ROSES AND THORNS-BEING REAL

CHAPTER THREE-MILAN

BROKEN PIECES.

"Focus." I say to myself in between a sigh. It's time to show Troy who the real boss is over here. Last year we almost broke up because of him, though she claims he's her so-called boy bestie.

"Milan." I feel a gentle, but yet warm hand across my shoulder, I turn to see my mom, smiling as she always does. I just give her a blank stare as my focus on Sasha.

"I just wanna say hi to Sasha." 

"Mom, please, now ain't the time." I tell her my attention shifting back to Sasha, she holds my hand, but I let go, only to realize how close the two really are right now; Sasha and Troy are kissing. Men don't cry, I tell myself, my jaw hardens and my hands freeze, suddenly I let go of the bouquet and the fresh roses fall to the ground, making a little dust rise. I think I'm gonna lose it, I think to myself making my way to where the two are. I feel a hand on my arm, I stand there seeing my mom's terrified face in front of me.

"Baby please, they are not worth it." She tells me, her eyes narrow with compassion and pity. I wasn't having it, I just needed answers. I gently take mom's hand from my arm and push it away as I walk towards the two. I didn't care if I had to go through another episode, all I know is that I can't lose Sasha. Terrified, my mom calls my dad.

I am met by Sasha pretty blue eyes which show no remorse and Troy's devious smile.

"Sasha, can I talk to you?" I tell her looking away from Troy and to her.

"Can't you see she has company?"

"Man, fuck you. I'm not talking to you." I say pushing him as hard as I can that he almost falls, but is hold back by the car.

"Troy!" I hear Sasha say as she helps him get back his balance. Putting her palm on his chick.

"Are you okay?" she asks him with these shiny compassionate eyes that I've never seen her look at me with since the first days of our relationship. I swallow hard and try to push Troy away again and Saha stands in the middle trying to stop it.

"Milan, stop it! I'm not your property!" Sasha shouts.

"Sasha I'm-" I say as I advance to touch her, but she raises her hand in the air.

"No, don't touch me." She says pushing me away. I look around and can hear my heart breaking into a thousand pieces as I prepare for the hardest question.

"Me or him?" I ask pointing at Troy."

Without thinking twice, Sasha quickly responds.

"Are you crazy? Troy of course." She says not looking back at me.

"I can't stand you anymore!" Sasha says pushing her hair backwards like a queen she is. I immediately regret my decision.

"I told you the match wasn't the only thing I was stealing from you." He says, looking so proud as if he had just achieved something important in life. Without thinking twice, I advance to punch him in the face. I feel a tight grip on my arm, I look up to see my father.

"Come on, this ain't worth it." He adds and I listen to my dad as he takes my arm and I walk with him. I'm not losing my career over this. I, my mom and dad go where his car is.

"What the hell dad! I wasn't going through an episode."

"You were, eventually."

"But I wasn't yet!" I say running my hand across my face and to my hair.

"I wasn't gonna let you ruin your career for some bitch who don't even love you! I had to do something."

"Honey…" mom says trying to stop him.

"Let him say whatever he wants mother, come on say it to my face." I yell. before mom could add anything, I unlock my car, get it and drive away as fast as I can. I can't believe all this is happening right now.

I am seating on a bench in a room with yellow faded lights, illuminating, not enough to light up the entire room. I don't really like bright rooms anyway. I hold my cigarette in between my lips as I search my pockets for a lighter. I light it up and put the flame produced by the lighter to the end of the cigarette and immediately turn off the flame. I take a long puff of the cigarette, filling the warm smoke on my tongue and slowly letting it out in a line which later scatters like a bunch of lost souls. I seat there as I have some more of my cigarette; smoking all of my pain away.

The handle of the door from the other side gets twisted, and in a second, the door cracks open. A shadow of pink and black, a pair of black skinny jeans hugging the round downer figure of wide hips. I thought Nicki Minaj stayed in New York. I thought to myself. Her pink body suit hugging her curvy chest tightly revealing a part of her slim waist. She looks behind her shoulder as though being chased by unseen spirits. Her big brown eyes scanning the room, with her blush pink intimate shiny lips, perfectly medium button nose and a beauty mark on her right chick. I've never seen a living barbie door in real life, this girl was something else. Her big brown fluffy curly hair moved alternately with a single move as she swayed her hips across the room with her half open bag.

"You ok?" I ask before taking another puff of my cigarette. Damn, this feels good.

"Umm…I was just on my way out." A sweet high pitched lyrical voice fills the room. She says heading to the left direction. This girl definitely has no clue of what this place is or where the exit is, though she seems to be in a hurry.

"The exit's on your right." She turns and quickly leaves the room.

She's prolly off to breaking some innocent guy's heart, like Sasha has done to mine. With that, I go back to minding my own business. The door I just saw the girl the girl come in on cracks open again and two boys come through. I just got blurry images of them in my head only that the other has tats all over his face.

"Hey, you seen a girl walk past here. Curvy." One of the guys says, making and image of the girl's wider bottom. I shrug as puff on my cigarette.

"Hey, is that Milan?" The other guy asks.

At that I wear hoodie on my head to hide part of my face.

"Nah Bruh, they just made it to the league, what would he be doing here, he's prolyl out somewhere partying." I hear the boys argue with each other as they storm out of the room. Haunted by the girl's bright eyes, it hits me, could she be in trouble? But what if she was, it's not like she's my problem. Then it hits me, what if Daryn was in trouble, would I just watch if something like this happened to he? I throw my cigarette down, step on it with my shoe and with my foot to extinguish the fire. I just look as the smoke dies down. A real gentleman is always ready to help any girl if he isn't related to her. I stand on the exit door and observe as the two guys stand with the girl who looks worried, her cute brown eyes narrow. I see one of the guys throw the stuff in her bag to the ground and pick up something from the floor. She then starts what seems to be pleading with the guys. I walk to where she is and as I'm getting there, the two days are already on their feet, going elsewhere. She kneels down, picking up her stuff.

"Need any help?"

"No, I'm fine." She replies, merely whispering and her voice almost gone. I can notice the pain in the sound of her voice and her eyes have this kind of brightness which just breaks my heart. She quickly turns away and disappears into the dark. She seems to be going through it. I think to myself, then I feel something hard on my leg, I turn to see a small pink diary. I kneel down, gently picking it off of the ground, leaving some dust on my fingers, I gently dust it off and open the cover. It reads;

Reality,

From, Mom Tanya Sorange.

 There must be some contacts in it. I take it to my car, turning on the lights, but my eyes hurt like hell. I drive home and go straight to bed as the family is out for dinner at some hotel.

* * * * * *

A few days go by and I still trying to cope with everything. I've only been taking home lessons these past few days as I am not ready to face Sasha nor Troy. My mom asked me to drop Daryn her friend Stephanie's place so that's where I'm currently driving to. I look at her through the mirror and she's busy playing with her doll.

"Milan, when will we meet Sasha again?" she asks as she pets her doll's hair. Overwhelmed by her question, I take a deep breathe.

"Well, there will be no need to meet Sasha anymore."

"Does that mean you've broken up?"

I sigh.

"Sort of." Daryn is the smartest kid I know. As soon as I pull over at our destination, she kisses me goodnight. I open my draw to look for a pen, but in turn find the small pink diary. I open the open the pages. It reads;

'Dear, I'm sorry I couldn't be a good mother to you and your siblings, but trust me I tried my best. But when you're too nice, there's always a price that follows. Even though I was present, you never got the chance to know me-'

This seems rather too personal; I say changing the pages then a necklace falls out, I pick it up and press it in the diary. There's just a lot to see. I need to find this girl and give it back. I say as I swipe through the Pages.

"What kind diary has no contacts?" I think myself before reversing my car. I arrive home, and its quiet, everyone has left for work. I take the diary into my room, and get changed into my black and purple mickey mouse shirt and black hoodie to avoid people from recognizing me. I'm always in dark colors because bright colors hurt my eyes. I lock the doors and set out for the streets, with my diary in hand.

Indistinct voices are heard from a nearby corner two masculine shadows, and the girl with a guitar in her hand. As soon my eyes lay on her, I enter the scene.

"So, you've called your lil' boyfriend." One of the strange guys say pointing at me with a shiny sharp pocket knife. It doesn't scare me and I'm not scared to die.

"I'm ain't little."

"Hey pretty boy, if you wanna survive just walk away."

I look at the girl from the other night, her eyes wide open and sort of annoyed I'm here. But I don't care, these guys seem like trouble and I'm not leaving her here alone like I did last time, because it still haunts me every night.

"Can I have a minute with him?" The girl breaks the silence.

"Thirty seconds."

The girl takes my hand and we move a half meter from the strange guys. I can't seem to keep my eyes off her.

"What are you doing here?" She asks merely a whisper with her teeth greeted together and exchanging glances with the two guys

"Well I came here for you. Besides, you seem like you could use some help."

"I can handle my own problems." 

"Time out!" One of the guys call out. Now which one of you will go first?"

Looking over at the boys and then to me, with greeted teeth the girl says manages to speak out without being heard by the others.

"Listen, you're an athlete, right?"

"Yeah, but-"

"In one, two, three….RUN!"

The girl holds my hand and in we both run as fast as we could, away from the two boys who start following us. I look at the girl's hand and it has some marks.