"Damn nigga. You good? Was you tryna kill him?" Jaxon chuckled, climbing into the passenger seat of the police cruiser.

"Shut up before you piss me off next and I kill yo' ass." He pulled off from the side of the highway, not bothering to turn his blinker on.

"Woah. Somebody's cereal got pissed in this morning. Yo' fine ass babymama must've found a new nigga?" He grinned childishly, then groaned in pain after being harshly jabbed in the chest.

"Yeah bitch keep talking I'ma knock yo' lungs out yo' chest. Ion play with you like that." Dayvon pointed at him in a serious manner but that didn't stop him from laughing.

"Folks 'nem ass annoying as hell." Dayvon couldn't help but to crack a smile anyway.

"What, man? You can't blame a brother for stating the obvious. Might catch me in a closet with some lotion and a picture of yo' lockscree-," He was cut off by laughing again, dodging Dayvon's punch just in time.

"Aight, aight, I quit G. What you mad for, foreal though? You good?" He chuckled, wiping the tears that fell from his eye from laughing so hard.

"No. I'm sick of you. That's why I'm mad." Dayvon parked in the back lot of the precinct, listening to Jaxon laugh for the umpteenth time.

The real reason Dayvon wasn't his normal self today was because Autumn was still mad at him when he left the house this morning. She didn't even let him kiss her goodbye and she even slept in her own room last night with August, and she made sure the door was locked so that he wouldn't get in without waking her.

There was nothing he hated more than leaving the house with people mad at him; well, people he cared about, and he cared about Autumn the most. It hurt his feelings, especially since him making it back home wasn't definite with his line of work.

He didn't blame her for being upset though. She had a worthy reason and he wouldn't force her to forgive him so quickly since he knew he'd messed up. He didn't even know where to start with getting back on her good side.

Although he was genuinely apologetic for wrongly accusing her, a part of him didn't feel like his reaction was out of proportion. He didn't even yell or curse at her when he questioned her, and with her being the only person in the household that did drugs, who wouldn't think the pills belonged to her?

Along with that, who would've thought Jasmine would set her up like that? None of it made any sense to him. He couldn't understand why she would do something like that. Perhaps Autumn was right. Maybe Jasmine did want her place, and apparently she'd do the unthinkable to get it.

On his way home an hour later, he decided to call her up to see if she had an explanation for her actions. She answered on the second ring, as if she was waiting for his call.

"Jasmine you know I got cameras in my house so why the fuck would you do some dumb shit like bring drugs in my shit? Then you gon' put 'em in Autumn room to set her up. What the fuck you on?"

"I wasn't setting her up Dayvon. I was trying to prove a point that she would choose drugs over you if she was given the chance again! That girl don't have nothing that I haven't already gave you! What is so special about her?!" She really couldn't understand what he saw in Autumn.

"You gotta stop comparing yourself to her. It don't matter what you do, you'll never be her. I will never feel for you like I feel for her. I can't replace her and you can't either. You got all your shit back without ah' hassle, so ain't no reason for you to be doing no fu shit. She ain't did nothin' to you. I'ma show you ion play about her if you do some stupid shit like that again."

"Dayvon I-," He ended the call before she could finish, seeing no reason to continue talking. He'd said his peace and that was the end of that. He hoped she would take the hint and move on with her life.

He pulled into his driveway, going up the slope slowly so that his tires would keep the traction. He couldn't wait for the winter season to be over. He was ready for spring time, even though that came with a bunch of rain.

"Daddy!" August screamed in excitement, attacking his legs in a hug as soon as he walked through the door.

"Wassup lil' folks 'nem? Youn sound sick to me. Yo' ass faking." He leaned over to pick him up, and August laughed as he tickled his sides.

"Uhun daddy, see." He coughed into his arm to convince him, and Dayvon only shook his head with a smile.

"I got you a happy meal. Where yo' mama at?" He put him back down, passing him the cup of Hi-C orange and his chicken nugget happy meal.

"Her in the tub. Her say she tummy hurt." His grammar was off as always, but Dayvon understood him perfectly.

"Aight. I'ma go check on her. Go eat." Dayvon stood back upright, and August headed to his bedroom where Spider Man was currently playing on the TV.

He undid his utility belt on his way towards his bedroom, figuring she was in his connected bathroom since it had a bubble jet bathtub. He unbuttoned his uniform shirt next, and pulled it from over his arms.

"Autumn, stop doing me like that ma, please? I'm sorry." He watched her with a small, unintentional pout as she dodged his kiss, walking past him with a towel around her body.

He followed her into her room, stopping her from closing the door. She rolled her eyes at the fact that he was clearly stronger than her, so she didn't even bother to push back. Plus, technically it was his house anyway. She couldn't really keep him out.

"Get off of me Von. I don't feel like playing right now." She grabbed his arms as soon as they wrapped around her body from behind.

"Man ain't nobody playing. You hurting my feelings."

"How? It's not like anybody accused you of doing drugs after finally getting clean so that you could be with your son. Or did they?" She sarcastically tilted her head to the side.

"I'm sorry. I know how hard you been trying to stay on track and I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions so fast. I'm sorry. I don't understand what it's like to be in your shoes so I can't imagine how that made you feel. I wouldn't intentionally say somethin' like that to hurt you Autumn. I ain't think she would do something so evil like that." He sighed.

Autumn stared at him for a moment, seeing how sad he seemed to be. She wanted to stay mad so badly but her heart wouldn't let her. She knew that if she was in his place, she probably would've made some accusations about herself as well.

"I hate when you mad at me. Youn know how hard I been tryna make sure ion fuck up with you." He told her, running his hand over his dreads.

She wished she could get him to understand her reasoning for being mad. It wasn't just being accused of something she didn't nor had any intentions of doing, it was much deeper than that.

Instead of responding to him, she removed his arms from her waist and walked behind him to get to the dresser so that she could put some clothes on. She could hear him sigh again, but surprisingly he just took the hint and left out of her bedroom.

After rubbing her body down in vanilla cashmere EOS lotion, she pulled on a tank top and a pair of sweats over her underwear. She fixed the scarf that was around her hair, and then she finally walked out to go check on August.

"Hey stinky. What you doing?" Autumn stole one of his French fries after kissing his cheek.

"I watching Miles Morales. Here mommy, we can share." He pushed the carton of fries closer to her, and reached over to hand her a chicken nugget too.

"I'm okay baby, I just wanted one." She laughed to herself because she figured he wasn't paying attention when she stole the first one.

"Mommy I have to go back to school tomorrow?" He asked, dipping a chicken nugget into barbecue sauce.

"No. Even though you feel better, your fever is still at 100. We have to see if it goes down before tonight. I don't want you to get the other kids sick." She told him, and he just nodded in response.

"You miss school already, though? I thought you was glad to stay home." She chuckled.

"I am, I just sooo bored. I want to go to recess with my friends." He dropped his head in fake exhaustion.

"How about I go ask daddy if we can go to that community park? So that we can play." Autumn suggested, watching his eyes light up.

"Okay mommy. Hurry." He pushed her in the direction of his dad's room, making her laugh again.

When she walked in, he was nowhere to be seen but she could hear water running from the bathroom, which meant he was taking a shower. Instead of going in there with him, she climbed in his bed to wait for him to get out.

It took another ten minutes, and by the time he was out, August had joined her in his bed. He had his AirPods in because Autumn's TikTok videos were interrupting the animated Miles Morales show he was watching.

Dayvon held the towel that was around his waist as he walked around the bed to get to where Autumn was lying. He leaned down to see if she'd let him give her a kiss, and when she did, he wrapped his hand around her neck to deepen it.

When he released her bottom lip, Autumn reached up to wipe her lip gloss from around his mouth.

"Can you talk to me? Let me know how you feeling ma.." He kissed her once more before standing upright, keeping his gaze on hers.

Autumn sat up in the bed as well, glancing briefly at August who remained cuddled up to her side with all of his attention on his iPad. He thought his mom was the sweetest, purest being to exist. She loved him for that. She wished he could see her as sunshine and rainbows forever.

"I still haven't got over missing damn near four years. I think about it everyday, ways to make it up, you know? And I've told you that before. So when you believed that I would do something that could cause me to miss even more time, I just-I got so mad."

"You don't understand what it was like for me out there, D. I went weeks without eating, without showering. I stayed up for days at a time 'cause I was around bad people. I was always so tired but afraid to sleep because of-you know. I didn't want anything to happen to me."

"Then my mental health was the worst it's ever been. I was hallucinating all of the time 'cause of the pills-and it was always about y'all, and my daddy a lot of the times too. That's the reason I never came back home. Them hallucinations had me thinking y'all hated me. It was sooo bad. I can't even explain it." She paused because she could feel herself getting emotional.

"Then you came to see me that night, and you told me about him." She looked down at August. "I tried to kill myself that night. I was so damn mad at myself for what I did to him-for what I did to you, to my mom, to Aspen. I've just always felt like everybody would be better off without me."

"I went to rehab a few days after my attempt. I thought it was a sign that I had another chance, to be here. It was bad in rehab too-not the people or anything, they was real sweet. I just had to get used to being off of the same drugs that helped me cope with everything."

"It was just a lot. A lot happened for me to be here with you, today, sober and healthy. I felt like you was playing in my face with them pills, like a test or something. Then when you for real thought they was mine, I thought about Jasmine and the hatred she has for me even though I've never done anything to that girl."

"That's why I was mad. I did so much to finally be here with my baby, and I wouldn't jeopardize that Dayvon, for nothing. I can't even look at a Tylenol pill without throwing up because that's not a life I want to go back to. I want to be here with him."

"So, I'm sorry for ignoring you, and for hurting your feelings. I was trying to prove a point but I forgot that I have to actually express myself so that you can understand what my point is." She chuckled, using her shirt to wipe the corner of her eyes.

Dayvon's arms wrapped around her body when she finished, pulling her to be in his lap. She could feel him bury his face into her neck, and when her skin became wet, she wrapped her arms around his neck to hug him back.

He was beginning to realize that he only ever cries if it has something to do with her. Even the times he cried in church, it was because the message related to their situation in some way or another. He felt for her so much. The connection he shared with her was something he couldn't explain.

"I love you so much. I'm so proud of you mama. I'm sorry. I feel like I been saying that too much. I'ma do better, aight?" He held the side of her face while leaving kisses on her cheek.

"I love you more. I need you to trust me Dayvon." Her voice softened as she scanned over his regretful expression.

"I do. I trust you more than anybody. I swear I do ma, it was just-it was in the moment. I ain't know what else to think. I should've talked to you without getting mad though. And it was insensitive to hold that bag in yo' face like that. I'm sorry." He apologized again, hoping she could feel his sincerity.

"That's okay. Thank you for still being so nice to me even when I'm mad, and when you're mad too. You didn't cuss at me or nothin'. I know you wanted to." She smiled as soon as she heard his laughter.

"You know I could never talk to you like you a hoe. It don't matter how mad I get. You my baby. I'ma always watch my mouth with you." He chuckled, bringing her face closer so that he could give her another kiss.

"You my baby." She repeated, bringing her hands up to wipe the tears from his cheeks. She loved the way he loved her.

"Kiss yo' baby then."

"No because I can feel you right now and you know my son right there, freak." She got out of his lap after feeling his dick rise beneath her, and he laughed again when she mushed his head.

"My fault ma. You know what you do to me." He stood up as well, and Autumn rolled her eyes with a small smile.

"Nah. You'll have to show me one of these days." She innocently shrugged, which caused a smirk to replace his smile.

"Daddy did you say yes?" August took one of his AirPods out, just now realizing he was now out of the shower. The way Dayvon's expression changed again made Autumn laugh, watching him turn the opposite direction as his hard on went down.

"Say yes to what?"

"Oh, he wanted to go to the park. He's tired of being in the house." Autumn chuckled, remembering the original question she was supposed to be asking him.

"The park? It's snowing and it's fifteen degrees outside." Dayvon turned back around with a confused frown, and Autumn shrugged again, looking down at August.

"Well there are some parks inside too, daddy. Like-you know." August gestured with his hand, unable to name any because he didn't know himself.

"Boy." Dayvon shook his head at the fact that he couldn't even name a place, making Autumn laugh yet again.

Autumn picked up a tortilla chip with cheese on it, scooping up some sour cream before putting it in her mouth. These were the best nachos she'd ever had. Even better than the ones she made herself. They were loaded with steak, two types of cheese sauce, jalapeños, sour cream, pico de gallo, and guacamole.

"Damn. You fucking them up, ain't it? Eat, eat, eat." Dayvon stared across the table at her, then laughed as he moved out of the way just in time to miss her fist.

They were currently at Funflatables, a bounce house park that was located inside of Chicago Ridge Mall. Dayvon figured this would be a good place to bring August so that he could tire himself out, and then when he did, he'd take Autumn shopping. A win for the both of them.

"You just mad 'cause you ordered them little ass sliders and finished 'em in two minutes. Now you want some of my food, ain't it?" She mocked him, smiling once his expression immediately went flat.

"Yeah, fat ass. All you had to was ask." She chuckled, sliding her plate to the middle of the table so that they could share.

"'Preciate that ma." He reached over to kiss her cheek, then grabbed a chip that had everything loaded on top of it.

"Mommy! Daddy! Watch this!" August got their attention by yelling their names, causing them both to look in his direction.

He did a front flip off the top of a bounce house before jumping into a foam square pit, and when he managed to get out, he did a one handed somersault.

"Good job baby!" Autumn yelled back at him while Dayvon clapped, putting a big smile on August's face.

There is no reason strawberry lemonade should be that good. I'll sell my sister for some Minute Maid strawberry lemonade