"You just gotta trust me baby."
***
Lourdes Brown has been hurt, badly. Instead of fully healing from her trauma, she turns to drowning her sorrows in work and school. She refuses to let herself get hurt again and has made a vow to not entertain th...
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3 Days Later.
"I don't wanna leave," Lourdes whined as she finished packing her things into her suitcase. It was Wednesday and they were getting ready to leave for the airport. She was in her room with Aaliyah, making sure she wasn't leaving anything else. She was sad to leave, she knew things would be extremely different when they landed in Maryland. Her and Rashir had two completely different schedules and they wouldn't see each other every day, so their relationship might be different. She went back to work on Monday and she really wasn't looking forward to that either.
They were landing in Maryland at 11 pm and from the airport and they were all taking Uber's home. Lourdes, Aaliyah, and Nala were sharing an Uber back to their apartment, which was a good 30-minute drive from the airport, the boys were all sharing an Uber back to their house and Gianna was taking one by herself to go back to her house. The next day was Thanksgiving, so everyone had to get up early to drive back home to their families for the day and they wanted to get home as soon as possible so they could get enough sleep.
Lourdes took turns going to Nala and Aaliyah's houses for thanksgiving every year. Her mother had always been too much of a mess to make thanksgiving dinner, so ever since she was younger she would alternate going to one of their houses every year. Nala and Aaliyah's parents both treated her like one of their own, so she never felt out of place at their houses. Their parents didn't really know about what Lourdes had to endure at her house, but they never asked any questions and welcomed her with open arms whenever she showed up at their doorsteps when things got too intense at her house. She slept over at their houses all throughout middle and high school very often, so she was basically like another daughter to them.
This year she was going to Nala's house for the day and she was excited. Nala's family was pretty big—she had three younger brothers, one younger sister, and one older sister. Whenever they hosted thanksgiving, all of Nala's cousins and extended family came to their house and brought dozens of Salvadorian dishes that Lourdes couldn't get enough of. She'd picked up a little bit of Spanish from being around her family over the years, so she was able to hold a conversation with some members of her family that didn't speak English that well.
Lourdes only had two older brothers—Jakari and Mykell. Jakari was 25 and Mykell was 29, so she was the youngest of the three. They didn't talk very often, they only texted on each others birthdays and sometimes holidays. She was never close with them while growing up, so when they moved out as soon as they both turned 18, she didn't hear from them for a while.
"Me neither," Aaliyah sighed, putting down her phone, "We have to go back to classes on Monday,"
"Thank god I did all my work before break, or I'd have like 20 assignments waiting for me when we got home," Lourdes exclaimed while stuffing her makeup bag into her suitcase. So far, she'd packed pretty much everything except for some small things in the bathroom she hadn't gotten to yet. Nala popped into the room to tell them to hurry up since they were leaving in 15 minutes, making Lourdes rush to finish stuffing things into her suitcase.
