Page 3 of Wasn't Supposed To Be Yours
Tommie was the sister that I loved with every fiber in me, but I’m always ready to slap the bitch down to the ground because of her mouth. Tommie didn’t have a filter. She spoke without thinking. A bitch could be in the middle of a mental breakdown, and she was going to always speak her mind. We were all we had at the end of the day, so our little fall outs after our disagreements would never last too long. After we lost our little sister Nivea, it made the three of us closer than we’ve ever been. Life was too short to be holding grudges with each other.
Losing Nivea had changed the entire dynamic of our family. That was a crush in the family like never before. I’ve literallynever had anything hurt me the way that it did when I lost my little sister. There was a ten-year age difference between Nivea and I, so that was my baby from the moment my mom brought her home for the hospital. I used to bathe her, change her diapers, do her hair, read to her, all those things. When we all lost her, it’s like we all felt like we’d lost our baby because that’s what she was to all of us. Then, it sucked because we lost her from something that could have been avoided.
The pressures that a lot of women in Miami put on themselves to be perfect should be studied. Nivea was a beautiful girl, but she’s always been insecure of her body. Growing up in a household with shapely women had brought on the insecurities in her. Nivea was tiny. No ass, and no titties, and for years, she would talk about wanting to change that. She’d finally come up with the money to get a cosmetic surgery, and she died after due to complications. I took her death so hard because I often questioned if I had poured into her more as her big sister, if she would have still been here. It’s one of those things where I’ll never know the answer to that question.
“There goes the Kardashian of the family. I knew that I could count on you to come in heels,” Tommie stated the second she stood in front of me. Just like the rest of my sisters, Tommie was beautiful too, with her ghetto ass. Me and her had the same rich, chocolate skin. She was built like Free. Both thick as hell. Tommie didn’t work out or anything, so her body was just good genes. Even after having two children, her body was still a work of art, and something that she would often get complimented on.
“Here you go. Already about to start,” I responded to her, and she just laughed, as she walked over to me, and we embraced in a hug, just like Free, and I had done.
Once we pulled away from each other, she never moved away from standing in front of me. She just stood in front of me, with a goofy smile on her face.
“What?” I asked because I could just feel that it was something.
“Your nigga is here, and he came with a bitch,” she responded, and when she said it, Free sucked her teeth, and rolled her eyes, so she had to have known what Tommie was referring to. I bet you Free probably told Tommie not to say anything to me about whatever they were talking about, but here Tommie was, playing by her own rules, like she always did, not giving a damn about what her, and Free had agreed on.
“Who? What are you talking about?” I wanted to know.
“Tank is here, and he got a bitch with him,” she admitted, and I looked at her like she was crazy.
“Girl, what? Since when the hell did we establish that that was my man? Ya’ll are the ones that thought that just because June has a single homeboy, that I was supposed to get into a relationship with him. I don’t care about that man, or who he’s here with. Your my sister. You should know me well enough to know that Tank isn’t even my type. Please,” I sassed, picking up the designer shopping bags, not giving a damn about what my sister was talking about.
I don’t know why they even convinced themselves that Tank and I would ever be a thing. That was crazy of them to think that, as if they didn’t already know what my line up of men looked like.
“Okay sister girl,” Tommie responded, as if she didn’t believe me. All Free did was laugh, and then we all walked over to the pavilion together, where the party was being held.
I immediately found the gift table, and it held so many gifts, that there really wasn’t a purpose for Liberty to have a 1stbirthday party because they would still be opening gifts by the time that rolled around. You could tell that Liberty’s dad had a bunch of hustling home boys because there were so many designer shopping bags sitting on the table, and some even onthe floor, that you would think these items belonged to an adult, instead of a six-month baby.
“Where my baby at?” I asked Free, once I sat the bags down.
“Right over there at the table. Ma got her,” she let me know, pointing with her finger at a table that was in the back of the pavilion. I scanned the area, and I found my mom, hogging her granddaughter, as she stood up, talking with one of her homegirls.
I quickly got away from my sisters, and headed in the direction of my mom, so that I could snatch my niece away from her. It’s almost like my mom could smell me as I was approaching her because she immediately stopped in her conversation with her home girl, so that she could turn her head, and look at me.
Looking at my mom and seeing her standing there with her granddaughter on her hip, nothing about her gave that she was the grandmother to this little girl. My mom didn’t give grandma. Everything about her was still so youthful. She stood here, looking like she could be Liberty’s mom. That’s because my mom was still young. She was only fifty- four years old. She started having us early. She was a teen mom, having me when she was just sixteen years old.
My mom had caramel colored skin. Literally the same skin complexion as Free. Light brown eyes like all of us though. Free, and Tommie had gotten their bodies from our mother because even in her fifties, our mother was stacked, and when we would be out with her, men would think that she was in our age bracket and would still try to holler at her. Her hair used to be long, and thick just like the texture hair that Tommie had, but maybe five years ago, she’d cut it off into a pixie cut, and that’s what really had her looking youthful. She stood there with dark blue denim shorts, and the shorts had a tight fit, but it wasn’t too tight where you would look at her and think that she should have gotten abigger size. The shorts showed off how perfectly toned her legs and thighs were. Since we were outside, she paired the shorts with a white tank top, and Prada sneakers were on her feet. My mom looked damn good, and she knew it.
The second my niece saw me, she immediately started fussing, and I walked quicker, so that I could take her.
“I know. I know. Hi, my tee- tee baby. You fussing at me?” I cooed to her, reaching my arms out, and taking her from my mom. Liberty did this little thing where she poked her bottom lip out, her face turned beet red, and she looked heartbroken that she was seeing me for the first time in over a month. She was too young to express that she missed me, so those big, brown eyes that were a replica of her mom immediately teared up, and she started crying.
“Ooooh girl. Now why you showing off?” Free asked, standing on the side of me, looking over at her daughter in awe. Liberty was still having her moment, crying, and babbling in baby talk, fussing me out.
“Aww, my tee- tee, girl. I’m not going to leave you no more, okay? Come on. Talk to me. Tell auntie all about it,” I said, taking one hand off her small body, so that I could use it to wipe her face.
I didn’t want kids, but this little girl would tear at my heart strings. I was obsessed with her from the moment I laid eyes on her six months ago in Free’s hospital room. I stayed about twenty minutes away from June, and Free, so I would often come over to see my niece. Me, and Liberty had a nice bond, and she loved her auntie, and that’s why she was fussing me out right now.
“Hey ma,” I took my attention off my niece for a second, so that I could go over to my mom, and I hugged her. Just like my sisters did, my mom hugged me long, and tight, and when she pulled away, she looked me up and down for a few seconds.
“Why I feel like you got a little smaller?” she asked me, as I sat down, bouncing Liberty in my lap, now that she’d calmed down.
“The food out in Milan is much different. Much better for you, so I did drop a few pounds,” I let her know.
“I hope you don’t plan on moving out there. You need to stay your ass right the fuck here!” she snapped, and I looked over at Free, and we both laughed because she’d just told me a few moments ago that my mom wouldn’t approve of me moving out there.
Ever since Nivea passed away, my mom was just a little bit more overprotective of her children, and she always was in our ear, telling us that she never wanted us to leave Miami. She would mainly tell it to me because she knew that I was the one to live life on the edge, and because I didn’t have children, or a man, she knew that I would just pick up and move.
My niece had fully calmed down, and I was talking to her, telling her all the things that I had for her, and she was smiling, eating it all up, as if she could understand me. Having her in my lap, all I could think was how she was just a girl version of her father. She looked just like June. She only had small features of my sister like her big brown eyes, her full lips, and the curly hair that Free had. I was obsessing over her, when I could feel eyes on me from across the pavilion. You know that feeling you get when you could just tell that someone was looking at you? That’s what it felt like right now. I looked up, just to see who was looking at me, and my eyes landed right on him. I mean, right on him. Our eyes locked, and you would think that he would have looked in the opposite direction or something, but he boldly stared at me from across the park.
