2:45 am

"Y'all niggas be safe." He spoke walking up to his door.

"Mhm, yo ass better wrap it up!" Ty yelled out the window as Jamel backed out.

Laughing, King flicked them off and reached inside his pocket for his house key.

Tripping over something, he cursed looking down.

Squinting, he squatted down and stared at the pizza box.

"What da hell?" He mumbled picking it up and looked inside.

Standing, he inserted the key and unlocked the door.

Opening it, he stepped inside and looked around the living room.

"Nae?!" He called closing the door.

Putting the box on the table, he headed towards the back and walked into the bedroom.

The tv was on the dark screen and he placed his keys on the dresser.

Removing his hoodie, he cut the lights on then looked behind him.

"Nae?!" He called.

Walking further into the room, his eyes traveled to the bathroom.

"Shit!" He cursed rushing over to Renae's side.

Looking for any pills or razor, he let out a sigh of relief not seeing any.

Pressing his fingers into her neck, then touching her forehead he felt how hot she were.

Picking her up, he walked into the room and laid her on the bed.

Heading into the bathroom he grab a rag and ran it under the cold water.

Once back inside the room, he placed the rag on her forehead and sat on the floor staring at his shoes.

"Got damn." He mumbled, shaking his head.

A few minutes went by and Renae began to stir and mumble things.

Turning on her side, she felt around the bed for King.

"I'm right here." He spoke startling her.

Picking up the rag, he sat it on the dresser then stood up.

"What time is it?" She asked rubbing the back of her neck. "Almost three, what happened?"

"I don't know." She mumbled laying back. "I had another flashback."

"How'd you end up in the bathroom?" He asked sitting next to her.

"I was trying to get to the sink but I collapsed." She answered then sighed.

"I gotta keep you by my side, you scared me."

"I'm sorry, you probably thought I tried to kill myself again." She mumbled and he stared at her for a moment.

"I knew it."

"Nah... it's not like that ma... I just.." "You're used to me doing it, I know." She spoke finishing his sentence.

"I'm sorry ma." He apologized placing a kiss on her forehead.

"It's okay." She replied sitting up.

"Aw man." She mumbled covering her face. "What?"

"I ordered us some pizza... I know it's cold." She stressed.

"Yeah it is, I'll make us something after my shower." He told her getting up.

"I can't believe I was out for that long."

"I'm just glad you're straight, you gotta stop giving me mini heart attacks." He half joked and she smiled faintly.

"I'm working on it." She replied picking up her giraffe and hugged it.

"You ok?" He asked cutting the bathroom light on.

"Yeah." She answered laying back. "You sure?"

"Yes." She replied then smiled.

"Aight." He nodded walking into the bathroom, she turned over and stared at the wall.

**

The next day

"Morning mama K." Dajon greeted embracing Karen.

"Good morning baby boy, no school today?" She asked waving at Bryson before she closed the door.

"Nah, it was staff day." He replied following her into the kitchen. "You ready for Christmas break?" She asked flipping the French toast.

"Yes ma'am, I'm excited to see what Louisiana is about." He answered sitting at the table.

"You never been?" She asked taking the muffins out the oven.

"You always cook this much for breakfast?" He asked.

"Every meal, I got used to King being here and him eating. Now I just cook and save." She replied.

"Oh ok and nah I never been there, is it a nice place?" He asked.

"Yeah, depending on the neighborhood and city. But it's pretty good."

"You got homework?" She asked nodding towards his bag.

"Just the last of my work I didn't finish." He replied removing his binder from his book bag.

He worked on his algebra homework while she finished cooking.

"You got any little girls chasing after you?" She asked handing him his plate.

"Chasing? Nah, I'm just trying to graduate honestly." He told her and she smiled.

"You're still a virgin?" She asked and he laughed staring at his work.

"Nah." He mumbled and she snickered.

"Does Renae know?" She quizzed. "Un uh."

Laughing, Karen smirked cutting into her French toast.

"If you don't mind me asking, who was da little girl you gave it up to?"

"She was older." He corrected and she gasped.

"How much older?"

"Eighteen." He answered and she squinted.

"So she raped you?" She asked and he busted out laughing.

"How? I wanted to do it."

"Don't matter, what are you sixteen? If the roles were reversed I'm sure your dad would go upside dat guy's head." She spoke.

"Maybe... but she ain't rape me." He assured and she nodded.

"Was she at least worth it?" She asked. "Mama K." He laughed and she giggled holding her hands up.

"Ok ok, how's your morning going so far?" She asked eating her food. "Pretty good, had a long talk with my pops. Spoke with my aunt and saw my mom at the soap n' suds." He answered then shook his head.

"She on the drugs bad huh?" She asked and he nodded.

"I don't like talking about her though." He added.

"Understandable." She replied.

"Do you like my son? You think he's good for your sister?" She asked and he nodded pouring syrup over his sausages.

"You know what's funny?"

"Tell me." She replied picking up her cup of sweet tea.

"When he used to talk about my sister he always addressed her as "Library girl." It never dawned on me until we found out that "Library girl" was Renae and her "friend" was him."

"So he used to bad mouth her?" She asked.

"Nah, he used to brag about her. Sometimes he spoke about how she would make it so difficult for him to get in her head because of stuff she was dealing with. He talked about her a lot, I don't think I ever heard him say anything negative about her." He explained and she smiled.

"Well I guess I raised him right then."

Chuckling, Dajon nodded.

"How did you feel when you found out they were a thing?" She asked.

"It caught me off guard, but I knew he was good for her and I saw it for myself that he was what she needed. I just wish our mom wasn't so hard on her."

"She doesn't like her much does she?" She asked and he shook his head.

"Till this day, I still don't know why she doesn't like Nae... it seems so weird. Like who wants to grow up with their parents hating the very sight of them?" He stated and she nodded in agreement.

"She may have some demons she needs to face. Just pray for her." She replied.

"She needs a lot more than prayer."

**

December 18th

"Baybeh baybeh?" King called walking through the door. "Yup?" She answered coming out her dance room.

"Damn I missed a show?" He asked putting his keys down.

"Yeah... I just needed to clear my head." She answered wiping the sweat from her forehead.

"What's that?" She asked as he held something behind his back.

"Just a little something." He replied meeting her halfway.

"Gotta give me some love first." He spoke leaning down and she giggled grabbing his face and pecked his lips repeatedly.

"Alright I wanna see!" She beamed doing a dance and he laughed showing her the bouquet of sunflowers.

"What's the reason?" She asked sniffing them. "No reason ma, I remember reading in one of your poems that you loved sunflowers." He announced and she smiled grabbing his face and kissed him.

"I love it."

"I knew you would." He replied pecking her lips and followed her towards the kitchen.

"I also got you these." He added grabbing the bag from behind the sofa.

"I'm starting to feel bad now. I gotta get you something." She pouted taking the bag from him.

"I got all da gifts I need in you ma." He assured leaning on the table and watched as she pulled the stuff out the bag.

"Un uh." She spoke smiling at the picture of She and Dajon when they were kids.

"How'd you get this? I thought it burned in the fire." She said pulling out the others.

Each photo that she thought she lost in the fire was here, big and framed.

"Bryson had some copies for himself that he hid. I told him about what happened and he told me that you had those pictures saved because you were gonna create some memory board for Dajon once he graduated. So I made a few calls and wallah." He explained.

She couldn't stop smiling, everything she thought she lost was right here.

"I don't deserve this." She mumbled staring at the picture of she and Dajon on his 5th birthday.

He was dressed as Michael Jackson and she was Janet.

"What? You crazy, you deserve da damn world and if I can, I'ma make sure you get it." He told her straight up.

Brushing her thumb over their names engraved, she smiled softly as her eyes grew watery.

"I don't know what to say... this is amazing." She spoke softly as she looked at the other pictures.

"You don't gotta thank me ma, I know you appreciate it." He told her as he wiped her face.

"You don't understand King... these pictures meant soooo much to me and when I found them all burned it cut me deep." Pausing she wiped under her eyes and stared at the picture.

"I know you hear me say it all the time but DJ is really my best friend. Despite everything we've been through we always knew how to keep each other happy. So thank you for getting these back to me, I love you so much." She spoke putting the frame down and hugged him tightly.

"Thank you."

"I just wanna keep dat smile on your face baybeh. I love you ma and I just want da best for you." He told her which made her break down fully.

Bryson knew exactly how much those pictures meant to her and when King came to him about it he was right on board with helping him out.

He didn't have every picture that Renae had but he had a good third of what she had.

All he ever wanted was for her to be happy and seeing that she found that in Kingston, whatever it took Bryson would always be there to help when asked.

**

"This was his first birthday, I found one of Aunt Tam's wigs and put it on him. He was only one but knew good and well he was not supposed to be wearing girly things. He beat me up with the wig and his bottle." Renae explained as she and King laid on the sofa going through the photos.

"That's how you got that scar on yo leg?" He asked and she giggled nodding.

"I tried crawling away and he dug his nails into my skin, I screamed Bloody Mary." She laughed and he laughed as well.

"After that, I never tried to dress him up again. Dad was like "Well at least I know he's only gonna check for girls when he gets older." and he was right."

Laughing, King picked up the other photo and Renae smiled.

"That's my grandma... her and my mom didn't get along but she loved us like no other."

"How she die?" He asked. "Cancer." She replied softly staring at her grandma.

"She used to always say "You're gonna be a gorgeous young lady when you get older, but you have to be smart, work hard and ignore any compliments you get. Boys will come later and beauty fades but knowledge doesn't..." pausing Renae smiled faintly.

"She used to say "You're gonna be a star one day and I hope I get to see you shine." Fanning her eyes she stared the photo.

"I hope she's smiling down on me... I hope I made her proud. She added and King smiled.

"She is ma, I'm sure she is." He told her.

"Sometimes I feel like I disappointed her with some of the decisions I made."

"How so?" He asked picking up the photo of Keenan, Renae and Dajon as kids.

They all had some strong genes.

"Trying to kill myself... she wouldn't like that. She never liked suicide, she said it was being unfair to God because he allowed his son to die for us. But you know sometimes people just handle things differently and me... I just felt like life was just laughing at me." She explained.

"I wish she was here..."

"What would you talk about with her?" He asked.

"A lot... mostly you. I think she would get a kick out of you and even flirt. She did that a lot with my dad though, said he favored young LL Cool J with a mixture of Lawrence Fishburne."

"Oh yo granny was a lil cougar." He joked and she laughed hitting his hand.

"She was not, just had good taste." She defended and he chuckled.

"I'm just playing, yo grandma was gorgeous though, hell all da women in yo fam gorgeous, including dat mean mama of yours." He told her and she laughed agreeing.

"I wish she would've pretended to still like me. I liked her better when I didn't know the truth." She mumbled putting the photos up and turned in his arms.

"Sometimes it's best to know now." He replied rubbing her back.

"I think I'm a crack baby." She announced and he furrowed his brows.

"Don't say that."

"No for real. DJ said some stuff that really got me thinking. What if she did drugs while she was pregnant with me?" She asked.

"You would have all sorts of things wrong wit you ma, prolly adhd, add, random outbursts, bipolar disorder, allat." He told her.

"What if I do and I just don't know it?"

"You don't Nae." He assured.

"Explain the suicide attempts and the voices." She pressed sitting up.

"Yo pops, da voices are from your flashbacks. Trust me ma, you aren't crazy." He told her and she twisted her lips in deep thought.

"You're right." She replied laying back down and stared at her ring.

"Promise me something King."

"What's that?" He replied sliding his hand up her shirt.

"If we ever get into like a crazy argument, promise not to leave without saying "I love you" it may be hard but I wouldn't want something to happen and the last thing either of us remembers was just the stupid stuff we said." She spoke.

"I got you, I don't see us arguing though. I would try to talk it out before I let us argue." He admitted and she smiled softly.

Caressing his face, she placed a kiss on his cheek then laid her head on his chest and just admired him.

"My King." She said.

"My Queen."

*

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🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧

Anything y'all expecting to see in book 2?