without you ✰ ybnk

treinta y dos

nick

"oh my god tay you did" i gasped, my eyes glued to the tv. the news was covering the story about a couple of people who were found dead. those people being molly, cordae, and the guys who raped ava. i looked at tay who had the phone propped up while he moved around his kitchen with a blank expression.

he shrugged, "when james taking you to meet nelly?"

i scoffed, "boy— what if this all comes back to you-"

"it won't, and i can't say this on the phone but don't worry about me getting charged for this" he said not bothering to look at the screen. i furrowed my eyebrows. what he mean by that?

"why?"

"don't worry bout it"

i sighed deciding to just leave it alone for now, "so what you think nelly wants?"

"i-"

"nick you ready?" james said standing in my doorway. "yeah" i replied getting up. i told tay that i love him and i'll call him later before i hung up. originally, tay was gonna come with me but he insisted that a family member should accompany me so i asked james since he has a car. i met james in the living room and we left out.

we got in the car before driving to the starbucks near my house that nelly told us to meet her. i was kind of skeptical about this whole thing but also intrigued. we finally made it to the building safely. james and i walked in the starbucks immediately seeing nelly at a table by herself. we approached her and she looked up when we were standing infront of her.

she smiled softly, "hi"

"hey" we greeted back and sat down across from her.

"this is my brother james" i introduced him to her and she waved at him and he gave her a head nod in response.

i cut to the chase pretty quickly, "so what did you wanna talk about? we don't exactly know each other that well"

"yeah i know" she responded.

"and also, you fought my sister.." i added on. she nodded, pursing her lips in. james sucked his teeth, "girl what do you want?"

nelly sat back in her seat looking like she didn't know what to say or atleast how to say it. then she looked at me, "i think we might be related"

james and i immediately looked at one another and back at her. he spoke up first, "related?"

she sighed, "yeah like i might be your sister" i analyzed her face. she gotta be like my age. "how old are you?" i asked her.

"sixteen"

"ain't no way we related.. what month?" i asked because lauren is sixteen too. how is she the same age as her?

"october"

"yeah, ain't no way in hell" i said dismissing nelly's accusation. i was ready to get up and leave because she was just wasting my time. but james spoke up before i could stand up, "but since we here, explain"

"ok uh after i saw you that day i just thought that there was some way we could be related so i asked my mom if she had any other kids that i didn't know about but that kind of didn't make sense" she started. i just sat there listening to her with a blank expression.

nelly continued, "so i asked her if my dad had any other kids and she said yeah but she said she never seen them but she knew of them"

"okay.." i said motioning her for to continue since she paused.

"is your dads name david simmons?" nelly asked looking up and james and i. both of our eyes widened at the sound of his name. i haven't heard that name in years. everytime he's brought up by my aunt she just says "your father" or "your dad" but i haven't heard his real name in years.