King & Kaiser

•Thirty-Three•

I finished eating my breakfast and went into the kitchen. King came up behind me and picked me up.

"King stop! Put me down!" I giggled as he kissed me all over my face.

"Alright. Alright. We need to talk." He picked me up and sat me down on the counter.

"What's up?" I asked playing in his beard.

"How you doing?" He asked with a worried expression.

I rolled my eyes and let out a sigh.

"King, I'm fine. I swear. Everything is ok. Are you asking me this because of Malcolm?" I hopped off the counter and tried to walk past him.

"Malcolm is part of the reason but he's not the only reason." He pulled me back by my hood.

"Then what is the other reason? Everybody is treating me like a mental health patient. I got shot at! It happens especially when you have a brother and a boyfriend in a gang! I know what I signed up for." I vented.

"You ever stop to think that maybe we just don't want you going through something alone? Or maybe we just give a fuck about you?!" King folded his arms.

"I'm not going through anything! I'm fine. Same old Kai I was when you left me here!" I shouted my voice cracking in the process.

"That's what it is. That right there. You think because me and Malcolm left that's why this happened. You blame us." King got closer to me.

"I never said that." I shook my head.

"Then why haven't you looked at me since I said it?" He picked my head up, making me look at him.

I was quiet. My eyes began to water and I guess he sensed I was about to cry because he pulled me into a hug. I just grabbed hold of him and let out everything I had been holding in since the shooting happened.

He rubbed my back leaned down to whisper in my ear.

"Kai, it's my job to make sure you good. What kinda man would I be if you was down bad and I was just ignoring you like nothing was going on. I swear, as long as there is breath in me, I'll never let nothing happen to you. No matter what I'm doing or where I'm at I swear I'mma protect you. You just gotta let me in, don't ever hide from me or lock me out, ok?" King pulled away to look at my face.

I just nodded cause I knew if I spoke it would be all crackily.

"Just tell me how you feel." He pulled me back in for a hug.

"I thought I was gonna die alone! And never see you or Malcolm again! And for Reggie to be repping blue's that was a shot to the heart. We been friends since freshman year and this the shit he pull! I'm so tired of giving myself to people who just keep hurting me and then use my attitude and my behavior to justify what they did! I'm not like regular girls. I was a kid being raised by a kid who didn't know how the world worked! I never got taught how to express my feelings or manage my anger!" I sobbed into his shirt.

"Kai I swear, I'll do everything I can to show you how to love genuinely and express your feelings. You just gotta let me in." He spoke.

I just nodded as he kept rubbing my back and rocking us side to side. It helped me to calm down a little bit and I pulled away.

"King?" I looked up at him.

He looked down at me, so much admiration in his eyes, as he wiped my eyes with a tissue.

"Why do you want me to be your girlfriend?" I asked.

"Because there's nobody else on this earth I'd rather be with. You got sharp edges but once you work your way to the middle, it's all worth it. Your worth it, Kai." He responded looking me in the eye.

King is the one person in this world that I knew saw me for what I was and for who I was. Malcolm had his faults and his ideas and his judgements about who I was but at the end of the day, he wasn't always right.  

Beyond everything, King would never hurt me.