In the beautiful backyard of my modern house on the hills I sit on Ziyah's lap as his arms are wrapped around me. Still connected to each other are eyes are staring at our little girls who are embracing the beauty of being five by running around in the same little dresses. After running around in circles speaking fluent french they run over to where we sit with glowing eyes and huge smiles.
"Mommy," they both say in unison and their dresses turn into hotdog costumes.
"Yes babies," I say.
"We want to sit on Daddy's lap!"they shout and they don't sound like sweet little girls anymore, but their voices have changed to a tone similar to a southern grandma.
"Ok," I say. I'm about to get up from Ziyah's lap, but Ziyah keeps on holding me.
"Nah it's mommy's turn," he says and his tone isn't his usual chill tone, but he instead sounds like Kernal Sanders.
"Aww," I say like a housewife and turn to Ziyah. I'm about to press my lips against his, but his face changes to every person I know from Vince to Chase to Astrid. After his whole face changes to everybody in my family, Ziyah disappears and I'm now sitting on Unna's lap with her micro braids and glossy lips.
She smacks her lips right in my face and takes a bite of the biscuit I didn't even know she had. "You know you miss him girl," she says and disappears. I'm now sitting on Harper's lap with her long blonde hair and bright red lips. She smells like fries and I turn back to look at my girls who are also replicas of Harper now in donut costumes.
"How do you think you did?" Harper asks.
"What?" I ask.
"Aww poor baby wake up," Harper says, and everything goes black.
I stir in my sleep and pick my head off of my desk to see Harper standing over me. Damn that was such a good nap, and I know because I need to take a minute to realize I'm in french class and I just finished my last final of first semester. Everyone is out of their seats and getting their backpacks from the front while Madame accepts gifts from kiss ups.
After I wipe my eyes I notice Harper has a big old grin on her face and she's holding her phone. "Girl you were out cold how do you guys sleep on such hard desks?" For a second I think Harper is talking about black people, but then I realize she's just talking about every normal student who has left a drool stain on one of these desks.
I'm still recovering from my nap, and Harper doesn't hesitate to continue. "It doesn't matter though but girl you were smiling in your sleep what were you dreaming about?" Harper puts her phone down for me to look at and I roll my eyes. On the screen is me sprawled out on my desk with a closed smile on my face. I should be mortified, but I actually look cute with my fresh braids, and Lauryn Hill shirt.
"Are you hungry?" I ask sort of remembering all of the food from my dream along with a stomach growl.
Harper picks her phone up and her cheeks flush up. "Yes, and that's why I'm going somewhere with Navia." I wasn't asking you to go out with me, that was my way of asking for some food damn.
Harper wanders down to look at her phone and after getting my backpack from the front I sit back down and my eyes meet Ziyah's. He's talking to Lindsey or rather nodding passively as she babbles on with his eyes on me. A shiver runs through my spine and if I were Harper my cheeks would be bright red. Letting us all know finals are over and we can now breathe and enjoy the holidays the bell rings. The class rushes out of the door, but Ziyah like me stays behind. He walks over to me and Madame is too busy looking at her christmas gifts to notice Ziyah and I. Finals are over Harper is no longer my only friend.
"You have a good nap?" he says and my smile that I had during my sleep gets bigger. We walk out of the classroom and we're heading to the back of the school, yes we're back.
"Was I really knocked out?" I ask. I already know the answer, but what I'm really asking is did I look as cute as the picture Harper took of me. I kind of want to tell him about the dream, but that's completely off limits, especially since I'm trying to get back to where we were weeks ago.
"Yea but you were cheesing really hard it was cute as shit." Aww. I look down at the floor for a moment and then back at Ziyah. He takes his phone out of his pocket and turns it to me and my eyes widened at the sight of the same picture Harper showed me.
Even a tad embarrassed my smile still remains. "You took a picture of me while I was sleeping?" I say in the same tone Harper uses with well basically everybody.
"Nah Harper air dropped it to me."
"But you're keeping it." I keep my eyes that are filled with infatuation on Ziyah, instead of looking ahead at the track runners we're passing. For the first time ever Ziyah's caramel cheeks have a little pink in them as his smirk gets somewhat bigger.
"Do you want me to?" He bites his bottom lip then looks down at his phone. I'm not one to take pictures of myself unless I'm looking better than ever, and because of my illness of comparing myself to others that's not too often. Sure I haven't been comparing myself as much, but in true honesty I don't think I'll ever be comfortable smiling in front of a camera. On another note Harper has a good eye and the picture of me isn't bad and if I had an instagram I would post it with some cheesy caption.
"Yes I do," I say with assurance that surprises me.
"Ok then it's kept." Ziyah and I finally make it out of the school and a group of middle school boys come rushing past us when we step onto the sidewalk, and Ziyah brings me closer to him by intertwining our hands. The feeling of having his hand in mine totally makes me forget about being hungry and my weird dream. We get to the elementary school and we turn to face each other. Ziyah is leaning against the fence so casually and I can't look away from him, while i don't stop smiling.
"I missed you," I blurt out, but softly as there is not that much distance between us.
"Did you?" He raises his brows and I take a bite of my bottom lip and nod.
"I missed you too," he says and leans in to kiss me. Kissing Navia's ex didn't change his lips and they still have that cinnamon taste and his touch makes my knees get weak. I want to kiss him back but as the thought comes to mind he takes a step back.
His smirk is more devious as we still stand close together. "You can get another kiss when you stop looking down at the ground when I give you a compliment." Damn.
"Can I still get a hug?" Ziyah rolls his eyes a bit, but in the cute annoying way and we wrap our arms around each other. It's not a long hug, but I try to take in as much as his beautiful scent as possible and when we seperate Ziyah gives me a peck on the cheek.
"Bye True," he says and this time I don't look down at my shoes and stare right into his eyes behind his glasses as he starts to walk back to the park.
"Wait," I say and he turns around and I walk towards him. "I'm sorry about my brother again." I didn't want to bring it up, but the elephant kept on getting bigger in my head.
Ziyah takes my glasses off and wipes the lenses with the black cloth that was in his pocket. He slides them back on my scrunched confused face. "It's forgotten," he says and leaves me standing there. Just like that he holds the key to the gates of my closed personality again.
When I get home my dad puts the chicken in the oven and begins to play our long Christmas playlist as we get the ornaments out of the closet. Like when we got the tree this is a moment without any stress or tension and just sparkling ornaments that don't go together. Our tree that's where Sawyer's play pen used to be looks a mess at the bottom, and we can thank Sawyer for that who had a little egg nog in her sippy cup. The leaves at the bottom are getting too heavy, and Vince saves the day by placing Sawyer on his hip.
As I'm focusing on placing the ornaments on the back of the tree Vince comes over to me while Sawyer sucks her thumb.
"We're good," I say and place something I made in art class on the tree. I've felt this way for a while now, but I've been hiding it behind mean mugs and snarky remarks because my dad is still punishing him with no TV. My mom on the other hand is making him see a therapist for his anger issues.
"You sure," he says not hiding his big smile.
"Yea I'm sure." After being with Ziyah today and having his lips on mine it dawned on me that Vince didn't change a single thing between us with his threat, or it at least seems that way.
"You know I was just trying to protect you." Vince turns away from the tree and are eyes are locked. His words bring back that night at the football game, and my 100% christmas spirit goes down to 80%.
"Yes Vince," I say dryly.
"I saw you and him today walking," Vince raises his brows. "You guys are cute."
"Thank you."
"But if he hurts you I will break every single bone in his-" My dad comes out of the kitchen and the beautiful smell of the chicken flows into the room.
"Dinner is ready," he says and Vince forgets about his sentence.