Good Girls Need Love Too.

time.

Everybody was engaged in their own activities.

Daddy, JJ, and Jamai were talking about the game that had just ended.

Dawayne and Damani appeared to be catching up.

Alana and Kaine were laid up watching their YouTube channel.

Hot Cheeto was typing somebody a paragraph or some shit

and Rugrat was walking towards me.

Hold the fuck up.

Pause. Rewind.

Rugrat was walking towards me.

Why was this nigga coming over here?

I've never had a conversation with anybody this fine.....

imma ask him if he likes cheese.

Girl what? This is exactly why I keep my mouth closed.

He smiled again, but this time I could clearly see the two rows of gold. My lower body went numb.

MYYY LEGGGSS. If I stand up right now, I'll hit the floor. I thought.

Wherever the feeling in my legs went, my hearing went with it.

I sipped some of the cold water, attempting to calm my nerves.

"So when you gone lay dat thang on me?"

I choked on my fucking water. I didn't just cough once. My daddy had to come pat me on the back.

After reassuring everyone that I was okay, I attempted to get some clarity.

This nigga tryna fuck and we ain't even had a convo yet?

"So, what were you saying?" I smiled as if I wasn't dying just some seconds ago.

He looked kind of shocked, but said "i asked, so why they name you Lelani? What's it mean?"

I'm a jackass. No doubt. Cause WHATTT?

"Ohhhh." I embarrassedly chuckled. "Lelani means "Heavenly flower". My mom used to say that she handpicked me from God's garden. Plus, her name was Leila and my dad is Jovani so."

"Was?" He asked, confused by my choice of tense.

"Yeah. She was shot and killed when I was 8. They never found the guy who did it. I moved from South Carolina to Georgia with my dad, his wife, and my siblings a week later." I hated thinking about it, but it felt good to talk about it with someone.

"Ah stepmom? She nice? Y'all get along good?" He tried to get off of the dead mom thing, but he just kept digging deeper.

"She was the sweetest. She treated all of us as if she birthed us herself. Her and my father got married when I was 4, and she died of cancer five years ago." I began to get sad. My eyes started filling up with tears. Both of my angels were gone.

"Awe shit, I'm so sorry lil mama. I ain't mean to make you cry." He said as he wiped the tears that I didn't even know were falling.

We just stared into each other's eyes. His hand still rested on my cheek, and for a moment? .. Everything else disappeared.

Every person, every problem. It really felt as if time had stopped.. just for us. We both started to lean in and----

"The fuck is yall problem?" My dad's voice boomed making both of us jump.

Tsss. Time really doesn't wait for anyone.