•Show Time•
*DING DONG* The doorbell rang.
"What time is it?" Malik asked Mila.
"It's 8:04." She answered.
"One of y'all dudes early." He said walking towards the door.
"Wasssuuup mane! What you doin' here? Iaint seen you ina minute nigga!" It's been what? Fo' years?" Malik told the man at the door. "Shit, my fault. Come in bro."
"Shit, my girl told me to come over for dinner. Guess we doin' a meet and greet wit her brother or sum." Josiah said.
"Nigga... what? You date one of my sisters?" Malik asked.
They both froze up and looked at each other. Josiah bucked his head and asked, "Amari yo sister?"
Malik laughed and said, "Bruh? I thought a young nigga from her school was her dude."
Josiah also laughed and shook his head. "Nah, me and shortie been fucking wit each other for a minute now."
"For how long? You know she only 17 and you bout 21? That's a case." Malik asked.
"Bro, I'm only 19." Josiah said, giving Malik a weird look. "When she turn 18, I'll be 20."
"Awww, shiieett.. Amari!?" Malik called out.
—
"Girl, I'm nervous. I hope he like him." Amari told Mila. "He sound mad."
"Don't trip. You good." Mila reassured Amari.
—
Amari walked into the living room where her man and brother stood. She seen how they were conversing and joking around.
"Yeah?" Amari said.
"Why you ain't tell me you go wit my nigga JP. I woulda been straight on it. He coo people." Malik told his sister.
"Shit, iaint know. You acted like you had a problem with me and Mila dating folks." She responded.
Malik just laughed and walked into the kitchen, giving Amari and her man some space/alone time to bond a little.
"That's yo brother????" Josiah shockingly asked Amari.
She laughed a little and said, "Yeah, how you know him?"
"Him and my OG served together. He looked out for me a lil when he got out." Josiah explained.
Amari didn't say anything. She just walked up to him and hugged him.
"You get in trouble earlier?" He whispered.
"No, and don't talk about that. Or I will." She said.
"Mm.. okay." He responded.
They kissed and walked to the kitchen to join Mila and Malik.
This is Josiah Parker. He's a nineteen year old guy Amari knew from her childhood. They were in the same daycare and went to the same school before Amari's mom moved herself and Amari out to Texas where her her husband, Amari's step dad, lived. They reconnected on Twitter when he found her page and pm'd her. They've been on and off since.
*DING DONG* The doorbell rang.
"Time?" Malik asked again.
"8:25" Mila answered while following behind Malik. She was excited to see her man.
"Yessuhhh! I love this early timing. Glad y'all niggas got respect." Malik said walking towards the door.
"Wassup? You must be Jay." Malik asked.
"Nah, my name Kameron. Amari here?" The man stood in the doorway with his backpack on and a poster in his hand.
"What you need from my sister?" Malik asked Kameron feeling disrespected.
—
*DING* Amari got a message from Mila.
"Biiiiiiitttcccchhhhh, it's Kameron at the fucking door!"
Amari dropped her phone and looked at Josiah.
"You good baby?" He asked her.
"Yeah, I just seen this stupid ass TikTok. One of 'em scary ones." She lied and picked her phone back up.
"WTH HE DOIN HERE FOR? DON'T LET HIM IN! Shoo him away! Dentures wearing ass mf!" Amari quickly texted Mila hoping nothing would pop off or go wrong.
"Oh, okay. Where's yo bathroom? I needa use it." Josiah asked.
"I'll walk you to it. C'mon." She said leading the way to the nearest bathroom.
—
"Uhh.. we got English together. She my partner and I was trynna work on our project. It's due soon." Kameron answered.
"Well, she not here. She left with her boyfriend." Mila said, purposely lying to him to make him jealous.
Amari told Mila about what had happened between them in class, and Mila was pissed. Luckily, she was given the opportunity to crush him with a little pettiness.
*Boyfriend? Wtf? 'Mari got a nigga? She ain't ever told me this.* Kameron thought to himself before looking back up to respond. "Aww, aight. You'll let her know I dropped by and left this?" Kameron handed over their poster and walked off.
*Why the fuck you hurt man? You got Angel back.* Kameron thought while walking back to his car.
"I spoke too soon about muthafuckas havin' respect." Malik told Mila while shutting the door. And before he got to say anything else, the doorbell rang. "This better be yo dude or I'm goin' off."
They answered the door, and it was, indeed, Jay. He was standing at the door with some flowers for Mila.
"Aww.. for me, baby?" Mila squealed.
"Nah, for yo brother." Jay joked.
Malik laughed and watch the two as they hugged and kissed. Mila took the flowers and cheesed her way back into the house.
"Wassup. I'm her brother. You Jay?" Malik asked.
"Yeah." He answered following behind Mila.
***
•Dinner time•
The two couples and Malik all conversed and told jokes over dinner. It was a good time for them all. They finished eating, then the guys stepped outside to the backyard to smoke. Amari and Mila stayed back and cleaned after everyone. Once they were done with the dishes and storing all the food, they stopped for a minute and talked about everything that happened.
"What'd what's his face say?" Amari asked Mila.
"Nothing important. He was tryna be slick and came here actin' like he wanted to work on y'all project." Mila told Amari.
Amari's nerves instantly got bad. She made a face expression, indicating that she was annoyed. "Dumbass! It's his day to work on his part for the project. I had it over the weekend."
"I know.. and I might have made things worse and more awkward for you two..." Mila admitted, thinking back on what she had pulled earlier.
"What'd you do, bro?" Amari asked. She was even more annoyed now.
"I acted out of anger from what you told me earlier and told him you left with your boyfriend." Mila explain nervously. Her voice got shaky when she spoke.
Amari noticed it and thought it was weird. It was unusual that Mila got nervous or emotional easily. Amari knew it was her pregnancy hormone's fucking with her.
She didn't care too much about what Mila did anyways. She just thought it was going to be something way worse than that.
"Oh, I thought it was sum' worse, girl." Amari told her sister.
Mila felt relived her sister wasn't pissed at her.
The two joked about it and continued to clean the rest of the kitchen.
***
"You been seeming a lil off. You okay, bae? Angel asked Kameron.
The two were in Angel's bed. They had just got done fucking. Kameron ran to her to get his mind off of Amari. Although, they weren't together, he still felt some type of way about Amari. He was jealous of her boyfriend. He didn't want a relationship with Amari until he was completely over Angel, but he also didn't want anyone else to have Amari. He's felt this way about her since he first laid eyes on her.
"Yeah, I just been stressing bout school and shit." He lied. He didn't care about school at the moment.
"Well, I can help if you need me to." Angel told him. She kissed him and Kameron thanked her.
***
•Queen's Place•
"Y'all hear bout Angel and Kameron getting back together?" Brandon asked his friends.
The group of friends went over Queen's place to check on her. They didn't hear from her after the fight, and she didn't show up for school earlier. There was, of course, her best friend, Khelani and her boyfriend, Jaylen, Brandon and his girlfriend, Aaliyah and her boyfriend and Jade and her boyfriend.
"I didn't hear about it, but I peeped it on IG." Jade said. "She even just posted on her Snapchat story of them two together at.. I think.. her house?"
"Yeah, it was her house. I seen that." Khelani said.
"That's tough." Jaylen said. "Him and Amari made out at the game on Friday."
Everyone looked at him with a shocked expression.
Khelani turned and asked, "How do you know?"
"Must've forgot Kameron and Jordan basically my best friends. We tell each other bout everything." Jaylen answered. "He told me they talked a little then he got in his feelings and she sensed that so she started comforting a nigga.. then boom! He made a move on her and she ain't pull away from him."
Aaliyah shook her head and said, "That's dumb and sad. He steady leading Amari on but keep running back to the bitch. And then it don't help that she fucking new to the damn school."
"Exactly." Triston agreed with his girlfriend.
"Amari my friend and if I got to, I'll whoop Kameron's ass too.. JUST like I did Angel." Queen said defending Amari.
"Bruh, that shit was funnyyyy!" Khelani said while laughing.
Everyone joined and laughed too.
"Nah, that was wild bruh. I seen it coming though. I knew Angel was gon' get her ass beat.. I just didn't expect it to be by Queen. She usually chilled about shit. She can hold a lot in." Jade said.
"She mentioned my momma. I had to beat her ass after that." Queen said with a smirk.
"Shit, I thought Amari was gon' beat her ass when they argued. She looked like she was when angel pushed her away from under Kameron's arm, but then I seen her ass just crack up laughing at Angel goofy ass. That almost made me laugh too." Aaliyah said.
"Amari chilled as fuck. And she hella goofy. She don't ever know how to take shit serious." Triston added. "Kameron told me 'bout how pissed he was after he fought Michael then went over to Amari and she sat up there clownin' his ass, sayin' he be wearing dentures cause his teeth seem too perfect.."
Everyone all laughed at Triston's story.
"Amari really another Queen and Khelani." Brandon pointed out.
Jaylen shook his head and corrected Brandon. "Nah, Mila and Khelani alike. Amari and Queen alike. But Khelani and Queen are more alike. Iont know if that made sense but yeah.."
"Shit it was a lil confusing for .02 seconds then it clicked." Brandon said.
Everyone laughed and agreed.
***
"Done. @11:02" -Hitman
"Bet. Slide through the spot to pick up yo loaf."
Malik replied to his old connect.
Like Mila mentioned before, he used to run the streets before he turned his life around. But what his little sister showed him made him furious. It disgusted him so much. Especially now since Mila was pregnant.
Malik reconnected with one of his old hitman to pay a few of his so-called 'friends' a visit. He didn't have them killed, but it was close enough.
Not too many people knew about Malik still having one foot in the game. He didn't say too much 'cause he didn't want his sisters to find out, and he promised them he wouldn't ever turn back to his dark past again. Not only that, Malik also didn't want to attract attention and put his family in danger. Both of his families.
Not a soul knew about Malik's daughter and wife he had hidden out in Hawaii. The one's who knew were Malik and his wife. His daughter was now three years old and he hasn't seen her in person since she was born.
The most people knew about Malik was that he had two little sisters. One full, one half. Malik kept everything about him very simple and private. He kept his circle tight, and stayed to himself most of the time.