As Time Goes By

Ace 117

Finally we were back home, after everything that happened on Saint Trinity I was ready for some normalcy; as soon as we landed Uncle Blaze and Uncle Devin took off with Darion, Odion and Jayvion, after we dropped the girls off we were sitting in Marquise's room trying to figure out how we were going to deal with Odion... I mean Orion. I looked at the bottom of my feet which were cut the fuck up and got pissed, looks like I won't be playing basketball anytime soon but I was mainly worried about my cousin.... it was supposed to be a secret about what happened with Odion and the babysitter which meant everyone and their moms knew the truth. Damn I wanted to go find that nigga Doug and beat his ass for what he did to Odion but there was another person I wanted to punch in the face and that was Armani; the only reason that nigga was getting a pass was because of Ivanna and as badly as I wanted to beat his ass I had more pressing matters which was how were we going to deal with all the questions about Odion once we got back to school tomorrow.

"We stand firm.... if anyone ask what happened we simply tell them that it's none of their damn business and if they got a fuckin problem with it well I could use a few more days outta school." Alex said sitting against the wall. "That also means that you gotta hold your tongue Ace, we know you can't keep a secret to save your life so please if you feel like you're going to slip up just walk away from the conversation."

"Right now we should be focusing all of our energy on Odion, I've talked to Stephanie and Jela they both know to keep their mouth shut and I know Fabricio won't say anything.... wassup Troix." Marquise said as Troix walked in his room and climbed on Alex's lap.

"Any telling when Odi and Darion will be back?" I asked looking down at my feet again.

"Nah but..... damn you don't know how to knock?" Marquise asked as Noah walked into his room smirking. "Why are you staring at Alex like that you fuckin creep?" Marquise asked and Noah started cracking his knuckles.

"Well seeing as how I missed Alex's birthday I figured I would come in here and light his ass up but since he's holding Troix he'll get a pass.... how was y'all trip?" Noah asked and we told him everything that happened. "Look Odion is strong.... he'll pull through but he'll need y'all's support, Ace come take a walk with me real quick...." Noah said and I limped towards him hoping he didn't have me walking too far but of course we ended up downstairs.

"I'm injured right now so can you please tell me what want?" I asked.

"You act like y'all got something to do tomorrow..... I mean y'all aren't going to school, my dad already made that call. But what I wanted to talk to you about is Marquise....." Noah said and I shifted nervously, why was it that whenever someone wanted information they came to me? "How serious is my little brother about this whole porn thing?" Noah asked and started sweating.

"He's been looking into porn companies that best suit his interest and where he can make the most money." I said quickly.... damn why couldn't I keep my mouth shut.

"Relax Ace I'm not going to talk him out of it.... in fact if that's what my little bro wants to do then I'm going to help him achieve his dream, I know some people who can help him book his first scene after his eighteenth birthday of course. Speaking of which what do you want for your birthday? I know it's coming up and I want to get you something special since you'll be turning eighteen." Noah asked and I shrugged. "You got some time to think of what you want...... go see your dad and Legacy tomorrow." Noah said walking off, he was up to something but I wasn't going to worry about it because we had other things we needed to deal with the main one being Odion......

The next morning we were all sitting around the table waiting for Uncle Khalil to finish cooking. Grandma was having a conversation with Noah and Jade, Cori was sulking because he wanted to go to school today even though no one stopped him from going, Troix kept throwing his sippy cup and Uncle Marcus would pick it up every time and Marquise was scrolling through his phone.

"What are you doing Quise?" I asked quietly because Uncle Marcus was watching our every move, he always thought we were up to something even though half of the time we weren't.

"I'm texting Stephanie... her and Jela wanna meet up after school, so are you coming or should I tell Steph to leave Jela at home?" Marquise asked.

"Nah have them come through...." I said smirking and Noah just had to be a buzzkill and rain on our parade.

"I remember when I was in high school, whenever I wanted Jade to come over we had to sit in the living room and on the rare occasion that we were allowed to go down to my room we had to keep the door open." Noah said smirking.

"Ayy I'm about to head to my dad's house, Marquise do you wanna ride with me or are you staying here with Captain Cockblock?" I asked. Marquise jumped up and ran out the kitchen to get ready and I sat there thinking about what I was going to saw to my dad when I saw him..... we had seen each other numerous times since our argument but we never spoke and after what Ivanna told me maybe it was time for one of us to man up. Once me and Marquise got dressed we were quickly finishing our breakfast when I noticed Troix walking into the kitchen with his shoes in his hands.

"What are you doing Troix?" I asked as Troix got out of his chair and started putting his shoes on the wrong feet.

"I'm going witchu....." He said as if he was daring me to argue. Twenty minutes Marquise was pulling into the driveway while Troix sang in the backseat, how that little boy ran everybody in this family I will never know but he did and there was nothing nobody would do about. We walked inside and Legacy was sitting on the couch flipping through channels; I wonder why he wasn't at work.

"Wassup y'all?" Legacy asked and Troix ran over to him and jumped in his lap. "If you're looking for your dad he's in the backyard..... I should probably warn you he's in one of his moods so try not to set him off, I would hate for y'all to start arguing this early in the morning." Legacy said.

"No promises Leggy......" I said walking towards the back of the house, I walked into the backyard where my dad was shooting around on the basketball court. "Wassup dad?" I said as he kept focusing on his shot.

"Lorenzo you wanna know why I'm so hard on you?" My dad asked without turning around. "Because whenever I praise you, you begin to slack off.... You wanna know why I ask you to look after your sister? It's because I know there is no one on this planet that will protect her better than you, I've seen you defend her better than I ever could.... remember when that dude smacked her and you beat his ass? I push you because I believe in you..... I just didn't think you'd be so sensitive about it." He said smirking.

"I get it from you....." I said smiling, he turned towards me and looked at me like I was crazy. "Come on dad when Odion and Darion cut that patch out your hair you were almost in tears...." I said laughing.

"That's because they not only cut a patch out of my hair, they also glue hair to my face.... come to find out it was hair from a dog's ass..... but that's old and I got all of them back." He said turning and taking another shot.

"Legacy said you were in one of your moods....." I said taking the ball from him, the pain in my feet flared up but I didn't care, we spent the next hour or so shooting around and talking.

"So you can come home whenever you want..... just not tonight, me and Legacy are playing cops and robbers and I don't wanna....." I walked off because I didn't want to hear that. After spending some time with my dad we decided to stop by and check on Odion and Darion, but when we pulled up there was a small crowd of people standing in the street and I knew instinctively that they were watching a fight. We got out the car and Marquise took Troix in the house while I went to see what was going on down the block but when I got down there I realized it was Darion fighting Federico...........