ᥫ᭡ KIYOMI TRUE
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
MARCH TWENTY THIRD 2024
"Self explanatory—"
Saniyah held the baby bottle up in the air, hoping whoever was participating was paying attention to the rules, "—do not bite the nipple. Just chug the margarita mix or lemonade and whoever finishes first wins the first prize," she overlooked the crowd once more, making sure every adult had a bottle in hand. The younger kids were really apart of it just so they could feel included. "Count of three unc,"
Kiyomi felt anxious, clutching her bottle full of lemonade in hand. Once the older male reached three, she instantly titled her head back and began sucking the life out the bottle nipple. "What the fuck! This shit hard as fuck!" she didn't know who the voice belonged to and it almost caused her to choke, but she tuned back in and focused on finishing. Not even a full two minutes went by before a famine voice called out that they were done and to run them their prize.
"I'an even get half way," Semaj leaned in, a smug look on his face as he showed off his bottle. "Cause' the alcohol make it harder," he tried to justify his reason for losing but Kiyomi knew it was just a difficult challenge in general and he was butt hurt.
"Boy please," she chuckled. She got a little less than half way herself which was surprising.
"How many pins you got?"
Looking down at her pockets, she counted each little pin she been collecting over the past hour. "Eight. What about you?" her eyes danced across his body to find where he had his clothes pins, but she couldn't see any.
"Man, bitch ass Josiah and Kayden robbed all my shit,"
Point of this game was to not say the word baby or else whoever catches you earns one of your pins. This would be the final game that ended when the party was over to gift the most expensive prize they had got for their guest.
"Awe," Kiyomi found it cute how he was actually willing to participate and have a good time.
"It's okay though, next one all me,"
So far they played a total of four games and were moving on the the final one before they did the reveal, served food and opened gifts. Certain family members were on certain timing so they had to switch a few things around, but it was no problem at all. "We'll see," it was a partner game so they agreed to split up and go against each other for real.
"Last game we're gonna' have whoever wants to play pair up and you'll get a blindfold," Saniyah twiddled her fingers, most excited for this game. You could hear the immediate hell nah's and laughter, most already knowing what was about to happen. The decided to line a few chairs up and adding one across is for each team. Total, they had about ten participating groups including teams like Semaj and Niko, A'shaun and Kiyomi, Saniyah and Deon and so on.
To get things started, the person feeding would pick a number from a bowl, that number correlating to what flavor baby food the other would be eating. Once Kiyomi picked her number, her teammate blindfolded her and a baby spoon as well as the baby food was placed in her hand. Moral of the game, she had to feed A'shaun while she was blindfolded and hoped that he got most the food down and not on his face or the floor or else she would lose against Semaj.
Once everyone got their food open and the countdown began, all Kiyomi could hear was the groans of the people eating the food. She had always heard about how nasty the flavors were and just by the smell, she could feel their pain. "Faster! This shit nasty as fuck!" she couldn't see A'shaun but just by his tone of voice, she couldn't help but laugh.
She was already spooning huge portions into his mouth, practically scooping the mush out the container and directly into his mouth but he was taking it like a champ. You could hear gagging, laughing and yelling from bystanders. It must've been a mess.
"Go Shaun! You got that shit nigga!"
Hearing them encourage him to get the food down only made her speed up her pace, "You got it Shaun," she laughed through her sympathy for him.
She was about to go for more until she could hear and feel her spoon scraping against the glass, "Done!" she helped her hands up and you could hear people yelling for everyone to stop feeding so they could check and see if Kiyomi had actually cleared her glass.
"Yup! Ya'll can take the blindfolds off cause' they won,"
Lifting her blindfold, Kiyomi instantly looked at A'shaun who had beige mush dripping for the side of his mouth. He tried to hold a mean mug but the minute they locked eyes, they bursted out laughing, "I am so sorry," she tried her best to apologize and sound sincere but he made it hard. Her eyes danced down the line and everyone had some sort of off colored mush smeared on their face and even a little on some of their clothes. Her eyes landed on Semaj who looked like he got nothing but a face full of blended greens. She pointed, laughing even harder.
"Here ya'll go,"
They were each gifted a flask designated to each gender. Kiyomi had the cream colored one and inside it was stuffed with goodies like fuzzy socks, a twenty five dollar gift card to Chipotle, lip gloss and even a cute little bee themed key chain. She assumed A'shaun got something similar to her items, hearing him share his excitement about to gift card.
Someone had passed around wet wipes and napkins to help get whatever food they could off their person, now it was time for Kiyomi and Semaj to reveal the gender of their baby. Before anything, Kiyomi made sure Semaj look presentable for videos, helping him clean up. They took a seat back in their area and waited for Saniyah to pull everything back together.
"You nervous?"
"Very," she answered Semaj, not really trying to make eye contact. For some reason she wanted to cry and they hadn't even done anything yet, but the anticipation could only grow from here. "You?"
"Honestly yeah," he threw an arm around her shoulders, bringing her closer to his body. "It's gone be good, we got this," he placed a kiss to her temple, trying to calm both of their nerves at this point.
"Ok! Ok!" Saniyah could be heard yelling, exiting the home with two long cylinders, probably containing the colored powder to the specific gender. "Ok! It's time for the reveal, everybody crowd around!" she didn't necessarily have to yell, but it was obvious she was just expressing her excitement. She had to of been the gender keeper and she did a damn good job and keeping it a secret.
"One for you—" she handed a cylinder to Semaj, "—and one for you," and the other to Kiyomi. "Everybody needs to count down from three!" she instructed as she took the time to join the crowd around the pair and pull her phone out to get the perfect shot.
Standing up, Kiyomi and Semaj positioned themselves to where they were ready to twist the bottom of the cylinder, waiting on the countdown to begin.
A few weeks ago, Kiyomi expected to be sitting in her room, plotting about how she was going to have her own little gender reveal without finding out the gender herself. Trying to figure out how to do a cute little sentimental set up and make it special for her.
"3!"
Now she her heart was thumping, sharing this special moment with her baby father and his family and close friends. People showing their love and support even though they didn't know her from a can of paint.
"2!"
Making sure she had a good enough grip, she braced herself.
"1!"
She twisted as hard as she could, expecting the powder to fly out but of course she didn't have a tight enough grip to actually twist it. Semaj struggled as well causing a bunch of chatter and laughter around them but when Kiyomi repositioned her hands and twisted one hand one way the the other hand the opposite, it sounded like a loud gunshot and out flying came a fine, baby blue dust.
It seemed like right once hers went off, Semaj was able to get his and even more blue powder went flying everywhere. Screams erupted and Kiyomi didn't even have time to process anything before Semaj had engulfed her into a bear hug. She could feel the vibrations against his chest as he cheered excitedly, her eyes not even watering up but full on leaking tears.
Emotions were high and everyone was congratulating on them on their new bundle on of joy. "Goodluck honey—" one of his cousins girlfriend had approached her first since most of the congrats were considered for Semaj. "—them boys finna' do you in," she laughed, two of the little boys that attended with her being her own children.
"Thank you," she chuckled, accepting her hug kindly.
Soon after, everyone started giving out hugs.
"Oh my gosh," she was more so speaking out loud until she felt some hands sneak around her waist and interlock around her belly.
"It's a boy," the voice happily sang, only of course belonging to Semaj. She turned around, the big smile on his face never disappearing. "You happy?"
"Of course," she pouted, resting her head against his chest.
"Sit down, I'ma grab us a plate," he grabbed her hand and lead her to the chair. She did as told, watching him go back inside along with majority of the adults to get their food served by Saniyah.
Her phone had been buzzing all day with certain replies regarding her pregnancy. A lot of shocked responses but a lot more showing love and wishing her a healthy journey. Most of them were from high school friends back home, some were family members like cousins and people she considered cousins. She just wished they were around to experience it with her.
She sent her parents some videos and pictures during the process, letting them know she would be FaceTiming them later on tonight to talk about today a little bit more.
"Unt unt, what is she doing here?"
"Told ya' dumbass don't post that shit,"
"Hey Celeste!"
Her eyes darted up, landing on Celeste who must've entered from a side gate. She was dressed in a tight fitted cream colored dress and heels, hair slayed into an updo and up course a beat face to pull it all together. Stood on either side of here were two brown skin men. Tall, lanky, tatted and it was obvious they toted some sort of weapon in their jeans, wanting so hard to be threatening. Celeste popped her gum obnoxiously, eyes scanning the crowd before they landed on her.
As soon as Celeste was about five steps away from her, you could hear the sliding door slam open and out walked Semaj, Saniyah, A'shaun and Niko as well as a few of his cousins.
"The fuck you got goin' on?" Semaj was quick to apply distance between the two girls, Celeste obviously fuming with anger.
"You so deadass Semaj?" she got to finger pointing and stepping closer and closer in his face.
"It's time for you to go mama," Kiyomi wasn't having that.
"Dumb bitch pulled up with two dick riders and thought shit was finna' be sweet," Saniyah had already pulled her hair back and out the way, securing it in a ponytail. She debated chewing off her fresh set, but fuck it, she could deal with messed up nails for a short minute.
"Yo' shut tha' hell up lil' girl—" the taller of the two boys harshly spoke, "—you always poppin' ya' gums,"
"Watch how you talkin' to my sista' gang," Semaj wasn't for the antics right now, "You need ta' go,"
"You a real bitch ass nigga," Celeste cursed him out. "Whole time had me wondering who the fuck you got pregnant and it's this stupid quiet bitch who probably don't even know shit about you," she was hurt and you could tell by her voice.
"Little do you know shorty'," Semaj didn't want to make matters worse for her. "I'm not gone worn you again to go,"
"How about you jus' give me the keys so I can load shit up and we end this whole party," Kiyomi suggested. The vibes were now killed and she seen no point in continuing on with the party. Semaj would probably be watching his back like crazy.
"Party over!" Saniyah waved her hands, deadass giving everybody the ok to pack up and dip before shit got hectic.
"I'm not going no where," A'shaun had his tool on him and so did a few of the other boys, it was gone be one easy ass fight if they really wanted to be dumb.
The ones who had their little ones wasted no time in gathering all their items and vacating the area. The younger guys stayed around and decided to help Saniyah pack up the gifts between her and Semaj's car while she herself stayed back incase she had to beat Celeste for the one time again.
"Ya'll can be dumb if ya' want to," Semaj peeped the dude with his hand near his waist band. He wasn't afraid of getting shot, he just knew they weren't going to make it out alive and he didn't want to put that pressure on his boys "We can put it all on tha' flo' if you really wanna' do all this Celeste," he didn't like his business out there but at this point it needed to be said fair and square.
"Ok..I fucked up but I said I'll do right," delusional at it's finest.
"Nah the first time you fucked up cause' you ain't know it was my mans but you kept doing slick shit after that and turnt around and tried to push up on another one of my mans, word jus' got out that time," he ranted, not understanding why she couldn't see she was problem.
"You was disappearing out on me, I thought it was over,"
"I was leaving cause' you was trynna' play in my face when I was trynna' take shit serious," he said calmly because she knew that already. Celeste was always a option even when she did him wrong. "Now that I don't want it no more, you wanna' fix it—" he shook his head, locs falling over his face. Knowing Semaj, he was beyond embarrassed at this point.
"I been tryin' to fix it, you was jus' hiding a bitch from me," she said it with her chest, anger dripping off her tone.
"Obviously I need to step in because nobody saying the right shit right now," Saniyah clapped, her way of clearing the air. It was going no where and she feared if Semaj didn't straight up tell the bitch to get out his life, Kiyomi would think differently. He was just too nonchalant at the wrong times.
"He don't need you in our business every time we have a problem Saniyah," Celeste felt Saniyah was also apart of the problem.
"Bitch I get dragged in this shit because of you so I need to be here,"
"I don't want to be with you," Semaj threw his hands up in defeat. "We been broken up for a coo' minute now. It even came out my mouth that I got her pregnant, and I'm finna' do right by her," he pointed to Kiyomi as he spoke about her.
"That fast, huh?"
"I can vouch it been that way since you started being sneaky but he really tried and that shit is over with," Saniyah butted in.
"I realized I got betta' shit to try for and I'm not wasting no more energy towards this toxic ass shit,"
All Kiyomi could think about was the hurt he was feeling and the hurt she felt when he first denied everything. Excusing herself and feeling like she over did her stay at this point, she went ahead and made a b line for the bathroom. She felt like she was back at square one with him telling Celeste he was actively trying to fix their relationship. She really didn't know what to make of the whole thing, she just wanted to get in her bed and sleep.
As soon as she closed and locked the door, her eyes began watering and her makeup was for sure ruined at this point. Well shit, it was cute while it lasted. She couldn't be mad at Semaj because he had all good intentions today, she was mad she let it be that easy for his words to effect her. Maybe he did just come to his senses and seen that Kiyomi was the better choice and you don't realize what you got until it's gone, but it was too much.
Opening up her phone, she decided to text A'Shaun.
shaun
hey shaun
home?
please
Sighing, she locked her phone reaching for the complimentary paper towels that were meant to dry hands to wipe her face. She did the best she could with the warm water to get rid of the makeup she applied as well as to wipe any tear stains left behind.
Taking the hair tie she wore around her wrist, she threw her hair back into a messy ponytail, pulling some strands out to frame her face and make it look like something. In the middle of getting herself together, three knocks were heard and she froze.
"It's Shaun,"
After dramatically rubbing her face with her hands, she put a decent smile ob her face before swinging the door open and giving him her best. "Ready?"
He frowned, apparent that he was feeling sympathy for the girl. His arms opened wide and she instantly fell into them, melting at just the feeling of a simple hug. "You needed this?" he chuckled, feeling her weight slowly fall deeper into his body.
"I'm so tired," she admitted. Not just physically but mentally.
''Lets getcha' home then," it hurt to see her like this. Kiyomi was too sweet of a person to be dealing with this and when A'shaun first heard the news, he was a little disappointed. He knew Semaj too long for him not to do no bullshit and basically rip this girl heart apart.
Instead of walking out the back, they went through the front to avoid Celeste. The party was still scheduled for a good hour and thirty so someone had to stay behind for the decorations to be picked up and to make sure the bnb was intact. Celeste made it clear she wasn't leaving but Kiyomi knew something was bound to go down as long as Saniyah was there.
"This shit crazy as fuck man," A'shaun opened the passenger door for Kiyomi, allowing her to sit in and settle down before closing it behind her.
Mentally she agreed, regretting everything at this point.