present day - 14

                                    

                                          
"Aaliyah! My girl you got so tall, oh my god!" Her grandmother gushed as Aaliyah, her mom and her brother walked through the door of her grandmother's house. "And Dion! You're getting so handsome-"
                          
"What's your wifi password?" He cuts her off, earning a smack upside the head from their mother. "Ow!" 
                          
"Sorry mom, he doesn't know how to act sometimes," their mom grits her teeth. "But you look lovely," she smiles as she bent down to kiss her mother. 
                          
"Of course I️ do," her grandmother boasts. "Y'all are early but don't worry, the rest of the family is coming soon," her grandmother assures. "In the meanwhile, Elisa come help me in the kitchen baby." 
                          
Aaliyah sat down on the couch and pulls out her phone, mindlessly going through her social media accounts, until she got bored. When that repetitive, she downloaded a game app and started to play. But then the game demanded she pay for more levels so she deleted the app and looked for something else. She texted a couple of friends, and ignored Elijah as long as he could stand it, until he started texting crazy and accused her of cheating on him. She rolled her eyes and got up, taking a video of proof that she was at her grandma's house. She walked around, taking a vertical video until she entered the kitchen, where she stopped when she realized her mom and grandmother were talking in a hushed tone.
                          
"...a friend that looks just like him."
                          
"Don't play with me child...."
                          
"It really was him-"
                          
Aaliyah backed out of the kitchen without a peep. That was a weird conversation. She sent Elijah the video and then walked around the home, curiously looking at the photos on the wall. She sees a cute photo of her mom and her grandmother when she was a baby, she smiles. Everyone always told her she looked like her grandmother when she was young more than her mother so much so now it was a running joke in the family. But it was always the two of them. Aaliyah didn't know what happened to her grandpa, and according to her mom, neither did she either. Her grandmother always refused to talk about it. Must be too painful to talk about, she assumed. 
                          
Soon, a bunch of her family members started pouring in. A couple of her annoying cousins, uncles, aunties, family friends and visitors they've brought along all came for the Christmas feast her grandma and mom prepared for them all. Aaliyah was so grateful her mom let her drink this year at the dinner. She didn't know how much of her crazy ass family she could handle.
                          
After a delicious dinner and plenty of wine, Aaliyah sat alone in the living room while everyone else talked and caught up out in the back porch and dining room, leaving the living room relatively empty save for a couple of kids watching tv and playing on their IPads. She looked through her photo album, somberly looking at pictures of her and Jackson at the beach. 
                          
She lets out a sad sigh. It was going so good. What did she do to deserve someone as horrible as Elijah Besides be naive and stupid? She quickly wipes her left eye, and was about to swipe right when a voice behind her startled her.
                          
"Daniel?" 
                          
She quickly turns around to see a frail old lady in a wheel chair, looking down at her phone intently. "Excuse me?" Aaliyah responds. "I️ don't know a Daniel," she tells her.
                          
The old lady shakes her head in disappointment. "Of course. I'm sorry dear," she apologizes. Aaliyah simply gives her a soft smile. "But why do you seem so sad?" She asks.
                          
"I'm not sad," she quickly denies. "Okay...maybe I️ am," She sheepishly admits. "There's this boy-"
                          
"There always is," the older lady says softly. 
                          
Aaliyah continues. "I️ like him, but...I️ have a boyfriend," she frowns. 
                          
"I️ take it, you don't like him as much as the other boy?" She suggests. Aaliyah shakes her head no. "Then why don't you break up with him?" She curiously asks.