Power (Streets 2)

thirty.

What Next?

Noelle stood in the kitchen, cutting up sweet potatoes while Benji continued to yell her name from Brielle's bedroom.

"Baby! Come get her! It's shit everywhere!" Benji yelled, scrunching his face in disgust. The room smelled like a dirty locker room and there was green poop on the changing table, Brielle's onesie and his shirt. He wanted to throw up. "Noelle! I know you hear me!"

"Turn that up for me." Noelle asked Ava who sat near the radio. She didn't want to hear him anymore. He needed to get used to changing her diaper while she wasn't around.

Noelle glanced over at Ava as she's layering the lasagna noodles in a pan. It was Thanksgiving morning and they still weren't finished cooking. Benji decided to have Thanksgiving at their house which meant the house needed to be spotless and majority of the food would be made by Noelle and Ava. Mama Sheila offered to make the Ham and macaroni and cheese while Sincere offered to deep fry two turkeys.

"How are you feeling?" She finally asked Ava. After hearing that Benji took care of Dominic's murderer, she thought she would feel relieved. Except she wasn't. Apart of her felt guilty. She encouraged Benji to kill him instead of telling the police.

"Some days I'm good and some days I'm depressed. But I'm getting there. Feeling my daughter move around in my stomach is what keeps me going. I'm thinking about breaking my lease at the apartment. I just want a fresh start." She told her. Noelle could definitely agree. They all needed to start fresh. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head.

"How would you feel about moving outta town?"

**

Upstairs, Benji had finally managed to clean Brielle. But the shitty smell still lingered on her body. "Hell naw. You gotta get in the tub."

He'd never given her a bath before but Noelle was too busy finishing Thanksgiving dinner and Brielle needed to get clean before putting on her outfit.

"What did you eat?" He asked her as if she was going to respond. Instead, she stared at him and laughed while sucking on her two fingers. It became a habit of hers and he hated it. He didn't want her to grow up and get braces.

She just continued laughing at him while he placed her into her baby bather. She stared at him as he ran her water. He then showed her a few of her bath toys which made her jump. "You jumped, but you ain't cry. You getting better." He laughed. He enjoyed talking to her because he knew she would laugh every time.

He continued washing her up before shutting off the water. She wasn't a crybaby and he was grateful. "Let's finish gettin' you ready. Yo' mama don't want you to put on your dress right now so we gotta find you something else."

"Talkin' to Brielle again I see." Noelle laughed while standing in the doorway. He laid her on the now clean changing table and grabbed a diaper from the drawer.

"So what. It's good to talk to her. She gon' be smart when she get older." He replied while placing lavender scented lotion all over her body. It was Noelle's favorite lotion to put on her since she went to sleep right after.

"I have to tell you something."

"Please don't tell me you pregnant. I'm still tryna stop Brielle from shittin' up her back." He couldn't take on two infants. He wanted to wait until Brielle was at least two years old.