Thanksgiving

"Look at them." Tamia whispered to Karen as she watched Kingston and Renae whisper and laugh with one another.

"I love them, she balances him out and he does the same for her." Karen spoke as she handed Bryson the hot dogs to put on the grill.

Majority of the food was kitchen cooked and the other half was grilled.

"I never seen her smile so much." Tamia spoke as King rocked side to side as he hugged Renae.

"That's the cure of love, that's all she needed." Karen replied looking over at DJ who was sitting at the bench doing some school work.

"Doesn't he know they have a week off?" She asked.

"Yeah, but he wants to graduate a year early so he plans on going to summer school to take his junior classes." Tamia informed and Karen smiled proudly.

"I'm proud of him, he's really is trying to turn his life around." She said as they made their way back inside.

"I think he just needed a wake up call." Tamia replied as they headed into the kitchen just as Keenan walked through the door.

"Did they tell you about the pre proposal?" Karen asked checking on the ham.

"Proposal?" Tamia commented and Karen laughed at the face she made.

"Basically a promise, I seen the video on his phone. They aren't engaged but he made a promise to her to eventually turn her promise ring into a wedding ring." She further explained and Tamia smiled.

"Are you serious?"

"Mhm, yup. I think Dajon has the original video, it's pretty cute." She answered and Tamia nodded heading out the kitchen.

"Nasty? Oh you ain't seen da half of what I plan on doing to you yet." King spoke as he pulled Renae back into him and she smirked.

"Oh really? How about you tell me?" She challenged and he chuckled leaning towards her ear.

"E hem?" Tamia spoke then cleared her throat.

Laughing, Renae swatted King's hand and he laughed continuing to tell her just all the ways and positions he could have her.

Clearing her throat again, Tamia tapped King on his shoulder.

"Yo? Oh snap, my fault, wassup T?" He greeted turning around and Tamia smirked seeing the flustered look on Renae's face.

"I'm gonna need y'all to give me fifty feet." She joked and King smirked.

"My fault T, what you need?" He asked and she smirked looking at Renae.

"Y'all engaged?" She asked, Bryson, Malik and Zina looked over at the 3.

"What'd she just say?" Bryson asked putting the tongs down and Dajon snickered.

"Engaged?" King and Renae repeated.

"Oh!" Renae exclaimed looking down at the ring, "Oh no, we aren't at least not yet." She answered and Tamia grabbed her right hand and looked the promise ring over just as Bryson them were making their way over.

"This is gorgeous, what made you do this?" She asked looking at King.

"Da talk—." Stopping mid speech, Renae and King looked over at Bryson them.

"Y'all getting married? I thought Autumn was having your baby?" Zina inquired causing everyone except Dajon, Keenan and Malik to go into an uproar.

"WAIT!" Renae yelled holding her hands up causing everyone's talking to cease.

"What did you just say?" She asked looking at Zina.

"Autumn was having his baby." She repeated and Bryson took a step back.

"Wait a minute." Tamia spoke holding her hands up.

"Where did you hear that from?" Renae asked and Zina laughed waving it off.

"Autumn. Did you forget we were cool?" She asked looking at a clearly pissed off Kingston.

There was a reason Bryson and Tamia wasn't informed of the messy situation.

"What did I tell you about her bro?" King asked looking at Malik.

"What? Is it true?" She quizzed and Renae took a deep breath.

"No it isn't, she lied. You may leave." Renae spoke as calm as possible.

"I saw the tests though, he's ninety nine percent the father." She egged and Malik gripped her arm.

"False, take yo ass home." He gritted shoving her towards the door and she laughed.

"Y'all mad at something he did?" She asked sliding the back door open.

Seeing that she came here with a motive, Renae walked around the group and made her way towards Zina.

"You can leave." She repeated pushing her inside the house.

"Girl don't touch me, I'm most definitely NOT Autumn."

"You can DEFINITELY get beat like her though." Dajon and Renae spoke as she shoved her forward.

"Didn't I tell you about him before? You don't listen." Zina laughed as Renae pushed her through the living room trying to keep herself from hitting her.

"You forgot to tell me your nasty ass sucked his dick, heard you're pretty good at it too." Renae teased as she opened the front door and Zina eyes widened.

"Yeah bitch, green isn't your best color." She spoke pushing her out the door and slammed it right in her face.

Shaking her head, Renae released a breath.

"You know what that is?" Karen asked standing in the dining area as she wiped her hands.

"What?"

"Growth. You could've whooped her narrow behind but you didn't. I'm liking this new you R—." Bryson's yelling cut her sentence to a short.

Both rushing outside, Keenan and Tamia were trying to hold Bryson back while Malik was trying to talk to King.

"YOU SMILED IN MY FACE BUT FORGOT TO TELL ME YOU STEPPED OUT ON MY DAUGHTER?! NIGGA ARE YOU CRAZY?!" His voice roared as he tried to push Keenan back.

"I never cheated on her! That's what I've been tryna tell you!" King yelled and Renae squinted her eyes and tilted her head.

Noticing the blood on his lip, her eyes landed on an overly annoyed Dajon.

"Pops hit him." He announced before grabbing his crutches and headed inside.

Shaking her head, Renae made her way over towards Bryson and grabbed his hand pulling him inside ignoring his yelling.

"What are you doing?" She asked once she closed the back door.

"What do you mean? Did you not just hear what that girl said?" He questioned pacing back and forth.

"Dad..." she began then took a deep breath.

"She doesn't like me for starters." She announced.

"Second, she doesn't like King because he wasn't interested in her."

"Three, he did NOT cheat on me. While I was locked in that facility he had a one night stand with his ex and once she found out about me she tried to make his life a living hell. She tried to bribe a doctor into tampering with the paternity results. The baby is not his and he used a condom." She explained and he stopped walking.

"Did he have ties with her during y'all relationship?" He asked and she gave him a look.

"No, the one night stand was a mistake and he told her to leave him alone."

Bryson stared at her for a moment then mumbled a curse word.

"Zuri I'm sorry... the dad in me came out." He apologized and she laughed.

"Yeah I know, but you gotta apologize to King not me and why'd you hit him?"

"Moment of anger... I'm sorry." He apologized and she stepped to the side letting him head back outside.

Turning around she watched as Bryson asked King if they could talk.

"Lord help me."

**

The next day

"Remember that day you called and I asked were you dating?" Renae asked Dajon as she twisted his hair.

"Yeah... I was out in the streets." He revealed.

"How come you just didn't tell me?" She asked and he shrugged.

"Guess I ain't want you to be mad." He answered. "I probably would've been but I also would've asked if you were being safe and then I may have went and told Keenan." She revealed and he chuckled.

"I never knew you and Rello were so close."

"We weren't... until we started working together. Nigga was always asking about you." He told her and she laughed shaking her head.

"King would take his head off if he heard."

"I know... I told him that." He mumbled staring at the tv.

"I'm sorry things went left, I'm sure he was good to you."

"It's cool." He replied.

"Since you're taking classes during the summer, are you gonna go to prom?" She asked.

"If I find me a girl or I might just ask one of my homegirls." He answered.

"If you need help, just let me know." She told him as she got up to see who was at the door.

"I might need you to see which of my homegirls meet your standards for me." He spoke getting up and headed towards the bathroom to check his hair.

Renae looked out the peephole before she unlocked the door.

"Is this Kingston Stone place?" The delivery guy asked.

"Yes."

"Ok, this is for uh an Nae Nae? I'm assuming that's you." He told her and she laughed nodding.

"Yup, that's me." She replied taking the package from him.

Thanking him, she headed back inside and sat at the table to open the package.

"What's that?" Dajon asked opening the fridge.

"Not sure yet." She mumbled pulling the tape off.

Pulling the box up, Renae pulled out the bubble wrap and sat it on the table.

Dajon sat across from her with a turkey and bacon sandwich.

"What is it?" He asked with a mouthful.

"My giraffe."

"Your what?" He asked leaning forward to peeked inside the box.

"Mom set it on fire... but he got it fixed. Whenever I wasn't with him I'd sleep with this because it had his scent on it." She explained picking the giraffe up and smiled.

"Y'all wack." He joked picking up the keys that dropped from the leg.

Renae examined the stuffed animal and laughed softly at the heart at the bottom that was burned.

"Is that really a heart carved from fire?" He asked and she giggled nodding.

He handed her the car keys and she furrowed her brows.

Looking inside the box, she picked up the envelope.

Placing the giraffe in her lap she opened the envelope.

"What's that?" Dajon asked taking another bite out of his sandwich.

"He bought me a car... everything's paid for."

"Oh that nigga winning period. What type of car is it?" He asked.

"All white Ford Escape, it's also a push to start." She read and he nodded impressed.

"It's in New Orleans though." She added after reading the note King left at the bottom.

"Y'all definitely on some grown folk mess, I love it." He complimented as he got up to get something to drink.

Renae smiled staring at the paper in complete awe.

Her life turned out completely different than she expected.

Here they were about a year ago homeless sleeping in Bryson's car.

She never thought that meeting King at the library would be the start of changing her life forever.

He really came in and turned her life around and gave her a reason to breathe.

For that, she would forever be grateful.

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3 more chapters left.

I already started working on book 2 last night😉

How y'all feel?