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“That’s what I said!”

“No it’s not,” Icelynn giggled.

“Yes it is! Right, Zee?”

Phoenix smacked his teeth. “Man, I know you not asking Zee.”

By that point me and Lourdes were laughing hysterically. I was laughing so hard that I had wet eyes. My younger siblings never failed to provide the comedy and entertainment that I needed. They’d gotten in the car and made me forget that I was supposed to be making a quick getaway. Rahesha quickly reminded me of that mission when she popped up at my window.

“So you wasn’t gon get out and speak to your mama?!”

My laughter came to a halt and my face went flat. It didn’t take much for me to switch up because she’d left a stale taste in my mouth at the baby shower. Showing up in the wrong colors was fucked up, but also on brand for her. She did the same shit to Aneesah the week before me and Lourdes’ baby shower. It was Neese’s birthday and she wanted everyone to wear all black to her dinner. My mom decided to wear a silver dress just like Neese. She was annoyed, but she didn’t make a big deal about it. I was attempting to do the same shit at our baby shower. Looking back, we should have enforced our mandatory dress code at the door and her ass should’ve been sent home to change. She’d been allowed to do whatever she wanted her whole life, so she had this sense of entitlement. She was confident that we wouldn’t tell her anything and she was right. Had we stopped the bullshit at the door then we could have avoided her next stunt. I wasn’t sure if she got designer baby clothes from Naz for free or for a discounted price and I really didn’t care. The fact that she tried to be funny by gifting it to us in Naz’s “business” bags is what made me furious. She was obviously trying to slight Lourdes because if it was a genuine gift she could have easily transferred the clothes to a regular baby shower gift bag. She made kicking her out so easy by doing that shit.

“Nope.”

“But you can come here and get my kids?” She leaned against my window with a big cup of something brown in her hand.

“I came here to get my brothers and sisters. If you want them to stay then they can.” I never wanted her to think she had the upper hand when it came to my siblings. I tried not to appear too hard up when it came to getting them because then she might try to use them as leverage. Acting non-chalant was my way of letting her know that she wasn’t hurting me if she ever tried to keep them away. I’d gotten good at pretending because if she ever really tried that shit I’d be fucked up about it and I wouldn’t let it fly.

“Noooo, Bubby!” Milan whined.

“Oh girl, be quiet. Y’all can leave with ya’ brother. Shit, y’all should’ve left when Aspen and Aneesah. I could’ve been getting drunk this whole time but I had to watch y’all.”

“We would’ve if Aspen had enough room in her car,” Phoenix muttered.

“Alright, Rahesha. Get off my window, bruh,” I snarled. It was obvious her ass had already been getting drunk. I wanted to just pull off and drag her duck ass with the car, but I didn’t want to traumatize the little ones.

“Hold up,” she slurred. “I’m sorry Armias and Lourdes. Y’all forgive me?”

“Yea,” I said what she wanted to hear. “Now move, man.”

“What about you, daughter in law? You look so pretty today,” she smiled goofily like only a drunk person could.

“Girl, what you drinking?” Lourdes raised an eyebrow.

“White Hennessy…this that good shit. I’ma get you a bottle after my grandbaby is born.”

“Mama, go inside, get you some water, and sit down.”

“Oh boy, I’m alright,” she chortled. “And in case you were wondering, I'm not mad at y’all for putting me out at the baby shower last week.”

“I wasn’t wondering. I actually don’t care at all how you feel about getting put out because it was well deserved.”

“Really? All because I didn’t adhere to a dresscode? I’m a grown woman, what do I look like wearing pink from head to toe? And everybody knows you don’t wear white after labor day.”

“That’s all you did?” I quizzed.

“To my knowledge,” she batted her eyes like she was innocent but she wasn’t convincing. “If I did something else then we could have talked about it. I tried calling you the next morning only to discover I was blocked.”

“Cause I knew a conversation was pointless. You showed up out of dress code on purpose like you’ve multiple times before to Aspen and Aneesah. You can’t never let anybody have their moment because you're selfish. You can’t just show up and be a normal, supportive parent. Nah, you gotta pull messy stunts for your own ulterior motives.” I really didn’t want to be saying all this in front of my siblings but fuck it. Their mama had brought it up, so I wasn’t backing down. This had been on my mind all week and it felt good to finally get it out.

“Woah, where is all this coming from?”

“You really thought we wanted that stolen shit from Naz for our baby?”

“We’ve all worn stolen shit from her for years!”

“But you know things are different because I had just made you give some shit back to her the weekend before. I told you I didn’t care if you continued to buy shit from her, but my siblings or my baby don’t need no fucking handouts. That girl literally took credit for all the nice shit we have and you still eager to get stuff from her. I know it was all to make Lourdes mad, but did you consider how goofy it made you look in the process?”