Will You Stay? (Urban)

17

Raheem

"Is she okay? She was fucking cryin'?" I asked Jordan over the phone. Ma was in the kitchen, preparing a meal for everyone to eat. Some of her friends and my cousins were helping her out in there. It smelled delicious, but of course they were taking too long. I was hungry as hell and so was everyone else in the living room.

Dawn's sister sat with her boyfriend who paid her no mind by watching the game. His niece and nephew, who they had for the holidays, were in the middle of the grand space playing with their toys on the floor. Their laughs and giggles were getting too loud, distracting me from the call. "Yeah, she was hurt as fuck."

Yes I was torn up about it at first, but Domonique has always been a strong minded girl. Staying in Monroe was something she wanted to do, and no one was going to stop her. We knew that since we couldn't be down there with her, we should financially support her.

But all she wanted to do was push us further and further away. "Straight sobbing over the phone. Then after she calmed down we talked for a lil bit. She say she miss us, including Ma. She still got some issues from it too."

"We going down there soon, ight? Get back here it's almost time for dinner. We'll talk about this with Ma later," I ended the call.

Dawn came up from behind me and put her hand on my shoulder. "Hey baby," she kissed my cheek.

"You almost done in there? I'm dead hungry." I turned all the way around to kiss her thick lips.

Oddly, the kiss made me think of how crazy our relationship was. The fact that it existed was amazing. I was always that person who couldn't stay down for a long time, and for me to have been with her for this long was actually Gods Work. Domonique would be so proud.

But definitely not proud of the lives we lead.

Our dealings got bigger and bigger, and now we are at the top. Anyone would be happy, and at a point we were. Jordan always tried explaining to Domonique that we couldn't just quit the shit like that, though she never got it. We've been up here three years and established a name for ourselves. D sees it as ruining lives, but if anyone else had the opportunity to do it to us, they would. It ain't like we created the drug business, there's a demand and all we're doing is supplying.

"Hey, whatchu thinking bout?" Dawn came from around he sofa and sat next to me, still wearing an orange apron over her black dress. Her head rested on my shoulder as I looked to the expensive watch resting on my wrist. "It's D, the whole holiday thing making me trip. And she called Jordan today."

She sat up and looked at my facial expression. Me hurting my sister was never what I wanted, but that just how things happened. Dawn was the only person I really opened up to with my old life and all that, so she knew what was up. She listened to me talk about the whole thing for hours and made it clear how she felt about Domonique: she despised her.

I told her not to slander my sister like that but listened to her point anyways. She felt as if Domonique was being selfish for not seeing that what we were doing was for her benefit. We were putting our lives at risk to ensure she had a better one, and for her to just denounce it was the most ignorant thing of all, according to Dawn.

"Don't trip about that right now, we gon deal wit that later. I know that's ya sister, but she neglected talkin to y'all for 3 years, and now one special day out of the year she wanna call? Nawl, I refuse to let you be depressed about that. You got ya own stuff to be happy about." I smirked. She was right, things were great up here. I was surrounded by family that distracted me from work and made me happy.

"Ight y'all, go wash ya hands," Ma said. Dawn's niece, Nalah, raced her brother to the restroom as soon as Ma said that. It felt good to be surrounded by kids, being that they made everything light.

Dawn's sister followed behind the two kids, warning them to be careful. Her and Alicia looked exactly alike, except Alicia had much darker skin. I stayed in my spot as Dawn went back to the kitchen. Almost immediately, Jordan walked in.

He hung his coat up in the closet and went straight into the kitchen to hug our mother. "Don't be trying to come up in here and finesse some food, you can wait like everybody else. The table is set and Dawn has helped me lay out the food. And you already know how we do this."

I got up and dapped up my brother, then washed my hands in the sink. "Ma it smells good, how we not gon be tempted to have a little taste?" I dried my hands and walked to the dining room, taking a seat next to Dawn.

Shortly after everyone was seated we started saying what we were thankful for.

"I'm happy to be here with Auntie 'Licia and Auntie Dawn. Kobe you pretty cool, too," Nalah said referring to Alicia's boyfriend.

"I'm grateful that I'm finally happy, and get to be with someone I love." Kobe kissed his girl.

"I'm thankful for everyone sitting here, and my little sister at home," said Jordan. Our mother looked down at her lap and took a sip of wine at the mention of Domonique.

"I'm thankful for being alive today." She put the glass back down.

"I'm thankful for being apart of this family. And also," Dawn stood up from the table. "I'm glad that I'm bringing in a new life into this world, by a man I can say I truly love." She rubbed her stomach.

My hand flew to my mouth out of shock. Everyone at the table had a smile on their face and was clapping. "Congratulations," Alicia said while going to hug her sister.  Dawn turned to me, waiting for my response.

I didn't know how to feel. I was overjoyed to be blessed with her in my life. If anyone was going to have my seed, I'm glad it was her. Dawn made me happy as fuck, not just no regular happy. I always saw us settling down and allat, I'm just surprised that it was happening right now.

Along wit' that came fear. I didn't have a good father myself, so I didn't know how I was supposed to act. I never want to walk out on Dawn or my child, but what if I do? I don't think before I do shit; it just happens. I know somewhere along the line Imma fuck up. And we ain't even talking about the shit I'm involved in. I don't want none of this for that lil baby growing inside her. Look at Domonique, and how she turned out because of the decisions I made and this business I'm in.

Everyone at the table was silent and waited for my response.

I'm hardheaded as fuck, and when I say I'm going to do something imma do it. So if I say Imma be a good father, Imma do it. True.

I got up and hugged Dawn tightly, wiping the tears off her cheeks. "I love you," I said as she smiled back. The news made this day ten times better than it was before.

"Hey Rah, I'm happy for you. But can we eat now?" My mother sent a dirty look my cousins' way. Dawn laughed and we sat down. Ma began passing the plates around, and dinner was served.

Everyone broke off into their own sidebar conversations as the food went around the table. "How far along are you?" she tapped her chin, egging on my curiosity. "Just tell me."

"Two months," she turned and grabbed the bowl of greens coming our way. We real sexually active so I had to think real hard about the time she got pregnant. "Oh yeah, the hotel." I chuckled to myself just thinking about it.

Jordan and I had a business trip to attend, overseas in Brazil. It's a beautiful country so of course Dawn begged me to let her come with me. In all, the vacation was 2 and a half weeks and we'd fucked just about everyday. Before I met her I thought I was the freakiest person alive, but soon I realized I had met my match.

I enjoyed having sex but when it's with the right person it's way more than shoving ya dick inside her. It can be filled with passion, love, and appreciation. A nigga just got poetic.

The announcement of our first child, and me planning to propose to Dawn made me think about how much I need my sister in my life. Yeah, Ma was there to help me pick nice shit out for my baby, but she loved to go and tell Dawn and ruin every surprise. Plus it would kill me if my own blood couldn't come to the wedding. Maybe I'm thinking way too hard. I haven't bought a ring or even told Dawn I'm interested in that. But it's a long term goal that I set, and in this moment I feel that I want it more than ever.

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Just giving y'all insight about her brothers. Whatcha think?