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One

October, 1988

"Aight, let's not stay too long. I gotta work tomorrow." Eric said as I parked my car down the street from Denaun's moms house. I guess she was away for whatever reason, so that's where DeShaun's sixteenth birthday was being held.  

I rolled my eyes. "It's DeShaun's birthday, if ya wanna leave early, feel free. But I'm staying." I said getting out of the car. 

"Why ya gotta be so fuckin' difficult?! Just be a good girlfriend and fuckin' leave with me when I ask!" Eric yelled at me as we started walking towards the house. 

"I am a good fuckin' girlfriend but you know how important DeShaun is to me! I ain't leavin' just 'cause you're tired and wanna go!" I yelled back. 

"Why ya wanna hang out with a bunch of sixteen year olds anyway?! You're fuckin' eighteen, move on from this shit!" 

"I grew up with DeShaun! You're twenty five datin' a eighteen year old, what's your excuse?!" 

"Keep insultin' me Tiyana and you gon' see what the fuck happens!"  

"What?! Get the cops called on us just so they can take ya ass to the drunk tank again?! That'd be fuckin' perfect!" 

He quickly walked up behind me and yanked the back of my hair causing me to fall back a few steps. I winced slightly at the pain. "I'll beat ya ass right in the middle of this god damn street bitch, don't think I wont." He spat through gritted teeth and then pushed my head forward and released my hair. I took a deep breath and we kept walking in silence until we reached the house. I decided to just open the door since I knew there was no way in hell anyone was gonna be able to hear my knocking through all the loud music and I'm sure tonnes of people that were here, by the look of all the cars on the street. 

We walked in and I was immediately greeted by a few people that were standing by the door. I said hi and then continued making my way through the sea of people packed into this tiny house. I lost Eric almost as soon as we walked in, but I didn't give a shit where he went, just as long as he wasn't bothering me I was fine. 

I kept wandering around the party, talking to random acquaintances here and there while I looked for DeShaun when I realized he was probably out back with Denaun and Rufus free styling. That's all those guys ever did at parties now a days. 

I opened the backdoor and stepped out to the small porch. I smiled to myself seeing them all standing in a circle with a few more people I didn't know and yup, they were free styling. 

"Ti!" DeShaun yelled drunkenly as he saw me start to walk down the stairs towards them. The others all yelled out random variations of my name with a mix of "ayy's" in an attempt to greet me. I just laughed and said hey.  

"How ya'll doin'?" I asked as I walked towards DeShaun. 

"We good, we good. Thanks for comin'!" DeShaun flashed me his big smile as he threw his arm around my neck and kissed my cheek. Like I said to Eric, me and DeShaun grew up together. Our ma's are best friends and have been since high school, so me and DeShaun were always super close but in a completely platonic way. As cliché as it sounds, DeShaun truly was just like a brother to me.

I laughed again. "Of course! Happy birthday baby boy!" 

"How long ya been here?!" 

"Only about twenty minutes, I went through the whole house tryna find you but I realized you'd probably be out here." 

He nodded. "Ya bring Eric with ya?" 

"Yeah I did. I'm sure he's 'round here somewhere." I trailed off. "How's Osborn though? Ya likin' it?" I asked in an attempt to change the subject.