Bloom

04 | fresh juice

Giselle "G" Rowe
Wednesday, September 21 | 8:15 a.m.
The Rowe Residence

-

"Girl, what you doing just barging in here? This ain't yo house no more." I set down my glass of apple juice and cup my hips.

"Shut up. I gotta pee." Gabriella puts Jamari down and speeds to the bathroom, fidgeting with her pants.

Her baby blue scrubs look good on her, especially since she got the right size this time and they don't fit like leggings, like many of her other pair do.

One thing about the Rowe women, we got hips and ass — courtesy of my grandma — especially Gabriella. She was already working with a lot, but giving birth to Jamari only made her curves more pronounced. Both of us take after our mother's cinnamon brown skin complexion, with Gabriella just being slightly darker than I am. Her lips are full just like our dad's so she's really blessed.

"Hey, pooh." I reach my arms out and Jamari walks up to me, rubbing his eyes. "Somebody fell asleep in the car, huh?"

"Want something to eat?" I pick up my fork and stab at the warm scrambled eggs, bringing it to his mouth and of course he accepts it. Before I know it, he's eaten them all and drank the rest of my juice.

"Dang, he just ate not too long ago." Gabriella walks into the kitchen and grabs a paper towel from the counter to dry her wet hands.

"You know this boy is greedy." I laugh, lowering him to the ground.

"No!" He yells, lifting his legs up and I sigh, placing him back on my hip.

"Okay, his bag is packed with all new clothes. Y'all can just throw away any old stuff cause I'm sure it's barely fitting anyway. I'm leaving one of my cards here to fill up the fridge." She reaches her arms out for Jamari and he leans down towards her.

"Leaving yo card?" I smirk. "It's like that now, Gab?"

She smiles and shrugs. "Well, y'all are helping me raise my baby, it's the least that I could do." She kisses Jamari's head. "And I guess I love y'all."

"You guess, huh?" I take a bite out of my toast and Jamari eyes me. "Dang nephew, you want some of this too?"

He opens his mouth and I hold it up for him to bite. Crumbs drop onto the floor, but I don't mind. I have to vacuum anyway.

"Mama and daddy already at work, right?"

"Yeah. She rode with him."

"I figured, they glued to each other. Anyway, I gotta go. Farad will be here to pick up Jamari tonight. Probably around seven o' clock, okay?

"Uh okay."

His lame ass.

She placed Jamari down and gives him another kiss before standing up to smooth out her scrubs.

"I'm proud of you, Nurse Gabriella." I put my arm on her shoulder to give her a quick hug and she chuckles. Gab is my little big sister. Older than me but about four inches shorter.

"Thank you, baby sister. Bye-bye, son. I love you so much!" She blows him a kiss and he blows her one back, immediately heading towards the TV.

**********

Wednesday, September 21 | 12:18 p.m.
Downtown

-

Jamari is fast asleep in his stroller as I push it down the sidewalk. My heart is thumping out of my chest as I walk quickly, too exhausted to continue running. I'm sweating a little and I know that my hair is frizzing up. As soon as the light turns red, I cross the busy street and a man blows his horn at me, nodding his hello when I look his way.