Aden
April and I were in the kitchen when Jamal got back home. Keith and April's dad moved the oven while I was trying to mess with the wires. April and her mom were laugh at our attempts to fix the stubborn kitchen appliance.
When we finally got the thing to work they cheered and April's dad patted me on the shoulder. This was the scene Jamal walked in on.
"What's going on here?" Jamal asked dropping his grocery bags on the table.
"Oh honey you're back. These three were just trying to fix the oven so I could get started on dinner." April's mom said.
"Yeah it's a good thing April's boy knew his way around an oven." April's dad said his heavy handed pats land hard on my shoulder.
"It's no problem sir. My dad fixes things for a living. He showed me a thing or two about fixing things." I say with a smile as I rub my shoulder.
"You mean the reach one with the hired help?" Jamal asked.
"Jamal, don't be rude." April's mom scolded.
"No, it's good and I was talking about my other dad Michael." I say.
"Michael? As in big Michael home repair?" April's dad asked.
"Yeah that my dad."
"That man really knows his stuff. Always charges a fair price."
I smile. My dad works hard to provide good survive. The shop he owns is his pride and joy. I spent a good amount of time there helping him with repair orders. For the most part I ran the numbers but every now and then he'd run across a job that needed two people.
"Well this is all great but Aden came here for a reason, so if your all done I have something to show him in the garage." Jamal said his arms crossed over his chest.
"Boy you better check that attitude at door and unfold those arms. This is my house and the only one who can cop an attitude is me." April's dad said.
April's mother cleared her throat.
"Is us." April's dad corrected.
"Sorry sir." Jamal said dropping his arms.
"Alright, now once we move this oven back in place you two are welcome to go about your business." April's dad said.
Keith and I help him move the oven back. Once he's done we leave out of the kitchen. April trails close behind us.
Jamal holds the front door open for us. Keith and I walk through door but when April tries to step through he turns his body blocking her from stepping through.
"You know the rules April. You don't get to see until it's done with." Jamal said.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah seriously."
Jamal was blocking my view of April but I had a felling that her face didn't look to happy.
"Why are you suddenly so interested. You usually hate being around us during the planning stage." Jamal asked.
"He's got a point April. The last time we asked you for help you complained the whole time." Keith said.
"That's because you kept speaking gibberish and yelling at me when I didn't understand." April said.
"Well it won't be much different this time. Just stay here and when we're done it'll be like a big surprise to you." Jamal said.
"Yeah don't worry will return Aden to you in one piece." Keith said draping his arm over my shoulder. A few weeks ago the act would have felt threatening but it didn't now.
"Fine, have fun with your robot in your stupid boys only garage." April said then looked over Jamal shoulder at me. "Mom said you could stay for dinner if you want to, Aden."
"That sounds great. Tell your mom I said thanks" I said with a smile.
It's good to know that at least her mom liked me. I think I was getting closer to having her dad like me. His shell was a little harder to crack. He seemed to like that Michael was my step dad.
April smiled back at me. I wouldn't mind a chance to get some more alone time with her. After we kissed Keith had come home and we hadn't really had much time together.
I didn't mind much. It was nice to be able to get to know her family. They all seemed very loving. Even her father seemed to have a soft side, mainly brought on by her mother.
"Come on. We don't want to waste anymore time." Jamal said walking past me.
April rolled her eyes at him but blew me a kiss. I smile and give her a quick wink before turning back to fallow the two brothers.
We spent the next two hours working on our war robot. It was a little surprising to find out how seriously the two brothers took it. April said that her brothers were smart but the coding Keith developed was down right genius.
"But doesn't that leave a remainder?" I asked point to one of the formulas Keith had drawn up on the dry erase board.
"Naw, your forgetting about the x and y factor. When you reroute the coefficient you get the product of seventy two. From there all you have to do is take the square root of it and send it back through the formula for a second time." Keith wrote as he explained. I was in aw. It obvious but he'd seen what I never even would have thought about.
"This is incredible." I say.
Keith shrugs. "Numbers are kind of my thing. The only time I get to mess with big problems like this is when we do competitions. All that other stuff they teach in school is child's play."
"How's the the coding coming." Jamal asked walking over to the board.
"Pretty good Aden, helped me work out so kinks but it's all good now. How's the sketching going?" Keith said.
"Still trying to work on a design that provides minimum damage upon impact. Don't want another repeat of last year."
They'd talked about that before. Apparently they'd been pushed into second place because they forgot to factor in how frontal damage would affect functioning capacity.
"Don't worry I'm sure you'll figure it out." Keith said. His phone buzzed and he looked down at it. "Sh't I got to take this. I'll be back."
Keith left the room and it was just me and Jamal. I looked back at him but his gaze was intensely focused on the paper under him. Today had been a little strange because once we stared working he seemed pretty well behaved.
"Aden, come look at this and tell me what you think." Jamal said looking up at me.
I stood and walked over to him a little surprised that he'd asked for my opinion. I looked down at the sketch.
"Looks pretty good to me. The size is a little on the small side for these things but if we can get the speed were we need it that might actually work to our benefit." I say.
"My thought exactly. I think I'll start on the motor tomorrow."
It felt weird because this was the most no threatening conversation we'd ever had. For the first time Jamal wasn't being a complete jerk. I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"So you and April are getting close. You seemed to be having fun when I walked in." Jamal said.
"Yeah we are."
"That's not a good ideal."
"Well it's too late now. April agreed to be with me and as long as she wants to be with me I'm not letting go."
Jamal's pencil stops. His fist cliches around it when I tell him April and I are a thing. He kind of looks like he's trying to rain in his temper.
"I get that you're her brother and you want to protect her but I care about April. If your worried about her getting hurt then don't, I'd never hurt her but if your worried over some other reason you should know that April is mine and I have no intention of letting her go." I say.
I wait to see Jamal's reaction and if my thought about how he felt about April were right.
He lets go of his pencil and sits back in his chair. "So she told you we weren't blood and now you want to make it clear that this thing you have with April is real. Are you worried that just because we aren't blood related I might have feeling for April?"
"Should I be?"
"Of course you should be. April's mine. She'll always be mine."
Jamal eyes lock on mine. It is the same level of challenge that I saw in them earlier.
I'd had my suspicions but I'd not expected him to confess his feelings so openly. This was the girl he called sister we were talking about.
Suddenly Jamal burst into laughter. "You actually took that seriously didn't you." He said between the laughs.
Jamal shook his head and stood up from his chair.
"April's my little sister and having feelings for her would be beyond wrong. I care about her and want to keep her safe. Only a crazy guy would lust after his own sister." Jamal said.
Jamal stepped forward. He smiled down at me but the smile did not reach his eyes. "A guy that crazy is one you'd probably want to steer clear of." He said in a low voice.
I stood up meeting his gaze full on. "I've dealt with crazier. "
"You think so? It's hard to imagine a boy raised in gated communities knows what real crazy looks like."
"You'd be surprised."
I didn't even realize that my hands were balling into fist. Jamal was challenging me. He'd basically admitted to having feeling for April.
"Aden Harris, did you grow a back bone when I wasn't looking?" Jamal asked.
"Just stay away from her."
Jamal smiled. "No I don't think I will more importantly I don't think she would want me to. April loves me."
"She sees you as her brother. If you think it's anything else you're fvcking mental."
"That doesn't matter. April loves me. And if you knew anything about her you'd know she's the greedy type of lover. You could run and tell her everything I just said and she'd deny it. Do you know why? Because if she'd believed it that would mean risking our relationship and she'd never do that. I've loved April for years. She didn't notice because she didn't want to notice. April needs me. She needs the love and protection I provide."
"You're sick."
"True, but you know sicker don't you Aden Harris. Your family tree is full of twisted branches. Take your father for example. You know when I saw the serpent tattoo I thought that it was weird. Of course I didn't have much time to think about it with me getting shot and all. But when I got home I couldn't stop thing about it. You'd be surprised what a guy smart enough to hack into the cities criminal data base could find out."
So he knew, Jamal knew that my father had tried to take him out. Now he was using it against me.
"Which one do you think would upset April more, my feelings or your dad trying to kill me?" Jamal asked
I don't say anything but I know the obvious answer. Everything I built with April would be destroyed.
"Sorry about that guys. I just had to take a phone call." Keith said stepping back into the room.
Keith looked at his brother and I. "What did I miss?"
😱😱😱
Author's note: Well that happened.... Sh't meet fan.
Jamal took a turn for crazy. Now it looks like Aden is going to have to tell April. Or maybe there's another way out of this.
Ideals and suggestions? What should Aden do?
For all of you thinking it no we can't just have a perfectly timed lightning bolt strike Jamal, that would be cheating...