Beginning of this chapter is a recap of last chapter. Happy reading.

𝚁𝙰𝚂𝙴𝙴𝙼 𝙹𝙰𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙸 𝙲𝙰𝚁𝚃𝙴𝚁
𝙱𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙺𝙻𝚈𝙽, 𝙽𝚈

"Girl you been dragging me around for hours now." Raseem complained as Epiphany dragged him up the street to the park where she insisted they take pictures. The weather was a 75 degrees and the sun was beaming down on their melanin skin.

"So you don't wanna be around me no more?"Epiphany pouted looking up at her boyfriend. Epiphany stood at approximately 5 foot while Raseem towered her at 5'10. The two had been together for almost 3 months and they were each others best friend.

"Girl I didn't say that, come give me a kiss." He said making her smile as she stood on her tip toes and he bent down gently kissing her lips.

"Come on babe, I wanna take more pictures of you." Epiphany said grabbing his hand as she pulled him towards the park.

"We can't princess, my grandpops already here." He said pointing at the silver Maybach pulling in where they originally were. "Ill take your pictures when we get back to his house." He promised as he took her hand and the two walked back to the car.

Unlike the girls that surrounded him at school that thought he and his family were rich, money never seemed to be that impressive to Epiphany seeing that she came from a well established family like the Carter family.

"Okay." Epiphany said as he opened the door and let her get in first.

"Y'all have fun?" Armani's dad asked as he began to drive in the direction of his new home. He had finally relocated from Baltimore and settled to be close with his grandkids—the house he lived in in Baltimore was still in his name but he decided to rent it out to cover bills and expenses. The house was simply too big for him to continue living there on his own, so he thought it'd be nice to move in with his girlfriend.

"Girl done dragged me all across Brooklyn." Raseem said making Epiphany playfully mean mug him.

"Boy shut up, no I didn't." She said laying her head on his shoulder while she scrolled on her phone. "When do you get your phone back?" She asked.

"I don't know...hopefully soon though." Raseem said making her sigh, he already knew what she was about to say but he wasn't going to stop her because she was right.

"I told you to stop hanging with them, they both weirdos with no futures and I refuse to allow you to mess up yours. You're lucky Ms.Armani even got them to clear the charges cause I would have been ashes." Epiphany said." Y'all boys need to understand that your girl will notice the opp shit before you do."

"I hear you ma and you totally right, I'm doing better though." He said.

"And I know you are, you better be actually because we have to go to the same college and be successful and stuff." Epiphany said. "Gimme kisses."

Raseem laughed as he kissed her lips three times and turned to see that they were pulling into Armani's dads driveway.

"Made me feel like I was third wheeling." Armani's dad said making the two laugh as they both got out and went inside.

"You so fine." Raseem said as he went through the pictures he had taken of her earlier while they were out.

"Stoppp." She whined making him chuckle.

"Im just sayin, my baby the prettiest and thats on what?"

"Period." Epiphany laughed as she went over the pictures.

"Alright Rah, go ahead and grab your stuff and we gon head to your moms." Armani's dad said making him nod his head as he jogged up the stairs. He packed his stuff up realizing that his mother hadn't even said happy birthday to him. He knew he did something bad but he still felt like he deserved at least a happy birthday.

After his stuff was packed and he double checked, the three were on the way back home. The ride took about 20 minutes but when they got there, Epiphany could hardly contain the grin creeping onto her face.

Raseem held Epiphany's hand as he unlocked the door and walked in seeing all the lights off confused at the silence.

And they decided to leave me home alone on my birthday, what's new?

"The fuck is it so dark for." Mumbled Raseem.

"Hmm I don't know." Epiphany said.

"SURPRISE!" A large group of people jumped from their hiding spots with Savior, Nasir, and Armani front row and center with their outfits all in coordination. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

"Not y'all threw me a party." Raseem said holding his chest and dabbing at fake tears. "Nawl forreal though, thank y'all, I was not expecting this, i thought yall forgot."

"I would never forget my sons birthday." Armani said as she hugged him.

"You aint give me much choice but to remember the past week with the way you was talking about it." Nasir joked.

"Thank you for distracting him." Armani said making Raseem look over at Epiphany shocked.

"You was in on this?" He asked her.

"Of course." Epiphany smiled as she kissed his cheek. "They were in on it too." Epiphany pointed at Jasiah, Jayden, and Marques.

"I shoulda known y'all niggas was in on it." Raseem shook his head as he walked over and slapped hands with Jasiah.

"Duh nigga." Jasiah said.

They had came to his granddad house with the permission of Armani and they chilled for hours.

"I asked this nigga what rhymed with Cardi and you know what he said? Nigga said tardy." Marques shook his head making the group laugh.

"In my defense, y'all niggas came when a nigga was still sleep, aint nobody tell yall to start giving me riddles and shit." Raseem said as he looked back and smiled at Armani and Nasir appreciatively.

"Yo that cake looks fire." Marques said looking over as they opened up the covered cake.

"We're going to sing happy birthday and then Raseem is going to cut the cake." Armani said.

Armani began the countdown and the music paused and soon happy birthday filled the entire downstairs. After they finished singing, Raseem cut the cake and everybody cheered.

They began to fully cut the cake to prepare for it to be served after everyone got their plates and ate real food. After everybody ate, they mingled amongst themselves dancing and singing the lyrics to Bad and Boujee by the Migos.

"Alright y'all." Armani clapped her hands gaining attention from everybody. "Now that the birthday boy is here, lets open up these gifts." She smiled watching Raseem take notice of the nicely filled gift table.

"Go baby, open my gift first." Epiphany smiled as she pushed him towards the table.

"Definitely wasn't expecting this." He mumbled as he sat down in one of the chairs and they placed the gifts in front of them.

"On a count of 3 we gon say happy birthday one more time and Raseem is going to open his gifts, then y'all can dance and have a good time!" Armani yelled.

"And then y'all can take y'all musty asses and get out!" Monty yelled bucking at the few kids who looked at him.

"In 3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"Happy birthday Raseem!"

Raseem smacked away Saviors  hands as Savior attempted to tear the box open for himself. "Bro move your potato head havin ass on." He bucked at Savior and Savior bucked right back making everyone that was watching chuckle.

Raseem tore open the box after reading that it was from his grandfather on Nasir side, and his mouth nearly dropped to the floor when he revealed the off-white Nike Jordan 1s that were going for one grand. He teared up and got up to hug the man then sat down to open the rest of the gifts.

Raseem grabbed the next gift and read out the name Epiphany then looked over at her. She smiled as she urged him to open it, and everyone crowded to see what his girl got him. Raseem opened the box, and saw that she had gotten him a fitted with her name on it, along with a gold chain with her name on it. Raseem cheesed as he put the fitted cap on and called his girlfriend over to him. She walked over and once she reached him, he kissed her gently on the lips causing all the young teens to awe. Epiphany helped put the chain on and Raseem went back to opening gifts.

The next gift came from Nasir and inside the bag came the new 2K game seeing that he snapped Raseems last 2K game out of anger, and a new PlayStation 4 controller. After he thanked Nasir, he picked up Armani's gift, and found a Bape hoodie along with a beats speaker waiting inside. He tried to play off the fact thar he was emotional, because although it had been a year since he was taken in, his mother left a permanent scar on him. He got up from where he sat and hugged his parents tightly feeling no shame as everyone watched.

No one knew the story behind him but Epiphany and his now 3 friends, they all knew him as the mean but funny kid who took no shit, and came from Chicago. They never really understood why he reacted the way he did to the gifts, because reality was they were all spoiled and never had to beg just for their birthday to be celebrated.

"Thank you momma." Raseem said making Armani smile.

"I got you for life Rah." Armani said. "I told you that."

"Even when you do dumb ass shit that makes me want to beat your ass." Nasir said. "Gon head and open the rest of your gifts."

Raseem returned to his chair with Epiphany standing over right beside him as he grabbed the next gift. It came from his grandfather on Armani side and in it held some posters and LED lights for his room. After he opened the rest of his gifts, the music turned back on and everyone began to dance and have a good time until the clock hit 11, and parents began to come around to finally pick there kids up.

"AISHA JADE! WHOEVER YOU IS, YO MOMMA OUTSIDE AND SHE SAY SHE GON BEAT CHO ASS FOR COMIN KNOWIN DAMN WELL YOU ON PUNISHMENT!" Monty yelled making the girl grab her stuff nearly stumbling out the door.

"SERINA PARKS YO MOMMA SAY SHE ON YO ASS TOO!"

_______________
Loool this was lowkey fun to write 😂

Thoughts?

—logging off 12:37 A.M