Me, Devin and Enzo sat around watching Marquise, Ace, Odion and Darion in their little baby seats the conversation was extremely intense, they weren't even a six months old yet and we already had them competing against each other. Let Enzo tell it Ace was going to be the best looking because he most likely was going to take after him and that alone made it impossible for people not to love him, but Devin saw things differently he figured with Odion's green eyes, light skin and curly hair he was going to be the best looking, tied with Darion because of his big brown eyes that honestly made you melt, of course I was biased because well Marquise was probably going to look like Marcus and that alone made him the obvious choice. We pleaded our cases to Liberty, Tonya, Mama Angela and Vanessa while Marcus just sat off to the side shaking his head. It was all in fun though, I loved my son and nephews equally though Marquise better win....... I thought to myself.
"This is stupid why are y'all even having them compete? Hell they don't even know what's going on........ we all know Marquise is the going to be the best at everything, so it's not fair to even ave him over there." Marcus said and I turned to wink in his direction.
"Look I'm will to concede that Marquise might be the smartest...... though if Darion is anything like Torian I mean naturally brilliant than he might have some competition. But let's be serious here for a minute...... Odion and Darion have the best looking parents point, blank and the period...... I'm not even sure about Ace I mean all he does is drool." Devin said smiling at Enzo.
"Shut up Devin.... I can't wait until they get older, I willing to bet anything Ace will be the one running shyt. Ain't that right little man?" Enzo said tickling Ace's chin. We continued our debate until Noah walked in with two of his little friends.
"Why aren't you at the school don't you have a game tonight?" I asked looking at him.
"Yes but we have two hours before we have to be there and I need a change of clothes." Noah said leading his friends into the kitchen.
"Marcus why does he need a change of clothes?" I asked confused.
"Because he asked if he could go out with some friends after the game and I told him he could, it's the last game of the season and I think he's earned it...... don't worry Zyshaun has people watching them so they should be fine." Marcus said.
"Y'all two in the kitchen NOW!" Mama Angela said looking at me and Marcus. I got up and followed her out to the backyard. "Now I know y'all are both pretty lame and y'all don't know much about these children these days but you cannot tell me that you didn't smell that when they walked through the house, hell I smelled it as soon as they entered the kitchen." She said looking at us.
"Smell what ma?" I asked looking at Marcus.
"Weed genius...... and judging from the smell I think it was some good shyt." She said.
"Mom how do you even know what kind of weed it is?" Marcus asked scratching his head.
"Parent..... child..... boy don't worry about me." She said pointing to herself then Marcus. "Okay I got a botanist friend now y'all better handle that before I break my foot off in all three of y'alls asses." She said waving us off. Me and Marcus walked in the house and I stopped him I'd handle this one. I walked down to his room, I started to knock but then I remembered this was my house. I walked into his room and the two friends quickly knew what time it was, they got up and mumbled something about catching Noah later.
"Wassup dad?" Noah asked confused.
"You smoking?" I asked bluntly.
"What!? No I'm not stupid." Noah said holding my gaze. "Typical...... you don't believe me do you? Well let's go to the store and get a home drug test..... will that convince you?" Noah asked grabbing his jacket.
"Hold up, if anyone should be pissed it's me." I said trying to keep myself calm. "It's not just about you possibly smoking it's about you being around people who smoke, I taught you better than that." I said.
"Okay so what do you want me to do quit the team because I'm sure at least 80% of them smoke, maybe I could join the basketball team instead....... oh wait most of them smoke too....... there always the glee club but they come to school high so that's out of the question..... damn I'm running out of options here dad, you wanna help me out here because I'm drawing a blank?" Noah said puffing his chest out and clenching his fist.
"You might wanna chill out kid...... because if you think for a second you can beat me you got me and life fucked up." I said taking a step towards him, Noah didn't back down but I noticed his hands relaxed a little.
"I'm sorry......." He said quietly. "I just want you to trust that you raised me well enough to know I'm not going to let anything mess up my future, I want you to trust me." Noah said without looking at me.
"I wanna trust you No' but I don't know you they way I should." I said making him look at me.
"That's because you don't try whenever I try to have a conversation with you, you either clam up or have dad handle like you can't be bothered I........" Noah's phone started ringing and I saw it was his coach, I nodded and he answered it after a brief conversation he hung up and looked at me. "I gotta go back to the school one of the tight ends failed a test or something and they might put me end...... can we please talk about this on Sunday?" Noah asked and I nodded.
"Yeah sure." I said as he grabbed his bag and walked out. Damn I was really slipping, but all that was going to change I didn't have anything but time on my hands now that I was sort of retired so my first priority (other than the obvious drama) was building a relationship with my son.
We sat in the stands watching the game, I really hoped they put Noah in because the junior they had starting was close to useless, I'm sorry that's someone's child but it was the truth...... if they lost I was going to be pissed. I sat in the stands with Marcus and Zyshaun as the final seconds ticked off the clock and Noah's team one on a very lucky field goal...... after the game we were waiting around for Noah and Saint to come out so we could give them the usual rules of them going out with friends.
"See it would be all too easy for me to approach Saint and ask him if he smokes...... I prefer the more cunning route take tonight for example whilst Saint is one partying it up I'm going to be searching through the pool house for any signs that he's a pothead. Then once I find said signs I'm going to take everything and hold it in my room, now Saint's either going to look for it or he's to figure out that I know and walk around on eggshells waiting for me to put my foot in his scrawny ass." Zyshaun said.
"Nah I had to look Noah in the eyes and ask him flat out...... I've never smoked and I don't want my son to smoke....... honestly I don't think he does but just being around it is bad enough." I said watching as Noah and Saint approached us.
"Let see it's 9:45 right now which mean y'all have to be in the house at exactly 11:45, and please don't keep my driver waiting have fun!" Zyshaun said walking off. Noah looked at me and I could tell he was still pissed about the conversation we had earlier. So I pulled him over to the side and looked in his eyes.
"I'm sorry for not trusting you, I should've asked instead of accusing you but I saw what my birth mother went through with drugs and I don't want that for you......" I said quietly.
"You don't talk about her much and I don't know anything about that side of my family aside from the little bit I heard from Uncle Zyshaun." Noah said looking at me.
"I'll tell you everything when you come home on Sunday now get outta here because you have less then two hours to get back to Zyshaun's house the last thing you want is us out looking for y'all." I said smirking, I pulled Noah in for a quick hug and sent him off with his friends.
"So Noah's gone for the weekend....... Cori's spending time with Liberty....... and Marquise is with my mother we pretty much have the house to ourselves." Marcus whispered in my ears.
"So tell me...... what exactly do you have in mind?" I asked hoping like hell we didn't start something around all these teenagers.
"I want to invite Sa'vion over for dinner tomorrow." Marcus said which caught me off guard because that wasn't even in the list of the top 100 things I had in mind. "He's your brother and we have to start including him into things, I may not like him but you should have a relationship with all your siblings not just the ones you like." Marcus said and I guess he was sorta right I mean I didn't have the best relationship with Sa'vion but that was still my brother the least I could do is put forth the effort.
"Aight but let's hurry up and get home, I got something I wanna show you." I said smiling and Marcus smiled back because he already knew what time it was........................................