Bloom

07 | gratitude

"Okay. Love you, dad. Thanks for having my back.

"I love you too."

**********

Sunday, October 2 | 9:49 p.m.
The Rowe Residence

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Jamari is babied more than usual as the day goes on. Someone is always holding him or just about to pick him up and he loves it. My dad even ran to the store with him and they came back with a few more loud ass toys that he doesn't need. By the end of the night, he's back to his normal self, smiling, laughing, and eating everything.

I pick up my phone and head straight to social media to check on my post from the night of Mack's birthday party for the umpteenth time.

Damn!

It's sitting at 70k likes and over 6k comments. That's more triple the numbers that it hit the night that I posted it. Most of the comments and DMs are positive and I've even received some requests for similar custom pieces.

Of course, I've accepted a few offers and set my price, happily adding go to the fabric store on my to-do list for tomorrow.

I take a few pictures of the newly crafted garment that's on the mannequin in my room, deciding to take advantage of the traffic on my page, and post it. It's a vibrant pink waffle knit dress with a plunging neckline and flared sleeves. I've gone from eight hundred and something followers to over three thousand in just over 24 hours.

Designing and creating clothes has always been a passion of mine. I've made pieces for people before and gotten paid for it too but this right here could be the start of something big.

This could change my entire life.

427 likes in 11 minutes.

769 likes in 15 minutes.

Overwhelmed, I put my phone down and head to the bathroom for a shower. The hot water calms me down instantly and I slowly take a deep breath before exhaling with the same force.

"I'll be your boyfriend in your wet dreams tonight. Noses on the rail, little virgin wears the white. You cut your hair, but you use to live a blonded life."

I lather up my rag with my vanilla coconut scented liquid soap and start scrubbing my shoulders, loudly singing along to Frank Ocean's "Self Control."

"Keep a place for me, for me. I'll sleep between y'all, it's nothing. It's nothing, it's nothing."

I feel a sudden but familiar burst of motivation and hope that I will actually be able to turn my dreams into a reality. This happens every so often and I wish that I could bottle this feeling up and keep it forever because it's one of the things that makes life worth living for me.

Everything I can be mine.
Everything I want will be mine.

I grab the handle of my exfoliating brush and scrub my back.

I place my rag underneath the hot stream of water and squeeze out all of the suds before ringing it out and grabbing the handle of my exfoliating brush to scrub my back.