If I could break them up and hook her up with a new boo, I would, but that wasn't easy because of how deep in love Monique thought she was.

"Come on, Mo. We will lie and tell Lee that we are having a girl's night," I begged her, grabbing a hold to her arm and tugging on it the way a child does her mother when she wants something out of the store.

I watched her as she softens up a bit. Monique rolled her eyes and with annoyance laced in her voice, she said, "Yes, Jhazlyn. I will go."

I jumped up and did me a little happy dance and grabbed her hand so that we could go find something to wear for the night. I wanted us to walk in and automatically turn heads. She needed a break from all that crazy shit Lee was putting her through.

We were finally leaving the mall, and it was a little after eight o'clock, and I was now following Monique to her house so that we could stick to the plans. I knew if I didn't follow her home, she would be calling me trying to back out, and I wasn't having that shit. Monique wasn't about to pull that shit on me tonight. She needed to get out of the house, and I was going to be the one who to do it.

Pulling up in her drive way and seeing that Lee's car was also in the drive way caused me to roll my eyes and a sense of hatred came over me.

Parking my car behind Monique's, we both exited our vehicles at the time as we made our way to her front door. Once reaching the door I watched Monique as she nervously stood in front of the door like she was scared to enter her own home.

"Bitch, what are you waiting on?" I quizzed her as I took it upon myself to open their door.

Monique stood in the door way scanning the house; I'm guessing to see if Lee was in the front area. I swear this whole situation was so awkward and sick, all I could do was shake my head as she fumbled with her fingers nervously and headed to back to where I assumed Lee's black ugly ass was.

Walking more into the living area, I sat on Monique's brown and orange sectional. While I was waiting, I pulled out my phone and scrolled through Facebook. It was always some type of drama going on, and why not let that entertain me until Mo came from the back?

Seeing Lee come from the back, dressed like he was about to rip and run through the streets, I turned my head and didn't pay him no mind because the sight of him made me sick. Instead of speaking, I rolled my eyes and continued to scroll through Facebook. He didn't say shit to me, and I damn sure wasn't about to speak to him. I hated that nigga, and I couldn't wait until my friend moved the fuck on. Just thinking about it made me feel frustrated because as a friend, you never want to see your friend settling for less and dealing with a fuck boy.

Looking at the time on my phone, I realized that another 15 minutes had passed by. I knew it should not have been taking Mo this long to come back out, so I took it upon myself to head to the back to see what was going on. When I opened the door, I got the shock of my life. Monique was laying out across the bed unconscious.

Screaming, I climbed in bed with her, shaking her to try to get her to wake up. Her limbs dangled lifelessly, and I wanted to panic, but I knew right now was not the time. Placing her down on her back, I was about to start doing CPR, but when I got closer to her mouth and body, I could see that she was barely breathing. Taking my two fingers, I proceeded to check her pulse. I don't know why I just didn't do that in the first place. Noticing something strange on her neck, I got closer to make sure I was seeing things right. My eyes definitely weren't playing tricks on me. Monique had a thick strap type of mark around her neck. What the fuck did he choke her with? I thought to myself.

Pacing back and forth nervously across the floor as I began to bite my nails, as tears begin to fall down my face, pulling my phone out my pocket, I called 911. I needed for them to get to here quick.

See, this is the shit I wasn't prepared for.Seeing her like that almost made me feel like the dreams I was having were nowa reality. Thank God, he didn't kill her. I just prayed that this would be herwake up call.