24

Janet

"Damn Miss Jackson, it's like that?" Kyrin asked me as I walked out the closet after putting on my heels.

Chuckling, I replied. "You know it is."

"Mm, tell them people at that shoot that your girlfriend is crazy and she don't play about what's hers."

"I'll relay the message if needed." She rolled her eyes at my response before kissing my lips. "Hey baby. I thought you weren't coming til a little later."

Kyrin looked at me weirdly. "You really were exhausted last night baby. I told you when we talked on FaceTime that I would be over before you left for the shoot."

"I must have been. Hey, should I do red lipstick or another color?"

She looked at my outfit. "None. Do a gloss."

"But I wan—."

"Now you asked me my opinion, so you're going to take it woman. Do a clear gloss baby, just trust me on it."

Listening to her, I went to my makeup draw and grabbed a clear gloss. Putting it on, I nodded in approval. "It's nice."

"I told you so." She replied as she sat on my bed.

"I would have rather put on my red though." I muttered and I heard my girlfriend smack her lips.

"Superstar, we about to fight."

I looked over my shoulder. "It's whatever."

"See, you've been spending too much time with my sisters." Kyrin stood up and walked over to me. "So what's up then?"

We met eye contact and both couldn't contain our laughter as we busted out laughing. Kyrin spoke after we finished laughing. "I don't want you to go to a shoot for 6 hours baby."

"I'll be back before you know it. You and Eissa will have the time of your lives."

"We will, but I'm going to still miss you." She pouted and wrapped her arms around my frame. I hugged her back as she laid her head on my chest.

"If you're like this now, how will you manage once I'm on tour?" I asked her as I chuckled.

She looked at me. "I won't at all. I'm still trying to figure out how to convince you to not go."

"I have to go though princess. We will FaceTime all the time and—."

"I'll be bored out of my mind half the time." Kyrin finished for me as she nuzzled into my neck.

The door to my room flung open causing us to jump apart slightly. Eissa stood at the other end, his face was red as he cried. "Mommy! I hurt my leg!"

Kyrin and I looked down to see that Eissa's knee was scratched up and bleeding slightly.

I went over and picked him up as Kyrin went to the restroom to get something to put on his knee. Sitting him on my bed, I pulled his shorts up some more as I looked at him. "What happened Prince?"

"I- I run and I fall." He sniffed through the sentence causing some snot to come out of his nose. Grabbing a piece of tissue, I wiped it for him.

"It's okay Prince, mommy and Butterly are going to fix it." I spoke softly with him.

He nodded as Kyrin came back with a band aid gauze, alcohol, and a towel. I moved over as I watched her douce some of the alcohol on the towel. "Bubba this is going to sting a bit. Okay?"

His face furrowed until the towel hit his knee causing him to scream. "Ow!"

"Sorry Bubba, I have to make sure it doesn't get infected." My girlfriend dabbed his knee slowly, making sure she didn't miss a spot. Once she was done I handed her the gauze and she placed it on his knee. "All better E?"

He smiled as he nodded his head excitedly. "All better, Butterfly."

Kyrin's phone began ringing and she excused herself. "That's my sister, I'll be right back."

I nodded as she stepped out of the room and disappeared into the hallway.

"So mommy...." Eissa trailed off as I looked at him. "I know your secret."

Furrowing my eyebrows in amusement, I asked. "And what secret is that exactly?"

"That you and Butterly are day thing."

I blinked blankly for a little minute. "We are what?"

"Day thing." He said again as he used both of his pointer fingers and smushed them together.

My eyes widened once I realized what he was trying to say. "And you know that how Prince?"

"Auntie Tiff was on the phone. I listen. I hear." He shrugged. "So does that mean Butterfly is my mommy now too?"

Before I could answer Kyrin walked back in the room, with a look on her face. She tried to mask it as she looked and met eye contact with me.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

She shook her head as she attempted to play it off in front of Eissa. "I'll tell you later. Bubba, how about we go play the piano with momma?"

Eissa shook his head. "No."

"Why not? You love playing with—."

"Cause you and momma are day thing!" He yelled at her.

My girlfriend face furrowed like mines did except she had caught it the first time. "And how do you feel about that Bubba?"

My son put his head down as his shoulders shrugged once again. "I feel okay. I have two mommies now, right?"

"Yeah." I answered confidently. "You do E, but is that okay with you?"

"Yes." He smiled as his head shot back up. "I love Butterfly. That means you love Butterfly too?"

Nodding. I smiled at my girlfriend. "Yeah Prince, I love Butterfly too."

"And I love your mommy." Kyrin added on. "Just as much as I love you."

"So she's your favorite mommy? Like I your favorite kid?" Eissa asked cutely.

Kyrin nodded. "Exactly, but I want you to know that you still come first. No matter what, so you let us know if what you feel changes. Ok?"

"Okay." He shook his head in understanding as he hopped off the bed. "I tell Uncle Joey this!"

My son took off running, almost like he hadn't hurt his knee a few minutes ago. If this wasn't my child, then I just didn't know. He acted just like me.

When he was out of ear range, I looked at Kyrin. "That was not supposed to happen like that."

"It's okay. I mean at least he's happy. At least he didn't freak out and ask how it was possible. Cause my ass definitely wasn't ready for that question."

We chuckled softly as she pulled me into her and our lips met. Wrapping my arms around her neck, I began sucking on her bottom lip. For a while we stood there making out, a part of me knowing that my son would prevent anything else from happening right now.

She pulled away slowly as she stepped back. "Give me space before I pin you to this bed. I would hate to have to scar my Bubba's ears."

"You kissed me first." I pointed out.

"So? Doesn't matter. You did the lip and tongue suck thingy and you know that gets me wet. You're playing with my emotions woman." She pouted softly. "I feel like I'm in a drought. I can't go this long without you."

Walking back into her embrace, against her wishes might I add, I pecked her lips once. "Aww baby, I'll feed you tonight. How's that sound?"

"Absolutely amazing but it reminds me that I have to tell you something."

"If me saying that reminded you of what you had to tell me, then I'm not sure I wanna know." I mumbled against her lips.

"Well, it actually puts a denture in our plans. Phoebes here."

Nodding, I asked. "Really? She's visiting already?"

"No. She moved. Effective immediately."

"That's good. Why aren't you happy? She's closer and everything."

Kyrin's voice mumbled. "She's moving in with Tiffany."

My eyes widened. "Wait huh? Why are they moving this quickly?"

"I don't know but we have a apartment warming to attend tonight at Auntie Tiffs house." She rolled her eyes.

Shaking my head, I replied. "Well, thats where we'll be."

"Unfortunately." She frowned. "Okay, promise me that when we get back you'll feed me and I'm not talking about food."

"I'll feed you baby. I promise." Pecking her lips, she pulled me back into her when I went to pull away. As she held me, I told her. "You have a interview in a few days."

"A interview?"

"Yes." I nodded my head against her chest. "You can't just walk into a school and claim your position as principal. You actually have to interview with the board."

"I'm sorry— what?" I lifted my head to see my girlfriends shocked expression.

Giggling, I replied. "Baby, you have a interview in a few days to become the principal of the charter school."

She lifted her eyebrow at me. "Oh yeah, I heard you were out here being billy bad ass by the way. You got those people fired?"

"Technically I was just trying to get the principal fired, the superintendent was just collateral damage. Still, we are not on that, we are on the fact that you have a interview and I know you are going to get the job."

"Ah. I see. I see. My girl believes in me." Kyrin cheesed at me causing me to smile back.

"Of course I believe in you baby. You got this, I know you do. I'll always believe in you, no matter what it is."

"Aw. Gimme me more kisses." I enclosed the space between us at her request and her hands went underneath my shirt.

"Kyrin Paige." I called out warningly as I pulled away.

My girlfriend groaned. "Baby, we can lock the door."

"No ma'am. We agreed to after whatever party we are about to attend. Later baby." My response caused a pout to form on my girlfriends face. "I love you."

"I love you more." She replied as her phone stared ringing again. This time she just answered it. "Hello?"

The voice on the other end sounded like Embers. I went back to my makeup draw and grabbed my lip gloss.

"I'm sorry, he what?" My girlfriends voice heightened. "Calm down Em. Calm down. Okay. I know. I'm on my way. I'll get Phoebe. Just stay calm. Get to momma. Find momma."

I looked back at Kyrin to find her pacing. "Baby, what's wrong?"

My girlfriend pacing didn't cease as she threw her hair into a messy bun quickly. Something was wrong. That was obvious. "I have to go back to Texas, but you have to stay here."

"No I don't." I shook my head. "What's wrong?"

"Janet you're going to look at my people differently."

Laughing a bit, I disagreed. "No I won't. What is it?"

"Ember seems to think that my mother put our father in the hospital." She explained.

My face fell completely. "How? Why? When? Where?"

My girlfriend sat on the bed and began talking. She explained everything, including the parts she didn't tell me about when we were in Texas. Like how her father was abusive at one stage of their lives and Kyrin coming out brought him back to that place. Each time we met eye contact as she spoke she would quickly break it. She began to make that a habit as she spoke and I noticed her hand was shaking. I walked over and sat next to her as I grabbed her hand and placed it in mines. It seemed to calm her a bit.

As she finished, her last statement was. "So I have to go to Texas. And you... you have to stay here."

"Kyrin, you aren't going alone."

"Phoebe and Ember will be with me. What about Eissa? You have to stay with him."

"Tiffany." I quickly replied. "Why are you so head strong on not letting me come?"

She looked up at me with a confused face. "Baby, you seriously don't know why?" When I kept the same face, she faced me as she grabbed my hands. "I'm going to let you know something, and I don't want you to be so quick to object. Baby, you cater to me. You've been like that since we stopped seriously disliking each other. You would give me the world if you could, and baby nothings wrong with that but I need Janet to not stop her world. You still have a life and a career and today you have shoot. Today I have a flight to Texas. So you're staying."

"Can I at least come meet you after my shoot?" I asked softly.

"No." Kyrin declined. "I shouldn't be in Texas that long baby. I'll be back, let me go see what's happening and if something seriously happens this time, then I'll call you before anything else. I'm staying at Embers place anyways, so it shouldn't be that bad. Deal?"

Nodding softly, I replied. "Deal."

___

Happy New Years Folks <3