Crook | K.th

Crook 4: Memories

/Narrator's POV/

You know that feeling you get after seeing someone you haven't seen nor spoken to in years? That feeling of confusion, maybe even some shock if you were under the impression that something bad had happened to them. For others it was sadness, maybe some overwhelming happiness. But for Liyah it was nothing but pure resentment.

Her mind was boggled even after she left the stage. Hands trembling as she struggled to hold her bag of cash. Heels wobbling as she stepped into the dressing room. Immediately, all eyes fell upon her. She was used to this attention after a show. Usually, she could handle it. But after what she had just seen she wasn't so sure.

"Amazing out there as always." Azzie says, arm snaking around Liyah's back. She smiled big as she walked beside the younger woman, over to the messy vanity Liyah had occupied moments before stepping out on the stage. She hadn't yet realized that Liyah was in some sort of distress.

"Thanks." Liyah said, almost breathlessly. She threw the bag on the vanity, sitting down on the plush stool before putting her head down in her hands. Azura frowned from behind the girl.

"What's bothering you?"

What's bothering you.

Liyah hated questions like those. She wasn't sure why she was so bothered by his presence. She told herself that if she were to ever see him again, she wouldn't say anything. She would just turn and walk away. Simple. Kind of like how he did her years ago. Except, he begged and pleaded for Liyah to understand. But she couldn't. She couldn't understand how a person whole claimed to have loved you so much, could leave so easily.

"Nothing." Liyah raises her head with a forced smile, looking at an unimpressed and unconvinced Azura. The woman raised one of her perfectly arched eyebrows in question, arms crossed over her chest. "Azzie, I'm fine. Seriously." Liyah said. "Just a little headache but nothing a Advil can't fix."

"Mhm." Azura rolled her eyes. She hoped that the girl would come around to talking about what was really troubling her. Then again this was liyah. The master of hiding how she truly felt, no matter how much it ate her alive inside. A true skill of hers.

"Well, lucky for you I have some Advil. Let me go get it for you." Azura said before walking off to her duffle. Liyah licked over her lips and looked down at the bag on her vanity. This was a lot of money. A couple of hundred, she wasn't sure she had touched the thousands. Only because she did one dance and wasn't working the floor tonight. So she expected to make this much for only doing so much. All of the sudden, she thought back to the pile of bills from this morning. And it only made her headache worsen.

"Can you get me a cig too, please?" She called out to Azzura, running her fingers through her curly hair.

A few seconds later Azura returned with a cigarette and two Advil. Liyah swallowed the advice, sipping from the water bottle she had earlier to digest the pills before sparking up her cigarette. Taking the first hit, she stares at her reflection in the mirror as the smoke clouds her face.

"Bobby came in here earlier scanning the place. I suggest you hurry up and get out to that floor."

"I think I should go home." Liyah mumbled, taking another pill from the cigarette. She didn't want to go back on the floor. She could feel his presence. She knew he was still lingering around outside. He needed to leave. She couldn't concentrate knowing that he was in here with her.