𝐀𝐅𝐅𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍.

𝐈𝐕.

John would still be gone but while was gone he was looking for any type of job because he knew he knew that he couldn't fail his family. They needed him and he wouldn't be like his father who left him when he was younger.

He was currently in a bar drinking and while there he got some harsh words dropped on him.

"Hey man why you here all day until closing, don't you have kids?" the bartender Harvey asked "Yea but they'll be fine without me" he said sipping some cognac. The man abruptly snatched the glass away from him.

"Man come on give it back" Jo said sounding like a feen "Man no, John look at you man" he said referring to John looking like a hobo and reaching for the drink. "I don't know if it was Aaliyah leaving you or what but you need to get it together." Harvey added making the whole bar pay attention to thier conversation.

"Im tired of seeing you in here drinking up all my liquor and asking somebody else to pay for it because you can't. Not only am I losing customers, but your turning into somebody else man. I got somebody who's willing to let you work for them if you get your shit together. But that's on you, you're a grown ass man with KIDS who's acting like a single man with no responsibilities. Im not gonna let you drink your life away in my bar."

"So what are you gonna do man?" Harvey finished looking at Jo with his head down. There was a long silence as everyone looked at Jo waiting for his response. Lifting his head up he said

"I'm gonna get my shit together man, for my kids."

━━━━━━━━━━━

On the other side of town, Milani was at school and It was lunchtime.

Milani had a lunchable with a carprisun and oreos. After eating her lunchable she went to grab her caprisun, someone snatched it off the table. When she looked up it was the class bully Dreshawn.

"Hey give me my caprisun back" Milani said reaching her hand out. Slapping her hand down he said "Whatchu gonna do about it huh?" "Im gonna tell Mrs. Wright on you" she shot back. "Go ahead I don't care" he said walking away drinking her caprisun

Milani started crying and of her classmates seen her, so he grabbed his lunch and walked over to the table.

"Hey what's wrong?" he asked lifting her chin up, sniffling she told him what happened. So he called Dreshawn over and told him to apologize.

"Mmcht. Man no" dreshawn said in response " DO it imma tell auntie that you bullying girls again" the boy snapped back "Yeen een gotta do allat" dreshawn said

"Im sorry" he added blankly "Say it right" the boy interjected. Dreshawn huffed and said "Im sorry for taking your caprisun and I won't do it again."

"Aight, you can leave now but im still telling auntie on you because this is the 3rd girl this week" the boy said "Man you a snitch" Dreshawn said walking off "Not a snitch, you just don't listen. On top of that you finna get a whooping not me" the boy said to dreshawn making Milani giggle.

"Hey sorry about my cousin he annoying and doesn't know when to leave people alone" he said now talking to Milani "Thank you for sticking up for me" Milani said responding.

"Your welcome my name is Kemari you can call me mari tho" he said "By the way you can have my juice box, since my cousin took yours. I'll just drink my water." He said giving Milani his caprisun "Thank you" she said blushing

"All right kids , recess !" Mrs. Wright said standing up from her desk. Making the kids get up and run outside.

"Hey Milani you wanna play hide and go seek" Kemari said walking outside alongside Milani. "Sure, you're it !" she said running to go hide

After recess Kemari and Milani sat together and talked while doing their work making Milani giggle and blush.

After class Milani and Kemari walked out to the front of the school together. Jo was outside which surprised Milani because Renae always picked up her up so Jo could go straight to work. Looking up she seen him and ran towards him but not before saying bye to Kemari. "Bye Lani" he responded walking to his auntie car.

"JOJO!" Milani said jumping into his arms "Hey Lani how was school?" he said hugging her "Its was awesome" she responded "Who was that boy?" Jo said smiling at her as they started walking home. "That was Kemari" she said blushing then told him what happened at lunch.

Jo stopped and said "Where he at?" he was ready to fight over Milani. He didn't care if he was older. He didn't play about Milani, especially now since they were basically on their own.

"JoJo its okay, he said sorry" Milani said pulling his arm to start walking again. "Next time he bother you imma beat him up" Jo said smiling at Milani and dropping the subject.

Finally making it back to the complex, Jo dropped Milani off to Renae's and headed off for work. Milani and renae talked about what happened at school and Reane teased her because she could tell Milani had a crush on Kemari.

For the rest of the day Milani did homework, ate, took a bath and then went to sleep, thinking about Kemari.

━━━━━━━━━━━

It was 11 o clock and Jo was walking home from Publix since he worked from 4 to closing. Because he was tired, he took a shortcut home taking a different street. He was walking by a park when he seen a group of boys.

While walking by he heard "Aye, what size them shoes is?" of the boy's said referring to Jo's White Air Force Ones. They looked new brand new but they were weren't, Jo just kept his shoes in good condition. But they didn't know that so he replied and said

"My size"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐫?

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭'𝐬, 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬?

𝐖𝐡𝐨'𝐬 𝐲𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞?

Mine are @SOUFSIDENOVELS  @BURGUNDYBONNET  and @CarterxCartez.

Also did the song go with the chapter?, it was mainly for the beginning. The song came on while I was editing and it made me add the beginning, otherwise the chapter would've been short.

See yall later

-𝐏𝐨𝐨𝐡𝐏𝐨𝐨𝐡 ♛