My Convict

17 - Day Three Midnight

+Brandy

"Maybe we should throw water on her?" I heard someone suggest. It sounded like Kelly. "I think she's coming back to us." Taking in a sharp breath, my eyes snap open. Everyone surrounds me in a circle, all their focus on me. "Back up guys, give her some room." 

"Mommy," Elliot calls as tears stream down his face. He quickly runs to my side, burying his face in my neck. "Mommy." He calls again, this time whispering. 

Wrapping my arms around him, I pull him into a tight hug. "I'm fine Ej baby. I swear." Moving away, a smile graces my lips. "See, I'm fine. Just a little headache. Nothing mommy can't handle." 

Elijah bends down to my height on the ground. "Are you sure you're alright? You hit your head pretty hard."

I nod. "I'm fine. I Promise." 

"Geez, Brandy girl if you wanted attention all you had to do was ask. Being all dramatic and ish." Savannah joked. 

Mia pinched her arms. "Now is not the time Savannah. We've got big things to deal with and your jokes aren't helping." Just when she says that Yonnie pops back into my mind. 

Tapping on Elliot's shoulder, I slowly push him away. "Alright, bud. I need you to do me a favor alright." He wipes the tears from his face and listens carefully. "I'm gonna need you, to go with your dad while I handle some things for auntie Yonnie. You think you can do that for me?" 

"Is she alright?" He asks.

"Yeah, she just needs a little help."

He quickly nods. "Okay, mommy. I'll go with daddy." 

Elijah shakes his head. "No, absolutely not. There's no way I'm letting you go out there when you just fainted. You need to rest." 

"What I need to do is go find Yonnie, and what you need to do is stay with our son." I corrected him. "Michelle will be with me, so you don't have to worry. Savannah and Mia will be with you guys." Standing up on my own, I look down at my watch. "If you don't hear from us at midnight, then you worry. Okay?" 

Elijah stays quiet for a moment before nodding. "Okay." He agrees. Stepping forward, he places a kiss on my forehead. "Be careful." He tells me. 

"You need any backup?" Kelly asks. "I'm sure we can lend you a few guys to help find your friend."

"I'm sure her people can handle it on their own." Marc voices, looking straight at Kelly. He's cute don't get me wrong, but also an asshole. But I'm sure he's only like that, with people he doesn't know. 

I smile at Kelly, trying to avoid the awkwardness. "We got this. Thank you though, it means a lot." 

"No problem." She spreads her arms open and pulls me into a hug. I willingly hug her back this time. "It was nice meeting you." 

"Same to you."

Michelle clears her throat. "If we're going to go look for Yonnie, what car are we supposed to do it in?" She questions. 

"Take mine," Kevin replies, handing her his car keys. He smirked at her. "I'm sure you'll find a way to bring it back to me." Michelle blushes at his words.

"Marc say bye," Kelly says, nudging him forward. 

He rolled his eyes and grumbled something under his breath, which caused Kelly to give him a look. He sighed, looking very annoyed. "Bye." He says, barely even looking at me. "Elijah, we have a conversation to finish." 

"Right," Elijah says, before grabbing Elliot's hand. They walk with Marc, back to the private room. Kelly followed along with them, but not without giving me a final glance. 

"I'll keep a good eye on them all and make sure we all get back safely." Mia states. "Don't lose your life looking for Yonnie." She warned. "That girl... she'll never be right in the head Brandy and you've got to see that." 

"Hope goes a long way." 

"Not for everyone Brandy, and you of all people should know that." She walks away, not even giving me a chance to respond. My eyes scan around the place for Savannah and I chuckle, seeing that she had already run back to the guy she was talking to. 

"I guess this means I get to walk you out." Wyatt comments. 

I smile small. "I guess it does." Kevin and Michelle walk ahead of us as we make our way out. "How old are you? If you don't mind me asking." 

"Old enough." He answers with a smirk. "One year older than Kelly to be exact. Find out her age, then you'll find out mine." 

"Why can't you just tell me?" 

"Where's the fun in that?" He replies back. "Besides, I like a good game of searching." 

"Childish," I mutter under my breath, but he hears me anyway. 

"Barely." He says, smiling wide.

"You a vampire or something?" I question, jokingly.

He shrugs. "Maybe."

"Your guns." The big Italian man from upfront says. He hands both Michelle and me our guns. 

Taking it from his hands, I carefully place it into my thigh strap. "You'd most definitely be a vampire in another life." 

"Really? Why you say that?"

I shrug. "They like to play games," I answer with a light chuckle. 

Wyatt laughs. "I see your point." He looks down at his phone. "You're number, can I get it?" 

My eyebrows raise. "Why, so you can flirt with me some more? You do know who my baby daddy is right?" 

He nods, chuckling. "I do, which makes it even more exciting to flirt with you. Now, your number." He asked again as we made our way outside. 

"Figure it out, I'm sure you can." 

"This beauty here is my car," Kevin announces, pointing at a black BMW. I'm not sure what model it was but it looks nice and new. It's also a sedan. "I've only got a few rules." He states, leaning on the car. "No foods or drinks are allowed in here, don't touch my radio, no feet on the dash or in the window, no smoking, and last but not least if you can't drive then don't bother with getting behind my wheel."

"You call that a few?" Wyatt questions, shaking his head. 

Kevin flicks him off. "Shut up baby Russo, the grown-ups are talking." He remarks. 

"Just wait till we get back inside." Wyatt threatens. 

I clasp my hands together. "Alrighty then. Thank you, Kevin, for letting us borrow your car... once again and thank you, Wyatt, for your hospitality but me and Michelle here, have to get going." 

On cue, Michelle unlocks the car. "Bye guys." She bites her lower lips, looking at Kevin. "Bye Kevin."

A smile forms on Kevin's face. "Bye, beautiful." 

Getting into the car, Michelle locks the doors and begins the process of starting it up. "Beautiful huh?" I tease as she drives away. "Next he'll be calling you baby." 

Michelle rolled her eyes and smirked. "No, he won't."

"Yes, he will," I tell her. "He likes you." 

"No, he doesn't. He's just playing." She says with her eyes trained on the road. "Where do you wanna look first?" 

I think about it for a moment. Yonnie be all over the place when she relapses. "Umm... we can check out the crack house on fifth street. That's where she was at last time, hopefully, she'll be there this time." Leaning back into my seat, I turn on the seat warmer. "This car is perfect," I mumble. "Now back to you, it's obvious that Kevin likes you, Michelle. And if he didn't he seems like the type of guy to tell you that he doesn't. Hell, he seems like he'd tell you if he was just playing too." 

Michelle nods. "Okay, say that he does like me and I like him too, then what? We marry off into the sunset and have kids?" She questions. "I've got to think logically Brandy. He's in the mafia, which is a dangerous ass position to be in. s**t, if I pursue something more with him I'd be sleeping with one eye open for the rest of my life. I'd have a target on my back, for just being associated with him. That's not the type of life I want to live." She said as she made a turn. "There's more to life than that. And I know that I could never ask him to leave it. So I'd rather not be involved with him." 

She did have a valid point. "Okay." 

She glanced at me. "Okay? Really? That's all you have to say?" She questioned. "You're not gonna yell at me and tell me how overdramatic I'm being?" 

"Nope," I say with a shrug. "You make a valid point and it seems like you've already made up your mind. I'm in no position to tell you what to do when it comes down to your relationship. You're an adult and it's your life."

"Tell me how you really feel." 

I glance at her. "Why?"

"What do you mean why? Girl because I want to know?" 

Shaking my head, I licked my lips. "Nope, because if I do then you're gonna bring up a lot of things to discredit my opinion. You do it all the time." I tell her. "You've already made up your mind about what you want, but then you find a reason to doubt that decision. For example, two years ago. You made up your mind that you wanted to go to college, but then shortly after you made up your mind you begin to doubt yourself. Saying s**t like, I'm not smart enough, which we both know is a lie. And now, here we are two years later and you aren't in college. Still using the excuse that it's a waste of money. You're skeptic as fuck."

Michelle bites the inside of her cheeks. "It is a waste of money." She muttered. "But yeah... maybe you're right." 

"Not maybe. I am right." 

She sighed. "Can we just drop the subject now?"

I raised my eyebrows at her, smiling a bit. "What subject?"

She laughs. "Since you all up in my business, let me get into yours. What was up with you and Elijah tonight?" She asks.

My face shifts into a frown. "Nothing. Why? Did it seem like something was up?"

"Yeah. You seemed kinda annoyed when he introduced you as Ej's mom." She states. "So what are you guys? Dating? Friends with benefits? Because I'm confused." 

I shrug. "It's complicated." It's the best way I could sum it up. 

Michelle scoffs. "Nothing is ever really complicated. We just say it is, to avoid what it really means." The car finally stops, which causes me to glance around. As usual, it was dark outside in this part of town. Over here in Center Hill, no one cares about what happens in this place. The cops avoid it at all costs and the mayor avoids providing for the people that reside in it. Hell, even the news stop taking coverage of this place. 

It was a dump. 

"I'll go in, you stay and watch the car." 

Michelle frowns. "Hell no, there's no way you're going in there alone. It's way too dangerous." She tells me. 

"Do you not remember what happened the last time we were in this neighborhood?" I genuinely ask. "Because I do and we can't afford to be stranded out here again." The last time we were in this particular neighborhood, someone stole my car. It was missing for a few days, till someone crashed it into a local Publix. "We can't let that happen again, especially not to this car. Your man would kill us." 

She sighed heavily. "He's not my man Brandy."

"Sure he isn't," I mumbled, opening the passenger door. "I'll be there five minutes tops, so don't worry. Make sure you lock the doors right after me." 

She groaned. "Girl, just get out of the car already. You sound like my mom." Michelle was the only one out of the three of us girls who had both parents in her life. Her parents were judgmental at times... but she still loved them. And they still loved her... even though she chose not to go to college but instead get her license in cosmetology. They didn't think that doing hair was a real job or education, they had rather her just become a doctor. 

It was better... to them of course. 

Walking onto the steps of the foreclosed house, the smell of urine and s**t burns through my nostrils. The smell is enough to make me vomit, but I contain it by swallowing hard. I try covering my nose with my hand, but it barely does anything. 

The smell is too strong. 

Drawing my gun from my thigh strap, I fix my position on the broken porch. 

My hand grips the doorknob of the house and slowly I twist it, before opening it. The awful smell grows stronger and this time I can't contain myself. Launching forward, chucks of hot food and liquids spill from my mouth. 

It lands on the old dirty welcome mat, in front of the door. 

"Fuckin shit." I curse, coughing as my throat burns. Spitting one last time, I stand up straight again. "Let's try this s**t again." My fingers push against the cold wooden door and as it opens, it creeks. Stepping inside, it was dim in here. The place was lit by small stubs of candles. 

My eyes come across pairs of junkies on the ground. Some have their heads leaned back, while others are injecting and snorting some drugs. The more I walked in, the more junkies could be seen. And the smell... it kept getting worse. "Who runs this place now?" I question a junkie man who was lying on a mattress. The mattress wasn't its signature white, instead, it was the color of both bear and dirt. 

"C... Chris." He stutters out. 

Who the f**k is Chris? I'd never heard of a Chris, nor did I ever hear JD mention him. "Where is he?"

The skinny man lifts up his shaky finger and points, "Living room." 

"Thanks," I mumble while walking away. Taking a couple of more steps, I find myself at the entrance of the living room. 

"b***h, now I don told yo ass. If you don't have enough money, then don't come around here trying to buy s**t from me. You keep playing with me and I'm gon beat ya ass hoe." A light-skinned male yells while sitting down on a dirty grey loveseat. "Go on now, get yo ass outta my face. f*****g crackhead!" The white woman quickly ran away from him, nearly bumping into me in the process. "Who the f**k is you?" The man asks, as his hazel eyes glare at me. 

"She got a fat ass." One of the guys close to him says as he continues to roll his blunt.

"Look at what she got on, maybe she's here to dance for us." A fat man says, looking at me hungrily. 

"My name is Brandy," I answer walking closer. "I'm looking for someone, was wondering if you could help."

He rolled his eyes. "b***h, does this look like a jail? Do I look like a warden? The only way I could help you is if you're looking to score." A couple of his homies laugh, all their eyes trained on me.

My hand tightens around my gun. Lifting it up, I aim it at him. He jumps back a little, his eyes open wide. His guys quickly aim their guns at me, but it doesn't scare me. "Now, listen here. I don't take kindly to being called a b***h and I suggest that if you want to keep your balls, you not call me that again. You got that?" He quickly nods. "Good. Now tell your little boyfriends over there to put their guns down before I lose my temper." 

He turns to look at them. "Yo, put them down." They're hesitant at first, but eventually, listen to him.

"That's better." My gun is still aimed at him. "The girl I'm looking for, her name is Yonnie. You might know her by JD's girl." 

Chris nods. "Yeah, the little dark skin girl. She was around here, not too long ago. She wanted to score, but I didn't sell her anything." 

"How come?"

"Because I don't sell to does who clearly ran away from rehab." He answers. 

"How long ago did she leave?"

"About an hour ago." 

"Thanks," I say slowly backing away, to get out. 

"Wait!" He calls. "You said your names Brandy right?"

"Yeah. What about it?" 

"You the one that used to roll with that crazy nigga Isaac?" He questions. When I don't answer him, he chuckles. "Oh s**t, it is you. Issac crazy ass has been looking for you, for a while now." He places his hand on his knees, sitting up straight. "Word around the street is if you don't come to him soon. He's finna put a bounty on your head. Both you and your son." 

My heart stops as I processed this information. Issac putting a bounty on my head was one thing, hell it even sounds like something he'd do. But for him to also do one for Ej... that was downright petty. Issac always had one rule to war, never involve any children but now he goes and pulls this s**t. "How the f**k you know all this?" 

Chris smirks. "I took JD's place, meaning I'm in charge of everything now. Including who we deal with." He states. "What'd you do to piss him off?" 

I ignored his question. By now it was way too obvious what I had done. "Did Yonnie mention where she was going next?" 

He shrugs. "No, but she did mention something about seeing the stars or some s**t like that. I'm not sure, the b***h was pretty out of it." 

I've got a clue about where she is. 

"I'm gonna go now, and if any of your asses follow me. I'll put a bullet through your head. You got that?"

Chris lifts up his hands in surrender. "Yeah." He answers. "I got that." 

Slowly I began to back away, making sure to keep a close eye on them as I disappear out of the living room. With quick pace, I make it out of the house. "Drive." Is what comes out of my mouth as soon my butt gets inside the car. 

"What the hell happened in there?" Michelle asked, driving away. "Was Yonnie inside?"

"She wasn't there, but I think she's at my house. The guy there said she kept talking about stars. Yonnie used to always mention how she liked how the stars looked from my backyard. So I'm gonna take a good guess and just go with it."

"That's all he told you?" She sniffed the air and frowned. "What the f**k is that smell?" 

I put the window down, trying to breathe in some fresh air. "It's that f*****g house. It smelled so bad that I threw up on the doorsteps." 

"Oh my God, it makes me want to throw up." She moaned while getting onto the highway. "How the hell can people live in that damn stench?"

"I've got no idea," I say, closing my eyes. I Inhale and then exhale, trying to calm my mind. Too much was going on in my life right now. 

"You okay? You look devastated." 

"Yeah, I'm... fine." Lie. I'm honestly not but I need to be, in order to keep everyone and everything... running. It's my responsibility to do so. "I'm just ready for this night to end." I decided to keep the information about Issac to myself.

"You and me both girl." 

____

"Where are you?" Elijah questions over the phone. He sounded worried. "It's past twelve." 

My eyes roll to the back of my head. "Elijah, it's literally only twelve o two." 

"Exactly, you said you'd call at twelve. Not twelve o two. You had me worried for a whole two minutes."

I laugh at that. "Seriously, only for two minutes. Geez, I feel so special." I say sarcastically. "How's Elliot? Did he go down easy?"

"Yes, he's fine. As soon as we got into the car he fell asleep." Elijah says. "You sound tired, why don't you come back here so I can make sure you get some sleep?" 

"You know I can't do that Elijah. Not yet, not until I find her and make sure she's okay." He stays quiet for a moment, I'm guessing to catch himself from saying anything negative. "You'd do the same if she was your friend." 

"I've got no friends." He quickly says. 

"Well then, you'd do it for family." 

"See, that's the thing, Brandy. She's not family. She's not related to you, yet you're out there in the middle of the night trying to find her after she messed up yet again. You've told me before, that she's already done and this about two, three times. I'm sorry, but it's obvious she doesn't want nor need your help." He lets out a breath. "We've got too much on our plate Brandy and you running around town looking for a broken little girl isn't helping." 

My hands tighten around the phone. "You and everyone else whose been nagging me about looking for her is missing the entire point. She is important to me, I see her as family! And I'm not sure where you guys come from, but where I'm from family is everything. No matter what!" I shout through the phone. "She is in need, and I'm going to help her. No matter how many times she messes up or the cost! Just like how I'm helping you. And everyone else who's ever needed help. Why? Because that's what you do for family, and for those, you love and care about." 

"Brandy..." He starts to say.

"You know what Elijah, I'm just getting home. I've got to go." I tell him angrily. "You can go f**k yourself, you and everyone else that disagrees with me on this." Pressing the end call button, I slam my phone down on my lap.

"He kinda has a point Brandy," Michelle says, with her hands cross. 

My arms cross together. "Well, that's fine if you think that Michelle, honestly. But really as I told him on the phone, go f**k yourself." Opening the door, I step out. "Go back to the warehouse, I'm spending a night here. I'll Uber myself back over there in the morning." 

"Brandy, don't be like this." 

"Girl bye!" I slam the door shut and walk to my driveway. Michelle drives away within seconds. The closer I get to my porch, the more of my motion detector lights turn on. My eyes widen once I've reached the top. The shaking girl, laying on my porch bench causes my mouth to go dry. "Yonnie!"  

Everything seems to move in slow motion. I'm by her side, cradling her before my mind has time to process what's happening. She's cold, so cold and wet. "I'm... I'm... sorry." She mutters. "... I'm so sorry." Her cold arms wrap around my body as tears spill from her eyes. 

They spill from mine as well. 

"It's okay, it's okay," I tell her. "I'm just happy you found your way home. Not everyone finds their way home, but you did and I'm proud of you because of it." Standing up, I walked towards the pot of rocks and look for the correct one. Once it's found, I remove the taped key from around it. "Come on, let's get you inside." My arms wrap around her waist and pull her up. She's not heavy, but she has picked up a couple of pounds from the last time I saw her.

Unlocking the door to my house, we step in. Closing it shut, we make our way to the bathroom, opening all lights in the process. "I'm sorry." 

"Stop apologizing... it doesn't change anything." After gently sitting her on the toilet seat, I walk to the tub and turn on the hot war. Putting in the drain stopper, the water begins to fill up the tub. "Arms up." She lifts them up, allowing me to take off her sweatshirt. While she stands up to pull her pants down, I unbuckle her bra. Going into my glass cabinet, I take out a bath bomb and place it in the warm water. "Go ahead and get in." 

Slowly, she gets into the tub and settles downs. "Thank you." She mumbles, laying her head down. 

Turning off the water, I sit at the edge of the tub watching her. "Did you shoot up?"

Yonnie nods. "Yes... but it wasn't a lot. I swear. It was just a little. Once I realized what I was doing, I stopped." 

"Why'd you run away?"

"I... I got scared. The nurses kept screaming at me and everything... everything was just too much to take in. Yesterday was a very stressful day and my body, it... it craved for a release. And... and..." 

"And you gave in." 

"Yeah... but it wasn't like how I'd expected it to be. My skin was on fire and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. But despite all that, I still wanted to get high." She gulped. "One thing led to another and I found myself on the doorsteps of JD's old trap house, looking for a score. But the guy wouldn't sell to me. And then the guilt started piling on. I found myself walking here."

"Why were the nurses yelling at you?" I question. 

She sinks into the water, letting it consume her. After about ten seconds, she comes up for air. Water drips from her hair. "They didn't like me." Lie. This is the first lie she's told me tonight, it was obvious from the way her eyes refused to look at me.

Anger rises in me. "Yonnie. I've killed for you, I've sacrificed my freedom for you. And for as long as you've known me, I've always been there for you! So please, don't lie to me now. You owe me at least that!" 

Yonnie sighs and then looks me in the eyes. "The nurses. They're smuggling drugs into the clinic and selling them to patients. I caught one of them doing it and that's what started the argument, then the other nurse came in. He offered to give me some drugs if I kept my mouth shut about the whole thing."

My head throbs at the news, a humorless chuckle comes from my mouth. "So you mean to tell me. For the past few months, the money that I've been paying for you to be in that clinic to get you better was actually going to waste to sponsor your habit." My hands fall on my head as my body leans forward. "Ain't that a bitch." 

"I'm sorry." 

My hand bangs on the decorative panel of the tub. "Stop f*****g apologizing! You don't mean it! And you know you don't because if you did, you wouldn't continue to do the same s**t. I can't keep doing this!" I shout. "I want to but I can't. It's draining me! Physical and mental. You're the closest thing I've ever had to a little sister. You mean so much to me and I don't want to lose you. But you can't keep doing this to me. It hurts! It hurts so much, every time I have to see you like this." Tears began to fall from my eyes. "I'm sick of it Yonnie!" 

"It won't happen again. I promise." She cried.

"You promised last time. Look where we're at now." I sigh, turning to look at her. "Your promises mean nothing to me right now."

"What can I do?" 

"You can be better! Better than your current self, better than your parents... better than me. Because if you don't, you'll lose me and you'll lose Elijah."

Yonnie looks down at the water. "My life... it's full of drugs, and lies, death, and destruction. And for so long I've been hopeless and trapped in complete misery all because of childhood trauma. I'm embarrassed, and at times stigmatized. I'm afraid of retribution, liability, and even prosecution. Which isn't an excuse as to why I do this to myself... to others but I think it plays a role in it. When we met, you gave me hope. Something I've never, known before." She pauses. "And with that hope, I try to break free of my bad habits but it's really hard. Harder than anything I've ever done before." She stutters. "No amount of words can make up for the wrong I've done or for hurting you. But I'm asking you to put that little bit of hope that I know you have left in me into use. It may not seem like it now, but if I'm going to lose you and Ej because I'm so caught up in this stuff... then I'll stop. I'll stop because you guys mean so much to me and losing you guys... it'll kill me." 

"This is your last chance," I tell her, our eyes looking in one another, both filled tears. She looked so sad. "Your last chance to do right by us Yonnie. Don't screw it up. Please, I'm begging you. Try harder, not just for me but for you too. You owe it to yourself."

She nods. "Okay."

"We do this my way this time. No more help from doctors or clinics. You got that?"

"Yes. Your way, one hundred percent." She answers. As she sits up in the tub, her small breasts are put on display. There's a fresh scar on her chest that I'm just beginning to notice. I decided against asking her about it tonight but I'd make sure to bring it up a few days later. "I love you."

Leaning over the tub, I place a kiss on her forehead. "I love you too nene. We'll get through this." 

And I hope so dearly that it was the truth.