CROSSOVER CHAPTER 🗣. This is as big as the Kerry and Annalise episode. (OhThatsKhai_ ) issa long one ☺️
ATTENTION: This chapter is a MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!
"Get up, baby. You gotta go."Amaru shook Damita.
"I changed my mind. I'm not going."Damita groaned and turned around.
"Nope. You don't get to change your mind, you said you were going. Open and approachable, remember?"Amaru stopped her from laying down. "Come on, get up."
Damita wiped her eyes and climbed out the bed. She got up to wash her face and brush her teeth.
"Come on, I started the shower for us."Amaru put his arm around her and kissed her on the cheek. Damita turned around and pecked his lips. He took her hand and led her to the shower.
After undressing they both walked into the shower and stood under the water. Amaru held her close to his chest and rubbed his hands on her skin, but not in a sexual way. He knew how much his being and being close to him calmed. He was helping her get rid of her nerves.
"How are you feeling? Nervous still?"Amaru continued to run his fingertips down her spine.
"I'm good."Damita rested her head on his chest and exhaled. "You gonna stay with me?"
"Yeah, baby."Amaru hovered her and kissed her lips. "I'll stay until you're finished."He tapped on her nose and let her go. She smiled at him and they started to clean each other.
They got out of the shower and Damita wrapped a towel around her body. She looked through her closet to see what she wanted to wear.
"Let me see."Amaru stood in front of her. "I don't buy this stuff for it to sit here. Here put this on."He pulled a sequined T-shirt dress with Skulls and roses on the front of it.
Damita didn't protest, she just put on the dress like he asked her to with some black thigh high boots. She put her hair in a cute bun and grabbed her purse.
"Okay Daddy, I'm ready."Damita kissed him and walked out of their bedroom. Amaru had just put in a tracksuit, after all these years he didn't answer why Damita had to dress like she was doing a photoshoot everywhere she went.
Amaru held the door open for her to get in and drove her to the address that Dr.Williams texted to Damita.
Once they arrived, he opened the door for her and walked her in. "Nice Of you to finally join us."Dr.Williams chuckled as Damita appeared in the doorway. "Have a seat. Unfortunately Amaru, this is a no husband zone."
"Can he sit in the waiting room?"Damita whined.
"Not today. I don't want these ladies to feel uncomfortable."Dr.Williams explained. Damita made a pouty face and rolled her eyes.
"It's okay, baby. Just text me when you're ready. I'll be here to pick you up."Amaru gripped her chin and kissed on the lips. "I love you."
"I love you too."Damita kissed him on the cheek and allowed him to walk out of the door.
Finally, Damita took her seat and everyone cooed at her unwillingness to be away from her husband.
"Alright. I thought we should start by introducing ourselves and telling why you're here."Dr.Williams pushed her glasses up and the room went silent. Everybody just looked around.
A pregnant woman stood up "I guess I'll go first."She sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'm Mya."She waved. "I'm here because my parole officer suggested that I come to therapy in order to keep my child in my custody. I'm seven months pregnant and...I killed my husband."
All the other women looked at her like she had grown two heads. A murderer was among them.
Another woman had walked into the room removing sunglasses from her face. "This is our other fashionably late diva of the group."Dr.Williams chuckled. "Introduce yourself. Tell us your name and why you're here. "My name is...Janet." She smiled as she flipped her hair and took a deep breath. " Welp I'm a mom to eight children, five biologically and three from my husband's previous relationships. I'm here because I'm going through this kind of breakdown in my life as far as my self-esteem and my marriage. My husband just found out I had a small affair years ago and our last child could possibly not be his."
Dr.Williams gave Janet the ok and approached one of the babies of the group. "Hi. My name is Paris... I'm here because I was raised from birth by my father. I've never met my mother and in recent years I've gone through a horrible breakup, I started dating this new guy who hurt me in the way my ex-did so I dated a friend..... Things were good until I started back talking to the new guy... Now I'm pregnant, my mom found me, my dad is struggling and I have no clue of my life... I'm barely 19."
Everyone else silently cringed and released a small breath in an attempt to not make her feel worse than she already probably does. " Next."
Another woman in her mid-twenties stood up and took a deep breath, mostly because was nervous about admitting this out loud. " ...Ok... My name is Charlotte, I'm a 26-year-old business owner. I own a series of zoos all over the world called Zoolandia. I'm here because I'm probably one of the few people in the entire world who stayed a virgin until a month ago... And- yeah." She mumbled before sitting down and playing with ends of her hair.
After Charlotte made her comment another young girl stood up. She had to be no older than 17. "My name is Joelle, I'm 16. I'm here because I'm trying to learn how to accept myself since getting my face cut. I'm also trying to make sense of a lot of things that have happened to me in the past few months."Joelle sighed and sat back down holding her hand across her scar. She felt like they were all staring at it.
Finally, Damita stood up and took a deep breath. "My name is Damita Shakur. I own a law firm. I might be the oldest one here."Damita chuckled. "I have 3 children and a grandchild. I've been married for 20 years, and I'm here because I have mild bipolar depression and severe anxiety."Damita sat down and played with fingers.
"How old are you?"Janet asked.
"I just turned 47."Damita smiled.
"I got you beat by three years, I just turned 50 in May."
"My Birthday is in May too."Damita's eyes became big.
"Oh yes, you two are quite similar. We will get into that later though."Dr.williams flipped through a notebook.
"So. I've invited you all here for a reason. This was not a random selection. I picked all you ladies by choice. Now, we're going to do a little exercise."Dr.Williams picked up a small cup from under her chair. "In this cup, there are a couple of words. Words that some of you are afraid of. The word that you pull out, I want you to explain its significance to you or your background with the word."Dr.Williams past the cup around to all the women.
"Mya, if you don't mind I'd like for you to go first."Dr.Williams sat down.
Mya stood up and unraveled her piece of paper. "My word is Murderer."Mya sighed and took a moment before speaking. "This word isn't significant to me. Although I killed my husband, I don't identify with the term murderer."Mya sighed as a tear started to fall. "My ex-husband abused me every day. Sexually, mentally, emotionally, physically and I was so afraid of him. So afraid."Mya's voice cracked. "I freed myself by letting him leave my life."More tears started to fall from Mya's eyes. "Could I have a moment."She wiped her face.
Dr.Williams handed her a box tissue. "It's okay, Mya. That's what we're here for. It's important to share your emotions."
Mya nodded her head and started to wipe her tears. "Damita, how about you go next,"Dr.Williams instructed.
Damita unraveled her paper and widened her eyes at the word on her piece of paper. She stood up and looked at Dr.Williams before speaking. "My word is Miscarriage."Damita stopped and tried to get her thoughts together. "This word is something that I know all too well. I've had two of them and they've contributed to most of the stress in my life and some minor problems I've had in my marriage."Damita tried to stop any tears from falling from her eyes. "But I can say that it's something that's important to me because if it never happened I wouldn't be where I am today. I have total control over condition and I am stronger than ever."Damita sat down.
" I guess I'll go next." Paris giggled unraveling her paper. As soon as she saw her word, she immediately shook her head. " My word is guidance... This is something I kind of lack, I mean I've grown up my whole life with no mother. Never seen, don't know her name and my mother could walk up to me right now and I wouldn't be able to tell her from the paint on the walls." She chuckled shaking her head in disbelief. " Anywaaays. Being that I was raised by a single father, he always tried to protect me, spoiled me and be there for me. He's my best friend and we talk about everything. As a father, he bought me things for me to make up for it and to deal with his own guilt. Don't get me wrong; there were certain aspects of my growing that were great- I just needed that call to mom about boys, menstrual cycles and sometimes these feelings I can't express in words." By that time, she was staring down at her shoes about to cry. She so badly wanted not to cry. " I just- I don't know. Dr.Williams, I can't do this."
" Why, what's wrong?" Dr.Williams asked standing to meet Paris. " The whole point of being here is to help. It's okay. Remember I told you that we can't help if you don't tell me what's wrong."
" I'm afraid that somehow my child is gonna end up like me and I don't want that. It's bad enough I'm barely an adult but I decided to keep my child because I want to be something the woman I never met couldn't become."
The group stood stunned at her last sentence and from there on watched her every move from her sitting to her body language. " Next."
Janet repeated the process and looked at her word. " My word is neglect." She stopped to take a deep breath and rub her shoulders. " I feel like there are so many situations in which this word is something that I can identify with... The most significant is in my marriage; my husband and I have been together about twenty years. We have eight children and although three aren't biologically mine I was there when he found out about them. The last child before our twins is actually two weeks older than them and the cause of our first initial breakup. We'd gotten back together around the time I was six months then we split again when my twins were around two, started dating other people, then got cheated on by that person ironically for that reason why my husband and I had our very first split." Janet chuckled. " We got back together, got married and he cheated again while I was pregnant with our third child, that whole time was just rough. So when I had my affair I felt, for the lack of a better- treated. I just felt as if being connected to someone else was a breath of fresh air. Sometimes I do feel neglected in my marriage, not for any particular reason and it has nothing to do with my husband but it's just... The feeling of sometimes I need to do stuff for me. So yeah." She shrugged taking a seat.
" My word is vulnerability," Charlotte said tapping her foot against the floor. " This word is significant to me because I feel this is something I lack. I don't know it just seems like I can't seem to allow myself to become vulnerable. I'm 26 years old and I just gave my virginity to my best friend who I've known my whole life. We didn't even realize these things would happen so fast. I have never been a person to have been vulnerable and I feel like that's why I've waited so long. I felt dumb and always judged myself for things that I shouldn't be uncomfortable about. I just feel so disconnected sometimes that it scares me. I just want to feel something. I want to know how to love another person and I don't think I can do so until I love myself. I have to allow myself to process emotions. How can I claim to love someone and allow myself to be in tune and connected? I'm just afraid."Charlotte sat down in her chair with her head down. She felt like they were mentally judging her, even the youngest person in the room probably had sex before her.
After Charlotte took her seat, it was Joelle's turn. She stood up and unraveled her piece of paper. She looked down at the word then sighed. "My word is...confidence. I don't have any. Not anymore."Joelle blinked her eyes to stop herself from crying but she couldn't. She took her seat again and put her face in her hands.
Damita reached out and hugged Joelle although she didn't know her. She knew exactly how she was feeling and wanted to offer her some comfort. Damita looked at her as if she were one of her daughters and she couldn't imagine one of her babies going through what she was going through.
"I'm loving the way all of you guys have let your guards down with this exercise. All of you ladies are making wonderful progress."Dr.Williams smiled and nodded her head in approval. "So we are going to do one more thing before I let you all go. I'm going to put you all in groups. Mya and Paris will be one group. Joelle and Charlotte will be together then Damita and Janet. As you all start to speak to each other and get to know each other, you'll know why I placed you together."
Everybody sectioned off privately so that they could talk and Dr.Williams left the room.
"Are you a Virgin?"Charlotte asked Joelle getting straight to the point.
Joelle laughed a little knowing that'd be the first thing she would ask her. "Kind of, but not really."She moved her hair out of her face. Charlotte's facial expression changed letting Joelle know she needed to explain. "I was raped. Initially, I wanted to have sex, but I changed my mind. He kept going."She explained to her.
"Oh ,my...I'm sorry that happened to you."Charlotte's facial expression softened up. "I've never experienced anything like that."
"I know why she paired me with you."Joelle played with her hands. "I'm in love with my best friend too. She just doesn't know it yet and I don't know how to tell her."
"Why don't you just tell her?"Charlotte furrowed her eyebrows.
"Why didn't you tell your best friend that you loved him?"Joelle tilted her head.
"He had a girlfriend who he thought he was about to have a baby with. Although I didn't like her I didn't want to mess that up."Charlotte explained with a slight sigh. "Tell me your story."
"What do you want to know?"Joelle asked her.
"Tell me everything. Why you're here alone, what happened to your face, why you don't have confidence anymore. All of that."Charlotte got comfortable because she felt this was going to be a long story.
After hearing Joelle's story, Charlotte only wanted to be there for her more. She was young and didn't have anybody. She wanted to be that somebody she needed like an older sister.
*I couldn't tell y'all the whole damn book now.*
Mya and Paris started to click like they had known each other forever. Although the things they had been through were serious they couldn't stop laughing.
"So how old were you when you had your first child?"Paris asked her.
"Much younger than you. I was 15."Mya told her. "The funny part about that is, I'm pregnant by her daddy again. Crazy right?"
"What? How did that happen? You cheated on him?"Paris widened her eyes.
"It was an accident P."M ya chuckled and held her stomach. "We're back together now. We're getting married when I get my monitor off."
"Aww, I love weddings! I'd love to come."Paris smiled.
"Of course you could come. I want you to meet my daughter. I think you two will get along great. She just turned 18."Mya explained. "Enough about me now! Tell me about you. I want to know about Ohaji and Demitri."Mya smiled and sat her hand on her stomach.
"They're opposite but similar. Kinda like the best of both worlds, a prince and the common thief."Paris chuckled. "I know they both loved me, but somehow it seems Demetri loves me more. It's easier to be with him because I've known him longer."
"It's always easier to be with the person you've known longer. That's how it is with me and Cornell."Mya shrugged. "You still love him, right?"
"Of course I do. I just can't be with him."Paris looked away. She couldn't deny that she still loved him.
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"Wait— you've only been with him? Like just your husband?"Janet widened her eyes.
"Yes. I had another boyfriend in high school, but it wasn't really serious."Damita shrugged. "My husband and I have been together since 1990. We've only broken up once, I kicked him out."
"I can't tell you how many times Pac and I have broken up."Janet and Damita both laughed.
"Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of times when I had to let me him know that I wasn't for his bullshit. I've left him a couple of times, actually. I just don't consider it a break up, because the words weren't spoken and we were already married. We got married young, so we still had a lot to work on within ourselves. I was only 22 and I was pregnant, so we just had a lot going on."Damita scratched the side of her head.
"I was married twice before my husband. I'd rather not talk about those. I was the bit more mature by the time I met him."Janet told her. "We're still together so obviously the third time is the charm."
"Have you ever felt like the two of you weren't going to be together? Like he wouldn't end up being the one?"Damita crossed her ankles.
"Oh yes. Especially with our second break up. We didn't talk for months. We were just so far out that I thought we couldn't fix it."Janet reminisced about the sad moment between her and her husband.
"After we had our first child, I thought we'd end up breaking up. We argued so much that I thought we would kind of tire ourselves out and eventually break up, but every time I thought I wanted to leave he just made me remember all the reasons I loved him, to begin with."Damita smiled. "Besides, I couldn't leave daddy if I wanted to. Another part of my body wouldn't have it."Damita smirked.
"Ooh! I know that's right! If I didn't come back for anything, I'd come back for that."Janet laughed and stuck out her tongue.
"Okaaay."Damita stuck her hand out and they high-fived each other. "We have sex every single day, multiple times a day. I need it like I need my blunts."
"Bitch. We have led the same life, we're twins I'm convinced. Well, except the weed because I don't smoke."Janet stuck out her finger.
"And I don't cheat."Damita threw a little shade.
"Oooh shady boots. See, if you were anybody else I'd have to fight you for that comment."Janet shook her head. "We are gonna be great friends."
Dr.Williams had finally come back into the room, happy that everybody was getting along.
"Alright ladies, I'm glad that you all are enjoying yourselves but I'm sorry the session has to end. My next group is waiting and we've already gone over our time."Dr.Williams smiled.
All the women stood up and started to grab their things. Damita texted Amaru to tell her she was ready, but he was already waiting for her outside. She had grabbed her things to leave.
"Hey, Damita?"Janet called her before she walked out.
"Yeah?"Damita turned around to see her.
"You like to drink, right?"Janet asked her.
"Like a fish."Damita chuckled.
"Let's go out for drinks sometime."Janet smiled.
"I'd love that."Damita smiled. "Here, give me your number."Damita handed Janet her phone and they exchanged numbers.
This is the start of a beautiful friendship.
Heeeey, so y'all liked it right?
I hope so.
Any questions, comments and/or concerns?