Unpredictable Match 2

Fifty One

"You want me to be your assistant." He states. Yeah, I guess.

"Yeah."

"Oh really. And what's my salary?" He raises an eyebrow.

"Five dollars a hour," I say.

"Hm so that's...10,000 a year. Deal," he laughs. I smile. Nah, he knows I got him. His salary is freedom to run my card up, I think that's fair. Cam sighs seriously, "I don't know Ant. That's not my passion. I would love to support you, but I love to teach..."

"I know, that's why I'm saying work with me for a year. Then go back," I explain. He bites his cheek, glancing off to the side.

"I'll think about it," he eventually says. As long as he's considering. "After we settle in, should we do some house shopping?"

"Settling gon take a while. Just tell me when you ready," I step back, pushing a cabinet that won't close. I gotta fix that.

"Okay. I'm gonna go use the bathroom really quick and  check on the kids, then we'll go," he runs his hand down many arm, then goes upstairs. While he's up there, I start unpacking some of the boxes for the living room. I unwrap the couch first, then take the tv out. I gotta put it on the wall but that gotta wait till later.

Once I realize how many things gotta wait till later, I figure that I could spend my time better by smoking a blunt. I can't just do this in five minutes. I gotta actually take my time and have them kids help me out. Plus I been tryna ween off the hard drugs and go back to just smoking. I been doing alright. I slip up like twice a week when I feel like my mind is bout to give out. But other than that, I just been smoking and tryna stay calm, isolating myself when I start hearing shit or getting paranoid. Cameron still notices every time, but he doesn't ever really say nothing about it. He don't look at me different when I come out a room. He just always tries to test the waters and touch me to see if I'm good.

I walk out to the backyard to the patio part and roll up there, occasionally looking behind me to make sure my kids not there. They teenagers, they know wassup but I still feel like it's certain shit your kids shouldn't see you do as a father. And I already crossed that line a lot of times. Ion gotta bring that over here. If we starting new, we gotta start new.

While I'm almost through my blunt, Cameron comes back down joining me out here. "Ready when you are babe..." he says quietly, rubbing my back, "I convinced the twins to come too." Just like that, I see them coming down the stairs so I put the blunt out completely, throwing it in the grass. We could leave through the back so me and Cam stay out here while they join us.

"You like the house?" I ask my son.

He nods. "Yeah."

"I can't wait for me and Aj to be in school together again. I missed having my brother around," Leah hugs him from the side. Aj glances down at her, tryna shake her off him.

I motion to them, "Hug your sister." I say. I'm serious too. I realize that Aj and Taleah are close, they just like to fight. "Or you not going nowhere today." Cus I already know the first thing he gon wanna do is see that kid. I ain't stupid. Aj kisses his teeth, dropping a heavy ass arm over Taleah. "Properly," I add. Cameron just laughing in the background. Nah this what you gotta do with these kids.

Aj puts two lazy arms around his sister while Leah squeezes him back. I laugh then walk away, leaving them to figure out how they gon end that hug. You could really get these niggas to do whatever you want. That's crazy. Now that we living together Imma tell them to pass me a remote that's right on my lap, word.

Soon we in the car on our way to Target like Cam requested. When we get there, my daughter gets a cart of her own and my son grabs a basket and they both walk off without us.