rising above the horizon and Eliana was already awake. She couldn't sleep knowing that her best friend had tried to take her life once again and nearly succeeded. There had never been a time where she had to go to the hospital because Eliana never let it go that far. If she tried to overdose, Eliana forced her to throw them up. When she tried to drown herself in the university pool, Eliana made it in time to perform CPR.

Usually her timing with Korin was impeccable, but this time she wasn't even on her way. She was simply at work having a causal day while her best friend was trying to take herself out. That truth she could not deal with. She could not deal with the fact that she didn't save her this time. Nor did she prepare Noelle or Brit. She'd never even tipped them on Korin's warning signs because she just knew that she'd always be there. Yet, she wasn't.

"Take my mind off this please." she turned over to Pete.

The two never got the chance to speak last night because they overheard the doctor delivering the news. It brought Eliana to her knees so Pete sat with her until she was able to take herself home. He drove Morgan home then came back to the city to tend to Eli. He knew this was a hard time for her and he couldn't imagine being anywhere else than with her. Especially when his home was currently a hotel room.

"How about you start getting ready to go see her." he brushed her hair back.

She immediately shook her head, "I can't see her hooked up to machines, Pee. She can't even breathe on her own."

"You have to go see her at least once, Eliana. It may hurt to do it but it matters. She's damn near your sister."

"You'll come with me?"

"Of course." he kissed her forehead.

"Do you love me, Pete?"

"I do. That's why Morgan and I are going our separate ways."

"I'm a horrible person aren't I? And don't lie to me. I helped break Morgan's heart, I can't seem to stop breaking Noelle's and I let Korin down."

"You and Noelle?" his eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah...we've liked each other from day one but I was always scared to act on how I felt until a little before you and me. I cut her off for you then after you cut me off I started to see her again but I'm cutting her off for you again."

His lips formed into the shape of on 'O'. She rolled onto her back then looked up at the ceiling.

"Yeah, I figured. But I really can't help the way I feel about you. I've tried to banish you from my mind but I can't. I truly can't."

"Trust me...I know. We've both down some foul shit to the people in our life but right now all we can do is apologize and grow. We gotta become better people." he responded.

"You don't think becoming better people mean we have to leave each other alone? Imagine the extra pain we'll cause being together after we hurt other people."

"Is that what you want to do?" he propped himself up on his elbow.

"I don't know. But I do know that I don't want to cause anyone any more pain, Pete."

Neither knew what to say after that. Eliana was in love with Pete and would love to be with him, but to hurt Morgan more than she already had was too much for her. She didn't want to be that person. She'd done enough. She also didn't want to hurt Noey for the second time. Especially after they had a talk about what Eli wanted. She'd even asked Noelle to guide her through embracing her sexuality. Now, she was considering a relationship with Pete.

Pete was about to muster up a response when a loud knock caught their attention. Eliana frowned but climbed from her bed anyway. She pushed her feet into her house slippers before making her way downstairs to see who was at her door that early. Rather than ask who is it, she looked out of the peephole to an angry Noelle.

Noelle had been up all night, trying to decide what she wanted to do with what she'd been presented with at the hospital. First, she overheard Morgan encouraging Pete to express his feelings to Eli then Eli gave him the opportunity to do so. She curved Noelle's hand grab and excused herself to the bathroom, practically telling him to follow her. It put Noelle in flames. Then the doctor came out with an update on Korin and added fuel to her flames. She hadn't made it to Korin in time to save her life. Overall, she had a rough night.

"I know you're up, Eliana." she knocked again. Eliana deeply inhaled then unlocked the door, pulling it open. She barely had it open before Noelle was barging inside. "You have time to talk? I know your man is here."

"Noey—"

"Noelle."

"What are you doing here so early?"

"I came to check on you, but I packed your things as well just in case your man was here too. And judging by the BMW outside, he is here."

"We aren't together."

"Might as well be. His babymama is encouraging him to be with you and you curved me to hear him out so the love for him is obviously stronger."

"I–" she didn't have a rebuttal. The statement had been true.

"Thought so. Here are your things. You're not welcomed to my place anymore and you can lose all contact with me. I don't want any dealings with you because what I won't be taken for is a fool twice. You have a nice life. I hope you grow up one day."

"Grow up?"

"Yes. You're immature."

"Because I love a man more than a woman?"

"No, because you don't know how to properly communicate your feelings. You knew that you were in love with him before you came back to me, but because you thought he was going to choose his family over you, you made sure to have me locked in place. It's selfish and it's immature."

"I'm sor—"

"Aht. That, I don't want to hear. You keep that to yourself because you don't mean it. Just let me walk out this door and never say anything else to me."

"Why does it have to be that, Noelle?"

"I'm not letting you have any power over me. You obviously don't care about me so you can keep that bad energy over here. We don't need to be friends. It's pointless."

"But it's not. We've been friends for six years."

"Doesn't feel like it. And you damn sure didn't treat me like it. Bye Eliana."

Noelle dropped the bag of belongings on the floor then walked out of the brownstone. She had to take a moment to breathe as she stood on the porch. So much of her broke just by releasing Eliana from her life so she stood trying her hardest not to cry. Eliana secretly had her heart for years then she finally got her and fell more in love only to be played in the end. She was broken. All she wanted to do was call Korin and cry but she couldn't and that hurt her even more.

Eliana was on the other side of the door hurt as well. But her hurt was because she knew Noelle was torn. She knew she was the reason why, but her heart still lied with Pete. There was nothing she could do to make herself stop loving him. Yet, she wasn't sure she could be with him. The pain she saw in Noelle's eyes matched that of Morgan's and she couldn't live continuing to inflict pain on them. She would have to be in Morgan's life because she was with her child's father, and Noelle would hear about it.

As bad as she wanted to put her happiness first, she wasn't too sure of her ability to do so. Therefore, she went upstairs and stood against the door frame of her bedroom.

"You cool?" Pete asked. He now sat at the edge of her bed.

"No. I don't think we can do this. We're hurting way too many people by being together."

"The pain will still be there regardless if we're together or not. We hurt them yes but we have to hurt ourselves too?"

"Seeing their pain doesn't hurt you?"

"Of course it does but we obviously weren't right for them. They deserve happiness and so do we. Everyone deserves to be happy."

"Not like this though." she shook her head.

A few blocks away, Brittney was on her knees throwing up everything she'd ate for breakfast. If she wasn't crying she was throwing up and at this point she was tired. She wanted things to go back to the way they were prior to yesterday — when things were still okay.

Chazmon leaned against the sink with a glass of water, waiting for her to finish emptying her stomach's contents. Neither of them had gotten much sleep last night because Brit couldn't stop herself from crying and worrying about Korin. When her worrying began to overwhelm her she ended up vomiting. Chad stayed up with her for support and now that it was nearing eight o'clock in the morning, they could hardly keep their eyes open.

"Baby I feel so weak." she lazily flushed the toilet.

He placed the glass down, walked over to her and picked her up bridal style. He laid her down in his bed then went back for the glass of water. He had her take a few sips from it and eat a couple saltine cracker before he traveled back to the bathroom.

"You think she'll wake up?" Brit asked him from the room.

Chazmon had been silent all night and she wanted to know what he thought would happen. She knew he was spiritual and assumed he felt or knew something that she didn't. His intuition was usually spot on from what she'd gotten to see in their time together.

"I'm praying she does." he sprayed disinfectant on the toilet. "Not only will the impact of her death be a long line of pain, she's a good person. She deserves to feel whatever it is that she's not feeling. We all deserve to pass away happy and satisfied with the life we've lived."

"I should've went over there when I said I was." Brit shook her head, a tear slipping from her eye.

"Baby it's not your fault." he walked to the door frame so that she could see him. "There is no telling when she took those pills."

"But there was still no one there with her. How did Gio not know? He was the last person there with her."

"No, no." he stepped out. "We're not assigning blame on anyone. They were in a rough place. We don't know what was said. All we know is that she broke up with him."

"She what?" Brit frowned.

"He said she ended things with him which is why he left."

"Korinnnn." she closed her eyes.

It seemed like a lot had been going on at once and this ending was foreseen. She and Gio were in troubled waters, she was suffering from panic attacks, she was experiencing a depressive episode, and had also broken up with Giovanni. There was no telling what she was going through professional as well. Her plate was loaded and heavy during such a vulnerable moment for her.

Brit's mind then went to Noelle who was the one to find Korin. She could only imagine how scared she had been while watching their friend fall in and out of consciousness. Especially after she'd expressed to her that she was a burden. It then hit her that Noey was possibly alone at the moment. At the hospital, she watched Eliana walk away with Pete behind her and didn't remember Eli and Noelle leaving together.

"I need my phone." she sat up.

"For what?"

"I need to call Noelle. She's probably alone right now—"

The doorbell ringing made them both freeze. Chazmon reached for Brit's phone, handed it to her then went downstairs. He glanced out of the window first to see a car he wasn't too familiar with parked behind his. He went to the door and glanced out of the peep hole only to see Noelle. He wondered how she knew where he lived or that Brit was there, but he still let her inside.

"Whoa, you okay?" he asked when he noticed streams of tears flowing down her face.

"No. Can I talk to Brit?"

"She's upstairs. You can come on up." he locked the door before leading her up to his bedroom.

Upon seeing Noelle, Brit lifted the cover and prompted her to lie beside her in the bed. Noelle didn't hesitate.

"She chose him. Eliana chose Pete over me again." she began to cry into Brit's arms.

"Aw babe."

"I hate that I love her so much and can't even hate her. She even told me to my face...t-that she loves him more. She showed me who she was the first time and I didn't want to believe it. I'm so fucking stupid."

"No, you're not. Y'all were friends for years first so you never expected her to treat you like she does. That is not on you. You just believed in your best friend to love you properly."

"I'm thinking about moving back home."

"What? Why?"

"New York has been nothing but endless heartache for me. I miss being around my family and plus I'll get more career opportunities in LA than I do here."

"I won't tell you to stay but you'll definitely be missed. Just in these few months of knowing you, I've grown to love you like a sister. I just ask that you let me help you decorate your new place."

Noelle giggled, "That's a given. Your place is gorgeous. Quick question though sis, you just getting up."

Chazmon burst out into laughter from the bathroom where he continued to clean the toilet.

"It's not funny and I've been throwing up. I'm sorry."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I was just overwhelmed about Korin."

"Same. I was up all night but I'm going to see her in about an hour or so. Her brother and sister are probably in already so I wanna give them time with her:"

Brit deeply inhaled. "I bet they are losing their minds. They just lost their mother and now this."

"I don't even want to think about it. I'm so tired of crying."

"Let's take a nap before we go."

Without question, Noelle adjusted her body and they both shut their eyes to welcome sleep. Chazmon finished cleaning then walked out and shook his head at them. But he was happy they had one another for comfort while dealing with Korin's condition.

in a chair near Korin's beside, I heard the door to her room being opened. I wasn't sure what time it was so I peeked an eye open to see who it was. I quickly sat up once I saw that it was Justice slowly walking in with Khloe hiding behind him. He looked as if he hadn't slept in a few days and from the way Khloe gripped onto his shirt I knew that she was scared to even look Korin's way.

Justice made short eye contact with me before looking at Korin. A mixture of emotions swarmed his orbs – ranging from anger to sorrow. I'd even noticed the small wave of disgust fall upon his face. He grabbed onto the bed railing, clearing his throat as he rocked back and forth on his heels.

"You know how this happened?" he drummed on the railing as he looked at me.

"They said she overdosed on fluoxetine. I guess she still had anti-depressants laying around."

"You weren't with her?"

That question had haunted me all night long. I knew it would be asked and I didn't have the strength to say why I wasn't there. I didn't have the courage to admit to silencing her call and ignoring her text message. I hadn't even looked at it until last night, only to find out she wanted to know that I still loved her. I'd been so upset with her that I left without telling her that I loved her.

From her actions following that text, I wondered if she believed that I didn't love her anymore. In a moment where she needed to hear it, I didn't say it. Which made me believe that I was the one to put the cherry on top of her pain. All she wanted was for me to hear her out and understand that neither of us were okay. We were trying to act like we were, but us being together proved that we really weren't. Our wounds were still open and throbbing. I didn't do that. Instead I blew up, left and didn't look back.

Now, I was watching a machine keep her alive because she couldn't do so herself. To know that I was the final person to give her permission to end it all, tore me apart. I couldn't remember a time where I cried as hard as I had last night. This was on me.

"I mean I know you can't be with her twenty four seven but....I hate to think that laid there alone until she was found."

I looked down at my hands and shook my head. "I was mad at her. But she wasn't alone when it hit. Her friend Noelle was there."

"I-I can't be in here, Justice." Khloe finally spoke. "I don't feel her and...I-I just can't be in here anymore."

"Go sit outside with Raina and Sorine." he mentioned both his girlfriend and daughter. Once she was on gone he looked back at me, "What did they say about her condition?"

"She's on a ventilator and they have her in an induced coma to help her body heal. They say her chances of waking up look slim."

Justice immediately shook his head, "Nah. Nah, my sister is waking up from this shit. She wouldn't do this to us. Yeah? She wouldn't do this to us?"

I reached over for her phone and opened it to the video she'd recorded. I didn't want to show it to anyone else but he needed to see just how much pain she was in. At least to understand why she took the pills even if she didn't plan to actually overdose.

As her voice played from the phone, he covered his mouth looking up at the ceiling. He looked back at the phone as she expressed no longer caring about causing pain to everyone around her by taking her life. He locked the phone and dropped his head down on her stomach. His shoulders shook for a few seconds before he let out an aching sob that made me get up from my seat to comfort him.

"I was learning Kori...I just needed a little more time." he said. "I just needed more time."

He continued to cry for a couple more minutes, trying his hardest to explain himself to her. His words weren't very coherent from the strength of his cry but he wanted her to know that he didn't want this for her. He didn't want her walking around in constant pain. He didn't want her to feel like she had to take her own life to finally be happy.

When I heard a woman's cry, I turned around to see Khloe against the window. She'd finally looked at Korin. Raina wrapped her arms around her and pulled her back over to the chairs they'd been seated in.

"This is my baby sister man." Justice caressed Korin's face. "We just rekindled. You can't take her away from us. Mama wasn't enough for you?"