A month later, due to his family's collective efforts, they were able to put together a memorial service for Jospeh fairly quickly. They were on another flight for a weekend at his mother's, which would also be their final weekend there.

In addition to the overall heaviness of Joseph's passing, Armani had more unexpected stresses come his was that he wasn't at all prepared to deal with. Since his mother only worked part time at the salon down in South Carolina, there was no way they could afford to stay there without him. As he died of a sudden heart attack, attributed to stress, there wasn't much more than the emergency savings that Sofía had, and that was only really enough to last the girls for the last month and a half. They decided to uproot and move to Atlanta, to be closer to Armani.

The only thing that was stressful was him becoming the man of the house in a house that he didn't live in. He was suddenly responsible for making sure his mom and sister didn't go completely underwater. He was two months away from being responsible for making sure Nayeli was comfortable and taken care of, and he was beginning to feel overwhelmed.

He wouldn't say anything though, he felt as though this was simply something he had to deal with as part of growing up and being a man. He couldn't complain when there was pressure applied to him, and he couldn't fold. He just had to work, and make it work.

And that's what he'd been doing for the past month. He'd been picking up more shifts, working more hours, and sometimes on the weekends too. During the week, instead of his usual 8-9 hour days, he worked 10-12, daily. Although he was tired, he felt like that's what needed to be done until his mom was back at work permanently.

The biggest drawback was probably the amount of free time that was shaved from his schedule. He didn't see his friends as much, he got less and less sleep, and he saw Nayeli way less than normal.

On a good day, he woke up with her and they left for work together, but he wouldn't see her till 9 or 10 that evening, and by then he was so tired, he could barely keep his eyes open. He tried, but most days, he ended up falling asleep in Nayeli's lap while she toyed with his ears.

"Armani, baby," he heard from beside him on the plane. Nai was really the only thing keeping him afloat. He looked to her for motivation to continue to do what he was doing and she provided every single time with just a single look in her eyes.

"Yes, mi amor?" he asked. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, papí. Are you?" she replied. "I was just gonna check on you, today is gonna be hard on you, babe," she rubbed his arm affectionately.

"I've had better days, mamas. But I'm okay," he responded with a sigh. Coming to terms with his fathers death was a little harder than he thought. He had random days where the sadness would hit him like a ton of bricks, and he couldn't get out of it, and other days there'd just be a lingering thought of his dad. Like a dull and persistent ache.

Nayeli's words that night in his mom's backyard helped him more than he thought as the days went on. He would randomly remember it on days where he found himself questioning his decisions.

'Your feelings still matter, Armani,' was what stuck out the most. He tried to tell himself that every time he felt the negativity creeping up on him and so far it did a lot of good.

After Nai and Mani landed, they headed straight to his mom's nearly empty home. The services weren't until the next day, and they planned on spending their day with his family, and heading to a hotel that night, since all of Armani's furniture in his old room was gone, and the girls were already sharing the futon.

His sisters were not handling their father's death well at all. As of recently they didn't like his actions at all, but the man who raised them was not at all that way, or at least they never perceived him to be, and that was what they had the hardest time parting with.

Being with their mom and Armani seemingly made it better, and the only positive thing that came from this situation was the fact that they'd soon be moving closer to their brother, and it made them a bit happier. Although Josefina had to transfer to Georgia State, and Camila had to spend her senior year in a new high school, they tried their best to find a silver lining in it all.

"Hey mamá," Mani hugged his mom tightly, rocking her side to side. "How are you feeling?" he asked as Nai greeted his sisters.

"I'm...getting there, hijo. Your family is making me stressed, I just want this day to come and go, it's too much," she shook her head, taking in a shaky breath. His family on both sides had tried to stop her from having her husband cremated here and having his ashes flown back to their country to be with his mother who was to sick to travel to the US for his services, just so they could see the body at the service, which she refused.

She knew his wishes, and she'd be fulfilling them no matter how the family felt. They were having a simple church service and a repast, at a separate location since the house was empty. It was getting a little tiring though, to continuously hear her family questioning her in her ear.

"If they say anything tomorrow, I'll handle it," he spoke in an annoyed tone. He hated how stressful this was for her, she was supposed to be mourning her husband. Not worried about her family and their opinions.

Later on that day, Nai and Mani were out to eat with his family, just to get them out of the house. To keep their minds off of the sadness they felt, they were asking Nai a whole lot of questions about the wedding. Since it was July, the big day was right around the corner.

"So! Have you gotten everything done? Or you still have a few things on your list?" Sofía asked with a smile.

"Well, mostly everything. I have one last meeting with my florist in about a week, and my reception dress needs another fitting. Other than that though, everything is done. All my bridesmaids have gotten their alterations done on their dresses, I booked the hotel for the honeymoon, my mom and my maid of honor are throwing the bridal shower in August. And then in August as well, I have to meet with my God mom to go over the décor for the house, but that's all," she rattled off, making all three women's eyes go wide.

"Wow! You sure are busy, mija. And Armani what do you do?" she asked jokingly, making his sisters laugh. 

"He's tired, he's been working, so I don't ask him to come with me all these millions of places. He needs rest when he actually gets a day off," Nai explained, coming to his defense, patting him on the thigh.

He knew they meant nothing by it, but his mom's question really had him thinking. He hadn't even asked Nai how she felt about him working so much more and all the hours he picked up, he just did it without a second thought. She had to be a little upset, she lost almost all of their quality time to his job or to him sleeping. He made a note to ask her later on.

The next morning came quickly. Before he knew it, Armani was tying his black tie in the mirror of his hotel bathroom. He brushed over his freshly cut hair, and just stared at himself, trying his best to mentally prepare for the day.

Wordlessly, Nayeli came up next to him, looping her arm around his, and laying her head on his arm. She didn't have to say anything, just the simple gesture made him feel more secure and comfortable.

He looked down at her, fully dressed in black as well. She looked back up at him, and offered a small smile, triggering him to do the same.

They went and picked his mom and sisters up, they all wanted to ride there together.

Once there, his sisters held hands, and he held Nayeli's hand all the way to the front of the church, all their family and family friends watching. There were way more people than he expected, he forgot how much family they had in the DR willing to travel. They had a picture of Joseph with his family and a picture of him as a younger man up front covered in flowers, that Armani and his sisters couldn't stop staring at as the pastor from their church in New York gave the service.

After it was done, people came to say hello and give their condolences, and some gave hugs and kisses to the family as well, while his aunts and older cousins went to the community center nearby to finish preparing for his repast.

After shaking about a hundred hands and having so many, Armani's social battery was completely dead. He was starving and he was tired, and the last thing he wanted was to talk to even more people later. He contemplated skipping it for half a second but he knew that was wrong.

"How you feeling, papa?" Nai asked, on their way inside the building.

"Tired. I don't feel like talking to none of these people no more, and I know they're gonna want to talk, so I gotta be polite," he sighed.

"I feel you, babe. Only three hours and we can go lay down till we go back home tomorrow morning," she smiled comfortingly, kissing the back of his hand. He stopped walking, and just looked at her, he didn't know how'd he'd be handling this if it weren't for her.

"What?" she smirked, tilting her head to the side, like she always did when he stared like this.

"I love you," he stated simply, turning her smirk into a full grin, as if he hadn't told her he loved her a million times, probably more.

"I love you too," she replied, and then they made their way into the room with the rest of his family members.

As soon as he sat down with Nai at the table his mom was at, there were people coming up to say hi, make conversation and offer even more condolences. He could see his sisters were just as tired as he was, but were powering through it.

After a while, he also noticed that some of his aunts from his dad's side had a very bad staring problem. Nayeli was sitting minding her business, and they just kept staring, he knew she was uncomfortable, but she wasn't going to say it out of respect for the family.

"Ma...what's the issue with them?" he nodded his head in their direction. She sighed loudly, hoping they'd finally let go of this problem at their ages, but they obviously hadn't.

Nayeli was clearly the darkest person in the room. Dominican people came in many different shades and colors, but in his family, the majority were light like his mom and sisters, and the darkest was a shade darker than he was. Many of his family members had strong prejudices against darker skinned people, and it'd been that way for as long as Sofía could remember. The people in Sofía's family had the same problem, but more so those back home.

It was something she and Joseph never tainted their children with. They refused to carry on that harmful train of thought on to their kids, they were taught to respect people despite the color of their skin, and they always had.

Of course, Armani being black, this was something he knew. He always loved other black people just as much as he loved Dominican people, so he never understood why his cousins would make fun of black kids for being dark. He thought they forgot he was a hundred percent black, not Dominican like them.

Sofía didn't even realize her sisters in law were doing it, and they were probably doing it at her house when they first saw her, too.

"They have those issues, Armani I'll go talk to—"

"They can have all the issues they want but not with her," he pointed at Nai. "You don't have to, I'll talk to em, ma," he nodded, feeling himself get mad.

Nayeli had noticed all day long. People were staring at her, they'd say things in Spanish when she walked past, not knowing she understood. She was never one to care about what people had to say about her, but this was about to be a family she was married into, that had a problem with her for no reason more than the fact that she had dark skin.

As a black woman, marrying a black man, the thought never even crossed her mind that she'd have to deal with racism or colorism, but dark skinned women and men had it different. She knew her aunt, uncle and father used to fight over comments like that, but she couldn't beat up her fiancé's aunts, as badly as she wished she could.

She would usually stop him from snapping on people behind her, but this time she wanted him to.

"Do we have a problem?" he walked up to them at their table and asked, not too loudly, but loud enough that it caught the attention of his other family members.

"A problem? What are you talking about?" one of them asked incredulously.

"Don't act like I ain't see you staring at my fiancé from across this damn room. We all see y'all racist asses looking like she some type of animal. So again I ask, do we have a problem? Because if so, I will very easily solve that for you. Matter fact, don't even answer that, y'all do have a problem. I don't know if y'all forgot but I am black. I'm black as hell, and if y'all have an issue with the color of my black wife's skin y'all definitely got a problem with me, and that goes for anybody in this room. If you got shit to say about her, say it to me, I dare you. Say it," he stood straight up, looking around, now seeing that everyone was looking at him.

"I'll say it again. If anybody in here thinks they have a problem with my wife, you come say it to me instead of talking behind her back or staring at her like she ain't human. I want you to. Please do it," he continued. Everyone and their mom knew Armani was a hothead, but it was rare to see him pop like this. "Exactly, so keep them thoughts to your damn self, keep yo' eyes to yo' damn self, or it's gone be a real issue," he turned on his foot and went back to his seat, fuming.

After that, nobody batted an eyelash in her direction, especially not those two. He knew most of his family was loving and had no problem with black people, or Nayeli, but that was for the ones who did.

"Thank you," Nai said quietly, kissing him on the cheek once the chatter started back up.

"Always," he nodded. He wanted to tell her not to thank him at all, because what they were doing was wrong and it was his job to stand up for her against anyone, especially his own family. He'd do it a million times over.

whewwww, hey y'all :)

as we can see, armani is not for the games.

i decided to add this in bc it's a very real problem darker people face every day. of course not all Hispanic and Latinx people are like this. there's afro latinx people, and theres just some who are good human beings.

but there are some, as well as some black people, some white people, some brown people who are like this and it is not at all
okay to discriminate people bc they're darker than you.

so don't do it, or armani gon' kick your front teeth in.

anyway! how'd everyone enjoy this chapter? i hope we loved it.

let's chat!

how do we feel about Mani and his work situation, helping his mom out way more and working more, and his feelings of being overwhelmed?

how should he go about talking to nai about it?

how do we think nayeli feels?

how do we feel about his aunts and the way he handled that?

this was a very long authors note, if you read it all and answered my questions i bang w. you, lol thank you 🥰

till next time 💜