Chapter 14
~Zion~
Today was the day that Dane and I had to give up Malaya and I wasn't ready. She was my daughter and Mrs. Wizzle just assumed I would be okay with handing her over? Not without a fight.
Even though I wouldn't be able to fight and honestly, I was a bit happy considering I would actually be able to sleep at night. But Dane was also going to be heading back home, so now more staying up at nights with him.
Since all my friends, and my annoying sister, were free today after school, we were going to start running ideas for the music video. Dane did forget his laptop at my house because of how much Malaya was crying in the middle of the night, so we had to stop by my house at lunch to get it since he had all the songs on there.
Once Dane got his laptop from my bedroom, he came back down the stairs and to where I was in the living room. "I got it," he said. "Let's go."
"Or we can spend lunch here," I said. "I just got comfortable on the couch and I'm too lazy to get up."
"Fair enough," Dane said, setting his bag on the ground beside the couch before flopping down beside me. "I need to relax too after last night."
"You make it sound like we did something dirty."
Dane rolled his eyes and nudged my side playfully. "You're annoying."
"Thanks," I said. "I try."
At the door, I heard someone twist the doorknob as if they were trying to open it, but since the door was locked they were unable to. Whoever it was then rang the doorbell, so I got up from the couch and walked over to the door. "Are you a burglar?" I asked.
"Yes, I'm a burglar who rings doorbells," I heard my older brother say on the other side of the door. "Can you let me in?"
"Well, if you're a burglar, then I can't let you in," I said.
"Seriously, Zion?" Ekon asked. "I can't get in because I don't have a key."
"That's your problem."
"I will throw a rock through a window. Your window."
I unlocked the door and opened it up for Ekon. "You don't have to be so rude."
"You don't have to be so annoying," Ekon said as he walked inside, carrying his suitcase behind him. "I just got off of a twelve hour flight and was really hoping for a better welcome than this."
"It's your fault you're coming home at this time," I said. "You know, work and school hours."
Ekon furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at me suspiciously. "Why aren't you in school, then?"
"It's lunch," I said, walking back to the living room and sitting down on the couch again.
Ekon was about to head upstairs but he stopped when he saw Dane sitting on the couch with me. "Who's this?" he asked.
"This is my husband," I said.
Dane sighed. "I knew you were going to say that. We're not actually married."
All I heard was we're married, but Dane still hasn't figured it out that I chose to hear what I want, no matter how many times I had to tell him.
Even though all I told Ekon was that Dane was my husband, he seemed to figure out exactly who he was. "Oh, so you're Dane. My brother talks about you all the time."
I looked at my wrist, pretending there was a watch there. "Oh, would you look at the time? We should probably be heading back to school." I stood up from the couch, picking up the carseat Malaya was in. "By the way, Ekon, you completely missed your niece growing up."
"I see you have to do the baby project," Ekon said. "How's it going?"
"We're giving her back today and I'm not ready," I said. "I'm just..." I wiped away a tear that wasn't even there. "I'm going to miss her so much."
"I, too, am going to miss not being able to sleep," Dane said, standing up from the couch and picking up his backpack.
"Oh, shush," I said, leading Dane towards the front door.
Before we left, Dane looked at Ekon and said, "It was nice to meet you."
"You too," Ekon said. "I hope some of your manners rub off on Zion."
"I think you and I both know that's not going to happen," Dane said.
"And I'm the rude one?" I muttered as I walked out the door with Dane behind me. Once we were both outside, I closed the door and locked it before Dane and I got into my car to head to school.
We only had a bit of time before third period began, so I cuddled with Malaya as much as I could before having to give her up forever.
When third period started, many of my classmates looked relieved to be giving up their babies. Have they no humanity?
Mrs. Wizzle had to do it one by one to turn off the babies and to check the grade. When she called me and Dane up, we grabbed Malaya and all of her belongings before walking over to our teacher. "Mrs. Wizzle, I don't appreciate you taking our daughter like this," I said.
"I'm sorry, Zion," Mrs. Wizzle said, taking Malaya and all of her things before typing something into her computer. "I know how attached you were to her but on the bright side, you and Dane got... a one hundred."
"A one hundred won't make up for the memories I've spent with my daughter," I said.
"It makes it up for me," Dane said.
I glared at my fake husband.
Since Mrs. Wizzle was done kidnapping my daughter, Dane and I went back to our seat. We had a bit of free time while Mrs. Wizzle continued to kidnap the babies, so Dane took his laptop out of his bag and set it on the desk. "Since we've got a few minutes, we can decide what song we're going to make a music video for. That way, we can go straight into planning the music video after school. So is there a song you really want to make a video for?"
"The song I wrote for you," I said.
"One, I'm the one writing the songs," Dane said. "And two, I didn't write a song about me."
"You wrote a song about the both of us," I said.
"Right, that one," Dane said. "That's the one you want to do?"
I smiled. "Yep. And now I can't wait to start planning for it."
Because I was so excited for us to start planning, it felt like a whole day passed before school finally let out. Dane and I went to our lockers before going to the front of the school where we had already planned to meet my friends and sister. I already told them about the music video idea, and they were all excited to help.
"Okay, if we're going to do this, we need an official place to hold meetings," Marjani said. "And not a public place like a diner or cafe. An actual place."
"We have a room we can use at our house," Alika said. "It's a mix of an office, music room, and art studio. Our parents are only in there to get something. Never to actually do work in there."
"Ooh, when we're there, can we make as much as noise as possible?" I asked. "Ekon is home and he was being mean to me."
"You were annoying him," Dane said.
"I was not," I said.
"Just shut up and take me home," Alika said. "I miss Ekon and I wanna see him."
"So are we all going to meet up there?" Divya asked.
"Yeah, I think it's the perfect place," I said.
Dane, Alika, and I all went to my car to head to home. As soon as we got there, Alika went over to Ekon, who was in the kitchen, to give him a hug. "Next time you go backpacking, please take me with you," she said.
"Yeah, I'm sure Mom and Dad would love for me to take you out of school to go backpacking," Ekon said.
"Just do what I would do," I said. "Don't tell them."
"You're really horrible at giving advice," Dane said. "Don't you get detention, like, once a week?"
"I do not," I said. "...Yeah, I totally do.
It wasn't my fault the school was unbelievable strict.
Okay, they weren't too strict. They were only strict about us following our school uniforms. I was just a horrible student and didn't like following rules.
Dane and I went to the room where we were going to meet while Alika waited for the others to show up, since she also wanted to spend a bit more time with our older brother.
It didn't take long for them to show up and when they did, Alika led them to where Dane and I were. "Alright, now that we're here, where do we start?" Miguel asked.
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woo we got to meet zion's other sibling. honestly i love zion, alika, and ekon's sibling relationship ahahaha. they fight all the time but if anyone bullies one, they will throw hands. >:(