*A month later*
Lauren's POV
I walk up to the ice cream truck as Kehlani goes into Aaliyah's school to get her.
"Lemme get a vanilla cone with rainbow sprinkles, cherry dipped cone, and chocolate with chocolate sprinkles"
"Eight dollars"
I hand him the money and hold the cones as best as I can. Kehlani walks out, holding Aaliyah and I hand them their cones.
"Hi mamá!" Aaliyah says
"Hey, you had fun?" I ask
"Yea! We had a pizza party and watched the lion king" She smiles
Her pronunciation has been getting so much better, my lil baby tryna grow up on me.
"It was some type of giveaway or some shit, she got this stuffed nala" Kehlani says
"Mhm, for you"
"Awe Liyah, for me?"
She nods her head and I kiss her cheek.
"You wanna get some more tattoos?" Kehlani asks
"Shit I'm down, I ain't get a new tattoo in three years" I say
I only have two tattoos as of now, a dragonfly on my neck and my grandmothers name on my arm.
"Aight, same place" She says
We get in the car and head to the tattoo shop, the receptionist looks up at us and smiles.
"Wassup Brittany, Daniel in?" I ask
"Yea,I'll let him know you here but bitch, it's been a minute since I saw y'all,what y'all been up to!" She smiles
"Ain't nothing new, this one got a girlfriend" Kehlani says
"I heard, lemme see a pic!" Brittany smiles
I show her a picture of us at Aaliyah's party.
"Oop, okay! I see you, oh my gosh she's gorgeous"
I nod my head and she looks down at Aaliyah.
"You got so big, I haven't seen you in so long"
I sit her on the counter and she latches on to Brittany.
"You just seen her a few months ago" I chuckle
"In a supermarket, that doesn't count" Brittany says
"There's my favorite clients" I hear Daniel yell while walking to the desk
"Best tattoo artist in the world" I smile
"Long time now see" He says while hugging us
"What y'all tryna get?" He asks
"Name tattoo on my arm, I don't care how you do it" I say
"Who's name?" He asks
"Aaliyah's"
"Aight bet, you?" He asks Kehlani
"Some face tat" She says
He nods his head and gestures for us to follow him to the back. He does Kehlani's tattoo first then mine, when he's done with everything I look at it and nod my head approvingly.
"How much is it?" I ask
"On the house" He says
"Nah" Keh says
"For real, it's cool" He says
"Aight, see you around" I say
"Ima hit one of y'all up later for some of that good shit though" He grins
"I gotchu" I laugh
I get Aaliyah and say bye to Brittany, we get in the car and make our way to the park. At a red light my phone vibrates with a message from Mr. Santana.
S Man 🙏🏽👨🏽🕺🏽: Hey MJ I got a surprise for you! Come to the apartment
"That's weird" I mumble
"What is?" Kehlani asks
"This, you know he doesn't text us surprises, I may be reaching but it's true" I say
"Let's go see" She shrugs
I bust a U-turn and get to his apartment within minutes. We walk to the elevator and I look around as we ride up.
"Something doesn't feel right" I say
I remove my gun from my waistband as we exit the elevator and go down to his door. I knock on it and nobody answers, I knock harder and longer and still no answer. I twist the doorknob and notice that it's unlocked.
"Go back to the car with her, now" I whisper to Kehlani
She nods her head and goes out the fire escape. I walk in and look around for him or anybody else.
"Mr. Santana? Where are you?"
I continue calling for him while walking through the living room.
"Come on Elijah where are you?" I sigh
I walk into his bedroom and my chest tightens up when I see him. My heart falls to the pit of my stomach and I struggle to form any thoughts or words. I quickly walk over to him and drop to my knees, grabbing his hand.
"No, no, no" I cry
I shake his body as more tears fall but he still doesn't move.
"Please get up"
I apply pressure to the two gunshot wounds in hopes of still having a chance to save him but by the life drained from his eyes I know it's too late.
I let out a sob and lie my head on his torso.
A/N: Writing sad things make me awkward