Deonté

"Where's Pit? You seen him?"

Ace shook his head. "Nah, sorry."

Anger bubbling up very slowly, I snapped. "Talisha, get up. Come on."

She threw the sheet off her and got up from the couch.

Ace's eyebrows crinkled up. "Everything aight?"

"I'm not with my girl here being alone with you in ya house." I spoke sternly. "Grab your shit. Hurry up." I ain't know what came over me, but I didn't like what I walked in on to see.

Talisha stumbled to my side, and I took her arm. "Stop holding me so tight, niggah," she said, and snatched her arm from my grip. My eyes grew wide. She stumbled to Ace's side. He caught her in her arms.

"The fuck? Talisha, let's go. Now."

I nearly had to drag her high ass up out the complex to get her to the car. I tossed her in the passenger and started Vixen's SUV.

She nodded off to sleep halfway to my house. I picked her up and carried her up to my room.

I flung her on my  bed and went into my room to take a shower and brushed my teeth.

When I returned out thirty minutes later, she was sitting up on my bed. She looked up at me blankly. I starred back.

With my eyes stuck on her, I removed my towel from my waist and let it drop to the floor. She took a glance down at me, then put her gaze back at me.

I still ain't say anything as I put my t-shirt over my head. I picked up a clean shirt from my dresser and tossed it at her. I found a fresh pair of boxers and put them on. She held my t-shirt in her hands and shook her head. Something about her expression didn't sit right with me.

"What?" I said after this entire hour.

She shrugged and revealed my phone from under the sheets. "Lotto just called. Pitbull's dead."

"What? When?"

"He was shot and killed this morning."

The rest of the night spent was quiet. I laid next to my girl with my back to her. While she was deep in her sleep, I could barely shut my eyes. I had too much shit on my mind. On top of that, my phone rang. I looked at the time and it said 4:32 am.

I answered my phone. "Hello?"

"Deonté, man, you heard from Hope?"

"Nah, Vixen, what's going on?"

His voice was shaking. "She ain't home, Faith woke up throwing up blood, and I don't know what the hell to do!"

I sat up. "Call 911!" I said with instinct.

"Hope ain't give her her medicine! She posta take it at four!" Vixen was panicking so much that he didn't hear me the first time. "She not here, it's blood everywhere!"

Vixen's voice came to a halt when I heard his phone hit the ground.

"...Come here Faith baby, take deep breathes for me, please,"

"Call 911!" I yelled, now. "Call 911!" I screamed.

Talisha turned over and shot her eyes open.

"...Faith!" I heard one last scream, and the phone went dead. I jumped out the bed and dialed 911 on my keypad. My heart fell in my stomach as I waited for the slow phone to connect.

"911 services. What's you're emergen-"

"I need an ambulance sent to 1503 Warder street!" I wailed. "Yo, please, please, pleaase hurry."

Talisha hopped out the bed in a lot of fear knowing that I was sending the ambulance to Hope's place.

"An ambulance is being dispatched to the address. What's the emergency at hand, sir?"

"A seven year old girl by the name of Faith is throwing up blood!"

"Do you know why?"

I grabbed my head. "Because she's diagnosed with HIV or AIDs or some shit and didn't take her meds!"

"Who is with her in the home, sir?"

"Vixen, her father. Yo please just have an ambulance sent there!"

"Help is being sent on the way, sir."

I hung up and began pacing the floor. Talisha shifted to my side and took my hand. "It's going to be okay, Deonté."

I shook my head and wanted to fall to my knees. So I did. Talisha tried her best to hold me up, but just ended up falling down with me.

"Man, where Hope at? She supposed to be there in that damned house for that girl!"

Talisha didn't say anything. She began rubbing her hands through my bush.

I quickly got up and grabbed my phone. I speed dialed Vixen right back.

"Hello?" I spoke. "Vixen?"

"She ain't breathing, bruh..." his voice was frail. "Her pulse... I can't feel it.."

"MAKE SURE YOU FEELIN' IT RIGHT!" I screamed.

His voice was sounding hopeless. "Her breathing...Her chest ain't rising..."

"The ambulance is on the way!" I roared. "PREFORM MOUTH TO MOUTH!"

"I can't... I would never put her in that situation!"

My stomach turned at what was going on. "Vixen..." I spoke. "You have to preform mouth to mouth resuscitation... to save her life... Please... "

"She was raped! I ain't puttin' my mouth-"

"She lived through it niggah, now help her live through this!"

My patience was running out. I was shaking. "Faith is dying! She ain't breathing!"

There was silence, and a thud. My eyes got big.

"Vixen? Vixen!" It was going on 4:50 am.

"...Yeah, baby. I just got home. Yeah," I could hear the voice of Hope appearing from the distance.

I gritted my teeth at what I was hearing.

"...Faith? Faith baby? Vixen! Oh my God!" Suddenly she screamed. I could only sit back and helplessly listen. I didn't want to. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!"

My anger was fucking with my physical being.

"YOU CHEATING BITCH, DO MOUTH TO MOUTH!"

Hope heard me from the phone. "Okay! Okay, Lotto baby, I'ma call you back,"

I shook my head and took deep breathes to calm down. I was filled with so much damned fear, anger, confusion, and shock! That bitch better save her life!

I waited when all I heard was idle thumping and pumping. I heard faint banging.

"...Move aside ma'am, we can take it from here,"

I had to hang up my cell then. It was all up to the paramedics now.

Talisha held me close to her chest, and yeah, I let her. I soaked up her shirt by the end of the hour. I cried, and cried. I don't think I ever heard myself sound like that before.

My wails brought my Mama running into my room. "What the hell? Deonté, why the hell are you wailing and screaming?"

That only made me cry louder. When my Mama saw this, she came by my side. Talisha moved aside and my Mama took her place. My Mama's warm embrace caressed me. I cried into her chest.

"Baby, it's gonna be okay."

"It won't Mama!"

"Shut up." She spoke sternly. "It will." She pressed my head into her chest and held me tighter.

The only thing left to do was to wait and see what was going on in the morning.

*

I slugged out my bed and crawled to my room. Literally. I picked myself up on the tile floor and took a look in the mirror.

I looked fucking wrecked. Sunken deep circles rounded my tearducks. I took in a deep breath and looked at the niggah that starred back at me.

The sleepless night didn't do shit for me. I wanted to crawl back in bed and cuddle with Talisha. I ain't wanna face the news. At all.

Pit was gone. Why they take him, B? Now I see why Pit stayed in his condo all the time. Them niggahs tried to take my life on Buddah's account, and I knew deep down that Buddah was behind Pit's murder. That niggah been plottin' to take each life in my life. He can't die in vein. We won't die in vein.

"Them niggahs will reap what they sewed." I said to myself. I was gonna go drivin'  a few times a week to spot 'em. I wasn't raised to be no murderer, but that day, I became one at heart.

Vixen

I woke up on the bathroom floor in a puddle of blood, terrorized. I took a look around. I was still in Hope's bathroom. The blood that I found on my shirt instantly brought me back to the traumatic events of last night...

Kofi had been spending the night with his grandma, which already had me uneasy. It was the first night without my little guy.

Finding Hope out my arms at two in the morning wasn't unusual to me. She always went to the bathroom in the middle of the night. But when I turned over and it was going on four, I had to get up and scope the place.

As I went from room to room, the phone calls replayed in my head like a tape recorder.

"Uagh!"

I went flying to Faith's room. What I saw completed horrified me.

She gagged a few times, and blood came shooting from her mouth. She was holding on to her bed frame just barely. She looked at me but could barely get a word out before her gag reflexes had more blood coming out her mouth.

I didn't know what to do at first. At all. I left Faith in the room and voyaged for Hope around the house. When I couldn't find her, the first person I knew to  call up was D. No matter how much I heard him speak on that phone though, all I heard was wah wah wah wah...

I picked up Faith and took her to the bathroom as the phone rung. I remembered holding her body in her arms, telling her that I was here. That Daddy was here. That's when she started slipping in and out of consciousness. Her eyes fluttered, and shut over and over again. I would have to shake her and beg her to stay with me.

When her eyes shut for the last time, her body went completely limp, and my pleas ain't work, I yelled her name. My phone slipped from my ear and the call lost.

When I felt her pulse, there wasn't any. After that, everything went black.

After reliving the flashback, I rushed to charge my phone and called Hope.

"How is she?" I asked as soon as she answered the phone.

Hope took in a deep breath, and sighed. "They got her breathing again. She needs an emergency blood transfusion."

"Where she at now? How she doin'?"

"Stable condition."

"I'm on my way." And I hung up.

I caught a bus to the local hospital. Seeing Faith was attached to a bunch of tubes and monitors. She had an oxygen mask covering her mouth.

A tear slipped from my eye. I couldn't even get within five feet from the girl. I had my hands stuffed in my pocket and I just starred blankly at the machines keeping my baby girl alive.

Hope walked in and wrapped her arm around my arm. She didn't say anything for a minute. Breaking the silence, she said, "She'll be okay."

I nodded. But that wasn't enough. Looking at another person in my life in the hospital changed something in me. Something snapped.

"Where were you last night, Hope?" I stepped to the side so her hand could fall off my arm. "Because I was looking for you through all this."

She bit her lower lip and spotted my eyes. "I had to run to my girlfriend's house for a couple of hours. Her boyfriend was beating up on her. I needed to be there for her-"

"But you knew that Faith needed her medicine."

"I did, it must have slipped my mind-"

"Okay." I just nodded. "Okay." I moved to Faith's bedside. "Tell her that. Go ahead." I couldn't help another tear fall from my eyes. "Repeat what you said, Hope."

Hope only glanced at the her once before she broke down in tears. I watched her.

"I'm sorry, baby!" She cried and threw herself on Faith's bedside.

I silently watched her with no remorse in my glare. Something wasn't right in my gut.

"It slipped your mind last time, too."

She slowly looked at me. "What?" She looked dosgusted at what I was saying. I ain't really care.

"This the second time that your mind slippin' almost cost her life." I motioned to Faith's body laying in the hospital bed. "This life."

"I know. And I regret every second of it. You don't think I do?"

"I ain't say that. But why'd you have to leave in the middle of the night without telling me?" I spoke.

"Why didn't you tap me and tell me that you'll be out, and tell me to remember to give her her medicine?" The more I explained it, the more fishy this all smelled. I walked closer to her. "She was coughing up blood! And where were you?"

"Stop it!" She shoved a finger in my face. "You better not accuse me of cheating, I swear to God-"

I shook my head. "I ain't even accuse you."

"Excuse me? Mom and Dad?" The doctor came in and shut the door behind him. He had a clipboard with Faith's paperwork. He shook Faith's hand then mine. "Nice to meet you both. Please take a seat."

Hope and I got comfortable on two sides of the room. I couldn't even look at her ass.

"Well, we have the results for Faith's here," he took a long look over the clipboard. "Faith will need a blood transfusion as soon as possible."

Hope burst into more tears. I wanted to hiss at her to shut the fuck up.

"But with the virus in her blood system, it will be difficult to find someone with the same blood type as her."

I nodded while Hope bald in her hands. "So, when will she get this transfussion?"

"Well, as soon as we get a donation of blood, we'll preform the transfusion."

"What type of blood she got?"

"Faith? She has type A+."

"I have A+ blood." I said. "I volunteer as tribute."

The doctor chuckled. "Well, it's not that easy."

The doctor did more explaining and shit before he left us alone with Faith again. I starred at her with so much suspicion. She was busy cryin' up a river.

I knew it was wrong to badger her with Faith laying up in a hospital bed right behind her, but I couldn't help it. She up here bein' and acting fishy as fuck. And it didn't take much to put that together.

*

Talisha and Deonté surprisingly came strolling in a half hour later. He dapped me up and checked on Faith. Talisha gave Faith a hug. Deonté didn't acknowledge Hope at all. He shot her a look, and I caught it.

It ain't take me long to get the vibe from my boy when he nodded me to head to the door.

"Deonté," Hope suddenly spoke. "Can I speak to you outside?"

"Bitch, no you can not."

My jaw dropped, and what I heard next truly shocked a niggah out his mind.

Might update, what ya'll think?