The thoughts gave me chills, but soon the room was pounding with Emilia’s cries.
“What the--?” she said as she saw Simone and Joey. I smiled and shrugged.
“You?” she squealed.
“Me? No! My mom’s. She… she… she died, Em.” I said. I looked up at the ceiling to keep the tears from falling. Seven appeared behind her. He saw me crying and sat on the bed across from me.
“What’s the matter, kid?” he asked. I shook my head.
“Sev, not now.” Emilia said. “Hon, I never knew! Please don’t cry, okay? I’m going to cry, Kyla. Don’t cry.” She said. Her voice started to shake and she came and hugged me. Together we both cried. She knew the trouble my mom was having more than any of my other friends.
Almost an hour passed. Emilia and I had talked about everything, held the babies, and cried some more. We went into the kitchen and saw Seven and Spencer sitting on the kitchen counter talking. He looked at me with a pale face, and then continued talking. Spencer had the same look on his face. I longed to know what they were talking about but I didn’t want to be a pest. I just looked at the ground at my smelly old Chuck Taylors.
“Want some lunch?” Spencer asked. “I can whip something up before I go.” He said. Erica and Kendra sped past screaming and chasing each other. I cringed as I heard a baby cry from down the hall.
“Count me out. I guess I’m on baby duty.” I sighed and left the kitchen. I felt my stomach sink as because it had seemed that Spencer had told Seven something that he obviously couldn’t tell me. I just couldn’t figure out what it was.
I tiptoed into the bedroom and picked up baby Simone. I cradled her and kissed her tiny forehead.