Rectify

54

Three Weeks Later

Nia
11:24 A.M.
Detroit

"Welcome to our crib," John said. "It's really nice, this is a nice driveway," Michael said. "Yeah, we had to fix it up, it was all cracked and dirty. Anyways, come in," he held the door open for us. All three of us walked into their house and were greeted with two dogs running to us. "Aw, you got another dog!" I said.

"Yeah, this is Otis. Milo and Otis, Crate!" John said sternly. Both of them got off of us and ran away to their crates immediately. "Sorry about that," John said. "No problem," Michael replied. Letitia came down the stairs and as soon as she made it to the bottom she ran to hug me. I hugged her back tightly and thats when she felt my bump and pulled away.

There was a look of shock displayed on her face as she looked from my belly to my face. That shock soon turned into a smile. "Can I touch your stomach?" she asked. "Sure," I said. She put her hand toward the middle of my stomach. "Does the baby kick?" she asked. "Not yet, I hope soon because I was told I could feel kicks at about sixteen weeks, but I'm already twenty five weeks," I told her. She nodded before removing her hand from my stomach and going to greet Michael and Jeremiah.

"It's nice to see you," Michael said. Letitia pulled him into a hug and he hugged back. She then let go of Michael and moved to Jeremiah. "You're so tall now. Can I hug you?" she asked. "Yeah, if you want," he said. They gave each other a quick hug before I turned to John.

John held his arms open for me. I wrapped my arms around him and he wrapped his arms around me. "I missed you," he said. "I missed you more," I said. He let me go first and then I let go. "Let me get the bags," John said. "Nah, I got it," Michael replied. "I can do it, it's fine," John said. "I got it," Michael shook his head. They both looked at each other. "Or both of you can both help get the bags to their rooms instead of arguing," Letitia smiled.

"Okay," John nodded before picking up a bag. "Cool," Michael replied before picking up another bag. "Jeremiah, there's snacks in the kitchen and video games, feel free to join us or eat snacks," Letitia told him. "You can call me Jem and I think I'll just have the snacks, thank you," he replied. "Ah, deep voice?" Letitia asked. "Yeah, I guess it's deeper than before," Jem said.

"Okay, enjoy your snacks," Letitia pointed to the kitchen. Jeremiah walked off toward the kitchen before Letitia turned to me. "Time for the tour," she said. "Your house is so clean," I looked around. "Can't function without a clean house, you know that," Letitia said. It was true. Growing up, we shared a room and she would yell at me if my side had one thing out of place then we moved to a bigger house and she finally got her own space to keep clean all the time.

"Alright, so this is the entrance. We have the front door here, the closet to the left for coats and shoes, then we have the bathroom right next to us on the left," she started. "Oh nice. Let me take my shoes off," I quickly slipped off my shoes and put them in the closet. "Okay, now if we walk forward, we have the living space," she continued. She took me all up in every corner and space in the house until we got up to the master bedroom, her and John's room.

"This is amazing, woah," I said. It was painted all white with a dark blue accent wall where the bed was. "Yeah, we painted the whole thing ourselves to get it exactly how we wanted," she said. "I love the bed it looks so comfy," I said. Letitia laid on the edge of the bed and motioned for me to join her. I did and took a deep breath as I finally got to rest.

"We're really grown up," I said. "Yeah," she nodded. "I'm proud of you, I really am. I know you're my little sister but I really do look up to you," I told her. "Uhhh, don't make me cry Nia," she fanned her eyes. "Sorry," I teared up. "Let's talk about something else," I said.