Damaged goods| on hold

DAMAGED GOODS| 43

Aaliyah

Two months has passed, everything's back to normal with the guys except one thing; Santana still hasn't been found. We've searched everywhere for him but came up with nothing in the end, it's like he never existed.

Hope is starting to remember Dave like he's been wanting her to but she's still a little iffy on Kairi. They play together but Hope doesn't like Kairi hanging all over me.

I convinced Dave to finish his tour, he made me and the kids go with him. He even had me go on stage with him so he could 'keep an eye on me' but in reality he hasn't been taking his medicine and wants me close to him.

"Take you're damn meds David, I'm not playing with you" I mumble pressing the pill bottle against his neck "I'm missing two months of work for you, the least you can do is take the pills"

"Alright" he nods taking the bottle from me, opening it he dumped two pills into his hand then tossed them into his mouth.

I opened a bottle of water without taking my eyes off him, not trusting him to spit it out when I wasn't looking.

"Hm" I held it out towards him

"Thanks"

Dave took three big sips then sat the water bottle down.

"Mommy, Kairi's Nana is here" Hope frowns standing at the bedroom door, rubbing the side of her face. "There's a man with her too"

"Wanna sit you here with me?" I question sitting on Dave's bed, glancing at my phone seeing a message Mike. "Mike wants you to FaceTime him"

"You not coming with me downstairs?" Dave asks hugging me from behind

"No, your mom has been back on that bullshit since we've gotten cool again. I'm keeping my distance" I scoff waving him off, helping Hope onto the bed

"Uncle Mikey" Hope mumbles into my phone, she glanced at me before mumbling lowly then nods softly "I know"

"I don't want to leave you up here" Dave sighs grabbing my hand

"I'm not going anywhere, just go" I got up then dragged him out the room to the stairs "bye!"

"Babe" he frown softly

"Go, I'll be here when you come back" I shooed him away, going back to the bed I sat beside Hope

"Uncle Mikey wants to talk to you" she mumbles passing me the phone

"Wassup nigga?" I nod

"Do I look like ya homeboy? Stop playing with me" Mike snaps mugging me

"My fault, hello Micheal" I smile innocently

"Bi—you almost made me call you out yo name. Don't get beat up" he gave me a stern look before pinching the bridge if his nose. "I just wanted to check on you but you playing games"

"I'm fine, I'll be back soon hopefully. I'm ready to go back to work, I miss my patients and my shop"

"I miss you" Mike mumbles lowly with a long sigh "it's weird sleeping in your bed without you or Bean putting y'all feet on my back, it's so lonely here"

"I miss you too, check on my shop please Keke said something about that ghetto scoping out the place"

"I gotcha, Monique wants to meet up with you later. She said something about apologizing or some shit I don't know. I already sent you address she wants to meet at"

"Is she one of your hoes? I don't want to go and she tells me some shit about you"

"No fool, she's a good friend of mines and the boys. We go way back to them middle school days, she's like a sister to me just go"

"Alright" I nod rolling my eyes

"Don't be rude either, she's quick to slice a nigga throat" Mike warns

"Okay"

*

*

*

Sitting in the booth I took small sips from my Margarita fighting off Dave's roaming hands.

"Stop" I groan bumping his shoulder

"Punk" he grumbles eating a shrimp then throws one into my shirt "shrimp smelling ass"

"Childish ass nigga" taking the shrimp out of my shirt I put it on the table beside my plate

"Aaliyah Grace" I looked up questionably at the brown skinned girl in front of me as she called my name. "And Dave East. . ."

"You Monique?" Dave ask taking a sip of his water

"Yes" she nods sitting across from us

"Hm" I hum leaning against the chair "Mike said you had something to tell me?"

"Yes" she nods waving at the workers when the spoke to her "I'd like to apologize for my rudeness two months ago, you got me at a bad time"

"How bad?" Dave questions

"My son passed away that night. When Aaliyah called I wasn't thinking clearly and I took my frustration out on her and for that I apologize. Hopefully we can start over" Monique says tapping her fingertips against the table

"I don't know what it's like to lose a child but I do know what it's like feeling like you're losing them. I accept your apology, I would've had the same attitude if I was in your shoes" the Lord knows how many times I thought I was about to lose Hope. "I have a kid of my own, she's five and has Mike's sense of humor"

We talked for an hour until Dave got a call saying something happened back at his house, we planned another outing with Monique for later this week and exchanged phone numbers again since I deleted her number.

"She seems laid back" Dave shrugs starting the engine, pulling out if the parking lot "I can see why the gurls fuck with her"

"She seems violent, did you see how she grabbed the knife when the waiter spilled water on her accidentally?"

"It was cold ice water, I would've done the same thing" he waved me off

🥀•DAMAGED•🥀GOODS•🥀