Time Skip!

Mia

5 months later... Christmas Day

Holiday season quickly approached and everyone had become one big family. Tiana and Jasmine were doing better than ever and August was August. He bought himself a bigger, better home and enjoyed all the free space he had to roam around. My mother basically adopted August somehow and now they're closer than we are. For the holiday, everyone decided on coming to August's house to celebrate. Of course, he invited his own family to celebrate with us. At first, I was nervous meeting his family simply because they're new people with different lifestyles and upbringing so they may not like me but everyone was very warm and welcoming when they arrived.

August had everyone and their mama, literally, in the kitchen helping him cook. My mom was cooking her famous collard greens and cornbread while Ms. Jacqueline was making desserts of different sorts, with his mother, Ms. Toni, making baked macaroni and cheese and yams. Somehow, I was stuck on banana pudding duty while Tiana stood next to me on deviled egg duty. My job wasn't hard at all but I've become disgusted by the smell of bananas. Hours passed and dinner was finished.

Everyone was in the kitchen in a line as they waited for their plate to be made. Since we were at August's house, he felt it was his duty to help make everyone's plate along with my mom. Everyone who helped cook got their plate made first aside from August and my mom, so I easily made my way to the front of the line. August laughed once he seen me smiling with my plate in my hand.

"Hold dat plate wit two hands befo' I put anything on it." He said. I did as told before he put turkey on my plate. "How you know if I wanted turkey, Aug?" I whined. "I'on even know why you whining 'cause dats what you want. You know you don't eat no damn ham. What else you want?"

"I want macaroni, collard greens, yams, a Hawaiian roll, put two deviled eggs and then I'm going to the dessert side." I told him as I began dancing just thinking about it. He laughed and swatted me away.

"Mommy." I smiled bright. "What you want, Mia? Everything?" She joked.

"Ha ha, mom. Real funny." I spoke blandly. "Girl, what do you want? You holding my line up." She said, getting frustrated.

"I know, mama, tell ha' ta' leave us alone." August budged in.

"Woah yeah, wait a minute Mr. Lunchman. This is a mother-daughter conversation." I said, rolling my eyes.

"August, you need to stop worrying about Mia for once and put another scoop of that mac on this plate. You slackin' homeboy!" Tiana yelled.

"Why these grown ass kids in da front of da line anyway? Ain't it kids first?" August said.

"Fuck them kids, nigga. We worked hard so we getting compensated for our hard work. I smell like eggs, young blood. Eggs!" Tee shouted, making all three of us laugh.

"You smell like dat all da time!" August shouted back.

Tiana decided it would be okay to slap him with her fork, leaving a very obvious red fork print on his fair skin. I laughed at the funny-looking shape and earned a mean mug from August.

"I'm sorry." I spoke through my laughter.

Eventually, we were forced out of the line but we still received all the food we wanted. About ten minutes later, everyone had their food and was seated at the table. Of course, August was the last to sit down.

"Lemme sit beside my bestie and not dat otha' hoodlum." He said as he plopped down in the seat beside me.

Tiana glared at August before speaking. "I know everyone wants to dig in, especially me but Jasmine and I have two very important announcements to make so hold on to your wigs and you edges. First announcement is that Jasmine and I decided to elope and we've been happily married for about a month now." Everyone around the table gasped.

"Tee, you fake!" August shouted. "What he said!" I said.

"Oh, shut up you two will be making announcements in a year or two." She said before she announced the other news. "We also decided we wanted to adopt."

Everyone 'aww'ed at the table. "So that's exactly what we did. She's actually here now." Tiana said.

"Are you serious, Tee?!" I jumped up in excitement. I heard August begin to pray under his breath.

"Everyone, say hello to Jasmine and I's first child, Iyanna."

A young brown-skinned girl walked in the room with the most timid look on her face. She looked as if she literally wanted to crawl into a shell. Everyone greeted Iyanna allowing her to feel welcome as she opened up to each and every one of us. As everyone ate their dinner, they tried to get to know Iyanna. They asked simple questions like, where are you from? How old are you? and what grade are you in? Come to find out Iyanna is a ten year old fifth grader from Decatur who adores Hello Kitty.

Suddenly, everyone bombarded her with many more questions. Majority of the questions were extremely personal and it was obvious that she'd become uncomfortable in the new environment. August tapped me, gaining my attention. He nodded towards the doorway of the dining room. I left the dining room and he followed as we sneaked away from the guests.

"C'mon, I wanna show you something." He said, leading me to his room. When I walked in the huge bedroom, I plopped down on the edge of his bed waiting for him to show me whatever it was. He pulled a drawer from his dresser open and revealed a long, rectangular gift covered in white wrapping paper and a pink bow.

"I know we opened gifts earlier and I know you was prolly feelin' shitty 'cause I only had some shoes fa' you but I wanted to give you dis wit' out da extra attention and I know how you get." He said, giving me this funny look.

"How do I get?!" I laughed as he placed the gift in my hand. "And I love the shoes and I know they weren't cheap at all."

"You so emotional, you cry ova' da smallest shit but don't want nobody seein' you cry so I made it easier fa' you." He chuckled before giving me the green light to open the gift. "And yeah, da shoes was coo' but dey ain't have no thought put it into."

"I still loved it." I said as I popped the pretty pink bow off and tore off the paper. Once I seen the velvet box, it'd become obvious that this was jewelry but when I opened the box, I was shocked. I gasped loudly as my emotions quickly took over and tears rushed from my tear ducts.

"August." I called out in shock at the gift he'd given me.

"I know it ain't da same one he gave you but when I heard you tell me how much you loved dat necklace and how it gave you a sense of comfort, I knew I had ta get you anotha one even if it's from me and not Kyle." He said, referring to my deceased cousin. "It got da gold chain and the year you graduated on it. You told me it had a heart but I ain't know if it came befo' da numbers or afta' so I just put an extra heart on it. One from me and one from him. I got his first initial engraved on one of da' hearts too."

Tears streamed my face as I listened to August ramble on about how he made sure it was perfect for me. "It's perfect, August. Thank you so much." I sobbed, just staring at the gift.

"Mia, please stop cryin'. You know I hate seein' you cry like dis." He pleaded but I couldn't stop it. I was overwhelmed by all the love this man put into one gift just for me. I've never had someone outside of my family show so much love and care so much about my feelings. Tiana has done a great job as my best friend but I've never experienced anyone do something like this for me.

"I'm sorry, I can't help it. August, this is truly the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. What did you expect?"

I heard his groan out of frustration before he spoke up again. "Ugh," he started. "You know what? Jus' stop cryin' and I'll put it on you."

"Okay." I sniffled and dabbed away my tears as he pulled the chain around my neck and fastened it.

"Thank you." I said before getting teary eyed once again. I knew I had aggravated him because of the look he gave. He tried to walk out of the room but I quickly pulled him back.

"Okay, wait, I'm sorry." I said.

"Mhm, and what else?" He said with that 'bitch please' look.

"Umm," I said, thinking before I did anything. "Fuck it."

"Huh?" He asked in pure confusion but before he could ask anything else, I abruptly smashed my lips onto his. It was evident that he was confused whether or not he should kiss back but it didn't take long for him to reciprocate. The kiss was long, but I enjoyed it. He slowly pulled away and rested his forehead on mine.

"Well, I'll be damned." I heard, startling the both us causing us to quickly separate. I cross my arms over my chest and looked down in shame. August was scratching the back of his head and looking down as well.

"You don't gotta front, I seen it already." Ms. Jacqueline said with her hand on her hip.

"Ms. Jacqueline-" I said but I was quickly cut off. "Oh no, sweetie. You don't have to explain to me 'cause I already know what's up with y'all two little motherfuckers, but I only came up here 'cause I noticed y'all weren't in your seats but I'll leave you to it." She said before walking out. August started talking but Ms. Jacqueline walked right back in and said "Just know, I approve!" before walking right back out. August and I laughed before sitting next to each other on the edge of the bed. Silence had taken over and it'd become mighty awkward so I took it upon myself to break the weird silence.

"I apologize, that was me acting off of emotion."

"So, dat kiss, dat was all based off emotion?" He asked. I nodded slowly.

"Dats some good emotion then." He laughed.

"Oh my goodness." I laughed as well before a whole bunch of yelling could be heard throughout the house. We went to see what all the commotion was about and once we did, I could see that August was pissed off. Nina stood there looking around until her eyes landed on August then she looked me up and down with a look of disdain.

"Hey, August. I missed you." She said sashaying over to him while I stood beside him, listening to what she would say.

"I ain't miss ya ass though so what was ya purpose of comin' here? Matter of fact, how da fuck you know where I stay?"

"We share iCloud accounts, dummy. I got on Find My iPhone. You should be grateful dat I even came ta' wish you a Merry Christmas."

"I don't wanna see you, so why would I be grateful? You fuckin' crazy and I'on wanna deal wit you, simple and plain. You can leave though."

"Oh, you tryna act brand new 'cause ya bitch wit you. I don't see why you tryna act funny now, when you was fuckin' wit dat bitch a long damn time ago. That time I left fa' da weekend, I know you was all up unda' dat bitch." She said.

I scrunched my face up, confused where she got all of this from and why she had to call me so many bitches.

"Fuck out my house, Nina." August calmly spoke. His calm is much different though. If he's aggravated and he starts to speak calmly then you should just listen. "Fuck ya house and fuck dat bitch wit you." She said before walking off.

"Fuck you too, bitch!" Everyone in the house shouted in unison, except for the kids of course. I smiled at how quickly everyone in the house had our back, which made me grow to appreciate every single being in the room. After she left, August turned some music up so everyone could dance and have a good time.

I surely was having a good time, dancing with my mom until my phone rang. I tried to speak into the phone the best way I knew how but the music was too loud so whoever was calling would have to bear with me. I quickly answered the phone without checking to see who's calling.

"Hello!" I shouted over the music.

"Yeah, hello, Mia." My face fell straight once I recognized the voice.

"Scott, what do you want?" Today must be the return of the exes.

"I just wanted to say Merry Christmas."

"Well, Merry Christmas!" I shouted before ending the call and stuffing my phone back in my pocket as I continued to dance with my mom.

"Mommy, look what August got me!" I shouted as I remembered to tell her about the sweet gesture.

"He found your necklace?!" She screamed.

"No. He bought me a new one and he even added a new charm and had a 'K' engraved in one of them."

"Wow, I see. I'm gonna go get some more to drink." She said before walking away as Tiana walked up.

"Give it a year or two." Tiana whispered and walked off. That's when it finally clicked what she meant at dinner. She's been saying that August and I would eventually be announcing things about making our own family in a year or two. I quickly pulled her back, found August and pulled him over there with us.

"Since you have so many announcements tonight, Tee, August and I wanna tell you something too." I smiled, knowing I would piss her off.

"We do?" August asked, unsure if I was serious or not. In the past, August and I agreed to keep the things we did together behind us but it felt weird keeping things from my best friend, especially since we were all always around each other. "We sure do."

"Well, spill the tea." She said.

I told her about the times we had sex, even the times when we did it just for fun and not for business purposes. She gasped at everything I told her. "Oh my god, you two little motherfuckers." She said, still in shock.

I discreetly tapped August, telling him to walk away as Tiana stood there trying to piece things together in her head. When she realized we were walking away, she threw a fit and chased us.

"Wait! That's the best shit of the night! You can't just walk away!"