My Ex (BWWM)✔ (#Wattys2019)

47

"Everything's ready," Alexis said coming up to me. I looked around the place, everything looked great. It was decorated in purple with the baby decorations everywhere. We decided to have the shower at Lucy's house, Jamal agreed. He was happy that I wanted to do this. "I should become a professional planner," Alexis said looking around the place.

"You should," I answered her. "But I think a fashion designer is cooler," she basically designed clothes for a living. That is really cool. People who can make those pretty are blessed with a great gift. "Thank you so much for doing this especially since you don't like Lucy," I told her.

"I don't," she replied, "but a friend of yours is my friend plus I enjoyed this," she added. 

"And were you fine with this," I pointed around, "with you know the baby," she nodded her head stopping me from continuing.

"It was hard, but I strongly believe that when the time comes, I'll have a beautiful baby boy who I'll name Zachary," she said with a smile.

"It could be a girl," I said telling her what she didn't want to hear. I think I would want a son instead of a daughter also. I guess I like boys more than girls. Boys always love their mom more too while daughters tend to spend their whole life arguing with you. I lived that with my mom, I got along with my dad, but my mom, I was always arguing with her. I still argue with her as an adult. 

My phone vibrated, it was a text from Kevin.

Kev: We're on our way...

I read the message and showed Alexis it. She shook her head and got to telling the few friends and family we invited to hide so we can yell surprise when Lucy arrived. We hid behind the sofa and chairs and turned off the lights. We stayed there for a while when the door opened. I heard Lucy groan and let out a deep breath which indicated she was tired, "Jamal," she yelled as she put her bag down. "You turned the lights off?" She asked, she groaned again and turned the lights on.

The moment the lights were turned on, we all jumped yelling, "surprise!" Everyone had their hands up smiling. Lucy looked shocked looking around at the place. She looked at everyone's face until she spotted me. She smiled at me and walked up to me giving me a hug.

I hugged her back, "you're here," she said. I could hear the tears in her voice, I pulled away and rubbed my thumb against her cheek, "did you plan all this?" She asked me.

"I had some help, Alexis helped," I told her. She looked over at Alexis and mouthed her a thank you. 

"I helped to," I heard Kevin said behind us.Like clockwork, Lucy and I both turned around and looked at him at the same time. "What?" He asked. We shrugged our shoulders and went back to each other. People started coming up to her telling her congratulations and they hope everything goes well with the baby and what not.

''''''''

"You didn't have to do all this," Lucy said as we stood looking at the balcony below. 

"I know," I answered her, "I wanted to. I guess I just wanted to show you that we were cool," I told her. 

"I'm sorry," she told me. "About everything, I should have never kept something like this from you," I nodded my head. "I honestly just want us to be cool again," she said. I'm glad she felt that way. I was ready to put everything behind me. I wanted us to joke about simplest things again. "Anyways, what have you been up to?" She asked me.

"Just the usual, I finally got my own place," I told her proudly. We used to joke that I would never get my own house or apartment, but I did now. She shook her head and started laughing.

"Yeah, Kevin told me," she answered still laughing. "He also told me about that nice Valentines," she said putting air quotations around valentines. "What did you guys do?" She asked. 

"Nothing," I shrugged my shoulder, "we just ate chicken together and talked, you know have a conversation like normal people?" I asked her.

"Normal people?" She asked, "don't know what that is," she looked around. "Oh Brianna, I missed you," she said pulled me into a hug. She wrapped her hands around my neck tightly. I hugged her back but gently afraid if I go any tighter I might harm the baby. Can I crush the baby from hugging too tight? "I have so much to tell you," she added.

"Me too," I told her. We spent months apart, we had to catch each other up in our lives and gossip about what was going on in others lives. "I heard it's a girl," I told her.

"Shh," she put her hands on her lips so I don't speak too loud. "Don't let Jamal know, he wants it to be a surprise," she said rolling her eyes. "Now I have to act surprised when the doctor says congratulations, it's a girl," she said doing a fake face and a voice. "I don't know how he's able to do it."

"Hey," I told her, "maybe he sneaked up behind your back and called the doctor also," I said. It was a possibility since she did it herself. I would never want my baby's gender to be a surprise. I want to know what it is as soon as possible. How else am I going to know what type of clothes to buy or how to decorate their room? 

"Lucy," Kevin said coming to the balcony. "Jada is asking for you," he added referring to one of our mutual friends.

"I'll be right back," she said stepping back inside the house.

"So, how's it going?" Kevin asked me.

"Great," I answered him, "thank you for helping out even though you didn't do that much. All you did was take her out to dinner."

"Hey," he said with a frown, "that took real talent," we both laughed and stayed silent after that. It was a comfortable silence, we were both enjoying each other's company. "Anyways," he said after a while, "what do you want to do for your birthday?" He questioned. I frowned when I remembered my birthday was next week. I completely forgot about that. As you get older especially the thirties, you try to forget about the birthdays. You wish they would never come around, but they do every year at the same time, like clockwork.

I was going to be thirty-one with none of my goals accomplished. I could now officially say, my life was a disappointment. I was disappointed in myself, "just thank God for another year," I told Kevin. 

"I thought you would want to do something fun considering it is the day you were born," he frowned.

"Not really," I replied.

"Oh I get it," he said. I raised my eyebrow asking what did he get. "You realized you're getting old," he said. I nodded my head letting him know he was right.

"Well, my mother always used to say that with age comes wisdom. She also used to say that old age is a blessing, it means you survived this cruel world," I was in deep thought for a moment. She was right, I did survive. Many people do not have a chance to even make it to thirty and I was about to make it to thirty-one. I survived, I lived. "Besides," Kevin started, "you're not that old, it's not even middle-aged," I laughed and nodded my head.

"So, we are going to do something fun," he finished. 

"I'd like that," I told him with a smile. He took my hand and put a kiss on it. I chuckled blushing at his small gesture. 

"Happy early birthday, sweetheart."

AN

Today's the 50th anniversary of a legendary man's death; assassination to be exact.

Because of him, people of color can do the simple things that we choose to abuse today like get an education with whites. Because of him and others like him, Brianna and Kevin can date and even get married.

Thank you to all the legends who fought for our civil rights. Thank you to Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK). We will never forget you.

Do you think MLK's dream has come true?

Au Revoir...