Chapter 11
A’yanna Joseph
“Zayden is so damn cute,” I cooed while holding my nephew, Zayden. I was salty I wasn’t having a boy like Solana and Zaylee did. Both of their sons were so handsome. “I can’t wait until this little girl gets ready to come out.” I giggled as I placed Zayden back in his carseat next to Zaylee.
I placed my hand on my round belly. I couldn’t believe how fast time flew.
In these last few months, I’d been so focused on myself and my baby, I didn’t notice how fast life was moving by.
I’d spent the early months of my pregnancy working as much as I possibly could because when my daughter was born, I wanted to be able to take a few months off.
I wanted to enjoy my time as a new mom without worrying about bills and working.
I took a few out of town jobs because they were paying a pretty penny before I settled in working at a doctors’ office.
Traveling with a newborn wasn’t in my plans.
I just had to complete my thirty days before my maternity leave kicked in.
For the first five to six months, I worked as much as my body would let me.
Now, I had a nice chunk of money saved up, a stable job, and I had officially started my maternity leave yesterday.
“Me too! I can’t wait to see my niecey pooh. Hopefully she looks like you ‘cause at this point, I’m convinced you let an ugly nigga knock you up, and you’re embarassed by him.” Zaylee snickered, and I rolled my eyes at my sister.
Zaylee had been saying my baby daddy had to be ugly because I refused to talk about him.
Which was the furthest thing from the truth because Niko was far from ugly.
If anything, the nigga was too fucking fine for his own good.
My daughter had no choice but to be pretty, and I hoped she inherited Niko’s curly hair with my face.
It sounded crazy, but I didn’t see the point in talking about Niko.
I mean, as far as I was concerned, no one would be meeting him.
He’d made his feelings known, and I had no choice but to respect it.
I wasn’t about to beg no nigga to talk to me.
Even if he was busy like he claimed, he could have stopped by when he had time.
He didn’t have a problem popping up at my house before.
I was a firm believer in listening to a person's actions, and Niko was telling me he didn’t want to be bothered with me.
I heard him loud and clear. If he ever wanted to know about our daughter, I had no issues telling him.
I wasn’t hiding from him, I just wasn’t trying to make him be a part of something he didn’t want to be.
“Fuck both you ho’s. My daughter has no choice but to come out beautiful.” I flipped Solana and Zaylee off. I felt my baby girl kicking me, and I rubbed over the spot she’d kicked.
“Awwh, Tete Yanna, you not supposed to do that. My Unky said that’s bad,” Sunshyne dramatically said from her seat next to Solana.
Sunshyne was a little snitch; she always tried to tell on somebody to one of her unkies.
I had yet to meet her other unkies besides Mikael and Yaro, but she talked about all of them all the time.
One of her uncles was coming to pick her up from Solana.
I was here for the food. This little girl had me hungry all the time.
When I made it to the seven month mark, all I did was eat.
My baby girl was making sure she got all her nutrients.
I never missed our monthly girls day out, especially when food was involved.
“Well, tell you’re unkie I’m grown ,and I can flip my haters off if I want,” I childishly teased Sunshyne, sticking my tongue out at her on the sly. I wasn’t grown enough not to argue with a kid.
“I’m not telling him that! You tell him.” Sunshyne pointed behind me and Zaylee at at someone walking up.
“Unkkyyyy!” Sunshyne excitedly yelled, crawling over Solana’s lap and up into Niko’s awaiting arms.
“Sup, boo?” I closed my eyes hearing his smooth voice. This isn’t happening right now. I willed myself to believe I was hallucinating. Beaumont wasn’t this fucking small.
Most of the shit I talked was to hype myself up because I knew I was fucked once Niko found out I was pregnant.
I was in my feelings for my entire pregnancy.
I used work as a way to disguise my real feelings.
Most days, I was too tired to even consider how I was really feeling.
Niko only crossed my mind when our daughter made her presence known.
At first, it was easy to ignore the truth because my stomach was nonexistent, but the bigger our daughter grew, the more Niko plagued my mind.
The closer I came to being somebody's mom, the more I felt foolish for not trying harder to make Niko talk to me—not for myself but for our daughter. She deserved a dad. Niko mentioned his desire for wanting kids of his own in a few different conversations. I doubted he’d deny our daughter.
But instead of listening to my right mind, I let my ego lead me down a path that had me lying to myself and everyone around me.
“Unky, my Tete Yanna said she can use this finger.” Sunshyne stuck up her middle finger. “ ‘Cause her grown.” She sassily finished, and I could see Solana frown at her little grown ass.
“Yanna, are you okay?” Solana asked me, and I heard her, but my attention was glued on Niko.
He was evilly eyeing me, and I felt the walls of the room closing in on me. The longer our eyes locked, the more it felt like the air was being sucked from my lungs.
“Do you need to go to the hospital?” Zaylee asked, panic in her voice as she placed her hand on my protruding belly.
Niko kissed his teeth, the anger on his face couldn’t be mistaken for anything else as his eyes zeroed in on my round belly.
“Awh yeah, Yanna, that’s how you moving’?” Niko finally spoke in an eerily cold tone.
I was almost too scared to say anything to him. “Niko, I was gonna tell you,” I replied softly as I fidgeted my fingers nervously.
“What you was gon’ tell me? You back fuckin’ with that nigga?”
“What? No, I would never.” My lips turned up in a frown. I looked at Niko like he lost his mind.
Being back with Will was the furthest thing on my mind.
I hadn’t seen or heard from his ass after the BBQ.
After that little stunt he pulled with the wad of money that only turned out to be a hundred dollars, I blocked his ass with the quickness.
Besides, Niko had ruined me for another nigga.
Will couldn’t measure up to Niko on his worst days.
“Sunshye, I gotta talk to yo’ Tete Yanna real quick.
Chill with ya mama for a second,” Niko told Sunshyne, placing her next to Solana.
He pulled up his slightly sagging Levi dark washed jeans.
“Come on, I’m really trying to do this the civil way ‘cause a nigga feel like you playin’ with my mental right now.
” Niko glared at me as he ran his tongue across his lip.
“Let me up,” I said to Zaylee as my nerves started to get the best of me. It was one thing to talk my shit when he wasn’t around, but looking his mean ass in the face and talking shit didn’t seem smart on my part.
Zaylee snapped her head back, giving me a look that said she wasn’t moving. “No, I don’t know this nigga, and I don’t like his energy either. He ain’t finna do nothing to you, let me call Mi-”
“No shit, she carrying my fuckin’ baby. The fuck I’ma put my hands on her? Ain’t nan’ nigga finna come between me and mine. Call whatever nigga you want, just know he leaving in a coffin.” Niko shot Zaylee a dirty look, and she rolled her eyes scoffing at him.
“Zaylee, chill. I’ma be fine. I need to talk to him anyways,” I explained to Zaylee, moving towards my belly. She hesitated like she didn’t want to get up, but she slowly slid Zayden’s car seat out the way, then moved over allowing me to slide out the booth.
As soon as I was on my feet, Niko grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the front of the restaurant.
“Can you slow down?” I asked, struggling to keep up with his fast pace.
When Niko glared back at me, I wished I would have kept my mouth closed.
Although he was looking like he wanted to beat my ass, he slowed his pace down.
We finally made it outside, and he led us over to his GMC Sierra.
This truck looked brand new, I almost didn’t want to stand next to it because it was so nice.
He opened the passenger door. “Get in.” He motioned, holding his hand out to help me in.
“For what?” I asked, looking at his hand like it had shit on it.
“Real talk, Yanna, I’m not in the mood. Get in the fuckin’ car,” Niko barked at me.
The bitch in me wanted to tell him to kiss my ass. I really wanted to blow him off the way he did me. Instead, I pushed his hand away and turned to get in the truck myself.
“Be fuckin’ careful.” Niko grabbed my hand making me take his help.
“Well, if you weren’t driving this big ass monster truck, I wouldn’t need help,” I smartly replied with a huff of hot air as I finally got in the seat. My big ass was out of breath from getting in this truck. Niko just shot me a dirty expression before slamming the door shut.
“Why you starting the car?” I questioned him, once he got in the car.
“Stop asking me dumb shit. I really ain’t tryna hear shit besides why you ain’t told me about my seed.”
“I tried to,” I defensively said, rolling my eyes at Niko. Being in his presence was getting under my skin. I thought we were going to go outside and talk. Not a ride to who knows where.
“You ain’t tried shit,” he evilly spat, glaring at me.
“I definitely called you and told you we needed to talk. Remember? You told me you ain’t have time, so I said fuck it. You’d find out eventually, and if you didn’t, oh well.” I shrugged my shoulders.
“You outta yo’ mutha fuckin’ mind.” Niko shook his head at me. “On God, you lucky you pregnant. I dead ass wanna knock you upside yo’ head.”
“That’s fine and all, but as soon as you put yo’ hands on me, you going to jail. my nigga. This ain’t that,” I smartly remarked, returning his evil gaze.
“The fuck some hand cuffs gon’ stop? I’ma bail out and come beat yo’ ass again,” Niko said, then mushed me in the side of my head. I smacked his hand away.
“Don’t touch me, stupid.”
“I do what the fuck I want. Take all that bass out yo’ fuckin’ voice. I’m the only person got a reason to be mad in this bitch.”
“If you wanna be mad, be mad at yourself! You blew me off.”
“Yo’ ass should have led with tellin’ me you was carrying my seed. Fuck all that other shit.”
“Nigga, you was acting like you had so much going on, but here you are looking like you’ve been living your best fucking life.”
Niko still looked good as fuck, his curly hair sat on the top of his head, fresh line up, he was dressed down in a white polo, jeans, brown Gucci belt, white forces, a Rolex on his wrist. Niko looked like a fine nigga with money, and I hated that shit.
“A nigga gon’ look good no matter what. But that don’t have shit to do with you not tellin’ me you pregnant.”
Smacking my lips at his cocky ass reply I had to bite back my smile. “Okay, well, you should have made time to talk to me.”
“Like you said, I had shit going on that needed my attention. Shit was chaotic.” Niko sighed.
“But what does that have to do with me?”
“Forreal, I thought you was tryna get some dick, and I ain’t have time for that. But the fact remains the first thing outta yo’ mouth should have been about my seed.”
“I guess.” Niko was too full of himself if he thought I was that desperate to call him for some dick. It was good, but not good enough for me to beg for it. He had me fucked up and confused with them other weak bitches he dealt with.
“I guess my ass. You ain’t got shit else?” Niko asked, cutting his eyes at me.
“No.” I wasn’t about to keep going back and forth with Niko. He felt how he felt, and I felt how I felt. Maybe I should have felt bad about not telling him, but I didn’t. I wanted to protect my peace at the end of the day. From the way Niko was acting, I made the right decision.
“So, I didn’t deserve the right to know about my seed?”
“You know now, don’t you?” I plainly replied. I figured he’d be mad, but he was dragging this situation out. It might have been my hormones that had me so annoyed with this conversation.
“You bitches is outta fucking order.” Niko bitterly chuckled. “How far along are you?”
“Bitch? Don’t call me outta my name, Niko.” He looked at me with a blank expression, he didn’t even blink. “Stop staring at me, weirdo.” I turned my lips up at him.
“You should be seven or eight months.”
“Seven months, I’ll be eight on the twenty-fifth.”
“What we having?”
“A girl.”
“You got a name picked out?”
“Nope.” I couldn’t think of one yet.
“Let me pick it out. It’s the least you can do.”
“Niko, don’t piss me off,” I said, cutting my eyes over to him.
“Take yo’ own advice,” he cooly said with a warning in his gaze. “I’ma be right back,” Niko said, opening his door, causing me to look around, and I noticed we were back in the parking lot of the restaurant we were just at.
“Where you going?” I asked, rolling my window down
“To get Sunshyne, we finna drop her off real quick.”
“We who? I’m not going nowhere with you. We can finish this conversation later.”
“Nah, I’m not done talking to you.”
“Okay, well, call me later.” I went to open the door, but Niko leaned against it, preventing me from opening it.
“Yanna, sit yo’ ass back. You riding with me to take Sunshyne to Yaro’s. I’m not asking, I’m tellin’ you. We not done talking, and I don’t trust yo’ ass to not disappear on a nigga. We can get something to eat on the way.”
“Whatever,” I grumbled, sitting back in the seat, folding my arms. I only stayed in his truck because I wanted to eat something. Not because Niko told me to. It was still fuck him.