Concrete Rose (Dave East)

Chapter 52

Layla turned on her heel and left. Rell clapped and nodded. "What she said."

Layla had already reached at least halfway back to the car by time he caught up with her.

"Layla," he called after her. "Yooooo."

"What's going on," he said caging her against the car door. "This is ain't you."

"Im just tired Rell," she said putting her head down. "Can we go home?"

"I know you," he said lifting her head. "And I know something is wrong."

"Please," she begged. "I just wanna go home."

Rell opened the door for her and helped her get in. Before heading home, he stopped at a Caribbean restaurant and got her some food. Once they reached home she went straight to their room.

Rell left her alone for a few minutes then went in search for her.

"Hey," he said sitting on their bed.

"Hey," she said forcing a smile.

"I got you some plantain. It's baked though," he said pulling out a container of food. "with some baked Mac, potato stuffing and oxtail too."

Layla smiled at his gesture. "Thank you baby. I'm sorry I'm just not feeling good."

"Is it the babies," he asked concerned.

"No the babies are fine. Moving around as usual," she smiled rubbing her belly. She took his hand and place it under hers as she guided him to feel their movement.

Rell smiled as he felt a nudge against his hand. "Just talk to me," he told her. "Don't shut me out."

She slid over so she could lay on his shoulder. "I've been thinking a lot. And I want to meet up with my mom."

Rell opened up the food container and forked up some food to feed to her. "If you ready then go ahead," he encouraged. He continued to feed her while she spoke to him.

"It's a new year you know, the babies should be here in about two months. You spoke to her right? That night, how was she?"

"She seemed nice," he spoke. "She was really concerned about you, I felt bad because your father didn't want her around. He kept telling her to leave and she kept crying. But then again they have a rough history."

"What do you think I should do?"

Rell ate some of the food himself. "It's up to you baby. You know I don't like this therapy shit but it's been helping me sleep better, you should try talking to someone first."

Layla nodded. "I'm gonna call Dr. Daniel," she said referring to the therapist that helped her through the aftermath of Josiah's attack.

She opened her mouth for him to continue feeding her only for him to feed himself. "I thought the food was for me."

"Shit I'm hungry too," he said chewing. "This shit real good too."

"Gimme some," she whined.

"Gimme some," he mocked her holding out a forkful. "Big baby."

"Did you think I was rude in the meeting today?"

"Nah," he said shaking his head. "I'm thinking about changing her from there anyways. If they couldn't handle a situation like that correctly then I don't want Maddison there."

Layla agreed with him. "I can look into transfers, you think she would mind?"

"Maddison? No."

"Okay," Layla said as she reached for more food. "Barely got any left."