nine - family

the art of family

- - -

We were packing away the food, Kareem shaking out the dirt that had stuck to the blanket before throwing it into his rucksack, then we walked back to his car. Once everything was packed away, we started walking through the twilight-illuminated park as I started to tell him about how I met my best friends.

"Jem literally ran into me in elementary school, trying to get away from some dorks who were trying to throw a spider at them. I've not been able to get rid of them ever since."

"As if you'd want to. I have to admit, they seem pretty cool." If only you knew what they said when we first planned to go out.

Granted, they had warmed up slightly to Kareem but I knew he could still sense the tension. Luckily, they hadn't said anything else about him.

"I really wouldn't, I honestly couldn't imagine my life without them in it." We both chuckled, and goosebumps ran up my arm when I felt Kareem brush up against me. I saw him smirk from the corner of my eye, rolling his sleeves up further as if he was fully aware of the effect he was having on me.

"What about Hendrix? How did you meet her?"

"Ended up sitting next to her in one of my lectures. We never spoke until I saw her punch someone who made a comment about Jem. We've been friends ever since."

"I bet she caused chaos."

"I'll have you know, we were completely incredible as a trio." I grinned at him, "And then we met Ali when she transferred to NYU. Sacha moved out here last year and everything's been good since. Well, apart from Drix. She can be a little..."

"Crazy?"

"I was going to say unpredictable." I deadpanned, cocking my head to the side. We'd stopped walking now, and were sitting on a bench overlooking the moon-ridden sky. "So I know you came up here to find your sister but how come you stayed? Wasn't your life in Philadelphia?"

"Not really, and I wanted a change, I guess." He shrugged nonchalantly, "Never really stayed somewhere long enough in Philadelphia to call it home. So when I got out of the Army, I knew I needed something different. I found out my old foster sister was moved to a place up here so I phoned around, found a place and got a car. Been stuck here ever since."

"Kezziah, right?"

Kareem's face softened at her name, and it warmed my heart to see him look so sentimental about her.

"Yeah, she was just a kid when I met her. I was only fifteen and there was suddenly this new girl in the group home who was absolutely terrified of everything and everyone. I didn't like any of them fuckers anyway, so we stuck together. I left for the army three years later, and she was only thirteen but I promised her I'd come back for her. Once I was out."

I tried to picture an eighteen year old Kareem, but I couldn't quite conjure up an image. However, the fifteen year old who hated everybody wasn't hard to imagine.

Before I could comment back on his little story, he jumped up and offered me a hand. "Let me get you home before I have your brother on my ass."

"I think you could take him." I laughed, letting him pull me up anyway as we started walking back.

It didn't escape my notice that he still held onto my hand. Fighting back a smile off my face was practically impossible.

We drove back to my apartment silently, comfortably. He held my hand just over the gearstick, not loosening his grip when the soft sound of Fleetwood Mac came through the car speakers. It was relaxed and serene and I felt content at being sat here, with him. It'd been so long since I'd done something so intimate as dating, and it was surreal. Who would've thought that a man stumbling into my bakery would've done me so much good?

He parked the car and walked me up to the door, hand in hand. But before I could open the door, he tugged at my hand and guided me until I was facing him, a small smile on his lips.

"Hey," He whispered.

My lips curved up, "Hey."

He hesitated, head tilting slightly to the side as he studied me, gnawing at his bottom lip.

Before I knew it, he slowly leaned forward. His eyes stared down at my lips as he hesitantly moved himself forward until our bodies got closer and closer. I stopped breathing, hands moving up to hold the side of his neck and I felt his pulse rocket under my fingertips. My gaze flickered down to his lips too, nerves starting to build because I thought he was going to push away.

But he wanted to kiss me.

Our foreheads met, lips apart. I tried to inhale, but I could barely find it within myself. He simply left me breathless with anticipation.

"Stop me, S." He whispered. Glancing up, I noticed that his eyes were shut. He's holding himself back.

I knew that this was somewhat new for him, something that he didn't do often, just like me. After spending so long away, any sense of normality when it came to intimacy was foreign to him. And now we were here, and he was so nervous. I think he wanted to kiss me, but he was also scared of it getting too overwhelming for him, while also considering whether it was something that I wanted or not.

Both of us let out heavy breaths, foreheads together, my hands on his neck as his own rested on my cheek.

"It's your move, Murad." I let out under my breath, "Your choice."

He let out a small whine in the back of his throat, jaw sharp. This meant something to us both. Taking this step was almost like breaking any last shred of uncertainty between us. Kareem was scared.

And I was scared too - but for my own reasons.

My thumb glided softly along the sensitive skin on his neck, trying to help him relax, trying to help him understand, despite all of this, he was under no pressure. We'd had such a good evening, spent together in the starlight. Kissing wasn't a deal breaker for me, just like I hoped the lack of sex wouldn't be one for him.

"Saint..." He let out so softly, quietly warning me as he moved closer.

My eyes fluttered shut of their own accord, breath robbed of me when our lips finally met within the chaos our anxieties had provoked. The lips that let out so many profanities, that teased me so mercilessly, that touched mine and left sparks of electricity bruising my own. I suddenly forgot how to think, how to breathe, how to feel anything other than the touch of his lips on mine, the taste of him. Him. No sugar-coating. No bullshit. Just him. Kareem. Frozen. As one.

For the moment, it was just me and him. Me and him in a world full of so much unpredictability but none of that mattered. It didn't matter that I was scared, that my trust issues ran so deep that I barely remembered a world without them in it.

What mattered was us. This. Because spending time with him makes me happy. Kareem makes me happy.

I thought I moved to New York for me, for my big break, for my freedom away from home. I never realized that I'd been searching for something, something that would set my soul completely alight.

And it was at that very moment that I knew the thing I'd been searching for was him.

The day after our Picnic, I could still feel the ghost of his lips against mine. The soft press of him against me, hand on my cheek as he kissed me for the first time.

He Facetimed me the moment he got home and we'd talked until the early hours, when he finally forced me to go to sleep as I had an early shift.

Last night, he'd asked me if I'd be interested in meeting his sister. She was currently on the summer break before her senior year and Kareem had managed to drag her away from her friends for a day and he felt like it was time.

It was safe to say that I wasn't ready.

"What if she doesn't like me? What if she takes one look at me and tells me she hates me and would rather I die than date her brother? What if-"

"Saint; breathe." Hendrix cut me off, nudging my shoulder as a method of getting me to shut up. "It's going to be fine, calm down."

It was not fine. It was definitely not fine.

Teenagers are horrible. I know this already given the fact I practically raised one.

"Besides, they can smell panic."

I stared at her incredulously, "But what if-"

I was cut off by the doorbell chiming and my entire body seized. Whipping my gaze to the door, I watched as Kareem walked into Dexter's with the same girl from one of the first times I saw him.

She was short, and that's the first thing I noticed. She's absolutely tiny in comparison to Kaz. Her hair is braided, tied half up and half down. She's pretty, with a gentle glimmer in her eyes that told me that she wasn't here for confrontation. It did little to calm me.

She was still a teenager.

A seventeen year old female.

"Hey, Angel," Kareem greeted, leaning down to kiss my cheek. I preened at the pet name, grinning up at him. "This is my little sister, Kezz. Kezz, this is Saint."

Do not panic.

To my utmost anxiety, she just blinked at me. Eyes running over my outfit, to the tattoos exposed on my arms, to my curls. I shifted uncomfortably under her assessing gaze and I could hear Hendrix shift, as if she was ready to throw down with a seventeen year old if she said something bad.

It scared me that she'd fully fight a teenager too. No hesitation.

After what feels like a millennium, she spoke up in a stronger Philadelphian accent than Kareem's. "You're with the wrong one of us."

Kareem choked, staring at his sister with wide eyes as I sputtered out a laugh. I think I'll like her.

"Is that so?" I asked, choking on a laugh as I raised my eyebrows.

"Definitely," Kezziah answered before turning around and smacking her brother's arm, "Dude, how do you go twenty two years without a boyfriend and then find someone who looks like him."

"I like her." Hendrix leaned over and whispered in my ear, pinching the side of my hip. I let out a soft squeal, shifting away from her as Kareem and Kezziah turned back around to us.

"Don't act as if you haven't been running around with that boy doing all sorts of horrific things."

Kezziah's eyes widened, her hand shoving at Kareem without hesitation, "Don't say it like that! And we haven't been doing anything. We're just friends."

It didn't take a genius to work out that she was lying.

Maybe it was the high pitched voice that gave her away, maybe it was the way her eyes avoided Kareem's. Or maybe it was the large hickey on her neck that she'd obviously tried, and failed, to cover with makeup.

"Stop teasing your sister," I chided, making Kareem roll his eyes as Kezziah beamed at me. "What would you guys like?"

Kareem answered, "One of the Jennifer cupcakes and one brownie for Kezz, please. Even though the cupcakes are better." He winked at me, making me giggle as Hendrix surged forward. I reached out to grab her and hold her back.

"Say that again and I won't be held accountable for my actions." Hendrix threatened. I barked out another laugh at Kareem's shocked face. Kezziah looked at Hendrix weirdly, as if she was determining whether she was being serious or not.

I handed them their confectionaries. Hendrix made them a drink each and then shooed them away towards a table.

"Saint?" Kareem looked towards me before moving away from the counter, he gestured his head towards the table in invitation.

Hendrix shoved me away from her before I could answer. Sending her a scowl, I pulled my apron off and headed towards the table Kezziah was already sitting at.

Kareem sat next to me, arm extended on the back of my chair as Kezziah started to eat her brownies.

"So I thought we could arrange a playdate for Sacha and Kezziah."

Kezziah spluttered, eyes wide as she lifted them up to stare at her brother. She swallowed her brownies before saying, "You're joking."

"You know they're not kids, right?" I added on, grinning when I felt Kareem's thumb rubbing circles into my shoulder.

"How old is Sacha again?" He asked in lieu of answering.

"Eighteen. He's nineteen in September."

"So he's a kid, and so is she." Kareem nodded towards Kezziah.

She glared at him, "This is why you can't meet anyone I associate with."

Kareem recoiled back, mouth agape as he stared at his sister. "You're joking, right? Your friends love me."

She turned to me, eyebrows raised. "Saint, please tell his uncultured swine that avoiding people typically equates to disliking them."

"Saint avoided me when we first met." Kareem shot in.

I smiled at Kezziah, "You're correct."

Kareem's smile dropped, "Don't tell me you're going to ditch me for my sister."

"Okay." I said with the most deadpan expression, "I'm not going to ditch you for your sister."

"Next time say it with a bit more confidence." Kareem teased as Kezziah burst out laughing.

I smiled at him sheepishly, shrugging my shoulders. "Point taken."

A/N:

i hate introducing new characters lol

but kezziah is my baby <3