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FIVE
Tasha
PLAYLIST: ? NORMAL GIRL - SZA ?
“AHHHCHOOO!”
My whole body shakes from the strength of my sneeze. I cover my mouth with the tissue clenched in my hand and then sniffle to hold back a repeat.
I’ve been sitting on my sofa for hours like this—curled up under a blanket with a heap of crumpled tissues, my humidifier blowing steam, the TV playing every Sanaa Lathan movie available for streaming, as I pop cough drops like they’re candy.
I reach for another one, digging a honey-flavored one out of the bag on the end table. If I don’t slow down, I’ll run out soon. Seeing as it’s dark and rainy out, I’m really not trying to make a trip to the local drugstore.
It’s my fault I’m sick.
The flu’s been going around at the club. I didn’t take it seriously. First Skye was sick, and then Kayla and Venus.
Now it’s my turn.
A deep cough forces its way out of me, sounding like my lung’s about to come up. I swallow against the terrible burn in my throat and try to focus on the movie playing on the TV.
Love and Basketball.
One of my favorites.
Easier said than done when I’m stuffed up, my body aches, and I’m sneezing or coughing every other minute.
Randall was pissed when I called out. He sees us girls as dollar signs. We could be shot up and bleeding and he’d still hope we’d be straight enough to hit the stage. He’d offer to call 911afterour performance where we earn him his twenty percent cut.
Another sneeze is tickling at my nose when fists knock at my door.
It’s enough of a distraction to chase it away. I dab at my reddened, sore nostrils anyway, and sit still, listening for any other sounds.
The person knocks again. And again.
Who the fuck knocks on my door Saturday night at eleven p.m.?
“Bitch ass,” I swear. I drag myself off the sofa and to my hall closet for my baseball bat. “Can’t I be sick in peace?!”
I’m approaching the peephole when the person on the other end speaks.
“Tasha? Open up. It’s Louis.”
I stop dead in my tracks, like I’m frozen in ice. He knocks some more.
“Tasha,” he says. “I’m not going away. I heard you’re sick.”
Ugh.
Who at the club told Louis my business?!?
“Cami told me,” he says a second later. “C’mon, open up. I brought you some stuff.”
A sigh puffs out of me as I begrudgingly put down my bat. I check the peephole anyway, just to be sure, and then unlock the door.
Louis doesn’t belong in my apartment. He’s been here once before, years ago when he and Gio showed up to take me and Falynn away for protection, but that was a fluke. A one-time thing only.
For starters, he’s massive. My apartment is the size of a shed. Right away he’s filling up the space between my kitchen counter and wall, making everything appear miniature.
