The Game: Blood, Sweat, & Tears

Tragic

1 MONTH LATER

Lauren

"This is the one." I said looking in the mirror at the wedding dress I had just tried on. It hugged my curves perfectly and it flowed out at the bottom like a mermaid tail.

"Ooooo. Pretty." Lexi said clapping.

"Thanks baby girl. What do you guys think?" I said looking at Abby and Pepper.

"Bitch you look good." Pepper said.

I looked at Abby waiting for her opinion. "It's too tight. Don't you think?"

I sighed. We have been looking for the perfect wedding dress for weeks. Our wedding is in 4 days.

"Abby this is like the 50th dress I have tried on. I'm getting this one."

"Okay if you want to look like Cinderella walking down that aisle."

"I do, matter of fact." I whipped my hair.

"Do you like this one ma'am?" A lady that worked here came over to me.

I looked in the mirror once more. "I do. How much is it?"

"2,600."

I bit my bottom lips. That was a lot for a dress I'm only going to wear one time.

"I'll take it." I handed her my credit card.

Ace

I was with Darwin, Tae and my son Luke trying to pick out a Tux.

"Man can you hurry up, damn." Tae said.

I didn't know which one to pick. The colors of our wedding were, white and gold.

The gold looks ridiculous on me and the white didn't look any much better.

"Nigga please pick some shit so can go." Darwin said.

I ran my hand down my face. I picked up a black tuxedo and it looked perfect on me. But black wasn't the colors of our wedding.

"That look straight homie, now let's bounce because we gotta get to your bachelor party." Tae said.

"Lauren's gonna be pissed." I bought the tux and left.

As we got back into the car I gave Lauren a call.

"Yes?" She answered.

"Where are you? You know my bachelor party is today and I can't bring Luke with me." I said pulling out the parking lot.

"Ace I'm busy right now."

"Busy with what?" I asked confused.

"We're all getting our nails done, even Lexi."

"I'll find somebody yo watch him." My son wasn't about to be around that girly shit.

"It better not be that thot ass baby sitter Tonya."

"It won't." I hung up.

A few minutes later I pulled in front of the house.

"Go pee." I told Luke opening the front door.

As he was using the bathroom I tried to think about someone who could watch him for a couple of hours.

I looked across the street and saw Ginger come outside wearing some booty shorts and a crop top that showed her stomach tattoo which was a butterfly. She checked her mail and started walking back inside the house.

A light bulb lit up inside my head. Luke came out the house with water on his hands.

I shook my head and dried them on my shirt.

"Come on." I grabbed his hand and walked him across the street to Ginger's house. I knocked on her front door and she opened drinking out of a water bottle.

"Oh hey Ace." She said.

"Sup. Look I'm having a little bachelor party today because my wedding is in 4 days, and Lauren is busy at the moment and I was wondering if you could watch my son for a few hours."

She looked down at Luke. Then back up at me.

"Of course."

Lauren

"Thank you Lee-Lee." I told the Chinese lady as we walked out the nail shop.

"Mommy it's yummy." Lexi said eating her nail polish off her finger.

"Don't eat that." I took her fingers out her mouth.

She giggled.

"Bad ass." I said.

We walked into Charming Charlie's which was a cute boutique store.

"Are yall going on a honey moon?" Pepper asked as we walked into the store.

"Yup."

"Where to?" Abby said getting into our conversation.

"Ace won't tell me yet." I said playfully rolling my eyes.

They laughed.

"Did you tell him about the baby?" Abby said.

"Baby? What baby?" Pepper asked.

I sighed. "You can never keep your mouth shut!" I simi yelled at Abby.

"Lauren. You got some explaining to do missy." Pepper said.

I laughed. "I was going to do a big announcement at the wedding and tell everyone at the same time."

"Damn. Yall just keep making babies. The dick bomb huh?" Pepper said shoving me with her elbow.

I busted out laughing at her stupidity. We bought a couple of items at that store then decided to leave the mall.

"I ate all of it mommy. Just like a big girl." Lexi said as we were walking out.

I looked down at her confused because I didn't give her any food. She showed me her nails and all the nail polish was gone!

"Alexis!" I yelled through my teeth. I made her open her mouth and saw that she had swallowed it all. "You don't eat nail polish! That's chemicals!" I fussed.

"You should feed her more often then." Abby said getting into the backseat of my Range.

"Hush." I said aggravated.

When we all got back into the car I made a stop by Flower Child to pick up Lexi's flower girl dress for the wedding. After that I dropped Pepper and Abby off then headed to my house.

"Come on wild child." I said opening the back door. Alexis jumped out.

"Hey brother!" I heard her yell. I looked in the direction she was looking in and saw Luke outside with Ginger playing with chalk on the sidewalk.

"Hey Lauren." Ginger said.

"Hey. Did Ace force you to watch Luke?" I asked walking over to her house.

"No. He asked me and I said I would."

"I'm sorry if he gave you any trouble." I said taking Luke's hand in mine.

"He didn't. We had fun. Didn't we?"

"Yea mommy! We ate cake, and candy, we watched a movie and ate popcorn then we played games and then-" Luke said all at once.

"Okay pooh. I get it. Y'all had fun." Ginger and I laughed. "Thanks for watching him."

"No problem. Anytime."

We walked back across the street and went inside the house.

"Okay bath time kiddos!"
*

*

*
I heard Ace come into the house talking to someone loudly on the phone. I turned my head to the clock that was on our night stand and saw that it was only 8 pm. He said he wasn't going to be home until 10pm.

He walked into the room and went straight to the closet.

"Baby what's wrong?" I asked.

"Ms. Evelyn just died."