[Alyssa]
Everyone is sitting at a table in front of an ice cream parlor in the center of downtown, enjoying the beautiful Atlanta weather.
"Yo, Alyssa, Santo birthday is Thursday. Watchu gonna get him?" Shiloh questions, taking a sip of his root beer float. Eight pair of eyes are now on me, and I stop eating my chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream; being the center of attention has always made me nervous, and I know it's ridiculous considering my place of work.
"Don't worry about gettin' me anything," Chresanto answers, then looks around and adds, "and that goes for all of you. I got enough shit as it is."
"Oh, you're getting something for your birthday," Dahlia interjects. "I already have your gift wrapped and all."
"I'll just take it back," he retorts.
Dahlia chuckles. "You can't take it back without the receipt."
Chresanto sighs. "Fine, but nobody else better get me anything." Jazmyne growls at him. "I take it you got me a gift, too, huh?" She nods. "Okay, fine, but if any of you two got me a gift, I'm gonna force you take it back." He points to the twins as he says this.
"Dee made me sign the card, but I didn't get you a gift," Chandler explains, dipping his spoon into Dahlia's ice cream before eating it.
Shiloh takes another sip of his root beer float then sets the glass down. "Same here. Jaz says I'm not sentimental when it comes to giving gifts."
"Because you're not!" she protests. "You gave my mother sex toys for her birthday, Lo."
Everyone looks at him, a look of bewilderment masking our faces. "That was the wrong Keisha. I keep telling you that, babe."
"I know like hell you wasn't planning on giving our kid cousin some fucking sex toys," Chandler growls. Shiloh doesn't say anything. "Dude, she's only nineteen! The fuck is wrong with you!?"
Shiloh throws his hands up in exasperation. "Her nigga ordered them shits then got it sent to my house, then he text me to give them to her. Shit, I just tore the label off the box and wrote her name on it. How was I supposed to know that I'd fuck around and give it to my girl's mom?"
Chresanto chuckles then leans over to me. "This is what I have to deal with daily," he whispers in my ear. "But no one ever believes me." He chuckles once more, and my knees get weak.
"They're always like this?" I whisper to Chresanto, eating another bite of my ice cream as I watch the twins continue to quarrel with one another.
He shrugs. "Sometimes, it's worse, but I manage to get them back on track."
"Back on track?" I repeat. "So, you're, like, the boss or something?"
Chresanto lets out a little laugh. "Or something. Do you wanna go sit at another table?"
I shake my head. "No, I'm fine right here, but thank you, though." Then, as clear as day, I hear a very familiar laugh; its more along the lines of a nasally screech, but it causes my heart to drop. In the spur of the moment, I grab Chresanto's face and kiss him.
At first, he doesn't kiss back, but once I straddle his lap and use my hair as a curtain to hide our faces he moves his lips in sync with mine. I feel his arms wrap around my waist as he holds me close, our tongues dancing together.
"Ew, some people should learn how to get a room," I hear Maria say as she passes by us. Thankfully, she doesn't notice that it's me, and I watch from over Chresanto's shoulder as she disappears around the corner with another one of Ace's girls that I don't know the name of.
