Stuck on You | All American

Chapter Twenty-Six

                             "You know, you didn't have to walk with me to pick my little brother up." I inform as Darnell and I stand outside the middle school. "Some might find it creepy."

"Really? Some might find it sweet actually." Darnell says otherwise. "Making sure a young lady gets home safely with her little brother in a rough neighborhood."

I place a hand on my chest. "Such a gentlemen."

"I aim to please." Darnell smiles at me. "So, Corey told me that he asked you to come back to play for him but you had turned him down."

I face him completely as I cross my arms. "Do you and my dad just sit in the house talking about me or something?"

"All the time, you're always the topic." He turns towards me, crossing his arms so that he's mirroring me. "Have you ever reconsider coming back to Crenshaw?"

"With everything I have going on back in Beverly, I never consider moving back home." I admit. "I definitely miss being here, being apart of my community events, being with my friends and family. This will always be home but—"

"Beverly became a home for you too." He finish my sentence. "That's has to be a hard spot to be in, leaving behind one home for another — if you choose to stay in Beverly then the people here will be mad, if you choose to come back then the people in Beverly will be mad; no matter what you choose, somebody's going to be mad."

I squint my eyes at him. "Are you trying to make me feel better or. . ."

"I wasn't finish." He laughs. "In the end, when you are reconsidering whether you want to stay Beverly or move back here, you have to let it be your choice and nobody else."

"Though that was good advice. I have enough people in my life who are trying to become my therapist and I don't really need anymore volunteers."

Darnell holds his hands up and says, "Just offering some friendly advice that's all, but for now on it'll cost you for my friendly advice."

"Wow." I scoff and shake my head in disappointment. "Just like all the real therapists, the first one free then try to rob me of my money just to give me meaningless deep quotes and ask me "how does that feel," for an hour."

"No, with me is different." Darnell informs. "I won't give you the meaningless deep quotes so you good."

"Sam!" A voice calls out to me, I barely even looked away from Darnell before I was being pulled into a hug. I smile and hug Dillon back, I really missed my little brother more than I had initially thought. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to pick you up obviously." I say when he breaks the hug. "If I knew that spending one Christmas away from home would make your voice deeper and you a lot taller, I would have came back home a lot sooner. Why are you growing up so fast?"

Dillon smiles and pops his collar.  "A few more weeks and I'll be taller than you."

I believe him too, I'm not tall to begin with — which seems very unfair because being that Spencer and I are twins I feel like we both could have been the same height, or at least in could have made it to 5'8. Spencer got to he 5'10 and I stopped at 5'5, and now I'm about to be a little big sister because Dillon going to be taller than me by the end of the year.

"In a few more weeks and I'll be taller than you." I mock. "Shut up. I didn't come pick you up to rub in my face about how short I am, I know."

"I'm happy you're back." Dillon smiles as he gives me a side hug before we start walking to the house. "But are you going to tell me about the random guy walking with us? Cause I don't remember Jordan being that tall, skinny, and dark skin."