Forever

nine.

Tuesday, April 12th 2022
Tampa, Florida

Aurora woke up in the guest room of Ximena's house with Avery asleep on top of her. She had a slight headache from all of the crying she did hours before. She grabbed her phone from the pillow next to her and looked at the time to see that it was still morning at 9:40am. She knew she was going to need more sleep since she had only been asleep maybe 7 hours.

Aurora slowly lifted Avery on the bed next to her as she sat up against the headboard. She looked around the room to see if she could locate her bag for a shower but she couldn't see it anywhere. Just as she was about to get out of the bed, the door opened with Ximena and Travis behind it.

"Goodmorning, Ro." her bestfriend spoke softly. Travis sat at the bottom of the bed while Ximena came to lay next to Avery who was still asleep.

"We got some breakfast for you downstairs when you're ready. We didn't know what you were in the mood for so it's a lot." Travis chuckled, sending her a small smile.

"Thank you. I'm sorry for having to crash here." Aurora said, sending them both apologetic smiles.

"Ro, don't even do that. You don't need to apologize for nothing. You're family, it's what we're supposed to do." Ximena said, not understanding why her friend would even apologize.

"You feelin' okay? You still look tired." Travis asked.

"I feel like shit. I definitely need more sleep. Did you guys put my bag anywhere? I need to shower." she asked them.

Travis stood and walked over to the walk in closet and reached in to grab her black duffel bag filled with her clothes and necessities. He put it on the floor next to her bed before standing at the end of the bed.

"Ave give you a hard time?" Ximena asked, caressing her daughter's cheek.

"Nope. After you left her in here last night, she got right on top of me and went to sleep. That's my baby." she said, smiling as she looked over at the sleeping child.

"We're gonna get her out of here so you can shower. We'll all be downstairs." Ximena said, carefully picking up Avery as to not wake her. They stepped out of the room and shut the door behind him.

Aurora let out a sigh that she was now left alone. She hadn't even had a second to think back on what just happened to her last night. She wanted everything to be a dream.

After gathering everything she'd need for her shower, she stepped into the walk in glass shower and let the water run over her tense body. Her mind jumped back to last night and the fact that she shot somebody started to settle in. It caused sobs to leave her body as she couldn't get the man's face out of her head.

Why would this man be after her? The last time she saw Tedric was at the trial and she made sure she gave him the lashing of a lifetime when she testified against him. She had done nothing to him.

Her cries could be heard by Ximena who had came in to notify her that Darius and her parents had came in. Ximena could only frown as she backed away from the bathroom door and headed back downstairs. She felt so helpless.

Aurora had finally came downstairs after an hour passed to see her family all sitting in the living room, watching reruns of Martin. They turned to see Aurora who they heard sniffling as she stood behind the couch.