❛❛under all that fucking inked skin, i still see right through you.❜❜
[COMPLETED + UNEDITED]
MATURE CONTENT!
On her 21st birthday, Jelani Elias River decides to get a tattoo. She's encountered him before and assummed that they'd never see one anoth...
May you stay happy and understand the difference between right and wrong. Don't ever change to please others.Own your color, own your pride. You can be whatever you want to be — and whatever you choose, make sure you stay happy doing it. May you love and cherish. Understand the gift of life. Honor the practice of charity and humility. Reach out for the stars when mommy and daddy can't help you. Remember your name and own it. Love your friends, family and whatever God you chose to love.
D̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶t̶a̶l̶k̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶o̶y̶s̶.̶
We love you, baby.
The hottest parents ever, Jelani Elias River and Xavier Richard-Jean.
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Eighteen months of true sobriety. Eighteen months ago, Ten Gustine was sentenced to 29 years in Detroit Correctional Facility Prison for drug trafficking, robbery drug possession, assault and harrassment.
Xavier completed his rehabilitation program and made an oath to himself and his daughter to never allow himself to visit that stupid fucking place again.
Nine months ago, Jelani gave birth to a little Xavier, called, Mae Alora Keisha Richard-Jean. She weighed 7.5 lbs and was born with her father's charming smile. She had to be delivered through a C-section cut because she had faced the wrong way — Xavier said that was a sign of her being unique.
Three months ago, Xavier Richard-Jean proposed to Jelani after they finished making love.
She said no.
Although the rejection hurt, Xavier understood why she said no, the scene was awkward. Xavier had attended anger management therapy along with Fairy and consulted his therapist, Daphne every Tuesday.
Jelani had told her parents about Xavier and about how she was expecting a daughter. Her father wasn't pleased, but in private, Jelani's mother congratulated her. The families eventually stopped speaking.
Jerry and Xavier made a promise of sobriety that couldn't be disbanded until the day they die.
Jelani sat down on the rest bed where she was waiting to get her daughter's name tattooed on her body, it wasn't anything sentimental but she still felt the urge to get it done.
"Goddamn, here we are," Xavier breathed out. "Here we are," She smiled.
"If you hadn't walked into the parlor we would've never been," He said, sanitizing the skin just beneath her left breast. She smiled and caressed his arm.
Without saying much, Xavier began working on the tattoo while Jelani ranted about instructions on how to handle the baby, and what the baby needs to eat and when the baby should go outside. She didn't even notice that Xavier wasn't listening until he finished the tattoo. When she looked down at the tattoo, she adoringly stared at him and reached over to kiss him.
The baby was taking a nap in the little 'baby den' he had created. Jelani walked over to show the inaudible baby the tattoo. And like Xavier had wanted her to — she picked up the baby and turned around to see Xavier leaning against the rest bed, holding a velvet box in his hand.
Oh. My.
She covered her mouth in shock when he walked over to her and picked up his daughter. "So, baby, you got this, right?" He said looking down at the baby.
Jelani was still in shock as she hovered over an atmosphere of true happiness. "Hey mama," He said in a high-pitched voice, pretending that the voice belonged to his daughter.
"So papa thinks that it's a good idea to call you his fiance for a little while until you want to marry him. He said you don't have to...but you'd break his heart if you said no. He also said that if you aren't ready then fine, we'll use the ring as a repellent against horn— other men. As a promise ring," He said, surprisingly managing to keep his voice an octave higher than his deep voice.
"Seriously?" She asked in Igbo. "I don't know what that means, but if it means yes then...sure, I'll marry you," Xavier joked.
"And if I say yes to the baby?" Jelani asked, laughed. "Okay. Just stay with us forever, then," he smiled.
"I'd never leave you guys," Jelani gushed. Cuteness overload, she thought.
Xavier wasn't supposed to be so attractive — he had too many tattoos that stretched out all over his body. His nose was crooked and the nose ring he had was always out of place. His hair was always messy and too long. He dressed weirdly, wearing hip-style cut vests over a black shirt and pink shorts accompanied by socks that covered an area of his hairy legs. He finished off the look with burgundy Vans.
"I could lie and say that I'm here today because I had immediate connection with you. But we didn't because it took us ages to trust one another. Instead, we're here after so much shit — I mean poop — but I love you. So much, and Jerry loves you. And my all just loves you. It's like, I live to love for you...wait that doesn't make sense. I love to live for you."
"I love you," She said. Everything was so perfect and Jelani couldn't help crying.
"I love your body," He replied with a straight face. She crossed her arms and eventually he broke a smile, I'm joking, "I love you a little more than Mae, but don't tell her," He smirked.
"Jelani, you saw right through me even though I never allowed anyone to get close to me," he said.
"I saw right through all that tattooed skin — and I'm obsessed with it. Yes, you idiot, I'll marry you," She smiled.
The universe didn't want this moment to be perfect. But the scene was like art, not all flawless but beautiful.
The inked art on their bodies along with the beauty of their daughter didn't paint perfection
—It painted affection.
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❛❛ If I abandoned love, I'd be a man without dreams. I'd rather be out there staring death right between its eyes now. And I can still hear the sound of you crying through the night, there in the opera house with no one else for miles ❜❜ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
