A L I J A H
It had been two days since I talked to anyone besides Zaire and I barley talked to him we just watched movies and cuddled. I was going through different phases of pain and today I was sad and wished I'd never known.
I found myself getting off of the city bus and walked into the direction of "Riverside Casa" the group home Marco stays at. He's the only person I knew for sure didn't know about everything so he's the person I chose to vent to. I'd been ignoring Cali's calls because he hung out with everyone and he probably knew as well and I don't like being lied too regardless on if he wasn't suppose to tell me he still should've.
I'd never been on this side of town before and it was scary. Guys on corners looked at me funny and I found myself wishing I hadn't chosen to wear leggings and a crop top, but it was hot outside and I couldn't wear a sweater without passing out.
It was a Saturday around noon and I hoped he was there or else this would all be a waist and I'd have to get back on the smelly bus. When I came face to face with the medium sized building I felt a knot in my stomach as I walked inside and went to the front desk.
"Hello how may I help you?" Some lady at the front asked and I chewed my bottom lip nervously and glanced around.
"Do you know if Marco Davis is here? We have a project to work on for school and I needed to meet up with him" I tell her lying straight through my teeth and she smiled and nodded her head before glancing at her clipboard.
"Well Marco didn't sign out which means that he's still here, I'm Ms. April and I'll go see if he's in the kitchen or something that's his favorite place" she smiled brightly before walking away.
Moments later Ms. April returned with Marco eating a half a donut and holding a full one in his hand. When he got to me he handed me the full one and I took it and quickly bit into while he smiled down at me.
He wrapped his arm around me and I felt my stomach knot up as he led me out of the building and to the front before leaning up against the wall.
"What are you doing over here? You know how dangerous it is?" He asked crossing his arms and I sighed and took a seat on the steps.
"I wanted to talk in person your the only one I kinda trust at this point" I tell him and he sighed and sat next to me pulling his knees up to his chin and grinning at me trying to get me to smile but I wouldn't so he stopped.
"What do you want me to say? Ion remember my parents much but I know I'd wish to see them and talk to them to figure out why they did what they did but I can't, you can" he said nudging me and I shook my head.
"I know I should be happy and I'm not trying to sound ungrateful but I was lied to about everything and I'm having a hard time trying to pretend like everything's okay. They obviously didn't care about me enough because they went ahead and had more kids" I said feeling an ounce of hurt.
"Fuck all that, you got three people who probably love you to death. The pops you stay with now is crazy about you and I can tell by all the stories you tell me. If you ever feel like you aren't wanted with your actual parents you always have him and he'll always want you" Marco said growing serious.
"You think I should get to know my real parents after everything?" I asked and he grinned again. He smiled more than anybody I know and I loved that about him.
"I think you should do what makes you happy because that's all that matters, I care about you so whatever choice you make I'll support it just know it's not good to cut the hand that fed you, well in your case changed your diapers" he said as he turned his head sideways to look at me.
"I understand what your saying and your right I just need to think about it for awhile" I tell him and he nodded his head slowly and looked at me licking his pink thick lips.
I held my arm up to his comparing our skin tone and he was a few shades darker making him a dark Carmel color and I was practically yellow.
"Let me see how many kids you gon have" he said grabbing my arm and counting the veins that were visible on my skin, I looked at him like he was crazy.
"What the hell? How is that gonna tell how many kids I'm gonna have?" I asked curiously and he busted out laughing as he sat my arm in his lap and left it there.
"Ion think it really works I just wanted to get your mind off of it" he said and I moved my arm and nodded before a group of boys appeared in front of us, same ones from in front of the store. They looked at me wide eyed and then at Marco.
"Damn bruh you must be pulling, I ain't know he had it in him" some white kid said and the whole group started laughing.
"You gon ride with us to go make some money or what?" They asked Marco and he seemed to pause for a second like he was in deep thought.
"Nah I'm gonna chill here with my home girl for a lil bit, maybe later on" he said and they nodded and dapped him up before leaving.
I looked at Marco as he pulled on his dreads and smiled to myself reaching into my bag and pulling out 2 small hair ties.
"Let me give you pig tails they'll be short and cute" I tell him and he looked at me out of the corner of his eyes and stood up and sat in between my legs resting his elbows on my thighs.
"You better not make me look ugly either or we gone fight Alijah I promise you" he said and I could hear him chuckle to himself lightly.
After about twenty minutes of arguing with him I finally finished he pigtails and took a picture of the front and back and showed it to him.
"I look aight in this pic send dat to me so I can out it on Instagram" he tells me and I rolled my eyes and quickly texted it to him.
My phone started ringing and I ignored it. It was my dad calling for the fifth time and I already texted him and told him I was fine, he should just take that and leave me alone.
"You gon be here all day?" He asked not looking up from his phone and I pushed him causing him to sit his phone down and stand up pulling his pants up and lightly smacking me in the face.
I laughed and got up and started playfully punching and kicking him until he grabbed onto my legs and held onto me while he pushed me onto the ground.
"You'd be an abusive boyfriend" I tell him and he smacked his teeth and helped me up. Ms. April came outside telling him it was lunch time.
"Sign me out for the day I'm about to chill with her" he tells her and she nodded and smiled before heading back inside.
"Where are we going?" I asked trying to keep pace with him.
"I'm about to take you to the best food truck in the world, they food make you shit but it be so good I swear especially they fried chicken" he smiled to himself and I shook my head and followed behind him.
A group of girls were coming our way and we started to walk passed them but one grabbed Marco's arm pulling him back.
"Well damn Marco I can't get a hug?" She said and he chuckled and wrapped his arms around her hugging her the same way he hugs me. She was dark skin and really pretty but she had a bitchy look to her.
"You know your girlfriend got shot right?" She said and turned her attention to me and mugged me and I returned the mug.
"I ain't got time for all that shit, I told her stupid ass about hanging out with them niggas she was with, she ain't dead so it don't concern me" he said shrugging and I looked at him shocked that he wouldn't be there for her.
"You so wrong for that I hope you know god don't like ugly" the girl said and going to walk away.
"No whats wrong is her hoe ass messing around on me, you see her tell her I'm done!" He called and the girl flicked him off and we continued walking.
We walked silently beside each other and every now and then he'd glance down at me to see if I was still there. I don't know if he was embarrassed or not that I heard that conversation but his face was unreadable.
"What you want? They got hamburgers, chicken, fries, hot dogs and churro's" he said and I glanced at the menu feeling my stomach growl. Everything smelled so good and my mouth was watering, I'd never eaten out of a food truck before.
"Um I'll have a burger and fries, oh my god I want a churro too!" I yelled in excitement and he looked in his wallet before glancing at me.
"Damn girl I only got a twenty on me, you gon have to chill out" he said laughing and I shoved him with a playful smile.
He ordered our food and paid and we stood off to the side waiting. I looked around at everyone who was in line and remembered a couple of them from Zaire's school. After a moment Marco handed me my burger and some fries we were gonna share.
I quickly bit the burger and had a foodgasm. This food was so good it was unbelievable and it was cheaper than most restaurants.
"That shit good ain't it?" He asked and I quickly nodded as he grabbed a fry. "I told your ass, maybe when you get off lockdown you can come visit over here again" when he said that I scrunched my face and looked at him.
"What do you mean? I'm not on lockdown?" I asked and he chewed the food in his mouth before answering me.
"If you keep acting like that you'll no doubt be grounded, when you go home tonight just talk to your dad it's not good to go to sleep angry never know what could happen" he tells me and I sighed.
"What about your girlfriend Marco? You said some really mean things" I tell him remembering him refusing to go see his girlfriend in the hospital.
"It's complicated and you don't understand, our situations are completely different" he said defending himself.
"Alright well fill me then, I only caught snippets of what you was telling that girl" I tell him as we continued to stroll and eat.
"I got this girl pregnant back in middle and I thought it'd be the right thing to be with her for our baby, but she miscarried and I couldn't bring myself to dump her so I stayed with her to show I still cared for her and supported her. Then she turned into a fucking thot and started messing around on me so I do what I want, we aren't even together in my eyes but her delusional ass keeps telling people we working out our problems" he said and I couldn't help but laugh.
"Your not a virgin?" I asked a little shocked and he started laughing hysterically.
"Nah girl I been messing around since I was in the 6th grade. No nigga around here is still a virgin it's just not common" he shrugged
I nodded and ended the conversation, maybe I was the only one with morals nowadays. If Cali was expecting more from me he had another thing coming.
"Don't be ignoring me" Marco said pushing me and I snapped out of my thoughts noticing we were in front of his group home.
"I wasn't, I really didn't hear what you were saying" I tell him laughing hard as hell and he gave me the screw face.
"Bring yo ugly ass inside for you get shot" he said opening the door for me and I put my hand on my hip and stared at him.
"And who's gonna shoot me?" I asked looking around and he smacked his teeth and stepped closer to me getting in my face.
"Nigga I will, you must not know I'm a hitta" he says and we both busted out laughing before I stepped around him and walked inside finishing the rest if my food.
"Do you have any games here?" I asked as he lead me to the TV room and there was a couple of younger boys watching some show on Cartoon Network.
"You wanna play mancala? I ain't played in forever" he asked and I raised an eyebrow confused. I'd never played that before.
"I don't know what the hell that is" I reply back and and he stepped in my face like he was about to tell me a secret.
"Would you rather play doctor?" He asked and I felt my face growing warm as I backed up accidentally bumping into the wall.
"Um Mancala sure sounds fun lets go play" I tell him nervously changing the subject. I knew he was joking but it didn't stop me from growing afraid.
"C'mere" he said lowly and flirty before walking away and My face grew warm but reluctantly I followed him into his room and he was reaching into his closet pulling out a board game.
"If I win you gotta talk to both of your pops and if you win? You don't have too" he says and I agreed secretly hoping I'd win.
I V O R Y
I was fixing dinner when all of a sudden the boys bust into the kitchen practically out of breath looking worried.
"Whats going on? Whats wrong?" I asked looking at Elias and Moriah as Tristan called for me from upstairs.
"It's dad" Elias got out and I quickly took my apron off and ran out of the kitchen with them following behind me. When I got into my bedroom there was Jade on the ground clutching his chest in pain and Tristan was on the phone with the paramedics.
"Calm down, whats wrong?" I asked him squatting in front of him and he was pointing to his chest. He was having a heart attack.
"Go call Ohaji, Moriah" I yell and he quickly grabbed my phone and ran out of the room while Elias and I stayed squatted in front of Jade. I wanted to cry but my kids were worried enough and I didn't need to scare them.
Ohaji showed up the same time the paramedics did and he told Tristan to watch after the house while he took me to the hospital to see what the hell was going on. Jade was way to young to be having a heart attack and I felt like I was the one to blame.
I had nobody but Jade and O left everyone was dead, Asia was on drugs and Silas was being a fucking idiot.
When we got to the hospital we had to just sit in the waiting room and I felt myself bursting into tears as I laid my head on O's shoulder.
"I knew your soft ass was gonna cry, he gone be okay he was still awake when they took him" O says as he rubbed my back and I tried to sniffle away my tears.
"There's just so much going on, I don't even wanna bring this baby into this fucked up situation as is" I confess and he smacked his teeth.
"If that was the case I would've gave Cal up a long time ago, but what you need to do is relax and stop stressing yourself out sis you pregnant" O tells me and I nodded and started taking deep breaths.
I felt someone sit next to me and glanced over as Silas looked down at me with a straight face. O was about to pull out his gun but I stopped and looked back over at Silas.
"Why are you here? Don't you still hate us?" I asked and he smacked his teeth and leaned back in his chair.
"Zaire had food poisoning kept throwing up so I took him here about an hour ago, I saw y'all come in though" Silas says and I sighed as he wiped my tears.
"You still on this war shit huh? Cause if you is we ain't about to associate with each other like we cool" Ohaji says glaring at him.
"Why you ain't tell me you was beefing with Victor's son, them niggas is dangerous and you got me over here trying to stress you out more" Silas tells him and O smacked his teeth.
"We done had this state on lock for fifteen years bruh and now all of a sudden niggas coming out of the blue trying to take over, you got lil niggas bout Calvin age trying to put hits out I'm damn near forty" O says shaking his head.
"If we team up they ain't gonna see it coming but once this is over I ain't staying in the game got to much to loose" Silas said not making eye contact and I felt a sigh of relief go over my body.
When the doctor came out he looked relived and I took that as a good sign as Ohaji helped me up and walked over with me.
"It wasn't a heart attack he's just under a lot of stress and it mimicked one, but I recommend a vacation or something before a blood clot forms and he actually has a heart attack. Were keeping him for a couple of days to monitor him. Would you like to see him?" He asked and I thanked god.
"Yes please" I tell the doctor and Ohaji let me go first. I was thinking about how when I got home I was breaking every last one if Jade's phones and hiding his car keys around the house, I'd probably put them in Moriah's room.
When I got in the room he was eating apple sauce and moved over some so I could sit down and I started mugging him.
"You know what the doctor said right?" I asked and he gave me a weak smirk while he nodded. He's not dying anytime soon we got to many kids.
"I'm sorry for scaring y'all like that I ain't mean too" he says and I smiled and kissed his lips lightly and he placed his hand on my stomach.
"Silas is here and he and O are discussing some things" I tell Jade and he nods uninterested. I decided to just drop it before he got angry because I was trying to release the stress in his life not add on to it.
"The doctor said sex helps so you gone have to put it on me at least five or six times a day when I get home" he says and I was so tempted to punch him, he's lucky he's already hurt.
"I'm pregnant so we'll have to discuss this and come to a mutual agreement" I tell him and he smacked his teeth and pulled me onto his chest trying to feed me applesauce.
It's been fifteen years and I'm more in love with him then ever.
C A L V I N
"We gotta hurry this shit up my uncle in the hospital" I tell Eli and Cali as we stood outside of this big ass house belonging to some drug dealer.
He had alarms everywhere but we had to get my money back somehow and he was the one who set up the robbing that took place on our corner. Eli ran to the back but came back because he said he had Pitts in his backyard.
"Fuck this shit" Cali whispered as he picked up a brick and smashed it into the window before reaching in and unlocking the window pulling it up.
"We got five minutes to take whatever we can and then get ghost before the police show up" I tell them before I jumped through the window and ran up the staircase the man had in his house.
When I got to his bedroom I looked around for compartments that he'd leave jewelry in and set my eyes on a small safe. I thought about taking it but decided against it.
I knew he had cameras everywhere but we had masks on so it was all good. This niggas had all his jewelry laid out on the sink and I scooped that shit into my bag when I heard police sirens and ran out of the room.
"Yo C and E, where you at?!" I yelled and Cali came from out of the kitchen zipping up his bag and eating a sandwhich, this nigga be on some other shit I swear.
Eli came from out of the living room and while we began going out the window police were coming through the front door.
I tossed my bag to Cali because he was the first one out the window and already took off running through the back way so the police wouldn't see and once Eli and I got out the window we followed.
"How much you think this shit worth!" Eli yelled as he ran.
"Maybe a couple grand who knows!" I yelled back and once we got to the car it was already started and Cali pulled off.
We drove in silence and I looked at all of the jewelry I had gotten before noticing the missing bracelet from my wrist.
"Oh shit bruh stop the car!" I yelled and Cali hit the breaks and looked at me like I was crazy while Eli looked over the seat.
"What? You hurt or something?" Eli asked and I shook my head and started looking around the car for my bracelet I've had since I was a baby. Every time my wrist grows my pops adds another piece to it so it fits and I've had that shit since I was four months old.
Cali started driving again while I searched before I stopped and checked into my pocket sighing in relief. I had put that shit in there just incase it fell off before we went into the house.
"Yo Cali ain't Alijah your girl?" Eli asked and Cali smacked his teeth and shook his head while he drove.
"Nah not yet anyway, why?" He asked and Eli started laughing.
"Cause she seem real cool with that nigga Marco they got pics on IG and shit looking all coupled up" Eli says showing me a picture of Marco giving her a piggy back ride and another of her kissing his cheek while he scrunched his face up.
"You lying, give me that shit!" Cali says letting go of the wheel and taking the phone as we stopped at a red light.
He started getting mad and shit and I shook my head, I've known this nigga for awhile now and I've never known his ass to stress over a girl but then again she is a Scott and we give these niggas and bitches shit to dream about.
"Nigga! The light is green so drive and stop worrying about all that just keep doing what you doing, the moment you start worrying about what some other nigga doing is when you fall off" I tell him and he remained silent.
J A D E
I was eating another thing of apple sauce after Ivory had left to go feed the kids when the nurse told me somebody had come to see me.
I figured it'd be O because he promised to sneak me in some food and the only good thing they had here was apple sauce and I was gonna get real tired of this shit if I kept eating it over and over again.
The door creaked open and I glanced up at the door making eye contact with Alijah. She looked terrified as she walked in and stared at me.
"I ain't that ugly, you don't gotta be scared"'I tell her and she looked down at her feet and stood in front of me rocking back and fourth and I moved my feet to one side of the bed giving her room to sit down.
"Let's get something straight right now, Silas is still my dad I don't know if I even want you in my life becaus- are you even listening to me!?"she snapped and I scooped some more apple sauce into my mouth and looked at her again.
"Oh my bad I have a habit of not listening to bullshit!" I snapped and she looked at me wide eyed.
"Mhm that guy out front was right when he said you were stubborn, well I'm even more stubborn than you are so congratulations you've just met your match" she snapped standing and putting her hands on her hip.
I looked at her carelessly and she seemed to get even more mad. I knew how to push her buttons because the same thing that made me mad made her mad.
"If you don't want me in your life why'd you come here? How pathetic could you be to make a sad man even sadder, your killing me" I said being overly dramatic on purpose and her mouth got wide and she stared at me for awhile.
"Are you really dying?" She asked lowly and I stared laughing hard as hell causing my sore chest to hurt a little bit.
"Nah I'm just fucking with you, what did you come in here for though?" I asked and she chewed on her bottom lip making her look just like Ivory and Moriah.
"I just wanted to compare faces and tell you I hate you" she said looking down and I sighed.
"Come lay down with me and we'll tell you the truth starting from the beginning" I tell her nodding behind her as Silas leaned in the doorway. She glanced at him and crawled in the hospital bed and laid down as Silas sat down in the chair.
This was going to be a long night.
AUTHORS NOTE-
I really need people to start commenting more, I get all these reads and votes and only like 20 comments and it's from the same people like c'mon now that makes me not want to post. But anyway I'm going out of town so I posted today because I won't be able to post this weekend and if I don't see effort with the comments I'm taking a break from posting because it's getting pointless if people aren't commenting there thoughts.