Chapter Five

Dinah walked up the stairs of her red brick stone apartment at a slow exhausting pace. A headache building up as she walked slower and slower under the flickering and buzzing lights. Pushing open the door to the sixth floor she paused briefly taking in a breath feeling a bit dizzy as she leaned against the door frame.

The door clicked behind her and she passed by apartment F3, F4, F5, F6, and F9 stopping in front of F10. Apartments F7 and F8 had clear plastic tarps covering their doorways and construction/repair notices on the doors.

“That’s new.” She mutters under her breath spinning her set of keys around her fingers.

The door swings open after a few knocks revealing a man in his mid-thirties looking like he’s been up for days on end. Hair disheveled, a beard that has unevenly grown and untrimmed, a pair of smudged reading glasses hanging from a food and sweat-stained navy blue tank top paired with lime green sweatpants.

“Ina..I...I haven’t...wasn’t expecting you. Umm...what brings you to my floor?”

“Kingston...seriously....this is...I know you were laid off but I was hoping you were getting your shit together.”

“Aren’t you staying with Jason? She...Kace isn’t with you, is she? I saw her on the news giving the what’s what about the murder and her speaking...I mean, of course, she was speaking she was on tv.” His body blocked the entryway to his apartment.

“Why would you care?” Craning her head she attempted to peer into the apartment only to be blocked by Kingston’s body as he stepped out of the apartment and almost closed the door behind him keeping his hand on the knob to keep it from closing completely.

“You know how much I just love surprise visits but if you don’t mind...I have to get back to work. If you want to talk feel free to stop by but today, ya know, just ain’t a good time.” His disorganized and thick eyebrows crinkled and pushed together as he awkwardly scratched his forehead with his free hand.

“You know what I know?” Dinah put her hand on her hip and cocked her head. “I would like to be on my couch, eating some pizza and drinking some coke but instead I’m here checking on your ass, pardon my language when I could be typing up my notes on my computer. I could be getting my shit done, again pardon my language, so I could go to fucking bed. I’ve been up since 3 am and all I want to do is go to bed but no I’m here checking on your unbathed, unemployed, un...just everything.”

A light panic and anxiety started to hit her. Her breath sped up.

Why was she panicking? She was angry. She shouldn’t be panicking.

“You know what...I’m going to my apartment and when you get your shit together enough that you realize you need help..feel free to knock or call.”

Spinning around on her heel she walked back to the stairs and made her way to the fourth floor not turning around once to see Kingston’s response.