𝙚𝙭𝙘𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 ...

"You have a collect call from Kiyane Banks, if you would like to accept these charges please press 0-"

"Ms.Kiyane?" I answered quickly before wiping my tears.

"Hey baby, how's everything?" She asked softly.

"Fi-Fine, everything's fine, how are you?" I asked before pulling over on side of the road to get myself together.

"I'm doing fine, now what's really wrong with you? I can hear it all in your voice"

I sighed as I started to shake my head. "It's Kai..he has been drinking a lot lately, not to the point where I feel unsafe, he just drinks and falls asleep then repeats. I've been doing everything by myself here lately, from taking Mari to school, to picking her up. I don't have a problem with caring for Mari but we're supposed to be doing this as a team." I said.

It's been two months since Ms.Kiyane went away and let's just say that things didn't get any easier. Kamari's showing signs of depression, and I try my best to talk to her but it's a lot since I'm now taking online classes. Kamari and Kai both moved into my place, it's only temporary since Kai's working on getting him a new place.

He was good for the first 3 weeks, then he just started acting out. He doesn't come home till at least three o'clock in the morning, so the chances of him taking Kamari to school is out of the window since he doesn't wake up till the afternoon.

"I knew this would eventually happen, I'll get on him when I call him later.  I've been locked up for two months and I'm just now getting phone time, maybe when he hears my voice he can get himself together.  Did you guys read your letters?" She asked

"I read mine, I don't know about Kamari and Kairo" I shrugged.

"So how do you feel?"

"Jason and my aunt have been together this whole time?" I asked feeling myself getting mad all over again.

"Yes, you're just now finding out or something?" She asked

"I've only met Jason once, and that was like five months ago" I scoffed.

"I'm sorry to hear that, you might have to get more answers from her because I told you everything that I have knowledge of in the le-"

"You have one-minute remaining"

"I'm so not used to that, I would talk for hours if I could" she sighed. "Tell my babies that I love them and to be on the lookout for my phone calls when I call," she said quickly.

"Okay, take care Ms.Kiyane" I spoke.

"I wi-"

Her sentence was cut short as the phone had hung up. Stressed isn't even the word.

My phone started to ring and I quickly answered once I saw that it was Dior calling me.

"Hey did you find him?" She asked

"No, not yet, I was just on the phone with their mom"

"She finally called? How's she doing?" Dior asked.

"She's doing well, they're just now giving her phone time" I rolled my eyes. "Where's Kamari?" I asked

"She's in her room, she's been talking today, I just got finished helping her with her homework."

"Okay good, I'll be back soon. Thank you, Dior, I really do appreciate you" I said

"Girl that's what best friends are for, I'll always have your back and front"

"Vise versa boo" I smiled before hanging up.

Dior has been by my side through this whole new transition. She's helped by picking Kamari up from school and keeping her for a couple of hours while I went to class, and I couldn't be any more appreciative.

I pulled up to the same bar that I pulled up to almost every other night to get Kairo. This has been a repeated cycle for the past 4 weeks.

I grabbed my phone before hopping out of my car and heading towards the entrance of the bar.

"Bigs, where he at?" I asked the bartender once I walked in.

"He left hours ago sis" he gave me a sympathetic look.

"Thanks for looking out," I said before walking back out.

As I made my way to my car, I spotted Kairo's truck parked all the way to the back of the parking lot.

"This motherfucker here bro" I sighed as I walked over to his truck.

As I approached him, I could see that he was passed out drunk with his head laid against the window.

"Kai!" I knocked on his window repeatedly, still not getting any response.

I opened his door slowly so that he wouldn't fall out.

"Kai come on you can't keep doing this" I started to cry as I tried waking him up.

"I'm up" he groaned before opening his eyes and yawning.

"This has to stop!" I pushed him.

"I know, I'm sorry" he looked at me, and the sadness in his eyes broke my heart to pieces.

"I'm here, you don't have to drown yourself in liquor when I'm here Kai. I'm not going anywhere, but I need your help, I can't do all of this alone."

"I don't want to fail her, I already couldn't protect her... now I had to face her every day and that's just hard Harlym" his voice cracked.

"It's not your fault babe, none of this is okay? You didn't force him to do what he did to her, it isn't your fault!" I grabbed his face. "Just please be strong for us, you've helped raised Kamari ever since she was born so this is nothing new. She's still that little girl that your mom brought home from the hospital. Get it together and fast!" I warned before grabbing him into a hug. "I got you boo, no need to be scared because I'm here to help" I assured him.

"I love you so much" he cried as we rocked side to side.

"I love you too now come on, you don't need to be driving" I helped him out of his truck. "We'll come back to get it tomorrow," I said as we made our way to my car.

"You got it?" I asked as he walked over to the passenger seat.

"Yea I'm good" he assured me before hopping in the car and putting his seatbelt on.

"Hello?" I asked as Bigs picked up the phone.

"Wassup sis? Did you find him?" He asked

"Yea he was still in the parking lot, I'm driving him back home but we'll be back to get the truck in the morning" I informed him as I pulled out of the bar's parking lot.

"Aight I'll make sure nobody fucks with it"

"Thanks" I smiled.

"Thanks, Bigs" Kai spoke

"It ain't nothing, Kai you straight bro?" He asked

"I'll be alright, thanks for looking out"

"No problem!" Bigs said before hanging up. Bigs used to work for Kai up until he opened up his own Bar.

"I'm sorry for how I've been acting lately, I promised you that I would treat you different than what you were used to and I still ended up doing the opposite" he shook his head.

"I understand what you're going through, please just get yourself together though. I don't look at you differently, we just have to work on how you handle things. When something is wrong you need to speak up, don't hold it in. If you don't want to talk to anybody about then write it down, I promise you'll feel relief" I quickly glanced at him.

"I talked to your mom today, she should be calling you and Kamari sometime tomorrow so be on the lookout," I said as I watched his face brighten up.

"Finally, I've been going crazy without talking to her" he chuckled.

"I see" I laughed before turning my music up.

At forty-four minutes to four
An angel walked up to my door
Opened the windows to my soul
Told me he thinks that I should know
There's no slowing down
As the globe spins 'round and 'round

[Refrain]
You better keep going, better keep going
Better keep going, you better keep going
Better keep going, you better keep going
You better keep going, you better keep going
You better keep going

I looked over and seen Kai nod his head to the beat, he's always complaining when I play my sappy music so I was surprised.

If there's one thing that I learned
While in those county lines
It's that everything takes time
You have gotta lose your pride
You have gotta lose your mind
Just to find your peace of mind
You have got to trust the signs
Everything will turn out fine

[Hook]
So why aren't you smiling? Why aren't you smiling?
Life can get wild when you're caught in the whirlwind
Lost in the world when you're chasing the win
You gotta understand
There's really no end, there's really no beginning
There's really no real, there's really no pretending
There's really no fail, there's really no winning
Cause nothing really is, and everything really isn't

At this point, tears were both forming in our eyes as Jhene sang softly. This song always brought me to tears, it helps get through my hardest times. Even though things aren't going well we still have to have high hopes, because eventually, things would get better.

____________

"Wait so let me get this straight...my dad's girlfriend is your aunt?" Kamari scrunched her face up.

"This shit is weird" Kairo shook his head.

"Yup, crazy right" I laughed before taking a bite out of my taco.

"This family is weird, should we escape?" Kori nudged Dior.

"Shut up, these are our friends" she laughed.

"My aunt hid her boyfriend from me for damn near 10 years" I laughed as I shook my head.

I was upset but all I could really do was laugh, she doesn't even know that I know.

"I wasn't hiding my kid from the world, I was hiding the world from my kid face ass" Kori snickered causing us to all bust out laughing.

"Definitely a drake tease" Kamari laughed.

"I like how you guys used to be playmates and didn't even know, that's so cute to me" Dior cooed.

"I bet you were bald" Kairo squinted at me.

"Please go play with somebody else" I waved him off playfully.

"I have a picture of me from back then, I don't know how old I was though," Kai said before scrolling through his camera roll. "I found it, ya boy was sharp" he smirked before showing us

"Oh my goodness, look at him" I cooed.

"He was so cute, you didn't look bad at all" Dior laughed.

"Yea now look at him, a damn sight" Kamari busted out laughing.

"Don't do my brother like that, matter fact bro show them her picture" Kori defended.

"Bald-headed ass lil girl" Kai cracked.

"First of all, I had hang time! My momma had me dripped out, send that to me" she pushed Kairo

"Look at her chubby cheeks" I made a baby voice.

"Yea girl I would've kidnapped you, so cute" Dior laughed.

"Honey I'm home!!" I heard Tre walk in.

"Hey bro" I hugged him then scrunched up my face as I watched Nas walk in behind him with some girl behind him.

"What's he doing here?" I folded my arms as I looked between the two of them.

"Speak up fool, I got you in here now it's your turn" Tre raised his hands up in surrender before walking over to the food.

"I'm sorry for how I approached you about Neveah..she was telling me lies all along, I should've asked you before snapping first. We had respect for each other before all of this shit popped off, can you forgive me?" He poked his lip out.

Yea whatever nigga, I forgive you" I smirked before rolling my eyes as he gave me a hug. "I'm sorry about how things ended with you too, either way, you'll still have a friend in me" I whispered before pulling away.

"This is Milan, Milan this is Harlym" he introduced as she waved.

"Hey girl" I quickly hugged her. "The food and everything is ready, y'all can fix y'all plates while I get Netflix set up." I pointed to the kitchen.

I felt like everybody needed to have a good time so I planned a little get together at my house. I made tacos, buffalo wings, teriyaki wings, fried wings, and my famous French onion dip. We've all been hearing about some show on Money Heist so we decided to at least finish the first season together, then we could finish the rest on our own time.

It was nothing but good vibes and that's what we needed, I felt at peace. Kamari was having a good time and so was Kairo, and that's what mattered the most to me.

                                   ________

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