Pawn

Chapter 15

"Damn." I scoffed as I was trying to vacuum. It had went out on me when something got stuck in it. I sat on the floor to try to see if I could pull it out.

"What in the world, I found a hundred dollar bill. Well I'll take this as a payment for me doing all this housework."

I stuffed it in my pocket and returned back to cleaning. Just when I was about to turn the vacuum on, I heard a loud drop come from upstairs.

It didn't take me long to figure out what it could've been. "This man gone end up hurting himself more than he already is." I unplugged the vacuum and headed towards Drennon's room.

When I opened the door, he was sprawled out on the floor. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for ants, what you think I'm doing. I was trying to get to bathroom." Drennon said trying to push himself from off the floor. I just stood there and looked at him.

"How you figured I knew what you was doing? You probably could've been looking for ants. You can't even barely do anything for yourself."

I hate how stubborn he is. He would choose his stubbornness over asking for someone to help him out.

"I got down here on my own, I'll get up on my own."

I nonchalantly shrugged my shoulders. I wasn't going to try and make him ask for help, he wants to be difficult, fine by me.

"Well I'm about to go and finish cleaning, since you got everything covered here." I laughed.

Drennon sucked his teeth and sighed. "Aight, you can help me."

I looked him up and down with my nose twisted. "I can help you? Last time I checked, that is not how you ask someone for help."

"Can. You. Help. Me. Please." I could hear a hint of annoyance still in his voice.

"No. I. Cannot. Ask me like a decent human being and I will. I'm not the one injured." I said leaning on the wall.

It was kind of fun messing with him like that. Not so much as seeing him suffer but making him act like he got some sense for a change.

"Riley, can you help me please?"

He looked at me with pleading eyes. I shook my head as I went over and gently grabbed his arm to wrap around my shoulder.

"You have to make everything so difficult. If you can use your mouth to roll them blunts, use it to communicate." I took my other free hand and wrapped it around his waist to balance him.

"Can you please just help me to the bathroom, if I wanted somebody to nag me, I would call Bakari."

"Keep talking, I'll drop you right here on this floor and leave you." He side eyed me.

He grabbed ahold of the door handle and slowly walked in the bathroom. I still had my arm around his waist just in case his lost his balance.

"I got it from here." I backed up and let him close the door.

I heard the toilet flushing indicating he was done, then the bathroom door opened and I saw him holding onto the wall and door handle.

Once again, I wrapped his arm around my shoulder and walked him back over to the bed. He paced his self before bending down.

"Shit, he fucked me up real good this time. I ain't never been this sore before."

"Well he did cut you from your upper shoulder to your stomach. Something as intense as that will cause severe pain."

"How you know so much about the body and how it works?"

"While I was in college I was taking classes to be a nurse and when I would come home, I would read for hours on how the body functions and it's mannerisms."

"You went to college?" Drennon asked curiously.

"Yes that was until I had to drop out cause my father spent my college savings on gambling."

"That's fucked up."

"That's life." I said shrugging my shoulders.

"Come on and let me help you up in the bed. Let's start with your back first. Try to lean back as slow as you can."

I held Drennon's back as he steadied himself. His breathing was a little better than it was before but it was still a little shallow.

I propped a pillow under his back so he would be able to sit up straight and comfortably. I handed him the remote from the nightstand and passed it to him to watch tv.

"Okay it looks like you're all set, I'm about to go back to what I was doing which was cleaning." I sighed hard as the thought of sweeping, washing dishes, and dusting ran through my mind.

"Can you stay awhile?" Drennon asked.

To say I was shocked was an understatement. I didn't know if he was playing or loopy off those pills the doctor gave him.

I looked around to see if he was talking to me. "Me?"

He let out a little chuckle. "You the only one in here. It's not like I'm asking you to sleep in my bed, I just want some company until I drift off to sleep."

"But I'm not done cleaning."

"Forget about it for now. Are you going to watch tv with me or not?"

I skeptically went and sat over in the white teardrop chair basket that was facing the tv. I moved it over a little from Drennon's bed cause I still didn't know where all this of him acting nice was coming from.

"What do you wanna watch?" He asked flipping through the channels.

I still couldn't wrap my mind around why he was acting like this, it was out of his norm.

"Um, The Parkers are on around this time." I watched him flip through the channels until he got on the right one.

"You like this show?"

"Yes. It's so funny."

"I guess. Stevie lil fine ass. Her booty was fat as fuck." He said squeezing his hands together.

"I'm not going to lie, she did have a fatty back there." I said laughing.

We watched a little more episodes until I looked over at Drennon who was sleeping. I leaned over him to grab the remote and turn the tv off.

I'm surprised he didn't feel me leaning over him. I guess he's a heavy sleeper.

I pulled the cover up on his chest so he could be a little warm. I looked back to check on him one more and left the door cracked just in case he needed me again, I could hear it.