Page 76 of No Love 2

I was all for Alouri taking pictures in the hospital and she even had two outfits for it. She had a custom Hello Kitty tutu outfit and the onesie read “Hello, World!” She also had a pink, frilly romper that came with a matching bow and leg warmers. Funnily, those outfits were mommy and me, so I had my own matching versions. Both of my outfits were just elevated pajama sets because it was made with a hospital photoshoot in mind. After giving birth I didn’t feel up to taking pictures and I didn’t know what that was about. I just didn’t feel like myself. I was forced into taking pictures though, and I had to admit that they came out beautiful even though they were far from glamorous. Armias and I did a collaboration post with four photos on IG a few days after we left the hospital. The first picture was of Alouri laying on her side on top of a fuzzy pink blanket and she was wearing her romper outfit. The second photo was a close up of her being held in Armias’ hands. The third picture was Alouri and I sitting on the hospital bed in our matching Hello Kitty outfits. I was sitting criss-crossed and gazing down at her while I cradled her in my arms. The last picture was a close up of Alouri’s face and it was breathtaking. Adding Beyonce’s song “PROTECTOR” to the post was only right because I’d do whatever and anything for my baby.

“I’m glad y’all did take those pictures because they ate. You should’ve posted more since bitches wanted to be funny.”

I burst into laughter because she was referring to Nazaria. With the following she had the local blogs always picked up anytime she threw very obvious shade at me. She had people tuned in when she was posting Armias on her page like he was her man, so he gagged the live when he posted our maternity shoot. She tried to do damage control with that embarrassing rant she went on, but that didn’t matter because Armias and I had already decided we were going to work it out. Shortly after that, he formally cut her off and she took down all their pictures. Had she moved on the internet would've already forgotten, but she insisted on throwing shade on a consistent basis. People loved drama and negativity, so anytime she posted or went live and said anything directed towards me it was screenshotted, clipped, and sent to local tea pages. I admittedly followed all of them because I loved mess, too. But I liked other people's mess! I never thought I’d be a part of the mess. When Kenny had his short lived fame from his rap career our relationship wasn’t public, so that kept me out of the limelight. I’d always managed to stay to myself and tend to my business, but of course a nigga had to come along and change that. I couldn’t fully be mad at Armias because it wasn’t like he cheated on me or anything, but he fed into a bitch’s delusions and now I had to keep hearing her mouth. She’d gone live the night we posted Alouri. I’ll give it to her because she wasn’t talking about us initially. She was discussing people tapping in with their banks and shit. I guess the bitch was back doing fraud. If luck was on my side they’d lock her ass back up again. Anyway, she was talking business until a messy person asked a question.

“Did you see Ali’s newest post?” She read the comment out loud before rolling her eyes.

I know I gave her credit for not being messy initially, but it never took much to provoke her. She could’ve easily ignored that comment and not read it outloud. She did it all the time when trolls asked her unfavorable questions. But she jumped at any chance to talk shit about me.

“Like I been saying, nigga’s be trying too hard to make shit work because a baby is involved. Why they ain’t take no family pictures?” She cackled. “That baby is gorgeous though. She looks just like her daddy….thank God.”

I was too busy tending to and loving on my newborn baby to go back and forth with a miserable bitch. I was also still unpacking the traumatic, unexpected events that led to me going into labor early. I was physically and mentally exhausted, and my daughter deserved the little bit of energy I did have. Besides, nothing Naz said even bothered me. We’d taken plenty of family pictures, but I chose not to post those because I didn’t care for how I looked in them. Then the second “jab” wasn’t much of a jab because Alouri did look just like her daddy. His family swore she looked just like Big Armias when they first saw her in the hospital. I’d seen pictures of him and Armias looked just like him, so I figured that was a valid comparison. It wasn’t until Uncle KG sent Armias a side by side photo of his dad as a one year old next to one of Alouri’s unedited hospital photos. The resemblance was uncanny. She looked more like Big Armias than his son did. It was little things. Her hair laid and curled the same way as his, her ears were the same size as his, she had his long lashes, they smiled the same way, and Big Armias also had deep dimples. I’d only seen adult pictures of him where he was mugging all the time, so I naturally assumed that Alouri had inherited her dimples from Rahesha. Now there was no telling who she got them from, but I wasn’t complaining either way. Armias and I had created a pretty ass baby, so it didn’t matter who she looked like. As long as that bitch acknowledged that she was indeed gorgeous and didn’t say anything disrespectful towards her, I didn’t care. She could lie and call me ugly until she was blue in the face. That wasn’t actually going to make me any less beautiful.

“I don’t have shit to prove to a bitch,” I responded to Dream.

“You sure don’t, cause my brother showed her what was up.”

I didn’t bring any of Naz’s shenanigans to Armias because it would be redundant. Maybe if she was making outrageous claims then I’d bring it to his attention, but her throwing shade was nothing for us to discuss. There was no real solution to that because she lived for the internet. We’d have to wait until she got tired or went back to jail for scamming and thieving. I initially thought a good ass whooping would be the trick, but she seemed like the type to go live right after the fight with a bloody mouth and a black eye still talking shit. However, it was still onsite for that bitch after that evil stunt she pulled to ruin my baby shower!

Since I didn’t tell Armias that Naz had said something about our hospital photoshoot, I assumed someone else sent it to him or that it popped up when he was scrolling. The algorithm on IG was all over the place with reposts and showing posts that they thought you might like. Regardless of how he saw it, he evidently didn’t like it because he posted a family picture of us in the hospital. Louri had on her pink frilly romper outfit, I had on my frilly pink pajama set and matching rob, and Armias had on a pink Lacoste sweatsuit in the same light pink shade as our outfits. We were both cradling Alouri in the hospital bed and kissing each other and he added “Forever My Lady” by Jodeci to the post. His caption was short, sweet, and perfect. “THE PIERRES.” As much as I wanted to ignore her, that response was top tier and I know it made her face drop. Our family and friends doing the most in the comments had to throw more salt in her open wound. His girl cousins were really dragging it by saying things like “Such a beautiful FAMILY!”, “Post the rest of the family photos when you get a chance, cousin!”, and then Fendi was really obvious by commenting “Oh, alright! Cause what a hating ass, thieving ass, no life having ass heaux thought? ! LOVE Y’ALL!” It was funny because I know she saw that comment yet she had no smoke for Fendi. That showed that she kept picking with me because she thought I was weak. It was noted.

“I don’t think Naz even believes half the shit she says. She’s just trying to prove something to the fans she thinks she has.”

“Heavy on think,” Dream tittered. “Them people be tuned in because she gives them drama. I know she be seeing half of the comments on those blogs calling her delusional, hurt, and bitter. But fuck her, cause her slangs never land.”

“Heavy on the fuck her,” I laughed. As much as I didn’t care to talk about people I didn’t like, gossipping and laughing on the phone with my bestie always felt good.

“You popping out for Tiana’s birthday next weekend?" She asked. “You know that girl doesn't have many friends because her head is always in a book.”

“Don’t do Ti like that, hoe,” I tittered. Tiana was her and Denim’s younger cousin, so I’d known her just as long as I’d known them. Their fathers were identical twins, so she looked more like their sister with her light skin, pretty asymmetrical face, and her shapely body. She turned up more in high school because she always used to be outside at teen clubs and block parties with us. But shit got real when she got to college. She had aspirations to be a lawyer, so she had no choice but to lock in. I was surprised she was making a big deal of her birthday, but hey, you only turned 21 once!

“You coming? Cause she keeps asking about you.”

“Awww, man. See, now I’ll feel bad if I don’t go.”

“You shouldn’t! If you’re not ready to pop out then that’s okay.”

“I don’t know why I’m not ready, though,” I groaned. “I just knew I was gon’ be outside popping pussy on a headstand. Yet all I wanna do is hide from the world because I feel ugly.”

“I hate that you feel that way, Lo, because it’s not true in the eyes of everybody else. That may not mean anything to you because it’s about how you feel about yourself, but my Godbaby enhanced your beauty and booty,” she giggled at her corny joke that she probably thought was so clever.

I laughed. “I appreciate that, Dream. But you hit the nail on the head when you said it’s about how I feel about myself…and I just haven’t been feeling it.”

“What would make you feel it?”

“Losing weight.”

“That can be arranged with dieting and you should be good to work out in about two weeks. It doesn’t look like you have much to lose, honestly.”

“I guess, but I want to tone up this stomach real bad…then I need my hair done and I don’t feel like doing it myself. These braids starting to piss me off.”

She laughed. “Well bitch, that’s nothing a hair appointment can’t solve. And me and Denim can help you take down the braids.”

“Yea…but I don’t know if I should be doing any girl maintenance right now because that can take all day and Alou-”

“Alouri what, Lo-Lo? You have a damn good village to keep your baby while you tend to yourself and it sounds like you should. I think not tending to yourself is why you’re not feeling like yourself.”

“Yea,” I sighed. “You might be right.”