Part 2 of this story will be on that account ]

Jaiden and Jonah are two different people..

is a teenage boy who Samiron helps financially while still letting him work in the trap house occasionally.

is/was Samiron's right hand man who he also used to help financially by paying for his mom's chemo, just to find out he been snaking him & stealing money from him.

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𝙷𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚗𝚃𝚇.

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"You look pretty." Samiron commented, walking into my bedroom. Today is the baby shower and as usual, I was taking years to get ready. As soon as I put something on it either didn't look right with my baby bump or it just looked ugly and i'll be damned if I look a mess at my own baby shower. The problem with choosing my outfits now is that I wanna dress how I normally do— except I weigh 32 extra pounds.

"I feel like a whale." I frowned in the mirror and Samiron bussed out laughing, making me turn around and mug the hell out of him.

He immediately stopped laughing and threw his hands up in surrender. "Don't get to cryin' now! You're pregnant, not a whale." He said and walked out of the room. As soon as he reached the hallway I heard him start laughing again.

"Not yo long ass talking.." I mumbled to myself while combing through 32" straight black wig.

"Only thing long about me is my dick and you were just taking that shit yesterday so I don't wanna hear it." Samiron replied, walking past my room.

I rolled my eyes and continued crimping my 32". After much deliberation, I decided on wearing my wrapped, off-the-shoulder Alexander Wang shirtdress that resembled a men's button down Polo. Samiron hated the fact that the front was kinda open so the cleavage was very much there but oh well, this baby didn't give me big titties for nothing. If my titties gotta be big, everybody gotta see them.

I wore some baby blue and white Alexander McQueen to match because heels were definitely a no-go. Samiron on the other hand wore some light washed Ksubi jeans, a white Moncler tee with blue writing to match the jeans, and his g fazos. After finally getting ready, I walked downstairs to see Samiron sitting in the living room smoking a blunt. I guess he assumed I was gonna be upstairs for a while because he never smokes around me anymore.

As soon as he seen me standing there he quickly put the blunt out on the ashtray and began swatting the smoke out of the air like an idiot.

I stifled my laugh and turned on my heels, heading out the front door with Samiron in tow. He unlocked his all-black 2022 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat and opened the door for me before making his way to the driver's side and starting the car.

"Have you decided?" He blurted, speeding out of my neighborhood since we were late to our own baby shower at this point.

"On?"

"The house situation, Mari." He emphasized and I sighed.

"I still don't know." I admitted, making him blow out an irritated breath.

"Im not trying to press you or nothing, but you need to figure out soon. Our son is gonna be here in no time and we needa know the living arrangements. All this back and forth isn't gonna do us any good once he's here."

The whole living arrangements argument started a few weeks ago after me and Samiron came back from a dinner with his dad and my parents. My mom asked me about a nursery and I'd told her that I had started working on one in my townhouse and Samiron instantly got irritated. I guess he was under the impression that I was just gonna move in with him even though we never even discussed it. Luckily he waited until after we left the restaurant to cuss me out since both of our parents seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that me and Samiron hadn't discussed our living arrangements at all.

Stopping at a red light, Samiron glanced over at me squinting his eyes, "Why don't you just wanna live with me?"

I sighed, knowing that I've heard this conversation play out one too many times. "It's not that I don't wanna move in with you, Samiron. It's the fact that I don't wanna feel like we're movin' too fast and I already do."

"We've been together for close to two years and while it might not seem "normal" we're having a child already and we're raising him together." He turned his attention away from me and towards the green light. "Obviously we're gonna be moving faster than other people but what happened, happened and I don't regret it."

Mmm okay preacher Samiron.

I looked at him with raised eyebrows, "Shoot, let me find out my babydaddy a whole preacher."

He glanced at me and tried to shake the grin off of his face, "You can never be serious bruh."

"On some real shit I guess you're right, but I'm just scared."

"Of?"

"Wh-"

"What people are gonna say." He cut me off, finishing my sentence and sighing.

I was never one to care about people's opinions, especially when i'm doing good for myself but this is a different scenario. Less than two years into a relationship is so early to even be having a baby, let

alone moving in with the person. Obviously our circumstances are different but that doesn't change the stigma around our relationship.

"Well yea, that. And I always hear that moving in with someone makes the relationship go downhill.."

Samiron sighed, "Well we're not everyone else, Mari. Not every relationship is like that." He glanced at me before turning his attention back on the road.

"Yo parents moved in together right before they had yo big headed ass, didn't they? So they raised Bri'on in two houses?"

"Yes and fuck you, my head ain't big." I rolled my eyes.

"It is but anyway, ask yo momma how hard it is to raise a child together in two different houses."

My momma was nineteen when she had Bri on and at the time, she felt like she wasn't ready to move in with my dad who kept asking her to— basically me and Samiron's current dilemma.

My momma refused and they got into this big ass argument. They ended up raising Bri'on in two separate houses for like a year before finally moving in together. Whats crazy about it all is that after they had that whole argument, they didn't even break up. They were still in a relationship but raising Bri'on in two different homes as if they were coparenting.

"Fine. I'll talk to her."

Samiron nodded, pulling into the venue. "That's all i'm askin'.'

Me and Samiron walked around the large, half outdoor half-indoor venue with our fingers interlocked while we greeted family members.

The venue itself resembled the bottom floor of a house. It was a large, one floor building with floor-to-ceiling windows. Inside, there was a hallway leading to the kitchen and bathrooms, but the rest of the building was just one wide open space where we had blue, silver, and white decor all over.

Towards the back of the building, there were two glass double doors that led you to the outdoor section of the venue which was floored with concrete tiles. A large area of grass was left open. It sported a small fountain directly in the middle which we'd also decorated with a blue and silver balloon arch.

Food tables were set up inside and outside along with tons of round tables for seating. The large indoor windows had baby blue drapes falling down the sides and white foxglove flowers decorated the balloon arches and acted as centerpieces for all of the tables.

Instead of going for a plain, all-blue baby shower, we decided to do silver and white, along with different shades of blue. In total, me and Samiron spent a good 14k on this baby shower, but I don't regret it all because it's exactly how I pictured it, if not better.

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"Oh my gosh sissy, it looks soo pretty!" Layva cooed, holding my hand as we walked to one of the many dessert tables that were scattered around.

"Mhm, it's nice." I handed Layva a sugar cookie and got one for myself, even though I just finished my third plate of food.

"Got my daughter out here bein' an auntie at 8 years old. This is outrageous." I turned around to see my dad fake-scolding me with my momma walking next to him.

"I am, and what about it?" I rolled my neck and he mushed my head.

"You outdid yourself, Mari! Everything looks so pretty." My momma embraced me in a hug.

I pulled away from her and popped my imaginary collar, "I don't mean to brag buuttt-"

"Then don't." My dad retorted, making me slap the back of his neck.

"My baby is having a baby! I can't believe this." My momma fanned her now glossy eyes.

Kill me now.

"Here we go with this shit.." I heard my dad mumble from beside me, picking up another cookie from the dessert table and paying us no mind.

"Momma please don't cry. If you cry, I'm gonna cry, and if I cry— I'm not gonna be able to stop." I told her warningly and she laughed before pulling me into another hug.

I shot my dad a seething look over my momma's shoulder and pulled away from the hug. He sighed and walked away from the dessert table, pulling my mom towards him gently and wiping the tears off her face.

"Muthafuckas always gotta cry." He muttered and my momma rolled her eyes.

I looked back down at Layva who was scanning the table for another cookie so I handed her one.

"Go find Ry's kids, Lay. Let me talk to momma and daddy real quick."

She put a thumbs up and stuffed the cookie into her mouth while walking away. "I gotta ask y'all something really important." I told my parents as the three of us walked through the doors to the outside area of the venue. We found an empty table near the water fountain that sat under a balloon arch.

"Hey Mari!" I heard someone shout over Best I Ever Had by Nicki Minaj and Drake that played on the speakers. I turned to see my cousin, Mercedes, waving at me as she stood around a table that was occupied by my other family members.

I smiled and waved back at her before taking a seat at the table.

"What's up?" My dad sat down across from me, next to my momma.

"How did y'all raise Bri'on in two different houses without being broken up?" I blurted and couldn't miss the look of doubt and confusion that went across both of their faces.

"If we're being honest.. we might as well have been broken up." My momma said truthfully.

My dad nodded, "It's like.. co-parenting a child that you're supposed to be raising together. And we were supposed to be raising him together given the fact that we were still in a whole relationship."

"Granted that was my fault for not bein' ready to move in witchu but I should've done it for Bri'on's sake if anything, even if I didn't feel ready." She sighed, regret filling her voice. "Poor boy was one years old and having to be switched from his momma and daddy's houses at such a young age."

"Who's house did he mainly stay in?"

"Mostly yo momma's but I would go over there basically everyday so it was dumb as fuck." My dad admitted bluntly.

"You see how you and Samiron be at each others houses every other day?" My dad asked and I nodded. "We were basically doin' that. But with a whole child involved. Shit was tiring as fuck."

"Wait why are you asking us? Are you thinking of co-parenting with Samiron or something?" My momma quickly asked and I shook my head.

"It's not about co-parenting, it's about me being scared to move in with him." I admitted. "I'm scared that moving in with him is gonna drive a wedge between us and I really don't want that. We've dealt with more than enough in our relationship already."

She sighed,"You have to make certain decisions for the sake of your child, Amari. Trust me when I say this, the fears you're currently havin' are not worth losing the ability to raise yo child with your baby daddy in the same house."

"You need someone who's gonna watch baby boy while you get ready or someone who can wake up in the middle of the night to tend to him when you're too tired to get up. You need someone you can rely on to be right next to you, not a phone call away. You can't just flip flop between houses like y'all are doing now when my grandson gets here." My dad explained and my momma nodded in agreement.

"I get what you mean." I leaned back onto the white seat. "Y'all don't think i'm moving too fast?"

My dad tried holding his laugh in but he failed terribly, "Nah, you're moving slow." He sarcastically said before throwing his head back and laughing harder. My momma glared at him and slapped his arm.

"Shut the hell up, Travis!" She scolded. "Mari baby, what did I tell you when you told me you were pregnant? If it wasn't meant to be, it wouldn't have happened."

"Hold up- my grandson ain't a mistake if that's what y'all are implying." My dad butted in, getting all defensive.

I rolled my eyes,"That's not what I'm implying! Just 'cause me and Samiron were too busy and forgot to use a condo-"

"Goodbye." My dad got up, heading back into the venue while me and my momma started laughing.

"So you know what you're gonna do?" She turned towards me again.

"Yea."

"Good. 'Cause whether you like it or not, you need Samiron in the same house as you when your son gets here. I promise you won't be able to do it alone." She said and I nodded.

"Momma!" We heard someone shout and we turned towards the glass doors to see Duck and Eli walking towards us while Duck held Layva's hand.

"Here we go chile.." My momma sighed. I laughed and got up, leaving Duck and Eli to annoy my mom.

Walking back into the packed venue, my eyes immediately landed on my dad and Samiron's dad, Nas, shooting dice and laughing. I introduced them to each other over a year ago at Layva's birthday party and I guess they've been besties ever since.

It's strange how close they've gotten despite their occasional bickering about dumb shit like football or who my son is gonna be named after. They're gonna be real disappointed to find out me and Samiron aren't naming our son after neither of their asses.

"Too many people in this bitch." Samiron mumbled, walking up next to me and literally snatching my hand into his hold.

"Samiron it's not even that many people. You're just antisocial as hell." I rolled my eyes.

"No, I just don't like so many people bein' around me. Shit makes me jittery and paranoid." He retorted. "What's that word? Clause-to-pho-"

"You mean claustrophobic, Samiron?" I snorted and he looked down at me, narrowing his eyes.

"Yea, that. I have that." He nodded.

How do you claim to have something that you can't even pronounce?

I walked to the gift table with Samirons hand still gripped tightly around mine, holding me close to him.

"Samiron you don't gotta hold on to me like that! I'm not gonna disappear. Out here actin' like someones just gonna hop on a chair and start shooting right

now."

He scoffed, "With so many black people in one room you can never be too sure. A few of 'em could be beefing right now and we wouldn't even know.

I rolled my eyes at him as we approached the front of the venue. The gift tables consisted of two long tables put together with blue drapes hanging down. A blue and silver balloon arch sat above the tables and little white foxglove flowers hung from the balloons. Both tables were packed with an assortment of gift boxes and bags and a good amount of diaper boxes were on the floor.

"If the gifts ugly we givin' em back." Samiron said as we surveyed the table.

"That is so rude.."

"What's rude is getting people ugly gifts on purpose." He raised his eyebrows at me. "Luckily we didn't invite any of my momma's sisters 'cause their spiteful asses would've bought my son a wig or sum just to piss me off." He told me and I bussed out laughing along with Ju and Ry who stood off to the side.