With Pain Comes Pleasure

Twelve

Angelica

Morning came too soon and I found myself lying in my bed staring at the growing sunlight. I had woken up almost an hour and a half earlier than my alarm.

I heard footsteps coming down the hall and as they grew closer to my door I closed my eyes slowing my breathing. I heard my door open before I could hear footsteps enter my room. I could feel whoever it was standing next to my bed but that's all I could tell.

It was quiet until I heard their retreating footsteps and my door close once again. I peeked my eyes opened and sitting on my nightstand was several hundred dollar bills. My eyes widened in surprise. "What the hell?" I whispered. A small note sat under it.

We're sorry.
-R & J

I sighed before rolling over turning my tv on low waiting for my alarm to go off.

~~

I walked downstairs fully dressed and ready to get my day started. I looked over into the kitchen seeing everyone eating breakfast. They fell quiet as their eyes fell on me. I walked over standing in the archway. "We'll don't you look nice." Lala said. I looked down at my outfit.

"Are you 3 ready?" I asked Kassi, Lala, and Maya.

They nodded their heads and one by one they stood going to grab their things leaving just me and my brothers. I turned to head out to my car when James stopped me. "Angie come on." He said.

"What?" I asked.

"We're sorry, okay?" James said sincerely. I nodded my head. "I know, I got your note," I told them. "So that's it?" Ricky asked. "What do you want me to say?" I questioned. James sighed. "Say you forgive us." James said. "Look I'm still very upset with both of you." I said.

"You have to understand—," "I do. I get it but—," I sighed. "It doesn't change the fact that I'm still mad, okay." I said. They glanced at each other before looking at me. "Okay—okay," Ricky said. I nodded my head turning to leave but stopped to walk over and hug them both. "See you later, stay safe." I mumbled to them before leaving.

I sat in my car for a couple minutes until Lala, Maya, and Kassi came out. They climbed in before we were off. I was heading to Maya's school with nothing but the music playing to fill the silence. "So are we just not going to talk about last night?" Maya asked. "Maya." Kassi chided. "What!" She said.

I chuckled as they bickered back and forth. "Everything's fine." I said drawing their attention. They looked at me stunned. "Thing 1 and 2 literally almost fought your boyfriends on the front lawn but everything's fine?" Maya questioned. "I gotta agree with Maya." Lala said. "Me too. Did you see Christian and Cortez's faces? They looked so hurt." Kassi said.

I did see their faces. It was part of the reason I couldn't sleep last night and why I was up so early. "Well obviously everything isn't fine but you get my point." I said.

"If I had brothers that acted the way those two did, they'd have to hear my mouth. I don't give a fuck." Lala said. "Well Ricky and James are just protective after everything that happened." Kassi said looking over at me.

"What did happen? Because the way your brothers went on they made it seem like—," "We don't really talk about that time." Maya whispered. I glanced back at them in the rear view mirror. "Oh—I see." Lala said nodding her head.

"Let's just say I was far from the ray of sunshine you know today. I'm better now but my brothers saw me at my absolute worse and it hit them harder than they led me to believe. And they can't seem to get past it even though it was years ago." I explained as we pulled into Maya's school's parking lot.