"I really need you to eat something ma. Just eat the fries if you don't want the sandwich." Dayvon turned his body in the chair to face Autumn with a small frown on his face.
He was trying not to get frustrated but it was hard not to. They'd had a long day today and still had a long ways to go until the day ended, and the last thing he needed was to be stressed out over Autumn unintentionally starving herself and the three babies she carried.
He knew that it wasn't her fault that her appetite was all out of whack but it drove him crazy to think about one of the babies not making it due to not getting the nutrients they needed from the food that Autumn ate.
"That stuff makes me nauseous Dayvon. I don't want it. Stop asking me to eat it." Autumn said for the umpteenth time since they'd been sitting in this airport. It was going on the third hour of their layover and this was his tenth time asking her to eat Chic Fil A.
She understood that he was trying to help but she'd said no a hundred times already. Her babies hated Chic Fil A, and unfortunately that was literally one of the only fast food chains that Autumn liked.
"Ma she not eating shit. It's like she don't give a f-I'm sorry for cussing-but she don't care about whether my kids eat or not. I'm tryna help." Dayvon's tone was full of irritation after Hazel pulled him away from Autumn, seeing how equally irritated her daughter was.
"You know she gets sick every time she eats Chick Fil A-,"
"What I'm 'posed to do? She hate taco bell, they don't have a McDonald's, and she don't eat Wendy's either." He interrupted her, and then apologized for that too.
"Go and check one of these convenience stores and see if they have any fruit. She won't pass that up." She suggested, causing the frown on his face to slowly disappear. He nodded in response without giving a rebuttal, turning to walk in the opposite direction.
It slipped his mind that some convenience stores, like 7-Eleven, often carried fruit cups as well.
Of course buying her fruit was his first choice, but the Chic Fil A in this airport didn't offer the fruit cups she normally got-which was stupid to him-and they didn't have the breakfast parfaits she liked either.
He thought the fruit that he'd packed in a insulated bag would last until they landed in Houston later tonight, but he wasn't expecting them to be on an estimated seven hour layover due to the weather conditions. Their original flight was only supposed to have a half hour layover.
They were currently stuck in Tulsa, Oklahoma, because of two nearby tornados that knocked out the electricity. Apparently the maintenance crew were working on it, but over twenty flight had already been delayed.
People in the airport were now rowdy and yelling about how they'd better be reimbursed for missing their flights, how it was too cold since the heaters weren't working, and how the lines at the restaurants and bathrooms were too long.
The scene seemed straight of a movie and was only adding on to Dayvon's irritation.
Anywho, Dayvon did end up finding a 7-Eleven on the other side of the airport. None of the stores near their terminal-there were only a few-had any fruit out. He was so lucky to find an entire display in 7-Eleven even though it was a ways away from where his family was.
"She better eat all this shit." Dayvon shook his head after being rung up for five of the seasonal blend bowls, two açaí fruit and granola bowls, a can of pineapples, three oranges and three bananas. His eyes almost popped out of his head at the final price, but he went ahead and paid for it anyway.
Airport prices were crazy. The last time he got on a plane was when he was a teenager-Hazel and Justin took the kids on vacations frequently-but he didn't remember things being priced this high; most likely because he never used his own money.
He bought himself a water bottle as well to hold him over for this twenty minute walk.
When he walked out of the store, his phone dinged with a message from Autumn.
He couldn't be mad at her for long even if he tried. Irritated? Yes. Mad? Never.
Dayvon didn't make it back to their terminal for another half hour because ended up getting lost. When he got there, he could see Autumn now lying against the wall on her carry-on backpack and neck pillow, watching something on her iPad.
Hazel and August were lying near her on a blanket, both asleep. That wasn't surprising. It was five in the morning and neither of them were used to being up that early-or, late rather, since they hadn't been asleep since leaving the house last night.
"Can I have a kiss if you not mad?" Autumn pulled off one side of her Beats earphones when he sat down in front of her.
She leaned her body up when his head lowered, the two of them meeting halfway for a kiss. He sucked on her tongue for a brief moment before releasing it, then he kissed her bottom lip when she pulled away.
"Thank you 'cause I was so close to crying." She kissed his cheek, and he just shook his head at her with a smile.
Autumn opened up the first açaí bowl and immediately started eating it after mixing in the granola topping, completely ignoring the fact that it was almost frozen. She cleared the bowl in almost little over five minutes and wasted no time to open up the second one.
At their last obstetric visit a week ago, Najee said that it wouldn't harm the babies if Autumn remained on her mostly fruit diet, but Dayvon still often worried that only eating fruit wasn't enough to sustain three babies; but seeing her eat both of the açaí bowls and then a banana right after really satisfied him.
Although it wasn't real food, it was still something.
"Slow down 'for you choke ma." Dayvon watched her finish up the second banana, using one of the napkins to wipe her mouth.
"Isn't this what you wanted?" She looked over at him after running her tongue over her teeth.
"Touché." He shrugged, and his smile returned at the sound of her brief laughter.
"Shit," Autumn dropped the banana peel that she was holding as her laughter suddenly ceased, and Dayvon's expression quickly became one of worry.
"They're kicking! Oh my god! I can feel them!" She quietly yelled to him in a hushed tone, grabbing both of his wrists. Autumn used his fingers to press down on the spot where she'd been kicked at, and he waited anxiously to feel it too.
Autumn laughed again when his jaw dropped, feeling one-or possibly more-of them kick repeatedly on the side of her stomach. They were small kicks, but clearly a kick and not the flutters she'd been feeling recently.
Those flutters could usually only be felt on the inside, but this time it showed on the outside too. He was always jokingly jealous over the fact that Autumn could feel them moving around inside her and he couldn't, so now that they were actually kicking, his heart was practically bursting with joy.
"If you cry in this airport I'ma really think you a punk." Autumn smiled big at the sentimental look on his face, watching him roll his eyes in response.
"Shut yo' ass up. Them my babies man. They ain't coming fast enough." He leaned down to kiss her stomach, rubbing the same spot.
"And they said thank you for not giving up on finding me something to eat." She kissed his cheek again while her smile remained.
"You know I got you ma."
"Dayvon," She grabbed his face when it lowered as if it was going between her legs, making him smack his lips.
"Man what is you doing? I'm tryna lay down." He moved her hands out of the way, laying his head on her right thigh. She playfully rolled her eyes at him as his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling himself closer to her.
"You do not have to lay right next to my coochie. You tryna be fast." She looked down at him, then grabbed his face again with a laugh when he stuck his tongue out to lick the fabric of her tights.
"I'm fuckin' wit' you ma. Move." He chuckled, pulling her blanket over his shoulders after settling down again.
"I wanna lay down too. I'm sleepy." She flicked his bottom lip, and he smacked his lips again, sitting up so that she could take his place and lay down.
Autumn made herself comfortable against her backpack again, and when she was done, Dayvon nuzzled his face up against her chest. He moved the cover to be over the both of them, and Autumn smiled at the fact that he looked as comfortable as he did when they were in an actual bed.
"How the planning going for the center mama?" He asked with his eyes still closed.
"Well-I mean, I got mostly everything 'planned'. It's just a matter of putting it in motion now. My estimated costs that I drew up is close to eight hundred thousand. I have enough but that would sorta kinda clear out my bank account so I've been thinking about hosting a fundraiser."
"What's stopping you?"
"Uh, I don't know anybody. Duh." She said like it was the most obvious answer ever.
"That ain't stopping nothing. Yo' brother one of the biggest players for the Rockets. He know plenty of people." Dayvon matched her matter-of-fact tone.
"Yeah.. I know. He already said he'd make the first donation though. I don't want him to feel like I'm 'using' him."
"What kinda fundraiser you wanna do?" He curiously asked, now staring at her.
"I don't know yet. Every time I start thinking about it, I start stressing. So I have thought much about it." She chuckled. "I wish I could just wake up and have everything magically figured out." Her eyes finally closed at the same time that she let out a yawn.
He didn't respond to her, only kissing her forehead since he could tell that she was slowly dozing off, cuddled up in his arms. He was so in love with her, he wanted to make every dream she had come true; and he wanted to figure everything out for her so that she didn't have to worry about a thing.
So when he was sure that she was asleep, he grabbed his phone from his pocket and went to his contact list. He wasn't worried about her hearing the call because being pregnant had her able to sleep through a snowstorm.
"Damn, King Von. Wassup wit' you? Long time no see boy." A good friend of his, known as Lil Durk to many, picked up the phone within a few rings.
"What's good gang? What you on?" He replied with a smile on his face. They really hadn't talked in a good minute.
"Ain't shit, I'm in the studio right now. It's crazy 'cause I was literally just telling Booka 'bout using one of them verses we recorded a couple years ago. This must be a sign to redo that shit?"
"Nah man. You know that ain't my scene no mo'. Folks ass tryna be slick." He said, listening to Durk laugh since they both knew that was true. He'd been trying to get Dayvon to do music since they were teenagers.
"Shit, wassup then? You good gang? You know I got you on whatever." He damn near owed Dayvon his life, so he genuinely meant that.
"I need to cash in on a favor."
"Wassup?"
"My girl finna start up a business. We got the money to do it, but she wanna do a lil' fundraiser to get some more. It's gone be a center for domestic violence victims, drug users and niggas who need AA too. She got a real good plan, I believe in that shit." He paused.
"I know Indo know a bunch of people who do shit like that. You think I could pay y'all to get something set up?" He referred to Durk's fiancé, India.
"You talkin' 'bout Jas? She into shit like that?" Durk asked.
"Nah man. I ain't been wit' her ass in months. I'm back wit' Autumn." He chuckled, not really seeing the relevance of who he was with.
"Damn, for real? Niggas wasn't gon' tell me shit? Hell yeah we ah' come through for y'all ass. Folks ass talm 'bout can he pay me. Nigga think I'm a goofy now or what?" Durk smacked his lips, making both of them laugh.
"I ain't want you to feel like I only call for help. You know I fuck wit' you. I just wanna make this happen for her and I know I can't do it by myself. It gotta happen soon though. She almost six months pregnant with triplets and I don't want her stressing 'bout this shit when my kids born."
"Triplets?! Bitch stay yo' ass off her, what the fuck?" His tone was full of shock, and Dayvon had to lean away from Autumn to laugh so that he wouldn't wake her up.
"Then niggas living in secret. I ain't know you was back wit' lil' sis, and she pregnant? On O I just seen Aspen a couple weeks ago and he ain't say shit either. Y'all niggas fu as hell."
"Man I ain't told nobody. I don't be on Instagram and shit no mo', and you know I been moved away from where everybody be at. Ion even keep up with the scene. I got a family to take care of now. They be having all my focus nowadays." He looked over at Autumn, scanning his eyes over the small frown that rested on her face as she slept.
"I feel that. You remember I was the same way when India got pregnant with Willow." He paused for a moment, blowing smoke out his mouth.
"I'ma call her right now and have her set something up for y'all. You won't have to worry 'bout nothin' gang. I'ah make sure you taken care of. You still in Chicago?"
"I 'preciate that a lot, foreal. And nah, we actually just moved today. We on our way to Houston. I'll send you the address and you can pull up whenever you can, and we can catch up and shit. Cool?"
"Say less. Stay up baby bro. I love you."
"I love you too gang. Be safe." Dayvon said back, and the call ended seconds later.
He knew that Durk would come through for him. They'd been as close as brothers since they were kids, but happened to go their separate ways as they grew older. There was no bad blood between them though, and they'd always be there for one another no matter where life took them.
"It's so big in here!!" August's voice echoed in a yell throughout one of the hallways in their brand new house. They finally made it in a few minutes ago, and the time now read nine in the morning.
"I'm so happy!" He continued to scream, running around his new bedroom.
There was an entire gaming system set up with a double screen monitor display in the corner of his room, and his bed was in a Miles Morales frame-similar to the one he had at their last house, only this time it was queen sized instead of his previous twin XL.
Everything in the house had been pre-furnished, a luxury that Autumn was so thankful for. She nor Dayvon had to lift a finger, but were still able to pick out all of the decor, furniture, and amenities like the refrigerator and washer/dryer.
It was so relieving to get off of the plane and be welcomed by a house that wasn't empty. Their day had been stressful enough.
"And look at y'all. Being God's favorites and stuff." Hazel took a picture of Dayvon leaning against the wall in August's bedroom with Autumn in front of him-proud smiles on both of their faces as they watched their son run around his room.
"Momma! You know I look crazy girl." Autumn covered her face as the flashlight on Hazel's phone went off again, taking more pictures.
"Oh girl hush up. It don't seem like yo' man care too much." Hazel wiggled her shoulders, and Autumn turned her head to look at Dayvon, only to see him already staring at her.
"Stop it." All too familiar with the look in his eye, Autumn covered his face with her hands, making him smirk while Hazel laughed.
"Wait, wait August. You have to bathe first. Do not get under them covers in those clothes." Autumn stopped him just as he was about to do exactly what she said, with his shoes on and all.
"But I tireddd mommyyy." He whined, letting go of the cover.
"C'mon honey bun. Let's go run you a bath." Hazel held her hand out for him, which he happily took. Autumn rolled her eyes at her mother's suspicion grin, knowing that Hazel was trying to give them some alone time.
"You are not slick and she isn't either." She grabbed Dayvon's hands that lowered beyond her waist, listening to him chuckle in response.
"I ain't on nothin' mama. I'm just proud of you. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. Thank you." As much as he wished she would've saved her money, he was eternally grateful for her selflessness.
"I would do anything for us. I know you would do the same." She turned around in his grip, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Fasho. On anything. I always got you."
Damn five chapters without a sex scene? Fuck it let's do it. Book finna end in 4 chapters anyway ✌️