Finding Jaime

Chapter 106

"Let's see if he bothers texting first. Then I guess we'll see," I said, taking the pizza from Justin.

"Jaime, what's taking so long?" Dad said, coming up behind me. "Oh."

"Hello, sir," Justin said.

"Dad, Justin. Justin, my dad," I introduced them.

"Nice to meet you, sir," Justin tipped his ball cap at my dad.

"You too," Dad said, taking the pizza from me.

"What are you doing delivering pizzas in Beverly Hills if Frank takes 'such care of his boys'?" I asked Justin, as I leaned on the doorframe.

"The hubcap business is a bit hard to manage without you and Emmanuel," Justin said. As if Emmanuel just chose not to participate one day and not because he was six feet under, in a box, being worm food.

"Probably shouldn't have gotten Emmanuel killed then," I said. "See ya, Justin."

I closed the door and walked away from it, back to the backyard where everyone was  all sitting and chomping down on pizza. 

"What's the deal with Justin?" Dad asked as I sat down at the table.

"Nothing," I said.

Dad dropped it.

We ate pizza, played more in the pool and then Mom and Dad declared bedtime for Marvel, so the rest of us got up and changed out of our bathing suits.

I was in my room scrolling social media when I got a text from a new number.

"Hey Jay. Frank. New number, I know. Look, man. I'm sorry about the summer. We knew you'd had a huge shock with your mom dying and finding your dad, and I didn't do a good job of keeping up with you. Justin said he saw you tonight and you look better. Are you?

Look, I want to make it up to you. Come by Jose's on Thursday? If you can. Say 3:30?"

I read and reread the text, wondering if I should go or not.

"I'll see," I responded. "Maybe."

"Come on, Jay, you're still my boy, right?"

Was I? Did I want to still be 'his boy'?

"I gotta see if I can snag a ride," I replied.

"Cool. Okay. Lemme know, yeah?" Frank said.

"Yeah," I replied and put my phone down.

Dad came in a few minutes later while I was reading. I was still taking a couple of courses online. I still wasn't sure about going back to school full time yet.

"You doing okay?" Dad asked, as he came into my room.

"Yeah," I said. "I'm fine."

Dad smiled.

"Good," he said.

"Hey, do you think you or Mom could drive me down to Santa Monica next Thursday?  I want to see some friends," I said.

"Frank and Justin?" Dad asked, sceptically.

"They'll probably be there, yeah," I said. Dad frowned.

"I'm sure you can guess they aren't my favourite people. Let me think on it, okay?"

"Yeah. That's fine," I said.

Honestly, if Dad said no, I'd be okay with that. But if he heard yes, I guess I go?

I didn't bother thinking too much about it. The rest of the week went by with Dad getting things ready for Christmas. It was kind of fun to be part of a bigger family and putting up a tree and stuff. Mom and I, Tanya and I would put a small tree in the corner when I was younger. And we'd get together with Emmanuel and his mom and sometimes his cousins would be around, too. This was different. This was fun. And Marvel's excitement at having Santa come visit was too cute.

On Thursday Dad drove me down to Jose's to meet up with Frank and Justin. I wasn't sure this was a good idea but I had to let Frank know I wasn't his 'boy' anymore. I wasn't interested in ending up like Emmanuel.

"Do you need me to pick you up later?" Dad asked as I was getting out of his car.

"Justin said he'd drive me home, if that's okay," I said. I'd told them - Frank and Justin - I could make it down and Justin had offered to drive me home. So unless things went south, then I could call Dad to come.

"Okay. Be home by ten, okay?" he said. I nodded and went into the restaurant.

"Jay!" Frank exclaimed as I came into the small restaurant. "Come, sit. Jose got us hooked up with nachos and tacos and empanadas and everything. Come. Let's catch up!"

He grabbed my hand and pulled me into a hug.

"Hey man," Justin said as I sat down at the table with him and two guys I didn't recognize. They looked like they might be related to Frank. And they were big guys.

"Jay. Meet Carlos and Azriel. They're cousins of mine. Been hanging with us since you moved and Emmanuel, well. Yeah."

I frowned.

"Since Emmanuel died, Frank?" I said, my arms crossed across my chest.

"Well, yeah," he said.

Frank kept up a running monologue mostly talking about what they got up to over the summer and school and how that was.

Once the food was done, Frank stood up.

"Let's go for a walk," he said. I looked at Justin and the other guys. They didn't seem surprised or particularly interested. Okay. A walk.