Thick & Thin

Chapter Thirty-Five; Breakdown

"I hope you know, you're wasting your time." Beyoncé walked into the living room finding nothing but humor in the fact that Kelly had been trying to get Courtney to say her name for the past hour or so.

Ignoring her friend completely, Kelly held onto Courtney's tiny hands and stared at her with wide eyes as she continued to sound out the two syllables in her name.

It was just as easy as Mama & DaDa; she couldn't understand for the life of her why she couldn't get it.

"Say Kell-ee."

"Da-Da!" Courtney retorted before bursting into a fit of laughter and sticking her tongue out. Kelly frowned and looked at Beyoncé who was couldn't help but laugh herself.

"What did I tell you!?" she implied.

Lifting the child off of her lap, Kelly gently pushed her towards her mother. "I see how you're going to act." she said as if Courtney was excelled enough with her speech to reply.

Happily, the giddy toddler waddled on over to her mother before toppling over.

"If it makes you feel any better, that's about the only thing she'll say. I'm starting to think Shawn brainwashed her or something." Beyoncé said picking her up.

Still reclined on the sofa, Kelly folded her arms over the baby bump her stomach was in the process of growing and huffed. "Where's my god son?" she asked referring to Brendan. "He doin alright?"

It'd been almost three weeks since Terrell's sudden death and ever since she'd been worried sick about him. When Beyoncé told her he didn't even shed a tear at the funeral, that was enough right there to give her reason to be concerned. But on top of that, he'd barely spoken more than two words to anyone since the event occurred. There was no doubt he was hurting inside but he decided to deal with it in the worse way possible. Recently filled with nothing but anger and hostility- he'd definitely become a handful for his mother and soon to be step father. They were hoping that this was nothing but a phase he'd get through over time.

"He was upstairs last time I checked." Beyoncé replied maneuvering around the room with Courtney on her hip and tidying up a bit.

"He's still not talkin to you?"

"Only when he wants something!"

Kelly shook her head and retreated to the kitchen, leaving Beyoncé to finish cleaning up by herself without any remorse.

"I don't appreciate you just walking around my house causing more clutter with ya moochin ass." B walked into the kitchen minutes later to find Kelly standing in front of the fridge.

"Yall outta juice!" She held a huge bag of Doritos in one hand and the Ocean Spray bottle in the other after emptying the rest of the contents into a cup.

Beyoncé looked at her in shock. "And then you're just going to come through here and eat up everything. I swear you're like a human garbage disposal."

Kelly glared at her for a second before rubbing her stomach which was barely showing yet. "Excuse me, but I do have other people to feed now."

"Excuses excuses!"

"Shut up!" Kelly tossed a balled up paper towel at B's head while they shared a laugh and continued chatting it up until Brendan walked in.

"I'm going down the street to hang out with Jamal and Eric." he stated rather than asking permission to go. Beyoncé frowned while Kelly looked at him like he was crazy. She was more-so caught up on the fact that he'd walked right past her without saying a word.

Brendan looked at his mother with an irritated scowl. "If it's okay with you.." he corrected his words and she reluctantly obliged. "Go head." she could barely even finish replying before he started walking away.