I opened the first box, and inside was an iced-out Richard Millie watch. I had never been into watches, but J’Ru, Kaymen, and Priest put me onto a whole new wave, so I was building my collection. I opened the next box, and she got me a big-ass,iced-out custom chain. The pendant was of two hands holding a crown and was flooded with diamonds. There were even sapphire gems mixed in there, which I automatically knew were a tribute to Saphir.
“Heavy is the head that wears the crown, right?” She smirked at me.
I dapped her up with a smirk of my own. “You damn fucking right!” She really was my twin flame. There was no question about it.
“Sis went crazy!” Priest gassed while everyone else cheered.
I pulled her right into my chest. Even when my world was crumbling, she managed to hold me up without me even asking. “I love you, yo. More than I can put into words,” I professed to her before crashing my lips into hers.
“Forever?”
“Forever and after that.”
Our family and friends ain’t have no sense of time, so we ended up back on the rooftop partying. I knew from the outside looking in, shit looked amazing, but on the inside, I was fucked up. I figured I enjoyed my party enough and showed my wife my appreciation for her putting everything together for me. I walked over to my sisters, who were having a good time. It was nice to see that no matter the distance between us, we could still kick it like old times.
Khadijah was in the midst of dropping it down and getting her eagle on. She was always the life of the party wherever she went. Niema was hyping her up alongside the other ladies.
“Yo, Dijah, nobody tryna see that shit.” I screwed my face up like I smelled shit.
“Boy, shut up. My sister still got it!” Niema nudged me.
In laughter, Khadijah popped back up and high fived her. “It ain’t never left.”
I smacked my lips. As the little brother, it was just certain shit I didn’t wanna see. My big sister dropping it low and spreading it wide was one of them. “If you got all the Freaknik out of you, I need to holla at y’all.”
“Little nigga, did you just call me old?”
“Aye, you said it.”
She punched my arm as I laughed just like old times. I took both of their hands and pulled them off the dance floor. The rest of the ladies all groaned while claiming I was being a party-pooper since Khadijah and Niema had them lit. It was nice to see that my sisters had fallen right in line with my extended family. Hopefully, after this, we could see each other more.
“This party was so fun, Keem!” Niema cheered excitedly.
“‘Preciate it, sis. I’m glad y’all enjoyed it.” I tossed my arms around both of their shoulders before kissing their foreheads. Despite being the baby brother, I stood taller than them, making me look like the older brother. “I got some shit I need to tell y’all.”
Instantly, Khadijah snapped into big sister mode and cupped her hands around my face. “You okay? What’s the matter?”
“I’m good, Dijah. I just wanted to let y’all know, a little while ago, I got a phone call, and it was the coroner’s office. They told me Pops is dead.”
We grew up in a household where we never beat around the bush. No matter how hard the conversation was, we tore the fucking band-aid off and gave it to each other straight.
I recalled the moment my mother told us she had cancer. She just flat out told us. No tears, no long sob story, kinda like we were having casual conversation.
Gasps fled out of both of my sisters. “What?!” Niema bellowed while clutching her chest.
She was the sensitive one of the bunch. She carried each and every emotion and feeling known to man. When she was hurt,she felt everything. Tears already were cascading down her face. Her outburst garnered some eyes from the other guests. They were probably confused as fuck about how my sisters went from being the life of the party to being distraught.
“Ahkeem, when… h-how?” Khadijah cried.
“I don’t know. I don’t got the details. They want me—us—to come down and identify the body.”
I was a little conflicted with their reactions. Had they stepped in and helped me like I begged them to, maybe Pops would have had a fighting chance with his alcoholism. I guess them taking a step back didn’t mean they loved him any less than I did.
From across the rooftop, my wife shot me a sympathetic look. I mouthed “I got it” to her, indicating that she didn’t need to come over. I had been bearing the weight of everyone else’s grief for a long time. This shit was no different.
My sisters were in full tears as I kept my arms around them. Kaymen peeped, and with the okay from Jazzy, he got on the mic and let everyone know the night had come to an end.
Even after everyone cleared out, my sisters were still hysterical. The only people remaining on the rooftop were us and Jazzy. “Keem, I’m so sorry. I should’ve come out here when you called me at the beginning of the year. I just couldn’t stomach seeing him like that,” Khadijah apologized while dabbing her wet face with a napkin.
