We Goin to Hell

Clutching the notepad to her chest, Nairah swings her feet over the edge of the couch, fidgeting as her fingers pull at rings on the binding. She'd come to you earlier that night excited about wanting to show you what she'd learned in art class, and she'd practically begged for you to model for her so she could draw your picture.

"I've been posed for like ten minutes, let me see the product honey," you softly say to her, gesturing at the portrait in her hands.

You hear a choke behind you and you toss a dirty look back towards your twins, both of them snickering as they scurry off to their rooms, leaving their dad behind lying on the floor.

"But..." Her eyes trail the two watching as they leave, and she hangs her head, reluctantly pulling the portrait free from her grip and turning around to you, still covering it. Slowly, she removes her hand and shows you the picture.

You were not expecting to see what you did.

"Is that ME?" Your eyes bug as your voice accidentally goes up three octaves at the end of your sentence, and you press your lips together to keep from accidentally bursting into laughter. You hear Erik snort a laugh and look over to see his body bouncing on the floor, jerking with his silent laughter.

Slamming the notepad face down on the cushion Nairah gets up, but before she can leave you gently push her back down on the couch, fixing your voice so you can spare your daughters feelings.

"No! No it's nicE! It's so nice! Ohhh..." You can feel tears building up in the corners of your eyes as you try and keep a straight face, and you swipe your finger under each eye quickly to catch them before she see's. You pick up the notebook and look at it again, the tears coming back.

"I... I never looked better!" Your voice cracks again at the end as you look at your babygirl slumped on the couch, struggling to keep a straight face and not laugh. Taking in a deep breath, you try another approach.

"Ooo," you try and hype her up, looking at the photo again to observe it. "Where were you!? Where were you when it was time for senior photos??" You almost lose it again but you manage to reel it back in, pressing your brows together to look serious.

Erik coughs behind you, his ugly ass laugh slipping out in a choked breath.

You bend down and give Nairah a big hug, thanking her for the picture.

"This is so beautiful, thank you so much babygirl! Mommy really loves it, okay?" You rub at her chest, reassuring her that you were serious.

She crosses her arms, sinking further down into the cushions as she eyes your face.

"Then why was Daddy laughing?" her small defeated voice pulls at your heartstrings, her poor little face looking so sad.

You smack your gums, determined to make your babygirl feel better.

"Daddy don't know what he doing anyway!" You grab a pillow off the couch and chuck it at Erik, seeing it bounce off his head. She picks up her pencil again, scribbling on the page and half listening as you keep trying to comfort her.

"Don't listen to him sweetie. Didn't you say you wanted to draw in France? Say 'C'est un bon dessin'. That's how you say 'that's a great drawing' in French,"

Erik's laughing gets louder, and you look over and see him weakly pushing himself up from the floor.

You hug Nairah one last time and thank her again, kissing her on the forehead and telling her to go get ready for bed and you'd be there in a moment to tuck her in.

Once she leaves, you get up from the couch and go over to Erik on the floor, your knees weak from not being able to hold it in any longer and you collapse next to him laughing.

"Why you lie to that girl like that?" Erik asks you between gaps of breath, his eyes squinted with tears.

"Nigga one of us had to be a parent! It wasn't you!" You answer him in between chuckles, letting your body fall to the floor as you lay down.

"You know her ass not going to France right?" he tells you, and you clap your hand over your mouth to keep from hollering.

Finally calming down you turn over onto your back, looking up at the ceiling and watching as the fan spins. "We goin to Hell."

Both of you look over at each other at the same time and burst into laughter, and he wraps an arm around you and pulls you into him, both your bodies shaking from the nonstop laughter.