Lethal

Chapter Twelve.

O N E M O N T H L A T E R

I kicked my shoes off as soon as I set foot in my apartment late Friday night; thanks to the event that I'd accompanied Pardison to, I'd had a few calls to provide my services for other up and coming artists. Just that day, I'd completed the last look for a music video by a new singer and felt even more grateful and fulfilled by my job. My 'relationship' with Jibri had also been progressing without any issues, we'd had our first date a few days after he got rid of his excess weight, though I wasn't sure how long it would stay off.

After he told me about the way that Yanise reacted, I knew that she would be back after she licked her wounds for a while. She was in love with him, I liked him a lot but there was no way that I could compete with love; even if he said that the feelings weren't mutual. I tried to focus my energy on helping our relationship to become stronger, instead of worrying about when his alleged best friend would reappear. As much as I was happy that she wasn't around, sometimes I could see brief flashes of sadness whenever he told me about a childhood memory that she was involved in. I was able to empathize with him, without being jealous as I knew that I'd feel the same if I'd lost Jericho.

I stripped my clothes off and walked into my tiny shower, not even the freezing cold water could wake me up. I hastily went through the steps of my nightly routine, then got into bed. I was asleep almost immediately, my exhaustion from the busy month had finally caught up to me. My nightmares had intensified in the recent weeks, limiting my rest significantly; I'd accredited it to how much I was reliving when Jibri and I spoke. I'd told him things that I'd never told anyone other than Aisha, even things that Aisha didn't know.

My phone startled me awake, I reluctantly checked it and groaned for two reasons; it was four in the morning and it was Jibri calling. I turned my lamp on and sat up in bed when I answered.

"Hello?" I rasped.

He lowered the music before speaking, "Yo, you up?"

"What? No!" I laughed despite myself, unable to be annoyed by him.

Jibri joined in on the laughter. "Can you be up? I wanna come scoop you, you been on my mind."

"It's four in the morning Jibri." I groaned, pulling my covers over me.

He hummed, "And I love that you can tell the time mama, you gon' let me come get you or what?" I bit my lip; we hadn't seen each other in a few days, and I couldn't deny that I missed his face.

"I'll get ready, call me when you're outside." I finally answered, getting out of bed and pulling a random pair of pants out of my 'wardrobe.'.

Jibri sighed in relief, "Aight good, I'm bout a minute away." Loud laughter escaped my mouth at his self-assuredness.

"Oh, so I was a sure thing, huh?" I teased, tucking the phone into the crook of my neck as I shimmied my pants on.

"Nah mama, let's just say that ya boy was hopeful." He chuckled. "I'm downstairs when you're ready."

I bit the inside of my cheek, in disbelief that I'd been asleep a mere ten minutes before. We ended the call and I got ready as quickly as possible before heading down to meet Jibri. He was scrolling through his phone, leaning on the side of his car when I walked through the door. Jibri's smile was barely visible under the streetlights, but I saw it. He opened his arms for me, and I walked into them, Jibri lifted me slightly and planted a sweet kiss onto my lips.

"Hey papa." I smiled, "You're random as hell for this." I kissed his nose.

He nodded, still smiling then put me down, "Maybe, why think about you when I can see you though?"