Strength

19

Excuse any mistakes. Nia in the mm.

NYC
Saturday morning

"Black women will always be too loud for a world that never intended on listening to them."

—

     Rayne stirs in her sleep, and attempts to turn over but feels a set of arms engulfed around her. Her eyes immediately flutter open and she looks down at them, recognizing the artwork.

It was Amir.

    She doesn't remember much from the night before but sees that her clothes were still on her body. She silently thanked God.

That would have been catastrophic.

     Rayne sighs softly and attempts to remove his arms. She needed to escape as quickly as possible. However, his grip is firm and she rolls her eyes at the irony.

If only he cared to hold on to me literally.

She lays there, thinking should she just go back to sleep. It felt like old times. But nothing was the same at this point.

That hurt.

      "Amir, let me go." Rayne says loudly enough for him to wake up.

"Nah." Amir says sleepily. "Pretend like everything is all good for at least two more hours and you can go."

     Rayne looks at the clock to see that it's just fifteen minutes past seven in the morning. She contemplates his request and decides to relax against him.

"How did you end up in my bed?" She asks.

     Amir clears his throat before answering. "You asked me. You was drunk but you told me not to leave."

"Why?"

    "I don't kno' w—"

Rayne shakes her head at him, causing him to pause. "No, why'd you have to go and ruin our marriage?"

Amir stays quiet while Rayne waits for an answer. He isn't sure how to answer the question, but knows that he needs to.

"I've come to the conclusion that it wasn't me. I'm not a perfect wife, but I am a damn good one." She says.

"It wasn't you." Amir sighs.

"Well, duh. That's what I just said." Rayne retorts. "Tell me something I don't know."

Amir removes his arms from around her. "This isn't pretending." He says as he sits up.

"I'm not a fake bitch." Rayne sits up as well and looks at him. "And if you run away from this conversation like you've been doing for years, I'm gonna hurt you Amir."

"What you want me to say Ray?" Amir looks at her. "None of what I'ma say is gonna make you feel better."

She nods in agreement. "You may be right, but for once, can we communicate? Lack of communication is why we're here in the first place."