Worthy of Sin

Twenty-Seven

Zola 'Slim' Monroe

"So, what'd you get me?" Kori pressed as we sat in the middle of the living room floor, wrapping presents. Christmas was only two days away, and now was the perfect time for Kori and me to do some personal bonding since our schedules had been tied up as of lately.

Between working and spending time with Silas, and Kori's current job search and planning for an upcoming Spring semester at a community college in Manhattan.

It was nice to see Kori finally getting back in her groove. She had been focusing solely on herself since her situation, and I commended her tremendously. I was so proud to say the very least.

I cut my eyes at her, chuckling as I used a piece of scotch tape to secure a piece of red and white striped wrapping paper on Silas's gift. "Girl, ain't nothing over here yours. Your gift is at Myra's."

She smacked her lips, "Really?"

"Why would I wrap your presents in front of you? That wine is knocking you off your rocker."

All she could do was laugh out loud and double over in laughter as she held a piece of wrapping paper in place so it would lose its shape before she had the ability to tape it. It was amusing to me that she was so amused.

The sight of her shoulders and the ponytail she had on top of her head bouncing as she laughed made me do the same.

"You're so stupid, bro. I know you haven't been wrapping my shit in front of me, Kori Antoinette!" She just laughed harder and shook her head while she waved her free hand in the air to deny my claims.

"No, I haven't!" She finally began to recover from her laughing fit, and I had done the same while I reached for another gift that belonged to Silas.

I had only gotten him four gifts in total since he was so hellbent on me not getting him anything. I'm sure he was well aware that I wouldn't listen, especially since he had mentioned he wanted more books to add to his collection, as well as buying collectable car models to add to his growing collection.

With that being mentioned, I went ahead and bought him two books: A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines and Carrie by Stephen King. I was proud of these options because I knew he would love them, especially Carrie. He was into graphic horror shit, and he'd been raving about reading the book since the movie was one of his favorites.

The other gift was a Red 1955 Mercedes-Benz. After browsing his current collection, I was able to clock the models he already possessed just to get an idea of what he liked. So, when I was doing some shopping and saw the car in a display window at a collectible store, I knew I had to get it for him.

And finally, his last gift was a personal choice of mine and my absolute favorite. I had gotten him a custom-made varsity jacket. It was black with white detailing around the collar and the bottom of the sleeves.

I decided upon yellow embroidery for the 'S' on the right side of the jacket in the front, as well as last name and favorite number, '14', on the back. On the sleeves were random patches, consisting of his favorite sports teams, cartoon characters, candy, etcetera.

In my humble opinion, it was the perfect gift that displayed just how much I knew him and what he liked, despite the fact I was still learning more about him every day.

"Whew! You are funny," She took another sip of wine before resuming with her gift wrapping.

I snickered and shook my head, soon setting the gift down as a daunting thought occurred in the midst of our silence. I still hadn't found the time to tell her about Ant and this whole baby fiasco, and I didn't want to ruin the vibe we had bonding, but it was something I couldn't harbor onto any longer, especially since it was only a matter of time before Ant would potentially be home.