Nobody Business

ch. seventeen

Tuesday, Apr. 4th, 2023 - Wayne University 

"Donny, why haven't you replaced your car?" Kamari asks playing ith his fingers that rested on her thigh as he drove. Kamari didn't know what it was, but something about him driving looked so good. Seat back, one arm driving, the other on her thigh he was on his Bryson Tiller shit. Simplest shit look good on him. They had just left her house to head off to school, Dontae driving Kamari's car. 

"I don't know man, never really got around to it, I'm always with y'all and shit, only time I really drive is when we go to school, and when babygirl don't feel like it," Dontae shrugs looking over at her and it makes him think about it. She be so busy and she never says anything but it's probably make it easier for her. "Help me find a car?"

"I got you, I missed you, been some days since I last saw you," She leaned her head on his arm and he kissed her forehead chuckling. "We all been working too much, we need a vacation forreal. Jordan and Sakari's birthday is in a few months, trip?"

"Yeah but that's months away, we'll take one for like a weekend in a few weeks or some shit, I'll figure it out," Dontae makes a mental note to plan a getway for all four of them. They seriously did need the time away the amount of hours they put in at work was ridiculous but it pays off. "That's your brother again?"

"Yes, he keeps trying to get me to talk to our parents, but I don't want to, I know who they are, and no explanation can fix it, my problem isn't what they do. It's become who they are, they choose this life they're in, they take joy in seeing other people's pain and that is something I can't accept," Kamari rolls her eyes sighing, thinking about the pain they have put people through.

"You think it's because of the baby?" Dontae asks and her snort tells me that they are thinking the same thing. Dontae is the only one who has crossed paths with Kamari's parents and it was by accident, and they left him with a bad taste in his mouth. 

"That's exactly what it is, he's searching for that family dynamic he dreamed of and they are using that as the hook to reel him in and he no see it!" Her accent pops it's head when she begins getting worked up and he calmy rubs her thigh letting her vent it out. "My parents know nothing else then to suck the life out of you, take everything you have and then will spit you out leaving you with nothing. Even their own children. My real last name isn't even Powers, that's the name they gave themselves when they moved us here. Fenty is my real last name, it's why I use it a lot. My baby sister, Rihanna, was taken in the crossfires of the war that my parents created. Dasani is putting his baby in the devil's hands."

"I'm sorry we have been dealt a hand of shitty parents," Dontae chuckled knowing that her feelings on her parents would never change. There is a slim chance of her ever rekindling their relationship but she needs to at least forgive them so she could move on, not harbor the anger the resentment, and hating that through everything she still loves them. "But you have to know that it is okay to still love them. They are still your parents even if you keep them far far away from you."

"He's tryna tell me that I can't be around his child if I don't make up with our parents, and I'm sorry but one I don't do ultimatums, and I guess I'll be the aunty that sends birthday cards and phone calls, because the fact that I have been by his side our whole lives, and he's putting them over me in that baby's life over some validation? I'ma just stop answering him before I say something I regret," Kamari locks her phone and blows out a breath looking back out the window. 

"Hey, hey, no none of that shutting down, don't let this fuck up your mood," Dontae stops at a red light and grabs her chin making her look at him. "Whatever they have done to you, you need to forgive. Not for them, but for you ma, it's gonna eat you up. We both know you ain't gon' be that type of auntie, and I'm not saying he's right or you are wrong but this ain't about that. This about the baby, you gotta ask if your dislike for your parents stronger than the love of that baby."