I didn't know what my first reaction was, but it was anything but happy or accommodating. I was furious. I watched as Kathy lifted up in the bed, giving me a blank look as the man lifted up as well. He stared blankly at me, then looked at Kathy.
"My god..." Kathy sighed to herself, closing her eyes.
"What the hell is this?" I snapped.
"Kathy, you had a man this whole ti-"
"Woah woah woah, don't act like you didn't fuckin' know!" I barked, giving the man a look of rage. "You see them pictures of us out on the damn banister!"
I was so heated that the heat from my nostrils were burning my upper lip. I closed my eyes, balling my fists and taking a deep breath.
"You got five seconds to get out of my bed." I said, talking to the man and keeping my eyes closed.
The man wrestled on his shirt and sprinted out of the room. As the front door to our apartment shut, I glanced at Kathy as she looked away. She was fully clothed, so that let me know that they didn't have sex.
"Start explaining right now, Kathy." I growled. "Because I could have you kicked out of this damn apartmen-"
"I pay half the rent to this place and where you work wouldn't be able to pay a quarter of this apartment so you'd be out on the streets too." Kathy interrupted, giving me a serious look. "I suggest that you don't do that."
Damnit. She was right. I hated when Kathy proved me wrong, but she was correct.
"I want an explanation and I want it now." I growled, trying to act like I wasn't phased by what she said.
Kathy looked away, shaking her head.
"Ever since you went back to Cali, you've become a different person." Kathy sighed. "You rarely spend time with me anymore."
"So that's it?" I snarled. "It's okay to cheat on me because I'm helping my fucking family members?"
"What the hell do you mean "that's it?", Josh? You. don't. spend. any. time. with. me!" Kathy snarled. "That's enough of a fucking explanation!"
"So why the hell didn't you tell me?!" I snapped, jolting up and giving her an evil look. "That makes it alright to cheat on the damn bed we share?"
"I shouldn't have to tell you that shit, Josh!" Kathy growled. "You're a big boy and you're old enough to understand what the hell is wrong in this relationship!"
I don't care what she said. Nothing gave her the right to cheat. As I plopped down onto the couch, I watched Kathy stand up and fold her arms.
"You helping your family shouldn't affect us in any sort of way!" Kathy snarled. "You should still check up on me? Make sure I'm doing alright! Answer my damn calls every once in a fucking while! It's not that hard to do when you're not in Schafer for two seconds!"
I shook my head, bowing it down at the floor.
"So how many men have you cheated on me with, Kathy?"
"I didn't cheat on you once. And the only man I've been with was him." Kathy growled. "We've never had sex. All we've done was kissed."
I didn't believe her. At all.
"Yeah okay, Kath."
"I don't want to leave you Josh, but if you don't want to help carry this relationship out for the better, then I'm afraid I'm gonna have to find happiness elsewhere." Kathy growled as she walked out of the room. "Think about that."
What the hell was happening in my life? Kathy was right all along. I shouldn't have taken that trip to Cali. Ever since I went there, all hell has been breaking loose. I was balancing and struggling supporting my family, taking too many work hours off, and trying to make shit spark back up with my girl.
I just wanted this all to be over.
The next day, Isaiah dropped Kayson off at school as always. Usually Kayson would always be excited for school, but today he wasn't. He knew that the teacher wasn't going to let him talk to Madilyn, so she took away the root of his day. When he walked inside the classroom 5 minutes before class was about to start, he walked past each student and sat next to Madilyn in the middle of the floor.
"Hi Madilyn." Kayson smiled.
Madilyn glanced down, shaking her head.
"Cint talk to u, Kaysin." Madilyn mumbled.
"Wat?" Kayson gasped. "Why?"
"Kayson!"
The teacher smiled and walked up to him, crouching by him.
"I've changed your seat to over here, Kays." Mrs. Allen smiled, pointing at the table next to Madilyn.
"But, I want to sit nex to Madil-"
"Sweety, you have to sit over here." Mrs. Allen sighed in a sad tone. "I'm sorry, but her daddy said so."
Kayson was pissed. He sat down at the table next to another redhead kid and a in front of a black girl. For the whole day, Kayson could barely focus. All he was worried about, was Madilyn. He didn't have as much "fun" as he would usually have since he was always with her. To him, his whole day didn't feel right at all.
At recess, Kayson started to make his way towards Madilyn, when her father picked her up and stormed up to Mrs. Allen.
"Excuse me!" The father barked, squeezing through some of the children as Mrs. Allen read to them. "Excuse me ma'am!"
"Yes sir?"
"Do you know what that little boy told my daughter?" The father spat. "He told her that she had a pretty pussy and she thought that it was a compliment!"
As the kids started to snicker, the teacher's eyes widened as she looked over at Kayson.
"How did he....." Mrs. Allen paused, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "Lord."
"Exactly!"
"Sir, they're just kids." Mrs. Allen groaned. "They don't mean that."
"They're just kids?" The man spazzed. "The little boy is lookin' down my daughters pants at the age of four and you think that that's okay!?"
The man had a point and Mrs. Allen knew it. She sighed, then placed her hands up.
"I'll settle it."
"No, I want you to talk to his daddy or I will!" The father scowled. "That's sexual harassment against my little girl and I will NOT have it! At all!"
Mrs. Allen kept on putting it off, but now she knew that she had to speak with Isaiah. Kayson's behavior was getting out of hand. Kayson on the other hand, thought that something might be wrong with him. He sat in the sandbox, drawing with the stick in his hand.
"Das bold...." Kayson said in a shaky tone, trying not to cry.
Meanwhile, Isaiah was lying down on the couch, watching sports as always. As he flipped through the channels, the home phone to his house rang out. It was Aunt Shay.
"Hello?" Isaiah answered.
"It's horrible, Isaiah!" Aunt Shay wailed out. "It's horrible! It's so horrible!"
"Woah woah woah, ma. Calm down!" Isaiah chanted. "What happen?"
"Noah died last night in the hospital!"
Isaiah's eyes widened as he lifted up on the couch, creaking his mouth opened.
"How do you know?" Isaiah plead.
"Because he didn't find a donor!"
Suddenly, Isaiah jerked out of his sleep. It was sweat all over his face. He started panting heavily, looking around the room. He had a horrible dream. Just to make sure, Isaiah frantically dialed Noah's hospital number.
"Hello?" Noah answered.
Isaiah didn't say anything. He hung up the phone, lying back down onto the bed.
"Whew.." Isaiah sighed. "Jesus......"
"Ahem."
Tyler stood at the door next to Kayson, giving him an agitated look.
"You forgot to pick up Kays, Isaiah." Tyler growled, plopping back into bed. "I had to drive down to the school with this horrible nausea from the baby."
"I'm so sorry, Kays." Isaiah sighed, covering his face. "Do you uh....do you have any homework?"
"I gotta color da dots." Kayson sighed.
"Well go do that and I'll come check on you in a sec."
"K."
As Kayson scurried off into his room, Isaiah leaned forward in the bed and covered his face.
"I gotta go work at da soup kitchen today, anyway." Isaiah groaned. "Let me get up."
"Babe, is everything alright?" Tyler asked.
"Yeah?" Isaiah lied. "Why?"
"It just seems like something is eating away at you."
And in fact, it was. Every other night, Isaiah had dreams about the people he murdered. One dream he was having that was resting on his guilt, was that he denied to be Noah's donor. Isaiah glanced at Tyler, then looked away.
"It's a lot of shit eatin' away at me." Isaiah groaned.
"Tell me, Isaiah." Tyler said. "You know I'm always down to listen."
Isaiah paused for awhile, then spoke again.
"You know how you were talking about Roman the other day?" Isaiah asked.
Tyler nodded, rubbing his head.
"Yes."
"I.........I killed him." Isaiah groaned. "He never went out of town like I said."
Tyler's eyes widened as she let go of his head, not believing what he said.
"W-wha......?" Tyler gasped.
Isaiah clenched his jaw, not giving Tyler any eye contact.
"What happened?" Tyler gasped again.
Isaiah glanced up at her as she started to rub his back.
"I found out that he was the son of the cop who used to always be on my trail, so me and Carlos kidnapped him, brought him to a wooded area, and shot him back when you was stayin' wit him almost 4 years ago." Isaiah said. "We buried him right in the hole we dug for him. The cop still lookin' into his disappearance."
Tyler's heart started to race just thinking about how dangerous Isaiah used to be back then. Isaiah placed his hand on top of Tyler's, still not giving her any eye contact.
"As corny as this shit sounds, I really killed him because I thought he was a threat towards you." Isaiah said in a serious tone.
"Why?"
"Because I ain't want him takin' you from me since he had fancier shit." Isaiah sighed. "I thought that's what he was gonna do so.....I had to take him out........."
"Isaiah, you ain't have to do that." Tyler sighed. "That was a good man you murdered."
"I know." Isaiah sighed. "I'd do it again if it meant that he couldn't have you, though....."
Tyler gave Isaiah a hug, comforting him. But after Isaiah said what he just said, she was starting to get that gut feeling that he was still dangerous inside.
"Love you, Isaiah." Tyler sighed, rubbing his back.
"Love you too, Ty."
But deep down, Tyler was afraid of who else he would hurt if he got too jealous.
Meanwhile, Noah was still in the hospital. After finding out the news about how his cancer spread, he didn't do anything for the rest of the day but lay there. He didn't eat any breakfast or lunch. Why? Because he didn't have an appetite. Who would after the shit he just found out? Anyway, Noah took another ultrasound to make sure that the cancer didn't spread to far. Noah waited 10 minutes in his room, when Tracy walked in with tears in her eyes.
Noah knew that the news gotten worse.
"Noah......"
"Just give it to me straight, Trace." Noah sniffed, crying already. "I'm ready."
Tracy shook her head, giving him a hurt look.
"The cancer has spread too far into your bone marrow." Tracy sniffed. "It's too late."
Noah's heart dropped. The news that he was waiting for had finally arrived. The cancer spread too far.
"And it usually takes more than a week to find a bone marrow transplant, so unless you can find one in the next 48 hours, the cancer has already done the damage." Tracy sniffed.
Noah glanced down at his shaking hands, taking a deep breath.
"How long before I pass away?" Noah asked.
"2 months."
Noah knew that Isaiah wasn't going to help him after everything that was going on between the two, so with nowhere else to turn, Noah cracked a small smile as tears ran down his eyes.
"If that's the case, I want to be let out of the hospital." Noah sniffed. "Wether it's healthy or not."
"Why?"
"Because I want to spend my last moments with my family." Noah said, wiping his eyes. "If I'm gonna go out, i'm gonna go out like a man."
The only person who could help Noah, was Isaiah himself. If he didn't within the next two days, Noah was dying for sure.
He needed his brother more than ever.