I woke up to my phone alarm blaring. I turned the alarm off and checked the time, it read 6:00 a.m. I laid back down and drifted back to sleep. It wasn't until I was almost sleep that I felt someone roll over and wrap their arms around me. My eyes shot open, and I jumped out of the bed whispering "what the fuck" to myself. Marlon rolled back over still sound asleep. I started to rush to get dressed but my head was so foggy, and I felt a headache sneaking up. Marlon started moving again and I froze in my position waiting for him to settle back into his sleep. I finally got my dress zipped and shoes in hand. I stumbled over the covers that was hanging off the bed. Melvin started moving and I froze again. While on the floor I noticed a pill bottle beside his pants. "Did he drug me?" I whispered to myself. Without hesitation I reached for my purse on the chair and took my phone out to take a picture of the bottle, the flash went off. For some reason I started mouthing "please don't wake up, please don't wake up, please don't wake up." With a raspy voice he asked, "Where you stumbling off to?" I stood up and continued getting my things together, even though I started to get lightheaded. "I have to go home; my mom is looking for me." without checking my phone, I knew my mom have been looking for me since I didn't tell her I was staying anywhere after prom. I finished gathering my things and went over to my side of the bed and checked for any missed calls or texts. My heart dropped to my ass when I had 8 missed calls and 5 voicemails from my mom. I checked my sound, and it was on silence. I turned to look at Melvin, he was already looking at me. "You turned my phone on silent?" He shrugged and got out the bed. "What do you mean? I copied his shrug. My eyes watching him as he put his clothes on. "Yeah, I turned it off it was interrupting my sleep." He casually stated. Now I'm furious "why would you touch my shit? I'm not your wife so you don't need to be touching anything I don't give you permission too." His face turned hard, but I really didn't care I kept going until I had everything, I came with collected. "Don't text me anymore what we did is done!" I left the room without turning around and rushed to the elevator. I started pressing the elevator button for it to hurry up and come. *ding* I got on and pressed the "1" I looked up and Melvin was rushing down the hall to catch the elevator and I could tell he wasn't happy. My heart started beating fast I pressed the arrows for the doors to shut, but they weren't shutting fast enough for me. He was almost at the elevator when the doors finally shut, and I was going down. I got my keys ready because I knew he would probably just take the stairs. I needed to be out and, in my car, as quick as possible. The elevator reached the first floor and I dashed for the exit. I heard "Hey!" I glanced behind me and saw Marlon coming towards me, I started running as fast as I could to my car, trying to remember where I parked without falling over my feet. I hit the silent horn on my remote and the lights to my car lit up. I made it to my car safely and started the engine. I pulled out and saw Marlon disappearing in my rearview mirror and that's when I started to breathe again. My heart was racing, and I needed something to drink. I tried to play back what happened last night but the last thing I could remember was telling him I didn't want to have sex anymore, but I know for a fact we had sex. I played back my mom's voicemails while I drove to the closes store near my house. Her first voicemail was telling me about Jackson's dad and mom being in a car accident. The other four was her getting worried and angrier each voicemail. My heart started to beat fast again, and I couldn't breathe. Red light. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths. When I opened my eyes, the light turned green.

I arrived at Tony's Grocery, I reached in the backseat for my gym bag and went inside. After changing my clothes and getting water in my system I felt a bit more comfortable. I was a couple minutes away from home and I had no idea how my mom was about to react. Her last voicemail had me not wanting to go home in the first place "Bring your ass the hell home right now! This makes no sense; you can't return my phone calls or answer my texts! I don't know if you are ok or not RETURN MY CALL!" Boy, I feel like I am just sinking by the second, I don't know if I should call her back or not. If I call back its going to be a lot of yelling and cussing, but if I don't call back, I have no idea what she got planned for me at home. Fuck it. I put the car in drive and started heading home. I noticed an all-black mustang pull out behind me. I wasn't sure if it was Marlon or not, but I didn't want to play it safe neither. When I pulled out and made a quick left at the light to see if it would follow, it did. Anxiety started to settle in once again. I'm not sure why he would be following me in the first place. It's not like I'm running home to tell my mom what we been doing for the past three months. The back road to my house had no stop lights and I wasn't planning on stopping. It was already going on 7 o'clock in the morning so the sky was starting to brighten up but that didn't really help when it came to taking the back roads with nothing but a road and trees, no lights. The mustang started to speed up and my foot mashed on the gas. I went from 50mph to 80mph. Going around the curves like I was the stunt woman for The Fast and The Furious. When I got to the last curve, I realized they were now building new homes with new streets, it's been so long since I came this way and after I pulled off from the stop sign the mustang turned right. This whole time they were trying to get home while I'm thinking they somebody else. I laughed it off cause at this point I really need some rest.

When I finally reached my house, it was 7:30a.m. the driveway was empty, I took a couple deep breathes because now I don't have to walk into a whole world of fire. I got in the house and headed straight for the shower, everything just started to play in my head. I betrayed my best friend by sleeping with her stepdad, her mom knows but she doesn't, and I cheated on my boyfriend who doesn't know, my mom knows nothing. My tears started to mix in with the water hitting my face. That was short lived before my mom bussed into the bathroom. "Asha Evans you must be out yo rabbit ass mind if you think I don't have some words for you! Get your ass out the shower right NOW!" "Yes ma'am." I got out, grabbed my robe, and headed to the living room. "Yes ma'am?" I sat on the opposite couch from her. We sat in silence... the look on her face was nothing but anger and I wasn't ready for the dragon to release the fire. She took a deep breath before saying "To be honest with you I'm so embarrassed right now I can't even look at you. I didn't raise you to keep no secrets from me and I definitely didn't raise you to be no home wrecker or a ho. So... tell me what the fuck you been doing while I been away trying to make sure you can have a good life!" I couldn't think of nothing to say, the whole time she was talking I was taken aback by the things she was saying. Like how did she find out about this, who has she been talking too? "Mom, who... what are you talking about?" That was the best I could come up with at that moment. I was still looking at the side of her face then she turned and faced me. "Wow, really Asha that's the best you could come up with, we keep secrets now?" I could see sadness and anger in my mom eyes and sitting here pretending like I'm not busted Isn't making it no better. I have always told my mom everything, whenever I had a problem or couldn't see something through, she was there, but who wants to break this news to their mom. Taking a deep breath, I spilled the beans from start to finish. Maybe I left a few school activities out, but she got the picture, I been having sex with my best friend stepdad. I couldn't read her face after I finished telling her, but I could see her jaw muscles tightening up. The room was so quiet I could hear her leg shaking. I was getting more anxious for her response by the second, "Mom!" I blurted out. She jumped like I was bringing her back from daydreaming. "I'm sorry I scared you but are you ok? You're not saying anything about what I just said." She turned to face me with tears in her eyes "I'm so sorry this happened to you baby, I should've known I should've known..." she fell silent and started to cry, my heart started racing I didn't know what to think or what to do. After a moment I realized her cry started to get sadder. "Mom? Why are you crying what happened?" I asked softy before scooting over and pulling her into me to cry on my chest, the same way she holds me when my heart is broken. After a while she stopped crying, in between sniffles she started to talk again "I miss daddy, he would've known what to say to you, I thought you would've been safe with Jackson because he had so many qualities like your father one of those being protective over the ones he loves." The mention of Jackson's name made my heart race. I tried to get over the feeling by doing a quick breathing exercise while I listened to my mom. "Since daddy died, I kept this secret and said I was going to take it to my grave I didn't know this would happen." I frowned my eyebrows because now I'm confused, how did this just go from being about me fucking up to a whole different subject I never knew about. With confusion in my voice and on my face, I asked, "what are you talking about exactly mom?" She sat up and turned to look at me her eyes started to fill up with tears as she told me who Marlon really was.

I felt so sick once my mom was done telling me who Melvin was... Fuck graduation, we got bigger fish to fry.

***** I'm CURRENTLY working on the LAST part! Update will be up before the end of the year! Thank you so much for your support this far on this lil short story. I never planned for it to get this much action that I would need to continue to write parts. I was done when I reached part 3 I believe but I kept the story alive for Y'all!! Much appreciated! You can continue to support me on my page www.stonemadeit.com.. Until next time. -Stone.