It had been two days since Toya had seen her sister or her mother. She knew this because it had got dark two times since the night she witnessed her sister crying.

She sat in the middle of the living room floor with a tear stained face. Her stomach was growling profusely since she had ran out of sandwich meat and bread to eat. "Mommy" she whimpered as she faced the door praying that someone walked through it.

Toya at least thought that Mecca or Messiah would check on her but when they didn't she felt lonely. She walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, her eyes lit up as she saw some spaghetti left over from the other day.

After struggling to pull the pot out of the refrigerator and placing it on the floor she went into the bathroom and grabbed her stool. She placed it in front of the counter, climbed up, looked in the cabinet and grabbed a bowl. Toya scooped the food into the bowl and pressed the button she seen her sister and mother press time and time again to open the microwave. When she placed the food inside she closed it and pressed 123, it beeped and she carefully grabbed the bowl.

The feeling of the food going into her stomach brought a small sense of relief but it wasn't long. She missed her sister dearly and wondered what kept her away from her. Did she do anything wrong? Did she make her mad? What was it that made her big sissy leave her all alone?

All of these things she thought of as she finished eating. When she was done she placed the bowl in the sink and grabbed a juice from the fridge. She sat back on the floor in the living room and played with her toys until her eyes got heavy. When she felt herself getting sleepy she went into her room and climbed into her bed.

"I love you Ton Ton" she whispered as if she was here to hear her.

**************************

A loud bumping noise startled Toya out of her sleep causing her to sit straight up in her bed. She sat frozen listening for any other movement, "Mommy?" She waited for a response but when she didn't get one she said, "Tonya?" Still no response.

She heard a big bump again them what sounded like the doorknob wiggling. Toya hurriedly ran into her closet with her favorite bear and hid behind a pile of clothes. It wasn't long before she heard what sounded like the front door being opened.

She heard unfamiliar voices and focused on being as quiet as possible. "I know that money here, it ain't no reason his ass would've been here almost everyday" she heard one man say.

She began to hear sounds of things being knocked over and men cursing. Her room door flew open causing her breath to get caught in her throat. She sat as still as she could, making sure not to make any noises to draw attention to the closet.

After a while she heard, "Man ain't shit in here, let's go find the lil bitch he fucking on," with that they were gone. She didn't move until she heard the front door slam close. Toya waited a few moments before she ran towards the front door and locked the bottom lock, she pushed a chair towards the door, locked the top lock, and latched the chain like she had saw her mommy do plenty of times.

She sat in the chair and buried her face in her hands and silently wept. She was to scared to stay alone but knew she had no other choice. With that she walked back into her room, closed and locked her door, and climbed back into bed. Fighting her sleep until she no longer could, she allowed it to take over her.

*******************************

Tonya paced the hospital room floor for what seemed like a whole 24 hours, in reality she had been here two days. She couldn't eat, sleep, nothing as she listened to the constant beeping of the monitors that were connected to Messiah.

He had been shot 3 times, once in the right leg, the shoulder, and the left side of his chest, just a few inches from his heart. During surgery he had slipped into a coma due to the amount of blood loss.

Tonya was thankful that he was alive but sad that he wasn't completely here and it wasn't looking to good according to the nurses. Although it had only been two days he still was showing any signs of waking up anytime soon.

"Bestfriend" Mecca said as she walked into the hospital room.

"Hmmm" She acknowledged her but didn't face her.

"You have to eat something, have you checked on Toy?"

"I'm not hungry and no my mama still there so it didn't cross my mind" she answered truthfully. She figured since her mama knew what she was going through that she would finally be a mother for once and take care of Toya for a few days.

Mecca looked at her with sad eyes, scared to disclose to her what she knew. She knew deep down that her bestfriend couldn't take anymore bad news, this would probably be her breaking point.

Tonya felt eyes on her so she turned and gave Mecca her undivided attention. "What is it?" She sighed.

Mecca ran her fingers through her hair nervously,  "Uuhhh Stevo the feen told me that he seen Tia down at the spot getting pissy drunk with the dope boys"

"He WHAT!" Tonya scrambled to grab her things and jetted down the hospital's corridor. "Mecca please order us a Lyft, that means my little sister has been home alone for damn near two days!" She said as tears streamed down her face.

Mecca asked no questions and just did as her bestfriend asked. Within 5 minutes a Lyft was pulling up, it took 20 minutes for them to get to their apartment complex.

Before the car could even stop completely Tonya jumped out and ran up the stairs, skipping two steps at a time.

Once she made it to the door, she used her key to unlock the top and bottom lock but once she went to open the door it didn't open completely. She immediately knew something was wrong, "Toya!" She said loudly hoping that she would hear her.

She knocked on the door and called her name repeatedly "LaToyyyaa!"  She seen her small body through the crack in the door. "It's me Pooh, open the door."

Toya stood in the chair as Tonya closed the door and allowed her to remove the chain. She heard her moving the chair and opened the door immediately going to her checking her to make sure she wasn't physically hurt.

"I'm so sorry Toy, I would've took you with me if I would've known mommy was gonna leave" Tonya said as she hugged her little sister tightly.

"I heard people in here" Toya said softly.

"What do you mean?"

"It was some people in here. They was looking for money, but we don't have money" she replied as she held onto her sister's neck tightly.

Tonya could only think of one reason why someone was here looking for money. Messiah. She knew what he did for a living and for some reason people must've thought his stash was here.

"I was scared. Mommy gone. You was gone, I was hungry" Toya said as tears fell down her face.

Tonya's heart broke into pieces, she never would've stayed at the hospital had she known this would happen. Tia never ceases to amaze her though, this was her life.

"Please don't leave me again" Toya whispered.

"I promise" Tonya said as she held her pinky out to lock it in Toya's.

Toya smiled as she wrapped her arms around her neck. Little did they both know Tonya would soon break that promise.

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