😗sorry for any mistakes

Atlanta, GA

October 7th

Monday

"Si, stop lying."

"I'm being forreal" Sierra threw her head back, laughing at her two best friends looking at her crazily.

"No, you can't be 'forreal'. Our best friend of damn 16 yearssss, wouldn't just go out and elope without telling us" Ailani said, squinting her eyes at Sierra. She just couldn't believe what she was hearing right now.

They have all been best friends since they were 6 years old and Ailani moved in with her grandmother. Lyric and Sierra never knew each other until Ailani basically made them 3 befriends, one after walking to the bus stop together in the cold. Lyric had rushed out of the house and forgotten her coat that day and Ailani being the person that always carried a blanket around, shared with her then Sierra let her use her extra pair of earmuffs. The three of them have been irreplaceable ever since.

Sierra plainly looked at them, Ailani's eyes almost popped out of her head, onto the table.

"You bitch!" Lyric semi-yelled, not trying to cause a scene to the three in the restaurant.

Sierra started to smile "It just happened" She chuckled "Neither me nor Ruben wanted to have a wedding. We're both not that close to our parents, so why not ya' know?" Sierra shrugged.

"I- bitch I'm hurt" Lyric pouted, putting her plate away.

"Right!" Ailani agreed "We wanted to be bridesmaids, and at least be there to be a witness or somethinggg"

"Who were the witnesses? They can fight me forreal" Lyric mugged her, Ailani nodded agreeing.

"Girl, we were in Vegas. Anybody that was there was the witness" She chuckled and took a sip of her water.

"I-" Ailani started "You had hobos to be the witness instead of us?!" She scrunched her face.

"Y'all both ain' shit" Lyric shook her head as Sierra continued laughing at both of their reactions.

Ailani fake sniffled "At Least we didn't have to wear some ugly bridesmaid dresses knowing her" She joked.

Sierra's jaw dropped "Go to hell"

"Eh," She shrugged. "But I'm happy for y'all."She said honestly, Lyric smiled and nodded agreeing with her.

She remembered when Sierra and Ruden first met when they were 20 and at the gas station. They were going on a trip to cheer Sierra up since she just got heartbroken. Before they headed on the road, they got snacks and things and Sierra was about to put gas in the tank until Ruben came over and told her to get in the car. In his words, 'Pretty women shouldn't pay for their own gas'. The two clicked right after that.

"Thank y'all. We're having a celebration on Saturday for it after we told all"

"Ru has friends?" Lyric asked, shocked.

Sierra faked smiled "Don't do my man girl" She warned.

Lyric put her hands up in defense "I'm just saying, out of all the 2 years of knowing him, I never knew he had friends since y'all always together." She explained.

"I didn't think he had friends since he's so mean," Ailani said.

She always thought Ruben was mean but nice to them but when it came to other people, it was a different story. Ailani was a complete sweetheart, so anyone who was aggressive or talked aggressively was mean in her head since she doesn't do it.

"Lani, you think everyone is mean" Lyric chuckled, She shrugged.

In all honesty, Ruben used to scare her. She used to keep a good distance from him just so she didn't make him mad or he yelled at her. She hated being around people who were rude for no reason and she thought that's how Ruben was until Sierra told her he wasn't.

"He has two best friends from middle school but one of them has a daughter Sarayah's age and is bringing her," Sierra said, referring to her daughter.

Ailani was glad there would be another child there so Sarayah wasn't bored. That was a mini-me, wherever Lani went, she brought her and if she couldn't, she simply didn't go. Lani felt bad often when she brought her places and she didn't have other kids her age to play with.

"My baby might make a friend, ooouu" Ailani smiled. Sarayah wasn't a social butterfly just like her mother. Making friends was never easy because she wasn't one to talk to strangers if they were her age or not.

"Let them be mean to my RayRay, I'm knocking a little child out," Lyric said, Ailani shook her head but she agreed with her.

Sarayah had to transfer schools because she was getting bullied by other kids at her old school. Ailani wasn't having any of that, she was a sweetheart and a very gentle person but when it came to her child, that went out the window.

Ailani, Lyric, and Sierra all rose hell at that elementary school especially since the principal was racist and didn't care about other kids picking on Sarayah. Ailani was very close to just homeschooling her until Sarayah's dad, Jabari suggested they transfer her to another different school, a more black and diverse school.

This was her 2 month at her new elementary school and so far it's been okay. She still doesn't socialize but Ailani or Jabari wasn't going to force it and let it just happen.

After they continued to talk and finished their lunches, their lunch break was over and they had to get back to work. They paid for their food and left the restaurant. They said bye to Sierra since she was a pediatrician and drove separately from them.

Ailani and Lyric were both Estheticians and own a business together called the Beauty Clinic. They just opened at the beginning of last year and were very popular in the Atlanta area.

Ailani also owns her cosmetic line where she sold her handmade lip gloss, oils, shea butter, sugar scrubs as well as lashes called Lani's beauty. She started it when she was in high school at 15. She always made her own lip gloss and shea butters out of organic and authentic ingredients. She blew up with that since people loved her product at school and decided to make more things that people use and have been running a successful business ever since.

They got into Ailani's Blackout 2020 Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S Coupe, she put her foot on the brake and pressed the start button. After clicking shuffle on Apple music, she pulled off and held back to work.

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"Mommy!" Lani heard a small voice squeal as she leaned up on the wall, waiting for someone to bring Sarayah out. She looked up from her and saw Sarayah running towards her, causing a big smile to come across her face.

She only had her in daycare from when she got out of school since she got out at 2:30 PM and Lani didn't get out until 4:30 PM sometimes 5:00 PM, as well as Jabari, got off late too.

"Stop running baby or you'll fall" She chuckled, knowing how clumsy her daughter could be. Sarayah stopped in her tracks and started walking towards her while giggling. "Sorry," She said as Lani bent down, holding her arm out for her.

"I missed you jellybean, you missed me?" She smiled, kissing her forehead. She kissed her cheek and nodded. "Yes! Don't leave me again" She squinted her big brown eyes at her.

Lani lightly chuckled, "I'll try not to," She said before standing up. Seeing her daughter was the best part of her day. She was a true mommy's girl which Lani loved since how much she looked like her father.

"You said bye to Ms.Kimmy and Ms.Gigi?" She asked, grabbing her book bag and putting her hood over her head since it was a little chilly outside.

Ailani had her in the best daycare in Atlanta called My sunshines. She has been going there since Ailani got pregnant with her at 17 and was working there.

"Yes, they left earlier," She said, Lani nodded and grabbed her hand. They said bye to the receptionist before walking out.

"Thank you" She smiled softly at the man that opened the door for them. He sent the same smile back, showing his beautiful smile. She quickly got out of his way before she started staring at him because of how fine he was.

"How was your day jellybean?" She asked as they walked to the car. She hoped she had a good one. The bullying that took place at her old school had her shaken up. She didn't understand why kids were so evil and picked on another child just because she was quiet and the color of her skin.

She didn't know why people would teach their 5-year-old child to be racist. That wasn't good parenting in her opinion, they were young and shouldn't be exposed to things like that.

"Good, I made a friend today" Rayah smiled, Lani softly gasped "Really? Are they nice?" She asked, unlocking the doors.

"Well..... to me she is" Rayah shrugged, Lani furrowed her eyebrows together "What do you mean by that baby?" She asked while helping her into the car.

"She's nice to me because we're both new to the class. Other people not so much, she says they talk too much and are annoying" She giggled.

Lani held back her laugh, some kids were just so sassy. That also reminded her of Lyric when they were younger. Lyric was the mean one but was always so sweet to her.

"There she goes mommy." She pointed, "Bye Kennedi!" Rayah shouted and waved. Lani turned around, noticing the same man that opened the door for them with a beautiful baby girl in his arms as she was fussing at him and he was laughing at her.

Lani chuckled to her, she thought it was so adorable. She loved seeing Daddy and daughter relationships. She thought they were just as important as mom and daughter relationships. She was glad Rayah had a good one with hers.

Kenndi covered her father's mouth and looked over at them, she shyly waved at Rayah. Her dad mugged her and moved her hand "I'll bite you, do it again" He said.

Her eyes widened and she quickly turned around with her and the man-made eye contact. She didn't even noticed she was staring.

Man knows he is too damn fine to be lookin' at me She thought to herself and made sure Rayah was buckled in before going to the driver's side and getting in.

_________________

"Noooo, bruh. Damn, where yo' mama at? Leave me alone, go to bed" Jabari groaned, at Sarayah.

She rolled her eyes "Daddy! you said you would give me $5 if I made a friend and I did! Give me my money" She fussed, sitting in his lap as he and his wife Bonnie, sat in Lani's living room after they all ate dinner.

"You only made a friend to get my money?" He asked, raising his brow "You wrong jellybean" He shook his head, reaching into his pocket and pulled out a $10 bill to give her.

She smiled and took it "Thank youuuuu" She kissed his cheek and jumped off his lap "Mommmyyy, I got Wendy's moneyy" She smiled waving the money around.

They all fell out laughing "Okay baby, go put it in your ATM machine" Lani chuckled. "Okay!" She skipped down the hall to her room to do just that.

Jabari shook his head "That is definitely up' child" He chuckled, Bonnie nodded agreeing.

Despite Jabari cheating on her while she was 7 months pregnant years ago, she made sure to have a good co-parenting relationship. She grew up in a toxic situation with her parents and absolutely refused to let Sarayah grow up the same way.

It took her a little while to be able to forgive him and have a relationship with him. He was her first everything and it broke her heart that he was setting out on her, especially while she was pregnant and carrying his child. It even took them a while to get to have a good parenting relationship they have now since Jabari tried to be toxic after she left him but Lani wasn't having that. She told him if he continued the nasty behavior, she would get full custody of Sarayah.

It may have taken them until Sarayah was 1 year old but neither one of them was perfect and was young. All that matters is they were good now and Sarayah had two loving parents and even another parent.

Lani isn't perfect, it took some getting used to when Jabari started dating Bonnie. Nonetheless, she had a good relationship with Bonnie as well. She was glad she wasn't the one who he cheated on her with or she didn't think she could ever be cool with her. She was glad they all could act like mature adults and do it for Sarayah.

"Y'all going to your sister's thing on Saturday right?" She asked. Sierra and Jabari were siblings.

Sierra was the one that introduced the two and when he cheated on Lani, Sierra just had to fight him. Brother or not, she didn't mess with that cheating mess especially after Jabari begged for Lani at first.

"Yeah, I'm mad as hell they ain't tell nobody." Jabari shook his head.

"How when y'all did the same thing a few months ago?" Lani looked between the two.

"Nooo, we went to the courthouse and had already planned to have a party right afterward. They ass did this last month and just now saying something" Bonnie chuckled.

"Oou so my friend has been telling me about this dating app" Bonnie smirked.

Lani sighed and mentally rolled her eyes. One thing she didn't like about Bonnie was how she was always in her business, dating-wise.

"I'm not going on a dating app BonBon. That's for people that are looking for something and I'm not." She shook her head.

"Lani, when was the last time you got some action or something? A date or something?!" Bonnie asked.

Lani glanced at Jabari who was just looking around. They haven't told Bonnie why they weren't together because she never asked. They both knew the last time Lani got some or even went on a date was 5 years ago when she and Jabari were together.

Jabari asked her not to say anything to Bonnie on why they were together because he knew she would look at him differently based on what he did in the past. Especially to the mother of his child, he knew Bonnie would probably never be with him.

Lani never told simply because it wasn't any of her business or her place to say anything.

"I don't need or want a man. I'm fine and living comfortably with my daughter." Lani shrugged, dismissing the topic. She stood up and walked down the hall to start getting Sarayah ready for bed.

Lani didn't trust men after Jabari but would never say it out loud. She didn't want people to think she wasn't over it when she was, it's been 5 years.

The dating pool nowadays wasn't her cup of tea. Most people only wanted one thing or wanted to be temporary. She didn't need something temporary. She has a daughter and bring people that are just going to leave and might leave later on wasn't it.

She didn't date because she didn't want Sarayah to get attached then they left her in disappointment. She also didn't think she could survive another heartbreak. The last one left her hopeless and broken to the point her PPD didn't was worse than what it should've been.

She lost her self-worth and that love that she had for herself back then. She used to believe she wasn't enough if someone could cheat on her, especially while she was pregnant. She never likes to show it though because she couldn't focus on it because she had a daughter and always kept a smile on her face.

One thing about Ailani, she always kept a smile on her face so no one could see the pain behind the smile.

"Come on jellybean, let's get you ready for bed"

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HEEEEEYYYYYY

Very excited about this story. How y'all feel about it. I hope y'all like it🥰

Ailani?

Sarayah?

Jabari?

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