"Babe, come hear this." Chris said, pulling me by my arm up the stairs.
"What? What is it?"
"I want you to hear this. I made this in my freshman year of high school, l forgot all about it. I found it in one of those boxes I decided to save for later. I used to play a few instruments so the music teacher was a lil' savvy and helped me make the instrumental." He explained while he pulled a screen up on his laptop.
"Oh that's nice! I wanna hear it, I bet your voice sounded so young."
He smiled, "It did, don't talk about me."
"Okay, let's hear it."
He went over to his laptop and pressed play, a soft instrument sounded off through the mini speaker.
[Song is Yo (excuse me miss) will be in italics, can skip]
Woah, woah
Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo
Yeah, uh-huh, yeah
Yo, tell me fellas have you seen her? (Seen her)
It was about five minutes ago
When I seen the hottest chick that a youngin' never seen before
I say, "Yo, tell the girls I wanna meet her" (Meet her)
On second thought that ain't the way to go
I gotta give her game proper
Spit it so she'll get it, there she is I gotta stop her
Oh, should I talk about her smile? (It's been said before)
Or what about her style? (Too obvious)
I'm out of time, she's out the door
I gotta go for mine, I think I'll say
Yo
I don't know your name but excuse me miss (Oh yeah)
I saw you from across the room
And I got to admit that you got my attention
You're making me wanna say yo
I know you're tryna leave but excuse me miss
I saved the last dance for you
I would love to keep you here with me, oh baby
Now shawty, grab hold of my hand
And let's pretend the floor is ours
You say you don't really dance
Don't worry 'bout it, we just one-two step, one-two step
Now if the music is moving too fast (Too fast)
Grab my hand a little tighter (Tighter)
Don't be afraid to move a little closer
Girl, there's something about you that makes me wanna say (Aw yeah, aw yeah)
Yo
I don't know your name but excuse me miss (Ooh)
I saw you from across the room
And I got to admit that you got my attention
You're making me wanna say yo
I know you're tryna leave but excuse me miss (Ooh)
I saved the last dance for you
I would love to keep you here with me, oh baby
I think I'll say yo
I don't know your name but excuse me miss
I saw you from across the room
And I got to admit that you got my attention
You're making me wanna say yo
I know you're tryna leave but excuse me miss
I saved the last dance for you
I would love to keep you here with me, oh baby
I wanna be where you are
Ain't nothing wrong with dancing
Baby, it's so romantic
Baby, I can be in your heart
So many things I wanna tell you
I think that I should start by saying
Yo, woah
I don't know your name but excuse me miss (Oh yeah)
I saw you from across the room
I gotta give her game proper
Spit it so she'll get it, there she is I gotta stop her (Oh yeah)
I know you're tryna leave but excuse me miss (Oh)
I saved the last dance for you
I would love to keep you here with me, oh baby
Now everybody just clap your hands like this (Like this)
Just clap your hands like this (Woah, like this, huh)
And if your shorty's in the house tonight
Just grab her by the hand, homie, make her understand
Y'all was made to dance like this (Like this)
Y'all was made to bounce like this (Woah, like this)
Just let her know she was made for you and
You want to do everything she want to, man
Ha, woo!
When the song ended I was smiling from ear to ear. It was so adorable. I loved it.
"So, watchu think?" He asked, pressing pause on his laptop.
"Oooou you had a lisp?"
He chuckled, "I was hoping you didn't notice it."
I laughed, "You got my attenthen....I definitely noticed that."
"It was the 'tion' for me, It was like 'chun'—it was a tongue thing, just know my tongue work fine now!" He said and playfully rolled his eyes
"I'm sorryyy." I chuckled, "But, who was it for?"
He sighed, "Actually a lil' puppy crush. Somebody I saw in my first week of school, none special." He shrugged
"And you were in loveee, awww."
"Shut up, but that wasn't shit cause I'm in love wit' you now."
"That's sweet, but when you had your lisp, did you like spit?"
He laughed, "Get out." He said and pointed towards the door
We walked downstairs together, Lauren was just finishing up lunch.
I sat at the kitchen island, "Has Dre reached out to you since last night?"
She sighed, "No, and I'm not looking for him to. I know how things ended and I don't expect for him to reach out."
I looked at Chris with a begging look, "What?" He asked while stuffing his mouth with some Garrets popcorn I picked up this morning.
I grabbed his arm and pulled him to the hallway.
"Talk to him."
He raised his eyebrows, "Talk to who?" Then stuffed some more popcorn in his mouth.
"Dre! Your friend!"
"Why? I'm not getting into that."
"For me, please. I know though she's acting nonchalant about it, she wants it to work. All he needs is for a little talk and that'll probably make him come around or something."
He sighed, "Why you can't do it? When you and I broke up Lauren talked some sense into me, not Dre."
"Because that's your friend for one, and he needs to hear it from a male perspective. She explained it in a woman's perspective to him and he didn't wanna hear it."
He stuffed some more popcorn in his mouth, "It won't make a difference, he's stubborn. ."
"What man isn't? You don't know how much it may help. Just try to for me, please, will you?"
He was about to stuff his mouth again but I snatched the popcorn bag, "Give me my popcorn! Now will you?"
"Yeah, damn. I'm about to go shoot some hoop with him in a couple hours so I'll do it after."
I sighed, "Thank you." I said and leaned in to kiss his cheek but he stepped back.
"Hell naw, give me the popcorn back." He said and snatched the bag back.
I rolled my eyes, "That's why I hope a kernel gets stuck."
"Ahh, you hell for wishing that on me."
We sat back at the kitchen island and she begin preparing the plates.
"You don't have to make our plates, Lauren. You making the food was enough." I said
She continued making the plates, "I don't mind."
"Christmas is next week, what are you getting me?" I asked Chris
"Some damn dress pants. You wear skirts too damn much, and it's winter time, I know yo' knees be on they way to falling off."
I chuckled, "I only wear skirts because obviously they're my favorite."
"Yeah, alright. They won't be yo' favorite until you come down with a damn cold."
"I'm always going straight to a car and into a house or building so it's a slim chance. Now like I said, what are you getting me?"
He raised his eyebrow, "You really think I'm playing about them dress pants?!"
"I'm serious, Chris."
"A vagina full of cum, we having another baby."
My mouth dropped and I looked to Lauren and back to him, "Why would you say that while we have company?"
He shrugged, "She knows how a baby is made."
I looked over to her, she shrugged, "He's right, I do." She chuckled
"Well anyways, I was serious."
"I don't know, India. You'll see on the day." He said and brushed me off
I don't know what I'm getting him either but I have a week to get it. I have an idea of what I'm getting Royalty though, and I'm thinking of sharing it with Chris.
Lauren placed our plates in front of us and as we ate we held small talk.
When we finished eating Chris got ready to go to the court and Lauren and I cleaned up the kitchen.
"See, you're lucky. You and Chris don't have these problems." She said as I loaded the dishwasher,
"No, don't say that. You're on the outside looking in."
"But you also tell me everything so if there's any trouble in paradise I'm sure you'd tell me."
I nodded, "I would, but no relationship is perfect."
"You're right, I'm just really regretting my choices."
"He'll come around, Lauren, I promise. But at least you know what to do and not to do next time."
"You're right." She said while putting the leftover food into storage containers.
She headed to work to go help her mom and I went to start on some work since I'm working from home these next three days while the building is being fumigated.
By 4 Chris was stomping up the stairs and slamming the bathroom door.
I put my laptop down and knocked on the bathroom door, "Chris, you okay?" I asked
The bathroom door flew open. He had a scratch under his eye and his entire face was red.
"What's wrong? What happened?" I asked with a concerned look on my face.
"Yo' stupid ass plan for me to talk to that lame ass nigga man to man is what happened."
"Meaning?"
"We got into a big ass fight."
I raised my eyebrows, "What happened?"
Flashback
Chris
"Chris that's yo' shot, that's yo' shot!" Dre yelled while I dribbled down the court towards the hoop.
I jumped up to dunk but defense jumped up and knocked the ball out of my hand.
"Damn!!" I yelled as I walked to the bench and pulled my Gatorade out of my bag.
"You know you could've had that, nigga. You jumped too late though." Dre said, sitting next to me.
I started wiping my face with my towel.
"Ah, shut up, oh well."
"What you bout' to do?" He asked
I shrugged, "I work at 5 so I'm actually about to head home to get ready."
"Yeah? I need to be finding a better job too. This one I'm at now has caused me hella issues."
"Oh yeah, like what?"
"For starters, I don't have time for shit. Fun, weekends, shit, a relationship."
Oh yeah, I forgot all about his issues with Lauren and India did want me to talk to him about it. It's probably a bad ass idea but I'll throw it in there.
"Yeah, I heard about the relationship part."
"I should've known she was gon' come tell y'all, what'd she tell y'all?"
"Well India told me since Lauren didn't feel like talking about it anymore. But basically Lauren cheated because you didn't have enough time for her and—"
"Bullshit. That's not even half of it."
I chuckled, "I mean damn if you would've let me finish you'd know if that was half or all of it."
"I don't even need to hear it, it's all bullshit. Lauren cheated because she wanted to—not because of the time I allegedly didn't have for her. Don't let her or yo' girl send you off with misinformation."
"I mean you even said you ain't have time for a relationship or anything else so they were right about that. All in all, just understand where she coming from. You know how we'd be if we wasn't gettin' none, we'll fuck anything that got legs." I chuckled as I nudged his arm.
He didn't laugh back though. I could tell he wasn't feeling the conversation so I'll just wrap up what I got to say. It frankly don't have anything to do with me anyway.
I sighed, "Look, I'm not tryna lecture you or sound like yo' pops, I'm just tryna help you understand why she feel how she feels. Not justifying it, but tryna help you make sense of it. But I do wanna say you putting yo' hands—"
"Damn do you want her or something?" He asked, standing up
I stood up as well, "You gettin' a lil' hostile, dude, I'm just tryna talk to you. I honestly don't even care! My girl told me to bring it to yo' attention 'cause it's obvious Lauren wants you back, you just ain't wanna hear her out so India wanted me to step in."
He stepped closer, "Well tell India to step the fuck back and you too. Y'all sure know how to insert y'all selves in business when it ain't needed."
I chuckled again, "Look, I'm tryna let you slide wit' ya lil comments because you a lil' shitty and heartbroken but let's not forget I'm also the same nigga that'll put you on yo' ass."
"You ain't dumb enough." He shrugged
End of flashback
"And that's where we started fighting. Mitch and nem wanna try to tell us to reconcile cause we friends but fuck that! All these times you and I been through problems and he'll try to talk to me man to man but moment I do I'm inserting myself in business. Fuck him and their relationship issues." He said while he slammed his work clothes out
I didn't really know what to say but sorry.
"I'm sorry I asked you to do it, especially since you didn't want to do it in the first place. I won't ever put you in that position again."
"Nah, you good. It's not even yo' fault honestly." He shrugged
I rubbed his back.
"At least let me clean your scratch."
"No, I'll do it when I get out the shower, I'm already a lil' behind." He said and went into the bathroom.
I felt bad. Trying to do something considerate and my plan blew up.
•
Three weeks later
I heard rapid knocking at my door. I rushed to the door with Ai'Marie in one of my arms and pulled it open. Lauren came in and almost immediately started talking.
She started pacing back and forth, "I'm—I—I'm sorry for bum rushing you but I'm so confused I just need to talk."
"No, go ahead." I said
I was so concerned about what she had to say because she looked really distraught.
"You know how Christmas Day Dre finally came by, right?
I nodded, I had a feeling I knew what she was about to say.
"Yeah."
"So he bought me a gift. Afterwards he apologized about everything, we had a long talk and everything. You know we eventually ended up having some real passionate sex after with no condom. But at the end of the week before then, the guy near my moms job and I had sex, I didn't really think not to because I thought after almost two weeks with no communication Dre must've been done with me. Long story short, I haven't been feeling well. I bought a pregnancy test last night and took it about 15 minutes ago because I was scared. I'm pregnant and don't know who the father may be."
"Oh, and I don't think the guy used a condom and I should've made sure he did but we haven't used one before, and I don't think I was ovulating when we had sex." She quickly added
I made a face and put my free hand on my hip, "Lauren..." I said and shook my head, not knowing what exactly to say.
I'm going to start next chapter with a flashback of Christmas Day.
Ria ✍🏽