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Christopher. 8am The Next Morning.
Exhaling, I walked inside of my house and dropped my keys in the bowl by the door. Tired was an understatement. I complained about not getting a nap yesterday, only to end up getting no sleep at all. Twenty four hours and no rest.
We had to deal with some snake niggas, taking shit that don't belong to them.
"Good morning." My mom called from the kitchen. A week after she found out about Ariel, she filed for divorce from my dad then moved back in with me. Lately she's been talking about moving out of the state because my dad's constantly bothering her. I guess me almost killing him wasn't good enough.
"Hey ma." I kissed her forehead then sat at the counter. "You about to cook?"
She nodded. "Yeah, I wanted a nice breakfast. So you had a long night?"
"Very."
"Want some coffee?"
"Yes, thank you."
"Mmhm." She poured me a cup then handed me the sugar. "So I noticed you barely get any sleep lately, what's up with that?"
"Just a lot going on. I'll sleep when I'm dead ma."
She rolled her eyes. "You just seem very different lately Chris. And how are you supposed to look after two little hyper girls and you're so exhausted."
"I got it."
"I can tell you're seconds from cracking. I don't think you got it."
"Once I get done with this coffee I'm going upstairs to get some rest. Ariel won't be here until later anyway."
"You're really enjoying this big brother thing I see. You used to beg me and your dad for a baby brother when you were little."
I laughed. "It's cool but I just know how Aubree needs help so I stepped up to the plate. Dad isn't going to do it and Ariel's an innocent little girl, she shouldn't be neglected like that."
"Yeah, she shouldn't. Does she know about you being her brother?"
"No. She just thinks I'm always getting her so that she can be with Royalty. I'm not trying to make shit confusing for her. She knows I was her sister boyfriend and now I have to tell her that I'm her brother. I'd rather not."
"I get it. So I finally met Aubree when I picked up Ariel for you last month. She's very pretty and sweet."
"Yeah."
"Why did you break up with her?"
"I had to."
"Why?"
"This whole situation is frustrating and it made our relationship complicated."
"Or did you make it complicated Chris? Ariel doesn't know that you're her brother, nobody else knows. I can tell that she's a good a girl and I can tell the reason you're not sleeping or eating or functioning properly is because she's gone. You haven't been the same since you found about Ariel."
