Page 33 of Girl, We Go Together
I turned on her, fury and sorrow colliding inside me.
“Go back home! Go back to Fresh’s house. Since you loved playing both sides. He’s gone, but that’s still your damn home. Don’t stand here acting like I’m your savior when all this shit started because of us.”
Her lips quivered as cries escaped her mouth. But I didn’t give a fuck. For the first time since Fresh’s death, I saw real fear in her eyes. I dropped my head into my hands, tears burning my palms as I muttered the truth I never wanted to admit.
“I thought I wanted this. I wanted to ride off into the sunset with you, like we could start fresh, like none of this would matter. Not like this.”
The silence afterward was suffocating. Lucia stood frozen, her sobs echoing softly in the wreckage of the room, while I sank to the edge of the bed, broken and hollow, just wishing I couldturn back time. I would have left her ass right where I found her in misery and in an unhappy marriage at Fresh’s house.
Lucia desperately reached for me again, this time with her hands shaking.
“Omari, please… don’t do this. You need me right now. We need each other.”
That was the last straw. I stood so fast that the bed frame groaned under me. My chest was still heaving, my eyes bloodshot, and every muscle in me burned with rage. I grabbed her wrist with all my strength and yanked her ass toward the door.
“Stop!” she cried, stumbling as I dragged her across the wrecked room. “Omari, listen to me?—”
“No!” I roared as I shoved the door open so hard it smacked against the wall. “You don’t get to stay here. You don’t get to be with me. You’re the reason this shit spiraled. You and me… we set fire to everything, and now Ma’s gone because of it.”
Deep down inside, I knew all of this was my fault, but the guilt in me blamed her as well.
Tears streamed down her face, but I didn’t let go. I marched her through the hallway, ignoring her begging and her clinging to my arm. Her crazy ass smacked down picture frames on my wall as I dragged her ass up out of my spot. When I noticed that a picture of Ma had hit the floor, causing the black frame it was in to shatter. My grip only tightened as I pulled her straight to the front door. She twisted against me, sobbing.
“I don’t have anywhere to go, Omari! Please!”
I yanked the door open and shoved her out onto the porch; her body stumbled into the night air. She caught herself against the railing, staring back at me with wide, tearful eyes.
“You got somewhere,” I growled, my voice low, lethal. “Go back to Fresh’s house. Sleep in that big-ass bed y’all shared. You think I care? Just don’t bring your ass back here. I’m dead ass. IfI catch you around here, I’m gonna show your ass how I can be my daddy’s son.”
She knew the domestic history between my mother and father, and she also knew that I was a man of my word. She just shook her head in disbelief, clutching her chest like I’d ripped it open. I slammed the door in her face before I could second-guess myself, before my weakness for her could drag me back into her arms. Then I leaned against the door, sliding down until I was sitting on the floor. Letting this bitch go hurt, but it had to be done. I wish I had done it sooner, before we had even gotten caught. Before my world had gotten turned upside down. For a moment, I swore I could still hear her crying outside, but I didn’t open the door. Not this time.
After pulling myself together, I picked myself off the floor and then headed back into the room I had just destroyed. I picked up the broken frame that had my mother’s picture in it. It was a picture of her from Mother’s Day a few years back. In the emptiness of my house, I cried. Cried like a little boy because, despite being a grown ass man, I missed my mom.
Chapter 12
Cayla
1 year later
Ayear had slipped by since Orion had killed Fresh, and nothing between us had been the same since. He’d grown colder, more distant, and no matter how hard I tried to reach for him, it felt like I was grasping for nothing. In a year, I had filled the silence with food. Little indulgences here and there that turned into habits. I enjoyed late-night chips, cookies, and DoorDash orders when the loneliness hit too hard. I stepped onto the bathroom scale, holding my breath as the numbers flashed back at me. Fifteen pounds heavier than last time.
I blew out a sigh and stepped off, tying my robe tighter. Stress eating had become my secret crutch, and now it was written all over my body. The phone on the counter buzzed, startling me. Zynea’s name lit up the screen. I answered, and her voice came through like sunlight cutting through clouds.
“Girl, don’t tell me you’re still cooped up in that house. You've been ghosting everybody.”
“I’m fine,” I lied, leaning against the counter.
“Fine, my ass,” she snapped. “You’ve been isolating yourself, Cayla. I know Orion’s been acting funny since his mama passed,but you can’t let his distance drag you under, too. You need to get out. Breathe and remember who you are.”
I glanced at my reflection in the mirror. My robe covered me, but I still tugged at it, noticing the new softness to my body. Over the past year, my confidence had thinned as my frame had thickened.
“I don’t know…” I said softly.
Zynea wasn’t having it.
“Nope. Don’t even try it. We’re having a ladies’ night. Drinks, music, and the whole vibe. You need to feel alive again. Orion ain’t the center of your world, Cayla, you are.”
Her words hit me harder than I wanted to admit. She was right. I’d let the grief in the house swallow me whole. I let Orion’s silence become mine.
