"Okay. It's okay," she lectured herself in the bathroom mirror at the restaurant. "Just get through the dinner, and give him his gift. Suck it up, nothing even happened to you, Nayeli," she continued. 

The scenes from earlier kept replaying in her head. The fear and the determination in his eyes was enough to spook her thoroughly, and to make matters worse, thanks to her extremely sensitive skin, although she was dark, there was a bruise on her arm.

The dress she chose was completely sleeveless, and she had to either change it, or go hard on the makeup, and she chose the latter. She had already showed Mani the dress she was wearing and he said he was dressing to match her, so she used a hickey trick to lessen it as much as she could before putting concealer and foundation over it.

She knew if he saw it, Armani would raise all hell, Duck and Tripp would too.

She took a few more breaths before practicing her smile and heading back out to the main area. She could see their party all the way from her and she felt some relief seeing Armani so happy. Both his moms and his sisters were there and it was easier than she thought getting them together.

She texted them both separately, proposing that they both come to Armani's birthday dinner to surprise him, and they were both all in favor. But she knew they didn't know each other. They both knew her, though and consented to be put in a group text together so they could introduce one another. 

One of Nai's errands today was to pick them up from the airport. Once they met in person, theu got along fantastically, much to Nai's happiness. They rode to Nai's apartment together and chatted while she got ready for dinner and now they were here, making their son's day.

That wasn't even the gift.

She saw Armani looking around, presumably for her, so she made her way over to their area as fast as she could in the high heels she wore. Once he caught a glimpse of her he shot out of his seat, rushing to meet her halfway and immediately wrapped his arms around her for a hug.

"Thank you," he mumbled into her neck. "I love you so much," he continued, and she could feel the smile on his face. 

"Anything for you," she smiled genuinely back, glad he was happy with the surprise.

As dinner continued, Nayeli didn't find herself feeling any better despite the fact that she was surrounded by her friends and Armani's family. She felt so small, and she wanted to be invisible.

She knew many people wouldn't have taken what happened to her earlier as serious as she did. To most people she'd be overreacting. But due to the traumatic events she experienced as a child, she took that advance as him wanting to harm her physically. She felt like she was 5 years old, cowering in fear again, and she hated that feeling.

She was doing her best to keep up her smiles, though. So far nobody noticed anything off about her so she knew she was doing an okay job.

"Baby...that's all you eating?" Armani asked. She had gotten an appetizer plate of calamari, and she barely touched it. She didn't even notice how little she ate.

"Oh! Uh, yeah, I'm not that hungry. You know how when you're hungry all day, and then you get food, you lose your appetite?" she chuckled nervously. He eyed her for a second before nodding.

"Okay. Well order something to go mamas, you're gonna get hungry later," he said, leaning down to kiss her quickly.

"Okay," she smiled up at him. "I love you, Mani,"

"I love you, baby," he grinned.

After dinner, Nai forced him to take a million pictures with his friends, family and his coach. His face was hurting by the time he was done. She told everyone goodbye and goodnight as they left, but their friends stayed to watch him get his gift.

"A gift?! You getting my mama and everyone out here wasn't enough mamí?" he asked, holding her hand.

"Boy did you forget what you did for my birthday?" she giggled, while they walked to his car, with everyone trailing them. "Okay, so here's the first one. I know you were pissed when you missed these, so I copped em for you," she smiled, reaching in the car and grabbing a black and red jumpman box.

"You lying! No bruh, you didn't," he gasped, jumping back when he saw it. "You did not," he said more so to himself.

"Open it, babe!" she laughed. He looked up at her, back at the box then up at her again before opening the box and nearly dropping it when he saw the bred 11's he'd wanted so badly on the inside.

"Dawg...you—oh my God bruh," he cheesed, making Nai laugh some more, as well as everyone else around who was recording them.

"Okay, let's do the next one before you run away with the shoes," she chuckled. "Come here," she waved him over to the car again. He walked over, with happiness dancing in his eyes, she knew he would have been happy with just that, but she had to do more for him. 

When he told Nayeli what happened at home she got really sad. He was only able to pack about a month's worth of clothes that he'd already cycled through since being home and she hated that he didn't even feel comfortable enough to go and get his own stuff from his house.

"So I know you told me not to go overboard..." she said innocently, popping her trunk open. As his eyes scanned over the gift, his jaw fell slack. "But I couldn't help myself. Happy birthday, papa," she grinned, watching him slowly fall into shock.

Since that day he came back from South Carolina with not even half of his closet, she started ordering him things. Every time she saw something she thought he'd look good in, or something he mentioned that he liked, she bought it. Every time she went to the mall with her cousins, she left with something for him. She asked Duck what type of things she should look out for, and she kept an eye on shoes he liked too. She spent her whole summer accumulating things for him since he wasn't comfortable enough to go get his own. Her entire trunk was full of bags, packages from ordering online, shoe boxes, anything she could think of.

"Nayeli..." he muttered, looking over at her smiling face. "You—you bought all this? All of it?"

She nodded. "It may seem like a lot, but I bought it over the summer. I didn't buy it all at once," she explained. "I just—I really want you to be happy and comfortable, despite everything that happened. I hope you like it," she pushed some of her hair behind her ear, watching him.

"I truly do not deserve you," he chuckled to himself, shaking his head in disbelief. "I'm so fucking lucky bro," he said under his breath, so his mom wouldn't pop him. "Come here, man," he said, and she gladly rushed into his open arms.

"I love you so much," he muttered, squeezing her tight, before she could even open her arms to hug him back. "You gone be my wife one day, man I swear,"

"I love you more," she smiled warmly in his embrace, for once that day she didn't feel lost. Or alone or unsafe, here is where she felt the most strength.

After dropping his moms and sisters off at their hotel, Armani found himself back at Nai's apartment. He loved her bed, it was extremely comfortable and her room was nice, he was tempted to ask her Godmom to do his apartment too.

"Baby! I got yo' makeup on my shirt," he called, taking his dress shirt off. He didn't know how it got on the arm of his shirt but he didn't question it, he was always getting her makeup everywhere.

Back in the bathroom, Nai was freaking out. She also just noticed that her bruise was now very visible. It was reddish purple and looked like four fingers wrapped around her upper arm. He must have been holding her much tighter than she remembered.

She did not know what to do. Should she just tell him? Wait till tomorrow? But his birthday celebration was the entire weekend, she couldn't think of a good time to interject that she was basically harassed today.

So she did the only thing she could think of. She put on a hoodie.

At first, Armani didn't say anything. They were chilling in her room and he, being the boy that he was, brought his playstation over, and he was trying to find something for them to watch.

"Baby, you not sleeping in that right?" he asked.

"Uh—yes, I am. Why?" she asked, fidgeting nervously.

"You get hot when you sleep, mamas. I don't wanna have to take it off you later," he reminded her. He was actually absolutely right, she never wore sleeves to bed because she'd sweat.

"It's okay, I'll—I'll be fine," she tried to smile.

"Nai, you been actin real weird today, you aight?" he narrowed his eyes at her. He could feel that her energy was shifted all day, he just couldn't pinpoint what was wrong.

"I'm okay, just tired from running all day," she continued to fidget, making it obvious she was lying.

"Nayeli, I'm serious. Don't lie to me, what's wrong. Matter fact, take the hoodie off," he said, setting his controller down.

"Armani—"

"Gianna, take it off," he spoke, seriously. At the tone of his voice and the situation at hand, she became a bit overwhelmed. She knew she had to, or he'd think something was wrong. Like she did something wrong. His trust issues were still prevalent, and would start to show face if she didn't fess up.

She slowly slid the hoodie off of her, and his eyes scanned her entire body, until it landed on the bruise that looked like somebody had touched her. His nostrils flared and he stared at it, trying to calm himself down.

"Tell me what happened, and you better not lie to me," he said, voice coming across scarily low. It made a shiver run down her back, and not the kind she liked either. She could tell he was genuinely angry at this point.

"I—I was dropping off my book to my professor earlier and—and when I was leaving I saw Hassan and he, he tried to talk to me and tell me to tell you happy birthday and I told him no, and I was gonna walk away, Mani I swear, I was trying to. He—he grabbed my arm and he pulled me—" before she could even finish he was on his feet, walking towards her door.

"Mani stop! Listen, okay! Tierra saw me! She saw me and she helped me so it didn't go any further than that," she tried to explain, following him out of her room, into the living room where her roommates sat.

"Man fuck that!" he yelled back, making them all jump. "Do you see this shit?! Do you see what he fuckin' did to you?! You expect me not to do nothing about it?! Nah," he shook his head. He knew exactly where Hassan lived, and he would be paying him a little visit.

Before Nai could stop him, he was stomping out of the apartment.

He called Duck and Tripp, and within minutes they met him outside of Hassan's apartment, no questions asked.

He explained it to them when he got there, and they were equally pissed. They were only there to make sure nobody saw him do what he was about to do. A lot of students lived around here and anybody was liable to snitch.

It was only 8, on a Thursday, he knew basketball practice was just ending so he should be here soon.

His predictions were proved correct when he saw Hassan walking up the street to his building. Since they were in a car, they hopped out and Armani ran at him full speed, pushing him into the nearest wall.

"Didn't I fuckin tell you?" he sneered, holding him up by his warmup jacket. "I told you if you ever get near her again it was gon be a fuckin problem right?"

He didn't even give him a chance to respond before he swung his fist, hitting him directly in the mouth, instantly busting his lip. His head flew back into the wall again before Mani let him go, squaring up with him. They began fighting, Armani clearly having the upper hand as he sent hits to his face and stomach like he'd been trained to do so.

Hassan managed to land some as well, all to his face, causing him to bleed. But eventually Armani knocked him down, and stood over him, throwing blow after blow, until Duck called for him to chill.

"Aye! Nigga that's enough! Let's go," he yelled. Mani had to literally force himself to move off of him, knowing he could keep going for hours.

"Look at her again, I dare you, bitch ass nigga," he spat, looking down at him. "Don't fuck wit' mine. You gone get yo ass killed nigga!" he actually spat at him that time, before they forcibly pulled him away.

"Nai it's gonna be okay, he's probably fine," Bri assured her friend, rubbing her back. She finally told them what happened and they were shocked. Samara was ready to go fight.

"He's fine, best, you know he's gonna come back," Samara said.

"He's—he's so mad at me," she cried. "He was pissed! He's not coming back," she wiped at her face.

"Babes, he's not gonna leave you alone. Yeah he's mad, but he's gonna come back. He always does," Samara smiled at her friend. Just as Nai was about to say something else, there was a sharp knock at the door. Bri looked at them both before going to answer it.

There Armani stood, bloody lip and bruised knuckles.

"Oh my God!" Bri gasped. "Mani, you okay? Come in let—"

"I'm straight. Come here," he motioned at Nai. Her eyes went wide, but she scrambled to her feet and walked over to him anyway. She joined him in the hallway and Bri left the door unlocked before closing it to give them some privacy.

"Why didn't you say anything?" he asked as soon as they were alone. "Were you ever gonna tell me? Were you just gonna wait till I stumbled across a big ass bruise on you, Nai?! Like what was going through your head?"

"I—I don't know. I just...I wanted today to be good for you," she sighed. "I realize that probably isn't smart but, you've already been upset by so many things. Today's your birthday, I wanted you to have one happy day for yourself," she explained. "I-I was gonna tell you, I just didn't know how,"

"Nayeli, look at me," he said, causing her to look up from her hands. "I want you to hear me when I say this. I don't give a fuck what's going on, if somebody puts their hands on you, you need to speak up and tell me. That shit is not just gonna happen to my girlfriend with no fuckin consequence. I will drop whatever the hell I am doing for you, do you understand me? I do not play none of that shit," he said. "I appreciate that your being considerate, but your safety comes before all that, aight?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "You mad at me?" she wondered.

"Kinda, yeah. Because if something happens to you Nai, I swear to God I'm going to jail. I don't like that you went the whole day without telling me shit, I get it, but I don't like it,"

"I understand. I'm sorry, Mani," she said, trying her best not to sound sad, even though she was. He was never really mad at her, they'd been annoyed with each other but she felt like mad was a whole different story. "You going back to your apartment?"

"Nah, I'm not leaving you. I can't just leave when I'm mad, that's not finna solve anything. I'm staying," he said. She nodded again, smiling slightly to herself. "Y'all got stuff to clean my lip?" he wondered.

"Oh! Yeah, come on," she opened the door and he followed her to the hallway bathroom. She had him sit on the toilet while she cleaned the cut on his lip. "Sorry," she said when he winced on contact with the peroxide. She did the same with the cuts on his hands before putting neosporin on them and vasline on his lips.

They got ready for bed after, just laying in the dark together, thinking over the days events in silence for a while.

"Mani," she piped up.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you, for doing all that for me," she smiled, even though he couldn't see her.

"Always. Anybody can get beat the fuck up, I put that on my life. You don't ever gotta worry about that," he answered. She nodded, and scooted closer to him, even though she knew he was still upset. She always slept near his body, even if they didn't touch.

"Can I have kiss?" she mumbled, sounding all shy. Armani couldn't help the small smile he cracked.

"Of course," he spoke, leaning over and pressing a kiss to her lips and her forehead before wrapping his arm around her waist. "I'm just a lil upset, I still love you, Nayeli. You don't have to keep  away from me,"

"Okay," she said quietly. "I love you too, goodnight," she said, finally shutting her eyes.

"Goodnight, Nai,"