CORINNE HAD FINALLY MADE her return to school from the long nearly two-week-long teacher strike. "What y'all talking bout?" She asks, sitting on Paris' lap in Spanish.
"Who going to hell for real and who not." Meech answers.
"I hope you know yo nigga going straight to hell. No purgatory. Straight to hell." Five says.
"No, he not. He a sweetheart." Corinne couldn't help but defend him, even though she had her doubts. He was the sweetest person to her. "That nigga like the Devil. He been shooting niggas and shit over you."
"No, he didn't." Corinne shakes her head.
"How the hell you forget he shot yo first boyfriend?" Meech asks. They didn't know that she didn't know about that situation. "When he do that?" She questions.
"When he do what?" Five immediately starts playing the nut roll.
"Now y'all gotta tell me." She sits up.
"Tell her or I'mma tell yo momma you cheated on me again and that's why we broke up for good this time," Paris tells Meech. They lied and claimed they broke up because they grew apart.
"I don't know. Like the end of September." Meech shrugs.
"Man, it's something with him every month." Five shakes his head. "I know right. September, it was Milo. October, it's the Feds." Paris agrees making Corinne stop her fingers from typing on her phone's keyboard.
"The Feds?" Corinne asks. "Yeah, cause of that-" Five starts making Meech hit him. "No, let him talk." She says.
"Let D tell you," Meech tells her. "No, Keenan finna tell me. Right now."
"I can't tell you. I'm sorry." Five shakes his head.
"Paris..." Corinne starts.
"You tell her and I'mma send yo momma yo nudes." Meech threatens her. "Wow...so y'all not gone tell me?" She asks, taking Paris' arms from around her waist. "I would but-" Five starts.
"Ain't no buts. Remember that." She says, standing up while grabbing her bookbag and purse. "Where are you going?" Meech asks.
"Away from y'all." She says.
"You so dramatic." He shakes his head as she walks away.
"I don't care." She says moving to sit with Korinne and her friend Terrell.
$ $ $
After school, Corinne avoided going to her locker entirely because she knew she couldn't ignore her friends for long. She couldn't hold a grudge to save her life. Corinne went to her salon suite about two hours earlier than her first lash appointment to set up so she could spend her free time doing her homework. She was using it as a distraction to keep herself from going crazy.
She was mad and worried at the same time. Corinne didn't know the person she was giving her body and all her time to and worried because regardless of all that, she still had so much love for him.
She finished the majority of her homework before the first of her three clients came. All of her clients were quiet. They didn't talk much so her mind couldn't help but race with theories and possibilities.
After she left the salon, she went to Demon's. She told her mother that she was staying at the salon until nine when she was only staying until six.
"I gotta talk to you." She says as soon as she walks in, immediately smelling the weed and alcohol on him as he hugs her.
"Yeah, hold up." He nods before going back to his call. "No...now." She deadpans, spotting a bottle of D'usse on the island. "When I get off the phone." He tells her.
"D," She says, snatching the phone making him roll his eyes. "What the fuck, g?" He asks.
"You got some to tell me?" She sits down on a barstool while locking the phone.
"No." He answers emotionless. "So you wasn't gone tell me you shot Milo?" She asks. "That don't matter. Give me my phone back." He says with his hand out.
"It does matter. If it ain't matter, why you keep it a secret?" She crosses her arms after swatting his hand away. "Cause I don't gotta tell you everything." He puts his hand back out for the phone. "So you wasn't gone tell me what the Feds want with you either?" She mentions.
"I don't gotta tell you everything. You, not my girlfriend, we just fucking." He tells her.
"But you claim you love me?"
"I said what you wanted to hear. You the one that got feelings involved. Not me." He shrugs.
"You a fucking lie." She says. She truly believed that he was just talking out his ass but at the same time, he didn't say shit he didn't mean often. "When I say you was my girl? Ion do that relationship shit. I wanted to fuck and you let me." He tells her.
"Okay, Adonis." She nods, feeling her throat swell. "Wait...I ain't mean that." He says, realizing he went too far trying to push her away. He was used to talking to women in any type of way and not being phased by their hurt.
"But you said it." Corinne was so confused because she knew that this wasn't him but at the same time, her morals wasn't going to allow her to just take it.
"I promise you I ain't mean it." He tells her. "Even if you didn't mean it, you said it to hurt me." She says, still walking towards the door. "Baby, just let me tell you everything. Come on." He grabs her hand.
"I'm not your girlfriend, remember? You ain't gotta explain yourself to me." She asks with her voice breaking.
"I ain't mean it. I'm just-" He starts apologizing. "You said it. What happened to you always standing on yo word?" She tells him. "I do love you. If I didn't, I wouldn't have-"
"Now you just saying what I wanna hear again, right?" Corinne asks as tears fall. "Please don't cry. I don't want you crying cause of me." He says, trying to hug her. When he fails, he grabs her hand.
"Just let me go." She says, wiping away her tears with her free hand. "Can we talk about this?" He asks.
"You said what you had to say and I heard you. It's nothing to talk about."
"I ain't mean the shit I said. It was an important call and you hung up. I was irritated." He tells her again. "A phone call don't make nobody mad enough to say what you just said to me." She says.
"I love you so much. I love you so much, Cece. Please just let me fix it." His voice breaks making her look at the ground. "Let me leave, please." She requests, feeling her heart grow heavy.
"I'll tell you everything. I promise. Just don't leave me. I promise I'm not gone keep any more secrets from you. Just don't give up on me." He starts begging, dropping to his knees.
"I love you. I promise I won't fuck up again. Just don't leave me. I'mma tell you everything." He cries with his head resting against her stomach. She wipes away the tears that were continuously streaming down her face.
"Can you please let me go?"
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a/n: i appreciate y'all voting, commenting, and adding this story to your reading lists so here y'all go 🤍