Ch 𝟸𝟾:
Failed Family Functions
____
3:13pm
TWO DAYS LATER
houston, tx
"Mhm! Divorced him last year and now she's engaged to his brother. Her soon-to-be mother-in-law cussed her ass out. Ooh, I'm tellin' you, y'all should've been there." Mari watched her aunt talk through hooded eyes as she sat on the couch, her arms crossed over her chest.
It seemed like all Marie-Anne did was run her mouth and Mari was starting to get irritated by it. She had some type of mess on everyone in the family and she was just too old for that.
"Aunt Marie, you do entirely too much." Mari's cousin, Mercedes, spoke from behind the couch where she stood.
Marie-Anne, turned around and eyed her, as did the other older women in the living room. "Excuse me?"
"You stay talking 'bout everyone." Cedes clarified, causing Mari to hide her smile behind her hand.
Cedes was that one cousin that simply didn't care about what came out of her mouth. As children, Mercedes was always the one teaching the younger kids how to cuss, her parents always got calls from the school about her behavior, she was always putting someone in their place, etcetera. She became a little more reserved and put-together as she got older, but she still wasn't scared to speak her mind whenever she felt necessary.
Mercedes wasn't blood-related to Marie-Anne either so she didn't bother to hide her distaste towards the woman.
"You should learn to stay-"
"-in a child's place?" She finished the infamous line for her, "I'm not a child anymore, so that's dead. And I know a forty year old woman with a grandma name didn't just call me a child."
Marie-Anne twisted her body completely to face Cedes, "Who in the hell raised you?" She stared at her with her lip curled.
"You just don't like someone telling you about yourself but when it comes to other people you'll go off. Ironic isn't it? Listen, I don't fight old women, but if you keep running your mouth, one day you're gonna come across someone who does."
Without waiting to hear a response, Cedes turned on her heels and walked out of the living room, leaving the older women with raised eyebrows and agape mouths. Mari coughed to cover her laughter.
"That one right there? Always been smart ass. Her mouth started running before she did. Guess who she gets it from?" Aunt Marie shook her head disapprovingly before jumping right back into her conversation with the other uninterested women. Mari subtly rolled her eyes before getting up from the couch and walking out of the room herself.
Passing the kitchen, she continued down the hall to the room her parents had decorated for their grandson. Mari heard Sani before she made it to the room. She listened to him teach his younger cousin how to correctly play with a toy.
She stood in the doorway, watching the two boys interact. Sani's cousin, Aaron (who was Mercedes' son), didn't even live in the state so they rarely saw each other. Whenever they visited, Mari made sure to plan small events with Cedes and Aaron so that neither her or Sani would lose the bond they had with their cousin regardless of how far they lived away from each other.
Sani helped Aaron fix his toy car, twisting the wheel back on, before parking his car next to his cousin's. Eventually he felt his mother's presence, and turned around, meeting her eyes in the doorway. He smiled before getting up and wrapping his arms around her waist as best as he could. Sani had stayed over his grandparents house the night before so he hadn't seen Mari in a little over a day.
"Hi baby. Are you having fun?" She ran her hand over his freshly-retwisted hair. She felt his body relax slightly as he nodded. "Let's get you some food."
"'Kay." He nodded. Mari encouraged Aaron to come eat with them, but he insisted that he'd already eaten so she left him to his toys. Keeping his hand in hers, Sani and Mari made their way down the hallway, the sounds of conversations getting louder the closer they got to the kitchen.
Cheyenne, Layva, and a few other family members were already gathered around the kitchen island which was full of aluminum trays, piling their plates up with food. Since she wasn't hungry herself, Mari made Sani's plate with his guidance. She glanced up when Marie-Anne and another woman came into the kitchen before looking back down at her son.
"That's it?" Mari asked. He nodded and she turned around, shuffling through the drawers for his utensils.
Her parents had moved into a much bigger home than their previous one, but she hadn't spent as much time over as she wanted because of the distance. She helped them move and would stop by a few times to drop or pick Sani up. Other than that, her parents came to her.
"How old is he?"
Mari looked behind her at the sound of her Aunt's voice. "Four." She muttered, turning back around to hand the plate to her son.
"Four? Really?"
"Yes? Why is that so unbelievable?"
Marie-Anne shrugged, "You would think he was younger."
Rolling her eyes, Mari didn't bother responding before making her way out of the kitchen, holding onto Sani's free hand. Mari avoided getting into it with Anne for her family's sake, but bringing up her son is where she drew the line so she knew it was best to remove herself from the situation completely.
Marie-Anne being Travis's cousin is the only thing stopping her from getting told off and she knows that. Mari knew if she was in Cedes position, where she wasn't related to Anne at all, she would've cussed her out on many occasions.
Mari sat next to Sani at the dining table that was only occupied by Layva, and her younger cousin, Aniya. She cut Sani's steak up for him until he assured her that he could do it himself. She sat scrolling on her phone, drowning out the kid's conversation around her. But the sound of two men's voices entering the dining area caused her to look up from her phone.
"Not eating?" Travis asked his oldest daughter as he stepped into the room with someone behind him.
"No..." Mari answered, but her eyes darted behind Travis to Samiron who stood with a blank expression on his face.
Travis glanced between his daughter and Samiron, deciding to answer the question he knew she was getting ready to ask anyway. "I was smoking at Nas's and needed a ride over here since my car is getting wrapped."
"Hm." Mari mumbled. She knew her dad and Nas were still good friends despite the falling out their kids had. And Travis often went over to Nas's to smoke since Cheyenne told him he wasn't allowed to smoke at the home anymore. Layva was getting older and in Chy's eyss, it was already bad enough she'd eventually be exposed to weed at school. She didn't want her to he exposed to it at home too.
After Travis extracted himself from the dining room, Samiron greeted Mari and the two little girls before taking a seat on the other side of Sani. "Why you ain't save me no food?" He nudged his son.
Sani looked up at his dad with a smirk. "Not yours."
"That's how it is?" Mir chuckled when Sani nodded, his attention trained on his food.
His eyes drifted over to Mari who had continued scrolling through her phone. He cleared his throat, causing her to glance up at him. "You look mad about some. What's up?"
Mari pursed her lips to the side. She hated how well Mir could read her and how well he could tell her emotions off of one look at her face. She might seem closed off to a lot of people, but she was an open book to Samiron.
Placing her phone face-down on the table, she let out a deep breath and shook her head, contemplating telling him. She knew Mir was the last person to confide in when it came to her convo with Savior, but it did involve him after all. "Me and Savior had a lil'... disagreement involving you the other day. It's still on my mind. And then I came here hoping for it to be chill and my aunt is already working my nerves."
She expected him to look surprised or maybe even a little bit amused at the mention of her and Savior having a disagreement, but his facial expression remained the same. Mir lifted his chin, "The argument. What was it 'bout?"
"Savior doesn't trust you."
"Aight. We're on the same page." He shrugged.
She shook her head. "No, he doesn't trust you with me. He thinks your intentions aren't as pure as you're trynna make them seem."
"I mean, you know that at first, my intentions with you weren't pure so he's not 100% wrong about that. But that changed after the conversations we've had about everything. The air is clear and we know which side of the fence we're on. But it sounds like dude is intimidated by me or some."
Mari tilted her head to the side. "I don't think he's intimidated by you. He's just not a fan of you so naturally he's not gonna like you around me."
"Not liking me around you?" Samiron's chest shook with a laugh, "he forget you're my babymomma or some? We're gonna be around each other forever."
She shrugged her shoulder, knowing that was the truth. "I know that, and he knows that, he just doesn't like it. It started cause he hasn't seen Sani and you had him at the time."
Mir scoffed and shook his head unbelievably. "When I find a fuck to give I'll let you know."
Sani looked up at his dad at his use of the bad word and Mari pinned him with a stare. "Samiron!" She whisper-yelled.
"Oh- my bad." He grimaced.
"Daddy said bad wowd." Sani turned towards his mom as Mir sucked his teeth and laughed. "Yes, I know baby."
Mari rolled her eyes at Mir's attempt to muffle his laughs. He waited until Sani continued to eat before speaking again. "Nah but seriously, I couldn't care less if he was upset about not seeing Sani. It's not like I'm keeping him away on purpose. But at the end of the day this my son, not his. He ain't entitled to having time with Sani. He sees him when he's over your house so that should be enough. I'm not about to start cutting my time with my son short so that it could fit Savior's schedule."
Mari pushed her lips together, nodding absentmindedly. As much as she disliked Savior and Mir not being at some type of mutual agreement, she couldn't fault Samiron for how he felt. Co-parenting was already a process they were still trying to get used to — Mari hated not having Sani all the time because she was so used to it, and Mir hated not having Sani for more days because he had time to make up for — but they were just barely making it work.
Savior being upset about not seeing Sani as much was a given because he was used to coming to Mari's house and Sani just being there. But it was different now. Mari believed he was still trying to adapt to Sani's dad being back in his life because for a while, he was playing that role. But he'd just have to learn to step back a little.
It already pissed Mir off enough that another man had to play the father-role in his own son's life, he didn't need Savior demanding more time with him on top of that.
"He's just trying to get used to it all. But I see where you're coming from."
Samiron studied Mari's face before letting out a breath and looking away. "He needs to get used to it faster."
Mari opened her mouth to reply but Sani cut her off by showing them that he'd finished his plate. She tossed the empty plate in the trash and took Sani into the bathroom in the hallway to wash his hands. They came back into the dining room where Mir was seated to let him know they were going to the living room. He slid his phone into the pocket of his Amiri jeans and stood up, following them through the noisy house.
Mari let out a breath of annoyance when she saw that her aunt had came back to occupy the living room. Ignoring her, she took a seat on the couch across from her. Sani got comfortable in between both his parents.
Marie-Anne looked away from the woman she was talking to and studied the man sitting next to her niece. "This is Kasani's father?"
"Yes." Mari huffed. Samiron recognized his babymomma's fed-up tone so instead of formally greeting the woman, he chose to just nod at her and redirect his attention, hoping the lady would find something else to talk about. But judging by the way her eyes darted between the three, she wasn't done.
"Why is your son not in his playroom?" She arched an eyebrow at the little boy leaning back on the couch, talking to his dad.
"Because he doesn't want to. I don't see how that's any of your business."
"No need to get like that. I was just asking," she held her hand up, the 24k gold bangles on her wrist jingling together as she did. "He just seems very clingy."
Mari jerked her head back. Even Mir furrowed his eyebrows at the woman. "Excuse me?"
"Ever since you walked in here he's been attached to you at the hip. That's why I thought he was younger. No four year old should be actin' like that, baby."
"Auntie." Mari's younger cousin mumbled in disapproval from the armchair he was sitting on.
"What? I'm just-"
"Don't speak on my son, especially when you don't know shit about him." Mari glared at her. "You haven't been here for how many years? Like who are you to tell me how my son should or shouldn't act? Last time I checked you ain't even have no damn kids. Yet you're telling me how my child should act."
"Yea I don't know you, but you disrespectful for that." Mir shook his head, scooting back on the couch with his arm around Sani's small body. He looked up and sucked his teeth when he realized the argument was starting to gain attention. The people in the kitchen had either congregated to the living room or silenced their conversations so that they could hear. The fact that the living room and kitchen was basically one big open room didn't help either.
"Wh-" her aunt sputtered, "You're coming at me like this for pointing something out, Amari. Everyone sees it so it's not like it's a mystery. Your son is clingy and he's too old to be acting how he is. It's simple."
Mari threw her phone on the couch next to her and stood up, pointing in her aunt's face. "Like I said, you don't know none about my son to be saying how he should or shouldn't act. Not all children act the same, you should know that with your ignorant ass."
"Ignorant? Little girl do you understand that-"
"I don't care! I don't give a damn if you're older than me. That don't change shit. Callin' me little girl trynna patronize me and shit."
Both Mercedes and Mir got up and approached the two when they saw her aunt shoot up from the couch. "Alright, Mari."
"No," she shoved out of Mir's hold, "Don't ever fix your mouth to say some about my son. Ever. Understand that because aunt or not I will slap the-"
"Slap what?" Anne waved her hand around before chuckling, "You're doing too much. Throwing a fit because I pointed out the obvious. It's no mystery why your son acts the way he does. If you hadn't went and got pregnant by a murderer, your son's father wouldn't have had to spend allem' years away and made y'all son as clingy as he is. It's not healthy."
"Okay, now you're the one doing too much." Mari's cousin shoved himself in front of Marie-Anne as Cedes went to get Sani from the couch. Multiple family members rounded the couch, trying to step in between the argument up before it escalated.
"You don't know shit about me to be talking the way you are, Marie-Anne. My life is none of your business. And last time I checked you ain't no child therapist to be telling me what is or isn't healthy when it comes to my son," Mari pointed her index finger in her face, "Blood or not you can actually get it. Always got some to say about everyone else yet you don't ever wanna talk about all those failed marriages."
"Gir- failed marriages? You went and fucked your life up by getting pregnant by a murderer!" Anne slapped her hands on her thighs. "Who's fault is that? Yours. So don't take it out on me. You messed your own son's life up with the decisions you made. Could've chose anyone to have a baby with bu-"
"Don't call him out of his name and you don't even know him!" Mari attempted to move around Mir's body but he was towering over her. Her aunt's words didn't affect him in the slightest. He might've taken someone's life but he had his reasons for doing so and he wasn't going to rehash it five years later.
Her aunt's words were hitting a different nerve for Mari though. Regardless of her relationship with Samiron, Mari wasn't going to allow anyone to speak ill of him. He's made his mistakes and he's had to pay for them the hard way. She didn't like how Marie-Anne was trying to paint a poisoned image of Samiron in front of her family members, but that's what her aunt always did; knock other people down so she could come out on top.
"Come on, Mari." Mir held her by both her forearms as she squirmed. "You keep giving her ass what she wants. Just let it go."
"Do you hear what she's sayin'?" Her eyebrows pinched together.
"Don't get mad at me for— how is that not right? I'm simply pointing out the obvious." Anne ranted to the family members who were trying to break up the argument.
"I swear to god-"
"Come on." Mir shook his head before forcing Mari towards the front door. Once they stepped out on the porch, Mir slammed the front door shut behind them, drowning out the sounds of the back and forth that was starting between Travis and his cousin.
Hearing a sniffle, Samiron blew out a breath. "Mari."
"I hate that bitch." Mari spat as tears of frustration ran down her face. She craned her head back to stare up at the sky, shaking her head and forcing the tears to stay where they were.
"You just gotta calm yourself down and stop feeding into her shit." He watched his babymomma pace the length of the porch.
She stopped her pacing and narrowed her eyes at Mir who was leaning against the wall. "I can't just sit there and act like her words don't mean shit when she's talking about my child. People like that needa be put in their place. She talks about any and everyone but speaking on someone's child is different."
"I-"
"And then to say that our parenting is the reason Sani is the way he is?" Mari's voice caught at her last few words. She looked away from Samiron and bit the corner of her lip as her throat burned with tears. Mari always doubted her parenting as is, but to hear it from someone else felt like a confirmation of her insecurities.
Sucking his teeth, Mir pushed off the wall and stood in front of her. "Listen to me, Mari. Ain't nothing 'wrong' with Sani. He has separation anxiety and I'll be the first to admit that that's my fault. But him having anxiety doesn't take away from who he is. We parent the best we can and he's fine. That bitch ain't sayin' none. She just thinks she knows everything."
Mari sucked in a deep breath, letting his words soak. "And all that shit she said about you being a murderer? I don't like that shit. I hate how people think they can comment on anything just because they heard about it. She's trynna make us, you specifically, seem like we're shitty parents and I don't like that."
"She can call me a murderer all she wants, I don't give a fuck. Those empty ass words don't affect me and they shouldn't affect you either. We're not no shitty parents. We give the world to our son. You know that and I know that, so I couldn't give a fuck about what anyone else sees. They not doin' this shit. We are." Mir held the back of Mari's neck, making sure her eyes stayed glued to his. "Who Sani's parents? Me and you. That's it. Fuck what anyone else gotta say. They don't do this shit day-in and day-out."
Mari nodded, dropping her shoulders a little bit. She felt relief in Mir's words and how confidently he spoke.
"You understand?"
"Yea."
"Good." He dropped his hand from her neck, "Can't have you doubting herself."
"Yea." Mari blew out a breath. "Thank you." She spoke after a few seconds of quiet.
Samiron ran his hand down his chin, holding her eyes for a second before looking off of the porch. "Seem like fighting is a tradition at your family's functions. Ghetto ass shit."
"Fuck you." Mari laughed. They both turned around at the sound of the front door opening. Mercedes' eyes flickered betweent the two as she held Sani's hand.
"Good?" Cedes asked her cousin and released a breath when she nodded.
Mir gave his babymomma a reassuring pat on the back before walking around her and scooping Sani up into his arms. He nodded at Cedes before continuing into the house, closing the door behind him to leave the girls alone.
"That bitch gone."
Mari's eyebrows raised. Marie-Anne wasn't the type to leave willingly, even if she was somewhere she wasn't wanted. "Damn."
"She ain't leave on her own though. Your daddy kicked her out. They was goin' back and forth and then he finally told her to get her shit and get the fuck out his face." Cedes spoke with an amused expression. She lived for the drama at family events. That's the only reason she came.
Mari scoffed a laugh. "Well good. Her ass shouldn't have came in the first place if she was just gone act like that."
"That's how she is." Cedes shrugged. "And then gone speak on your son's father like this isn't her first time meeting him."
"That's her problem! She hears stuff about someone and assumes she knows their whole life story. One look at my son and she assumes he's too clingy for his age. Like what?"
Cedes bir her bottom lip to stifle her smile. "But we're not gonna skip over you stepping up for your babydaddy. I know thats motherfuckin' right."
"Don't do too much Cedes. What type of person would I be if I didn't defend him? Mir dealt with a lot in prison and I can see he's trying hard to keep his past in the past. Kinda hard for him to do that when people keep bringing it up." She shrugged.
Mari knew Mir wasn't bothered by what anyone had to say about him. But for Anne to tell the entire house that he was the cause of an issue their son is still dealing with, and to go as far as saying Mari shouldn't have even had their son with him, was too much.
Mir's poor decisions impacted all three of their lives, but Mari still doesn't regret the person she had her son with and she never would. Regretting that would be like dismissing the parts of Sani that he got from Samiron, and he got a lot of his personality from his father. She didn't want him to ever change.
Cedes gave her a sad smile. "I get that. He knows just how to calm you down though, I'll give him that."
Mari arched an eyebrow at her cousin, making her laugh as she turned on her heels towards the front door. "That's still your man! You know you could have him if you wanted to." She winked at her over her shoulder as they headed into the house.
"I don't want to."
"Uh-huh." Cedes hummed as Mari rolled her eyes.
❦
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w/c; 4201