Kimi and Daniella were getting ready for church when their mother came into the room and told they were staying home because she was sick.
Almost as soon as the door was closed, the girls began shedding their church attire and began pulling on street clothes.
"Let's go have breakfast," Daniella suggested, knowing that if they stayed in the house too long, Ashly and Joslyn were going to dump their babies on her and dip.
Kimi agreed and the two left the house and got into Daniella's car and headed for the Square. "I don't have to work tomorrow," Daniella told Kimi as they headed into the Masquerade.
"Sweet. Let's go to the cider mill."
"Cool."
The girls got inside and noticed Crisha was there with her younger sister, Evonna. "Hi, Kimi!" Evonna greeted enthusiastically, causing her sister to look up from the game that she was playing.
"Shouldn't you to be in church?" she asked, getting up and coming over to them.
"Our mama is sick, so she stayed home and we having breakfast," Daniella informed her. "What you doing?"
"We was waiting on my daddy to get here. I told him I would spend some time with the brat."
"I can hear you," Evonna reminded her.
Crisha rolled her eyes as her father called and told her that he couldn't get out of work and to just have breakfast without him.
"Y'all wanna all sit together?" Crisha asked Daniella and Kimi who exchanged a look and shrugged.
The four made their way to a table and Evonna asked to play Pacman on her phone. Crisha passed the device over and turned to Kimi and Daniella. "What y'all doing tomorrow?" she wondered.
"Going to the cider mill when Kimi get outta school. I'ma pick her up. What's up?"
"Oooh, can I come?" Evonna asked.
Daniella looked to Crisha and Crisha rolled her eyes. "Ain't you going to the movies with ya daddy tomorrow, little girl?"
"Never mind, Kimi's Sister."
Kimi laughed. It was so nice to hear someone being recognized as her sister. All the time, she was called one of her brothers' or Daniella's sister. No one bothered learning her name. That was her identifier.
"She has a name, Evonna," Crisha scolded.
"What's your name, Kimi's Sister?"
"My name is Daniella, Crisha's Sister."
Evonna's brows furrowed. "My name is Evonna."
Daniella and Crisha chuckled, but Kimi shook her head.
A waitress came over to the group and Kimi passed her menu over, already knowing what she wanted. The only person at the table who seemed to be indecisive was Evonna. "Hot chocolate and French toast for her," Crisha said, snatching the menu from her sister.
"What if I don't want that?" Evonna asked.
"What would you like, sweetie?" the waitress asked.
"That," Evonna mumbled and Crisha rolled her eyes.
"Be nice to her, Cri," Kimi ordered. "That's the only sister you got."
"Daniella, you always nice to Kimi?"
"Yes," Daniella answered with her sister.
"Y'all so weird," Crisha decided.
Kimi and Daniella exchanged a look and shrugged together. That was a statement they had heard so many times over the years and had come to accept.
Halfway through breakfast, Crisha's father called again and asked whether she and Evonna could meet him at the house to head out on their family date. Crisha agreed that they would straight after their meal.
So after breakfast, the four broke apart and Kimi and Daniella decided to get their nails and feet done together.
"Do you want to go to La La Chic today?" Daniella wondered.
"Are you working today?"
"Yeah, but at Blue Horizons. Much later. I wanna look at some makeup."
At the word makeup, Kimi was all ears. "Ooh, yea, I wanna go."
Kimi leaned back in the pedicure chair, talking to her sister. They made all sorts of plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, giving no regard to the fact that Kimi even had a boyfriend who might have wanted to spend some of his own break with her.
"When is basketball season starting?" Daniella wondered.
"My first game is in December, but we start practice next month."
"I can pick you up and take you to work when you get out your practices."
"Oh no, I already told my supervisor I can't work on Wednesdays and need to be switched to afternoons on Saturdays in December. By the time I get out of my practices, it'll be six and there's no point in working for a couple hours."
Daniella nodded her concession. Kimi had a point. That was almost a waste of time to go to work on a day like that.
When the girls left the nail salon, Daniella drove to La La Chic and the two walked around looking at different shades of eye shadow.
"Can I do your makeup one day, Danni?" Kimi wondered.
Daniella looked at her sister out the side of her eye before she picked up a purple shadow. "Maybe tomorrow when we get home from the cider mill and I don't have nothing to do and nowhere to go."
Kimi squeaked and Daniella shook her head. "So this what you like now?"
"I'm going to be super glamorous!"
Kimi waved her hands in the air and grinned wide before she flipped her hair and batted her lashes. Daniella turned to look at her sister for a few seconds before she shook her head and turned back to what she was doing.
"You don't think you're glamorous without the makeup, Kimi?"
Kimi frowned at the question. "I think I'm okay without the makeup. The makeup is fun. It makes me look 'wow!' Like Beyoncé in her videos or Ashanti."
"I suppose, Kimi."
"If you don't like makeup, why you wear it?" Kimi challenged.
Daniella chuckled and held up a few shadows to her sister to compare the match. "I didn't say that I don't like it. I just asked if you didn't feel glamorous without it."
Before the girls had realized it, hours had passed and they were still in the cosmetics department when Justin had called Kimi.
"Hello?"
"Are you out from church?" he wondered.
"Yeah." She frowned in confusion.
"Did you forget that we had plans today?"
"We did?"
Kimi's eyes widened in realization as she remembered that Justin had asked her to call when she got out of church so that they could hang out.
"Yes we did. Is you mad at me about something? Is it 'cause I didn't let you stay the night?"
"I'm not mad at you," she promised. "We didn't go to church today, so me and Danni hung out. I'm still with her."
"Well can I at least see you before I start back for school tonight?" he asked.
"Yeah. Daniella has to go to work tonight. We're at La La Chic right now."
"What time Daniella have work?"
Kimi asked her sister and relayed the message back to Justin. She could hear him moving to check the time. "Stay at the mall. Let your sister go. Meet me at the food court."
"Okay."
Kimi and Justin hung up and Daniella glanced over at her as they proceeded to the checkout. "Justin wants me to stay here and meet him at the foodcourt."
"No, you call him back and tell him I will bring you to him, but I am not leaving you here alone."
"It's not a big deal, Daniella. He's already on his way. I've been here plenty of times by myself and I'm not a little girl."
Daniella knew she couldn't very well force Kimi out of the mall and to the parking lot, but oh did she have a few choice words for that Justin Paliotta the first chance she got!
"Fine, I'll wait with you until he gets here," Daniella decided.
"I don't care." Kimi rolled her eyes.
The sisters waited in line and Daniella paid for their things. By the time they got out of line, Justin was calling Kimi again.
"Where are you, baby?"
"Leaving La La Chic now," she informed him.
"Alright, stay right there, I'ma come that way."
"Alright."
As the two hung up, Daniella shook her head. "Now what?" she questioned.
"He's coming here," Kimi replied, rolling her eyes. "You can go now."
Daniella didn't go and in fact waited until she saw Justin coming their way. The moment he got Kimi in his sights, he wrapped his arms around her, paying no mind to Daniella as he leaned down and kissed her.
"Justin," Daniella interrupted.
Taking his time to break away from Kimi, Justin looked over at Daniella as if noticing her for the first time when in truth, he'd simply ignored her.
"What you want?"
"Never suggest that I leave my sister in a mall alone when she came with me. Ever. I don't care if you're on your way or not. Next time, we can meet somewhere like half-custodial parents and trade her off, but when she is with me, unless I watch her go to you, she is staying with me. I refuse to allow something to happen to my sister because she decided to wait for you. Cell phone or not."
Justin seemed to take into consideration what Daniella was saying to him which was a relief on her part because she had expected him to be combative.
"You right, Daniella. That was irresponsible on my part. Next time, we can meet somewhere," he agreed, causing her to nearly faint.
Daniella nodded one time and turned to her sister. "I'll see you at home. Do you want me to bring anything back for you?"
"Alfredo," Kimi answered. Justin shook his head.
"Okay. Bye."
Daniella left the two and Justin took Kimi's hand in his. "Why you ain't go to church?" he wondered.
"My mama sick. Me and Danni going to the cider mill tomorrow."
Justin was glad that Daniella and Kimi were spending time together. He knew that Daniella was Kimi's best friend and that spending time with her made Kimi happy. He knew now that classes were in session, he tended to monopolize Kimi's weekends, but the two of them lived together and he saw no reason they shouldn't hang out during the week.
"Save me a donut."
"By the time I get to give it to you, it's going to be almost a week old and nasty. I will not save you a donut. Besides, I don't even have nowhere to keep it. One of my greedy ass brothas gon see it in the kitchen and eat it."
"You right, baby. You can just make me something next weekend."
"Okay."
Justin took Kimi through a few shops, picking up things he liked for her and asking her opinion before they headed back to his place.
She noticed that for the first time, it was just the two of them. "Where is Jason?" she wondered.
He shrugged. "At Melanie house I guess," he suggested, leading her to his bedroom and closing the door.
Kimi sat on the bed and turned on the TV, but Justin took the remote and turned it off, pulling Kimi into his lap. "You can stay tonight, if you want to."
"What about us going to school tomorrow?"
"I'll make it to class on time after I get you to school. I don't want you to worry about that, baby," he said softly, kissing her neck.
"I don't know, baby," she mumbled. "I don't think that's a good idea. Next weekend, when you come back."
"Okay."
Justin laid her back and kissed her lips softly. "I be missing you when I'm away at school."
"I miss you too. But at least you get to come home every weekend."
"At least," he agreed.
Justin lifted Kimi up and started fumbling with her jeans. She decided to help him and pulled them off. "Why you always wearing these tight pants?" he asked.
"Because I want to. Why you always tryna take them off?"
"Lay back, smart ass." He rolled his eyes.
Kimi laid back, laughing as Justin slid her panties down. She leaned on her elbows, watching him as he kissed up her thighs. He looked up at her, his eyes gleaming with a smile as his kisses lingered and he watched her breath shorten in anticipation.
"Can't you just stay, Kimi?"
She bit her lip and stroked his hair. "I want to, Justin, but I can't."
He didn't ask her again, just performing his task. When he finished, Kimi started to undo his jeans, but he took her hands and held them together, putting them in her lap, leaving her looking up at him with a perplexed frown.
"I'm okay. I just wanted to do that for you."
"I want to do it for you."
"Nah. I'm okay."
He turned her body so they were back to chest and he turned the TV on, giving her the remote control.
She turned her body towards him, but he turned her back around. "Are you mad at me, Justin?" she asked, trying to turn, but he held her firmly where she was.
"I'm not mad," he promised.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong, baby. Watch TV."
Kimi sighed and watched The Real World. When that went off, Justin sat up. "I'm gonna drop you off back home. Get your shoes on."
Kimi did as she was told without a word. The two started out to Justin's car, her hand in his. He held the door for her and walked around.
The ride to her house was silent, and she just looked out her window, feeling Justin was upset.
When he stopped at her house, he cut the engine, but neither moved to get out of the car, and he kept the door locked, alerting her to the fact that he didn't want her to let herself out.
"I'm sorry, Kimi," he told her.
"For what?"
"Pressuring you to stay."
He got out of the truck before she could say a word and he walked her to the porch, stopping her before she could go in. "Next weekend, if you can," he told her and she nodded, standing on her tippytoes to kiss him. "I love you."
"I love you too. Call me when you get back to your dorm."
"Okay, baby." He leaned down to kiss her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her body into his before releasing her and letting her go inside.