I woke up the next day to just Ant by my side. He was already up and tracing his initial on my side.

His finger traced over A.W. again and again, it brought me to the nights where he'd have to sleep with me due to his night terrors.

It was like a lullaby of some sort to him, all he had to do was trace his initials and he'd be out.

I patted his arm, making him look up at me. He smiled and quickly sat up. "Good Morning Mommy!" He happily said.

Catching his contagious morning glee, I smiled back at him and sat up. "Good Morning, Ant." I said.

"Where's Zain?" I asked.

Ant shrugged his shoulders and came to sit next to me. "He left the room not too long ago." He said as he looked down at his hands.

I gently grabbed a hold of his jaw and turned his head to look at me, "How do you feel about me?...The new me." I softly asked before letting go of him.

Ant looked into my eyes, his eyes was the same greenish color like his brother, they're so beautiful and mesmerizing.

"I feel happy, you're here again and that's all that matters, right?"

I couldn't help but smile at Ant's innocent words, "Yeah, that's all that matters."

Ant moved to touch one of my locs, "Your hair is like that guy in the picture." He said examining it.

What guy? What picture?

My brows furrowed in confusion, this was the second time I'm hearing about some guy and a picture.

"Hey, Ant can you show me the picture that you're talking about." I asked him.

He let go of my loc and happily nodded before jumping off my bed and running out of the room.

As I patiently waited for him to come back, I caught my state in the mirror facing the bed. I'm definitely looking somewhat better, I don't look like I'm dying or an addict.

The paddling of feet peeled my eyes off the mirror and towards the door. Ant burst through the door with a small 2.5 x 3.5 picture.

He handed it to me before Zain walked in. I took a look at it and frowned. Why didn't I think of him before. Of course they've been talking about Miki, he's the only other guy that's I know of with locs.

In the picture he and I was in the car that we've stolen from some rich white people. We took a quick picture with my polaroid before being chased by the feds.

His arms was around my shoulders as we both cheekily smiled, "Where did you get this picture?" I turned to ask my kids.

Ant pointed at Zain, already throwing him under the bus.

Zain pushed Ant's shoulder, "Snitch."

Ant stuck out his tongue to his brother making Zain roll his eyes.

"I got from Miki's closet, he has a shoe boxes full of stuff from your relationship with him." Zain said.

Shoe box?

"What shoe box? And why are you going through his stuff?" I asked him.

It's rude to go through his things, Mrs. Jackson is sensitive when it comes to Miki. How could she have let him freely go into his room?

Zain looked down, "It was a black Jordan shoe box. I went into his room when Grandma was in the hospital, but mommy I don't-"

"Did you get permission?" I interrupted him.

He shook his head no and tried to finish what he was saying, "But I think he's still alive, Mommy. I looked into this letter he had for you and-"

"You read that?" I asked in unbelief, who the fuck taught this kid to invade people's privacy?

He nodded yes and once again tried to finish what he was saying, "Anyways, they're some key words in there about-"

"Stop it...just don't. It was rude of you to do that. You wouldn't want anyone going through my stuff if I were dead." I concluded.

Zain looked back down at the ground, he sighed, "I'm sorry, I should've-"

"No don't apologize to me, I'll take you to his grave and you'll apologize to him there." I said before getting up and walking into the bathroom.

He's gotta be fucking kidding me, right? I'm not mad for myself but also for Mrs. Jackson. She would've never just had anyone go into Miki's room.

He was her youngest and her first son to die. His room is like her sacred place, even I don't go in there much. I've only been in there twice after he's died.

~

Walking into the main room, I walked pass everyone and went into the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee.

From my side, I felt Brunet's presence, "Your hair, it's changed again." He said after taking a sip of his own coffee.

I hummed as I poured myself a cup of coffee, then I took a sip and turned to face the other people that were staring at me.

They were surely looking at my new style. While I was in the bathroom, I found a pair of shears and 3 different color box dye. Both were products that could help change my appearance.

So I cut my hair and dyed my hair blonde, then I added finger waves to give my hair a sense of life.

"I like it!" Ant yelled out happily in the mist of his play time with Sugar.

A growing series of laughter came from everyone after Ant's outburst.

As the laughter died down, I took another sip of my coffee and watched over the big group of people before me. Everyone was calmly enjoying each other's presence as they happily talked up a storm amongst themselves.

Brunet bumped my shoulder, "I wanna help you in this fight and I'm ready to do whatever it takes to end that son of a bitch."

Looking up into Brunet's brown eyes, I smiled softly before turning to face him with my hand out.

"Ride or die?" I asked.

The sound of Brunet's heartbeat pounded in my ear as he stared down at my hand. He then looked up at me with a smile and grabbed onto my hand, shaking it firmly.

"I'll stick with you, Janunu." He happily said.

This is the first time Brunet and I have been on the same page, I had no hate or killing hunger towards him, just love.

"Thank you Brunet, for everything." I finally said to him.

Ring
Ring
Ring

The happy moment I had with Brunet was cut short when his phone began to ring.

"Daniel! Are you alright? Is your family alright?!!" I heard a male voice ask from the other end.

Brunet frowned and nodded, "Yeah we are, what's going on?" He asked.

"There was a fucking explosion in your neighborhood, it wiped out your whole block! They're sending everyone available there now." The voice said.

I heard Brunet's heartbeat pick up, "W-when did this happen?" He asked frantically.

"About 20 minutes ago."

"I'm on my way." Brunet said before hanging up the phone.

He looked at me with his brows furrowed together, most likely feeling devastated for his neighbors and friends.

"They're here." I whispered.

I know it has to be them.