Reality Check ✔️

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Charisma

Once I got back home, the party was winding dying down. My cousin Shakim and Kemarc had to come out to the car to get me. I could barely hold myself up.

"Grandma," I cried kicking my feet as they carried me up the stairs, "No, no!"

"Charisma, what happened?" Shakim asked.

"Grandma passed away this afternoon."

"Stop lying."

"She's gone, Shakim. She's gone. She's gone," I said as tears slid down my face onto his wife-beater.

"She's in a better place now, Charisma. God got her now. She'll always be our grandma," Shakim said.

Suddenly the door flew open, and I saw Devin walk in. It looked like he had been crying too.

"Yo, what's wrong?" he asked stroking my hair as I continued to cry.

"Her grandma died," Akira said.

"Come with me for a minute. Can you guys kind of clean up this mess? We'll be right back," he said.

Devin grabbed my hand, and we walked into my room and sat on the bed. He looked at me and punched the wall making a huge hole.  He fell to his knees, and all I heard was him sobbing. I sat down on the floor next to him, and he just cried in my arms. After all the years I'd known Devin, I'd never seen him shed not one tear, but today, it was different.

"It's okay, Dev. I promise you it is. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Naw, baby, I can't," he answered slowly.

I scooted up next to him, so we were looking straight at each other. "I love you, okay? Even though we're together now, you were my best friend first. What's going on?"

He got up and took a deep breath before he spoke, "I went to go see my mom today."

Wow, he actually went, I thought. "What happened?"

"Well, she said she only has one child, and that's her 16-year old daughter Devina. You know how fucked up I felt?"

"Trust me, it's not more surprising than Mr. J being my dad."

"I knew there was a resemblance between ya'll," he laughed, "What? You don't think that?"

"No," I said rolling my eyes as he kissed me on the cheek.

"Everything is going to get worked out, alright? We got four more months till my mini me comes out, so all we have to do is wait."

I put my head on his chest, and he rubbed my stomach. He was right. All we could do was wait.

One Week Later...

I sat in the limo scared to even get out because of the looks I knew I would get from people. I sat there stroking my black dress, and I took a deep breath as I thought about my grandma. I knew she didn't want me to be sad and all. She would have wanted me to the good times we both had. I held her obituary in my hand and stared at her picture. It was from the first annual Williams's family reunion.

I heard a knock on the limo's door, and I opened it and saw Devin.

"You okay?" he asked.

As I continued to look at the obituary, a tear fell on her picture. Devin immediately got in and sat right beside me closing the door.

"You really want everybody in there wondering where Ms. Williams' favorite granddaughter who she helped raise is?" he asked giving me a kiss.

I took a deep breath, and he wiped my tears. I was nervous as hell to see the faces of people I haven't seen in years, but I walked hand in hand with Devin inside of the church. As we walked down to the front to where my family was, I could hear everyone let their opinions be known.