3 weeks later
"Are you going to help me move this stuff in the apartment or are you going to stare at all the guys who walk past?" I asked, glaring at Kimani. I have taken in six boxes compared to her two. "Yeah, yeah I'm coming geez, you so in a rush it's still early and we just got here can we take a breather?" Kimani reply grabbing a box and taking it inside the apartment. We left late last night so we could get to Florida early in the morning so we were running on fumes by now which meant we had little to no sleep. But I wanted to at least get most of the stuff in the apartment before we take a break. Because once Kimani stops it will be impossible to get her to finish moving everything in. "Let's just finish getting the bed and the couch in the apartment then we can go to the campus to look around and grab some food but that's after a shower and a nap." I said feeling tired myself. "Okay let's do that because I'm ready to see what college will be like." Kimani said excitedly which I will admit I was a little excited myself. Syncere's POV: two p.m. "Yo, did I mention that I hate summer basketball camp. First it's hotter than monkey nuts out here and second I'm tired of getting up at five a.m." I said to my teammate as we headed to the pit to grab a bite to eat. We have been doing basketball drills since six a.m. "Shit, you say that everyday and I feel the same way messing up my summer fun. I would be happy as hell to be curled up with some honey at five a.m. instead of looking at yall ugly faces every day." Shawn said laughing. Me and Shawn met our freshman year at basketball tryouts. We hit it off immediately, we were the starters because we were the highest ranked players on our team. Walking into the pitt we see that it's crowded as hell you would think they were giving away free food. "Damn it's crazy in here today. You go look for a table and I'll order our food." I said to Shawn. "Alright bet, but it looks like we may have to share a table with someone." Shawn says weaving through the crowd.Essence's POV:
a few minutes earlier:
"Damn we were lucky that somebody was leaving when we were looking for a table. Shit, I thought we were about to be eating on the floor in the corner." Kimani said sitting down at the only free table in the campus hang out called the Pitt. We have been walking around trying to learn the campus layout. We made sure to find out who and where our advisors and the buildings were, before our classes start come August. I was a business major and Kimani was a Sports Medicine major.
"Who was going to be eating on the floor, certainly not me I would have nicely got my food to go. You must be crazy if you think I was going to eat on anybody floor. " I said giving her the side eye with a smile. "It's real crowded in here to say it summertime I would think people wouldn't be on campus like this, if they weren't going to school or taking any summer classes. If it looks like this now I can only imagine how it will look come August." Kimani said looking at the many faces in here.
"Damn where is the ketchup who the hell eat French fries without ketchup. I feel like that should be put on your tray automatically when you order fries. Now I have to go back through that crowd, and I'm telling you now, that I'm not standing in no line just for ketchup." I said getting up and heading through the crowd."Excuse me, excuse me." I said loudly trying to get the cashiers attention, because the first three times wasn't loud enough apparently. Sighing loudly. "Yes can I help you; the line starts back there the cashier said with the attitude pointing at the back of the line like it's my fault she had to work today.
"I'm not ordering I need ketchup there was none on my tray." I shot back with an attitude. She grabbed a hand full and drop them in my hand. I wanted to cuss her ass out, but I was trying to be an adult now. I was no longer in high school so I had to learn how to not drag a bitch across the counter. I took a deep breath, turned around, and walked straight into a brick wall.
Chapter 2Syncere POV: “Yo watch out! You walking like you about to go beat somebody ass for eating your last piece of cake.” I said, as a short dark brown skin girl ran into me as I was going to the pickup line to get me and Shawn's food. “Excuse me.” The girl said stepping to look up at me. At my six feet four inches height, she was maybe five feet and some inches in height. She was barely reaching my chest. “No problem you good.” I replied finally able to see who ran into me. She had a pretty face with slanted brown eyes that were so light it almost looked like you chould through them. For a big girl she was really pretty. “Hey, can I get by to pick up my food?” I asked, as she stared at me. Snapping out of her haze, she moved around me quickly. I smiled at how she blushed and seem embarrassed, that I caught her staring at me. “Oh yea, sorry I wasn't looking where I was going.” She responded, brushing past me like she was running from the cops. Just then my pho
Chapter 3 Syncere's POV: continued “Well since we're introducing ourselves, I'm Jasmine, but everyone calls me Jazz and Syn's girlfriend.” My girl Jasmine said Sarcastically, as her and her friends Leah walked to our table like they owned the place. I know how my baby attitude is, she can go from zero to a hundred real quick. I didn't want her and her dumb ass friend Leah attacking these girls for no reason. So I needed to put an end to this real quick. Getting up, my lunch forgotten at this point. “Hey bae, we had to share this table to eat, because this place is crowded as hell. Essence and Kimani were nice enough to share their table with us.” I said, quickly to defuse the situation. Jazz looked around, and sucked her teeth. “Seriously? I see three open booths, that they could have sat at.” Jazz said with an attitude, pointing at three empty booths, and damn if the crowd hadn't thinned out and they were tables available too. Here comes the bullshit, now Essence and
Chapter 4SYNCERE'S POV: "Yo! What the hell was that about? You had no reason to act the way you just did." I said sitting down in my chair to finish my lunch. "Because you never gave me a reason to." Jazz answered back. "Please tell me what I did? Because we were eating and laughing that's it." I said shaking my head. "Those chicks were clearly flirting and that's the problem; yall can't see when chicks be flirting with yall." Jazz's friend Leah chimed in. "You sound dumb, how the hell you know they were flirting? When you couldn't even hear what we were talking about." Shawn cut in. "Shut up Shawn you ain't nothing but a man whore, so you don't care that those girls were flirting. Knowing you're nasty ass I'm sure you got their number and will be hooking up with one of them before the week is out. You don't care if they're ugly, fat, and nasty looking, as long as they're easy. Which I'm sure they are, you could care less about looks or size." Jazz sai
Chapter 5Syncere's POV: Continued She gave me the kind of kiss that makes my dick jump every time and she knows it. "The movie starts at eight so come to my spot like six." She said with a devilish smile, getting into her car. "Alright bet.” I replied closing the door once she was in. "Come on let's go, before we’re late." Shawn said already crossing the street. I had to jog to catch up with him. "Damn, wait up." I said. "Shit you over there wasting time sucking up to your girl, trying not to get your ass beat for talking to those girls earlier. I'm not trying to run drills after practice." Shawn said, laughing. "Fuck you, nobody getting their ass whipped, but I will be tapping that ass later tonight, while you're lonely ass, is at home watching TV by yourself." I shot back. "Shit if I am it's by choice I don't have the money or the patience to deal with these girls. You see that shit you have to go through with your girl, we were supposed to BnD Jazz
Chapter 6 Essence POV: August 4th My alarm clock blared angrily, groaning I rolled over and peaked at the clock to see if I can get a few more minutes of sleep, but it was six forty-five a.m. which means my clock said, “if you don't get your ass up you're going to be late for class, so it's above me now I have done my job.” Then my second alarm goes off and says, “get the hell up before you're late for the very first day of college.” Whining as I got up, looked for my robe, finding it on my love seat. I went into the kitchen, turned my oven on three hundred degrees, grabbed some biscuits out of the fridge, then grabbed a cookie sheet. I place a biscuit on the sheet and put it in the oven before walking out of the kitchen. Then I headed to the shower while my biscuits baked. My cell started to ring with the sound of DMX you're gonna make me lose my mind. I answered without looking because I already know who it was. "What the hell do you want Kiki?" I asked? "Rise and shine
Chapter 7 Three weeks later: “Where the hell is this dude?” I said to myself. This tutoring session was supposed to start at six thirty and it’s nine forty-five. I still had an assignment I needed to complete for my marketing class, that was due tomorrow at eight a.m. So I already know, I'm going to be up late to finish my own assignment. Last week the dean’s secretary text me with, the dates and times of my first tutoring session. “Hey, are you Essence Nelson?" A tall, sexy, light skin guy with curly hair asked me, as he walked up to my table. Lord let me tell you, this man is fine, fine. Realizing I was still sitting with my mouth gapped open and staring, I snapped out of the lust fog I was in. "Yeah that's me.” I said in response. "I'm Trenton, but most people call me Trent. Sorry I'm late, practice went over the usual time." He said putting his books on the table with a thud. I was trying to be understanding, but he still smelled like outside, because of practice, and
Chapter 8 The Kickback at Syncere and Shawn's house:Syncere's POV: 9pm "Baby can we please hear anything other than rap. I mean damn females are in here too." Jazz said with a whine as she handed me my Henny and Coke. Me and Shawn were having a kickback at our spot for our teammates and a few friends. It was nothing major just some snacks, drinks, with the music playing, while we hung out, played spade, and Pity Pat for money of course. Right now I was kicking everybody's ass in Pity Pat at five bucks a game, my pockets will be looking right this weekend. "Damn nobody wants to listen to that soft shit, Jazz." Shawn said before I could answer. "Shut up Shawn, I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to Syncere. This is not just your spot, it's his spot too, so shut the fuck up with your nasty ass." Jazz clapped back with her nose turn up in disgust. I Interrupted them before things got out of hand. "Will yall just chill out damn. Jazz, you can change the
Chapter 9The Kickback at Syncere and Shawn's house:Syncere's POV: continued After the miscarriage Jazz was an emotional wreck, so I made sure I was there for her. I didn't want to abandon her when she needed me most. I stayed around to make sure she was good and before I knew it a couple of months, turned into three years had passed by, and we were still together. Shawn had his doubts about the whole baby thing. He thinks she fake the pregnancy and miscarriage to keep me around. But I nipped that in the bud, when I told him I had seen the test myself. But he wouldn't let it go, we actually got into a heated argument about it and didn't speak for a while. A few weeks later, we squashed it because we were teammates with the same dreams of being drafted to the NBA. Shawn apologized and agreed to never bring up the pregnancy situation again. I told him that I knew he was just trying to look out for me because being on the same team makes us brothers and that was t
Chapter 239Meanwhile at the airport: “Shouldn’t dad be here by now? Our flight leaves in thirty minutes.” Jazz said looking around hoping to see her father in the crowd. “I don't know, he should have at least called, maybe I should call him.” Judge Taylor said turning on her phone, before she could make a call and alert flashed cross her phone. “Breaking News, there has been a deadly mass shooting at Florida General hospital. The police have not confirmed how many are dead but, sources are saying that it was a complete blood bath.” The news woman said her face looking sad, as people were running around behind her trying to escape from the hospital. “Oh God, please no. no, no, no, come on Raymond please pick up.” Judge Taylor said as she tried to dial her husband's number with shaking hands. Her worry tripled when it went to voicemail. “Mom please tell me daddy's ok, this is all my fault. Oh God Syn is there too, he could be dead. I have to call him, please
Chapter 238 In the Van: “Yes, I have the asset, but there has been a problem, there were casualties. The men we hired are assumed dead, the police are involved. I don't think it's a good idea to continue to provide services. It’s getting too close to becoming public. If they connect us to this situation, it could ruin everything.” The masked person said. As the van they were in made hard turns trying to make sure they weren't followed. Unique sat in the back of the van holding a lifeless Derrick. He didn't know that his death would affect him in this way. They had been together since he first got to Florida, but once he had hurt Essence, he had planned to kill him, especially after learning he was the reason she was fighting for her life. “You cheated me out of killing you myself for what you did to Essence. I wanted to be the one to take you out, and they robbed me of that. I will kill them for what they've done. This is signed that me and Essence need to sta
Chapter 237Back inside the hospital: “Where is she? Where is my baby?” Eula, asked her sons as they filed into Essence's room. Once the air was cleared, the nurses came and escorted them back to Essence's room. They didn't have any answers to give her about her daughter. They were all trying to grasp what had happened, the janitors were cleaning up the mess and patching up the window Big C shot. “Momma by the time we got to her, she…. She wasn't… She wasn't breathing. We don't know for how long, we don't know anything at this point, all we know is that we weren't prepared for this kind of open attack. Once we got to her, we carried her down to the ICU floor and Doctor Angelic took her into surgery.” Kain said, as tears fell down his face. Shawn and Kymoni came through the door, Kymoni was looking lost like she didn't know where she was, she was silent, but her tears were flowing unchecked down her face, as Shawn guided her to a chair in the corner
Chapter 236The Hospital Enterance “Unk, there are two heading to the parking garage, leaving from the access elevator. Can you guys try and cut them off. Be prepared one of them has tear gas, more than one canister, it looks like that have an unlimited amount. There could be more men lying in wait, so keep an eye out.” Big C said in his ear piece. “Don't worry about these old fools, we have endured shit more lethal than tear gas.” Uncle Bubba said. “Just because we have endured it don't mean we liked it. Tear gas ain't fun, our eyes were red for a month when those cops sprayed us down with tear gas at that protest.” Uncle Ron said to his brother. “Would yall be quiet what’s the use of trying to sneak up on them and not letting them know we're coming, if yall going to run your mouth the entire time.” Their Uncle Junior whispered yell as he checked his guns making sure the safety were off his guns. “Just, cover your faces if they have tear gas let's expect them to toss them
Chapter 235Getting to Essence: Continued The pain instantly grew, causing Syncere to pause and try to cover his eyes. Then the first shot echoed in the air giving everyone pause. Big C and his brother all pulled their weapon immediately and took cover. Big C knew they had to find a way to even the playing field. He pointed at the windows in the hospital and fired six rounds, breaking the windows. The instant the windows broke the fog was sucked out almost immediately. As soon as he looked at the sprinklers, Martrice had already turned them on, he was behind the nurse’s station using his Hi-tech watch. He loved that his family knew what to do without him saying a word. When he looked again, he was able to see the armed men moving as a unit trying to block their path to Unique. He also saw Shawn running towards them with Kymoni covering Essence protectively. He knew he had to get his sister help, they didn't have time to fight this battle. Essence wasn't brea
Chapter 235 The VIP Floor Getting to Essence: “TEAR GAS EVERYBODY COVER YOURSELVES!” Kain yelled being the first to recognize what it was. They were all force to cover their entire face walking blind. The brothers had all been tested with tear gas in training and although they handled it better than anyone it still left them blind. “GET TO MY BABY, OH GOD WHERE IS SHE I CAN'T LEAVE UNTIL I KNOW SHE'S OK!” The all heard Eula scream, as someone tried to get them into one of the room where the gas wasn't. “MOMMA JUST GO WE WILL GET ESSENCE!” Kristian said, not knowing if he was lying to his mother or not. Big C pushed his mother and aunts into the closest room closing the door. He ripped his shirt off exposing nothing but pure muscles. He was a big man with not an ounce of fat, he was all muscle. People thought he was a gym rat, but he never stepped foot in a gym. No one could explain how he got a body like The Rock, when he doesn't even have a membershi
Chapter 233 The Hospital Showdown Continued: “Yall go ahead and stop coming this way, so just back the fuck up. Don't make me put a bullet through her chest and not her back this time. Please don't test me, because you already know what I'm capable of.” Unique said shoving Debra who cried out in shock. “Shut the fuck up bitch!” Unique said hitting her in the back of the head with his gun. Debra screamed but kept pushing the bed, she was trying not to make any sudden moves. “Please, just let my baby go, I will not try to come after you, just leave her here. She is too fragile to be going through this, I promise my family won't come after you if you just leave her here.” Eula said with her hands stretched out towards Essence praying that this man just let her go. She couldn’t bare it if he took her while they were all standing there. “Well Mother-n-law I'm afraid I might not be able to do that, because I am sure someone has called the cops and your family have
Chapter 232 Syncere and Shawn's apartment: “FUCK! WE GOTTA GO!” Syncere said rushing out of his room. Shawn and Kymoni were at our dining table eating a sandwich, while our parents were still there, sitting in their living room. Kymoni looked up at my face and saw the fear, and knew it was about Essence. She was afraid to ask any questions, she just got up grabbed her bag not bothering to put her shoes on as she went to the door. “Wait, son what's going on? Where are you going?” It's Essence somehow Unique got into the hospital and got to Essence. I knew something was wrong, I felt it when I was on the elevator, I knew I shouldn't have left. Fuck!” Syncere was saying as he looked for his keys. He knew they were in plain sight but he was so worked up he couldn't think straight. “Son, you need to calm down and take a breath. Why are you so in a rush to get back. That Unique boy is obviously dangerous, I don't think you should be going there, her family is
Chapter 231A few minutes early: “Hey isn't that Essence's nurse, I thought she was her head nurse or something like that" Kain asked as they got off the elevator, Martrice needed to check a better internet connection. He decided he would stay on the first floor because then internet connection was excellent on that first. He looked up at the nurse in question and frowned. “You're right, she was supposed to be with Essence full time. So she should be with Essence during these test. So what the hell is going on.” Martrice said as he began typing on his laptop. His alarm went off when one of the cameras he had installed on the ICU floors went off. He pulled up the footage and saw man holding his head down, like he knew where the cameras were and avoided them on purpose. A few seconds later the nurses’ station alarms went off in Leah's room. Martrice looked back at his laptop and watched as the man went into the rest room and came back out wearing different clothes.