The Brothers

Carly gets back to Luke's place, where he's sitting on the couch, waiting for her.

"Where've you been?"

"I went out."

"You shouldn't be going out. You've only been out of the hospital for a week. Where'd you go?"

"I just, I went out."

"Where, Carly?" Luke demands.

"That detective woman wanted me to answer a few more questions."

"Oh yeah, like what?"

"Nothing major."

"What'd you tell them?"

"Nothing."

"You obviously had to tell her something...so what was it."

"She wanted to get more information on what the shooter looked like...stuff like that."

"Are you lying to me?"

"No."

"Okay...I gotta head out. I'll be back in a few hours. Please stay here so you can rest and heal."

"Okay, I will." He gives her a kiss and then leaves.

Colin followed Carly to and from the police station and has been sitting outside Luke's apartment, waiting for him to leave. When Luke is no longer in sight, he grabs the black bag out of the passenger seat, and goes inside.

He gets to Luke's apartment door and knocks. A few seconds later, Carly finally answers.

"Luke's not here, you just missed him."

"I'm not here for Luke, I'm here for you." He says letting himself in.

"What do you want with me?" She asks closing the door.

"I need you to disappear, for good. And never show your face again."

"I can't do that."

"You can, and you will. You have no choice. So here's what you're gonna do. You will take this bag, full of cash. There's also an ID in there. You will disappear and Carly will no longer exists."

"...and if I don't?"

"You really don't want to find out. I want you gone by the end of the day...better yet, before Luke gets back home." Colin starts walking for the door.

"What exactly am I suppose to tell him?"

"I don't know, write him a cute letter or some shit, but you better be gone." Colin drops the bag by the door before walking out.

Colin heads over to Odell's just to kick it with him. He and Kash are leaving for LA at the end of the week, and he wants to see where Odell's head is at as far as proposal. He wants to make sure he's really ready for it.

Odell opens the door to see Colin standing there.

"What's up bro?" Odell says.

"What's good?" Colin says walking in.

"Just trynna get ready for this trip."

"You ready?"

"Yeah...it ain't like I haven't been to LA before."

"That's not what I mean..."

"Oh...yeah man. I'm ready. You gone be my best man right?"

"She ain't even said yes yet." Colin says chuckling.

"But I know she will..."

"Yeah man. I'd be honored to be ya best man."

"Preciate it...but I got a question though."

"Go ahead." Colin says.

"What that girl got that Aaliyah don't? For real though. She's trynna put you in jail."

"I still haven't found any evidence that supports that."

"Still. Aaliyah is everything you've ever wanted. She's smart, she's funny, she's gorgeous. I haven't seen you look at anyone the way you look at her. Not even when you were dating Liz back in the day. Aaliyah is it for you, and you gone ruin something good. Think about CJ. He resented you for so long, and if he finds out that you the reason for shit goin south with you and Aaliyah, he's never gonna fuck with you again."

"Listen, honestly I'm over her. Right now, I'm just trynna figure out what she's really up to."

Odell shakes his head. "Alright...do you."

------------------

Later that night, Colin gets an unexpected visit from Liz. Of course he welcomes her with open arms. This was also the same night, CJ wanted to hang out with Odell, and both he and Kash decided to let him stay the night and they'd take him to school the next morning.

So after Aaliyah drops off his clothes, she goes to Colin's place. Of course, she has the code to get upstairs without Colin's knowledge, and when she finally makes it up there, she hears moans and groans coming from the bedroom.

She's suddenly filled with rage and instead of kicking both their asses, she leaves. She gets back to her car and cries her eyes out. After getting herself together, she head to Kash's house, even though she knew it'd be a bad idea and Kash would be ready to take action but she had to talk to someone. Kash was her first thought.

Kash opens the door to see Aaliyah standing there, red and puffy eyed.

"Liyah...what happened."

"Colin's an asshole, that's what's wrong."

"Come in."'

"Where's CJ?"

"In the room, sleeping. Aaliyah, what happened?"

"I go over to Colin's to get some alone time since CJ is with you and Odell, and I get there and he's fuckin some other girl."

"Oh hell no..."

"Kash, calm down."

"How the hell are you so calm right now."

"I'm not. On the outside, maybe, but on the inside, I'm burning with rage. I wanted to kill them both, but I didn't. That explains so much though."

"What do you mean?"

"He's just been acting so weird lately. Like he's never up to have sex, when I try to be intimate with him, he pulls away. I just...I should have seen it coming. But ignored all the signs. Whoever it is, I hope she was worth it."

"So you didn't get a good look at her?"

"Nope. I didn't walk in on them, because if I did, I'd probably be in jail right now."

"I'm sorry Liyah."

"Don't be...you're not the lying ass cheater."

"What's up Li-" Odell says as he walks in, but stops mid sentence when he sees that she's crying. Shit. She knows. "What's wrong?"

"Your brother. That's what's wrong." Kash says. "He's sleeping around on her." Odell doesn't say anything. "You knew...didn't you." They both look up at him. "Odell..."

"Yeah. I knew." He says sadly.

"Who is she?" Aaliyah asks.

"Liyah, it's best if he tells you. It's not my place."

"Odell, please just....tell me."

He takes a deep breath. "This bitch from high school. He was in love with her, then she switched up last minute, and ditched him after graduation. Somehow they reconnected."

"Wow...some high school flame. Really?!"

He takes another deep breath. "That's not all."

"What more could there be?"

"She's a federal prosecutor, and we believe that she's investigating him. He doesn't want to believe that she is..."

"Of course he doesn't." She says shaking her head. "He's such a dumbass."

"You don't have to put yourself through this." Kash says.

"And I won't. If that's who he wants, then so be it. He has no obligations to me. We aren't married. As long as he continues to take care of Jr, I have no problems."

"This shit ain't right. Not how it's suppose to be." Odell says.

"Well, Colin made his choice. He just better be smart, or his ass will end up in jail."

"That's what he claims. He said the more he sees her, the more he will stay ahead of her."

"I've had enough for one night. Is it okay if CJ still stays over. I don't wanna wake him up."

"Yeah, of course. You can stay if you want to." Kash says.

"Yeah..." Odell adds.

"Nah, I can't. I'll let you know when I make it home." She says to Kash.

"Okay."

---------------

The next morning, Colin gets a text from Odell letting him know that she knows.

Fuck. He says to himself. He knows that he's gonna have to talk to her, so he goes over once he gets out of bed and gets dressed.

He pulls up to the house and uses his key to get in the door. She hears the door opening and walks out of the kitchen and towards the front door.

"Wow. You've got a lot of nerve showing your face."

"We need to talk."

"You don't have shit to say to me. I know everything." She says walking up to him.

"Listen...I'm s-" she slaps him in mid sentence.

"Don't even fix your mouth to say I'm sorry. You're not sorry." She says on the verge of tears.

"Yes I am. I never intended for it to go this far."

"Bullshit."

"I swear."

She slaps him again. "Shut the fuck up."

"The first one, I deserved, but I'm not gonna allow you to keep hitting me."

"Or what, Colin? You gone hit me back? You gone shoot me?" Colin looks down. "Exactly, you ain't gone do shit. Get the hell out of my house."

"Aaliyah." He says gently grabbing her arm, but she pulls away.

"Don't touch me. Get the fuck out, Colin."

"Okay..." He says and leaves.