Ride or Die.

3️⃣9️⃣

.

Beyonce Knowles
4:00 PM
Houston, Texas

.

We made it back to Houston finally.

I grinned while looking at the beautifully crafted home inside of the suburban neighborhood my parents owned. Taking the gift bag I got for them from the car as Jay watched on as I raced up the stairway and rang the doorbell. 

"They ain't home." an older feminine voice said.

I turned and there stood Mrs. Carson from church standing on the porch next door to this one.

"Do you know where they are? Oh! Right the church house." I smirked.

She reached inside her plaid pea coat and took out some reading glasses before sliding them onto her wrinkly face. "Pastor Knowles is in the hospital with cancer, Deary." She adjusted the glasses. "Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?"

My heart crushed upon hearing the news about my dad as I shook my head then ran back to the car where I cried.

"What's wrong?" Jay asked me, I told him, and we headed to the hospital.

"This way." I directed him—nothing had changed drastically in my old neighborhood everything was pretty much the same as last year when I left. Christmas decorations were in the windows of some stores and even in the homes we passed by. A group of people stood outside of the gas station. Others walked happily on the sidewalks heading to their destination.

"I'll come to pick you up when you want to leave just text me," he said when we got to the almost empty parking lot of the hospital.

"Why? Where are you going?"

"You aren't the only one with family in Houston." He reminded me as I smiled in remembrance then we kissed.

"I love you."

"I love you more." 

I got out, and he rode away before I walked into the huge building. 

"How can I help you?" the woman behind the front desk asked immediately when she saw me.

I kept it real and told her about my situation and my father. Hell, I even turned on the waterworks to make it even more believable than it already was. She had me fill out an information slip and after I was allowed to see him. We took two elevators up to the floor they had him on, "so pastor Knowles is your father, how come he never talks about you?" 

Impossible... I'm his favorite I thought yet nothing left my mouth as the elevator dinged then the heavy doors slid open.

Her crocs brushed along the tile floors of the hallways she led me down until we got to his room.

My dad laid frail there and obviously sick. Monitors were connected to him. And his green eyes were closed.

The inside of the room was cold and crowded with plenty of furniture. 

I sat my gift a teddy bear down on the nightstand nearest the bed.

"I'm going to leave you two alone, but I'll be just down the hall so if you need anything just call," she said to me before leaving the room. 

"Daddy, I'm so sorry," I whined, feeling warm tears cascade down my face again. I took his hand into my own. "Please, don't die we need you." 

"He wasn't supposed to make it this long."

I looked up and there stood my baby sister Zendaya in the doorway, yet she didn't look like the babyface tomboy I last remembered.

"What do you mean?"