Too Far Gone (Urban)

49| Heritage

4 months later...

“Bring out the donuts, fam!”

“I'm not your fam,” Chenelle replied, taking the donuts out of the fryer. She moved the rack of freshly fried donuts to drip dry on the edge of the fryer. Josh rounded the corner with a half hotel fan full of dough, a goofy grin on his face. He nudged Chenelle with his elbow.

“C’mon, babe, don't be like that. I thought you loved donuts,” he responded. He took the dough out of the pan and slapped it on the floured counter. Chenelle submerged another rack of raw donuts into the deep fryer.

“I love eating them, not making them,” she corrected. “Besides, it's getting hot in here.”

“So take off all your clothes.” Chenelle glared at him. Josh shrugged. “You don't know that song? ‘It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes’,” his voice rose in octave to mimic that of a female's, “'I am getting so hot, I'm gonna take my clothes off.’”

Chenelle rolled her eyes and walked off. Disappearing around the corner.

“So… that's a no then?” He called out. When he received no answer, he shook his head and went back to kneading the dough. Chenelle peeled off her burgundy Apollo's cap allowing her scalp to breath. Her roots were beginning to frizz up from her sweating, and for a second, she regretted pressing her hair out flat. However, her hair carried a nice sheen to it since she's been taking better care of it, and she was ready to show off her new length after getting her hair evened out. Her hair had grown from just past her shoulders to the middle of her back.

She decided to try something new and get half the length of her hair temporarily dyed a rich medium brown. Pierce didn't like it at first, but grew to love the way her blonde blended in with the brown, especially when she allowed it to curl amongst itself.

Gat and Pierce begun talking to her more often now. Pierce told her about how Jayden got his girlfriend pregnant, and though the young teen didn't want to take care of the child, Pierce said he had to own up and take responsibility for his actions, something Chenelle knew Pierce wish he had done sooner when Jayden was first born. Gat informed her that nearly all Aisha's old albums went triple platinum since her death, and that though he was happy for her success, he was pissed all this occurred after she was murdered, not before.

Raul opened up about his travels and how he felt he only jumped from city to city in hopes of escaping someone from his past. He didn't exactly explain who it was, but did say he originally came from Spain and ran away when he was just about sixteen years old. How he ended up in the States, Chenelle didn't know, and she didn't question it.

Shaundi was relieved to find out Raul was planning on staying permanently. She even went as far as opening up her feelings towards him. Raul claimed he didn't feel the same way towards her, but maybe with time he could grow to feel for her that way too.

It's been a crazy set of months for Chenelle as well. Her father has been contacting her more frequently, checking up on her to see how she was doing and if she needed anything. If anything, he should be worrying about himself, not her. When he came to visit her just last week to take her out for lunch, he looked like he was on his last leg. He was losing a dramatic amount of weight and was coming down with something more often; it was beginning to worry her.

Chenelle placed the cap back onto her head and returned to the front where Josh was still kneading the dough. “The only good part of that song was the beat,” she finally answered. She took the second rack of donuts out of the fryer and set it aside to dry. “That song's pretty basic.”

“Basic?” Josh reiterated, slamming his fist into the dough. “That song is fucking genius.”

“It's a one hit wonder, Wonder Bread, you'll forget it ever existed in a couple of years.”