2. Trigga #2
Her voice shifted again. She was fully locked into nurse mode now. Although she was focused and precise, moving without emotion, I could feel that beneath it all she was concerned. She was a mother first, and I could feel the anger in her as well.
She reached for supplies and glanced at me again.
“You still with me?” she asked.
I nodded slightly, though everything in me felt like it was starting to slip out of focus.
“Good,” she said firmly. “Stay right there.”
She turned back toward the counter. She was already taking control of the situation like she wasn’t about to let me go anywhere. And for the first time since I left that shop, I let myself stop fighting it. I closed my eyes, and everything went dark.
GIA
The moment I saw him leaning too far back in that chair, I knew he was slipping.
“Hey… don’t you close your eyes on me,” I said quickly, stepping in before his head could drop any further.
But it was already happening. Tahari’s eyelashes fell, and his body went heavy like the fight to stay awake had finally run out. I didn’t think, I just reached out and slapped him across the face. Not hard enough to hurt him, just enough to pull him back.
“Tahari, wake up.”
His head jerked slightly, and his eyes forced open again. They were unfocused and barely holding on.
“Stay with me,” I said firmly, keeping a hand on his jaw to steady him. “Don’t you do that again in my house.”
He blinked a few times, trying to orient himself, then his voice came out rough.
“Hospital?” he muttered, like he was testing the idea out loud.
I studied him carefully. Before I could even answer, he shook his head slightly.
“No,” he said with his voice low but certain, “that ain’t safe.”
That made me pause. Not safe? He didn’t give all the details of what had happened to him, but he didn’t have to. The way he said it told me everything I needed to know. He was in some shit. His breathing tightened as he shifted slightly in the chair, trying to stay upright.
“Can you just patch me up?” he asked quietly.
I let out a slow breath through my nose while stepping closer.
“You got shot, Tahari,” I said. “There’s no just patching something like this up.”
Still, I moved him carefully anyway, guiding his arm so I could get a proper look.
The second I saw it clearly, my expression changed.
There was an exit wound. It was clean enough to work with, but still serious.
I thought about the pain meds I had for my back that I could give to him once I was done here.
I exhaled slowly while steadying myself.
“I can sew it up,” I said finally. “But I need you to hear me clearly before I start.”
His eyes lifted slightly toward me.
“This is going to hurt like hell.”
He didn’t respond right away, but he gave a small nod. That was all I needed before getting to work. The second the needle went in, his entire body locked up. A sharp sound tore out of him before he could stop it. His shoulders jerked as he tried to pull away.
“Stay still,” I ordered firmly while trying my best to keep him steady. “Don’t fight me.”
“I’m not,” he started, but the rest broke off into a strained exhale.
I kept going. I was focused, and my hands were steady as he struggled against the pain.
Every stitch pulled a reaction out of him. He sat before me, exhaling tight breaths, muttering low curses under his breath, and his whole body tensed like he was trying not to come apart. Then, suddenly, it stopped. The movement. The sound. Everything. He was too quiet, so I looked up immediately.
“Tahari?”
But there was no response. His head had slumped slightly, and his eyes were closed again, but this wasn’t him choosing to rest. I dropped everything and pressed two fingers to his neck. Luckily, he had a pulse there, but it was weak. So damn weak, but steady.
I exhaled slowly while shaking my head as I adjusted his arm so the work I just started wouldn’t be ruined.
“Of course you pass out on me,” I muttered under my breath.
I looked at him for a second longer, then went right back to work.
“Stay alive,” I said quietly, more to myself than him.
I glanced at him again before I kept stitching.
By the time I tied off the last stitch, my nerves were bad.
I made sure to bandage the wound before washing my hands in the kitchen sink.
When I got back, Tahari was still slumped where I had him.
His body finally gave in after fighting through more pain than he should have.
I checked the bandage again, pressing lightly to make sure the bleeding was under control.
That’s when I heard the front door open. Footsteps followed. The noise of the feet was familiar, so I knew exactly who it was. Plus, besides me, only one other person had a key to the front door. When Tahari had moved out, he had returned his, so that only left Giovani with one.
“Ma?”
I didn’t even turn right away. I could hear the confusion in Giovani’s tone.
“Don’t start,” I said, “just come here.”
He stepped into the room, and the second he got a clear glimpse of Tahari, I felt the shift in him without even looking directly at his face.
“What happened?” he asked, his voice low but tight.
“Stop asking so many questions,” I snapped before finally glancing at him. “And help me.”
That was all it took. He moved in without another word. Between the two of us, we got Tahari up carefully. His weight leaned heavily because his body was still unresponsive. Still, Giovani held him steady like he had done this before.
We moved down the hallway without speaking, the tension sitting thick between us.
I led the way to the back room, which was Tahari’s old room.
I hadn’t touched it since he left. Everything was still there, exactly how he had it.
Inside the four walls was the same bed with the same setup.
The mother in me didn’t want to touch anything just in case he ever needed to come back.
The night he had moved out was so abrupt that he didn’t even take furniture with him; he told me that he would get all new things.
He gathered his clothes, handed me his key, and then let the door slam behind him.
That was months ago; still, when he got in trouble, the first place he thought of was the place that had been a second home to him.
I blinked away the memory of his departure and then focused back on the task at hand.
We laid him down carefully, adjusting him so he wouldn’t put pressure on the wound.
I checked his bandage one more time, making sure my work would hold.
Then I stepped back. Givanni didn’t move right away.
He stood there looking at Tahari like he was trying to make sense of something that didn’t come with easy answers.
He was looking at the man he called brother, all bandaged up, and I knew that it had to hit him hard because currently, they weren’t even on speaking terms. After a moment, he grabbed the folding chair from the corner and pulled it beside the bed.
He sat down without saying a word. I watched him for a second.
So much had to have been going through his mind.
I knew my son: When he got like this, more than anything, he needed his space. So, I quietly made my exit.
GHOST
I sat beside the bed with my elbows resting on my knees.
I was watching Tahari like I was trying to make sense of something that didn’t add up.
I hadn’t seen this man for months, and now he was laid out in that bed like nothing had changed.
Like he ain’t the one who walked out. Brothers argue, shit, they even come to blows like how we had, but they never left.
He showed me what he was about when I came home the night we had fought, and Ma had told me that he was gone.
The room was quiet, but it didn’t feel empty.
Everything in it still had traces of him.
Besides the furniture, it was little things he left behind that Ma refused to move.
She always said people should have somewhere to come back to. I guess this was what she meant.
My jaw tightened slightly as I leaned back in the chair with my eyes still fixed on him.
The last time we stood in the same space, it wasn’t like this.
It was that alley. The tension was thick.
Neither one of us dared to back down from how we felt.
He said what he said. I said what I said.
Coming to blows with my brother over a broad wasn’t on my things to do this year, but it happened.
And now here he was. Back in the same room he used to sleep in.
Bleeding all over my mama’s furniture. I let out a quiet breath through my nose while shaking my head slightly.
Life has a way of doubling back whether you wanted it to or not.
Even when I did have a moment of weakness and reached out to his bitch ass, he left a nigga on read.
I sucked my teeth because now look at his ass.
For a second, I just watched him breathe.
It was slow and heavy. Like his body was still trying to catch up to everything it had just been through.
Then I noticed a slight movement in his hand.
It was barely anything, but it was enough.
My eyes narrowed just a little as I leaned forward, resting my arms on my knees again.
And there it was again. His fingers twitched against the sheet, like he was fighting his way back up.
“Yeah…” I muttered quietly, more to myself than him. “Go ahead and wake up.”
My gaze stayed locked on him while I waited patiently. One thing I knew for sure was that when he opened his eyes, we weren’t about to sit here as if nothing happened.