Thirty One

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VOTE AND COMMENT 💓💓 and enjoy!

a few things:
1) Inkett username: louiistyles

2) references to bday outfits are alllll the way at the end *if u wanna see it before reading*
3)this chapter is very long but breaking it up messes w my layout, so take ur time & enjoy! & sorry for any mistakes y'all smh

Ant POV

"Let's see... Oh this one is nice, I think she'll like this, right?"

It's been two days since I killed them two people that targeted my daughter. This my first time even referencing to it since then. The last time I spoke about it was the same time I told Cam and Taleah what I had did. I been trying my best to keep everything I witnessed far from the front of my mind, trying not to let it get to me too much— it's hard when you a father, though. I can't just not let something like that get to me. The whole situation from the way I saw they was talking about her, the thumbnail of that video, the plotting, the pregnancy— all that is just on a weak ass pause in my mind waiting to disturb my life the minute I don't have anymore distractions.

And today might be one of the biggest distractions yet, so I got to take advantage of it. Like they say, the calm before the storm. It's my kids sixteenth birthday, also the first birthday i ever been out of prison for and Cameron and I have been in this mall for about an hour now, buying gifts for our kids. Cam already got all his when we first got here, so now he's just trying to help me out. He's holding up a bag to me right now.

I snap out of my own mind and stare at the bag Cameron is holding up to me. I been telling him they all look the same, but he insists that they're all a different design and color. I honestly would have just picked up the first bag I seen and called it a day. Not like we in a rush for anything, but Cameron been in here stressing over bags that look the exact same. But if he say they different, then they're different I guess.

"You know better than me," I say.

Cameron purses his lips at me, "Come on Ant, choose," he whines. "Whatever you—oh wait." He
holds up a different bag with a hopeful look in his eye. I mean, this one I could actually tell the difference compared to the other bags. It got pink flowers and furry shit on it. I nod at him.

Cam opens the bag up and looks on the inside, "Oh yeah, she will love this. It's pink on the inside too. How much is this?" He checks the tag and the look on his face says it all.

"How much," I ask.

"Five thousand," he sighs and puts the bag down.
I wasn't expecting to be paying for something cheap when he brought me into a Louis Vuitton, so I don't know why he tripping. I look around for a cashier or something so that we could get the bag and go.

"That's fine." I look around for somebody, "I need this." I tell a worker that's passing by.

In total, I ended up spending a little over fifty seven hundred with tax and everything. Five thousand dollar bag that does the same shit as one from the dollar store, but if that what she likes then that's what she gets. Now, I just need to get Aj something.

"Aj likes chains. If we can find a good jewelry store, that would be a nice gift," Cameron rubs on my hand as we're walking through the mall trying to figure out what I'm gonna buy my son.

"Chains like what? Gold chains?" I laugh to myself. Designer bags and gold chains, huh. Not even gon' lie, these some expensive ass kids. Shouldn't they be asking for books and gift cards, the fuck is this.

"Yeah. Let's stop here, they sell them," he stops at some stand where these people selling jewelry. Oh nah.

I shake my head, "No. We gotta go someplace else, that's fake shit." I know he don't know no better, it's funny.

"Seriously? Why—"

Cameron is cut off by one of the sellers, "No, not fake, not fake my friend. Come look! Please." Here we fucking go. Now look, Cameron on his too nice shit, pulling me towards the stand.

"Let's just look. They're shiny...no?"

I cut my eyes at him then look back at the jewelry. He know good and fucking well this shit don't look good, he just don't know how to walk away. Always feeling bad for somebody.

"You like this one?" The worker asks while picking up some random necklace and then shows it to me on the glass table, "twenty five hundred, but for you I do fifteen, ok. Real gold, expensive gold, I give you good discount. What are you, your boyfriend, your friend—wants this one, right?" He looks at Cameron while pointing at the necklace.

"Uh..." Cameron laughs nervously. He the one that brought me over here, now he don't know what to say.

I pick the necklace up and show it to Cameron, "Look baby...look at this," I put the necklace in his hands, "It say 24k, they don't sell that shit, especially not for fifteen hundred. Look to the side, the yellow color is gone, it's metal shit underneath." I know his ass be out here getting scammed and shit. He's booksmart, but he's so fucking gullible. If I wasn't here, he's the type to pay this man the full two thousand-five hundred plus tip.

"Ohhhhh," he realizes what I'm saying as he looks at the scratch, "I see it. You are so smart."

When we're walking away, after Cameron handed the man the necklace back, he says something else. "You scratch my merchandise, you have to pay." He holds it up and shows me the scratch, "Look, you scratch right here. Pay at least two fifty, I have to repair."

I just look at the nigga. I'm not wasting my energy, he gonna need to try that shit with somebody else. I continue to walk away, and I wish he would try to stop me. I rather get it from a specific place anyways instead of out the mall because that whole interaction just got me tight.

"You done?" I ask Cameron just in case he got something else he needs to buy.

"Yup," He leans into my side. With that, we continue walking towards the exit.

We're walking slowly because Cameron keeps stopping and staring at things through windows for like five minutes, then decides that he doesn't want it. This time around he's pointing at a outfit on a mannequin with a round hat, spiky vest and pointy ass shoes. "You would look nice in that," He says.

"I know." That ugly ass shit. Cameron grins at me then laughs to himself. He really think he just said the funniest shit ever. He so corny; but in a good way.

"Please wear shoes like that," he says through his laughter. He steps away from my body to get a closer look at them. "Please. Just one time."

"You buggin," I smile and put my arm around his shoulder. Yeah I'd do almost whatever to have him smiling and laughing, but I ain't wearing no triangle shoes. Cameron looks up at me with another smile really leaving me no choice but to kiss him as we're walking away from the mannequin. It would be wrong if I didn't.

"Stop it," he moves his face away from me after I peck him a third time, then he shyly glances around, "People are staring at us Ant, stop." He says quietly. I still kiss his lips. What that got to do with me? I kiss him again and this time he kisses me back briefly but still pulls away. "Enough," he laughs, trying to pull away from my hold on his shoulders. He don't have much of a choice but to kiss me back with his weak ass.

I pull my face away and look at his lips, "You don't wanna kiss me?" I smile and look into his eyes, "No?"

Cameron finally kisses me first instead of it being the other way around, but then all of a sudden he does a double take, his eyes widen, then he pushes me off of him. I almost ask him what's that all about, but that's quickly answered for me without him even having to say anything. And based off what I see, his reaction makes sense.

"Mr. C! Mr. C!!!" A crowd of about ten or fifteen kids speed walk in our direction. Normally I would've said fuck no and dragged Cameron out, all them people bombarding him. But they are clearly his students, so I step off to the side and watch him from a couple feet away, just so I'm not in the middle of it all. They all surround Cameron and I overhear them keep telling him how much they miss him at school and asking him questions about what happened to him.

While he's busy with that, I check my phone for messages. I had gotten in contact with a landlord out in Virginia the other day because I needed to make sure there was a two bedroom available instead of the one bedroom. He told me there was, so now I'm just waiting for him to confirm that he transferred everything I gave him towards the first apartment to the new one.

Speaking of transferring, I definitely need to tell Cameron about bringing Aj with me by today so that I can transfer him out of his school so he can attend one in Virginia. I'll have Cameron look for a school for him, but if anything, I think there's one that's fifteen minutes away from the apartment.

Sure enough, I did receive a text message from him saying that he transferred everything, plus he included pictures of the new apartment. I'll look at them later. I send him a thank you, answer a text from Tyler, then answer one from my sister. Both of them was really about the same thing, asking how I was doing buying gifts for the kids. Zaniyah also said something about my mother wanting to celebrate the twins 16th birthday.

Zaza: Mom called me and was saying how she has a right to see them today, but I said they was spending it with their friends bc she's the type to pop up at Camerons. She probably still will. 🤦🏾‍♀️

Me: send my phone an tell he to contacs me so i deal wit it

Zaza: U sure? She just gonna blow ur phone up

Me: ok

Zaza: Ok what, send her ur number?

Me: yea

I know my mother is going to keep calling me, and probably make a scene over me not coming to see her, but I'll deal with it instead of Zaniyah having to be the middle man.

"Anthony," I look up from my phone to Cameron waving me over. "My students want to meet you," he says hesitantly. I exhale to myself. I really do not want to speak to nobody's kids right now.

I put my phone back in my pocket then stand next to Cameron. These kids is staring at me like they scared of me or something. If you gonna be scared why ask about me then.

Cameron looks back at them kids. "Guys..." he laughs nervously, "don't stare. You asked."

I look at Cameron. "Y'all waiting on him to come back?" I decide to ask. They all say yes together and that's when they start to talk, all about how much they miss Cameron and how he's their favorite teacher. Of course he would be.

"So how many people you killed?" Some kid asks. Most of the kids go silent except for a few that hesitantly throw in some other questions asking about me. See, I was trying to be nice but they doing too much now—it's annoying. I'm not like Cameron, I don't got the patience for no random kids. They like seventeen, eighteen too. They should know better. Cameron's job and my life in general don't got nothing to do with each other. Common sense.

I grab Cam's hand, "Lets go." I mumble to him. I'm ready to get out of here and it's not even on no crazy type shit. I'm not mad or nothing, but I don't think standing here and continuing to have these kids question me all loud in my ear is the best idea either.

"Okay—Guys. I miss you a lot. But please don't make any of this a big deal. I know you are so curious, but I don't want this to become a—"

A kid kisses they teeth, "See, y'all always messing shit up. Y'all made it mad weird for him now. Always doing too fucking much bro."

"Deadass. Ya' mad disrespectful. Like, I said leave him alone, he clearly with his husband and I told them don't run over to him and that's exactly what they did."

"But bitch you ran too—Right! Like the fuck. You tryna make it seem like you mad mature."

"But did I ask questions about his husband though? No. So you sound dumb."

"How I sound dumb—"

Cameron takes his hand from me and raises it, "Guys," he breaks their argument, "It's okay. It's no big deal." He sighs when they finally quiet down, "All I was saying, for future reference; just don't ask inappropriate questions. I want to come back to the school so that we can finish the year off together, but, if my personal life is causing too much of a disturbance, they will fire me so fast. So fast. That's all I was trying to say. You don't have to scream at each other. I'm fine. You guys haven't made me or my husband feel weird, right?" He nudges me so I nod for the sake of his speech then he smiles at me, then at them. "Alright? So...Today is my kids birthday so I do have to go, but it was really nice seeing you all. And I received all the beautiful cards you made me, thank you so much. I really do miss you guys."

I grab Cameron's hand again, basically trying to tell him that we leaving now without saying it out loud. He gets the hint so him and his students exchange their final goodbyes and then I walk away with him.

"Sorry... They're very bold kids. Sweethearts, but bold," he says to me. If my kids ever tried to be bold like that and question somebody who just got out of prison, I woulda snatched they ass up. All types of weird ass niggas come out that shit.

Right as we about to walk out the exit someone else stops Cameron. To make things worse, the music they playing in here is mad fucking loud and annoying. I'm just trying to get out of here, is that too much to ask.

"I know you're not about to walk right past me," some gay nigga sitting in a nail salon shouts at him.

"I'll make it fast," he drops my hand and goes into the nail salon to speak to the guy. I watch as Cameron is just standing there and smiling at the person speaking to him. Like he said he would, he comes back out quickly but with the guy right behind him.

"Well I'm bout to go get me some food and meet up with my friend from the salon...When you coming back to cut your hair? It's been a while."

Cameron smiles, "I-I don't really know. Maybe before I go back to work. Hopefully that's soon."

"Crossing my fingers babe. Your hair still looks good though, you got a good hairline so you can't even tell it's been so long."

"Thank you," he laughs.

The guy sighs, "Mmhm. Alright, well Imma leave you alone, I know you real occupied. But text me if the stuff came and let me know how everything works out. Oh, and happy birthday to your babies!!"

"Thank you Milan. You know, I would love for you to come to their birthday party if you're available. It's at Tyler's house."

"I would love to, but I already know I'm gonna embarrass the fuck out myself. Plus I got so much to do, if there's any changes in my agenda maybe I'll come through—oop, who's calling me. Oh that's my friend, she is so impatient, ugh."

When there's a sudden silence I look up from the floor. The gay guy stopped talking and is in the middle of widening his eyes at Cameron, then he looks at me briefly before looking back at Cameron and mouthing something to him. The fuck.

"Thank you," Cameron blushes and then looks at me.

"Mmhm, I see you. Text me." The guy finally walks away. If somebody stops him again I'm dragging his ass out. Bout to start being real life selfish with him.

Luckily we're able to make it out of the mall without anybody else calling him or stopping him. I quickly look up stores that sell chains so I could get Aj's gift and Cam chooses the one with the best reviews that's in Manhattan. I leave the mall and drive the twenty minutes to the jewelry store.

After about fifteen minutes of me looking for the right chain in the store, we leave. I ended up buying him a gold Cuban link chain that cost damn near six thousand, around the same price as Taleah's gift. When I showed it to Cameron he told me it was perfect for him. I just better see them wearing the shit, that's all. And I only got them one gift each because it takes me too long trying to settle on something, so for their birthday they're gonna get their gift and some money from me, call it a day. I hope they like it though. I'm gonna leave the gifts in the trunk so they don't see them.

Before we go inside of his apartment, Cameron picks up a box out the front of his door. It's probably another gift for one of the kids, but then again, he told me he didn't get any gifts yet when we was going to the mall.

"What you got?" I ask.

He looks at the box, "Um—uh. This? Oh this is just some um—uhhh, it's—" Cam stops speaking suddenly then switches his tone to an embarrassed one, "It's a surprise, ok. A surprise."

He clearly don't want me to know, so I don't question him any further. "Aight baby," I laugh.

Zaniyah looks up at us after I close the door behind us, "Hey guys," she smiles. I greet her as I watch Cameron walks away with his box. Mad sus. He comes back out a couple seconds after.

It's 4pm right now and I think Tyler said he throwing the twins a birthday party at 5, so I'm just gonna sit here until my kids say they ready to leave. And Cameron left me by myself on this side of the couch to go and hug Zaniyah, so I watch something on my phone in the meanwhile. I don't use social media, but every once in a while I do be watching videos. They're usually about football, tattoos, or other things that could help me with work.

"Okay, y'all ready for the pop out?" My daughter's voice suddenly comes from behind a wall. I put my phone down.

"Yes honey, we're ready," Cameron sits up.

"Daddy you ready?"

"Yeah," I say.

"Auntie?"

"Let's go mama, let's see."

She steps out from behind the wall with blonde hair, makeup, and a lil ass white shirt. Instantly, she gets praise from Zaniyah and Cam.

"Okay baby! Yesssss, these bitches could never," Zaza claps.

"You look so grown up...I'm gonna cry," Cameron adds on. "No I'm not. No crying. You are too gorgeous."

She laughs and poses in the middle of the room, "Yes it's me, I know. Everyone settle down, big sixteen coming through," she flips her hair. "Just a calm fit, you know."

I take my phone back out, "Let me get a picture." She poses and I a couple pictures of her. "You look beautiful babygirl." My daughter is so pretty. Now, I don't know where the rest of her shirt is at, but I'm not gonna make a comment about it. She been in a extra good mood these past two days since I told her I handled the situation, and she deserves to stay confident like she should always be. I'm not gonna be the one to mess that up, father instincts or not.

"Auntie made me do the platinum blonde. I thought it wouldn't look good, but it's cute," she touches her hair with a smile, "okay. I'm ready now."

There's a knock at the door and Taleah goes to open it, saying she knows who it is. Some boy I never seen before comes inside. I was expecting it to be that same boy who always come around, the one who is Camerons student. "Hi everyone," He waves. Cameron waves the boy over.

"So good to see you again, I didn't know you were coming." He hugs him briefly.

"I didn't either. But um, Taleah found my social media and dm'd me... so I came through. It's good to meet you out the rehab."

"Agreed. Oh, and this is Aj's dad, I'm sure you know."

The kid leans forward and holds his hand out to me so I briefly shake it. I don't even know who this is supposed to be.

"Hi, I'm Zyier. Im uh, I'm Aj's boyfriend. It's nice to finally meet you."

Oh. "Oh okay," I respond. I

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