Unsuspected Love

Chapter 33: Decisions

Chapter| 33

"I'm going over to baby girls crib right now...anything you want me to tell her for you?"

I licked my dry lips and racked my brains momentarily before making up my mind.

"Yeah," I started, "Can you just tell her that I love her?"

Yaki's back muscles flexed under his shirt but he remained silent.

"And that I'm sorry."

He turned his head slightly and stared at me, nodding his head. With that, he stepped out into the windy March afternoon leaving me to be consumed with my thoughts.

A knock sounded on Aaliyah's door making her cease her actions, she clicked her pen and placed it inside her lyrics notebook as a bookmark. Rising up, she jogged down the steps and glanced into the peephole. A smile formed on her face at the sight of who stood before her, not wasting another second Aaliyah took a step back and opened the door.

Kadafi smiled brightly at the sight of her and took her slim body into his strong arms, lifting her up and spinning her around. Aaliyah giggled and hugged Kadafi back with all her strength. It was refreshing to see Kadafi; she'd left countless amounts of voicemails on his phone with no response. She wondered why he never called her back and was a little irritated with him, but upon seeing him here--all those feelings flew out of the window.

As soon as Kadafi let Aaliyah go she playfully hit his arm, feigning mock aggravation.

"Where have you been? All of a sudden you acting like you can't pick up a phone."

Kadafi gave her a tight lipped smile and shrugged his shoulders, "Sorry about that, ma'. A lot's been going on." He said brushing past her and into the house.

"Oh. Well, are you okay?" Aaliyah curiously asked while closing the door. She followed him up the steps and saw him kicking off his shoes and settling into the edge of her bed. Bending down and collecting his shoes, she neatly placed them off to the side and sat beside him.

"I'm stressed Lili." Kadafi muttered while rolling onto his back and placing his forearm behind his head. Aaliyah knitted her brows and noticed how he bored holes into her ceiling.

"And why is that?"

Kadafi thought about how he should answer her question and merely replied with, "Family problems." Aaliyah knew very few people in Kadafi's family and wondered which member had him feeling the way he was. She contemplated this for a while before a light bulb went off in her head.

"Is it Pac?"

Kadafi grew silent and his attention slowly diverted away from the ceiling and onto Aaliyah, nodding his head.

Aaliyah smacked her lips and rolled her eyes. "What'd he do now?" She inquired. Kadafi continued to peer at her before shifting his focus away from her again. Aaliyah didn't think much of it and continued to press him. "Have you seen him recently? I've been calling him over and over and I just can't seem to get his ass on the phone...is he okay? Did he get in trouble?" She asked all in one breath.

Kadafi suddenly sat up and scratched his head, awkwardly.

"What?" Aaliyah asked anxiously.

Although there once was a time back in Tamalpais High School when Kadafi held the hugest crush on Aaliyah-those times were gone now. He still cared deeply for her, but not romantically. As soon as Tupac came back into the picture Kadafi started to peep game and couldn't help but notice how she acted differently whenever he was around. To him, Aaliyah was his little sister, nothing more nothing less. He was angry at his cousin; there was no reason for him to cheat on someone like her. She's beautiful, intelligent, sweet, caring, and confident. She's everything Kadafi wanted in a girl and even though she isn't his girl, he still wanted her to be treated with love and respect. It took everything in Kadafi to not tell her what was really going down but blood runs thicker than water and it'd be a cold day in hell before Kadafi backstabs his cousin by snitching.