Never Knew | s.o

5.

Always down to ride for ya.
Through the thick,
And through the thin,
Know that I would die for ya.

TRINITY
The entire time I was getting ready, I was anxious. This was the first time I would be seeing or speaking to Shareef since I walked out that night.

He invited me to breakfast so we could talk. I'm having my 24 week appointment today and we were finally having the gender reveal the weekend so I didn't want things to be awkward between us.

I turned down the music as I drove through the neighborhood.

When I finally pulled up to the house, I took a deep breath before getting out. I grabbed my lipgloss out of the cup holder and walked up to the door. I rung the doorbell and patiently waited for him to open the door.

This man was looking and smelling good as hell. I could tell her had just got out the shower.

He opened the door wider so I could walk inside. I slid off my shoes and followed him into the kitchen.

He already had the plates fixed and sitting on the island.

"Go sit on the couch. I'll bring your plate to you."

I walked into the living room and sat on my signature spot on the couch and covered up in a blanket.

He handed me my plate and something to drink before coming to sit down as well.

We eat in an awkward silence while watching tv.

Once we were finished eating, he took both of our dishes back into the kitchen. I could hear the sound of him running the water to wash the dishes.

I continued to watch tv until he came back into the living room.

He sat down and pulled my legs onto his lap. He started massaging my feet.

"If I hadn't reached out to you, you wouldn't even be here right now."

"I didn't create the problem so I didn't attempt to fix it."

"So you don't think you leaving was doing too much?"

"So you don't think you should've had my back and understood where I was coming from?"

"Would you have kicked toot out?"

"No, but toota gone know better than to try mommy like that."

"You chose to be their "mom", too. Kids especially teenagers are disrespectful. You've been a teenager before. When you decided to raise them, you took all the parenting responsibilities and headaches that came with them. You can't just kick them out. They're not used to structure or discipline. They're not used to someone trying to allow them to communicate their feelings so they don't know how. They only know how to talk shit when they're upset because it's what they're used to. We're supposed to be raising them like our own so no, I wasn't about to let you kick Jalyn out. Just because you didn't birth them, doesn't mean your love for them gets to have conditions."

I didn't say anything because he had a point.

"You said you wanted better for them and sent them back to what you were trying to get them away from because they pissed you off."

"I don't do disrespect, Shareef. You know that. I'll cut a bitch off with the quickness over tryna play my character."

"These little girls aren't some home girls. They are your family, your "children". You have to teach them what is and isn't going to go in your household and it ain't gone happen overnight."

"So what are you saying?"

"I'm saying get them back and we'll do this parenting shit together because clearly your hot headed ass need some balance."