Page 1

Chapter 1

Quinny Parks

“Shit, my bad,” I heard my younger sister Sutton say, causing me to look up from my phone.

She’d collided with some tall nigga with dreads. I didn’t see how Sutton missed him when he stuck out like a sore thumb. The dude just stared at her without saying a word, blocking her entrance to the store.

“Umm,” Sutton said, meeting the dude’s gaze. She froze, her breathing slowed, it was like she’d gotten stuck in some trance.

“Sutton,” I called her name. I didn’t care for the odd vibe that was going on between Sutton and whoever this dude was. She looked at me, her pupils dilated. She looked as if she was looking through me. “Let’s go. We don’t have long before the movie starts.” I said gently, pulling her hand.

Sutton shook her head as she replied, “Right.” Breaking eye contact with the dude, she side stepped him keeping her eyes focused on the ground.

“What the hell was that?” I whispered in her ear as we walked side by side.

She peaked over her shoulder. “I don’t know, but they’re staring at us.” Sutton looked back at me with a look I couldn’t quite understand. She looked as if she didn’t want to leave. “Did you see his friend? He’s looking right at you.”

Sutton was the wild child out of the two of us. Normal stuff bored her, while she loved the weird, unusual stuff that most people turned away from. A stranger staring her down in the entrance to the store was right up Sutton’s alley.

“No,” I quickly replied. “And I don’t want to either.”

“Quinny, one look won’t kill you.” Sutton giggled, glancing over her shoulder again, then a frown formed on her face.

I begged to differ. As crazy as it sounded, I could feel his eyes staring right through me. His gaze sent a warm sensation coursing through my body. That scared the shit out of me because that wasn’t normal. I could only imagine what would happen if I turned around to look at the friend. I’d probably become trapped in his gaze. I’d pass on adding another man to my life. I was already trying to get rid of one bum.

“What?” I curiously asked.

“They’re gone.” She poked her lips out pouting.

I smacked my lips, cutting my eyes at my delusional sister as I said, “That’s a good thing. Crazy ass girl.” For all we knew those niggas could have been trying to kill is.

“Is it? That nigga was fine and did you see his eyes?” Sutton whined sounding like a highschool girl with a crush.

“Sutton Cleanna Parks, if you don’t stop being so thirsty! We not here for niggas. Snacks, and that’s it,” I scolded her.

“I have to disagree, big sister. There’s always time for niggas. You know I love me a fine-ass dreadhead.” Sutton snickered, and I rolled my eyes at her childish ass.

Luckily, there was an empty cart sitting in the middle of the aisle we headed down. I grabbed it as we continued down the aisle with drinks in it.

“I wish I could go back and get his number.” Sutton sighed. “What you think, Quinny, should I try to find him?” Sutton said as she looked over the drinks, knowing she was going to get cran-grape juice. It was her favorite drink.

“I think you sound as crazy as he looked staring at you. He didn’t blink or anything.”

“I mean, when you look at a face this beautiful, you can’t help but get stuck,” Sutton said with a goofy grin on her face.

Laughing at her silliness, I waved her off. “I’m not fooling with you. Let’s hurry up and get these snacks so we can watch these movies.”

Once or twice a month, we’d have a sister sleepover. We would cut off our phones and enjoy each other’s company, catching each other up on our lives and binge-watching TV series and movies too. It was our way of keeping our sisterly bond strong. Aside from our cousin Emberly, we didn’t have any other family. Emberly occasionally joined us for our sleepovers, but since she was a traveling nurse, it didn’t happen as often as we would have liked. Emberly may have only been our cousin; however, we looked at her like she was a sister.

Growing up, I didn’t have the best memories of my mom. She left right after Sutton was born, leaving our dad, Melvin, to raise us alone. Oddly, I never found myself longing for a mother figure. Our dad was an amazing dad. He spoiled us with so much love that we couldn’t focus on what we didn’t have. He raised two little girls to the best of his ability, and I would forever be grateful to him for that. No matter what, we had a roof over our heads and food in our bellies. We grew close with Emberly because her mom was our dad’s older sister, Tela. When Dad had to work, we went over to our aunt Tela’s house.

Unfortunately, our dad died in a car accident when I was eleven and Sutton was nine. Fortunately, Aunt Tela took us in and raised us alongside Emberly. Aunt Tela never mistreated us. Whatever she did for Emberly, she did for us. Sutton, Emberly, and I formed a bond that was unbreakable. When my aunt Tela passed, Emberly took it hard. Her mom was the only family she had. Aunt Tela never mentioned who Emberly’s dad was. Just always said he was close by. After her death Emberly hated being home. That led to Emberly becoming a traveling nurse. She always said had too many memories. We understood that pain, and we never took Emberly’s absence personally. She was still grieving her mom.

If anyone understood how she felt, we did. Losing our dad was my first heartbreak. Then losing Aunt Tela broke me. Feeling the void of my dad not being there became too much for me to deal with. For years, I shut down. I wouldn’t talk. I didn’t want to eat or sleep. It was like I had given up on living. I remember Sutton crying because she didn’t want to lose me too. That’s what snapped me out of my depression. I had to keep going for Sutton.

I started living again and learned to mask the emptiness in my soul. Most days, I felt like I was living in a pit of darkness that I had to climb my way out of on the daily. I hated feeling like this, but I’d learned a long time ago that this was my life. Aside from Sutton and Emberly, I felt like there was no other meaning to my life. I tried to find a purpose for myself, and every time, I came up empty. For now, I was existing until something came to give my life meaning. If I was completely honest, if I didn’t have Sutton or Emberly, I doubted I would still be here. My life was mundane at best. I worked, came home, ate, slept, then repeated the cycle. For the most part, that was what my everyday life consisted of. I’d just left Dante, my boyfriend of two years, after catching him cheating with some bitch in a club. I didn’t even care to hear anything he had to say once I caught him with his dick in another bitch. That was all I needed to see.

Of course, Dante wasn’t making our breakup the easiest. He was constantly begging and pleading for me to give him a second chance. I couldn’t understand it for the life of me: if he couldn’t handle me leaving him, why the fuck did he cheat? Men had to be the dumbest beings on this earth. Honestly, maybe if I had more love for Dante, I might have considered taking him back with all the begging he’d been doing, but the fact was, Dante was just something to do. Not to say he was a bad person, but he wouldn’t be my first pick on any day of the week. Aside from his looks, Dante was just average: average bank account, average job, average dick. There was nothing about him that was spectacular, which was why I thought it was so easy for me to walk away from him. He just didn’t do it for me. Dante wasn’t the type of boyfriend that had to be up under me twenty-four seven. He was cool with a few texts throughout the day and seeing each other a couple of times a month, which was right up my alley because I liked to be alone. Outside of Emberly’s and Sutton’s company, I could do without human contact. Dante wasn’t bothered by that too much. My Aunt Tela always told us to never settle for a man who didn’t set our souls on fire. Unfortunately, I found myself doing exactly that, settling for Dante because he was safe.