outline of shapes of my furniture, fueled by drug induced tiredness that slowly wore off as I sat up. The scent of food wafted into my room from downstairs; the yummy smell of peppers and spices filling my nose, awakening my sense of hunger with a loud, gurgling, growling sound that emitted from my stomach.

Turning on my bedside lamp, I shoved my feet back into my slippers that laid haphazardly on the floor. The light illuminated my room in a warm, pleasant shade of an orange tinted yellow, banishing the darkness back to the outside, back beyond the privacy of my windows.

My body still felt sluggish as I left my room, my phone in hand as I checked for any missed calls or text messages I could've had. I didn't even know why I was checking it, honestly - the only text messages I had were from Black, Adriana, and the group chat she had added me to with everyone else.

My legs and feet almost dragged behind me with each step, suffering underneath the act of trying to support my body weight. As I rounded the short, closed off hallway, I could hear the faint sounds of music playing in Adriana's room, a sound that was only overshadowed by the loud conversation going on downstairs - my uncle's hearty, deep laughter echoing throughout the kitchen and bouncing back as I made my way down the stairs.

"Oh, Emerald!"

Sitting at the kitchen table was my Uncle, Adriana - and the man that had stopped by earlier.

Adriana was clearing the dirty, empty plates from the table, brushing past me as she headed to place them in the sink.

Uncle Charles waved me over, his friend's attention turning towards me as he turned around in his chair, draping his arm over the back of the seat. The shininess of his watch reflected in the chandelier above the table. I walked slowly over to the two of them, absorbing the scene unfolding in front of me as his friend's eyes seemed to follow my movements.

My slippers shuffled against the wood floors, the sound subsiding as I came to stand next to my Uncle. He wrapped his arm around me, slightly pulling against him in a playful manner, "Emerald, this is my friend, Reginald. We went to university together," he extended his other hand, "And this is my niece. She's the one I told you about."

Reginald smiled, "Everybody calls me Reggie, though."

"Reggie's a local youth group advocate. He helps reform children who've suffered from gang violence and violent situations."

"I didn't know we were going over my resume tonight," Reggie's eyes widened, his eyebrows raising as well, "I'm also an officer with the GBI - we investigate drug traffickers, leaders of drug cartels," he shrugged his shoulders, looking at me as if he expected me to be more interested in that information than what little reaction I was giving him. I forced a soft smile across my face, and he continued, pivoting the conversation back towards me, "The two of us met earlier - it's nice to finally put a name to that pretty face. Your uncle can't stop talking about how happy he is that you're here."

While hearing that my presence wasn't a complete burden made me smile - for real, this time - I couldn't ignore the sour feeling in my stomach from Reggie's compliments. It wasn't like I didn't believe that I was pretty or whatever - it was more so the fact that it kept coming from a random man I had only had one interaction with through a glass door a few hours ago. Was it just an old man thing to compliment young girls in the weirdest of ways, or was I just overthinking it, this time?

"Y'all met? When?" Charles looked between the two of us, and I began to speak up to answer him - but Reggie took the lead.

"I came by earlier hoping you were already home. Them sermons getting longer and longer, huh Fulton?"

"She doesn't want to hear about my sermons," Charles joked, "You the one out there in the field. I saw in the news about y'all catching that drug trafficker in New Jersey."

Reginald leaned back in his seat, shrugging, "He was a little guy - the big guys are in New York. My team thinks we're closing in on one who's been sending drugs down here to the city."

Charles looked up at me, "See, interesting stuff, ain't it?"

I nodded, wondering how much longer I was going to have to stand here and play nice. I had gotten used to my uncle showing me off to his church congregation and to his friends - it was inevitable and unavoidable at this point - but I was more concerned with the growling sound my stomach kept making. I looked to the kitchen, hoping to see Adriana still loitering around, but she had since went back up to her room, probably to study for the midterm she had coming up.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you who I was when I stopped by," Reginald caught my attention, his eyes meeting mine. There was a certain intensity behind them that I didn't like, and maybe that was what made this interaction so much more uncomfortable, "It probably weirded you out a little, huh?"

"It's okay-"

Interrupting our "conversation" or really lack of one, was my phone ringing in my hand. It was Black, again, probably calling me for about the tenth time today - only this time, I wasn't so annoyed to see him calling me. He was my free ticket out of this extremely weird moment.

"I should get this," I smiled sweetly at the two of them, excusing myself with a lie. "It's probably my mom."

"Alright, good night Emerald - make sure you eat something before bed, yeah?"

I nodded, walking off from the table, my phone still ringing in my hand. I slid the button on the screen over to answer, holding the phone up to my ear.

"Hello?"

"You too good to answer my phone calls now?"

Sighing, I headed up the stairs, quickly walking back towards my room.

"I'm not," I told him, not having much more to say. The line went silent between the two of us, and I could hear faint conversations in the background from Black's end.

"I'm sorry, okay?" He told me, clearing his throat - "I didn't mean to upset you earlier. I just don't want you to fill your head with all the shit going on with your mom. I'm taking care of her, okay?"

I kept quiet, processing his apology. It wasn't a deep apology by any means, and I've heard better apologies from Black before - but it seemed like I was going to have to take what I could get from him at the moment. He wasn't the kind of man to apologize often, either.

"Okay."

"Now I got some business to attend to," he started, beginning with a phrase I felt like I had heard a million times.

"But I'll call you back later," I finished for him. "I understand."

Which meant I wasn't going to be hearing from him for a while. And even though I knew how things were - how things were on his end - I really didn't want to understand.