"Chenille! Wait up!"
Derek bounded up alongside of Chenille with Sara at his side, both out of breath, a few blocks away from Steps.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Chenille looked down at the ground as she was walking fast with tears streaming down her face. She couldn't bare to face him and his questions right now. She looked at Sara with a pleading look on her face. Sara sighed and knew what her friend ment.
"Derek, why don't we go for a walk and then head back home to talk to Chenille?"
"A'ight, just as long as YOU tell me what's goin' on in my life..."
The couple split away from Chenille and walked around the corner to a small diner. Sitting at a small table in the back corner, Sara filled Derek in on all that Chenille told her that afternoon.
Derek looked down into his coffee with an expressionless face. The anger was bubbling up inside him and he had half a mind to go back to Steps and punch Kenny a third time over. Yet the heavy feeling of Chenille's feelings and Momma G's sickness hung over him like a deadweight.
Sara put her hand on his arm as a silent tear rolled down his cheek. There was so much pain built up inside of there and she knew it. His mom never being around, and not knowing his dad. Now his sister and grandmother being attacked too and he was helpless to stop anything.
She could see in his eyes the way his heart was breaking.
"Do you know how sick she is?" he asked in a raspy voice.
"Not yet, we have to go and talk to Chenille soon. She just needed some time to calm down. I can't believe that jerk."
Derek snorted.
"At least it wasn't Nikki he had his paws on. Then there woulda been some serious blood goin' on at Steps tonight."
"Yeah Derek, but still. How could he be so stupid and unfeeling and...mean?"
Derek looked out the window at the stragglers coming out of the store across the street after Christmas shopping. A few lazy snowflakes drifted down onto the iced sidewalks and street.
"You don't know the past of Kenny Sara. He's always been hurtin' someone in one way or another. He's been messing up his life and everyone elses from the day he was born."
Sara looked at him and decided not to take it any further. They had to go talk to Chenille.
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They walked in the door, hand in hand to find Christopher and Momma G sleeping. Sara knocked lightly on Chenille's bedroom door and slowly entered. She was sitting on her bed, her once tear-streaked face now dry and sad. The look on her face Sara had never seen before. It was one of sadness and worthlessness. And it scared her to see it on Chenille.
"I'm not marrying him."
"Well, I'd understand that perfectly, after what he pulled tonight." Sara replied, pulling Chenille into her arms.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner Derek, but I didn't want you worryin' the first night back with Sara. I didn't want to ruin your mood."
"Its alright Chenille," Derek said, staring at her,"I know why."
Chenille sighed.
"She's dying Derek."
Derek stared at her for what seemed eternity to all of them, no one saying anything.
"How long do they say she has left?"
A silent tear rolled down Chenille's cheek. "They don't know. Its breast cancer. It could be tomorrow, next week, next month, or 5 years from now. They just don't know."
Derek looked up at the ceiling. None of them felt like pursuing the conversation any longer. It was too new and too emotional.
Sara turned to Derek. "Do you want to come over to my place?"
Chenille looked at Sara thankfully, not knowing what she would do if she saw Derek cry. She hadn't seen him cry since he was nine. She didn't know how she would handle it.
"Yeah."
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They lay in the dark of her room, with his head on her stomach. Thinking. As the tears started rolling down Derek's face again, Sara thought to herself. "Why them? Why two people in my life that have done everything for me? Why am I so helpless..."