Lessons || Chapter 16

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Author's Note: I've casted Sade as Yvonne. Also, italics for this chapter signify the past. Feedback is appreciated.

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LESLIE

Another stuffy motel room. The states we visited just blurred together now. Airplanes. Trains. Rental cars. Vonnie never even allowed me to offer paying. She'd been that generous for years. She perched onto a loveseat across from me like a cheetah almost pouncing. A hand of her own jumbled that mane of curls. Bags lived below her usually determined eyes at this hour.

"How long this time?" I asked with a monotone.

"Probably two days if you're not exhausted." Vonnie sighed at this point. I completely understood and rested on the edge of my messy bed at the side of her own. Neither of us bothered to unpack, but I'd called Mommy throughout the trips. With Yvonne by my side, her nerves calmed down, but not too much.

"Where next?" I placed my hand into Potato chips for the umpteenth time. I'd do anything to stay safe and secure. Even if I'd never see Darryl again. Part of me even regretted prompting relationship with anyone now. Calvin always discovered shortcuts with anything.

An oddly warm smile crept onto her face when Vonnie looked in my direction. A dead silence captured this room. I didn't know what to think, but allowed myself laugh for the first time since running away. She'd been quite oddball at times, too. Obviously not stereotypical attorney behavior.

"California. My loft." she winked. "He's never left the east coast and we're overdue for some sunshine anyway. I miss my palm trees."

I squealed and jumped up to embrace her. We giggled like two little girls on playground and I honestly couldn't wait any longer. Calvin and I both graduated from the same college before everything moved downhill.

I'd never forget that real graduation day. After we both received our diplomas, Calvin scooped me up into his arms and spun me around as if I were the lightest object. My cap fell onto the ground, but I could've cared less at this wonderful moment.

As soon as my feet planted, I dusted off the gown before picking up my hat. With the hat placed between my fingers, I looked up find Calvin's handsome smile. For once, I didn't see the Ganja. For once, no beer troubled his otherwise gifted view of the world around him. His face warmed my heart and we had been the only people left in this world.

Now, I sat of a cheapskate bed. Its lumpy mattress encouraged backpain underneath. My eyes lowered to stare down at the sweatpants I'd worn since yesterday. Despite Yvonne moving in my direction, I couldn't face her at this moment.

I'd lost my best friend to the animals of mental illness and rage. No rational person could believe that death and murder would be the answer solving problems. If anything, Calvin lost me after the first smoke. I'd begged and pleaded with him in high school. He'd stop for weeks, only resuming at the most stressful times.

By senior year of high school, I'd already given up. But he realized nothing. I cut myself off from entirely that year. I'd never felt so liberated. My GPA skyrocketed there as well and scholarships poured in before I could even blink. As expected, I'd slaved over college applications and it all narrowed with those choices: East coast journalism minor or this amazing West coast music internship.

Realistically, I'd selected up north in the end. I wasn't exactly ready to leave Mom and Dad yet and music wasn't truly a dream I wished to chase. Even Calvin felt overjoyed. Despite remaining home for college, I'd traveled abroad quite often and immersed myself with French culture. Returning that summer left my family with a giggle or two when I tried and failed to speak with Calvin. He'd learned the language, but never reached my level of my fluency.

And then, the cookout.

"Leslie?" Yvonne patted my shoulder as she sat down at the side of me on this bed. There was only silence before I said anything.

"Yeah?" I'd finally snapped of my nostalgia and turned to face the woman who had been saving my life. Her mane of curls dropped around once more. I faked the best smile and scooted away to give more room on the small space between us.

"Are you ready for California?" my partial lawyer and good friend never realized the pain I'd hidden right now. Good.

"Yes." I nodded.

But my heart still coursed with fear.

**

THE KID

The monster fled. How did this even take place? Calvin now plastered every newsflash, but no one suspected my hideout for whatever reason. Thank God. Still, I'd fired every single suspect bodyguard on the premises after reviewing each crumb of this place with my appointed specialists.

Obviously, I never trusted cops anymore. Especially the cracker who grilled Leslie at the precinct. He'd arrested Calvin alongside this crooked black man of all people. I'd never realized that one of our own could be so damn cold. What even happened to brotherly love?

All kinds of press conferences and observations littered the television I'd barely watched now as my boots paced back and forth in the office. Heaving in that usual panic, I looked up find Denise standing in the doorway. Across the way, she folded both arms and I sniffled through frustrated tears. Her frown only deepened my emotional state.

"We found her." Denise whispered throughout the silence. 

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