**WARNING: MATURE CONTENT AHEAD**

When I walked through the front door, Tiana was sitting on the couch next to Rico. I kind of stopped in my tracks and stared at her for a minute before closing the door behind me. Rico looked from her to me and grinned like a Cheshire Cat. I wanted to knock his teeth down his throat and he knew it.

"Nephew." I nodded to him. "My money." I reached down into one of my Tims and pulled out $900 in twenties. Then I pulled out $650 in ones, fives and tens from the other boot. He took it, counted out $500 and gave it back to me. He told me to pay my roundup crew and keep the rest. I took the $500 and stuffed it in my jeans pocket. Tiana watched the exchange silently and didn't comment.

Rico caught me staring at her. He put his hand on Tiana's thigh and massaged it, never breaking eye contact with me. She shuddered. Rico moved his hand up further and rubbed in between her legs. Tiana shuddered again and gritted her teeth. Then she closed her eyes tight and put her head down so that I couldn't see her face. She tried to close her legs, too, but Rico made her open them back and continued to play with her while he studied me. He studied everything about me, head to toe. I willed myself to be easy. He was testing me. Trying to see if Tiana was the way to break me. When he was sure that he wasn't going to get a reaction out of me, he rose from the couch and walked up to me, real close.

Then he just stood there, staring me in my eye, waiting for me to say something. I didn't back down, and I didn't look away. At fourteen, I knew that I could take him. I had already beat his ass one time, but I had to be smart about doing it again.

Now wasn't the time.

"Have my shit ready when I get back, nephew." I nodded and he stared at me for a few seconds longer before heading out the door.

It took me a minute to get my mind right enough to walk over to Tiana. I swatted at her leg with fake playfulness and sat down on the couch next to her.

"Wassup witchya?"

Tiana smiled hollowly at me. She looked different. There was a sadness on her that had never been there before. She stared at me for a long time, trying to read my face, trying to see if I still cared about her. But I blanked my face out and eventually she looked away.

After a few more minutes of silence, Tiana leaned in to kiss me.

She tasted like sex.

I ran the back of my hand across my mouth to get the taste off my lips, and she slowly backed away.

"You fucked Rico?"

She backed away further and her whole body seemed to shrink down into the couch. She looked tired. Real tired.

"Yeah."

I just stared at her. "Where's my aunt?" She shrugged. "Was she here when you fucked him?"

Tiana's eyes were so different now. They used to smile when she looked at me. Now they just...existed.

She gave me a steady gaze. "Yeah." She looked like she was waiting for me to hit her. I didn't. Of course I didn't. I still loved her. "...at first. But then...she left." She dropped her eyes, and then looked back up at me.

"Where did she go?"

"I don't know."

"Was she mad?"

Tiana looked away again. "I couldn't tell."

"Where's the baby?"

"Asleep in the back."

I studied her face. She studied mine.

"Why the fuck did you do that, Tiana?"

She just shook her head, ashamed. "Carole...she...couldn't pay."

"Oh." I stopped staring at her so hard and softened my face. "How much she owe?"

"They said $200, but..." Her voice trailed off. She didn't have to say it. I knew we fucked the numbers sometimes, telling people they owed much more than they did if they took too long to pay. To be honest, Tiana had probably already "paid" the money, a few times over, but you know how that goes...

"Damn..." I reached out and put my hand over hers. She jumped a little when I reach out to her, but then she relaxed. "Did he hurt you?"

She shook her head no and her shoulders slumped down further. "If I didn't come here, he would have come to my house and..."

I nodded. I knew what he would have done. I had just finished doing it.

I stood up and helped her up off of the couch. I led her into the back room and checked on Angel. She was still asleep. I sat down on the bed and Tiana stood in front of me. She tried to push me back onto the bed and put her leg up to sit down on top of me, but I stopped her. It had been a long night. A real long night.

"Nah." I moved her over onto the bed beside me. She sat down next to me and watched me, waiting to see what I wanted her to do. I looked at her a little while longer, and then back over at Angel asleep in her crib.

I stood up and then gestured to the bed for Tiana to lay down. She did. She seemed kind of...robotic. There was no life left in her at all. This wasn't the Tiana that I had known my whole life. This was...just another broken chick. It hurt my soul to see her like that, and it hurt even more to know that there was nothing I could do about it.

"Just rest." She looked kind of relieved when I said it, but then fixed her face real fast like she didn't want me to see that. I caught it, though. "We both just need to rest."

She nodded and I pulled her back into me when I laid down beside her. I put my arms around her and held her tight so she wouldn't try to fuck me again. I couldn't deal with that shit right then.

"Kenney...I'm sorry."

"It's ok." I kissed her hair. She smelled like Rico. I probably smelled like charred bodies and bleach. I fought the urge to push her away and held her tighter. Then I rubbed her back until she fell asleep.

A little while later, I fell asleep, too.

When I woke up, Angel was still asleep. Tiana was gone. I checked my pockets. The money was still there. Everything in the room was untouched. I looked back over at Angel. She was good.

Standing up and running a hand over my face, I walked into the kitchen. The whole straight drop that Jazz had sitting on the counter waiting for me to break up was gone.

"Shit." I would have to pay for that. "Shit." I hissed again and started cooking.

I wondered if Tiana was smoking now, too, to do some shit like that. I shook my head and turned the stove up higher.

This shit was for the birds.