Raw & True

o06.

Chapter Six

(Elijah Pierre)

 Sunday, April 23rd 2017

"You look nice?" I smiled over at Marley as she hopped in the passenger side of my truck.

"Thanks."

Is she blushing? I chuckled a little and shook it off. She put her seatbelt on and began to give me directions to the rehab center her brother was in.

"Where's Bella?" she asked while getting comfortable in her seat.

"She's with my mom. Where's your two at?" I joked, causing her to laugh a little.

"Micah had a few friends over...they were in there playing 2k when I left and Miracle is at dance practice." She smiled.

After riding in silence for a while, I could tell Marley was in her thoughts. She looked bothered, to say the least.

"You good?" I asked her after stopping at a red light.

"Umm...yeah, I'm fine. Just had a little bit of a headache when I got up this morning. I actually slept pretty good though, so a headache was the last thing I expected to wake up to." She shrugged.

"You need to relax a little." I laughed while glancing over at her.

"You know you're probably right. I went to sleep in my thoughts. I woke up in my thoughts, wracking my brain about nothing really." She let out an audible sigh.

"Hopefully, our outing today makes you feel a little better." I smirked while pulling into the rehab's parking garage.

I knew for a fact that we'd have fun tonight...well, today. It was only 2:30 and I didn't have anything planned for the daytime because before finding out about this meeting with her brother, I had planned on picking her up around 7 for dinner and maybe a movie afterwards. Nothing too extra; I just seriously wanted to thank her for being there for me and baby girl this past week. I really wouldn't have found Natalie if it wasn't for this woman and I needed her to know that I really appreciated her.

I had asked Moriah yesterday about some of the shit Marley liked to do for fun and I found out she loves mini golf and arcades. I had a few things up my sleeve to get her to have some fun and loosen up a bit. She needed to let her hair down and hopefully, I'd be able to get her to have some fun the way she did last night at karaoke.

"You nervous?" she asked while hopping out of the truck as I held the door open for her.

"Nah...I mean, your family seems cool. I didn't expect to hit it off with Moriah yesterday but I did. I'm keeping an open mind."

"He's going to love you," she told me, sending a squeeze to my shoulder.

After signing in, we headed to Micah's room on the fourth floor of the building. There was a guy inside talking to him when we entered the room. Once Micah noticed me and Marley at the door, a wide smile spread across his face, causing the guy to turn around in our direction.

"Oh, h-hi Marley. I didn't know you were coming today. We were about to start a session but I can come back later," he said, reaching out to shake her hand.

"It's okay Brandon, Micah knew." She sent him a polite smile while looking back at me. "This is Micah's counselor, Brandon York. Brandon, this is my friend Elijah."

After introducing us, we shook hands and said our own hellos before he turned to her again.

"Alright well, I'll get going. It was nice seeing you again Marley." He smiled at her before walking out of the room, leaving me with a screwface that only Micah caught.