On Us

by Nina.

You can’t make a man be somewhere he don’t want to be, and you tried to do that with a FUCKIN baby and you sitting here mad at everybody else except the one person who got you in this situation, YOU!”

no woman should be afraid of the man who is supposed to love and protect them.

“Maybe just buy bigger pants.” “Don’t ever say that to a woman again,” Avery told him.

“Because we just don’t like that, if you see us struggling offer to help not offend. If you can’t fix or solve the problem. Let us think we came up with a solution after you go solve it for us.”

Lake didn’t look at Avery like a man who wanted to have sex, or a man who thought she was beautiful. He looked at her like she had the key to something he desperately needed. Like she was the answer to his prayers.

Lake was a man; of course, he wanted to feel Avery in that way. They laid together and saw each other naked quite a few times since spending time together. But this wasn’t that for him. Avery made him feel good, like he was worth something, like he was a likable person, and he wanted her to keep giving him that feeling, so he wanted her around him—a lot.

“Stop being sorry, Ky, stop promising me, and just don’t hurt me anymore.”

Lake stared at her, eyes raw with emotion. Vulnerable. A look that Avery would only be fortunate enough to see. He wouldn’t share or do any of the things he did with her with anyone else. This was reserved for her. Lake realized he couldn’t fight that.

Something about a black man, a gun, and a nightstand.

Now, I know you got your life and that nigga, but if a man really love you, he would encourage your love with your sister, your family. Not distance you from it. Especially right now with y’all both being pregnant. But he don’t; he let you sit and do whatever it is that you do that keeps you away from her.”

“Because you have a heart and a gut full of that nigga. That don’t mean stay around and take his shit, though.”

“I do. I want you. I don’t know what that even means…I ain't ever felt this way before, but I know I want you.”

“Lake, you are worth being loved, you know that, right?”

Lake never boo loved with a girl before, so he didn’t know that when you were on the phone with a person you liked, you could end up in a washing machine wearing one sock and a cowboy hat asking if they really be thinking about you.

“Exactly what I said. I like you. I want you. I want you all the time. You giving me that pussy, it’s mine. I tried to let you make the decision on your own, give you time, but you wanna keep moving all crazy, so I gotta give you some order.”

“When me and Ivy need to know that we mean something or that we’re not bullshitting and being a hunnid with one another, we put it on us because we mean something and putting it there, let’s us know we’re honest enough to never lie to each other. We value our relationship as sisters. Basically, for you and me, we like each other enough to set it in stone. To put whatever this is we are saying, whatever we are trying to establish between us, on us. I am important to you, and you are important to me.”