Page 99 of When a Soul Cries

My car had already been broken down in the apartment parking lot for weeks. I couldn’t afford to fix it, and once the eviction went through, management didn’t care why it couldn’t be moved.

They had it towed.

I didn’t even know where they’d taken it.

Then I lost Cash Market.

No car meant getting to work became damn near impossible. No apartment meant I didn’t have a stable place for Halo. One missed shift became another. Mr. Daniels had tried to work with me, but eventually even he couldn’t keep rearranging the schedule around my life falling apart.

So that disappeared too.

Apartment.

Car.

Job.

Everything inside the apartment.

One by one, every little piece of stability I’d fought so hard to build got ripped away.

And every morning, Halo still woke up looking at me like I could fix anything.

That hurt the worst.

Because I couldn’t.

I didn’t know what the hell I was doing anymore.

But she didn’t know that.

So I kept smiling for her.

Kept kissing her forehead.

Kept telling her Mama had her.

Even when I wasn’t sure who the hell had me.

Every time Zari called, I lied.

I told her we were fine.

I told her everything had worked itself out.

I told her not to worry about us and to take care of whatever was happening with her family.

Because I knew Zari.

If she knew the truth, she’d come running back to Crestmont. She’d make my problems hers. She’d start trying to fix things before she even unpacked her bag.

She’d already done enough for me.

I couldn’t keep being somebody else’s emergency.

So Zari had no idea Halo and I were sleeping in a motel where I shoved a chair under the doorknob every night.

She didn’t know people argued outside until three in the morning.