The Same Difference

Chapter 15

"Kevin, where were you?" Tiffany ranted. Luckily I had changed back into my scrub! I could have gotten arrested! The cops were everywhere last night!"

Kevin exhaled smoke from the marijuana between his fingertips multiple times, before he finally acknowledged her. "Shut the fuck up." He ignored her rant, as he took her purse off of her lap. "540 fucking dollars? You've got to be fucking kidding me, Tiffany!" He pulled the car into a Shell gas station, and unlocked the doors. "Get out."

"Kevin! No, please. Where are the boys? Please don't make me walk," Tiffany pleaded. She instantly regretted bad-mouthing him.

Kevin reached over her, and opened the passenger door before shoving her out of the car. "They good. See ya, hoe."

Tears streamed down Tiffany's face. When she realized that both the money she had made for the night, along with her cellphone, were still in the car with Kevin, she cried a little harder.

••••••••

"Has Kevin called you yet?" Devin asked Ariel, as he walked in the door with kids meals for Kannon & KJ.

"Nope," Ariel answered. "But it's okay, they're not a problem. KJ, Kannon, come and eat."

"Ariel it's 7 p.m. Look, something is up with Kev. If he's not back by the time I finish up at the gym, I'm going to find him. After the boys eat, bathe them and put them to bed. Looks like they'll be here another night." Kevin grabbed his Nike bag out of the closet, and left.

Ariel pulled one of Devin's T-shirts, and plopped down on the bed a few hours later . She checked her phone, to see that she had a text message from her father.

'The name on the call records was Tiffany Vincent.'

Ariel's eyes widened. What the fuck did Tiffany have against Devin? She thought they had a good relationship, but she obviously guessed wrong. Ariel was about to call Devin, when a shadow from the window, plastered across her her bedroom floor, under the light.

"Aaaaaah!" Ariel's phone fell from her now trembling fingers. She clasped her hand over her heart and prayed.

Once again, the leaves cracked under the foot steps of someone running away, and disappearing into the night. She raced from her bedroom to check on the boys, who were still sound asleep. Thank God, she thought.

Devin returned a short time later. "Still nothing?" He asked her, as he wiped sweat from his forehead. "I thought I saw his car when I was running. I must have been tripping."

"No. Devin the peeping tom came back!"

"Fuck, Ariel! Are you sure? What the fuck did the police say when they came out? This shit gotta stop."

Ariel put her head down, because she knew her response was only going to make Devin angrier. "Well, it was a beer bottle out back that wasn't mine, and they took it in for fingerprints."

"Okay, and?!" Devin snapped.

"I told them that if, and when they do recover something, that I didn't want to be notified."

"Ariel, you've gotta be fucking losing your mind! Why would you-"

"Devin, I just wanted to be safe. Okay? I don't want to know who exactly it is, that's fucking watching me. That's scarier than just being watched. I just want them off of the streets, so that they don't watch anyone else. That's all."

"So you're safe now?" Devin asked her, sarcastically. He shook his head at just how stupid she sounded. When he realized her feelings were hurt, he took another approach.

"Get dressed, I'm not leaving you here alone. Wake the boys up, we're headed to Kevin's."

"I thought you said they were staying?" Ariel asked.

"Ariel! Just do what I asked you to do."