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JUST CREEPIN'

A'JOURIE WRIGHT
SEPTEMBER 16th; SATURDAY

A'JOURIE WAS A nervous wreck standing outside of the door, feeling sick to her stomach almost.

She knew she was okay, and she had made sure of that before even considering taking this step. She had been practicing but it didn't help.

Bringing her closed fist up, she knocked on the door softly. "Girl what the fuck is that." She muttered to herself, before knocking a little harder.

"I'm comin' " the voice boomed from the other side of the door, and her palms grew sweaty. She didn't know what she would do but she had to go with the flow.

The sound of the locks being undone pulled her from her thoughts. Once the door was pulled open she locked eyes with the ones staring back at her. "Damn, watchu doin' here jourie."

"Samaria invited me," she admitted. The two had only been meeting at her parents house, or samarias parents house. This would be the first time she would be at the high rise she shared with her older brother and older cousin.

"Well, not invited me but I'm here to pick her up we have somewhere to be." She corrected even though he didn't mind.

He already felt like he was the reason they fell out for so long, so he would never get in the way of their friendship, that wasn't his intent in the first place. "It's cool." He nodded, stepping aside.

She let out a breath of relief slowly walking through the door. He closed the door behind her, and he walked passed her causing her to follow.

This was her first time ever being there so she had no idea where what was. "Um," she cleared her throat walking behind him through the large space.

She didn't expect it to be this nice since was the trios first place but she was proven wrong. "Where is she?" She questioned getting to the living room.

He walked around the couch, and sat down just in time for jourie to see him place his hand around Pierre who was also sitting there. She hadn't seen her until now.

"She in her room AJ, third door on the right down that hall." He pointed with instructions pulling her from her thoughts.

Her mouth felt dry, and she realized her lips were parted so she closed her mouth. She nodded once, and gripped the strap on the black tote bag on her shoulder.

"Okay, hey Pierre." Jourie wiggled her fingers at her, even though she truly did not want to. It had been a month since what happened with Pierre's brother and he wouldn't give up. She had to have her number changed and all because blocking him did nothing.

He wasn't dumb enough to go to her parents house, and he didn't have her location anymore so he was going crazy. Pierre was guilty by association. She didn't even know about Pierre knowing bam so it wasn't her place to say anything, and she had to come to terms that.

For the past month she had been promising to do better for herself, so with that she had to be okay with watching bam move on because that was what he deserved.

"Hey girl," Pierre waved back not even peeping the weird energy. She was just so wrapped in bam that she barely cared. "Oh hey! Genesis—Pierre." Bam cut Pierre off noticing she was about to say something about her brother.

"What?" Pierre frowned looking at him, and he shook his head looking at her as if she knew better.

"She not worried bout him and that don't got nothing to do wit you. Let it go." He warned her seriously.

Pierre sighed before looking back at Jourie. "Sorry girl, that's my fault." She apologized, because she could tell bam was serious.

She had known him for a year now and he had no problem showing his emotions. If he was hurt, happy, sad, or even angry, you would definitely know.

"It's fine," jourie lied , rushing towards the back where bam told her samarias room was located. She hoped that Samaria was ready to go because she didn't want to be there anymore.

Getting to the door, she knocked twice before stepping in like she always did to Samaria. Samaria looked up, running a rat tail comb through her freshly installed lace. "Oh hey girl, I thought you was Pierre. Finna cuss you out. You should've called and told me you was here so I could open the door for you." Samaria slipped the comb in her purse.

"Why?" Jourie found herself asking.

Samaria paused, "I don't know, I guess so you wouldn't have to interact with bam." She admitted , since their relationship wasn't like before.

"I have to face him someday Samaria. And we gotta learn to co-exist without bad blood too. As much as I hate saying it, yall parents are my god parents." Jourie shrugged, trying to believe her words.

She hated what her life had become, and she wanted to take her life back for what it was. She had been distracting herself with work for the last month, spending very day at her dads shop. It was her peace at this point.

She knew distracting herself wasn't solving anything though, she was just putting it off. "Well, I know that's right girl." Samaria picked up her phone. "I'm ready, we gotta go so you ain't late." Samaria turned off the lights to her vanity.

"Okay, I'm ready when you are." Jourie stepped aside so she could lead the way out. She had to look around, and admire Samarias room. It was so beautiful, and Samaria was always good with decorating and designing.

That was exactly why she was going to college right now to get her bachelors degree in interior design.

Samaria stepped out, and jourie followed closing her door. The duo made their way through the home that was also nicely decorated, and jourie knew Samaria was also responsible.

"Bye, we out." Samaria announced to her brother, letting her eyes gravitate towards the duo sitting on the couch together.

She discreetly shook her head, apparently all the talk about him not seeing her that way and her being a friend was straight bull because it didn't seem that way anymore.

"Aight aggy, where y'all goin?" He used the plural term but he really just meant his sister. He was staying true to himself and keeping away from jourie, but instead of giving her the cold shoulder , he acted like they never happened because that's what she wanted all along.

"To mind our business, tend to yours please." Samaria waved him off, pulling the door open. "Don't wait up, love you." Samaria called out with jourie leaving right behind her.

"Was it humid in that house?" A'jourie asked fanning her face.

"Girl no," Samaria laughed making her way to the elevator pressing the down button. She could feel her skin burning.

"Oh, it felt like it." Jourie shook her head with a mutter. "Don't you think it's crazy that I was dating genesis, and now bam is dating his sister." A'jourie pointed out.

"Technically, I don't know if their dating. Bam really just started entertaining the idea of being with her. He wasn't feeling it at first, I don't know what changed." Samaria replied stepping on the elevator.

"I think he doing it out of pity though. I love my brother and he's been through a lot with you and he's trying to move on now that he's healed but Pierre is the wrong person." She found herself venting about how she felt.

Bam always told her he wouldn't get in a relationship with Pierre because he met her post break up when he was going through it. Now all of it meant nothing, and she wasn't buying it.

"Ever since my parents went crazy on her ass and kicked her out it's like he been kissing her ass as an apology, and she took that to her advantage and made her move. She knew it was hard for him to decline." She shook her head while jourie listened.

Samaria was so tired of her brother being taken advantage of. A'jourie was her bestfriend but even she would admit jourie took advantage of his feelings too. Bam had a huge heart and he definitely got that from their father.

He had healed and moved on from jourie and here he was letting someone else take advantage of his feelings.

"I can't but help feel like we made each other the way we are." Jourie admitted. She didn't care to elaborate though, because it would just make her sad all again.

"Yeah jourie, duh." Samaria raised her eyebrows, stepping off the elevator. They walked out the building in pure silence, all the way to the car zayden had finally gotten for her.

It had been almost two years since she got in a wreck, and she had been saving up her money to get her own because she doubted her parents were ever going to get her a new one.

When she was with genesis, zayden had finally took her to the dealership feeling like she needed her own transportation now, especially since she would be going to college starting January.

So now, jourie had, had the exact car she wanted for a few months which was a Camaro like Samaria, but instead of black, she had white. She rode around with Samaria so much she got accustomed to the car.

Once they got in the car and got situated, jourie couldn't pull off fast enough. "So, what you thinking." Samaria questioned referring to where they were on the way to, but jourie didn't know.

She shrugged, "Ion know really, I was trying to decide last night but I couldn't. I came up with a small idea but I don't wanna tell you, I want it to be a surprise." Jourie responded to her while driving to their destination.

"Okay, let me look at you and see what I can imagine." Samaria brought her eyes onto jourie, but she could imagine a lot.  "Girl i don't know. As long as you don't cut it and get finger waves ion care." Samaria waved it off.

She hated finger waves with a passion.

"Girl please, all this beautiful and healthy hair will not go to waste." Jourie laughed at her bestfriend, continuing to drive to her mothers hair salon.

Once they got there and were parked, jourie grabbed her phone and her keys as her and Samaria got out of the car with her. They walked side by side into the purple and white themed salon named Hair couture.

"Y'all are late, you know I charge late fees right?" Kourtney stated watching her daughter and god daughter enter. Her workers were working on other people, but the two girls paid them no mind.

"Sorry mommy, Samaria made me late." A'jourie blamed Samaria causing her to gasp at her lies.

"Girl whatever. I'm on time for my appointment and not you so that sounds personal." Samaria waved her off, turning a little to the left. "Hey Sarah. You ready for me?" She looked at the middle aged dark skinned woman.

Sarah smiled nodding. "Yep, you wanted me to style this right?" She referred to the lace she had on and Samaria nodded her head yes. She didn't know how to style her wigs so she always let someone in the shop do so.

Sarah was her favorite, she always seemed so full of life. Samaria thought she was strong, especially considering she lost her daughter a few years ago to suicide.

A few years later she moved states, but you would never know what she went through unless told.

"So what you want, or can I freestyle?" Sarah continued, and Samaria thought.

"You can free style, but I want something with straight hair, not curly." Samaria informed her, causing her nod at her words since she could do that. She loved free-styling.

"And what you want jourie." Kourtney looked at her daughters hair. Since she was a hairstylist, and jourie grew up with her mother taking care of it, keeping it moisturized, trimmed, and all of the above, she had long and healthy hair.

Jourie used her finger to tell her to come closer, and when Kourtney did jourie mumbled softly exactly what she wanted.

Kournteys eyes widened.

"Are you sure?" She asked, not wanting this to be an impulsive decision. When jourie nodded confidently, Kourtney knew she was serious. A soft smile took over jouries face and Kourtney gave in.

"Alright, go sit so I can wash your hair." Kourtney prepared herself for what her daughter wanted done to her hair.

LATER.

"You look so good, it compliments you and your skin color so good. You ate down." Samaria looked at her bestfriend.

A'jourie stood there, running her fingers through her new hair, and pretty smile gracing her face. She knew she would like what she had decided.

Her mother had did her usual treatment , and when it was time to trim she didn't just cut the dead ends, but instead she cut four entire inches off of jouries hair, and she now had a blunt cut which was like a slightly longer Bob.

Instead of her hair going mid back, it was now just right below her shoulders at the start of her back, but she didn't stop there. Once she finished, her mother added pink highlights to her hair, and then gave her new style—a silk press.

She looked absolutely stunning, and the pink did compliment her just like Samaria said. Kourtney liked the idea of the blunt cut, but it was the highlights that she was hesitant about at first.

Jourie would really need to take care of her hair with a commitment like that, and she was lucky to have Kourtney as a mother.

"Thank you, I really love it mommy." Jourie expressed , she couldn't take her eyes off of her herself. "Now I understand what Samaria mean when she say getting your hair done turn you into a different person." She joked.

"Girl whatttt? I'm over here feeling myself bad with this style. Sarah ate down." She ran her fingers through the back of her hair. Sarah had decided to do the claw clip style on Samaria and it was beautiful.

Samaria had tipped her extra generously. "Okay, so where y'all heading after this?" Kourtney was curious. Jourie was so busy looking at her new look. She felt like a new person.

"Ugh, I'll tell you afterwards." Jourie grabbed her phone. "Anyways, thank you again for this ma, I owe you whatever you want." Jourie promised her.

"Mhm, we'll see then." Kourtney planned to hold her to that promise, and jourie intended to keep it.

The two girls left the salon, and got back into the car to go to their second destination. Once jourie started the car and drove off, Samaria couldn't help but record herself.

Jourie paid her no mind, moving her bone straight her behind her ear. "And my bitch got her hair done too." Jourie caught the end of Samarias statement causing her to look over at her seeing her camera was focused on her.

"Girl bye." She smiled rolling her eyes.

A little later they pulled up to the gray building, and jourie grabbed her purse and her phone this time. "Remember, be back to pick me up at 6:30." She passed her keys to Samaria.

"You sure you don't want me to stay?" Samaria offered, but jourie shook her head no declining her offer.

"I'm fine." Jourie assured her, before starting towards the building going inside. Once she got inside, she walked past the desk, towards the back and sat in the seat.

She pulled her watch up to her face seeing it was 5:29–but the time changed in front of her eyes and went straight to 5:30. She was right on time.

The door opened, and jourie was nervous feeling her heart pounding against her chest. She looked up at the woman who seemed to be in her early twenties and the woman smiled.

"Hi, are you A'jourie wright?" She questioned and jourie nodded her head slightly admiring the dark-skinned woman with beautiful blemish free skin and a contagious smile.

"Okay come on in." She stepped aside letting jourie in. Once she closed the door and they were encased in the sound proof room, she spoke again. "I'm Dr. graves, but my mother was also Dr graves, so I prefer to go by Latia. That's my first name."

"Okay, you can just call me jourie," A'jourie nodded having a seat on the chair and sitting her bag next to her.

"So, why are you here today?" Latia wanted to get right into it , because they only had an hour session. Hour sessions went by so fast.

A'jourie was so skeptical about the therapy thing, but she felt as if she could give it a try.

"I don't know." Jourie responded honestly.

"So you don't know as in you feel you don't have a reason to be here, or you don't know as in you have a plethora of reasons to be here." Latia clarified.

"The second one." Jourie crossed her ankles letting her eyes trail around the room.

"So what pushed you to come here." Latia continued, discreetly writing down on her note pad about jouries behavior, and body language.

"The way I was acting towards people." She admitted shamelessly.

"Was, as in past tense? Or still doing so." Latia continued to questioned her. She was trying to see what kind of mindset jourie was in.

"I feel like it's not as bad anymore. But I guess I still feel the need to be here." Jourie put forth, moving her hair behind her ear again.

"Okay jourie, I have three rules." Latia held up her fingers. "One, I don't care if you use any profanity if that's what you need to do to express yourself. Two, I don't care if you cry. If you need to let it out then do that. That's what your here for. Lastly, I don't care about anybody's feelings but yours. So I don't care what your mom thinks, your sister, or anybody else. Tell me what you think okay? Everything you say is completely confidential and will never be repeated to anyone else." She assured.

Jourie nodded keeping her words in mind.

"Now, how were you acting if you don't mind me asking." She continued.

Jourie swallowed. "I burned a lot of bridges with people who cared about me and my well being."

"Okay, and when did this behavior start." Latia continued to jot down her observations. She liked that jourie was being open and had no problem sharing.

"About a year and seven months ago."

"Okay jourie, do you have any idea what happened to trigger any emotions to cause a change in behavior, or was it random." Latia didn't show any emotion.

Jourie couldn't tell if she was confused or anything else. Just stoic.

"I got an abortion." Jourie looked off to the side, feeling tears brimming her eyes. She hated that after all this time , she was only just now talking about it truthfully. Once she had done it, she pushed it to the back of her mind.

"And you think that was the trigger? Why? Was it because you didn't want to? Were your forced, or tricked into thinking you needed one?" Latia need the context.

"I got one on my own. I kept it from everybody, and they just recently found out." Jourie placed her hand on the side of her neck.

"Abortions can cause things like trauma jourie, is that what you endured?"

"No." Jouries continued, telling nothing but the truth, "it was more like guilt for what I did. I didn't consult with the babies father about it, and afterwards I just couldn't look at him because I felt so bad. So I pushed him away." She used the back of her hand to wipe her eyes.

"And then what?" Latia had a feeling that this was the cannon event, or main reason she was there.

"I don't know. I kept pushing him away until he found comfort in someone else, then he cheated on me with the bitch." Jourie spat bitterly.

"Why did you push him away out of guilt?" Latia reverted back to her.

"Why we can't talk about the fact that i got cheated on for that fuck ass shit." Jourie questioned her instead of answering the question.

"Because like I said, I don't care about your exes feelings , only yours. This is about you. We will get to that." Latia assured her.

Jourie dropped her head. "Because I felt so bad." She cried prompting latia to grab her box of tissues.

"He loved me so much, and I got rid of a baby I knew he would've wanted without him knowing. Then returned back to life like it was nothing. Watching him worship the ground i walked on after I betrayed him." Her voice was cracking.

"Do you still feel like he loved you after he cheated on you? He couldn't have possibly loved you with infidelity being a factor."

Jourie hated to admit it, but she knew he did. "Yeah. I didn't even want to break up. I felt like it was my karma for what I did, but shit just kept getting worse. I was accusing him of still messing with the girl but he swore he wasn't and before I knew it he gave up on us." She gave her perspective on everything.

"And how did that make you feel?" Latia questioned.

"Sick as hell. I couldn't eat, for a week. I never thought he would give up on us the way he did. He told me he was tired of being taken advantage of. He felt like I was leading him on." A'jourie continued.

"Do you feel like you were leading him on." Latia asked her genuinely. She had a rule that she didn't care what anyone thought, but clearly jourie was here because of her problems with her significant other.

"I—I don't know." She muttered. "I just didn't want to get back with him right away after what he had did to me, but I was battling with myself because I thought I did something equally worse." She sniffed, dabbing her eyes with the tissue.

"How long did that period of time go on before he fully broke it off?"

"A little over three months. What really pushed him away is seeing me trying to move on while he was trying to win me back. He told me it was a lost cause." She gulped.

"So, why were you trying to move on and make it work at the same time? What was your thought process?" Latia continued, being intrigued with her story.

"I didn't want people to think I was stupid for going back to him after cheating on me. That's an ultimate dummy move." A'jourie opened up.

"Do you feel that if he knew about your secret abortion and decided to break up with you, but wanted you back he would be stupid?"

"No! That's different from cheating." Jourie defended.

"But you just said you did something as equally bad as he did. Are you taking that statement back?" Latia was calm. She knew she was giving jourie things to think about.

When she didn't respond , latia continued.

"Jourie, are you here because of what went down with you and this person?" Latia questioned, and jourie shamefully nodded slowly. It wasn't until bam told her she needed therapy that she took it into consideration.

"What happened between you guys was the cause of your behavior. From the abortion to the cheating and whatever in between. I think he needs to be here. Both perspectives are needed in this case. Do you think he'll come join you?" Latia questioned curiously.

"Hell nah."

Y'all kill me😒 first bam a stupid cheating ass Nigga, then jourie worse than he is. Then you want him to move on since he's healed, then you don't. Y'all indecisive ass.

Thoughts and predictions?

MYA OUT🫡