Page 42 of Give Me All Of You

“Lu!” I cried out in agony.

“It’s okay, son. It’s okay.” My father soothed me as he embraced me.

This shit couldn’t be real, but I had to face it. This was now my reality. One without Lu in it.

∞∞∞

Lu’s body had been gone for a few hours now and I was still sitting in the room staring at the bed that she once occupied. I didn’t bother with moving until my brother came inside of the room to get me.

“Rock,” he called out. “I called Rue, and she’s about to pull up. She has Journei with her,” he explained.

I hadn’t reached out to her in a few days and, if I’m being honest, I didn’t know if I wanted to be around her now. I simply nodded and remained seated as he left back out of the room. I sat back in the recliner that was by the bed and closed my eyes. I couldn’t help the tears that fell from my eyes if I wanted to. I’ve been with Lu since I was twenty-one and she was nineteen. That’s five years of loving the same person. How do I get over that so easily? Was that even possible?

I heard the room door open, but I didn’t bother to open my eyes. Whoever it was would make their presence known. I felt someone kneel in front of me and my eyes shot open. Journei was kneeling in front of me, wiping the tears from my face.

“I’m sorry, bestie.” Her voice croaked.

Just hearing her voice made me break down worse than I already was. I cried like a baby in her arms, and she let me. I have never felt so vulnerable in my life and this woman let me. The only other woman who allowed me to be in such a state besides my mother was Lucretia.

“I’m here with whatever you need, bestie. Just say the word,” she offered.

Lifting my head off of her shoulder, I simply said, “Stay with me.”

Chapter Seventeen

Hassan

It’s been a few weeks since Lu’s funeral and things are somewhat back to normal. Rock has been out of pocket and that’s completely understandable. If I didn’t do anything else, I had my brother’s back. I stepped in and took care of the delinquent loans that we had out and had Ced and Art overlooking things at the yard. JaRue and Infiniti were still staying at my house, but I also took turns staying at her apartment too. Her bitch ass baby daddy hadn’t been seen or heard from since he had those fuck ass papers delivered to her. I still wasn’t putting anything past his ass, though. I needed to keep my girls safe. By keeping them safe, I had to make sure things were put in place so that they wouldn’t have shit to worry about. I’ve been on the go all morning making sure that things were in place. I’ve been to the bank to add JaRue to all of my accounts and I was now at my lawyer’s office to get the papers I had him to draft up. When I got home later, I would present her with all of this.

“I have everything that you asked for, Hassan. All you have to do is have her sign the places that are highlighted and I can get everything filed for you as soon as you get them back to me,” my lawyer Eric informed.

“I appreciate this on such a short notice. I’ll make sure that you’re compensated for your time.”

He nodded as he placed the paperwork back into the folder that it was in and handed it over to me. After ensuring me that I was set to go, I left his payment plus a little extra and headed by my brother’s house. I hadn’t seen much of him lately and I needed to put my eyes on him. Peace has been with our parents and even with me and JaRue some nights since he wasn’t up to handling her full time yet. I sympathized with him, but he needed to get it together for his daughter. I pulled up to his house, and I saw his truck parked out front. Letting myself inside, I searched the house until I found him in Lu’s room, sitting in the recliner that was by her bed. He had a purple covered phone in his hand, and I knew it was hers.

“Wassup with you?” I asked, taking a seat in the empty chair. Since no one was here but us, I pulled a blunt out and lit it. I took a pull before I handed it to him. I could see the half empty Hennessy bottle on the table beside him and knew he was going through it. He took the blunt from my hand and took a pull of his own.

“Ain’t shit. You straight?” he asked, not looking at me.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just left Eric and got the papers I needed Rue to sign and shit. I’ll give ’em to her tonight.”

“That’s wassup. I’m glad you found her. Make sure you take care of her, bro.” I knew he only said that because of the situation with him and Lu.

“You know it’s not your fault, right?”

He looked at me.

“You know she told me not to shut Journei out? She wanted me to be with her?” he revealed.

“Have you talked to her?” I know he hadn’t because I heard her talking to Rue about it. She knew how he was doing through me. I just wanted to see what he was going to say.

“Nah. I honestly don’t know what to say after not saying shit to her at all. She would text to check on me and I ignored the shit. Now she doesn’t call at all. I know she sees Peace, because Ma told me. She said Peace loves her some bestie.” He chuckled because that’s the name she called Journei after hearing him say it. She called Rue, Rudy, and that shit was hilarious.

“Don’t punish her, bro. It’s not her fault, just like it’s not yours. Besides, when have you ever let Lu down?”

He gave me a look.

“This is different,” he protested.

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