Chapter 27
Armias
All of my siblings, including Aspen, had pulled up my house for Sunday dinner.
Lourdes had done the cooking this time and she invited my siblings.
She cooked a feast that consisted of cabbage, cornbread, fried chicken, baked chicken, white rice, and baked macaroni.
I don’t know what had gotten into her, but I was with whatever it was.
I was even more impressed that she whipped up a dinner like that after a night out with her friends.
“How many times you gon’ ask me that, Milan?” I chuckled. “Yea, I’m coming, baby.”
“One thing Milan gon’ do is yap about her birthday when it’s coming up,” Aspen giggled.
“As she should,” Lourdes smiled. She stopped braiding her hair to hug her from behind.
I don’t know how she still had any energy to braid Milan and Icelynn’s hair after we ate dinner.
After getting in late last night, she pulled me to the shower with her so we could have sex.
Then we went for another round in bed. A few hours later she was up early tending to Alouri and then she started cooking by herself.
Granny had spent the night and offered to help out after she finished doing laundry, but Lourdes insisted on rolling solo in the kitchen.
She was only running on about five hours of sleep, so she should’ve told my lil sisters to sit their asses down somewhere.
I was about to tell them no for her, but as usual she was quick to jump up and entertain them.
Somebody had obviously sent them to do their dirty work though, and that somebody was Rahesha.
My sisters always wore their signature black girl hairstyles and Rahesha was the one who’d do them.
She was really good at combing hair, but she always complained because all of her kids had thick, long hair in different textures.
I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to do all that hair, but she had decided to have all those kids so that was on her.
Sometimes she’d seek out breaks by sending the girls to the hair salon.
Ever since Lourdes entered our lives she started having her do the girls hair whenever she didn’t feel like it.
But Lourdes hadn’t done Milan and Icelyn’s hair in a few months, so I honestly thought that ship had sailed.
I believed she would’ve stopped sending Zee to Lourdes, too, if dealing with him and his hair wasn’t too difficult for her.
But the girls showed up today with their hair washed and blown out.
Rahesha never sent them somewhere without their hair done, so that was alarming for me.
Before I could question it, they were asking Lourdes if she could do their hair after we ate.
She was happy to do it, but she told them they had to check in with their mom first. They claimed Rahesha said it was okay, but Lourdes still made Aneesah call and ask so she could hear it for herself.
When Rahesha said “Yes, she can braid their hair in any style she likes as long as it lasts for a while. I’d really appreciate it,” I knew that it was her who set this all up.
I was annoyed on Lourdes’ behalf because she’d already done a lot today.
Then Rahesha sending the kids to ask instead of asking herself rubbed me the wrong way.
It’s like she knew we’d never say no to them.
“I don’t mind her talking about her birthday,” I clarified. “I’m just trying to see why she keeps asking me if I’m coming. I never miss a birthday.”
“You’re also always the one in charge of her birthday, Bubby,” Aneesah said.
“That’s not true. We all chip in for birthdays,” I responded. Hell, all I ever really did was foot the bill.
“Yea, we all have a hand in the planning. But she’s used to telling you everything that she wants,” Aneesah pointed out, and I had to acknowledge that it was true.
My siblings usually ran and told me what they wanted to do for their birthday.
I’d pass the information over to Rahesha, Aspen, and Aneesah so they could plan it all out while I paid for everything.
This year, things had changed because I wasn’t talking to Rahesha.
I would have still stepped in and taken care of my younger siblings' birthday celebrations. They were never going to suffer because our mama wasn’t shit.
But apparently Rahesha had taken Milan’s birthday festivities into her own hands.
This was a first, so I was sitting back and letting her have it and I hoped it continued with the rest of her young kids.
Aspen and Aneesah would probably continue to deal with me for their birthdays because all they had to do was ask me for money.
They’d been in charge of their own birthday plans for years and now that they were both legal they really didn’t need anyone overseeing their birthday festivities.
Aspen’s 19th birthday had already passed in January, and she had a girls night at her team mates apartment in br.
She only asked for a few hundred to make it happen, but I sent her a lot more.
I couldn’t just give money to my younger siblings and let them take matters into their own hands.
It definitely made me feel bad that Milan had doubts about me showing up because Rahesha was planning everything.
That could only mean that my younger siblings saw and felt the brunt of me cutting our mom off.
I didn’t want that at all, but it was bound to happen.
My siblings were smart and not much went over their heads, so they’d probably noticed that things had been different since the holidays.
I’m sure they also took note of the fact that Rahesha wasn’t invited to the hospital when Lourdes had Alouri and that she never met her.
The Rahehsa I was familiar with would have been complaining around the kids about how she’d been shut out.
But I had a strong feeling that she wasn’t doing that because my siblings would have felt bad for her and spoken up on her behalf.
Surprisingly, Rahesha didn’t seem to be looking for sympathy or my money.
I guess it wasn’t needed now that she was finally getting money from her baby daddies.
I wasn’t speaking to Rahesha, but Aneesah kept me in the loop even though I wasn’t asking her messy ass to tell me anything.
But I wasn’t gon’ stunt like I was against hearing anything about the shit our mom had going on.
If I was, I would have flat out told Aneesah to stop telling me that lady’s business, but I hadn’t.
Admittedly, there was a part of me that wanted to see her get her shit together for my siblings sake.
Therefore, I was rooting for her personal growth even though the chances of that happening were low.
But yea, Rahesha hadn’t been bothering me for money because Milan’s dad, Milton, was breaking major bread.
That nigga was a whole neurosurgeon, so whatever he was giving wasn’t anything light.
I advised Rahesha’s duck ass to put him and her other baby daddies on child support a long time ago.
The only bum she procreated with was Phoenix’s thieving ass daddy.
Them other niggas had legit careers that she could see a decent amount of child support from.
Aneesah claimed that Rahesha had reached out to all of them to ask if they could start pulling their weight financially.
Milan’s dad was the only one who sent her money with no argument.
The rest of them ignored her, so she went and filed child support on them.
I think Milton’s wife was the reason he complied so easily.
He wasn’t married when Milan was conceived but he got engaged while my mom was early in her pregnancy.
I thought that he’d step up and do the right thing, regardless, because he didn’t straight up ghost Rahesha during her pregnancy.
He also showed up to the hospital after Milan was born and signed the birth certificate.
But shortly after that he got married and that seemed to be the end of him trying.
Rahesha reached out to him to hold him to whatever he promised her.
He strung her along with empty promises until his wife hit Rahesha up to tell her that her husband wasn’t doing shit for a child that didn’t come from her.
He obviously didn’t want any drama reaching his household nor did he want to be in Milan’s life, so sending money was the easy route.
I’m sure Rahesha didn’t give a fuck about that as long as the money hit her account.
Shit, I couldn’t bring myself to care about how the nigga was moving either.
I would love it if all my siblings had good, active fathers but there was no sense in pushing or begging a mutherfucker to step up in that regard if they didn’t want to.
Providing was the bare minimum that my siblings rightfully deserved, so I was cool with them niggas giving money and staying away.
If there was anything to be upset about it was that my dumb ass mama didn’t ask for money a long time ago.
I always found myself wondering if Rahesha had been dropped on her head as a baby because her decision making was the worst.