Chapter Two.

In Target, they find themselves faced with the stranger from the night before.

Marshall walks into Target pushing his foot off the ground as he rode on the cart before us. He made faces at Hailie as they speed through the entrance. I laugh shaking my head as I push my sunglasses on my face and slowly follow behind them. When you're as stupidly open as me about your nightlife, you need aviators wherever you go.

"Come on Jay!" He calls out and I rush over to them as we start down the aisles. He uses one foot to push the force of the cart while the other rested on the bottom. Sometimes Marshall can be a big kid.

"Gotta get my Hailie some diadies. Diadies for the baby?" He makes more faces at her before he pulls me closer to the cart. I puff my cheeks out and cross my eyes, only causing her to laugh harder.

"Excuse me, where's the diapers?" I ask someone coming past us with a Target nametag.  

"Aisle eighteen." She smiles pointing us in the direction. We both nod thankfully as we make our way towards our destination. The lady watches after us and I could swear she's giving us the usual look we get on in public. It's that prude, judgemental, "too young to have a broken teen family" face. We look at it as a family brought together by love and bullshit. 

We round the corner of Aisle 18, and crash into another cart. "Oh! Sorry!" I call out quickly and the girl before me scoffs. 

"Could you be anymore damn blind?" She screams as she stomps past us. Marshall gets down from his place on the cart, and I can see the aggravation become ridiculously evident on his facial features. HIs shoulders square up and he looks at me before slowly dragging his headphones from his neck to his ears. That's how Marshall copes. 

"I said I was sorry." I reply to the girl and she scoffs. I frown but my face grows numb when I see the man who enters the aisle and is coming toward us. The smell of his scent combines with the leather in his jacket, and it instantly entices my senses with familiarity. I look up, and stare at him through my shades. He stares back through his own.

"What's wrong baby?" That familiar southern drawl asks and I gulp down my nerves as he turns back to me. I can see the beads of his pupils through the shady vision of his glasses and his lids blink slowly. 

"That dumb a*s hit our cart!" She insists and my bottom lip curls into my top row of teeth. 

"I said I was sorry." I mumble. 

"Now, baby." He starts, before realizing that he was standing between us both. "I'm sure she didn't do it on purpose." He looks at me, and I swallow as his eyes once again meet mine through our glasses. 

"Right." I whisper as Marshall stands beside me but is facing the the diapers and is in his own little world. What I would give for him to turn around, and save me from this moment. The man's before me's hair sweeps over his neck, and my eyes latch onto the tattoo. The Red. Yup. It's him. 

"Alright then."

"Ugh." She scoffs. "You always stick up for other women. You never stick up for me. Michael! YOU NEVER STICK UP FOR ME!" She screams and slams the cart into his groin, before leaving the aisle. He groans before doubling over a bit. 

Marshall looks over for the first time, and lifts one of the headphones away from his ear. "You alright dawg?" His face showed genuine concern.

"Yeah. As many shots as she takes to it, you'd think I wouldn't even be able to get it up for her." The guy says and Marshall laughs. 

"Wear a cup. That's how I got through mine."

"Women are violent, huh?" The guy introduced as Michael flashes me a dark smile. My eyes simultaneously run across the curve of his lips as they move slowly. 

"Oh not her. My best friend's the most sweet form of sweet I've ever met. Now, our friend Nichole. She can throw a punch. She'll even eat you, if you f**k s**t up the right kinda way." Marshall claps a hand on my shoulder. I smile weakly as Michael's eyes don't leave mine.

"Well, I've gotta get out of here before she leaves me in this store." His eyebrow c***s over his shades and Marshall and I nod together as he leaves the aisle.

"Nice guy." Marshall grabs a pack of diapers and hands them to me. I smile as we leave the aisle. 

Moments after checkout, we see the same guy rushing across the parking lot. He chases the car in front of him at an impeccable speed.

"BABY WAIT!" He calls out and drops to his knees as the car pulls off, top speed. He shakes his head and buries his face in his hands. I watch as his black, long mane sways back and forth. My mouth dries up, and I find myself trying to breathe with the smallest bit of air left in my windpipe.

"Damn, dawg. We got a lot in common." Marshall replies as he helps the guy to his feet. "My girl does that all the time. Well, did that all the time. She's gone now."

"Good riddance." I push my sunglasses up my nose.

"Aye, I'm not even worried about'er. She does this all the time. The second I even start looking at another girl, I don't even gotta flirt with one-- My eye c***s like this--" He takes his glasses off, and crosses the most beautiful eyes I've seen since I first laid eyes on Marshall. Hailie giggles. "I'm in trouble. I just don't want'er scratching up my Chevy. That'chere's my baby." He smiles.

"I got a Chevy too!" Marshall ecstatically smiles at all the similarities between himself and Michael.

"And who's this beautiful young lady here?" He comes toward me and I swallow as there's a pause. He leans over between myself and the cart and picks up Haliie.

"That's my daughter Hailie Jade." Marshall smiles fondly. "That's my world." Hailie begins to cry and I nearly snatch her out of his arms. He watches me rocker her and she stops crying almost immediately.

"Damn." Michael mutters.

"Don't be mad. She does that to everybody except Jasemine." Marshall smiles.

"Jasemine." Michael looks over at me. "Like the flower." He flashes me a smile before backing up and holding his out to Marshall. 

"I'm Michael, but where I'm from, they call me Yela. Or Catfish Bill." He chuckles a bit and my heart sinks at the name. I knew it was him. Goddamn I knew it was, no one could forget that face. That accent, the way his tongue slides over his lips just before he's about to speak. And Yela. I scoff to myself. How do you forget that?

"I'm Marshall. Everyone calls me Em. Or Slim Shady." He jokes and Michael laughs. 

"And Jasemine, you say?" He comes over to me, holding his hand out. I stare at him skeptically before my hand meets his. His skin is soft as it clasps my palm in his and he shakes it slowly. "You look more like a uh..." He taps his chin, squinting as he surveys me. "A Camille to me." He says and my heart thuds to the bottom of my stomach. 

"Marshall, I'll see you in the car." I spit icily as I carry Haillie. Camille, the fake name I gave him at the bar... He's going to tell Marshall. 

"You need a ride?" Marshall offers to Michael who smiles.

"Man, thanks you're too kind." He smiles before following behind me.

"Jay, wait up!" Marshall jogs up to me, before pulling Hailie out of my arms. My shield was gone. I was openly standing in front of this... This... beautiful monster. I slowly look back at Michael before climbing into the backseat. 

"You not gone sit up front with me?" Marshall buckles up the baby in her car seat.

"I don't want a stranger in the backseat with the baby." I reply curtly. Marshall looks from me, to Hailie before he scratches his blonde hair under the beanie on the top of his head. 

"Good point." he says and I nod as the front door beside me opens. 

"This here is a gorgeous pierce of work." Michael says as he sits in it. "And when I say gorgeous I mean..." He slides his slender fingers against the dashboard. I watch them glide back and forth and my body shivers. The thought of those fingernails sliding against my cheek causes me to brace myself.

"Yeah. Where you headed to man?"

"Some place called Luthern Academy. It's my first day. Hopefully my baby's up there. And by baby, I mean the car. The chick can drop the keys off at the front office for all I care."

"Hell I hear you man." I try to train my eyes on Marshall who's eyes are focused on the road as he starts up the Chevy. The sound of it rumbling fills our ears. 

"Ouch, that Box needs an oil change. You gotta spoil your baby. Take her out, get her some good gas. None of that diesel s**t, Slim." Michael says and I can see a smile creep onto Marshall's face. I can't tell if it's because of the fact that he actually called him Slim, or the fact that Michael has no idea how little Marshall knows about cars. 

"I don't know nothing about no cars, dawg. I just get in it and drive. If water would work as gas, I'd just dunk it in that m**********r." Michael leans back.

"Man, you're crazy." He lifts his head back over the seat and looks at me. "Why so quiet, Jasemine?" The way his accent melts against the syllables of my name nearly makes me sick. I can't tell whether it's disgust or the need to feel him close to me again, but I shake it off with a shrug.

"Babe, take your glasses off. Put them on Hai Hai. You know I hate the sunlight on her. Please?" Marshall's eyes look at me through the rearview mirror and I reluctantly pull them off. I hand them to Hailie who puts them on her face upside down.

"That's cute." Michael says before his eyes rest back on me. 

"So where you from bro?"

"'Bama baby. Moved up here to get into the D. I like big cities." Michael says and my eyes focus on his hair. That gorgeous hair. That's what attracted me to him in the first place last night. 

"Here." Marshall announces and Michael smiles. "We're gonna park sooo--"

"Yeah, no. I feel you. Thanks for the ride." He gets out of the car and tosses money through the window as he walks away. I watch him, not helping but feeling disgusting for myself. That vulnerable guy from last night was gone. This guy was a stranger. Not like he wasn't a stranger to begin with.

"S**t." Marshall breathes out, holding the money up. "He just gave us $500." He looks back at me, and laughs a little with shock.