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Dior put Brian Jr. into his stroller and walked the few blocks to Brian’s house. Brian pulled the baby out of the stroller before she could even close the front door.
“Look at my lil’ man,” he said as he moved the blankets that had been covering the baby’s face.
“I’ll be back,” Dior said as she headed back towards the door.
“Where you goin’?”
“Home. I’m tired,” she whined.
“You can sleep in my room,” he told her.
“I need peace and quiet. I’ll be back in a few hours,” she said before she left.
She walked home, turned her phone off and climbed right into bed. Dior hadn’t had more than three hours of sleep since she’d given birth six weeks ago.
***
When Dior woke up it was after midnight. She had slept longer than she’d intended to but the rest had been much needed. She turned on her phone and went into the kitchen to get something to eat. She put a Hot Pocket into the microwave and sat down to check her phone.
She had missed calls from Brian, Brandon, Belinda, C and Breeze. She decided to call Brian back first since she’d left the baby with him longer than she’d intended to.
“Hey baby, what’s up?” she said as the microwave beeped, signaling the end of the two and a half minutes.
“Where the fuck you been?” he asked.
“Sleep. I told you I was tired,” she said as she retrieved the hot pocket from the microwave and placed it on a saucer.
“Why the fuck you ain’t have yo’ phone on?”
“Brian, I been up wit’ that baby for weeks. I fall asleep in class. I needed a break. All he do is cry.”
“That baby? He cryin’ cuz he was runnin’ a fuckin’ fever and he has an ear infection!”
“I didn’t know.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you know? You wit’ him all day and night!”
“I just thought he was fussy. I never had a baby before,” she said as tears started to pool in her eyes.
“And I see why,” he said coldly.
“Now you know everything?” she asked as she wiped the tears away before they could fall.
“I knew that somethin’ was wrong wit’ my son!”
“Well good for you! You probably didn’t know shit. Yo’ mama probably the one that took him to the emergency room,” she said angrily.
“It don’t matter. You sure as hell ain’t take him.”
“Fuck you Brian. I’m doin’ my best!”
“Then do better!” he yelled before he hung up.
Dior sat her phone down on the table and started to pace the kitchen. How dare he talk to her like that? What the hell was wrong with him?
She was the one waking up in the middle of the night to tend to a crying baby, taking him to the babysitter before school, going to school and doing her homework while dealing with their son. He had no right to judge her. She called Breeze to vent.