Dricki: Please Return My Call

Chapter One

"Oh my God." Nicki looked at the entrance of the store as the bell charmed, announcing a new customer.

Only twenty, she carried the bundle of her sleeping two year old baby in her arms.

She went the opposite direction, up another aisle and then out of the door, praying that he hadn't seen her.

The winter wind whipped her face as she got into the Camry after putting her baby in her car-seat.

She was every bit of her father. That's why she named her Audrey, but called her Aubbie. She looked exactly like him. She had his smile, Nicki's dimples, his ears, his eyes along with his always changing eye color, his butter colored skin, and his curly black hair.

Aubbie had just turned two a week ago and Nicki was at the mall, trying to find something for her when she spotted a pair of heels in Louis Vuitton that she wanted but knew she couldn't afford.

Twenty-one year old Aubrey at the time had found out that she was pregnant and left when she was only seventeen and Nicki had the baby girl shorty before her eighteenth birthday ironically on the same day as Aubrey's.

Her mother had cut her off but just recently started talking to her again, but her father loved her no matter what because they had been through so much.

Nicki got to her modest two bedroom apartment that she paid for by working back breaking hours at Red Lobster.

Aubbie was still sleeping so Nicki grabbed the bags along with her baby bag in one arm and carried Aubbie in the other. If a bystander saw her, they'd think she was superwoman the way she walked up the two flights of stairs and fished her keys out of her pocket.

When she opened the door finally, she dropped the bags by the front door and put Aubbie in her bed. Aubbie had her own room decorated in pink but Nicki couldn't bare sleeping without her so she slept with Nicki most of the time.

She turned on her TV and rolled her eyes. Nicki found the remote and clicked the TV off of MTV and turned it to BET and there he was again.

She gave up and turned the TV off.

After she put their bags up, she turned on the heater because the cold New York winter was horrible.

Nicki got in the shower and afterwards she curled up in the bed with Aubbie. She kissed her cheek and cried silently.

As if Aubbie had a sensor, she sleepily opened her eyes.

"Mommy...don't cwy." she placed her cute little hand on Nicki's cheek.

"You hungry Aubbie?"

"Yeth." she smiled a dimpled smile and Nicki did too. She only had her two bottom teeth and two top teeth so she couldn't talk well yet.

Nicki got out of the bed and picked up Aubbie who had on her onesie that was unbuttoned on the bottom because Nicki had just put her on a pull-up.

Nicki went to the kitchen with the patter of Aubbie's feet following behind her and her straightened black hair that Nicki took care of daily was like wind behind her. If people didn't know Nicki was her mother, they'd probably think she was a little Hispanic baby.

"What do you want to eat Aubs?"

"Ceweal."

"Cereal?"

"Yeth."

"Okay...what kind?" Nicki pulled her over to the pantry and showed her the cereal.

Aubbie pointed to the Apple Jacks and Nicki got them down.