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Six

December, 1989

Today I was going over to Pepper's with DeShaun, Denaun, and Rufus for dinner and as soon as we got into view of the house, DeShaun noticed Karmen's car was parked outside. "She must be here for dinner too." DeShaun commented. 

"Think Ti's comin'?" Denaun asked. 

"Man who fuckin' knows. She's been blowin' me off like crazy for the last two weeks. I'm honestly kinda pissed at her right now." DeShaun said back. 

"Yeah right? I ain't seen her in awhile either." I said.

"I know, she's barely even been talkin' to me." DeShaun said again. 

"Maybe she's on her period or somethin'." Rufus joked and we all cracked smiles. 

"Man fuck off. Ti ain't get no damn period." DeShaun said seriously and we all looked at him like he was stupid with our eyebrows scrunched together. "Okay obviously I know she gets her period but like, it's Ti. As far as I'm concerned she's got a dick." He joked and we all laughed. 

"Marshall would know better than anyone." Denaun joked back and everyone laughed again. 

"I don't know how many times I gotta tell ya fuckin' losers, but we ain't do nothin'! I swear!" I pleaded, trying my best to get them to believe my lie.

"Ti wouldn't fuck anyone under the age of like forty anyway." Rufus joked again and we all laughed once more as we walked up the steps to Peppers.

"Aight, ya'll are fuckin' gross. This conversation is over." DeShaun said clearly uncomfortable. He swung the front door open and we all stepped inside one by one. "Ma!" DeShaun yelled announcing our arrival. 

"We in here!" She yelled back and we all headed into the kitchen to go and greet Karmen and Pepper. "How's all my babies?" She asked with a smile as she hugged us all individually and we all gave her a variation of "good."

"Good. I hope ya'll are hungry. I made food for Karmen and Ti but Ti's not comin' and Karmen's leavin' so theres tons gonna be tons of leftovers."

"Why? What's goin' on?" I asked. 

"Why? What's goin' on?" Denaun repeated in a high pitched whisper, clearly attempting to make fun of me for being worried about Ti. I just smacked his shoulder lightly as small chuckles came from him and Rufus. 

"We don't know what's goin' on with her." Pepper said. 

"You mean Ti?" I asked. 

"Yeah. I've barely talked to her over the last few weeks, and I haven't even seen her once. Every time I call she says she can only talk for a few minutes and then spends essentially the entire time just tryna get off the phone with me." Karmen said. 

"So she's goin' over there to go and check on her." Pepper added. 

"Yeah, we were just talkin' 'bout that. She keeps blowin' me off and none of us have seen her for the last few weeks either." DeShaun added. 

"Well y'know what, me and DeShaun could go over there after supper and see what's goin' on for you. That way you don't have too." I offered. 

"No no, I need to go over there myself." Karmen said. 

"Actually that's not a bad idea Kar. If somethin' is goin' on she's gonna be a lot more receptive to these two." Pepper said as she motioned to me and DeShaun. 

"Yeah, she's actually been pretty open with Marshall." DeShaun added. 

"Well, I don't know 'bout that but she talks to me sometimes, yeah." I said.