"I know ma. Stop fronting. Tell me you miss me." He kissed her in between his words, in love with the way her brown eyes dazed.
"I miss you. And your mouth tastes like pickles." She spoke softly, a smile taking over her face once he laughed.
"You wa...
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"One of the very first steps is admitting you have a problem. You've done that, so be gentle with yourself, alright?" The admissions counselor of the rehabilitation facility spoke softly to Autumn who sat on a sofa across from her.
"What are you thinking about right now? It could be anything. Just something to get us started." Rebecca held her mug in the palm of her hands to warm them up.
"I'm going to miss Christmas with my son again. This is his third one and I-I-I haven't been there for any of t-them." Autumn stammered.
"If you talk slow, do you think that will help you speak more clearly? We aren't in a rush honey." Familiar with the way her voice shuddered, Rebecca offered a suggestion.
"Okay." She wiped her face to get herself together.
"Now, your son. How old is he?"
"Three. His birthday is January 8th, h-he'll be four." She mumbled.
"January. This program is thirty days, so you'll be out by then. Do you think you will go to his party if he has one?"
"I don't think his dad would let me." Remembering how dark Dayvon's eyes were when he told her that she wouldn't be able to see August again made her sigh.
"What was your relationship like with his father?"
Everything was always so perfect with him. Each time she held his hand or rubbed his face, it was like every single one of her problems vanished. She'd always felt so safe around him.
The two of them grew up together in the south side of Chicago-a place they'd always vowed to leave once they got their shit together because of how tied up Dayvon got in the streets at such a young age.
It seemed like being apart of the streets was inevitable if you lived in Chicago-which was also known as Chiraq because of the similarities with Iraq's murder rate and extremely high levels of gun violence.
By the time Dayvon was thirteen he was already in too deep and was actually doing better than most of the grown men who were in the same position. Selling drugs, getting into shootouts, hanging with the wrong crowd-Dayvon did it all.
Still, Autumn stayed by his side and did whatever she could to help him out. He wasn't fed with a silver spoon like she was, but whatever she had, she made sure he had it as well. He even ended up moving in with her family when he was fifteen after being kicked out by his parents for his behavior.
The duo started dating around that time after being best friends for their whole lives-they'd literally known each other since birth due to their mothers being close friends in high school.
Each year that passed, Autumn became more surprised over the fact that they had yet to grow tired of one another, especially since they spent every single day together-and every waking moment if they could.
