Chapter 22: Christopher“…and the day after that. And the one after that, and the one after that. You kept coming back and mom kept believing in you. Believing you could change. Believing you had changed. Kept on giving you more than enough attention. Everything you wanted, she got you. Just so you could feel like you again. Feel loved. Feel complete. But nothing was ever enough for you, was it Ryan?” he said, undaunted in his glare at his older brother. The day you left, I lost a brother, and I was completely fine with that. Not like I hadn’t been pulling my weight around pretty well anyway. But the day you came back, I lost my mother. And that hurt like hell. And then you kept leaving and coming back and leaving and coming back. And I kept losing over and over and over. Until I just grew numb to that shit. It didn’t surprise me anymore. Don’t think I have any fucks left to give” he paused for a second then continued. “The only reason I’m here… is ‘cause I don’t want my last words wi

Chapter 24: Gist MeEver watched five feet apart? If you haven't, watch it. It's actually a really good movie. One of the best I've watched. This is a little spoiler though for those who haven't watched it. There was this scene where, towards the end of the movie, Stella was getting surgery, and at the reception, Will, her mom, dad, and a couple friends were all huddled in the reception area. Comforting each other, hoping for the best possible news. Reminiscing on that, what was going on in “The Aftermath Hospital” kind of resembled that exact scene. 1:30 in the morning, the surgery had been going on for a number of hours now. Marcus was fast asleep, his head resting on his brother's shoulder. Ryan himself was dozing off. but he was way too concerned to completely fall asleep. He felt dinner gradually disappear from his stomach and he was beginning to be plagued by fatigue and anxiety. Hunger was just a couple minutes away. Right now though, that was the least of his worries. He'd

Chapter 26: Everybody Go CollectThursday, 10:30pm. After approximately forty-eight hours of ‘surveillance’ from the hospital, and Ryan and Marcus’s in and out of the hospital almost every hour, she was finally free to go. Compared to the look of fatigue she had on just a couple days before, you’d think she’d become Morbius overnight the way she was just ‘on point’. “Are you sure you cannot afford to just leave her in the hospital for a few more hours? It’s pretty dark outside, you know?”“Haven’t you people eaten enough money from our pockets in the last couple hours?” Ryan joked, signing some documents.“Come on sir” the doctor replied with a smile. “It is pretty dark outside. That’s the only reason I’m conc—”“Well. Thanks for your concern doc—” he dropped the documents in doctor’s hand, paying little to no attention to the professional in white at this point, “And thanks for saving my mom. Really appreciate it, but we’ll take it from here.”“Come on Mom. Let’s go.” Marcus careful

Chapter 28: Her"Y…yeah. I mean right. I mean, of course. Of course. I should umm…I should go.""Yeah you should" she leaned back, "Because you've been staring at me for a while now" she smiled. "Acting like you've never–" she stopped in her tracks like something finally made sense now. "Wait. You have… you know… before, right?""Sorry?" He said, playing dumb. Like he didn't know what she was talking about. Anybody would've known what she was talking about by now. "You're a virgin, right?" So much for being indirect."What? What'd make you think that?" He said, feeling a little offended now. "Well. For starters" she looked further down. Not knowing what she was looking at, he too looked down and then realized what she was talking about."Oh…that." He said, a little too red-faced for a black guy. "Yeah. That." She smiled, exiting the tab on her computer, then setting it to sleep. "Secondly" she continued, just as her computer slept, "you've been staring at my bra like it's the firs

Chapter 30: Sinista“There he is” Ryan said, a tad frustrated. “Yo… did they tell you I’ve been looking for—”“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I was busy with some stuff. It won’t… I’ll try not to make it happen again.”“Wait. What?” Ryan replied, kind of confused.“I said I’m sorry. I’ll try not to make allow it happen again” he said, as humbly as ever, opening the front door.“Wow. Umm Okay. Get in. Let’s—”“Hey. Wait up.” It was Alicia, gradually galloping to the car. Maybe she wanted to annoy Marcus, maybe not. But he wasn’t the slightest bit bothered. In fact, he helped open the door until she got close enough to the car, then slid into the backseat. Even Alicia was stunned. Ryan couldn’t believe his eyes.“Well that’s definitely new” Ryan muttered under his breath. “Come on Alicia, hop in” he said tapping the hood of the car. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….“So umm… you’re coming tomorrow right?“For the stuff… yeah. I’m coming. Hopefully it’s gonna be… you