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was seared on one of the sofas in her comfort condominium, basking in her thoughts from the last conversation she had with her close friend, Maeve. Regarding the situation she found herself with her cousin, Joseph– well she was adopted and had no blood ties with him but nonetheless it's a little hard to digest to most. Especially to the family they belonged.

As she was almost through with her third carton of ice cream for that day, the doorbell rang and she groaned not wanting to reposit her posture of relaxation. Four more rings later and she was gingered to see who it was.

"I ought to smack the fuck outta you for ringing—" Darajah was stunned to see Joseph standing there with a distill glare on his face. Darajah attempted to shut the door immediately but Joseph quickly caught it and shoved her inside making the small woman stumble back a bit.

"Why you ain't been answering my calls since last week then you suddenly wanna block me yesterday, huh?" Joseph was heated and it was more than obvious in the way he banged the door shut behind him.

Darajah smacked her lips and went back to her previous position on the sofa while Joseph closely watched her. He was patient enough to give her some time to explain but one slip up in her words to clarify herself for going that extreme and he would really be on her ass for sure.

"Would you quit staring at me like that, Joe, it's very annoying and yes, so what I blocked yo' ass you're not the first!" Darajah waved Joe off and continued to finish the few scoops of frozen dessert in the carton.

Joseph smacked the carton out of Darajah's hand and in return she stood up and smacked him across the face. She pointed her finger in his face and was about warning him not to test her but her caught her finger in his grasp and twisted it.

"Ahh! Joseph stop!" Darajah yelped in discomfort, trying to release her finger away from Joseph but he merely smirked and continued his torture on her.

"You wanna act smart, be reckless and fuckin' block my number like you don't got no sense or like I won't show up—" His own words were sparking a huge fire of rage inside him so he took a deep breath and released Darajah's sore finger. "Who the nigga? The nigga you fuckin' on that's making you try to forget me, who's he?"

Joseph was the only person who could try some shit like that with Darajah and wouldn't get a befitting tongue lash of hurtful words, she knew there were boundaries not meant to be crossed with the young man.

"Joe there's nobody I'm involved with. Okay? I just don't want none of your bullshit around me anymore so please leave my house and myself alone. I beg you." Darajah felt her walls of defense meltdown as Joseph stood there glaring into her being.

"I'on believe you wanna stop fuckin' with me, Jah. Look at me." She obliged and Joseph placed both his hand around the base of her neck and took in the same air as hers as he sealed their lips in a soft kiss.

She whimpered when he bit down lightly on her bottom lip and initiated his tongue into the heated liplock and tightened his grip some more around her neck, her hands were fisted in front of his shirt and her head swooned. Joseph was becoming a part of Darajah that she couldn't get rid of so easily and she hated him for it. Why couldn't she erase him from her memory?

Joseph pulled away and everything snapped back to Darajah making her lips quiver leaving Joe even more confused with what was really wrong with her. "Mane stop that, don't even let one tear slip Jah, I ain't playin' with you."

But she couldn't help her emotions when he pulled her into his chest and embrace, rubbing her back soothingly.

"Joe, I don't think I'm normal for l-loving you this way and I hate the fact that I c-can't fuckin' erase all these feelings I got for you away." Darajah expressed through her crying. Although there was no lineage relations between them but their family's response to it scared Darajah shitless— the change in their reasoning of her, possible rejection and condemnation— all these thoughts made her recent actions towards him justified.

"Then I'm even more fucked up than you are cuz I don't just luh' yo' mean ass, I'm in luh' wit' you and ain't no stopping me from showing it." Joseph revealed. Darajah abruptly shot her head up to gaze at him.

"Really Joe? But...Aunty—"

"Fuck their opinions on what we got. We ain't for wanting to be together cuz we don't even got the same blood. It's not insect." Joseph said smartly and shrugged.

Darajah chuckled at him and shook her head then corrected him, "It's incest, JoJo."

"A'ight index." They shared a laugh before embracing eachother tightly just taking in their lasting presence. "Unblock me else I'm smacking more than your ice cream container next time."

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