Keep It On The Real

48

Mamé's POV

"My baby, you don't know how proud I am of you." My momma spoke with tears in her eyes as she brought me my flowers.

After 4 long ass years, I'm proud to say that I've worked hard through it all and graduated from UC Berkeley. Not many people are able to say that they've made it through with their bestie, but I did. To be honest, I couldn't have made it without her. With everything that went on outside of school, she kept me focused and helped me out with everything. I'm happy to say that I will be pursuing a career in the Education field, while Jasmine goes into the Medical field.

"Thank you, mommy!" I hugged her tightly as we rocked back and forth.

"My princess, congratulations." My daddy spoke as he gave me my hug and a gang of balloons.

"Thank you, papa!" I held him tight as well.

"You hear us when you was walking that stage? Me and yo brothers was fashoo T'd up."

"Mhm, I heard y'all." I spoke because my Daddy extra ass gon bring a damn megaphone, just like he did at my high school graduation.

"My baby sister growing up." Rashad spoke as he pulled me into a hug.

"Shut up, boy. You know you my baby bro." I kissed his cheek and he mugged me, wiping it off.

"I knew you could do it, Mamé. Congrats." Amare spoke as I gave him a hug.

"Thank you, I appreciate it forreal."

"I'm so damn proud of you. My lil sister doing big things, forreal." Nasir spoke as he tried messing with my hair but I moved from him, then walked back towards him so that I could give him a hug.

"Thank you! Big ugly." My eyes were watering so I had to make some kind of joke.

"My baby." My grandmother spoke as she walked towards me.

"Nana, I missed you!" I wasted no time giving her a hug, rocking her back and forth as well.

"I missed you too, my baby, and I am so proud of you." She smiled as she held both of my hands.

I gave her a wide smile back as the tears formed in my eyes. "Thank you, Nana. You don't know how much that means to me." I spoke.

I've watched you grow from a feisty young lady into a beautiful woman, it all brings me joy, it does. Now, where is my boy?" She asked of Karl.

"That's what I'm about to find out. Let me call Jas." I pulled out my phone. Once I clicked on Jasmine's contact, I turned around to the tap on my shoulder.

"Jasss! I'm so proud of you, baby!" I yelled as we damn near jumped onto each other.

"I'm super proud of you too, bestie! I can't believe this, blood. We came a long way." She was already crying so I didn't try to hold my tears back anymore.

"Where's my baby?" I cried as I looked for Karl.

I picked him up and kissed his cheek, pulling him into me for a tight hug.

He just started walking last month, literally 3 hours after coming back from Georgia to see Yatta. When I told his daddy, he was mad that he missed it, but said that he couldn't wait to start taking Karl to the park and stuff that he has been waiting to do. He also said that he was gonna teach him how to play football while out there, but he got me fucked up because I don't want my baby playing that rough ass sport.

When it happened, Kj was just trying to get his toys from one side of the room while sitting on the other. He was crawling at first, then stood himself up, struggling to walk towards it. My eyes grew wide once I saw him up on his two little feet, and I had to blink a couple times because it was so unexpected and felt unreal. When I say I called everybody up that day, telling them all about the good news, I'm definitely not exaggerating.