Autumn had her arms wrapped around August's body while he sat in her lap, watching Kai Cenat's live Twitch stream on his iPad with his beats resting over his head. Dayvon sat on the side of her, and Jasmine sat on the other side of him.
They were currently at church for Sunday's morning service. The first praise and worship had just started, and then the actual sermon would take place after; but praise and worship didn't have a set time on how long it would take, sometimes they could sing for up to an hour.
This was Autumn's third day with them, and things had actually been cool. She and Jasmine still hadn't spoke to each other, but neither of them went out of their way to nitpick with the other. Autumn mostly stayed in the room with August, and if he was asleep she would find something to clean.
She even made dinner last night and that made her really happy because she hadn't been able to do that in three years. She never had a kitchen to cook in since she'd been living on the streets and she didn't know anyone who could cook like her mother could-besides herself, of course.
It made Dayvon happy as well because they usually ate out for dinner or Hazel would sometimes bring them a plate. Neither him nor Jasmine were great cooks, unfortunately. That's why August loved McDonald's as much as he did.
He tore Autumn's food up last night, though. He even ate her macaroni, which was a surprise to his dad since he was so picky when it came to mac and cheese. He literally only ate it if they were at church.
Autumn was glad that he liked it. She was also glad that she was even around to cook for him. Although it had only been a month of her being sober, she could definitely get used to this lifestyle, especially if it meant that she could be with her baby.
"Good morning family. How y'all doing? Anybody give God some praise for getting y'all here today?" Bishop Hurst walked on the stage platform with a handkerchief in his hand, smiling at the claps and praise that came after his greeting.
"Now listen here, this message was on my heart heavy today. I didn't even want to give it because it seemed almost too straightforward, but God kept telling me-you got to give it. So, we gone start this off with Isaiah 43, verse 19. Let me know when y'all got it."
Autumn looked over at Dayvon when he tapped her leg, then she looked down to see him holding a Bible out for her. She took it and opened it up to the book of Isaiah, going to the chapter requested by the Bishop.
"Verse 19 reads, 'Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.'" Some of the church read the verse aloud with him.
"What that means is: a change is coming. That's it. That's the message. A change is coming! Isaiah said a change, is, coming." He took dramatic pauses in between his words, listening to the applause and praise filling the church.
Autumn took notes in the journal she constantly carried during the sermon, while simultaneously tending to August who required her to always touch him in some way. He was so clingy but she didn't mind it one bit.
By the time the service was over, two full front and back pages were now written on in Autumn's journal. It was hard for her to absorb information while it was being told to her which was why she took notes about the message so that she could go back and read over it later.
"It's gon' die on you and you need to only be mad at yourself when it happens 'cause I'm trying to help you." Autumn made sure August was buckled in correctly, referring to his dying iPad.
"Uhun I'm gon' be mad at you." He pointed to her, but didn't make a move to grab his charger that she was holding.
"Mommy!" He laughed, looking over at her when she playfully snatched it from him to plug it up before passing it back.
"You don't listen." She chuckled, pulling her own seatbelt on across her body just as the passenger door to Dayvon's car opened.
Jasmine climbed inside and put her purse on the floor in front of her at the same time that the trunk popped open. August's head turned like it was on a swivel to look at Dayvon, watching him put two big boxes in the trunk.
"Daddy, what's that?" Being his usual nosy self, he attempted to turn all the way around to get a better look.
"Some stuff for yo' mama." He answered, making Autumn turn to look at him as well.
"Really?" She asked; he and August had been saying a lot of 'yo mama' jokes the last two days, so she wasn't sure if he was serious or not.
"Yeah. I told the First Lady about you and she got some of the girls to donate a bunch of stuff. You can go through it when we get to the house." He told her before closing the trunk, and a smile spread across her face. Everyone had been so nice to her. She was so grateful.
"He always telling people about people." August whispered to her, making her laugh since he was damn near calling his dad messy.
"Shut yo' ass up." Dayvon reached behind his seat after getting in, and August laughed as well, swatting his hands away before he could grab him.
Soon enough they pulled out of the church's parking lot, and Autumn focused her gaze out the window. She still didn't have a phone so that's all there was for her to do. She didn't mind it. It wasn't like she was missing anything.
Her eyes then wandered around the car, and once her view made it to the front, she took notice of the way that Dayvon rubbed Jasmine's thigh. Her body was kind of facing towards the door though, as if she was upset with him. Autumn knew that move all too well. She used to do it all the time.
Over the last few days, Autumn oftentimes caught herself reminiscing on the relationship she used to have with Dayvon. It didn't seem at all like the one he had with Jasmine; well, of course Autumn was a bit biased, but it almost seemed forced.
She wouldn't judge though. She didn't know what went on with them behind closed doors, and plus, she'd only been with them for three days. It wasn't her business anyway. It was just an observation she'd made.
"Hurry and open it mama." August climbed up on the guest bed, impatiently waiting on Autumn to open the donation boxes.
"I'm trying. This duck tape is so thick." She frowned, failing miserably to pull it up. She leaned down to put her mouth on it, using her teeth to remove the tape while August laughed.
"You nasty. How do you know if somebody with cooties didn't touch the tape?" He rose his eyebrows while she shrugged with a smile on her face.
"Mommy done put way worse stuff in her mouth. This is nothing." She chuckled, pulling the flaps of the cardboard box back.
The first thing she pulled out was a pair of high waisted bell bottom jeans in the size medium. She pulled them on over Dayvon's ethika boxers that she wore, looking at herself in the mirror.
"They cute stink?" She asked August, who nodded his head in approval.
"I like them too. They fit a lil' tight though. I ain't this skinny anymore." She unbuttoned the three buttons, pulling them off. She was still going to keep them. They flaunted her figure nicely.
She tried on seven more pairs of jeans-which thankfully all fit her perfectly. There were plenty of leggings and sweats in the box as well, but she didn't try them on because she could already tell that they would fit.
The bottoms were accompanied by a bunch of tee shirts, tank tops, hoodies, and some sweatshirts too. Together, Autumn and August went through what she would keep and what would go back in the box. Some of the shirts just weren't her style, but she was contemplating just using them as bedtime clothes.
"Come in." Autumn called out after a knock came on the door.
"How it's lookin'?" Von sat down on the bed next to August, referring to her new wardrobe.
"Everything is perfect. Even the stuff that ain't, I think I'll still keep it for like pajamas and stuff. Can you tell all of them that I said thank you? Foreal. They didn't have to." She tore open the second box that she had yet to go through while Dayvon nodded in response.
"Daddy where Jas going?" August showed him his iPad that had the Ring security camera opened.
"To the store. Text her if you want somethin'." He told him, and August went to her contact to do just that. He couldn't actually text but he knew exactly how to use the microphone and audio message feature.
Autumn finally got the second box opened, and the first thing she spotted was a blow dryer and two sets of flat irons. There weren't any clothes in this box from what she could see.
"They donated this? This is brand new!" Autumn held up a makeup palette to show Dayvon, who only shrugged, keeping his eyes on her.
"I told them that you used to do yo' makeup and yo' hair all the time. I guess they ass went shopping for you."
"Awww. This is so sweet. I'm trying not to cry." She fanned air in front of her face to dry up the tears that hadn't fallen yet.
"Ugh. I haven't did my makeup in so long. I'm so excited." She rummaged through the box that also had concealer, bronze, blush powders, foundation, blending sponges and brushes too. There were also a few pieces of jewelry in the box as well.
The ladies at the church had really done their big one.
"I'm glad you satisfied. That mean I ain't gotta spend nooo money." He held up both of his thumbs, and he and August both laughed when she smacked her lips.
"Asshole." She playfully rolled her eyes, then grabbed each box and put it in the closet.
Autumn held her finger up to a leaf, watching the Asian lady beetle crawl off of the stem and on the top of her finger. Most would confuse it for just an orange ladybug, but those didn't even exist. Ladybugs only came in red.
The wings covered in 19 black spots fluttered for just a few seconds before they stopped, and the lady beetle began to crawl towards the palm of her hand. Autumn knew a lot of girls-and people in general-were afraid of bugs but she actually loved them a lot.
Except roaches. She hated those.
"I should've known yo' ass would eventually end up back here." Dayvon walked out of the back door, seeing Autumn laid out on a blanket in his backyard.
"Look." She showed him the long brown spider in her hand, and his eyebrows immediately creased with a frown.
"Now if that bitch bite you, don't cry." He sat down next to her, listening to her laugh.
"It's a wolf spider. They don't normally bite and even if it did, it wouldn't hurt worse than-I don't know, a bee sting." She shrugged, turning her hand over once it crawled to the other side.
"You still fuck with bugs and shit, huh?" He looked down at her, watching her nod her head.
"I got extra comfortable with them living on sidewalks and stuff." She joked.
"How was it?" He asked in genuine curiosity.
"Emotional. I cried a lot."
"Why you ain't never just go home? Even if you feel like yo' mama still mad at you-which she ain't-you know she wouldn't have turned you away. She ain't even put you out in the first place." He wondered aloud.
"I don't want to talk about that Von." She mumbled, her mood changing almost immediately.
"Why not?"
"'Cause I don't. Leave it alone please."
Dayvon continued to stare down at her as she played with the spider, not bothering to look back at him even though she could feel his eyes on her. She hadn't said a word about how her life had been the last three years and she preferred to keep it that way.
"You know, August be tryna stand on business like that but he too nice, just like you. Talkin' 'bout please. You could've left it at leave it alone." His words earned a laugh from her, unable to help herself. It was true. She didn't even know how to be mean.
"Boy shut up. You don't know nothin'." She waved him off with a smile, finally turning her head to look up at him.
"I could ask you how you've been the last three years too. You getting married and stuff." She glanced down at the ring on his finger, and he did too.
"She think I'ma call it off to be with you." He told her after a few seconds of silence, causing her smile to slowly fade away.
"Does she want me to leave? I'm literally only here for August. We don't even flirt or nothing. Why does she think that?" A small frown took over her face.
"Ion know. She said somethin' 'bout losing me the same way she got me." He said, and that made her scoff. He couldn't tell if it was meant to be humorous, or more like a 'whatever' type thing.
"Well lucky for her, I'm not that type of person. Coming between y'all is the last thing I want to do." It went quiet again, both of them thinking to themselves.
"I'm sor-,"
"Don't be. I ain't mad." She cut him off before he could finish, figuring what his next words would be.
"Autumn I ain't have nobody to go to when you left, man. I ain't know what to do."
"I just said I wasn't mad. You don't have to explain yourself to me." Finally, the spider crawled off of her arm to get back in the grass.
"Yeah I do. That shit lowkey been eating me up since you came back, especially since y'all ain't talkin'. Y'all used to be sisters."
"Apparently we weren't as close as I thought we were." She mumbled with a hint of sadness in her voice.
"I should've known though, really. She wasn't even her own person when we were younger. She wanted to be like me so much and I just put it off as us being best friends, twins, type shit. My momma always told me what it was though. I never believed her." Autumn revealed.
"You know yo' mama still don't like her, 'til this day?"
"Sounds like her. She never liked any of my friends. You only got a pass 'cause you Ms. Tasha son." She shook her head with a small smile while he laughed.
"Hell nah. I got a pass 'cause I'm cool as hell, fuck you mean. How couldn't she like me?" He smirked, pretending to dust off his shoulders.
"You wish. Yo' ass lame as hell." She mushed his head away, making him laugh again. The sounds of crickets chirping filled the air once their laughs died down, and it went quiet for a brief moment again.
"Does she know that you're out here with me right now?" Autumn asked.
"Nah. She sleep." It was now past midnight, so Autumn really should've figured.
"So you snuck out? You know this is what she means right?"
"I ain't sneak shit. I'm grown as hell and this my house." He waved her off. "And I ain't even doing nothin'. Ion know why she think just 'cause we cool that we gon' get back together or somethin'."
"You have to put yourself in her shoes. If she had a baby daddy and invited him to stay with y'all, how would you feel?" She rose an eyebrow at him, and he just nodded because they both knew that he would never let that slide.
"Why is you taking her side? You want me to put you out or what?" He frowned at her, making her hold her hands up in surrender.
"I'm just telling you the truth. I would think the same if I was her-anybody who knew us when we were together would. We was inseparable." She shrugged, pulling her legs up to fold them crisscrossed.
"Yeah. You was obsessed with me." He could barely finish his sentence before he laughed, seeing her jaw drop in bewilderment.
"Boy shut the fuck up, foreal, 'cause now you just lying. You literally stayed up my ass more than my own panties did. Bye." She held her hand up in front of his face, trying not to smile as he continued to laugh.
"I ain't denying nothin'. I be a lil' delusional when I'm in love." He shrugged, wiping the tears that escaped from him laughing so hard.
"A little?" She side eyed him, which only made him laugh again.
"Man shut yo' ass up. You making it seem like that shit was one sided. Yo' ass loved me more than you loved anybody else. Even made yo' daddy jealous." He mushed her head the same way she'd done him a while ago.
"Oh my goddd, he used to be so mad! He swore I kept putting you over him. He really loved you though. 'Cause you liked that street life like he did. You know Aspen never fucked with shit like that."
"I always called his ass a bitch for being a nerd. Then you got pregnant with August and I wanted to be just like him. Legal. Somebody who my son could be proud of type shit."
"Is that why you a cop now? You used to diss the boys in blue so bad; you said they was yo' biggest opp. Now you one of 'em." Autumn smirked in his direction, watching him roll his eyes.
"Yeah man, 'cause remember I was gon' go to the army? Then I found out you can go to jail for life if you fuck up with that. I wasn't taking them chances 'cause I know how my temper is. I would've probably fought the Sargent first day, soon as a mufucka' yell at me." He shook his head at himself while Autumn laughed.
"Well, I'm glad you the opps. You're a great role model for him. And you raised him so well. I'm proud of you." She held her fist out to give him dap, only for him to look at her like she was stupid.
"C'mere dumbass." He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, forcing her to give him a hug as she laughed again.
Him and jas getting married foreal y'all 💯💯💯💯💯💯 Autumn finna die