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"Woah, hold on." I shook my head. "So, what's your mom's name?"

"Lola June."

That's McKenzie's mom's name too.

"Do you have anything to prove that? Like, did you come here with any proof?"

She ruffled through her purse before pulling out a paper and photos. "This is my birth certificate."

Sure enough it was signed by Lola June- with no middle name, just like McKenzie's mom.

"And here are some pictures I have from my birth, and when I was a baby. No older than 1."

Taking the pictures from her, it felt like my heart dropped to my ass when I seen McKenzie's mom on a hospital bed, in a hospital gown, holding on to a newborn baby that definitely wasn't McKenzie.

I've known McKenzie for a while now, we've done all of the embarrassing shit to each other like looked through each other's baby pictures, so I know this wasn't my best friend as a baby. This was definitely another baby.

And that other baby is Melani.

"How long have you known this? Like, how did you even figure this out? This is fucking crazy."

She nodded. "Trust me, I know. And I'm not expected to be accepted by your family with open arms, but this is something I couldn't hold in no more. I've known that McKenzie was my sister for a little while now, but I basically figured it out through Dayna."

I cringed at the sound of that bitch's name.

"I just remember her hitting me up about the new girl at her school- which was you. She kept telling me about how you and Angel were a thing and blah blah blah. And then later she told me about how you "dragged" your sister to the school too and she told me her name was McKenzie June. I didn't say anything to her yet though because June isn't the most uncommon last name, but it's not super common either so I asked her to try to find out either what had happened to McKenzie for her to have moved down here with you and your mom or to try to find McKenzie's real parents' name."

I chuckled. "Seems like that bitch was obsessed with us or some shit."

"Not even gonna lie, she kinda was. Almost everyday it was "Audriana and Angel" and then it turned into "Audriana, Angel, McKenzie, and Amere", like, it was bad. But anyways, she eventually came back and told me that she found out the reason McKenzie had moved down here was because her mom had been abusing her- or something like that- so her mom was arrested and taken to jail in Vegas and McKenzie was adopted by your mom."

I slowly nodded. "Okay..."

"So I decided to at least try and look up arrests made throughout Vegas to ease my mind. That's when I came across my mom- our mom. Right then and there, I knew I wanted to meet McKenzie so when Day told me about the hotel party and shit, I asked her to invite McKenzie so I could meet her. But she ended up not coming and I was planning to reach out to her myself, but I knew it wasn't the best idea. Especially after everything that had happened that night."

I scoffed. "Yea... right. So um, what are you really expecting from all of this? What's your plans?"

"I wasn't planning on telling you before I told her, but I felt like this was the best time to tell you because I'd probably never get this opportunity again. I just want to meet her, I want to get to know her, I want to talk to her. I want to know my sister."

"How do you plan on telling her? I'm sure you don't plan on me dropping the bomb because I'm not going to."

She shook her head. "No, I definitely want to tell her myself. I want to sit her down and show her everything I showed you, tell her everything I told you, and then some. Like I said, I'm not expecting you guys to accept me with open arms. I mean, I would love that, but I'm not expecting that at all. If I could get your help with this, I can meet you guys somewhere like tomorrow or something and I'll tell her. I know you'll probably want to be there for her support because I don't know how she'll react."

"I'm not going to say that I accept you completely, but I have no ill feelings towards you anymore. I really do appreciate you trying to clear shit up as much as possible. Not just with me, but with my sister too. I have no idea how she'll react either so yea we can do that. We can meet up tomorrow."

She began to smile. "Okay, cool. I appreciate you for reaching out to me to even give me a chance to explain myself and to tell you something like this."

"No problem." I scooted my chair back from the table getting ready to stand up. "So I guess I will just DM you later or tomorrow to let you know where we can meet up at?"

"Yea, that'll work."

"Alright. I'm going to head home."

"Okay. Thank you again."

"Yea, no problem."

Leaving the table, I pushed my chair in and made my way outside. It wasn't dark yet so I decided against Ubering and just walked home. I needed to clear my mind anyways.

I can't believe my sister has another sister. Like, an actual blood sister. What if she gets upset with me for knowing and not telling her? I really hope she doesn't have a bad reaction to this shit tomorrow. She could either be okay with the fact that her mom had another child she knew nothing about or she could be upset with it simply because she won't know of any other way to react to something like this.

How do you react to something like this? This is life changing as hell. I couldn't imagine finding out that I have secret siblings somewhere that my parents told me nothing about.

What's even crazier is that they have the same damn birthday, Melani is just a year older.

Now that's weird as fuck.

This might just give Kenz another reason to hate her mom even more. Maybe this is a bad idea. Maybe all of this was a bad idea. Maybe Kenz shouldn't find out and maybe I shouldn't have met up with this chick for me to even find out. Maybe I-

I was cut off by my thoughts once I realized I was already in front of my house.

Damn. That was fast.

I wasn't surprised to see that the house was still empty because our conversation wasn't that long. It felt like it was though.

Sitting on the kitchen counter eating Oreo's, I took my phone out to call Angel. I know if there was anybody I could talk to about anything, it was him.

The phone rang twice before he picked up on the other end.

"Baybeh girl."

Ugh, butterflies. "Hi, babe. What are you doing?"

"Actually just got done workin' wit' pops. You wanna go get somethin' to eat?"

"I would love that."

"Aight. I'ma be on my way right nie then. Be ready."

"Okay, baby. Drive safe, I love you."

"I luh you mo'."

We sat on my bed, spreading our Checkers out on top of the comforter.

"Uh uh, get that towel." I pointed to my hamper on the other side of the room. "You're messy as hell."

Angel smacked his teeth. "You'on complain any otha' time."

"Oh my gosh, shut up nasty."

"You bein' nasty." He smirked. "Get ya mind out the gutta'."

A few minutes went by while we ate and started watching Netflix. As much as I wanted to hold this in until after McKenzie found out herself, I couldn't help it.

"Babe..."

His eyes didn't move from the TV. "Wassup, ma?"

"I need to talk to you."

"Bout?"

"I found something out today."

His eyes got wide as he turned to me. "Wh-what?"

"About McKenzie."

"Oh. What happened?"

"I met up with Melani today."

"Who is that?"

"Remember the girl I ran up on at the fair?" He nodded, confusion all over his face. "Her."

His eyebrows scrunched together. "Fuck you meetin' up wit' her for?"

"Just relax and listen. I was in my head earlier about the whole situation again, and I just so happened to come across her on Instagram and I felt like that was a sign so I reached out to her and we went to Starbucks-"

"She came hea' and picked you up? I know you ain't give that damn girl yo' address."

"No. I walked there and she drove herself. Now just listen to me please."

He scoffed. "Yea, aight."

"As soon as I sat down with her, she started apologizing. I basically told her I didn't want an apology, but she wasn't going for it. So whatever whatever, she apologized and yadda yadda. She basically told me that she had no idea before she got to the hotel about Dayna and Nicole's brilliant plan. Check this out." I chuckled sarcastically. "Dayna, Nicole, Cedrick, and the Andre kid all agreed to drug me. The initial plan was that Nicole and Dayna were going to basically beat me up as I was knocked out and Cedrick was going to do some shit to me, but he ended up fucking Nicole instead."

Angel gave me a look. "You lettin' that shit roll off ya tongue like it don't bother you."

"Honestly, I'm numb to it at this point. As long as I know that nothing happened to me and them bitches was too scary to put a hand on me, I'm cool."

"If them fuck niggas wasn't locked up, they would deflee be six feet under. That's some sick ass shit for yo'- man, fuck."

"For what?"

He quickly shook his head. "Mane, I'on even know what I'm sayin' that shit just pissed me off so much."

"Babe, chill." I scooted closer to him, cupping his chin in my hand as I pecked his lips. "I'm okay. Nothing happened to me."

"What make you feel like you can believe what she was sayin'?"

I shrugged. "I just believe she has no reason to lie. She wasn't there for me."

"What you mean?"

"She was there because she thought she was about to meet McKenzie that night."

"Fuck for?"

"Brace yourself." I wrapped my food up. "McKenzie and Melani are sisters."

I knew at that moment I had his full attention, but his facial expression cracked me up.

"You lyin'."

"I'm so serious. She showed me her birth certificate and pictures. It's legit."

He raised his eyebrows. "Damn. That's crazy. You gon' tell her when she get here?"

"Hell no. Technically, it's not my business to tell so we're going to meet up tomorrow."

"Kenz know you takin' her to meet that girl?"

"Nope. Again, not my business to tell."

He was quiet for a second before he spoke. "So what you sayin' is, it's okay to hold information like that from her?"

"In this case, yes. I would much rather it come from the direct source because if it comes from me, I can't give Kenz all the answers that Melani can."

"Hm aight."

"What? Not a good idea? You think I should tell her, don't you?"

"Na." He shook his head. "I was just askin'."

"Yea okay."

"But aye?"

"Hm?"

"Just know that no matta' what happens or whea' life takes us, I luh you."

I chuckled. "What did you do?"

"Nothin'. I just want you to know that."

"Okay... I love you too."

"She thinks it's just a dinner so I could see why she wanted you to come, too, but I think it might be good that you're there." I explained to Amere. "She might lean more towards you than me after this."

After McKenzie came home after work yesterday, I told her I wanted to take her out for dinner when she gets off of work today. Her thinking it was nothing more than a simple hang out, she asked if we could invite Amere and Angel. Obviously I didn't say no because I didn't want it to seem like something was up even though something is.

"I'on think she gon' be mad at you. She don't got no reason to be, you lookin' out for her."

"I am, but she might not understand that at the moment. I won't be upset with her if she gets upset with me, but I hope she doesn't."

Angel sat on the couch next to me. "Why would she be upset wit' you? You ain't do nothin'."

"Because she might not know how else to react to this and being that I've known for almost 24 hours now and haven't told her anything at all, she might just feel like getting mad at me is the easiest thing to do."

Angel mumbled something under his breath, but I didn't bother to even ask what it was that he said. He has been acting a little weird lately. Like he's been in his own little word or something.

"Well... y'all ready to go?"

"I guess so."

Amere drove while Angel and I sat in the back. Kenz didn't work far so it wouldn't take long to get her which meant that I had to text Melani and try to cover up my nerves all in 10 minutes.

It didn't take long to get to her and then to her favorite restaurant, Red Lobster.

"I'ma go change. Wanna come with me?"

"Yea. C'mon."

Kenz had me bring her a change of clothes from the house because she didn't want to be at dinner in her work clothes.

"I think I'm gonna quit." She informed me as soon as we walked into the bathroom. "But don't tell Amere."

"Why and why?"

She went into the big stall. "I'm just tired of it there. I want something different, and because. He's gonna wanna lecture me about how I need to keep working to save up for college and blah blah blah. I don't have time for that."

"His ol' responsible ass." I joked, making us laugh. "I kind of want to quit my job too. Honestly, I think I want to work at a daycare or something."

"Ew, snotty nose kids. Why?"

"I don't know. I think I want to look into going into child development in college, too."

"You're thinking about changing your major? You've wanted that forever."

"Not changing it, but just maybe into looking into something different just in case it's not what I expected it to be. I feel like my hopes are so high with what I'm expecting it to be, but with this job, I feel like I'm way off and I just don't want to be disappointed."

She finally came out of the stall, dressed in the outfit I put together for her. "That's understandable, sis. I support you and all of your decisions."

"Vice versa."

By the time we got back to the table, the boys had ordered us drinks already. Checking my phone, I had a text from Melani telling me she was five minutes away, and all of a sudden, my appetite was gone.

I found myself staring at the door for the next few minutes until Melani finally walked in. It was as if she could feel me staring at her because she looked in our direction as soon as she walked in. I discreetly signaled her over to us.

Tapping Angel, I nodded towards Melani which led to him getting Amere's attention which then led to McKenzie looking into the direction that we were all looking into.

Her face scrunched up once she realized who it was that was walking towards us. "Audri, look. Why she coming over here?"

As she got to our table, she pulled up a chair from the table beside us. "Hi."

"Hey."

"Yo."

"Wassup."

"Why is she being greeted? Did I miss something or?" Kenz asked, her attention mainly on me.

I let out a breath. "We actually talked things out yesterday. We're okay now."

"Oh. News to me."

"Yeaaa... but it's okay. She apologized to me and everything. She's actually here to talk to you."

"Talk to me about what? I don't need an apology."

Melani decided to speak up. "You may feel like you don't need one, but I'm going to apologize anyways. I'm also going to let you know some thing that is going to come off as insane, but just hear me out."

As she continued talking, my phone started vibrating in my purse. Seeing that it was Aviana, I ignored it and sent her a quick text that I was in the middle of something right now and that I'll call her back when we leave. Ignoring my text, she called me again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

"I'll be right back." I tried to whisper lowly over Melani talking.

I slid right over the missed call notification to call Avi back, but she was already calling me again.

"Hey, girl. I'm in the mid-"

"Audri, where are you? I need to talk to you."

"I'm actually out right now. Is everything okay?"

"Yes, but no. I need to talk to you as soon as possible. How long are you going to be out?"

I looked at the time. "Probably for like another hour, hour and a half maybe."

"Can I meet you somewhere to talk after you leave there? It's an emergency, Audri."

"Yea, of course. You can come to my house when we leave."

"Okay. Hurry."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just- just hurry."

"Okay."

Before I could say anything else, she was hanging up the phone. I had no idea what was going on with her, but she said she was okay so that's not my priority right now.

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