2 Places || The Sophomore Trilogy || Tori Kelly

Pouring Rain

March 7th — Wednesday Morning
5:18 AM

Tori sat at her dining room table, knees to her chest, staring into the dark kitchen. It was getting hard for brain to shut off. It had been a little over a week since the hospital visit, André was pissed at her, but Jasmine was fine.

All call came through Tori's phone, distractingly her from her distracted state. "Hello?" She answered, not even looking at the caller ID.

"Ri?" Tori heard. She pulled her phone away from her ear trying to figure out if what she heard was right.

"Daddy? What do you need?" Tori fearfully asked, having not heard from her father since her told her about his liver.

"I am heading to dialysis. I wanted to see if you were busy later today," he started. A sniffle came from the twenty-two-year old as she held back her tears.

"Uhh, I don't think I'm busy. I'd have to check with Dré? But, don't have any money," Tori shakily spoke. Allwyn took a deep, breathe knowing he did want that.

"Don't worry about it, Ri. I just want to check in on you. Mom told me about what happened with Jasmine and I wanted to let you know I'm here for you," he kindly said.

"Oh yeah. Thanks. She's okay and doesn't even remember. Or if she does, she hasn't shown any signs that she does. Remember, that is. Your grandchildren miss you. Jaxon always asks about his Pop-pop. And Joey wants to play cars with you. What about you come over for lunch and we can all hang out. I'm sure André would love to see you. And maybe you can finally tell Noah," Tori expressed. Silence came through for a moment, making Tori rethink her last sentence. "Or not, if you don't think he's ready," she recanted.

"Uh, yeah, Ri. I'll call you after dialysis. Okay?" And just like that Allwyn hung up. Tears started to pour as she threw her cellphone across the room.

The loud thud of breaking glass on the tiled floor, pulled André out of his sleep and into the common space in a rush. Quickly, he deduced that there was no threat and looked over to his wife, sitting in the dark, at the table. "What the hell are you doing?" André mumbled, ready to go back to bed.

"Nothing," Tori mumbled, knowing her that leaning on her husband wasn't necessarily as true as she had hoped it to be. Silent tears streamed down the tired mother's cheeks, as she laid her head on her arm.

"Keep it down. Ella's in our bed. Don't wake her," André grumbled, heading back to bed. Tori took a deep breath and got up from the table as her bedroom door shut.

Just get some water.

Tori's hand reached for the fridge, but slipped past it to the locked cabinet.

It's close enough to water.

6:19 AM

Tori laid on the couch, in sunglass as the sun came up of the valley behind of her backyard. The water bottle by her abdomen half way filled with vodka and her TV on the fifths episode of How To Get Away with Murder. Fitting. Tori took a swig if her "water", when footsteps came down the steps. "It's mommy!" Jasmine pointed, in the arms of Noah.

"Yeah, you wanna tell her what you did," Noah asked, setting his niece on the floor to watch her run to her mother.

"I peepeed on the potty," she proudly smiled, climbing on to the couch next to Tori.

"Mhhmm, good job, Minnie," Tori halfway responded. Noah glanced back to his sister from the kitchen, while looking for breakfast. She want acting like herself. Normally, she'd be excited that her daughter was gearing up to be solely out of pull-ups.