𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄.

𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍.

I walked over to the chair adjacent to him, sitting with my legs crossed, thankful I remembered to put shorts on. He pulled from his blunt, just holding the smoke while we sat here looking at each other.

"What's wrong wit' you for real?" he spoke after blowing the smoke out his nostrils.

"Nothing I-"

"You think I'on know you a lil bit? I been spending damn near everyday wit' yo' ass for almost four months, ma." He said, making my stomach tingle a little bit. He was right, we did know each other pretty well now, and he was already good at reading me.

"I had a nightmare," I responded quietly, making his brows furrow up.

"'Bout what? It got you staying up till 3?" he asked.

"I just woke up from it," I shook my head. "It was about my um...my mama," I stammered, already feeling emotional. I never really retold the story to anyone, and it choked me up.

"You wanna talk about it?' he peered down at me, and even though he had that same mean ass look on his face I could tell he was being genuine. The way he looked at me in my eyes told me everything I needed to know.

But I was still hesitant. Like I said, I never told this story to nobody but them officers that day, since then I ain't say a word. I did want to get it off my chest, but something is always stopping me.

"I'on care what it is, I'll jus' listen if that's what you want, I'm the last nigga to judge anybody," he said again, and I looked back up into his eyes. My nod was short and hesitant, but he saw it.

"My mama and my little brother and sister died when I was a jit, I was seven. My father uh... he used to hit on my mama. Since I was real young. At first I ain't understand it because he was so nice to me, he was my daddy you know? I loved him. It wasn't till I actually saw him slapping and punching her did my feelings toward him change. I hated his ass because he made my mama cry, but he never put his hands on me," I spat out.

"When I was seven, he cheated on her, but she wouldn't leave him because he made her quit her job and cut her off from her family. We ain't have nobody but my grammy, and we barely ever saw her. So one night it was real real bad, he broke her nose that night," I sniffed, rubbing my eye. "I slept with Micah and Maia so they wouldn't be scared, and they both just cried all night.

The next morning, she told me don't come home from school, go to my grammy's and I knew how to get there cuz' she lived right across from my elementary. I told her I loved her and kissed the kids goodbye and went to my grammy's after school like she said.

I waited hours and hours for my mama and she never came. At like 7:30, her phone rang, I remember the call, because she had it on speaker. My neighbor Ms. Linda called. She said 'Faye, I don't know what the hell is goin on but Pandora and them house on fire, it's police all over here, they all with you?' and she dropped the phone. We rushed to her car and drove back to my house and the whole way there she was crying and so was I, I didn't know what to expect.

When we got to my house we had to push past hella people and firefighters, and when I saw my house everything stopped. Everything was burnt up, It was barely standing. I looked and looked around for my mama or my siblings and they wasn't there so I- uh" I took another deep breath in, and wiped away some of my fallen tears, trying to gather myself.

"I asked one of the firefighters if he saw my mama or my little brother and sister, and I just remember him looking at me so sad. Before he could speak, my grandma grabbed me in a hug, crying in my shirt, telling me they ain't make it out. Th-they died in the fire. I don't ever remember crying louder or harder than I did that day," I continued to rub at my face.

"My grammy died like two months after their service, and I got thrown into the system. Never got adopted or fostered. When I turned ten, I looked up the fire, nobody ever told me what happened and there was nobody who could, so I looked it up to find out. Turns out my father figured out my mama was planning to leave him while I was still at school, and he uh...he locked her in a closet in the basement with my siblings, and he set our house on fire...he killed my mama, Pandora, and he killed my little brother and sister, Micah was six months, and Amaia was three," I struggled to get the last part out, I couldn't even look at him.

"Every day I wish I would've been in that house with them. I-I'm so alone in the world now, Maj. I ain't got nobody," I sniffed, "he took every fuckin' thing I loved away from me-" I couldn't help it after that, I was crying like a baby, body shaking, snot running out my nose and all that, I could barely get another word out. All the years of repressed emotions and holding my story in were finally escaping me all at once and it hurt like hell.

Before I knew it, his arms were around me. He lifted me into his own chair, holding me like a baby while I cried my eyes out, repeating how much I missed them and how alone I was. He just sat his chin on my head, rubbing my back up and down.

                                            **

"Sadiya...wake up, we gotta get from outside," I heard his voice in my ear, and felt his hand rubbing my back again. My eyes cracked open and I saw it was still pitch-black outside.

Shit...

"I-I'm sorry I didn't mean to fall asleep I jus-"

"Calm down, calm down," he said, looking down into my probably tear stained face. I just know I looked a hot ass fuckin' mess. "You good, I jus' wanna make sure you get in the bed. You aight?" he asked me.

Was I? I don't really know if I ever will be regarding that situation.

"U-uh yeah, I'm okay. Thank you, for listening and all that, I appreciate it," I nodded, beginning to stand when he held me firmly in place.

"You welcome. And aye, you not alone no more aight? You got me and Shah, Syn, Rico, Babygirl and even Kash nonchalant ass. We got you now, we ya' family," he said. After that, he let me go, and I got up out his lap quick, straightening the big t-shirt I wore.

"Th-thank you, Maj," I smiled, rubbing at my face a little to get rid of the dry stains.

"You welcome, Sadiya. Just remember what I said," I nodded and he did the same. "Aight go take yo' lil ass to bed, we gotta be up early,"

"Well then shouldn't you be going to bed too?" I raised my brow, making that sexy ass smirk curl up on his face.

"I'm grown, Luck," he spoke in a 'duh' tone andI couldn't help my laugh. I rolled my eyes and wished him a goodnight, scurryingback up to my room, to get some sleep before tomorrow came.

                                                **

hello all :) i just wanted to give some background i know everything with lucky is kinda confusing lol so i just wanted to clear it up.

and have a cute lil emotional moment 🥰

tell me how we're feeling! next chapter is lucky's first job finallyyyy.