The Price ࿊f Peace

☮️:004

Somewhere in Oakland
Saturday April 20th, 2024

It was a relatively warm day in Oakland, California and Syara was standing in the bathroom of her apartment, curling the sew-in her homegirl, Kisses, had done for her.

"I can't believe babygirl is 6 now," Kisses thought out loud while filing her nails so that Syara could do her acrylics. "We old as shit, Cuban."

"I know." She shook her head. "They grow up fast as hell, K."

"Speaking of growing, how's baby sis?" Kisses asked her before blowing the debris off of her nail.

"Riya's fine." She responded. Her younger sister was raised by a wonderful adoptive family, but they only wanted her, so Syara went to the system.

She wasn't bitter though. She was actually overjoyed that her sister could have a better life than she could. She didn't want her to ever go through even a modicum of what she did.

"How's school?" Kisses asked in regard to Seriya. "She need us to come up there? Cuz' I'll cuss a teacher out."

"Girl," Syara turned to side eye Kisses playfully. Kisses was always ready for whatever.

"I'm serious." Kisses shook her head. "I've been wanted to cuss a teacher out since my first grade teacher made me stand on the wall every recess for the whole 1st grade."

"The whole school year?" Syara asked a little concerned. "The fuck you do?"

"Girl, I just said her wig looked like a rat." She replied flippantly. Syara started laughing, looking at her in the mirror. "Well it did. Fuck she want me to do? Lie?"

"You are dead ass muthafuckin' wrong, Kisses." She curled the last piece of her hair, grabbing the hairspray off of the sink and spraying it over her curls.

"The whole year was crazy though," Kisses pleaded her case. "She the reason I'm a gang member now."

Syara scrunched her face in confusion, placing the curling iron down and unplugging it. "How is that?"

"She the reason. If she had let me play, the timeline would be different." She explained as Syara walked out of the bathroom. "In an alternate universe where she let me play instead of having them kids yelling free me til it's backwards, I would probably be a lawyer or some shit."

"Girl, boo." Syara shook her head, stretching her arms above her head and poking her stomach out as she did.

"Boop." Kisses poked her bellybutton before returning to her task of filing her nails, completely ignoring the mug on Syara's face.

"Kisses." She stalefaced her friend.

Kisses continued on filing her nails until she got to her last pinky. "All done!" She displayed her hand to her friend who was still stalefacing her.

"Come on, Cuban, so I can do yours." Kisses gently grabbed her shoulders, turning her around to nudge her towards the semi-large living room table.

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By the time both women had made it to Keisha's, Camarro's on and off ex-girlfriend, and the mother of his child, Nylah, house, they were almost late.

The party started at three and they had gotten there at 2:52 with less than 8 minutes to sign the birthday cards and unbox the separate gifts they'd bought for her to gift bag them.

The two were in competition in only one aspect of their friendship: favorite auntie.

And best believe they took it seriously.

They made it a competition for the past 6 years like clockwork to run into target and/or Walmart together and buy the gifts separately. They didn't even let each other see them until it was time for Nylah to open them. Whosever gift she liked more had to reimburse the other for their gift.

It was a rigorous game, but it was worth it.

Both Syara and Calaia rushed to put their gifts near the forefront of the table upon exiting the car. They didn't even stop to greet Camarro who had opened the door for them to enter the house.

"So it's just fuck me, then?" He asked from where he was still stood in the doorway. He received no answer as they continued on, ignoring him.

Moments after the front door had been shut again, a stampede of tiny feet came pattering down the steps of Keisha's two story house behind the birthday girl.

"LaLa!" Syara yelled upon meeting eyes with Nylah.

"Aunty Yara!" She yelled back in the same tone. It was a thing the two had picked up from Drake and Josh before they stopped watching it.

"Hug me, brotha!" She shouted to her, bending down to open her arms for a hug.

Nylah ran into her arms, allowing her to pick her up and place her on her hip.

"Hi, aunty Kisses!" She spoke with her lisp. Her aunty Kisses peppered kisses on her cheeks in greeting like she always did.

"Hi, my beautiful niecy poo." Kisses responded.

"Hello, kiddies!" Kisses turned to greet the rest of the party guests.

"Wow, you're pretty." One of the little girls responded to Kisses.

"You look like a fairy!" Another spoke. A few of the other party people nodded and made sounds of agreement.

"And she looks like a princess!" A little boy pointed in the direction of Syara.

"Well, I have a secret," Kisses whispered as she beckoned the children closer and they circled around her.

Syara placed the birthday girl back onto her feet, allowing her to grab hold of her hand and pull her toward the circle of children.

"Me and my friend here," she mentioned Syara, "are Fairy Princesses."

"What?" One of the children whispered, astonished.

"No way." Another breathed in shock.

"That's so cool." Another child whispered.

"Shh." Kisses placed a finger to her lips, shushing the children. "It's a world class secret. Do you know what that means?"

"Mm." One of the children sounded, like he was thinking. "Not really.

"It means you can't tell anybody, but.." Kisses reached into her purse for her emergency glitter. She always kept it on her just in case. "We got fairy dust that makes you fly."

Collective gasps scattered the party. Kisses just nodded like it was true. She poured a little glitter into the birthday girl's hand first, picking her up and "flying" her over her shoulder, eliciting a fit of giggles from her.

Kisses passed the glitter to Syara next, who poured a little in the closest child to her's hand and picked them up next, flying them around.

Syara and Kisses flew the children around the house in a fit of giggles, laughing with them like two big kids.

On their third tour downstairs, Syara bumped past Camarro, plastering him on the on the wall with his hand on his chest in shock.

"Look out below!" Kisses hopped off of the last stair, following after Syara.

The children were screeching with laughter as were Syara and Kisses.

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A/N: hey bookie buttssssss!! How we feeling? 💕