Darius in the media.
& Someone had a problem with how Darius don't act the same. Bih, that boy about to be 18 in a couple of chapters. He ain't the same lil cute kid yall know him as, the boy is grown up now.

"How could you do this to me bitch?
I put my trust in you. I loved you." -Speaker Knockerz

ANT

I nod my head at the niggas in the tattoo shop, making sure I don't make eye contact with all of the women. Polly is crazy. She tried to chop my dıck off when she thought I cheated, so I avoid any female I know for a fact she knows. I don't be in the mood to be arguing with Polly.

"What you about to get?" I ask Darius. His eighteenth birthday is tomorrow night and he wanted to get another tattoo. When he turned sixteen, Vonte snuck and took him to get a Rest in Peace Mark tattoo across his chest to remember my nigga. "I'm about to get Yanda's face tatted on my back." he answers, sitting in one of the chairs.

I look at him crazy. "Nigga, what? Darius, that lil girl beat yo ass today and you wanna tat her face on you? You know that ink ain't coming off, right?" I ask. If that's what he wants to get, it's not much I can say considering the fact he'll legally be an adult tomorrow, but I still don't think it's a good idea. "Yeah, I love her." he answers. "Look, I ain't trying to control you or tell you what to do, but that's not a good idea. I know Jessica is your sister, but I wish a thousand times I didn't tattoo her entire face and her name on my chest when I was younger. Now I'm forced to look at that shit and then hear Polly's mouth about it everyday." I explain.

"Fuck Polly. You act like a bitch. Why couldn't you be this faithful when you had a chance with Jessica? Then you wouldn't be such a grumpy man who's dating a psychopath pornstar." he says. I sigh. "That's not true. I'm not grumpy, I'm fine. I don't miss Jessica. I don't have nothing to say to her if it doesn't have anything to do with the kids. And I don't consider Polly a pornstar, she an entrepreneur." I explain.

He starts hysterically laughing. "Okay, Ant, I see the women who approach you and most of them are gorgeous and have their shit together, but you ignore them. You choose Polly of all people." he says, shaking his head. I shrug my shoulders. "That's my queen." I say.

"Bullshit." he says. "You don't have room. I saw your lil girlfriend, she a heathen." I say. "Whatever. She ain't my problem no more. I ain't chasing that hoe." he says, shocking me. Darius is not a fan of really calling women out their names. "You surprise me everyday. I always thought you would stay innocent and never have hoe problems. Mane, D, I thought you would've been the inspirational one forever." I say. He grew up on me. I hate it, but I won't ever admit that. That's why I want to have a lot of kids, I want to always have somebody depending on me.

"Fuck being inspirational. People don't listen, people don't want to be inspired anymore these days. They do what they want, and I don't have time to be worried about another person's life when I need to figure my own out." he says.

I shrug my shoulders, staring at the background picture of Jessica and my kids on my main phone. I told Polly my other phone was my main phone, because if she saw that picture of Jessica on my phone, her ass would try to slit my throat.

He shake his head. "You can do better than Polly." he mumbles. "Naw, I'm cool with her." I say. "Whatever, Ant. If you like it, I love it. But I was joking about the Yanda tattoo, I don't really know what I'm about to get yet." he says. "You need to figure it out before Randy get here." I say, referring to my tattoo artist. That nigga got some raw talent. He nods his head in agreement.

The shop owner, TJ walks over to me, then shakes my hand, then Darius'. "Wassup? Randy just called and told me he was feeling under the weather and he won't be able to make it. Yall can come in tomorrow, or you can browse through one of our newer artist's designs and see if you like something." he says. I look at Darius. "What you gone do, D?" I ask. "I'd like to see the new artist's work. It won't hurt nothing." Darius answers, shrugging his shoulders. "She's on her way. The girl is really talented, she can do just about anything. We hired her the other day." he tells us. I nod my head, not really interested bacuse I'm not the one getting a tattoo.

DARIUS

"This is Liah. She'll take good care of yall." TJ tells us. I look up, then lock eyes with Liah. She awkwardly stares at me and Ant. She doesn't have on any makeup, revealing the few acne spots she has on her face. She took her box braids down and has her naturally curly hair in a bun. She looks way better natural in my opinion.

She has on a jacket that's all the way zipped up but she is wearing short, ripped shorts. I never knew she had tattoos on her legs because she always wears jeans and jackets. She has a portrait of a baby on her right thigh, and colorful hibiscus flowers going from her foot to a little above her ankle.

"Hi." she says, smiling wide, displaying her braces. I nod my head at her. Ant smirks. "Ain't you the girl who kissed him and ended up making his ex kick his ass?" he asks. I narrow my eyes at him. She looks down at her feet. "I guess. Well, follow me to my room." she mumbles, then leads us to the back of the shop.

I glance at a picture frame sitting on the counter with a picture of us freshman year holding our experiment we won first place for at the school science fair. She notices me and Ant looking, then she awkwardly lays the picture down.

"Look, I'm not about to cock block or no shit. I'm about to go call Polly and see if she'll come up here and give me some head." Ant nonchalantly says, then walks out.

"Who is he to you?" she mumbles, avoiding eye contact with me. "Might as well say my brother, but since my sister don't want him, I only claim him as my sister's baby daddy now." I answer, shrugging my shoulders.

She nods her head. "So... what kind of tattoo do you want? Do you have a photo I can look at to get a better idea of what you'd like?" she asks. "Let me see some of your work." I say. She smiles small. "I don't know if you'll like them, Darius." she says. "Who cares if I like the shit or not?" I ask, growing annoyed at how shy she's acting. I hate when people look everywhere but in my eyes when they talk to me. I take it as a sign of disrespect.

"Your opinion means more to me than you think. It always has." she says under her breath, handing me a photo album. I open it up then flip through it. I'm shocked at how talented she actually is. "I always thought you were just a smart, shy girl. I didn't know you were this talented." I admit, staring at a tattoo she did of Michael Jackson on a white man's back. It looks exactly like him. She starts blushing, rocking back and forth. "Are you for real?" she mumbles. "Jesus, please stop mumbling. Speak up, Liah. You don't have to be shy around me. I want to see the real you, not the shy, quiet Liah that dissociates herself from everyone around." I say.

"You don't have to be so mean about it." she says. "I'm not being mean, I'm being honest. I hate that so much, you make yourself ugly by doing that." I say. "It's not like you think I'm cute anyway so stop." she says. "Why would I think you cute if you can't even be yourself around me? I've been knowing you since I was a freshman and you still act like I scare you." I say. "Well, this is just the way I am. If you dislike me that much, you can go talk to your stupid ass ex girlfriend's rude self or another girl like her, because you will not find a rude, selfish, possessive woman over here." she says with an attitude.

I sarcastically gasp. "Oh my God, you actually know curse words?" I exclaim. "Please, can you just get out of my chair and get someone else to do your tattoo?" she asks with her hands on her hips. "No. You should never turn down business. Make your money by any means necessary." I say. "You think you know everything. Be quiet sometimes, stop being such a dork." she says. I narrow my eyes at her. That brings back the bad memories of me getting in my feelings over girls not liking me for that reason when I was younger.

"Fuck you." I mumble. "Stop mumbling, speak up, Darius." she mocks me. I snatch her down on the tattoo chair by her arms. "Move." she says, laughing as I hold her close to my chest. "Shut up. You hurt my feelings." I joke. "Whatever. Seriously, what tattoo do you want?" she asks, getting off of me.

"I want to get my niece's name on my back. Her name is Reign." I answer, taking my shirt off. Her eyes widen a little as she stares at my body. "What? You never seen a guy with his shirt off?" I ask. "Actually, no. I'm not a whore." she answers.

I laugh. "You can't be serious." I say, watching her get her ink and needles. "I am. Lay on your stomach." she demands. I roll over. She starts drawing it on my back, then turns the needle on.

It only took thirty minutes to finish my tattoo and it looks good. It hurt like hell though. "How much?" I ask. "Nothing, it's free since you're my only associate." she says. I laugh, then lay a couple of hundreds down on the counter.

"Why you always wearing a jacket? Take that shit off." I say, putting my shirt back on. She starts blushing as she unzips it. "Oh shit!" I exclaim, staring at her chest. She got her nıpples pierced. She got on a tank top with no bra, so they're visible. "I only show them here at the shop and at home. Here, us tattoo artists express ourselves through our ink and piercings. And at home, it doesn't matter." she explains.

"Does it hurt?" I ask. She shakes her head no. "Not anymore." she answers. "Can I touch it?" I ask. "No, pervert. The only man who can touch me that way is someone I'm in love with." she says. "I'm in love with you." I lie. She smiles a little. "So, since I'm in love with you, can I touch em?" I ask.

"The lies you tell, boy." she says, giggling. "I'm just playing. You want to go somewhere with me tonight?" I ask. "Where? It's already nine." she says. "A graduation party." I answer. "I've never been to a party and I don't want to deal with Yanda." she says. "Forget her, she'll be aight. Come on, get your stuff." I say.

She grabs her jacket and purse, then follows me out the back of the shop. We walk out the front door of the shop, then over to Ant's truck. "Ew!" she screams. I look in the window then shake my head. Polly is sucking Ant's dıck while he goes through pictures of Jessica in his phone on the low with Future's song, Throw Away playing loud. I shake my head. This nigga literally is fucking on a slut while thinking about Jessica, then he had the audacity to actually listen to the song and go through her pictures at the same time.

"Let's go in your car. I wanna take you somewhere." I say. She hands me the car keys. "If she says anything to me this time, I'm gonna pepper spray her and beat her ass with this." she says, pulling out a bar of soap in a sock. I bust out laughing. This crazy ass girl got a prison weapon. I remember when Majesty slapped Noble with one of those.

"What's funny?" she asks, leading me to her car. "Your choice of weapon. I was just thinking about how my nephew slapped his brother with one of those. Majesty is the nice twin, but every once in a while he'll flip out and act a fool." I explain. She laughs. "Wow." she says, walking to the passenger side. I hope she loosens up tonight and doesn't try to be perfect the whole time, because then I'll be bored and ready to go home.

JESSICA

"Go take your sister's bags to her room." I tell Majesty and Noble. I took them shopping even though Noble's bad ass didn't deserve it. "That is not my responsibility. She ain't handicapped." Noble mumbles, playing a game on Ant's iPod he let him borrow. I raise my eyebrow, then snatch it. I throw that shit into the wall, immediately shattering it. Ant just gone have to be mad, I could care less.

I snatch him up by his shirt, then raise my eyebrow. I jack his lil bad ass up, then hit him in his back. "I'm sending you to your daddy tonight. Imma let him deal with you." I say. That'll hurt him more than any whoopin ever will. He can't be around Ant for two minutes without saying something out the way and getting his ass whooped. The times Ant do come around and be there for the kids, he don't take their shit at all.

His eyes tear up. "Mommy, no, don't do that. Can I go over granddaddy and grandma house instead?" he asks, referring to Nathan and Ant's therapist, Ms. Regina.

"Hell naw, you going over your daddy house so go call him and let him know." I demand. "Can I go too?" Majesty asks. "Me too." Reign says, hugging my legs. I comb through her long, curly hair with my fingers. "I'm sure he won't care, but tell Noble to let him know yall wanna come too." I say. They run off. I smile. Even though Noble is bad as hell, I still thankful for my baby and I thank God everyday for blessing me with them.

I walk upstairs to my bedroom I share with Montana. He's sitting on the edge of the bed smoking a blunt looking mad as hell, holding a piece of paper. "What's wrong?" I ask, trying to see what's in his hands. "What the fuck is this, Jessica?" he calmly asks, throwing the stack of papers at me. "Nigga, don't throw nothing at me like I'm a dog, don't play with me, Montana!" I snap on him. "Tell me what that shit is." he says, folding his arms across his chest.

I pick the packet up. My heart starts beating fast as I stare at my medical records. I had those hidden good as fuck in the basement. "You got a good reason for not telling me you was pregnant with my child? You wanna explain what the fuck you did to my baby, Jessica?" he asks, pacing the floor, taking deep breaths. My eyes tear up.

TBC...

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