𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐌'𝐒 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑

ᴀᴜɢᴜsᴛ 16

ᴀᴜɢᴜsᴛ 16, 2023

"Thank you," Trin told the Uber Driver who was dropping her off home. He nodded and waited for her to close the door to drive off. She made her way up to her apartment, getting her house key ready.

When she got to the door, she unlocked it and step foot in. She closed the door behind herself and took her shoes off. "Trin!" Ace yelled. "Huh?" she responded.

He came walking to the front. She put her keys down and went into the open space between the living room and kitchen, sitting her bag down on the couch.

"Wassup. How was your first day of classes?" he asked. "It was good. Everyone is really nice. I think I'll like it," she said. "Well, that's good. I'm happy for you," he smiled a wide smile.

"Thank you. But you know what I was really thinking about?" she said in an attempt to bring up another topic. "What?" he asked. She walked into the kitchen and washed her hands to prep for cooking.

"Getting a car," she said looking at Ace. She saw him nod. "Because I'm going to be going to school for class Monday through Thursday and there's a 29 minute commute to school everyday. And Ubers add up," she said getting the cutting board to cut the chicken.

"Right," he said. "I've already been looking into cars. And I also have to look into a job," she said. This time she wasn't looking at Ace. He stood up from the couch and walked into the kitchen to attempt to start helping her.

"Trin, we already discussed this," he said. He wasn't really trying to hear it. "I know, but I need a steady income in order to fully take care of my half of the bills and take care of my car note," she said.

"Your side hustle is just fine," he said, helping her wash the chicken. "Ace, you're not hearing me," she said. "Why do you just insist on putting stress on yourself? How the hell you gon work a full time job and be a full time student and make all that shit for them people? And you know business been booming," he said. She understood what he was saying.

"When are you staring trade school?" she asked, trying to change the subject. He snapped his head towards her and looked down at her. She pretended she didn't feel him looking at her.

"Next week," he said. He had already found the trade school because he knew he'd have to be on top of shit if they were going to grow and survive. "No, back to the topic at hand. You know you can't work no job right now," he shut down her attempt to completely move to another topic.

"I did it before, I can do it again. I was a whole highschool student working two part time jobs, working with my side hustle, and I still graduated at the top of my class," Trin said. "Well, you didn't have as much to do then. You got people hitting you up everyday, and that shit is time consuming. Trin, you gon overwork yourself because you scared," Ace said.

"Scared of what?" she scrunched her face up even though he couldn't see her. "Scared that you gon not stay afloat. And I can almost guarantee that if you sit back and look at what you have right now, all those worries will go away. You don't gotta live on the edge no more, Trin. I'm not saying settle, but you need to chill a lil bit. We are in a good place right now. Better than a lot of people I know," he said.

Trin always had to worry about where she would be next. Where her next meal would come from, if the roof over her head would suddenly be taken away. She had been living on the edge for so long, she didn't know how to step back from it.