Caretakers

002:

Pharaoh Bakari N'Jadaka Jonson

"You tired?" Pharaoh chuckled grabbing onto her loose ponytail as he sent his load spewing onto her back. Pharaoh had given Katherine, who he nicknamed Kitten, more than enough dick for the past couple of days. This had been their routine. Flirt, fuck and then pretend as if they didn't know each other until Pharaoh decided to acknowledge her for more sex.

"I'm tired of you ignoring me!" Kitten spat through clenched teeth after Pharaoh sent a rough smack to her bottom.

He was honestly tired of her especially her clingy ways. Pharaoh had made it known in more than one way that she was just there to keep his mind off shit. Nothing more, nothing less. "Kitten, I told you what the deal was." He scoffed pushing more into her wetness. "I fuck, you suck." He laughed as she suddenly trembled. "That's all." "Now arch that back sum more."

Coming down from the high they were both on, after a few hours, Pharaoh's words suddenly hit her as she pulled her body from the leather of his truck. She hadn't spoke while she placed her scrubs on. Truth was she was kind of hurt by his statement considering he had sex with her like he had taken a liking to her. Kitten knew it started off as just sex but she caught feelings for the way Pharaoh put it down.

Pharaoh could sense the vibe was off but he could care less. He had bigger things to deal with. "Make sure my momma good, Kitten." He winked jumping out of the car walking towards the hospital entrance before going in a different direction of her.

He couldn't keep sitting in his mother's room watching her wither away into nothing so he would often sit in an empty room or with older veterans who enjoyed talking about their military days. Really anything to focus on something other than his thoughts. It reminded him too much of his father's death. Although he was young he remembers his father getting shot and dying right in front him. His mother never liked to discuss that night or his father in general. He was angry that God had taken his father now he was going to take his mother. He didn't have anyone but a part of Pharaoh was glad he didn't because that meant he couldn't lose anyone else.

Phoenix Rainbow Rowe

The needles piercing through her forearm made Phoenix uneasy. She had always hated needles but now this was apart of her daily routine. This wasn't her first round of chemotherapy but it wasn't getting easier. She didn't want to keep dwelling on her age and the fact that she had cancer because it wasn't going to do anything but make her feel even more depressed so she would often sketch her surroundings to keep her mind off it.

Looking over she started to sketch out this guy and General Marcus Johnson, an old war head that still wanted to be referred to as such, playing chess. Phoenix took in his warm brown tone and strong jawline. With every stroke she smiled looking from her sketchbook to the side profile of his face. Although him and General were far away, Phoenix could focus in on his dimples and hard demeanor as he spoke to General. She had often seen him around the chemo sessions but he'd never talk to anyone but war vets. 'Maybe he's in the military and that's why he hangs out in cancer sessions with them?' She thought.

"He's fine, ain't he?" A women around Phoenix's age commented breaking her thoughts.

She nodded her head slightly before filling in some of the lines on her work. "He sure is."

"I think one of the nurses mentioned he's retired military, he graduated highest in his class from MIT." She fired off. "Oh yeah! He's 25, 6'1 and girl from what another nurse says ... he has the body of a GAWD! She just said he has these weird skin things." She laughed while shrugging as she clutched onto her juice as if she wasn't spilling all the tea. "I'm Peeyah by the way. Invasive Melanoma."

It took Phoenix nearly 10 seconds to process everything that had just spewed from Peeyah's mouth including her type of cancer to be included in her introduction. "Um, Rainbow. Type 2 breast cancer." Phoenix figured allowing people to know her first name in a place like this would make her believe she had made friends and wasn't going to die so she decided to keep everything and everyone at an arm's length. Peeyah and Phoenix had carried on conversation through their chemo session as she shaded her sketch. Peeyah was a talker but she didn't mind since she was attempting to block out her own thoughts.

"Fuck you doing?!" She had gotten so lost in her sketch after memorizing his features and talking to Peeyah, Phoenix didn't realize the mystery man was now standing over her. She couldn't bare to look at his face so she kept her eyes focused on his clean pair of Jordan's. "You keep staring!" He snapped. "Look up now." Phoenix felt like the stranger was over reacting to her taking in all of his beauty but chemo had her tired and not willing to fight so she did what she usually does in awkward positions  ... faint.