When Aaliyah left Dre, she when to Keyanna's house. She knocked on the door and DaQuan answered.
"Hey, how is the soon-to-be groom?", Aaliyah asked.
"I'm doing good Aaliyah. I was just heading out", he said sounding a little nervous.
Aaliyah makes a face. "Why are you acting like that?", she asked.
"Like what?", he asked as he walked out of the house. "I'm good"
Aaliyah rolled her eyes and shook her head "whatever", she said.
Aaliyah walked into the house and she saw Keyanna and her own mother on the couch.
Aaliyah paused. "What the fuck is this Keyanna?", she asked.
Keyanna quickly stood up. "Aaliyah listen", she said as she walked to her. "She just wants to talk to you"
"Honey. I'm- I'm clean now", Aaliyah's mom said.
Aaliyah walks past Keyanna and to her mom. "I don't care, mom. I don't! You shouldn't have gotten the way you did! You had a child! You had me!"
"Aaliyah I was going through a rough time at the time", Aaliyah's mom said.
"Rough times or not you don't leave a 10-year-old girl to fend for herself while you're never home", Aaliyah said.
"You had Keyanna's mom", she said.
"Okay and what about mine!?", Aaliyah asked. "Do you know what I had to do to get by? The type of person you made me become?"
Her mom sighed. "Honey I'm sorry", she said.
"I haven't seen you in 8 years", Aaliyah said. "What makes you think that because you're clean and you wanna come and talk to me now makes what you did in the past any better?? I hate so much hate for you that it's too much to even express it"
Her mom was quiet.
Aaliyah looks at Keyanna. "You got the nerve to even think I would wanna see her", Aaliyah said.
"Liyah, I'm sorry it's just that-", Keyanna began to say.
"It's just that nothing", Aaliyah said before she walked out.
Keyanna looked at Aaliyah mom. "She'll come around", Keyanna said.
"I don't think that she will", she said looking down.
Keyanna looked down.
——————————————————————
Aaliyah got into the car and cried. As she calmed herself down and wiped her tears she picked up her phone and called Dre.
"Hello", he answered.
"Hey, I could really use that hit right about now", she said.
"Oh you need some gas?", he asked.
"Pretty much", she said.
"Come on", he said.
———————————————-
Dre gave Aaliyah the weed and she gave him the money.
"Nah you can keep this. Just another thank you for what you did the other night", he said.
"Nah. Just like I need my money, you need yours too", she said as she sat down to roll her blunt.
"You know what you doing?", he asked.
Aaliyah rolled her eyes and ignored him.
Dre felt the tension between them. "...you good?", he asked.
"Hell no but that doesn't matter. We ain't here to get personal", she said.
Dre didn't say anything.
"I ain't gone finish this myself so you wanna smoke with me?", she asked.
"Iight", he said as he sat next to her.
"I'm surprised yo homebody ain't hanging around", she said.
They don't be over here all the time", he said.
Aaliyah nods as she lights the blunt and smokes it then passes it to Dre.
"Why you be here by yourself then?", she asked.
"We ain't here to get personal baby", he said as he smoked the blunt.
Aaliyah smirked and snatched the blunt out of his hand and smoked it. "Don't hog up the blunt", she said.
Dre chuckled. "You something else", he said.
They sat there and smoked and talked for about 10 minutes and it ended up being silent. Aaliyah finally said something again.
"You wanna know why I'm pissed?", she asked.
"Why?", he asked.
"I usually only talk to my best friend about shit that goes on with me but I can't because she's the one I'm pissed at", she said as she passed Dre the blunt. "So.. my mama she wasn't the best mom. She was rarely home and eventually, it turned into her being never home. She was on drugs and was in a bad relationship with this guy, this guy ain't want kids around and well I was a kid so she left and went with him. I saw her every now and then but once I was 15 I started doing things... things that got me by but I did", she said. "am I proud of it? No. Do I regret it? No. Because at the end of the day it put money in my pocket and food in my mouth"
"What did you do?", he asked.
"That's the past", she said.
"So what does your mom gotta do with your friend?", he asked.
"My best friend thought shit would be cool to bring my mom to her house so we can have some fucking family reunion", she said. "I have seen that woman in like 8 years, she's dead to me"
Dre sat up and was quiet.
"I hate that woman with a passion", she said.
"Hey, you can have a rocky relationship with your mom but once she's gone she's gone", Dre said.
"She's been gone for 8 fucking years. Are you listening to me?", she asked.
"I'm talking about dead", he said.
"She can rot in the grave for all I care", Aaliyah said.
"You say that now but when the time comes you gone wish you would've buried the hatchet", he said.
"You don't know me", Aaliyah said.
"I ain't gotta know. But I've been in your shoes before. I mean I ain't wish death on my mama but our relationship wasn't good. She ain't like what I do, she thought that I was gonna be this doctor or lawyer or something but that book smarts shit ain't me. I'm made for the streets and that's what I know", he said. "I got kicked out of the house at 15 for dealing on the porch. This porch.", he said as he chuckled. "She caught me one day and gave me another chance then but I did it again and she kicked me out. Told me I wasn't gonna be shit, either in a grave or in a cell. I mean I was in a cell a few times but that's beside the point. We stopped talking to each other for like two years. She called me a few times one night but I ain't never answered. Turns out somebody came and robbed the house and shot her in the head right there in the kitchen" he said as he pointed. "In front of the fridge... no matter how mad I was for her kicking me out and how stubborn I was about it...I'd do anything to hear her voice again", he said.
Aaliyah was quiet. She couldn't believe he just opened up to her. Since meeting him, he was always so standoffish.
"You asked me why I come here, why I don't be at my own house.. this place reminds me of her. Where I grew up. The only way I feel like she's still with me", he said.
"...I'm sorry for your loss...but I don't think that's the same situation", she said.
"It doesn't have to be the same story for it to have the same ending. People fuck up, you know that. But that doesn't mean you can't forgive them, especially your own mom", he said.
Aaliyah shakes her head. "When somebody shows you disloyalty what do you do?? End them right?"
Dre nods. "That's understandable", he said as he sat back. "But you'll see but these muthafucka out here in these streets ain't the same as yo own blood"
Aaliyah passed him the blunt.
"Yea the difference is, the streets raised me. Not my mom", she said.
Dre looked at her.
Aaliyah looked at him.
"I guess we both two damaged muthafuckas then", he said.
Aaliyah laughed, "hell nah only I get to call myself that", she said.
Dre chuckled a little as he looked at her
Aaliyah got on her phone because she got a text from Keyanna.
Dre was still staring at her.
"You know that's rude right?", she said without looking at him.
"What?", he asked.
Aaliyah looked at him. "Staring is rude", she said.
Dre didn't say anything. "Mean if you knew why I was starring then maybe you'd know it's not rude"
Aaliyah made a face and looked back at her phone and started texting. "So why you doing it", she asked.
"Because I want you", he said.
Aaliyah paused.
"Want you as in what we did earlier", he said.
Aaliyah looked at him and smirked. "Damn you miss it already?", she asked.
Dre bites his bottom lip and sits back. "Can't say you ain't miss what I got", he said.
Aaliyah looked at him for a moment. "I guess.. maybe it'll get my mind off of things", she said as she sat on top of him and took his shirt off. "And only because I want to get my mind off of things, this is the last time, this time"
"Iight", he said with a smirk as he took her shirt off.
Dre began kissing her body as he unhooked her bra.
Aaliyah bit her lip as she watched him suck on her nipples and she began to moan.
Dre laid her on the couch and unzipped his pants and Aaliyah took off her leggings.
While in the process of having sex they made it to the bed. After they were done, they laid there.
Aaliyah stared at the ceiling thinking about how good it was for the second time in a row. She also thought about how he actually listened to her and how he actually tried to help. She didn't like his advice but he tried and she never had a guy do that, especially a hood dude like him.
"Aaliyah", Dre said as the tone of his voice made her jump.
"What?", she asked.
"I said your name like two times", he said.
"Sorry. What do you want?", she asked.
"You hungry?", he asked.
"If I was", she said as she sat at the edge of the bed. "I know how to go and buy my own food"
Dre watched her.
Aaliyah got up and started getting dressed.
Dre continued to watch her as she did. "You know... you ain't gotta be so mean to people right?", he asked.
Aaliyah didn't say anything she just continued to get her clothes on.
"Just lucky for you I find it sexy", he said.
Aaliyah smiled a little as she walked to the door. "See you tomorrow", she said.
"See you", he said.
Aaliyah left and Dre laid back and began to think. Then he sat back up and got out the bed and put his clothes on. He walked out of the room and tried to get what he was thinking off his mind.
Suddenly, he was hallucinating. He saw his mom.
Dre shook his head. "Damn I gotta stop smoking ", he said.
"What? Dre likes somebody?", she said.
Dre shakes his head. "I don't like these girls out here. I don't do relationships and she doesn't either", he said.
"Mmm... I know my son and my son looks at this girl a way I never saw him look at one before", she said.
Dre rubbed his hand down his face as he closed his eyes and once he opened them she was gone. Dre walked out of the house and locked the door.
"I'm just attracted to her that's it", he said to himself as he got in the car and drove home.