𝒎𝒂𝒇𝒊𝒂

𝒔𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆

Alayah's POV

"So everything all started when I went to live with my aunt. She didn't do anything to me or nothin' like that. But it was when I started high school. You know where my auntie lives so you know what kind of school I went to. I just tried to do my own thing and keep to myself but that was short-lived. I had become friends with this dude named Tyler.

Now at this point, I didn't know much about Tyler but he was a pretty cool dude so I let him stick around. He then introduced me to his friends and we all started hanging or whatever. I started to notice that these people were a big deal in school because people would either smile and try to talk to us or cower away. It was always one or the other--no in-between.

This was around the time I had stopped talking to you. Like 9th or 10th grade right? All of them were older than me and at the time I didn't realize I was in over my head. I knew what they were doing but chose to ignore it. Until I couldn't anymore. They sold everything—pills, weed, cocaine. You name it, they had it.

I tried not to get wrapped up in that shit because we all had gotten close and didn't want to throw away our friendship. But then my aunt was diagnosed with a severe kind of epilepsy. Lennox-Gastaut syndrome to be exact. She had said she had seizures as a child but my grandparents hadn't thought anything of it.

So all the doctor's visits, medications, and prescriptions were starting to add up, even with our health insurance. Tyler had always said there was a spot for me in their "crew" or whatever you want to call it but I never thought anything of it. But with my aunt out of work and her medical expenses, I had to do something.

So I got multiple part-time jobs trying to keep me and my aunt afloat but we were barely breaking the surface. That's when I asked Tyler if that offer still stood. He didn't question my change of heart. He took me to his boss and welcomed me and have been selling ever since."

I was shocked, to say the least. "I- how...what?"

I had gotten up and began to pace while Lloyd just watched me walk back and forth.

"How's your aunt?"

"She died."

My head snapped in his direction as tears started to form in my eyes. "What?!"

"She died a year ago, Addy."

"But how? And are you ok?" I asked as I sat back down and squeezed his hands.

"I had just come home after selling when I saw her in the kitchen by the fridge on the ground. I ran over to her and was shaking her and yelling at her to wake up but she didn't. I had called the ambulance and they took her away. At the hospital, they told me she had died. She had a seizure and choked on her own tongue. I was astonished because after everything I did to try to keep her alive she still was taken from me. It was a fucking slap in the face."

By the time he was finished both of us had tears running down our faces. I pulled him into a hug and he hugged me back with just as much strength and then some. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you," I mumbled into his chest in between hiccups.

"But you're here now that's all that matters."

"I forgive you."

"I was so ashamed of what I was doing and I didn't want any of the shit I'm doing to come back to you, or Don, or Leah in any kind of way so I thought if I stopped talking to you guys and you hated me it'd make what I was doing easier but it didn't. Don and Leah can hate me all they want. I hurt them. But I hurt you the most and I couldn't take not talking to you."

"I forgive you, Lloyd."

We stayed like that for a while until we heard a knock on his door. Lloyd pulled away from me quickly and I looked in his eyes. He looked like he had just seen a ghost. "What's wrong Lloyd?" I quickly stood up and pulled me up too. He started to pull me up the stairs in his living room to the second floor. "Lloyd you're scaring me. What's wrong?" He still hadn't answered me. He then pulled me into a beautiful room I'm guessing was one of his guest rooms. He then turned to me.