|{Qani James}|
Author's Note
Yoo this chapter is too long to proofread, so ignore any typos please🫶🏽
____________________
Qani was not going to sit here and lie to himself by saying he didn't know coming back to Lakewood wasn't going to be easy, he knew.
Matter of fact he knew it was going to be a shît show, and so far it hasn't disappointed.
He got back here to find out he had a daughter, which was the best news he'd ever heard, but then that information also came with the pain and burden of trying to find which wolf in sheep's clothing kept him from being in his child's life for three years, that was unforgivable.
As if that wasn't enough Qani also came back to news he wouldn't have believed if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Ri dating a cop.
Like be entirely for real... how did he really think that shit was gon go?
Which drew his thought to the family dinner they all had to attend tonight.
Family dinner was tradition, but this was going to be the first one he'd be attending since he got back, so the first one In four years.
To be honest he would've been excited if that punk ass hoe wasn't coming to meet the family, bitch ain't nobody tryna meet your opp ass.
Qani looked at his phone and it was 7:07am in the morning. He was still wide awake from the night before. He turned to the other side of the bed and Naomi was sound asleep, looking peaceful and beautiful.
A pang of guilt pulled the strings of his chest, he felt horrible for neglecting her like he has been doing since they got here, he sincerely didn't think it was going to go this way.
He met Naomi not too long after he'd gotten to L.A., he had been a heartbroken mess at the time and she was a listening ear.
As his publicist at first, but then they'd quickly become friends. Naomi sat with him in some of the most vulnerable moments of his life, times when he would miss Rio so much that it would feel like he couldn't breathe and he'd cry and break things to relieve the pressure. Times when he would pick fights with random people at the club just because he wanted to blow off some stream, to ease the constant anger and emptiness he felt...times when he'd get drunk and fall asleep on the floor, pissing himself thinking he was in the bathroom.
As his publicist she'd cover it up and try to make sure his reputation was solid, and as his friend she'd hold him while he cried.
He made a mental note to spend the entire weekend with her doing whatever she wanted to do, make wedding plans with her so she didn't feel like she was in this by herself, as he should've been doing in the first place.
Wedding. He never thought that word was going to bring him so much anxiety, not until he came back here and saw him.
The boy he was still very much inlove with.
>>-First POV Interlude-<<
Yes I am inlove with Ri, how could I not be? I don't think it's possible to stop loving him, if it were I would've did already. When we were kids I always felt a pull towards him that I couldn't explain, the kind that made me wanna choose him to be on my team before everyone else, even times when I knew TJ and Kiante were better options to win the game. The kind that made me seek his presence whenever I was sick to feel better, the kind that made me turn down a scholarship just to be close to him.
Of course neither of us understood what that was because we were supposed to be family, but to be honest Ri never felt like family to me, he felt like a second skin, like we breathe the same air, like I couldn't imagine him not being in this world.
I don't think family is supposed to feel like that.
