“Nah. I ain’t ever have a girlfriend before,” I said.
“So, you’re a virgin then?” she asked. I laughed at that too, but I shook my head at it.
“Damn because I’m a black young man, with gold teeth, and I play sports, you think I already started fuckin?” I asked her, and her face turned red, as if she was shocked by my question.
“I didn’t mean it like that, Creed. I’m just used to a lot of boys that I talk to saying that they aren’t virgins,” she said.I could tell that she was being genuine, and she didn’t make that assumption about me on some racist shit, or as if she was judging me. I could tell that her intentions were indeed pure.
“I’m fuckin with you. I’m a virgin though. I ain’t waiting until marriage or no shit like that. I just haven’t fucked yet. My pops put fears in my head when it comes to sex. Told me the shit a woman can do with a condom to try and get a baby out of me. Talked to me about the kind of diseases that’s out here that’ll cause my dick to burn when I piss, or make my shit fall the fuck off. Aside from all of that, I’m just not in a rush though. Pussy not going nowhere,” I sounded like my pops minion because everything that I was saying, were things that he’s repeated to me before.
When people found out that I was a virgin, they would be shocked. Just like Vivian, they saw a nigga, saw how handsome I was, all the girls that liked me, and from that, they just assumed that I was fuckin, but I wasn’t. I had self-control like a motha fucka because it’s plenty of times that I could have slid in some shit, and handled my business, but I didn’t.
“Your dad seems cool. My dad painted him out to be an arrogant monster,” she said, and I didn’t mind her saying that because it wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve heard someone refer to my pops as arrogant. Shit, niggas called me that too. We just thought very highly of ourselves, but we were humble as fuck with it though.
My pops was a self-made millionaire, but I swear he vibed like a normal ass person. His favorite breakfast spots to eat where mom- and- pop spots that were smack dab in the middle of the hood. Spots like that is where Dutch used to take him as a kid, so here he is years later, and he’ll still eat there, and take me, and Legend with him. We go deep intoOpa- Lockato get our haircuts, when it was so many other bougie spots that he couldtake us. I fucked with the fact that my pops didn’t forget where he came from, and that’s what made him so relatable.
“You don’t want to know the shit that my pops said about your daddy. He said that nigga racist as fuck,” I told her, and when I said that, she quickly rolled her eyes. That was just the PG version of what my dad had said about her dad. Man, if I told her everything, her eyes would water up, and she would probably hang this phone up on me,
“My dad isn’t racist. He’s an asshole though. I’ll say that. He also hates to lose, and I know that he’s gone up against your dad in court a few times and he’s lost. That’s probably where the hate and envy came from. Oh, it also could be that you beat me in the spelling bee when we were in the 3rdgrade. I have no idea where it all stems from. These are just guesses,” she explained herself.
I found myself smiling when she brought up the spelling bee. My mama forced me to be a part of that shit, and I remember telling her that I didn’t want to do it. She only signed me up for it because I would ace all my spelling tests as a kid, and I’d proven that I had somewhat of a thing for reading. She signed me up, and for someone that didn’t want to do it, my black ass went in, and I beat every white, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and every other race that was in the competition. I remember her screams in the room, cheering for me when they announced that I was the winner. My trophy and certificate was at the house, and till this day, she’ll boast about it.
“Are your parents strict? Like, are you able to hang out on the weekends?” she asked me.
“Nah, my parents cool. I’m a homebody though, so I really don’t be going out like that. Your parents probably let you do whatever the fuck you want, huh?” I asked in a joking kind of way, and she started laughing.
According to my pops, white kids didn’t have rules, and they ran over their parents. Whenever me, or my brother did onething to get out of line, he would swear that we were being influenced by white kids. He did that shit earlier today, when he checked me about disrespecting my mama. He blamed it on me hanging with the white kids at school.
“Ha- ha- ha. Very funny. My parents are pretty laid back though. They work so much, so they’re the kind of parents that don’t really have much control over their household. Me and my brother can literally do whatever the hell we want to. If I wanted to leave out of the house right now, I could just do it,” she shared with me.
Before I knew it, damn near two hours had gone by, and I was still chopping it up on the phone with Vivian. All this time I’d had her number, and I was going out of my way not to really interact with her. Tonight, something just told me to pick up for her, and I enjoyed the conversation that the two of us had. We talked a little bit about everything. I wasn’t looking for anything serious to come out of this though. Probably have her be just a good friend of mine.
I talked so much shit to my brother, telling him that he was going to be the one to bring a white girl home, so I couldn’t switch up, and I turn out to be the one to bring home a white chick. Man, my pops would pass the fuck out if I did that.
Chapter Sixteen
SEVYN ‘LAW’ CRAWFORD
It was Monday night, and I’d just pulled up to Yaya’s crib, so that I could drop the boys off. Usually, the boys would be with her by Monday night because once I dropped them off to school Monday morning, it was on her to grab them after school. We all needed haircuts though, so I picked them up from school after they finished with practice, and Legnd did his thing with the STEM club, and from there, we went to get haircuts, and dinner.
Any other time, I would have just rolled the window down and watched them from a distance as they went inside, but tonight, I was going to get out because I wanted to talk to Yaya about something. It was regarding Creed. Over the weekend, a recruiter reached out to Creed’s coach, followed by them putting me on a three- way call. It was going to be a training camp, that would take place the entire summer break in Los Angeles. It was a damn good opportunity for Creed, and he was right there when the phone call took place, so you know the nigga was hyped about going, and he was willing to sign his name on any dotted line to be a part of the camp. The shit they were saying over the phone sounded great, but before I gave an answer, I had to learn more about the camp, take a trip out there so that I could see where I was going to be sending my son to, and even talk to Yayaabout it. I knew Yaya’s answer though. She was going to say no. She would trip when the boys had to go away for a weekend, so I could only imagine the way she would feel about Creed being away for a couple of months. She wasn’t going to like it, and that was going to be the part where we bumped heads.
“One of ya’ll bring the trash can from the backyard. Trash go out tomorrow,” I said the second that we pulled up into the driveway. Creed, not wanting any smoke with me, that nigga damn near broke his fuckin neck to get out of the car, and race to the back, so that he could grab the trash can, and roll it to the front. Ever since that day I had to come over here, and jack his ass up, I didn’t hear anything else from Yaya about him not following through with his chores.
While he was doing that, I grabbed his bookbag, and everything else up front that he left.
We made it to the front door, and Legend used his key to let us in. Like I still lived here, I followed behind him, and Creed was walking inside too. I handed him over his things, and we found Yaya in the family room area. She had the TV off, and she was sitting on the couch with a bunch of folders open around her, her laptop was out, reading glasses were on, and I could tell that she was deep in work mode. When she saw me walk in with the boys though, she looked up from her laptop, over at the boys, and she smiled.
“Aww. My boys. Tengo los chicos más guapos del mundo,” (I have the most handsome boys in the world).
Yaya stood up, so that she could walk over to Creed, and Legend and she examined their line ups. Legend’s waves were sick, and all Creed had to get was a line up because he already had fresh braids in his hair. Me, and Yaya were the boys personal hype men. We went out of our way to let them know any chance we could how handsome they were. God really did His thingwhen it came to my boys. You could line any young niggas up, and they weren’t seeing my sons.
“Go ahead, and take your showers, and stuff. Let me talk to your mama,” I let them know. Before the boys walked away from me, each of them slapped it up with me, and then I pulled them into a hug, followed by me kissing them on their foreheads.
They eventually walked out, leaving just me, and Yaya in the room. She took her seat back down on the couch, and she pulled her legs up, sitting Indian style. Because she was in the house, she was in her chill clothes, which was just an oversized hoodie, and some sweatpants. Her long hair was hanging loosely, and it was in light beach curls that were probably still hanging on from when she styled her hair this morning.
I chose to take a seat in the accent chair, giving myself a perfect view of her. It’s like she knew that I needed to talk to her about something heavy because there was a serious look in her eyes, as she looked up at me.
“A recruiter reached out to me over the weekend about Creed. He does a big training camp in Los Angeles in the summer. He saw Creed’s high lights and shit on social media, so he reached out, wanting to know if Creed could be a part of the training camp in the summer. From the shit that he’s saying, everything sounds good. I looked him up, did my research, and it’s legit. I would want to go out and see the shit in person though. I didn’t decide yet. I wanted to talk to you about it first,” I said, and from the way she rolled her eyes at me, I was already prepared for the bullshit, which is why I went ahead, and sat back in the chair.
