Page 106 of Own It

Grabbing my iPhone after I made the bed, I sat on the edge and dialed Kasia. She didn’t answer, so I called again but was met with the same result. Pondering, I typed out a quick text.

Me: It’s about Divine. Pick up.

I gave it a few then hit her line again and sighed out of relief when the trilling halted.

“Hello?” Kasia sighed.

“I wanna take Divine to the movies this weekend with JJ and Julianna,” I said. “I’m keeping ’em the whole weekend.”

Though this was true, this wasn’t some shit I needed to discuss with Kasia. Both my baby mamas let me take my kids out whenever a nigga wanted to. Only time shit needed to be discussed was when it was some out-of-town shit.

“Josias. I know you didn’t call me to tell me that bullshit.”

“I did, but I admit I could’ve texted that to you.” I ran a hand down my face. “Kasia, baby⁠—”

“I need you to come help me clean them up when they finish eating.” Tarin’s voice sliced through my words, and I shut my eyes in vexation.

This wasn’t an accident, and Tarin did that shit on purpose. That was on me though. I should’ve waited until I left to make this fucking call instead of doing it from Tarin’s bedroom and with my fucking back to the door.

“Aight.” I turned to her and nodded, ignoring the way her lips were damn near balled up.

“And don’t be calling your bitches from my room!” she shouted in the distance, but I knew Kasia heard the shit as clearly as I had.

“K—” The line went dead, and I just conceded, locking my shit and shoving it down into my pocket as I ascended.

By the time I made it out into the kitchen, my kids were already sticky with syrup and bacon crumbs either around their mouths, on their hands, or both. I refused to even look at Tarin’s ass but felt her eyes on me.

“Let me make your plate.” She put her glass of juice down, readying to sit up.

“It’s cool.” I made my way over to the platter of food on the stove and began to prepare my own shit. “Y’all wanna go to the movies this weekend? Divine is coming,” I asked my kids, knowing the answer already.

I’d already bought the specific showtime out, so my kids could talk, yell, and be as messy as they wanted to without other muthafuckas complaining. I’d been doing that for the past year, ever since I had to pull a gun on a nigga in the parking lot for complaining and tattling too much like a bitch.

“Yes! Can we get a lot of snacks?” JJ inquired as Tarin and I snickered.

“Snacks!” Julianna repeated. She was only one, but she could talk pretty well already because of JJ. They were three years apart, with Divine in the middle of them.

“Of course.” I bobbed my head to confirm, eating some of the pancakes. They were good, but the edges weren’t crispy how I liked.

I wasn’t a nigga who complained on a woman’s cooking, though, so long as it was edible. If I could add a little salt or stomach the taste, you wouldn’t hear a word from me.

“Can I come?” Tarin’s stupid ass asked.

“Nah. And you know that.” I still declined to give her eye contact.

Tarin had started so much shit with Kasia behind me that now the women couldn’t stand one another. Tarin didn’t want Kasia around JJ and Julianna, so Kasia implemented the same request when it came to Divine. That’d been the case for the past year, since Julianna was two months old, so Tarin asking that stupid shit was just to hear her-fucking-self talk.

And as much as I wanted to reprimand Tarin for being the start of this divide, I knew it was truly my fault. I would own that shit. Had I not been playing games and lying to be in Kasia’s space, my kids could possibly co-exist with one another’s mothers.

We finished eating, and the kids went to their rooms to pick their clothes out while Tarin and I ran baths in separate bathrooms.

“She wore that last week,” Tarin said, entering Julianna’s bedroom to see me helping my baby girl pick an outfit for the day. I didn’t say a word; I just put the skirt down and sifted through more of the clothes. “Are you seriously that mad when you called that bitch from my bedroom?”

“Watch ya mouth. She smart,” I said, pointing to Julianna with my back still to Tarin’s ass.

“Sorry.” Tarin huffed. “I’m sorry, Jojo.” She hugged me from the back as I pinched Julianna’s cheek as she sat atop her small bed in the middle of her clothing she’d dumped from her tiny laundry basket. “I love you, and I want us to be a family. I don’t get why you’re running behind her. If you wanted her so badly, why did you make Julianna with me after she had Divine?” Tarin spoke into my back due to our immense height difference.

“Just shut up so we can get them ready. I got something to do.” I peeled her hands from being wrapped around me and got back to picking an outfit for my baby girl.