Time Heals All

Chapter 9: Welcome Home

Two months later

After a long two months, Ant is finally out of jail. With his recent assault charges and previous run ins with the law, he wasn't able to get a bond and had to sit and do his time. The whole two months I was writing my baby and talking on the phone with him. He wanted me to keep his fans in the loop so I let them know Ant was doing well, I even helped release a mixtape for him.

Today, Keon is going to get Ant from jail. Antonio thinks I'm still in New Orleans, but instead I'm in Houston and we're throwing him a surprise party. His 23rd birthday was a few days ago which makes it a welcome home and birthday party. I put everything together by myself, Sunny and Cierra helped, but I planned it all. I invited only his close friends and family, his mother even came to town.

"He coming to the car now. We'll be at the house in like two hours." Keon spoke into the phone.

"Okay, don't make any extra stops." I told him.

I hung up the phone and then made sure everybody was enjoying themselves. People were still showing up and I had to make sure they all parked in the backyard. As I was directing cars I saw my brothers car pulling up. Cory hasn't talked to me since I went off on him through text message. We always argue, but I guess this time he took it to the heart. I apologized because I didn't mean to hurt his feelings, but he threw me off. When I invited him to the party I didn't think he was going to show up, but here he is.

"Cory!" I stopped what I was doing to go give him a hug.

He had a female with him that I had never seen before.

"What's up, Tay?" He didn't seem as excited as I was.

"I'm happy you came!" I kissed his cheek.

"Yuh, TJ wanted me to come." He said.

He grabbed the female that he was with and they walked towards the house. He didn't even introduce me to her. I rolled my eyes and finished what I was doing. I'll handle him later today.

"Tay, you wanna wait till Ant gets here before everyone eats some cake?" Cierra asked me.

"Yeah, I'll be in in a minute." I replied.

I stayed outside for a bit and then I went in to make sure everything was good. Sunny could see that I was working hard so she told me to sit down and enjoy myself. His mother talked to me as I ate some of the food that was prepared. I kept looking at the clock as time passed. About an hour and a half later, Keon sent me a text to tell me they were pulling up. I yelled to tell everyone to hide. His house is pretty big so everyone was able to find a hiding spot. I hid right behind the door, that way I would be the first person he would see.

As Antonio untwisted his door my heart began beating fast. He was talking to Keon and once he got in the house good enough, everyone popped up.

"Surprise!!" We all yelled.

The look on Antonio's face was priceless. He looked around the room in awe and I jumped into his arms. He gave me a big kiss and said hi to everyone.

"Happy birthday, baby." I told him since I couldn't talk to him on his actual birthday.

"Thank you, Tay. You did this for me?"

"Yes. Everybody missed you." I smiled.

"Wanna ditch them and go upstairs?" He laughed as he whispered in my ear.

I playfully hit him and let everyone else speak to him. While he talked to his family, I went to make him a plate of home cooked food. I had my mama and my auntie cook some soul food because that's all Ant talked about while he was locked up. I piled his plate up with everything and sat it on his kitchen table.