Hakeem lifted his head from his hands to look at Grace who stared back at him with somewhat hopeful and partially defiant eyes.

Hope, because she wanted him to accept the news and not let it cause another rift between them, and defiance because if he didn't, she wouldn't let that affect how she felt about it.

"Congrats."

She eyed him carefully, "Thank you."

"7 weeks." Monica voiced from the table, "I went to the doctor's appointment."

It took a minute for Hakeem to wrap his head around the fact that his mama sounded almost excited about the fact that her teenage daughter was pregnant.

"You stay at somebody appointment don't it?"

She ignored him and spoke of her plans for the evening, "I'm meeting his mama tonight. You're welcome to come."

"Grace Ian even know you was having sex with nobody." Hakeem responded, returning the favor and ignoring Monica, "How you pregnant?"

"Was I supposed to say "Hey Keem, I'm having sex."?"

"But I mean with- I just... Ion know. Congrats to you and bruh."

Grace sighed, "You didn't read the link I sent you? It doesn't have to be spread to someone who doesn't have it."

Hakeem just didn't see it lasting long because they were teenagers. When he was a teenager you couldn't have paid him to have sex with a girl with herpes, and especially not unprotected sex.

It could've spoken to how much he liked her, but that made Hakeem wonder what dude looked like if he was so willing at a young age to do that.

He didn't want an ugly nephew or niece.

"Who would've thought I'd have two grandchildren less than a year apart?" Monica questioned as she stared at nothing.

Hakeem snorted, "Damn sure not me. You ain't swing on her or nun?"

"The timing might be off, but babies are a blessing."

Her two children made eye contact, and Grace smiled while Hakeem shook his head, "You too lil to have a baby."

"She'll be 17 in a week." Monica argued, "Like I said, the timing may be wrong but we'll work on that. I can keep the baby while you go to school and do the rest of your senior stuff."

"Said she 7 weeks ain't it? And you already got the baby life planned out?"

Grace snickered, "I don't mind."

"I bet you don't."

Talking ceased as the front door opened and in came Maya, pausing to speak, "Hey Keem, hey Grace."

She was purposely being petty by not giving a general greeting. A somewhat bold action, but Maya was offended by Monica calling Hakeem and being, in her eyes, unnecessarily messy.

Monica waited until she felt like she was out of earshot before shaking her head, "She's been in a bad mood since Grace made it known I called you about her."

Her words were accusatory making Grace roll her eyes, "It's your house, mama. You'll never let it go if me and Hakeem was disrespectful like that."

"I was more than understanding when you went through everything. Hush."

Hakeem looked at the time on his phone, "I'll see y'all tomorrow. Grace done blew me for the day anyway."

"If it's a girl her and Ivy can be like, best friends."

"Ivy said she ain't friendly."

He stood up to leave then, just as Maya was making her way back into the living room, "Here, Keem."

It was a t-shirt that proudly displayed his parental role. Monica suggested that he and Maya wear coinciding shirts at the upcoming baby shower.

A baby shower Hakeem wasn't even aware was being planned.

So confusion marred his face as he took the shirt from her, opening it out to see bold pink letters across the front.

"Daddy to be
of princess Ivy"

He looked at it for a few seconds and asked, "Do I wear it inna delivery room or some?"

"At the baby shower."

"Ain't no baby shower. What we doing that for? She got everything."

Maya took a deep breath to keep from cursing him out, "My friends and family still wanna come celebrate. It's not all about gifts."

"And that's cool but Ion really see why I need to be there. Y'all have fun together."

No, he wasn't needed at the baby shower, but Maya still wanted him there so that everyone could finally meet Ivy's dad, and she could finally have an event that didn't end in some sort of drama.

Jayden's baby shower was a train wreck from start to finish, making Maya so much more appreciative of the simplicity of this process.

"Hakeem you can at least stop by," Monica stated softly when she saw sadness on Maya's face.

This was the perfect time for him to make a point, "I wouldn't care at all 'bout going to the lil party but you do messy stuff and make everything into some it's not. I'm not tryna get caught in that."

"It's so trifling you'll let some girl stop you from taking care of your baby but okay."

"Bro what? You haven't paid for nothing and you live with my mama where you still don't have to pay. Don't nothing ever be about Ivy, it's always you on some more junk."

Maya was frustrated that no matter what she tried to do, it went left. She didn't think she deserved the treatment she was getting from Hakeem given that she hadn't done anything but give him a baby that he seemed to be looking forward to. Instead of him establishing a secure relationship with the mother, he wanted to chase behind a crackhead.

Blinking back tears, she snatched the shirt away from Hakeem and stormed out of the house.

• • •

"We so fake." Raelyn muttered while waiting for Mia to come to the door.

"No huh. We checking on our friend."

"I don't want no hoe checking on me and they nigga got my nigga touched."

Bri shushed her just as Mia pulled open the door, giving them a fake smile. She didn't want them to come over because she honestly didn't see the point in them being friends anymore. When Corey was around, she had a reason for continuing their friendship but now that he was gone, she wasn't sure what they would have in common.

She also felt like Brielle nor Raelyn were being truthful when they told her they didn't know anything.

"Bitches get to acting funny. You hate to see it."

"I'm not," She lied, "My parents have just been keeping me busy."

It was awkward as they stood there waiting to be invited in. Eventually they realized she wasn't going to invite them in, and Raelyn gave Bri a look.

"Oh okay. We were just tryna see if you were good."

"Yeah."

"Okay."

She didn't wait for them to turn around, closing the door in their faces and retreating back to her room where she was doing absolutely morning.

Rae scoffed, "I told you about being so friendly. Sis treated us like K. Michelle."

"She wanted us off her porch," Brielle laughed, "I thought she was cool but I guess not."

They weren't really bothered by the way Mia was acting because they felt like they'd done their part in reaching out. That was just a courtesy anyway, feeling bad that she witnessed Corey get dragged out of his house and couldn't assume that he ghosted her.

"Guess who pregnant."

"You?" Brielle guessed as she put on her seatbelt, "If not I don't care. Should we just go sit up there or waste time doing something else?"

"Grace. And might as well."

Forgetting that she just said she wouldn't care unless it was Raelyn, Bri looked at her in surprise, "You forreal?"

Raelyn laughed and nodded, "Yes bitch. I caught the subtweets last night."

"Your messy ass. I'm so blowed right now."

"You remember that episode of Martin when he got beat up and had all them bumps on his head?" She waited for Bri to nod her head, "They said that's how her baby gone come out. These new teenagers some mean ass hoes."

Grace's bullying had resumed because school was out and they had nothing better to do than pick on her. Her threat of telling Hakeem only held weight with boys because they realized the chance of him doing anything to teenage girls was slim to none.

She didn't even have Twitter, and the people that did had no reason to come to her defense, making it a laughing session that she wouldn't find out about until the next morning.

"Her baby daddy must be popular?"

"He look lame but hey."

"Dang... One thing about Grace, she not gone make a nigga wear a condom."

Raelyn let out something between a laugh and a snort, "But I'm messy? Okayyyy."

It wasn't a shot per se, but more so an observation spoken aloud. Bri and Grace weren't friends, but they weren't unfriendly towards one another either. That being said, she had a lot of sympathy for Grace and her situation.

The fact that they likely believed that her baby would have herpes, then go on to make jokes about it spoke to not only their ignorance of the STD but also to their obvious desire to get beat up for speaking on somebody's child.

Many people are unaware of the way that herpes is spread or contracted, as well as how medication and outbreaks work. When Grace spoke to Hakeem about a link, that was her educating the people she was close to about it so there wouldn't be misconceptions.

A wrapper being opened made Bri look toward Raelyn to see what she was eating then frown in disgust, "I don't even like the smell no more."

"Of what?" Rae asked, glancing over at Brielle, "Please keep your eyes on the road."

"Honeybuns."

Brielle hadn't told her everything, but she knew enough to know why she didn't like the smell anymore, "You like a born again Christian. I dead be forgetting you used to sell that lil puss for honeybuns and illegal substances."

"Fuck you! You used to sell yours for shoes so not too much on me Ms. 'I send ultrasounds to houses '."

Everyone has memories they aren't too fond of. Raelyn's memories were of when she did bird shit like cyberstalk Kyra, a girl who had never had an inkling that Raelyn was even alive.

It was cringeworthy to think that not even a year ago she was Barbara and Kyra was Shirley.

"I wrote Kyra from my fake page."

Bri sighed loudly while coming to a stop sign, "Why?"

"Not to be messy. I.... apologized."

"Pigs must be flying. They better not shit on this car neither."

Raelyn waited patiently for Brielle to be done laughing at her own joke, "This why I'm your only friend, rude hoe."

"I'm sorry." She laughed again, "Tell me what happened."

"Nothing really happened. I just apologized 'cause I feel like I fucked that girl life up for no reason. Well, for Josiah, but when I found out he had a girlfriend I didn't even like him like that so I could've just left him where he was."

Kyra had done nothing wrong to Rae, aside from wanting to keep Josiah from being an active parent, which he had a hand in as well. It wasn't about her receiving an apology in return anyway because, in a way, it had nothing to do with Kyra at all. Her apology initiated Kyra's message to Josiah, a domino effect of sorts.

"That's some real shit Rae."

She bit down on her bottom lip, "I'm not a bad person. I just do messy stuff and me and Jo working on that."

A true work in progress.

By then they were outside Nicole's building and continued to talk while waiting for Kayla's session to be over.

"Wait wait wait." Rae held up a hand to make Bri pause, "He told you that you take advantage of him and his head still connected to his shoulders? You getting soft and Ion like that."

"I'm tryna use healthy communication techniques. It's a whole book about it."

Bri started reading the book because of Kayla, and it confirmed what she already knew: that she was an unhealthy communicator. Not with Kayla, she thought she did fine with that, but with everyone else. On the other hand, it also showed where she was effective in her approaches.

"Girl fuck that. If he not listening when you talking then you communicating with yourself."

"Anyway, he meant in the past. I was confused too when he first said it."

As Bri was playing their conversation over in her head, she asked Hakeem what he meant by her taking advantage of him. It was then explained that he didn't mean in the present tense at all, but rather when she continued to use coke while living with him because she knew he wouldn't put her out.

Taking advantage of a situation, if you will.

"Well, he needa learn how to say what he mean. Grown ass man and can't talk."

Brielle smiled, "Leave my pooh alone."

"....I thought we were dragging but I guess not. You right. That's our pooh."

"I should've ignored your ass on that bus."

• • •

Later that night, Brielle and Kayla found Hakeem sitting on the couch looking intently at his phone.

"Your eyes finna pop out your head." She stated in place of a greeting.

He looked up, then back down at his phone, "I'm reading this stuff Grace sent me about herpes. The shit not even that bad forreal."

"I'm sure every single person with herpes wanna talk to you about that."

Takayla had made her way to the couch, plopping down beside Hakeem, "Tell Bri we want some wings."

"You was 'posed to whisper or some. Now she know what you tryna do."

Her best bet at getting wings was asking Hakeem to ask Bri, or him getting some and giving them to her. Brielle wouldn't let her eat wings every night or she very well would have.

"We eating beans and weenies. Go take a bath."

She scrunched up her face, "I'll just eat the weenie 'cause the beans make me poot."

"Them beans'll tear a nigga stomach up boy," Hakeem replied through laughter.

Once Kayla went to go complete her task of bathing, Bri left Hakeem to his articles and headed into the kitchen to cook.

Though they felt as if their talk hadn't gotten them anywhere initially, when Bri revisited it by asking what he meant about taking advantage of him, it prompted a new conversation that pushed them in the right direction.

The desire to be together was there, it just took patience, which was neither of their strong suits.

"We can't keep doing this over and over. Talking, making jokes, then we have sex after not even really fixing the problem. If I'm staying with you while you're having a baby then obviously the goal for me is." Brielle paused but continued because she'd already said this much, "Obviously I expect to get married at some point in our future and if-"

"You expect to get married at some point in our future," Hakeem repeated as he stared at the ceiling.

Well, what the fuck he thou-?

"Yes."

"You wanna marry me?"

Brielle reached over to flick the side of his ear with her finger, "Yeah."

"When?"

"Nigga I don't know. Whenever."

He sat up and got his phone from the nightstand, "They be doing these lil weddings outta town and shit."

While his eagerness could be seen as endearing, Brielle forced herself to think logically. Hakeem had just gotten done ignoring her for weeks instead of being open about what was bothering him, and that wasn't exactly a trait you look for in a husband.

And Bri knew she still had a lot of growing up to do when she didn't give a damn about what happened to Maya pregnant or not.

"Not you tryna marry me after we just got done finna kill each other." She laughed, "That's not healthy. I meant when we're older and more mature."

"And what about right now? Until we get older and more mature?"

She allowed him to pull her closer, "I guess we gotta wait and see. I don't think I'm supposed to give you this many chances. The strong black woman in me is screaming."

"Bri let's do a Tik Tok." Kayla demanded as she came into the kitchen.

"I don't wanna make no more Tik Toks." Bri complained back, "We did 'em all day yesterday."

"This the last one."

She was lying because she said that yesterday.

"Go tell Hakeem to do it."

Kayla nodded because it was more fun with Hakeem anyway. She entered the living room just as he was exiting, "Bri, I'll be back."

She popped her head into the hallway, "Where you going?"

"Hospital. Maya finna have the baby."

• • •

i bet y'all like damn everybody getting pregnant but bri 🥴

somebody asked for our good sis ivy last chapter (or the one before that i can't remember) so here she comes chile.