CHAPTER EIGHT :
TIFFANY'S POINT OF VIEW
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I wake up to the sound of muffled conversations coming from all around the room. I can hear jahseh's voice faintly in my ear and a few other voices that I cannot recognize. I slowly open my eyes and squint as the light from the window shines brightly into my eyes. My hands immediately start to rub my eyes causing the pain from the brightness to go away.
I open my eyes once again to find miles up against the wall talking on the phone. Lucas is nowhere to be found. Rakim seems to be playing some sort of game on his phone. And Jahseh is limping to his bed from the bathroom I assume.
Jahseh notices I'm awake as he climbs back into bed. "The Queen has finally awoken" he says in a booming voice. Rakim looks up from his game for a second and then continues to play ignoring my presence. "What time is-" before I can finish my sentence rakim yells out "10:12" without looking up from his screen.
"4 hours of sleep? That's good enough I guess" I say to myself getting up to stretch. As I'm stretching jahseh speaks out "so miles told me you need somewhere to stay for a little bit until Isiah is taken care of"
I nod my head "yeah about that" I sit back in the chair and rest my head on my hand "my family's coming to visit and I haven't told my mom about how crazy Isiah has gotten."
Jahseh sits up in his bed and rests his upper body against all the fluffy pillows on the bed. "When are they coming?" He questions.
I see miles from the corner of my eye get off the phone and walk over towards me. He puts his hand over my shoulder as I answer jahseh's question "tonight and I don't know what to do. They have to stay at the house because that's the only place we could all stay but Isiah's there and he's gonna go all crazy and I can't let my mom see that".
Miles shakes his head "damn your in a lot of trouble girl" before I say anything else I realize that Miles is out of bed and not in his hospital bed but instead of wearing the gown they give the patients he's wearing his regular clothes. "Miles how the hell are you already out of recovery?" I ask shocked.
"Talked the nurse out of keeping me in here, and plus I didn't have too much damage done to me so they just decided to let me out early."
"Oh anyways back to what I was saying I'm gonna have to kick Isiah out or maybe talk him into calming down and staying away from drugs for a couple of days."
"Tiff why don't you just tell your family about what's going on your mom will understand it's okay don't be afraid. Just tell her the situation your in and maybe she can even help you out". Jahseh adds
"Yeah I guess anyways I gotta run back to the house and get a few things and I need some actual sleep so imma head back"
Miles stops me from getting up "no you can't go back there"
He force pushes me back down in my seat "why not?" He laughs a little "uh hello Isiah is there and I don't want him hurting you so whatever you have at the house is gonna stay there. You can come with me and sleep at the hotel I booked"
I do wanna stay with Miles because he can keep my safe from Isiah but the real reason I want to go to the house and to check on Isiah even though he's done some bad things I don't want to know that he's struggling over there and I'm not doing anything to help him. "I have to go to the house Miles this is important"
"Then I'm coming with you then." I look back and forth from him to jahseh with a worried look. Rakim is now off the phone and is instead engaging in the conversation. "I don't think it's a good idea for you to come with me he threatened to kill you if you ever came near me again and him seeing you with me is probably gonna make him real mad"
miles laughs awkwardly "Tiffany you should know that I don't take orders from nobody so his punk ass can kill me if he wants but I'm not letting you go to that damn house alone"
"I can come with you guys for backup 'cause I got a glock in my back seat if he trys to lay a finger on one of ya'll." A light laughter fills the room. "I'm obviously gonna stay here and sleep so when you guys are done with whatever your doing call me up and tell me everything. If he gets killed by rakim imma laugh"
Another light laughter fills the room "yeah we'll keep you updated jah" rakim adds getting up or if his seat while sliding his phone in his front pocket. "Alright I'll see you later" Miles says walking over to jahseh to dab him up. I grab my phone and my keys from my sweatpants pocket and then walk over to jahseh to give him a quick hug "Bye jah"
"Bye tiff stay safe baby girl" I nod "I will" rakim waves to jahseh and walks out the door Miles follows behind him and I'm left at the end of the line.
I close the door behind me and follow the two down the hallway to the elevator. "Do you think he's like sober right now? Because he probably fell asleep and whenever he falls asleep and wake up he's fine until he goes back and gets some more from his dealer or wherever he gets it from"
The elevator door opens and we all step inside "he's probably good but that don't change the fact that he has hurt you more than once and sober or not you shouldn't be around him" says rakim. I stare at the elevator doors blankly as they come to a close. We all stay silent throughout the whole elevator ride and on the way out of the hospital. Once we get to the parking lot we all stop and look at each other with confused looks.
"So rakim you can follow me and tiff to the house alright." Rakim nods and walks away towards his car on the right side of the parking lot.
"I think this might be a bad time to say this but I parked in the garage" I turn to miles and see that he has an angry look on his face "oh my god Tiffany you make me so angry sometimes. How come you could've parked in the parking lot like everybody else. He shakes his head and walks around to the side of the building towards the garage.
I follow behind him. As we're walking I think about what I'm even going to say to Isiah when I get there. What is Isiah gonna think of miles returning to Compton, and me knowing about all the little threats he's said to him. All these unanswered questions circle around my head until we reach the garage. The questions fade from my mind and I take lead instead of miles.
I lead him down a couple aisles of cars until we finally reach mines. Just as I'm about to open the drivers seat miles stops me "no let me drive it's okay your tired so you should rest on the way there"
I quickly refuse "no Miles it's okay you just got into a car accident the last thing you need to do right now is drive. And besides it's only like 10 minutes away from here I'll be fine."
"Ok" he responds as he walks around the car to enter the passenger seat.
I start the car just as he gets in and drive out to the parking lot where rakim is waiting. We drive out into the busy street and all I can think about the whole ride is if Isiah really is okay a part of me still loves him and misses the times we use to have as kids when we were so in love but a part of me hates him for being a drug addict and hurting me the way he did.
As we approach the house 10 minutes later my heart starts to pump fast. All the memories of yesterday flash before my eyes. I can still feel his hands griping onto my neck and the shaking of my fingers lifting the button to roll up the window. Miles interrupts my flashback "hey you okay?" He asks softly putting a hand on my shoulder "you don't have to go in there if you don't want to you know that right"
" I know that but I want to" he takes his hand off my shoulder and opens the car door "alright then lets go!" I take the key out of the ignition and walk over to the front door. Rakim exits his car and follows close behind. I can feel my legs starting to tremble. I've never been this nervous and scared to enter my own home before. My legs feel like boulders as I lift them onto the stairs up to the door. I fiddle with my keys once I reach the door and stick it in the key hole and push the door open.
Miles pushes me aside and walks into the house first - giving me protection from Isiah. I hear rakim load his gun behind me. I slowly walk into the house behind miles and walk right to the kitchen. I grab some hot Cheetos in the cabinet to eat I place them on the counter and grab a couple of orange Fantas in the fridge.
"Uhh tiff you might wanna come look at this" Miles says loudly. His voice sounds like he's coming from the living room so I follow it. Rakim follows once again behind me. I see miles staring at something on the floor so I walk next to him to see what he's looking at. And instantly I feel my heart drop from my chest. My hands fly up mouth to cover up the screams that is escaping.
Through my eyes I see Isiah lying on the floor unconscious a needle next to him and foamy saliva oozing out of his mouth.
"Guess I don't need this anymore". Rakim adds placing the gun onto the nearby coffee table.
I can't move anything my body just feels as if it is about to crash onto the ground. Miles wraps is arms around me. I sob into his shirt. "Isiah did some bad things and made some bad choices but I don't think he deserved to die" i say through the tears.
"At least you don't gotta worry about where your parents are gonna stay now" says rakim shrugging. "You need to stop with them comments rakim your not helping". Miles says . "I'm gonna wait outside" rakim says. I hear his footsteps exit the room. "It's okay Tiff your gonna get through this it's okay."
I can hear footsteps approach again "should I call an ambulance or something I mean I know it's kind of useless because he's already dead but you never know" Miles nods his head "no more crying baby girl don't worry about him. After what he's done to you and what he's done to others it's better off that he's gone from the world so that he can't hurt nobody anymore. Isiah overall was a good person and don't think that I don't know that but he was not good for you. The things he did stressed you out and hurt you so now it's better that he's out of your life for good so that he can no longer hurt you."
"Don't worry someone better will come along and I'm gonna be right here with you making sure that he treats you good okay".
"I love you miles" I say hugging him tight, tears still falling down my face "I love you too tiff"