𝖲𝗍𝗋𝖾𝖾𝗍 𝖠𝖿𝖿𝖾𝖼𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇

𝟧𝟩 | 𝖧𝖨𝖢𝖪𝖤𝖸𝖲

"WHAT? YOU GOT RIN FROM UP UNDER DEMON?" LJ asks, seeing his aunt curling his sister's hair. "Barely. She showed up at two and then went to sleep." Mariah says. "Awe, yeah. Y'all went on a lil date last night, right?" LJ questions.

"And she ain't show up till two," Mariah stresses the fact that she showed up at two in the morning when Corinne told Mariah to give her an hour at eleven. "What was y'all doing?" LJ asks.

"She was getting fucked. I know third grade was hard for you but that wasn't hard to figure out." Mariah's best friend Danah says. Danah was LJ's ex-girlfriend and the reason his current girlfriend wasn't there. "No, she wasn't. Right, Cece?" LJ says.

"Right." She agrees. "Lying ass." He shakes his head when Corinne makes an oops face. Corinne stays silent, continuing to curl Mariah's hair. "I can't believe my auntie a hoe," LJ says. "I'm not the one with five bodies." She tells him. "It's seven." He corrects her. "You the hoe." She says.

"I'm telling my daddy you out here fucking." LJ tells her. "So? That ain't gone stop nothing me and my boyfriend got going on." She says, turning off the curling iron. "Period," Mariah exclaims while Danah sticks her tongue out at him when he rolls his eyes. "It's five-thirty. We gotta go so we don't be late."

Corinne was a stickler on punctuality except when it came to school so nine times out of ten when she was late, it was because of someone else or if she didn't show up on time because she wasn't coming at all. They all Uber to the restaurant, getting seated.

"What's yo name?" Corinne hears as she sits in the circular booth with Mariah, Danah, Mari, Ariana, and Peaches. The rest of Mariah's friends were sitting in the booth next to them. She follows the voice noticing Kenneth, Lorenzo, Coriah, and Mariah's mother Janay sitting at the table in front of them. "Hi." She says smiling at him. "Come here, sexy." Kenneth jokes, making her laugh.

She gets out of the booth walking over. "Where's my nephew?" Corinne asks her sister knowing seeing her sister without her baby was rare. "At the hotel with Ma. We got a room." Coriah says as Corinne hugs Janay before moving to hug Kenneth.

"Aw, what floor?" Corinne walked around hugging Lorenzo. "What's that?" He asks.

"What's what?" She was confused about what he was gesturing to. "On yo neck. What is it?" He continues to question her making her pull her phone out of her back pocket to look at herself. "Oh...I don't know what that is." She plays dumb, moving her hair to cover the hickeys that sat in along her neck, just above her collarbone. She had been so focused on making sure Mariah had everything she needed, she forgot to see what marks her boyfriend left.

"You don't know what that is?" He asks.

"No, not at all." She says.

"But you know how you got them right?" Lorenzo asks. She vividly remembered how she got them but that wasn't his business. "So what had happened was-" Corinne starts before trailing off when it was time to explain. "Your ring is pretty," Janay says, saving the girl from her older brother's scrutiny. "Thank you." Corinne smiles.

"Are you mad?" Corinne asks Lorenzo. "No. I'm not mad." He says making her nod. "I just find it funny how you got hickeys on yo neck and you don't know know how they got there." He says. "Oh, there goes the food." She tells him only for the food to go to another table. "Me and yo boyfriend gone be having another talk."

"When y'all have a first one? And why?" She asks. "Cause y'all be-" She cuts him off saying, "What we do is none of your business." He nods his head starting up once again, "You-"

"None of your business cause you only gone hurt your own feelings. Just leave it alone." She tells him. He was all game for his kids when it came to them and their relationships but with her, it was a different story. "It's just the process of you getting them that I got a problem with." Corinne sighs telling him, "Which is exactly why I'm telling you to leave it alone. If you gone have a problem with it, just leave it alone."

"You think you grown?" He asks. "So one hickey means I'm having grown?" Now she was irritated with him. "You doing too much," Janay tells him. "Nah, she think she grown."

"And if I do, what you gone do about it?" Corinne crosses her arms. She was fed the fuck up with him. "Momma gone-"

"Momma not gone do shit. You're my brother, not my father. Everybody cool with me and D but you. That's your problem. I'm not finna sit in your face and cater to your stupid ass feelings about my relationship. Cause I don't care. He makes me happy and if you don't have anything positive to say about us. Don't say anything at all." Corinne says rolling her eyes before walking back to her table.

"What happened?" Mariah asks when she sits back down. "Yo daddy irritating." She says. "What you say about me?" Lorenzo asks loudly. "I said you was irritating. I-R-R-I-T-A-T-I-N-G."

He nods his head slowly because he knew they weren't going to talk for a minute now. Mariah decides to change the subject saying, "Anyways, um... after we leave y'all wanna go ride bikes? Downtown."

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a/n: gm y'all...i accidentally slept through first and second period cause it's my early release day. i feel dumb cause i think i had a test in first period and the semester end next week but oh well 😭