Black Jack

20. The Big Bad Wolf 🐺

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M A R A E      H O N E Y      B E L L A

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     It'd been days since I seen Aaronzé. He wasn't coming to school, he wasn't answering my calls.

    Ever since the night we did our project, he'd gone completely ghost.

    Was I too forward?

  I relax my back into the couch, reading a web comic, the same one I'd been gorging lately; Lore Olympus.

   The TV plays lowly, Terrence is on the floor playing with his hot-wheels cars. His tea half empty.

   Mine was already gone. I typically read while I sip on it, snack a little or so. It made for an enjoyable down time.

     The doorbell rings.

  My mom exits from the kitchen, crossing into the hall and opening the door after looking through the peep hole.

     I turn to see.

  It was a delivery man; a narrow box in his hands, "Nicole Bella?"

    "That's me," She says.

  He hands the box over, my mother eyes him. He could've just left it at the door, whatever it was.

    My mom closes the door on him without saying a word and walks back into the kitchen.

    That's... Weird..

  I pause my reading and get up, following after her. The exchange was a bit too quick, even for her. Something must be off.

    She slams the box onto the counter and runs her stiletto through the slit to open it.

    "Whats wrong?"

  "I didn't order anything," She says, "Not a damn thing..."

  "Well maybe—"

   I go mute as I look inside the box. There's a few things. My mother's wedding ring, one of my old diaries, Trey's favorite stuffed frog with its head missing. And then...

   A family photo with cracks all along the glass, the frame is broken.

    Our faces are cut from the picture, leaving only David inside.

    He found us.

  I feel heat rushing to my face, a twisted anger I couldn't shake. Why can't he leave us the f—ck alone!