Dream sat in a wooden chair inside of Clark Atlanta's library, a large textbook opened up in front of her, positioned by her notebook that was also opened to a page of notes.

There was a black ink pen in her right hand that she was using to write with, rephrasing everything from the textbook and transferring it onto her notebook paper-notes that she needed for an upcoming test.

She'd been at school since ten this morning, and it was now nearing six in the afternoon. Most of that time had been full of studying since final midterms were quickly approaching, and she could admit that she'd recently been slacking when it came to her schoolwork.

The only thing really keeping her going regarding school was graduation. It was only three months away, and she'd officially have her bachelor's degree in the study of music, as well as her master's degree in business.

Honestly, when she finally did graduate, she had no idea what she'd do with her life afterwards. College was supposed to set you up for life after school, but all it had done for her was confuse her even more. She was low-key thinking about going for another degree because school seemed to be the only thing she was good at.

Dream snapped out of her thoughts when her phone buzzed with a call, and she declined it, going back to her notes. After a few moments, she decided to check her group-chat with Dayvon and Kentrell because she knew it was them calling, and also knew they didn't want anything.

For some reason, ever since they'd came back from their trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Kentrell and Dayvon swore up and down that she was pregnant. Like, literally had become so set on it that they were building Amazon carts full of baby stuff. Half the time she couldn't tell if they were joking or not.

Dream had already taken pregnancy tests at her gynecologist's appointment last week, and all three came back negative. So, she honestly didn't know why they were still going on about it. They just wouldn't let it go, but it didn't necessarily bother her.

At times, she wouldn't mind having a mini version of her running around the house with Midnight trailing behind them. Then, she remembered the predicament that she was in with two significant others, and she just didn't see how that would work.

She'd read up on a term called superfecundation, but the possibility of having a child-or twins-with two different fathers was rare. Though, she wouldn't be surprised if that actually did happen in the future since both of her boyfriends frequently finished in her within hours-sometimes seconds-of one another.

In fact, when she did actually plan to get pregnant, she hoped that would be the route her body took. Having a baby by only one of them just didn't seem fair to her, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to be pregnant twice, back to back, just to ensure that they each got a baby from her since she knew how badly both of them wanted one.

Adoption was also something that she wouldn't mind considering. That way the baby could be all of theirs with a one hundred percent guarantee-just not biologically. She didn't know how Kentrell and Von would feel about that though.

Then, when she really began thinking about having kids, a part of her felt like it was too soon. She'd only been with them both for four months, and it was coming up on three months of their polyamorous relationship-where all three of them had been consensually together.

With how in love they were with each other, Dream felt like they had plenty of time to plan for a baby. It didn't have to be now. There was still so much she wanted to do without having to worry about an entire human being depending completely on her as a life source.

Even with all of that, she still had baby fever, badly.

Snapping back into reality, Dream figured she should go ahead and make her way home since she was just about finished with her notes. Plus, she wouldn't put it past Kentrell or Von to really come up here and get her, even though she'd drove herself.

She made it home around half an hour later after stopping to get some food, and when she walked in, she was surprised that nobody greeted her at the door. Not even Midnight, who was usually always first.

Her house was eerily quiet too, but both of their phones were here, according to Dream's 'Find My iPhone' app. So, she went to check the backyard, figuring they were out there.

When she made it outside, she could see Dayvon and Kentrell playing basketball on the makeshift court they'd paid for. It wasn't an actual court, and instead was just two 8-feet goals drilled into an area of unused concrete.

Music was playing from a Bluetooth speaker, and the game looked intense, as always. They both got crazy over basketball, and sports in general. While they hooped, Midnight had the zoomies, and was currently running in speedy circles around Dream's mango tree.

This was so adorable to her. She loved coming home to them, and she imagined she would love this sight even more if she came home to a little baby playing in the backyard with them. The thought alone made her sigh. Baby fever had her neck wrapped up in a chokehold.

Within a few moments, Midnight recognized her familiar scent, and then ran full speed ahead in her direction, earning a laugh from her. He was always so excited when she came home.

"Hello to you too pumpkin." She squatted, rubbing behind his ears while he happily panted, turning over to lay on his back so that she could rub his stomach. She smiled, rubbing there too, before standing up once Kentrell and Dayvon headed towards her as well.

"Hey pretty girl,"

"Wassup ma. You ate?" Both of them greeted her with a kiss, and she pretended to gag while covering her nose at the scent of their sweaty bodies, then laughed at how they both rolled their eyes.

"I brought Wendy's. Y'all stink." She held up the bags of food and a tray of drinks, holding it out to them.

After dispersing the food, they sat at the patio table to eat instead of going back inside the house. It felt good outside; not too hot and not too cold, with some light wind too. Plus, the sun was going down and the view was pretty.

While they ate, they told each other how their day went, though it was nothing too exciting. Dream went to school, Dayvon spent most of his day in the studio, and Kentrell took Midnight to a meeting with him downtown since nobody would've been home to watch him.

Still, Dream liked to know what they did for the day in case anything upsetting happened, or if she could help fix anything. That way, if one of them came home with any ill feelings towards anything, the other two would know it wasn't personal.

"Half a mil'. Why, you want some?" Kentrell chuckled, dipping his spicy chicken nugget into barbecue sauce.

"Nobody want that lil' ass money. My label drop more than that anyways, should've signed with me." Von waved him off, his eyes locked on his phone that he was typing on.

"Mane you can't show me more than what's in my account on any given day. Don't play yourself." He said next, and Dayvon rose and dropped his eyebrows in a manner to say 'whatever', while Dream chuckled at both of them.

She unwrapped the only burger that was left in the Wendy's bag, and held it out to Midnight. He wasted no time taking it from her, and let it drop on the ground so that he could eat it better.

"You feed him like he yo' son or somethin'. Might as well let us give you a real one." Von's voice made her look up again, and she rolled her eyes, grabbing her drink from the table.

"He is my son, so I don't want another one of those. I want a daughter first." She sipped from her strawberry lemonade, glancing down at Midnight.

"Shit, we can give you that too." Kentrell smirked, tilting his head to the side while looking at her.

"Y'all don't even want a baby foreal. Y'all just want me pregnant for the aesthetic. Just pure delusion." She dramatically sighed near the end, her eyes adverting towards the horizon where the sun had the sky an orangish-pink color.

"Why youn want a baby so bad? You got a new excuse every time the subject come up." Von chuckled, putting his phone down on the table to give her his full attention.

"Why do y'all want one so fast?" She returned a question, removing her gaze from the sky to look between the two of them.

"Ion really think it's 'so fast' as like, a sense of urgency or somethin'. Me and him was talkin' the other day, 'bout like, the future and stuff; not just kids either, we thinking 'bout getting a bigger house, what our marriage ah' look like one day, shit, even another dog if that's somethin' you wan'." Kentrell gestured with his hands, and Dream's heart couldn't help but to swell at the thought of them planning a future with her.

"Yeah. It's just like, why wait so late? We young, so our kids ah' be able to grow up with us if we start now. Plus, we way past being financially stable, you finna graduate, our relationship healthy. We might as well start now. Ain't nothin' holding us back, except you." Von chimed in, chuckling near the end.

Both of them were right, and now, Dream didn't know why she was holding back either. That seemed to be something she did often, and she didn't know where that fear originated from. It stopped her from doing a lot of things that she should've been did.

The main thing she was afraid of was not being able to start her life the way that she wanted to. It had only been four months since she had really began to have fun like the other people her age, and she was afraid a baby would put a pause on her life that was just beginning. Low-key though, she was willing to make that sacrifice.

Raising a baby with Kentrell and Dayvon would make her heart so happy. Not just raising the baby, but starting a family with the two people she loved most. A happy family had always been what she'd craved most because she'd never had it before, and she knew that she would be able to do that with them.

"Are y'all okay with the possibility that the baby might only be one of y'all's?" She wondered aloud, picking up a few of her fries.

"Fasho. We ain't even gon' get no test to see who the daddy is 'cause it's gon' be both of our baby, regardless." Von shrugged, using his towel to wipe his face since he was still sweating from their basketball game.

"And, we ain't stopping at just one kid. Yo' ass finna be popping babies out that pussy back to back. So, eventually we ah' both have a biological one." Kentrell added in agreement, and Dayvon laughed at how vulgar his statement was, while Dream amusingly rolled her eyes.

"Fine, whatever. Seem like y'all mind already made up anyway." She chuckled, pulling her legs up in her chair.

"Yeah, we wasn't really giving you no choice." Kentrell spoke again, his full attention on his baconator fries, earning a laugh from Dream.

Somehow, the two men got back on the subject of basketball, and Dream's concentration went to her phone after receiving a message from one of her best friends.

After hearting Ariana's message, Dream locked her phone, looking up from it at Dayvon and Kentrell, who were still talking about their game.

"I'm leaving for a lil' bit. I'll be back later." She announced, standing up from the seat she was in.

"Nah, wait, what you think this is? You think you finna leave, just like that? Without saying where you goin' or nothin'?" Von grabbed her hand to stop her, and she laughed at the mugs that both of them wore.

"My best friend said she needs me. I won't be gone for long." She leaned over to kiss him, and then kissed Kentrell next, mostly to swoon them into letting her leave without any backtalk.

"When you coming back?" Kentrell spoke against her lips, grabbing her neck at the same time that Von's hand slid between her legs.

"Y'all need to learn self-control. I'll be back when I'm back." She chuckled, grabbing both of their wrists to remove herself from their grip.

After some mere debating, Dream was finally able to leave a few minutes later, and she took Midnight with her. He was good emotional support, and Ariana loved him the same way she did, so, why not?

Even though Ari said that she wasn't hungry, Dream stopped to pick her up some Popeyes anyway, and arrived at her house around half an hour later-which she felt bad about. She wasn't good with time though.

When she got there, she thumbed through her lanyard of keys, before finding the one to Ari's house. As soon as she unlocked the door, Midnight trotted inside, going straight back to Ariana's room since he was familiar with the place.

"Hi sweet baby," Dream heard her say to Midnight, and she made her presence known a couple of moments later.

"Awe, Arianaaaa," Dream dragged out, wrapping her arms around her as soon as she could after seeing her puffy, red face. It seemed like she began to cry a little bit harder after being hugged, and Dream pouted, rubbing her back in an attempt to soothe her emotions.

She didn't say anything for awhile, and Dream ended up in the bed with her, just holding her while she cried. Dream knew that her feelings must've really been hurt because Ariana rarely ever cried-especially in front of other people.

Usually, she kept her emotions built up inside of her until they spilled over, and she did that because she always invalidated her own feelings. To her, there was too many people out there going through way worse than what she did, and she should be thankful that she's even in the position that she's in.

Sometimes though, she just couldn't help herself. Sometimes, she just needed to let it out.

"You ready to talk yet?" Dream quietly asked, continuing to soothingly run through her scalp.

"This shit just feel like a slap in the face, man. I don't know why I even tried with this bitch, knowing she stuck on stupid behind Dominique." She wiped underneath her eye, sitting all the way up in the bed.

Ariana held her covers up to her chest since she was naked, turning her body to face Dream's while Midnight laid on the side of her.

"I don't even know where to start." She shook her head at the same time that she cleared her throat, trying to get herself together.

Dream just watched her, waiting patiently for whenever she was ready to talk. She knew how hard it was to sort through emotions, so she wasn't going to rush her or prod at her to talk what had happened.

"First of all, this bitch is pregnant," She wiped her face again, and a shocked expression fell over Dream's face.

"We found out two days ago, and I was just like, well, we can figure something out. I didn't know how it would work with us and her having a baby, knowing how dumb she is behind Dominique, but I was willing to figure something out."

"I feel so fucking stupid man. This bitch went back and told him the same day, which is cool, obviously since it's his baby. She ended up spending the night over there, I didn't say shit about it. Then, she call this morning, after not talking to me for a whole day, basically saying she wanted to give it another try with Baby."

"Saying he done changed, he think a baby ah' help settle them down and some more bullshit like that. I'm trying not to let it bother me, but I just can't fucking understand what I did wrong. I don't understand, bro. I really don't." Her voice cracked, and she covered her face in her hands.

"I'm so sorry baby." Dream wrapped her arms around her in another hug, letting her cry on her chest again. Dream felt so bad, and honestly didn't even know what to say.

"I wish you'd stop blaming yourself for things that are out of your control. The decisions she made has nothing to do with you. You played your part. She's just too caught up in her fantasy to see it. That isn't your fault, Ariana." She rubbed her back, sighing to herself.

Dream hated taking sides when it came to her best friends; especially now, since they were dating, but Jayda was wrong for this. Jayda knew how she was when it came to Dominique, so why string Ari's feelings along? Yet, at the same time, Ari also knew how Jayda was about him, so why allow herself to get so attached?

"I wish I didn't love so hard, man. I should've been done learned my lesson by now." Ari mumbled, holding around Dream's waist.

"Loving hard isn't a bad thing. You just need to find the right person who loves just as hard as you do. And maybe, take a break from looking for that person. Focus on yourself and just let love find you." Dream told her, putting her hand back in her scalp.

"You always know just what to say. You so damn perfect." She chuckled, wiping her face once more to completely dry her tears.

"I mean, if I don't do it, who will?" Dream shrugged, smiling once Ariana mushed her head, laughing at her cockiness.

Dream was able to cheer her up a bit, and the two of them eventually ended up talking themselves to sleep, just cuddled up with one another. Ariana was so thankful for her best friend. She didn't know what she'd do without her.

Tbh lil baby look like my dog.