Kenney: Still Waters Part 2

Chapter 66

I woke up and Wallace was standing over me. I almost jumped out of my skin and pulled the needles out of my arms trying to get away from him.

"What tha fuck, man?" My eyes were huge and I was staring at him. My heart was about to pop out of my chest. The machine started beeping out of control.

"Sorry." He put a hand on my shoulder to calm me. "Sorry." He gazed at me directly and didn't even trip on me cussing at him.

Wallace didn't really trip on most things as far as I could tell. I watched him a lot while I was in the hospital, and the more I watched him, the more I found myself doing little things like him. Like trying to stay calm and not be so stressed all the time.

Getting shot was helping a lot with that, too, I'm not even gonna lie.

"Wallace." I said his name like it was its own sentence. Everyone else called him Wally or Wally B, but not me. I said his full name.

Every time.

He was aight, but he also had full access to mama and my sisters, so I wanted him to be clear that we weren't that cool.

"Your aunt's here." He nodded over to the chair by the door, where Jazz always sat. She never went too far into small rooms. She didn't like to feel blocked in.

"You alright?" He still had his hand on my shoulder. I looked down at it. He moved it.

"Yeah. Thanks...thanks for bringing her."

He dropped the bag that was slung over his shoulder onto the floor.

"Want me to stay?"

"Nah. We're good."

He looked over at Jazz, and then back at me. Then he leaned in closer and asked me again.

"You sure?" I hated being asked the same thing twice, and I'm sure my face told him so because he backed up and nodded. "Aight then. Call me if you need me."

Then he looked over at Jazz and back at me one more time. I could tell he didn't think it was a good idea to leave her there. I wasn't exactly sure why. They were all acting really weird about my aunt for some reason. That's why I needed to get her alone to find out what was going on.

Eventually, he left. I watched him walk out of the door, and then I watched Jazz. I observed her. She was fidgety and kept looking from the hospital room door to the bathroom door. She looked haunted. And afraid. Terrified, actually. Even when she looked at me. Like she was just waiting for me to jump up and choke the shit out of her, even though she knew damn well I couldn't get up out of that bed, even if I wanted to. Forget about the fact that it was me. She knew I would never put my hands on her like that.

She looked pale. And sick.

"Jazz." She jumped at the sound of my voice. I hated to see her so scared all the time. It made me want to kill someone. Anyone. I didn't give a fuck who. I just wanted to hurt people every damn time I saw her that way. "Are you high right now?"

She stared at me with wide eyes. Her voice was barely a whisper, like she was afraid to speak.

"No."

"When was the last time you got high?"

"A few days ago." That explained why she was sweating so bad.