I reached over to the passenger seat and grabbed my purse before getting out the car. I locked my doors using my key fob and approached the front door. I unlocked using my key I never returned and invited myself inside.

"Honey I'm home!" I said loudly as I entered the house.

"Who's that?" I hear my mom's voice say from the kitchen. I walked into the kitchen to see my mom sitting at the table on her phone.

"Oh hey Paris" She exclaims when she sees me.

"Hey ma" I smile giving her a side hug.

"You look pretty, I like your hair. You coming from class?" My mom asks as I sit down at the table with her.

I nod my head yeah and let out a sigh "It's been a long day. I need a nap and some food. What's for dinner?"

"Shit ion know whatchu cooking?"

"C'mon now ma, don't do your eldest child like this"

"You better text your daddy and tell him that you're here and want dinner." My mom replied.

"Where everybody at? Why it's so quiet?"

"Your daddy is at the gym, King is at basketball practice and Lyric is at gymnastics. Now go find yourself some business too. This is me time."

"Oop. Ion like this treatment. I'm going to my room" I laugh getting up from the table.

"Love you too" She replies with a chuckle. I walked over to the stairs and headed up to my old room. I opened the door and it was just how I left it the last time I stayed the night over here. It was normal for me to come over every now and again to spend the night with them. Even though they would never admit it, they miss me living here.

I belly flopped down onto my bed and just laid there face down. Someone I managed to doze off in this same position. When I'm tired I can go to sleep any where and any way. I sat up and kicked off my yeezys. I grabbed my phone out of my purse before going back downstairs to annoy my mom. As I got closer to bottom of the staircase I could hear the voices of my entire family.

"The main attraction has arrived" I said as I walked into the kitchen.

"Paris!" My little sister Lyric squealed and ran over to me. She wrapped her arms around my legs hugging them tightly.

"Hey girl" I greeted bending down to hug her.

"I noticed your car in the driveway but I thought it was a little too quiet in the house for you to be here" My dad laughs before chugging down his gatorade.

"Wassup Paris" My brother King said to me followed with a head nod.

"Hey"

"Did you ever text your daddy and tell him you wanted dinner tonight?" My mom asks opening Lyric's backpack to check for homework.

"Awe dang I fell asleep. I forgot" I replied walking over to the counter top and sitting down on one of the spinning bar stools next to King.

"You staying the night?" My dad questions leaning against the sink.

I shrugged my shoulders "I might. Depending on if I catch the itis after my meal"

"You gon cook for her tonight?" My dad looks over at my mom.

"No she wants her daddy to cook for her. Not me" My mom responds getting up from her chair and walking over to the refrigerator.

"Them words ain't never leave her mouth. She know her momma be throwing down in the kitchen" My dad replies slapping her ass as she walked passed him.

I scrunched up my face in disgust. King and I both looked at each other at the same time and we were making the same face causing us to burst out laughing.

"Get a room" King laughed shaking his head.

"I did and it came with a whole house" My dad quickly retorted.

"Oop" I replied before laughing.

"Can someone help me with my homework?" Lyric says from the table.

"Lemme see" My dad replies holding his hand out for the paper. She hops down from the table with her sheet of paper and skipped her way over to him.

"This it?" He asked looking down at her, "You and I both know you know what 4+6 is"

"Here he go" King and I both whispered. I couldn't count on my hands how many nights I sat at the table doing math with my daddy. I can still hear him getting frustrated with me because I didn't know how many apples Johnny had left after sharing with his friends. Looking back on it now it's funny as hell cause I was really slow as hell and testing his patience.

"Come here Lyric I can help you" I say to her. My phone begin to ring on the counter. I looked at the caller i.d and it was an unknown number facetiming me. A confused look appeared on my face but I still answered it. The call was connecting for a few seconds before Quincy's face appeared on the screen.

"Wassup" His voice filled the silence in the room.

"Unh unh who is that?" My mom asks.

"King help Lyric. I'll be back" I laugh jumping off the stool and running out the kitchen.

"Hold on" I say to Quincy as I jogged up the steps headed back to my room. I closed the door behind me and sat down on the floor by the window to get some good lighting. I propped my phone up on the ledge and finally spoke.

"Sorry about that I was just with my family"

"Oh am I interrupting family time?" He responds with a slight chuckle.

"Nah you good. I was just gonna help my lil sister with her homework but my brother got it" I shrug my shoulders. He was walking outside with his airpods in his ears. He was holding the phone below his chin and the sun was reflecting off the studs in his ears beautifully and he just looked good as fuck.

"Awe okay. I was just thinking about you so I decided to call you. You look beautiful"

I immediately felt all jittery inside knowing he was thinking about me. Then I remembered that he hasn't texted me back in 4 days. The last time we spoke was on the day we went out to lunch and he left me on read later. The butterflies immediately went away.

"Mmh I have a hard time believing that when I've been on read for 4 days" I retort rolling my eyes at him.

"Whatchu mean? You left me on read" He replies looking at the camera.

"Nah sir I texted you last"

He puts me on pause and seconds later he sent a screenshot of our message thread. "Oop I didn't get that text"

"Who got it then?" Quincy laughs

"It got lost in the 5G towers" I joke and we both started laughing "I seriously didn't get it though. This whole time I thought you didn't reply to me"

"It's cool. We talking now so it don't even matter." Q shrugs his shoulders "How you been? Whatchu been on?"

"I've been good just been going to class and chilling. Nothing really. What about you? Did you ever finish that piece you were working on?"

"You don't care about that stuff" He laughs and I could see him get into his car. He props his phone up on the dashboard and gives me his undivided attention.

"If I didn't care I wouldn't be asking" I frowned at him.

"My fault. My ex didn't really fuck with the art shit"

"Awe, well I'm not her. If you like it, I love it" I shrugged one of my shoulders. I hated being compared to other girls. I try my best not to compare any dudes I'm involved with to the previous ain't shit niggas I have dealt with. They all turn out to not be shit but I always try to give them a shot before judging them. I just try to give them a fair shot because I would want one too.

"My bad I know it's too soon for me to bring up my ex. We should just be focusing on us"

We?

Us?

I guess he really is feeling the kid.

"Well since we're on the topic, how long have you been single?" I questioned raising an eyebrow at him.

"Uhh like 3 months"

"Uh? I take that as you've been single in your head for 3 months meanwhile she's been single for a month" I laugh sitting down with my legs crossed instead of kneeling.

"Nah it's been 3 months" He laughs with me

"What about you? How long you've been single?"

"Whew" I let out a dramatic sigh and leaned back against my hands "Lemme think...shit about 3 years"

"Why y'all break up? You had too many hoes?"

"How dare you?" I say bringing my hand to my chest pretending to be hurt "I am a faithful black woman, we do not cheat"

"Right and neither do black men." Q adds in.

"Now you and I both know that's a lie" I quickly retorted. We both laughed and silence filled the air.

"So when am I going to see you again?" He puts his hand behind his head and leans back against his head rest. Seeing his arm covered in tattoos just made me melt.

"You're seeing me right now aren't you?" I replied furrowing my eyebrows, "Besides I'm a broke college student"

I could definitely afford a round trip to New York but I barely knew this man. I could get there and boom, he sells me off to some fat, old, white man. If he wants to see me he'll just have to fly here.

"Let me know when you wanna see me and I'll fly out there or fly you here."

"Paris can you have a tea party with me?" Lyric questions as she bursts through the door. She jumps into my lap,

"Lyric I'm on the phone" I laugh as she wraps her arms around my body. She looks over to see my phone propped up on the window sill. "Oooh is that your boyfriend? He's cute!" She teases poking my side.

"I- Q, I'ma call you back later" I chuckle reaching for my phone. He starts to laugh and nods his head, "Ight"

I hung up the phone and stood up carrying her overly grown ass on my hip. "Girl why would you say that? I'm telling daddy you calling boys cute."

"What? Noooo. Snitches get stitches Paris"

"Who told you that?" I laugh raising an eyebrow at her as we walk downstairs.

"King"

"Since when do we listen to what King has to say?" I reply back and we both laugh.