Brielle tried to ignore the giggling coming from the other side of the room, but once she'd acknowledged it, it only served to annoy her more.

"Shhh." Darnishia whispered laughed, "Don't wake her up."

The gag is, I'm already up, Brielle thought, And I'm tempted to get up and go call the authorities.

She'd only do that though if she wanted to be petty, and since Bri had come back home, Darnishia hadn't had much to say to her other than a brief conversation about her being glad that she was home.

Of course Brielle wasn't sure how true those words were, but she still smiled nonetheless.

"Man that girl sleep." Came a muffled response.

Bri soon found out why it was muffled when kissing noises became apparent, followed by heavy breathing. Not wanting to let them get too far into it, Brielle rolled over, "I just know y'all fucking lying. I'm very much awake, very much disgusted."

Rather than break away from each other like she hoped, they continued to giggle in between kisses, and Brielle just decided to go into the living room until they were finished. Alisha wasn't home so she wasn't concerned with running into her mother.

With a lack of options on where to live when she got out, Brielle stubbornly returned "home". The stubbornness stemmed from the fact that she may as well not have taken the path she did since to her, being back in the house negated all her previous actions, making them pointless.

Only now the checks being received were in Brielle's name and not Alisha's.

For all Alisha knew, Bri had no source of income, and in an attempt to be somewhat helpful, she only asked for $100 a month on the utilities. All Brielle had to do now was wait until she turned 19 so that she could get an apartment in her own name.

As soon as Brielle put a hot pocket in the microwave, she heard someone enter the kitchen, "What you still doing up?"

She barely glanced at her brother, "I'm eating."

"Oh."

Their relationship was strained to say the least. Jacoby would talk to her in the privacy of their home but would likely rather die than allow anyone to know that Bri was his sister. It had everything to do with what people said, the constant insults causing him to publicly disown his sister, and therefore distance himself from anything she did.

Josiah was more of a brother to her than her actual brothers.

"It must be somebody in y'all room?" Jacoby asked while opening the refrigerator, "And you might as well cook some for both of us."

"Believe me when I say you not tryna eat nothing I make for you. Not nothing."

Jacoby laughed and reached for the milk, "I'ma just eat some cereal anyway."

The microwave beeped, and Brielle took her hot pocket out, walking into the living room and falling down onto the couch where she stayed for the rest of the night.

• • •

Dice collided into the side of the house, rolling onto the asphalt as the group of men waited to see which side it would land on.

You could tell who was up by the animated voices, and the thinly masked anger of those who were losing. Hakeem remained squatted in front of the house, placing his head in his hands when the number was less than he needed.

"Aye man all these fucking people gotta go." Hakeem asserted, "The fuck you standing around for and you ain't spending no money?"

Josiah looked up from the money in his hand, "Y'all know how he get when he start losing. Ole mad ass nigga."

"We already knowing. Keem they said they seen ya' girl back out here. We thought when she got out you was gone be inna better mood."

No one knew excatly what happened between Bri and Hakeem, just that she randomly disappeared for a few months, only to show back up like she'd never left.

"Shit Ion know why you thought that." Josiah mumbled, his focus on the two dice that were still being thrown against the house, "He sent lil sis to the slammer so she ain't coming up off no pussy for a minute."

"The slammerrrrrr? Null Keem you ain't lock her up did it?"

"Next time my girl make me mad I'm sending her ass to jail. Talk to them bitches like how she be talking to me and I hope they pain her shit."

Hakeem was already annoyed that he was losing, but Josiah telling a group of niggas he wasn't even close to, that he sent Bri to jail pissed him off.

"Ian send that girl to no fucking jail. She ain't even old enough to go to Metro."

In his mind, he was proving his point without saying too much. The irony in that was that he only opened up a new line of jokes that they were all too happy to jump on.

While this was going on, Josiah happened to glance across the street and see Raelyn sitting on the bench waiting to get on the bus, and beside her sat Brielle who looked like she'd rather be anywhere besides that bus stop.

"What the fuck she doing?" Josiah wondered aloud, making everyone follow his line of sight.

"Bruh please go say some to her. I'm so tired of the not shit babydaddy posts on IG man. I just be wanting her to post her ass and gone somewhere."

"Ian saying shit to that girl. I barely got Kyra to come back to my house and you think I'm finna go say some to her? If she wasn't so fucking messy I would but that hoe act like she gotta post everything. Ian on allat."

Hakeem didn't care if Josiah ever talked to Raelyn again, but the opportunity to talk to Bri without Maya being around had presented itself, and he wasn't about to pass it up. Standing up, he began walking in the direction of Brielle and Raelyn, ignoring the laughs from behind him.

By the time he made it across the street, Raelyn had leaned over and began rambling in Brielle's ear about Josiah making eye contact and looking away, "So that bitch see me sitting at the bus stop and not gone offer me a ride? He thought I fucked something up by sending that ultrasound but he hasn't seen shit yet."

Bri was barely listening, preparing herself for an encounter with Hakeem. The first time she saw him she was angry, and even then she recognized how she felt about him from before still lingered.

Her heart was beating fast as hell, and it wasn't from the coke this time.

"Y'all needa ride or some?" Hakeem asked, looking at Bri who had her eyes trained on the street.

"No."

Raelyn turned to look at her in disbelief, "Sis you might not need a ride but I do."

"You was about to ride the bus before his big ass showed up, right? Let's just ride the bus."

She observed Bri quietly before looking at Hakeem, "If the dick gone have me catching the bus rather than ride in a car, I don't want it."

"Shittt the dick gotchu' catching the bus anyway. You shouldn't want none at all."

"Oh you got jokes huh? That's why your beard barely connect and your hair look like some ground beef. Ain't even gotta go to the store to make Rotel 'cause we can just cook this nigga head."

Letting out a laugh, He asked Brielle, "You gone let her talk to me like that?"

He was trying to lighten the mood, which didn't work at all.

"You let Maya talk to me crazy, and then tried to clown my hair stuff like your nose don't be stuck in my shit. Bye ground beef."

"Period. We can wait on the bus, fuck he talking about?"

Despite the messiness that could be found in the situation, when Raelyn told Bri she was going to wait on another bus, Brielle joined her and listened to her talk for close to an hour. Eventually, Bri offered to join her at her doctor's appointment so she wouldn't be alone.

"Y'all ain't gotta take the bus. Bri like running anyway."

"Bye Hakeem 'cause you still tryna play me."

Seeing that his approach wasn't going to work, Hakeem ran a hand over his face, "Just lemme give you a ride before you piss me off."

"Oop." Raelyn whispered, pretending to look down at her phone.

"Only 'cause Rae pregnant," Brielle replied with an eye-roll, standing up just in time to see Josiah pause in front of them. Neither he nor Raelyn said a word as they followed Hakeem to his car, getting into the back but still not saying a word.

"Where we going?" Hakeem asked with his hand on the gear shift, waiting for directions.

"We're going to a doctor's appointment. I don't know where you and your friend going."

"His friend?" Josiah questioned in mock disappointment, "I had got a shirt made saying 'Free Bri the Shooter' and this how you act?"

Before they could continue, Hakeem interrupted them, "Where I'm dropping her off at?"

Brielle almost missed the slight emphasis Hakeem had placed on 'her', side-eyeing him but still answering his question, "Providence."

Josiah still had yet to utter a word to Raelyn as he replied to messages from Kyra about when he'd be coming home.

"Didn't you just have an appointment?" Hakeem asked.

"Yeah but I go a lot since I'm high risk."

High blood pressure ran in Raelyn's family, making her pregnancy a guarded one, with doctors wanting her to come in for the smallest of issues.

"You high risk?" Josiah asked, finally breaking the awkward silence between him and Rae.

"I told you that."

"You ain't tell me shit. You might got me confused with social media since you put your whole life on that hoe."

That was one of the main issues he had with Raelyn. Even if he wasn't cheating on Kyra, just the fact that Rae felt the need to alert everybody to what was going on aggravated him.

"I def sent the message to your phone, and you told me you didn't give a fuck."

Josiah never received that message, Kyra being the one to respond in a way that she hoped would prevent Raelyn from texting him again. It worked too since Raelyn hadn't tried to contact Josiah in the 5 weeks since her doctors had told her.

Sighing, Josiah turned to fully face Raelyn, "I wouldn't say no shit like that to you and you know that."

"I don't know anything. You treat me like shit, you won't come to my appointments, and you let that girl mess up my car when I've never done shit to her besides expose your trifling ass."

Again, Josiah wasn't aware of what Kyra had been doing, "I ain't let her do nothing. Ian know none 'bout that.... And you sayin' some appointments but you don't even know who baby that is."

Even as he said it, he knew it was a lie. Raelyn wasn't the type to lie about something as important as who her child's dad was. As Josiah had told Hakeem and Corey before, she was big on loyalty, and Josiah was the only person she was having sex with while her boyfriend, for lack of a better word, was in prison. It just made him feel less bad for not doing what he did for Kyra, for Raelyn.

Rather than be offended, Raelyn chuckled, "I know who I had unprotected sex with. Everybody can't say that, but I'ma let you have it Josiah."

He sat quietly for a moment before responding, "I'ma get you some to drive."

Losing all of her earlier composure, Raelyn suddenly began yelling at him, "That's what you think the biggest problem is right now?! Not the fact that you haven't checked on me or your daughter in months?!"

"I said Ian-"

"I don't give a fuck."

Brielle stared out of the window, and Hakeem stared straight ahead at the windshield, the car flooded with silence.

At least until Josiah decided to say, "I'll stay at the appointment witchu'."

• • •

bri & hakeem ab to talk omg.

let's discuss: a forgiving queen or we holding grudges bc he sent sis up the road? or maybe you feel like she's forgiving him too soon?

also, josiah is a trash ass character but for some reason the more i write him, the more i like him. i just need him to pick a baby mama 🥴

thanks for reading 💕

sn: i'ma try to update again tomorrow, i just needed this chapter posted bc it's almost been a week. *cries in deadbeat wattpad writer*