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Pic is of Perry (Alonzo's best friend)

The one on the right is the 'unit' they talk about early in the story.

Song is 'Photograph by Ed Sheeran' I'll let you know when to play

Ok Enjoy!!

____

Alonzo

"And then he pulled me into his chest and we stared into each other's eyes. It was perfection." I say dreamily to my friends while falling back on the pillow.

"I think the important question is, did y'all fuck?!" Shawn says bluntly causing me to roll my eyes at him. I don't know why his statement even shocked me, it was classic Shawn.

"Not everything's about sex, Shawn." Perry says aggressively and I look up at him. He wasn't usually the aggressive angry kind. He only looked at me with a smile but I knew it wasn't real, it was the one he plastered on but I saw through it, he was hiding something and the mask was there to conceal his true feelings.

"Are you ok Perry?" I ask confused towards his attitude.

"Just tired of the bullshit is all." He says bitterly and he nods his head towards Shawn but puts on the most plastic smile possible.

I nod quickly and the whole conversation just goes dead from then on.

"I'm like hey what's up hello!?" Vic shouts, announcing his presence in the room only to fall silent when he notices the quietness in the room.

"Who died?" He asks looking around confused.

"No one, just talking." Perry muttered with his head down, fumbling with his fingers in his hands.

"O...k, y'all being real awkward. He said suspicious before clapping suddenly causing everyone to flinch suddenly. "Boom! Y'all planning something for my birthday, y'all ain't slick." He says giving us his side eye.

"Anyhow, y'all wanna see this new unit I been working on?!" Perry pipes up excitedly.

"Yea let's see it." I reply excitedly knowing Perry's works are always good. He makes wigs and lace fronts for sale and I had to say they were like the best I've ever seen. He works real hard on it which is why he's always excited about it.

"Bam how bout dat?!" He shouts sassily whipping the hair around wildly. It was a lace frontal that had black curly hair that went to his back. The curls were fluffy and bouncy and moved on his head as if the hair was actually his. All in all, whoever bought it was destined to slay.

"Work hunty! How much you gon' sell that one for?" Vic shouts while snapping his fingers in the air.

"I don't know yet. I think I night keep her." Perry responds while taking the hair off.

"So what's the plan for tonight?" Antonio asks, finally joining the conversation.

"Fuck bitches, get money." Leo says from his corner of the room, looking at himself in the mirror, as usual.

"I think you mean disregard females, acquire currency." Kai says matter of fact-ly and we all burst into fits of laughter.

"About time you speak up, anti-social."

"Anyway," I begin before continuing, "I thought we were staying in tonight, or did the plan change last minute...again?" I say while eyeing Antonio because no matter what, he always changes the plan last minute.

"You ain't gotta be shady hoe but I legit thought baby daddy was gone make a surprise appearance." He explains pride fully resulting in me squinting my eyes at him.

"Who's baby daddy?"

We respond to Leo in unison by saying "Tyga."

Leo laughs at that and I just look around the room, looking up towards the ceiling attempting to brainstorm some ideas. Whilst looking around, I notice Perry glaring extremely hard at Shawn and to my surprise he's glaring back at each other. It appeared they were having this silent conversation, one so intriguing none dared to look apart. It seemed their stare off went on forever until Perry pretended to wipe his eyes by wiping at them but only having his middle finger up so that the message would be none only to Shawn. Shawn points to his watch and mouths 'what time?'

At this point I couldn't hold in my laughter so I play it off with a cough only to gain everyone's attention.

"Ebola or nah?!" Vic says and I just give him the middle finger only to hear him sass back, "I don't do caramel in my ice cream." He even snaps his fingers and pouts his lips out.

"Caramel?" Leo asks while tilting his head.

"Yea cause he's light skin." Vic responds while getting up from his seat. I ask him where he's going only to hear him say "To mind my business." I roll my eyes at him before letting my mind wander back to Reggie. Oh Reggie, how you affect me, the crazy thing is that he probably didn't even know it. The way he smiled when I called him by his nickname, his dazzling smile, I mean I had never seen teeth so straight and white. It was like his smile captured the light of the sun, warding off all darkness. We hadn't even known each other for that long but I felt happier than ever with him. I felt content, comfortable around him, especially wrapped in his arms. It felt like I had the protection of a thousand armies, and I was the prized possession. The way he looked at me like I was the greatest thing he'd seen, and like anyone else I loved that feeling, even if my chances are one in a million. I mean there was no possible way he was gay, or even interested in me. I knew deep in the back of my mind not to get too attached, because the outcome was always the same, denial and heartbreak. I mean I've had my fair share of crushes so I was speaking from experience which only mean one thing, but I couldn't do it, I knew I couldn't . This was different from the other ones though, or maybe that was my mind playing tricks on me, it had a habit of dong that. It was me being naïve, optimistic and hoping for the best, but the best never came it stood me up like I was a excited teen on a date, every time.

I'm pulled out of my thoughts by fingers snapping in my face and an aggravated looking Perry. "HELLO!!!! Damn the dick that good huh?"

"Sorry I was-"

"Fantasizing about the D?" He questioned with a playful smirk on his face.

"No, I-"

"Yea  I have to talk to you about something important. Do you mind?" He asked, almost pleadingly. I could tell by the look in his eyes he was serious, I could tell it was urgent but this was never Perry, this was someone else, and I knew I had to help out my friend.

"Let's go." I say, pulling him alongside me. We walked upstairs towards his room and entered quickly before closing the door behind him. He walks over to his radio and puts on music before turning it up some. When I look at him confused he just taps his ears and I get what he's trying to say. Whatever he was getting ready to tell me was serious, which scared me more because Perry never did serious.

Play Song Now

For a while, it was nothing but silence, painful, deafening silence with only the sound of 'Ed Sheeran's Photograph' playing in the background. I didn't want to say anything in fear of speaking at the same time and scaring him off. He had to build the courage himself, and I'd wait until he was ready.

"I was stupid," he began, "Really, really stupid," he continued. He got up and began to pace the room. Muttering and cursing himself under his breath. If all the other signs weren't dead giveaways, I knew this thing he wanted to talk about, was weighing heavy on him. It was turning him into something completely opposite, eating at him like a parasite until he was a puddle of nothing. He was crumbling, and meanwhile I was in La-La land, he was possibly suffering, and I needed to be there, for him. After many failed attempts to get him to calm down I got up from my seat on his bed and wrapped him in my arms, rubbing up and down his back to comfort him. It was when I got close to him I heard his whimpers, he was crying. When I pulled away from him and looked deeply in his eyes, I saw it. I saw all the pain, the hurt that he was fighting to stop from surfacing but his wall was cracking, I could see the cracks and holes in it. It was only a matter of time before the walls fell down like a house of cards, leaving him bare, vulnerable to everything. I pulled him down onto the bed with me and just stared at him, giving him a single nod letting him know when he was ready he could begin. He pulled out his wallet and in it was a picture of him and Shawn; I could tell it was old and worn. It was before me, before anyone it was just Shawn and Perry. They were smiling and seemed happy as ever until he ripped it straight down the middle, separating both of them from each other. I already knew what this was; I knew it was Shawn that caused him pain, endless, painstaking pain that stripped him of himself. It stripped him of being who he was, who I knew, it replaced Perry with, not Perry.

"I love him; I have for a while now." Is all he says while looking down at Shawn's side of the now ripped photo angrily.

I couldn't respond to him, I didn't know what to say about it, about love. I had never experienced it, never seen someone angry about it.

"And now I've made it worse, I always do." He whispers, mainly to himself.

"How? How could you have made it worse?"

"I did what I shouldn't have done, I knew he wasn't even gonna stay, it was just a little something for him but I did it anyway. I gave in to temptation." It wasn't long until he broke out into tears once again, leaning on my shoulder and releasing his sorrows.

"I'm so stupid. Why did I do it, I was so strong and good at holding it in but with him, I'm not in control anymore. I'm stupid, reckless, I'm-"

"Stop. Whatever you've done doesn't matter, everything will be alright. Don't put yourself down for him, if this is what loving him makes you do, then stop." I chant to him, staring intently into his eyes, making sure he heard and understood every word leaving my mouth.

"You say it like it's easy, what I've done furthered my feelings, multiplied them times a thousand. I can't just get over him now, I'm stuck." He says defeated, like he lost a battle, which by the way he looked seemed accurate. He was tired, exhausted even and vulnerable from the current events which only made me question what he had done.

"What did you do?" I ask and what he says shocks me speechless. It wasn't expected to say the least.

"I slept with him."

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