I pulled up to the address Tiny sent me, seeing a few cars already parked out front. A few people stood outside, none of them looking familiar to me. Pulling the visor down, I checked my hair in the mirror, along with my makeup. I did a light beat on my face, it was only going to be close people there, so I didn't feel the need to go all out and be extra.
Getting out of the car, I hit the alarm to lock the car and proceeded to walk towards the house. The guys that were standing outside all spoke to me, I simply sent a wave their way passing by them.
As soon as I walked into the house, the smell of food hit my nostrils, along with the burning smell of charcoal.
"Oh my gosh, is that Lotus?" I heard someone exclaimed, turning my head to the right of me, I saw Tiny's little sister, Shiah, coming down the stairs. She practically hopped the last few flight of stairs, and ran towards me with her arms extended wide. "It is you! Oh my gosh!" she shouted, wrapping her arms around me, wide smiles plastered on both of our faces.
"You got so big," I cupped her face, examining over her before pulling her into another tight hug. She pulled away and pulled me towards the kitchen where there were voices. We walked in to see Tiny, and the rest of her aunts along with her mom.
"Lotus!" Tiny cheesed, placing her soda on the counter, rushing over to me. "You actually came! On everything, I really thought you wasn't gone come." she said, as we hugged.
"Yea' I just wanted to drop by and show my face. You look cute—hey how y'all doing?" I waved to the rest of the women. Tiny's mom came over to me and gave me a hug as well, I chatted with her for a few minutes as well as her aunts, them trying to pry all in my business, askin' me where I been.
Even though I respected Tiny's mama, and her aunts, I knew how they liked to gossip about other folks business, and I didn't need mine heard through the grapevine.
I followed Tiny out to the pool deck, where majority of our friends were with their families. The guys were sitting at one of those foldable tables, playing cards, as some of the kids were in the pool playing 'marco polo', a few of the older adults lounging around in the pool chairs, Frankie Beverly and Maze playing in the background on the big speakers posted on each side of the fence.
"Sis!" Bambi smiled approaching me with a drink in her hand, "Me and Mid were just planning on how we was bout' to come kidnap yo' ass," she started grinning, causing me to playfully roll my eyes.
"Girl you and Mid will get lit the fuck up," I joked making both her and Tiny laugh.
"Bitch quit stallin'," Gotti began mugging Boonie, as we sat and played cards. In the gist of Boonie replying, Santos shot up from his seat and quickly walked away. "What the fu—oh shit," he tapped me on the arm, pointing in another direction.
I looked in the direction he pointed at and saw Santos was heading towards where Bambi and Tiny was, Lotus standing with them with a smirk on her face as she slowly shook her head.
"Damn she actually came," I got up from the table along with Gotti. "Aye pops!" I called to Clarence who was at the the grill, Minnie behind him as she had her arms wrapped around his waist.
They both fixed their attention on me, before I pointed the direction where Lotus stood. Almost immediately following behind me to go greet her.
"Put me down Santos!" Lotus laughed as he had her lifted off the ground, in a tight bear hug. "Dang you always gotta do the most!"
"Cause you my wife! I have to!" he teased her, placing her back on her feet. Gotti reached in to give her a hug, whispering something in her ear that caused her to look at me and laugh before they pulled away from each other.
Before I could even go for a hug, Clarence and Minnie practically shoved me out the way, to get their hugs in. "Well goddamn, can I hug my best friend?" I scoffed, Lotus grinning at me.
"Go hug your pet fish," Bambi mugged me, taking a sip of her soda. I sucked my teeth and gave her a straight face. "What? You don't be that pressed to hug your own gir—"
"Shut the fuck up Bambi,"
"Make me,"
"Hey! Behave," Minnie turned towards us, giving us a stern look. Bambi and I kept quiet, before locking eyes again. She rolled her eyes, and walked away from the group. Lotus watched her with a confused expression on her face, redirecting her attention on me.
I shrugged and went to go follow her. I didn't know what the fuck Bambi issue was with me, but she been acting that way towards me since Lotus came back, and for life of me I couldn't understand why. Whenever I would say something about Lotus, or bring her up in the conversation she always found ways to insert Koi into the conversation as well.
I knew she only did it sometimes because she genuinely didn't like Koi, and thought I could do better, but she was starting to do it more frequently.
"Bam," I called out to her, following her to the front of the house outside. She turned around and shifted her weight to her leg, tilting her head. "Fuck is wrong wit' you? You mad at me?"
"You're not boutta play with my friend's emotions," she said, sizing me up.
"What?"
"Lotus nigga! You don't think I peep what you been doing since Lotus came back? Your feelins' for her are coming back, and you're not boutta be toying with my bitch emotions and you got a whole fuckin' girlfriend." she snapped, as I deeply sighed, dropping my head.
"Bam how many times I gotta tell you that me and Nevaeh are just friends? That girl don't even want me, and you right I got a girl, so why would I be toyin' with anotha' girl emotions fa'?"
"Because you don't really like that bitch! You let us disrespect that girl, you don't really be defending her, if you really cared about her, you'd put us in our place and tell us to stop disrespecting your girlfriend. That's why I don't respect her, because of you. I been tellin' you how I didn't like her, and you been brushin' me off but the minute Lotus tells you to check her, you do it with no hesitation. See where I'm gettin' at?"
I ran my hands down my face, dropping my arms to my side, realizing that Bambi was right.
"Damn," I mumbled, not really having anything to say. Bambi's eyes darted to someone behind me, causing her to roll them and walk away from me. I turned around to see Koi approaching me with her purse in her hand. "What's up?"
"Can you drop me off to my friend house?" she asked, I sucked my teeth and narrowed my eyes at her. I hated whenever she did that shit, practically beg to go somewhere with me, and then whenever she became bored, she want me to drop her off at her friend's house.
"Bruh are you serious?" I groaned, walking back towards the house.
"What? I'm bored, and everyone seem like they're so fascinated with Lotus—"
"What was the point of even comin' if you was just gon' leave? Ask yo' friend to pick you up since you wanna you wanna go over there so bad,"
"Here you go! Any other time you would drop me off, but since she is here, you act like you don't wanna leave—"
"Bruh my family is here they already don't like that shit, how I look leaving just to drop you off at your friend house? You know how that make both of us look?" I frowned.
"I don't give a fuck!" she yelled, causing everyone that was outside to look over at us. I stared at her for a brief second before scoffing a laugh.
"Fuck out my face Koi," I walked away from her again, she pissed me off disrespecting my family like that. Minnie tried being lenient when it came to Koi, and I always appreciated it because I knew Minnie could be nasty towards her.
I walked towards the back of the house, seeing everyone sitting down, Minnie cradling Lotus in her arms as she had a wide smile on her face. I sat at the table remaining quiet, listening to the conversation that was taking place.
"You okay?" Minnie leaned up a little to look at me, I nodded my head, not wanting to speak on the situation. "Where's Koi?"
"She leaving," I shrugged nonchalantly, texting Jon Jon back. I heard Minnie hum, but she didn't say anything else.
"Lotus you hungry?" Clarence questioned her, picking some hotdogs and burger patties off the grill with the pitch fork. Lotus got up from Minnie's lap, the same smile still plastered on her face walking towards him.
"Damn nigga go speak to her, you the only one who haven't spoke yet." Santos grinned, nudging me. I shot him a look, and simply shook my head.
A few hours later, the cookout began to die down. I honestly didn't think I'd end staying so long but I was enjoying being around the crew and their family. Though I did peep that Mid had been a little off since earlier, he hadn't spoke since I been here and it did bother me because he practically kept bugging me to show up as we continued to text last night.
I could sense the tension between Bambi and him, but when I asked if everything was fine, Bambi brushed it off as nothing serious, that it was just a brotherly and sisterly quarrel. I left it at that, simply because I felt like it wasn't my business but whatever it was had Mid bothered as hell.
"Sammy!" I cooed at Tiny's brother, as he grabbed me into a tight hug. I pulled away from him, smiling as he looked down at me. "You growing beards now nigga? Who said you can grow up on me?" I teased him, grabbing his face with both of my hands.
"You like it? All the bitches on me now, I'm on my grown man shit." he grinned, pulling at his beard.
"Boy stop, you still my li'l ass baby. Don't get these hoes beat up," I shot him a stern look, he sucked his teeth and started groaning, hating the fact that I always treated him as a baby since meeting him years ago.
"Oh my gosh—Tiny please tell Lotus I'm not a li'l ass kid anymore. I done jumped off the porch,"
"Li'l nigga you don't even have a porch to jump off of," Bambi joked as Santos and Gotti started snickering, Sammy sucked his teeth again and began to mug her.
"You always hatin, find a new hobby." he sized her.
"You always hatin, find a new hobby." Bambi mocked him, I tried muffling my laugh playfully shoving her shoulder. Mid passed by us, heading to the front door. I parted from the rest to follow behind him, I needed to check on him—or more like confront.
"Excuse me sir," I ran up behind him, tapping his shoulder. He turned around, a blunt hanging from his mouth as he lit it.
He took a long hit from it, blowing smoke from his nose before he finally spoke. "What's up?" he stared at me through hooded eyes, slowly licking his lips.
"What's up? You can't speak? I been here for a few hours, and yeen' open ya' mouth not once to at least greet me. But you expect me to be nice to ya' li'l rude ass," I said, a sly grin slowly spreading across his face.
"What's up witcha' Nevaeh?"
"Nah what's up wit' you? You alright?" I questioned him, he deeply sighed shrugging his shoulders, taking another hit from the blunt.
"Shit I'm straight," he replied, still staring at me. His stare became intense, those light brown eyes damn near piercing into my soul, causing me to break the eye contact between us.
"I don't believe that," I tilted my head crossing my arms over my chest. "Seemed like Bambi had you pressed as fuck earlier,"
"Nah it definitely won't ha', but I don't really wanna talk about it. It's not important," he waved me off, leaning against his car. I felt my phone vibrate in my purse, unzipping it I pulled it out to my G'Daddy calling me. I held my finger up indicating Mid to give me a minute, as I answered the phone.
"G'daddy, y'all okay?" I asked him,
"Lotus," I heard his distressed voice on the other end, making me become alert. "I need you to come the hospital,"
I immediately pulled my keys out, "What happened? Are you okay? Is it Gigi? Where is she?" I questioned him, my heart beginning to race.
"She couldn't breathe, I had to call the ambulance."
"What?" My eyes almost bulging out of my head, I practically rushed to my car without saying another word to Mid. "I'm on my way right now okay? I'll be right there," my voice cracked, as I tried to keep it together, not wanting to think of the worst.
Just when I thought I could finally take a deep breath, and relax for a bit—not having to worry about anything, even if it was only for a few hours.
🌚 we heaaaaaa! what are your thoughts?
Bambi confronting Mid ?
Mid and Koi's argument?
Lotus situation with her grandparents? Y'all think Gigi gone be aight?
I'll update again tomorrow 🥰 y'all like the daily updates? also I'm bringing back one of my stories that y'all really liked 🌚 I finished a chapter for it today. y'all should be proud of me! I'm getting better with the updates!
that's all for now! y'all be easy!
see y'all in the next chapter 💙 - Wynter