I could just walk in the room and feel the entire energy change. Before even looking at Florice I saw Koji with his face buried in his hands. He switched from burying his face to roughly rubbing his waves to scrolling through his phone, holding it up to his ear, and mumbling something incoherent under his breath.

Florice had this blank expression on her face. Almost like she was told a huge bout of news that she was still trying to wrap her mind around. Janeka had her arm wrapped around Florice with her back to Q and I but I could hear her sniffling softly even with her head turned away from us.

"What happened?" I asked with my eyebrows pulled together. I knew Florice was pregnant, and I knew that fight was bad, but something in me had hoped for the best and not for what I was expecting to hear.

"Yeah, what happened Flo?" Q walked into the room after me, but immediately made a beeline on the opposite sideof Florice. He stroked her cheek, rubbing the dried tears from her skin with care. Something was going on, and I knew it wasn't good.

"I," Florice said softly, her eyes shifting back and forth on an imaginary affixed object. Janeka, with her arm still wrapped around her neck, kissed Florice's cheek in a motherly fashion, almost as if telling her it was going to be okay.

"I lost the baby, Ari. And-" Florice's voice squeaked, choking back tears. "They saying they going to have to take out one of my ovaries because it didn't have any blood flow. I. . . I-"

"Shh, its alright, Flo." Janeka hugged Florice's neck tighter as Florice buried her face in her friend's arm.

"Oh my god, Florice I'm so sorry." I found a spot on the bed, rubbing her leg reassuringly. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, trying my best not to cry with her. Koji was on his cycle of putting the phone to his ear when, i'm assuming, something in the cycle changed.

"Hello?" Koji said. "Ayo where is she? Tell her to pick up the phone right now."

Koji stormed out of the room, walking immediately out the ER and its lobby. By what Koji was telling me back at the club, he had Quan on the phone and had a few choice words for her. I'm glad he was the one to handle it because by the look on Janeka face as she watched Koji walk out made me think it was going to be a part two to all of this.

My heart ached for Florice, I could literally hear her heart breaking in each sob. I thought about the times that I thought I was pregnant by my ex and how we drove down to the clinic to get the "pill abortion" before the baby was even 8 weeks. I was besides myself for weeks. Florice was at least 3 months pregnant and as happy as she could be. Knowing she lost it in the situation that she was in makes me mad for Koji and sad for Florice.

"Imma go find Koji." Q said. "I'll be right back."

Janeka nodded her head to give him the O-K. I could tell this was making him uncomfortable, but not in a bad way. The little bit I knew about Q and Flo was that their brother-sister relationship left a lot of open spaces for interpretation between the two. If one was sad, the other was silent, and vice versa. So I was almost certain that in Q's silence to Florice's pain, he was hurting 100x more than he was willing to show anyone.

"Its okay girl, we're right here with you." I reassured her, taking Q's place and wrapping my hands around her to comfort her as well.

I looked up and saw the same nurse who was in charge of Janeka peek by our door, but when she saw the three of us her eyes saddened at the sight. She pulled down the curtain in front of the door to obscure the outside from looking in and proceeded with her rounds.

-

"I swear to god imma fight that bitch next time I see her." Janeka spat. She closed the door firmly behind her, nestling the papers underneath her armpit. We both walked out to the ER driveway, looking around for her ride.

"Janeka you know you don't need to do-"

"I don't want to hear that right now, Ari. No offense. That bitch owes me a decent fade and it ain't shit that you, or Q, or Koji, can tell me." Janeka sighed, looking around the parking lot for her ride.

"Where the fuck is he?"

"Speaking of," I chimed in, my eyebrow raising in concern. "Who is that? He came storming in the ER and we was all confused." I said, referring to Koji, Q and I.

Janeka looked over at me briefly before focusing back on the parking lot. She craned her neck to the left and the right before speaking up.

"That's my boyfriend, Démas. But just call him D."

"Well, miss lady," I propped my hand on my hip, pouting my lip playfully hoping to lighten the mood. "When were you going to say anything about Mr. D. He came in this bitch like Batman finding Bane or some shit."

Janeka giggled at my statement, rolling her eyes playfully. "Girl, I don't like people in my business." unconsciously, she tucked the paperwork closer under her arm. "And besides, we be on and off again too much for me to even call him my nigga."

She opened her mouth to say another word, but it was cut short by the honking of a large all white Dodge Charger with matte-black rims and the darkest tints imaginable. It swerved up and around the turnabout with a screeching of its tires, the no-longer-a-mystery man rolling down the window with a black toothpick circling in his mouth.

"Baby, you straight?" he asked, eyeing me up and down before focusing back on her.

"Yeah, we good, bae. Let's go get some food, i'm hungry. I'll call you tomorrow, boo." Janeka hugged me tight with one hand, hopped in the car and without a second to register anything, drove off into the night.

I don't know if it was just me, but the way she barely leaned over for him to kiss her and how careful she was to put her seatbelt on lead me to think it was more to the shit than I was seeing.

"What a fucking night." I breathed.

"Yeah, tell me 'bout it."

I jumped up at Q's voice, almost instinctly pullin out my mace.

"Q! What the fuck? You want to be in that ER, too?"

Q waved his hands across his face defensively, his smile spreading wide at my quick-witted mouth.

"Chill, ma. I just walked Koji to his car. I just got him to calm down. He going to stay here with Florice till they admit her."

"That's good," I breathed, rubbing my arm. "I'm so worried about her, you just don't know."

"Yeah. . ." his voice wandered off as he looked across the parking lot. Clearing his throat, he rubbed the back of his neck as his eyes wandered back to me.

"Since Koji going to stay here i'm going to assume you don't have a ride."

Before I could open my mouth to respond, he continued. "And that means you're not going to catch an Uber this late. So imma take you home. If you hungry, let me know, we can stop for food too. You can pay me back later." he winked at me, pulling out his key fob to find his car.

If I wasn't so tired I would have asked him who did he think he was but right now, food sounds So good.

—
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