I wake up the next morning, and my blurry sight is slowly returning. I lift myself up and stretch. Pushing the covers off of me, I stand up slowly, to go pee. This hospital floor was cold for some reason.

After I take my quick pee, and wash my hands, I exit the bathroom. I look towards the sofa, noticing Jalonni is gone, and I sigh a sigh of relief. I walk slowly back to my bed, and lay back. The doctor walks into my room with a bright smile.

"How are you feeling?" She asks.

"I feel okay, I guess. Vision is still blurry, but I'll manage." I answer.

"That's good..." She pulls out a mini flash light. "Follow the light." She says as turns it on and places it in front of my eye.

I follow it the best way I could, and she nods and begins to write on her chart.

"So where is all my visitors." I ask.

"I personally asked them all to give you a day to yourself, so you could relax." She says not looking up from her writing.

"Thank you. It's well needed." I say as I adjust myself on the bed. I look over at the phone next to my bed with curiosity. "Does this work?" I ask as I pull it closer to me.

She looks over at the phone. "Yes it does. If you want to make a call press 9 twice and dial out once you hear the three beeps." She explains as she walks near the door.

"Thanks." I smile weakly as she waves and leaves.

I stare at the phone for a minute deciding who I should call. I haven't hear from La'rey and Faizon in a while, so I need to call them to make sure they're safe.

I pick up the phone, and dial out my house number. The phone starts to ring, and Jalonni picks up.

"Hello." His deep voice says into the phone and it sends chills of terrors through me. I hang up the phone, and sigh.

I slowly slide up from the bed, and walk over to the work that has been brought for me from school. I get my Geometry book, and start to do the problems. I'm a huge math geek, so it didn't take much for me to finish. I picked up my Biology book and started to work out those problems as well. I can say it really occupied my time.

I was interrupted by a knock at the door. The door opens and it's Theo.

"I thought the doctor asked y'all to stay away for today?" I say in the form of a question but I am happy to see him.

"Can I get a hug?" He asks.

"You can..." I smile as I stand up.

I hug him and it felt so good. "How did you get here?" I ask.

"I rode the bus. Mama went to work, and I refuse to let you be here alone or leave you alone" he adds slyly.

"Well thank you." I say as I sit back down at the table.

"So how are you feeling?" He asks.

I shrug and sniffle. "I'm feeling a lot better, been here for 3 days now."

He grabs my hand. "You know I missed you right?" He asks looking into my eyes. I smile at his question. "I do." I say as he cups my chin.

He leans in and kisses me and I don't deject. I let him kiss me because this is what I needed. He leans back, and breaks the kiss. I whine a little at the coldness of his lips not pressed against mines. "What are we?" He asks.

"Huh?" I say snapping out of my daze.

"I really like you and I'm not gonna keep having you play with my heart." He says as he grabs my hand. "So what are we?" He asks again.

"We're just ordinary people." I say in all seriousness.

"Really?" He says, shifting back a bit.

"Can you stop?" I say as I look up at him.

"No. I need to know." He says.

"You really want me to give you an answer under these circumstances?" I question him.

"You're worth more than gold to me. We may be young but I'm ready to give this a try." He says.

I look down at my books again and begin to write. He snatches the pencil away from me. "Answer me please Mahyden. I'm begging you with all I got." I place my hands over my ears to ignore him.

"Listen to me..." He semi- yells and I slowly stand up. "I AM SCARED THEO... I DON'T WANT TO HURT YOU OR YOU GET HURT. IT KILLS ME THAT I LIKE YOU SO MUCH BUT I AM BEING KEPT FROM LIKING YOU THE WAY I WANT TO!" I yell to him. He sits on the desk shocked at my truth.

"Why can't you?" He asks. "We ain't gotta be scared we damn near grown now."

I shake my head and shrug. "I don't think you get it Theo."

"I do. I totally do. All I want is for you to give me a try and let me be there." He says sweetly.

I pace for a minute to think before finally coming to a decision. "Okay."

"Okay?" He asks again.

"Okay... I'll give you a shot. Just give me time to heal before we really try here." I say exhausted.

He smiles brightly. "That's all I wanted to hear." He says coming over and kissing me. "Alright. Let's do this homework." He says as he pulls away and walks back to the desk.

----

A week later and It feels good to be getting out of this hospital. I missed school, I've missed all of my friends, and I missed just being free.

Dad walks into the room smiling. "Hey bud." He says pulling me in for a hug.

"Hey dad." I say returning the hug as I see Feizon and La'rey run from around him.

"Hyden!" Faizon says as he jumps on me. La'rey just hugs my leg.

"Your brothers missed you dearly." Dad says as he grabs my suitcase to finish putting my things in.

"And I've missed you." I say as I hug both of them tightly.

"Are you gonna leave us again?" They ask me.

I shake my head no. "I won't be going anywhere." I say as I stand up.

"Lets get you home..." Dad says as we get ready to leave.

We head out the room and I turn around to get one last glance before I depart. "Back to the real world." I say as I close the door to meet up with dad. He is at the front desk getting my discharge papers.

"How are you feeling?" The doctor asks me.

"Better than I was." I shrug. "Just ready to resume my life." I say and she smiles.

"It was a pleasure meeting you." She says to me as she looks at my dad. "May I talk to you for a quick second." She says as they step off to the side.

I lean down to talk to my brothers as dad walks off with the doctor. "So, how has things been at home?" I ask both if them.

"Daddy is home, so Lonni doesn't be mean to us." Faizon says.

"He isn't going to be mean to you while I'm around either." I say for their reassurance.

"Then he will be mean to you." Faizon says as he frowns.

"Don't think about that. I'm a big boy. Who has always been there for you guys?" I ask.

"You." They both say in unison.

"Okay, so trust and believe I will do whatever it takes to ensure your safety." I say as I hug both of them. Dad walks back over to us, and waits for our hug to end. "You guys ready to go?" He asks as he picks up my papers and we leave. I love having my dad home. He's always so caring and I feel safe with him home.

We pull up to McDonald's and he buys us each our own nugget meal. "What does Jalonni like?" He asks. I shrug and he narrows his eyes on me. "How should I know?" I ask and he turns away from me. "I'll just get him a chicken sandwich off of the dollar menu and a small fry." He tells the cashier as he rings it up. "That'll be $2.89" the cashier says as my dad pays the money. We get Jalonni's food and head home.

We pull up to the house, and head in Jalonni is sitting on the sofa with some chick, cuddling. "I got you some food." Dad says as he hands Jalonni his food. Jalonni looks up at dad and then back at his food. "No drink?" He asks.

"No. You're lucky you got that." He says as we walk into the kitchen.

Jalonni follows in behind us. "What did y'all get?" He asks us.

"We got chicken nugget meals." I say and he looks at dad.

"Why didn't I get that?" He asks dad.

"I didn't know if you ate that." He says leaning down into the fridge. "You never know when it comes to me." Jalonni mumbles.

Dad leans up and closes the fridge. "What was that?" He asks for Jalonni to repeat.

"You don't ever know when something comes to me. I'm sure Mahyden got what he wanted off bat." He says pulling me into the argument.

"You trying to show out for your lil company, so I suggest you go back in there and entertain her before you get embarrassed." Dad says lowly and Jalonni storms off. If you haven't caught on Jalonni is the problem child in dad's eyes. They argue like this most of the time, and when the day is good the day is good. We hear the front door slam, and we know Jalonni has just left.

Dad sighs. "Just eat up you guys." Dad say as he walks upstairs to his room.

I can't help but to think if dad really knows that Jalonni has deep problems. I don't want to push, so I'll ask some other time. I sit at the table and begin to eat when the door bell rings. "I'll get it" I yell as I run to the door. I open it and it's my girl Synthia.

"Hey long time no speak." She says and I frown.

"I was in the hospital." I say and she gasps.

"Swear?" She says in the form of a question.

"Yeah. You didn't know?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.

"Nobody told me a thing." She says as I step out of the way to invite her in.

"I was eating." I say to her as we head towards the table.

"Hey handsomes!" She says to Faizon and La'rey.

"Hey." They both say.

"You guys are just too cute." She says and the both chuckle.

"Alright guys if you are finished throw your trash away and go watch t.v" I say to them and they clean up and leave the table.

"Where is Jalonni?" She asks. I roll my eyes. "He and Dad got into it over some food." I say as I look back up at her.

"That was petty. I bet Jalonni started it." She say puckering her lips out.

I pucker my lips back. "You know it." I say as dad comes back down the stairs. "Hey Mr. Zonilli" she says.

"Hi Synthia. How are you?" He asks.

"I'm fine. Just trying to uphold expectations." She shrugs.

"You don't sound to excited." He says as he grabs his coat.

"I am..." She says.

"Well as long as you're content. Mahyden I'm going to go get your medicine. I'll be back soon. Tell Jalonni I left him $20 in case he wants something else to eat." He says as he places on his coat and leaves.

"Just like him to cater to Jalonni when he gets mad." I say as I look down at my fries I have left on my plate. "You want these?" I ask Synthia.

"Hell yeah. A bitch could eat." She says and I laugh at her craziness.

"So how did things go with you and what was his name......Oh, Ryan Hostler" I say as a fan girl.

"Shut up..." she laughs. "No, but he is really a sweetheart. He wants to take time with me, and not rush anything. He gets the pussy moist with his fine ass."

"So y'all had sex?" I ask with wide eyes.

"No. Not yet. I'm not ready." She says.

"I guess." I shrug as Jalonni walks back into the house.

"Didn't know you'd have company" He says and walks upstairs.

I roll my eyes as I look back at Synthia as she is texting away on her phone. "Well I should get going. He wants to see me." She smiles and stands up.

I stand up and hug her as we walk towards the front door. "See you later." I say to her.

"You will." She smiles and I close the door. I turn around and Jalonni is in my face.

"Did dad leave me some money?" He says with no emotion on his face. It was really hard to read his motives right now.

"He says he did. Call him and ask." I say as I move from around him.

"Alright..." He mumbles to his self.

He calls dad and I guess he tells him where the money was. He went up the stairs, and came back down within seconds. "I'm gone. Don't wait up." He says as he closes the door.

"Oh I won't" I say lowly to myself. So far everything is peaceful. It's a hit or miss with Jalonni.

I walk up the stairs to my room and door is closed. I open the door, and I walk into my room shocked at the mess I am viewing. My bed is flipped over, my sheets are missing, clothes are everywhere, trash is all over, and I'm pissed. I'm definitely confronting Jalonni once he gets back. I need to stand for something or I'm falling for everything. He's starting to urk my fucking nerves.