2 Places || The Sophomore Trilogy || Tori Kelly

The Situation At Hand

wednesday — january 12th
9:27 AM

Tori, Kayla, Kamari, and Laura sat in the living room of the youngest Murillo household in shock. "Tori, this can't be real. How could this happen?" Laura asked, holding her daughter's pregnancy test.

"I don't know. I thought we were being careful," Tori cried. Actually tears streamed down her face as she thought about the life growing inside her. She had no plans to feed another mouth. She had no interest raising another child. Or idea of how she was going to tell her husband. This wasn't part of the plan in anyway, but the couple was going to have to figure something out because an abortion seemed off the table. Right?

"You know you're going to have to tell your father, right?" Laura reminded. Allwyn hasn't been in the picture for so long Tori sometimes forgot he was supposed to be playing a major role in her life. She hasn't even seen him in months, so at no surprise telling him was not at the top of her list.

"No. I'm not telling anyone. We aren't telling anyone. Not dad. Not André. I'm not ready." Tori panicked. In a rush, the mom of three left the living room, locking herself in her bathroom.

"Guys," Kamari rallied. "What are we going to do? We can't let her do what she's thinking. A life is at stake," she pleaded. Laura dropped the test in the trash and washed her hands

"As much as we don't want it to happen, it's still her choice. A choice she can decide to make with or without André. And we have to respect that." Laura advised. Because, despite Kamari's intentions, Tori would be the one taking care of this baby at the end of the day. Not them.

"She wouldn't, right?" Kayla asked, fearful for her unborn niece or nephew. Silence coating the room, since no one had a definitive answer. They hoped, Tori wouldn't abort, but she'd thought about it before. What was to stop her from actually acting on it this time?

10:57 AM

Tori sat in the studio with her good friend Bruno Major working on a song, but all she could think of was the little plus sign swirling around her head. As they wrote, her phone went off, interrupting the two. "What?" Tori groaned.

"Where are you?" The voice asked. Tori rolled her eyes and sat back in the office chairs

"I'm at the studio," she replied, not even trying to mask her annoyance. Bruno glanced over as Tori picked at the arm of the chair. He couldn't exactly hear the other person that well anymore, but Tori looked over it. "You don't believe me? That's fine. You don't have to," Tori snapped. "If you show up here, I'll call the cops," she threatened. That fully got Bruno's attention forcing a protective spirit out of him. "That's what I thought," Tori said as the other person hung up abruptly.

"Everything okay?" The musician asked, Unsure of what he'd just heard. Tori nodded and dropped her phone in her bag.

"Just my dad," she simply replied, holding back the tears that had threatened to slip. "I can't—" Tori stuttered. "C-can we just talk? I really need to talk to someone with no bias other than simply being my friend," Tori asked on the verge of tears. Bruno leaned in warmly and placed a gentle hand on her leg.

"Tori, you can always talk to me," he encouraged. A comfort shot through Tori at the feel of his warm touch. A comfort she hadn't felt with André in a while. A friendly comfort.

"Well, I recently got a huge heap of news and a responsibility to make some decisions. But every time I think about it, I feel like I'm floating outside of my body. Like this isn't really my life," Tori recalled. Bruno slowly changed his grip and firmly, but gently grabbed her knee, scooting closer.

"Is this about your dad?" He inferred. Tori nodded, wiping a few of her tears. She leaned against the arm of the chair in thought.

"And some other stuff. It just feels like on one hand I should be happy about him trying to step up. But on the other, I know it won't last," she mumbled. Bruno sat face to face, only inches away from her. He could see the fear and anxiety beating on he pupils. It was clear she was holding back on him, but he didn't want to push her.