Chapter 4

I cook my dinner. Sit back down on the couch, grab the remote from off of the other seat and start to watch some T.V. My mind goes back to that night when he told me that Quinton was the one responsible for what happened to Aimee Weiss.

"That's funny he told me that he had nothing to do with what happened to Aimee Weiss."

Aquila rolls his eyes, "My brother had his hands all over it. After beating her to a pulp; he left her for dead on the floor." I take in a deep breath and get up off the couch. He follows after me, continuing to say, "I saw her before the ambulance came to get her-- she looked a mess. Once I got upstairs in the Principal's office. My parents told me that they were sending me to a reform school in Europe." I turn around to see him. "You see Quinton was their favorite because he's the first one born. Not only that-- at the time my parents didn't think very highly of you."

My eyes are made into slits. "It's stupid, they found out that you grew up on West Ave." West Ave, was the hood, it was known as "Roughneck Ave". It wasn't a safe place to live at all, there were gangs, drugs violence; people who came out from there and could tell the story were rare and I was a part of that group. "Oh. It wasn't easy growing up in that part of town. I never thought your parents-- no offense was that shallow."

"I don't blame you for saying that, but hearing my parent's bad mouth you every day I made it my business for them to look at the person and not where they come from."

I can feel my cheeks rise, placing my bottom lip in my mouth. Aquila always knew how to make me happy, I think to myself.

"This is all a part of the reason why I came back," he says, knocking me from my thoughts, looking at him with undivided attention, "I intend to make sure that my brother does his time for what he did to Aimee and me-- mainly Aimee."

Furrowing my eyebrows, "How do you plan to do that? He has this weird schedule, where he doesn't want anyone to talk to him for the majority of the day-- until three in the afternoon."

He crosses his arms across his chest, "Don't worry I know. I wouldn't have come back if I didn't have a plan around that schedule. You probably don't know this, but it's during that time that he's seeing other people." he says in a shaky voice.

I chuckle, raising an eyebrow, "Seeing other people? What are you talking about?"

"You're not the only girl he's seeing. Kemi, my brother, has been diagnosed with Narcissistic personality disorder. We never thought that he would bring harm to someone, but what I found interesting that day was what he said to me in the office."

I stepped a little closer to him, "What did he say to you?"

"He said, 'now I can step into her life and she can be with the brother she's supposed to be with-- me. Mom and Dad would have no problems with me dating her because I'm the favorite. Don't worry baby bro, I'll take real good care of her, I'll just take her right off your arms."

I stopped by for a moment, my breath hitched in my throat. He never really loved me. I wonder if any of this meant anything to him.

A sigh escapes from his lips. "I probably shouldn't have told you that, I'm sorry." He says, extending his arm to me, wrapping them around me, pulling me closer to his chest. I can hear his heartbeat make soft beats against his chest, which calms me down a little bit, slipping more into his embrace.

My breathing and heartbeat begin to match his and I snake my arms around his waist. I then slightly separated from him, with our arms still around each other. My eyes were looking at his face and slowly moving down to his lips. His one-sided smile graces his face, looking at me moving slowly towards my face, so close I see his eyelashes. My heart beating against my chest as if it were a drum, I release my bottom lip from the clutches of my mouth. Aquila says, "Are you sure you want to do this?" He was so close to my lips that when he spoke to me just now his lips lightly grazed mine. I so want to let him-- but my mind goes into an argument, 'Don't let him kiss you! Let him, just once it will relieve these feelings. At least you'll know which brother you care for more— no you shouldn't do that at all, you're in a relationship with his brother.'

He then backs away from me and releases me from his embrace, turning away from me. Oddly enough I can feel a small peng in my chest. "It's so tempting to kiss you, but I know I can't."

"For a moment I was debating to myself if I should just kiss or not." I also turn away as well. There was a moment of silence between us.

He breaks the silence, "I had to let you," I turn around to face him, look at my face, and then shift his gaze to the floor. "Because once I knew you were looking at my lips. Seeing that cute expression on your face made me want to kiss you even more and I knew if we kept on holding each other like that, I'd make a mistake," he says, looking at me slowly up and down.

The heat rises to my cheeks, to try to get myself out of this mindset, slapping my cheeks hard and a breath of air escapes from my lips. Aquila looks at me with furrowed eyebrows, "What the hell are you doing?"

"It got hot in here when you looked at me up and down just now. I just needed to get out of those feelings."

He starts to laugh at me. " I'm sorry Kemi. I couldn't help but laugh." Two small circles form on my face and a chuckle escapes from my mouth. "When you blushed just now, you looked like the day I told you that I liked you. Even though your skin is the color of amber, I saw the red hue in your cheeks."

I turn around to face the kitchen sink, he comes up behind me wrapping his strong arms around me, pulling me into himself. All the feelings come back, my heart jumps in my chest, "Aquila, we really can't keep doing this. I don't want us to make a mistake, we'll regret it."

He places his head in the crook of my neck, "Just one night," he rubs his face against my face, "mhmm." placing a light kiss on my face, whispering in my ears saying, "Just one night between us to pick up where we left off at."

Being engulfed into him like this, messes with all my senses, from his hug, touch, scent oh my gosh his scent-- Frankincense and Myrrh. Such an earthy sweet smell he has, reminding me of that day where we left off from. The smell of old chairs and dusty windows in the room with him, as if we're in our world like nothing else matters. Kind of like-- right now. We're in our world, perhaps we should take advantage of this moment-- being here with him-- alone right now.

NO. I can't let this happen, Pushed his arm off of me and stepped away from him stepping to the side where the refrigerator is. I take in a deep breath and exhale it out, "We can't. Even if it seems tempting, Aquila it's wrong and even though…"

He cuts me off, "Don't you see, he doesn't love you. He only wanted to be with you because I was with you." A gulp is stuck in my throat. He walks a little closer to me, "Kemille Wright if you tell me right now that you don't love me; that you love my brother. I'll leave you alone and I'll stop because you asked me to."

The gulp finally passed through, "Fair enough." I looked into his eyes, "I love you, during all this time, it feels like no time has passed at all, since the last time we were together. But right now-- I'm with Quinton and I don't want to hurt him."

"Kemi, you don't think you're hurting him enough, by being with him while being in love with another man."

A small sigh escapes my mouth, "You want me to dump him to get back with you I'm going to seem like a hoe."

"That's not what I'm saying, but to simply be true to yourself. Be honest about your feelings, you say you're in love with me but your nails are deeply rooted into my brother," he says softly while looking into my eyes moving them from side to side.

He continues to say while walking a little closer to me, grabbing my hands into his, "Listen, "us" is something that's outside of my plan right now. We can wait for that, but for now, my job is to get rid of my brother."

I look down at his hands on top of mine, and look up to say, "What is your plan, for your brother?"

His eyes soften with his infamous side smile as a chuckle escapes from his lips.