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Suddenly, my blood was boiling.
“Fuck yeah, you did,” Javi returned.
“I’d like a chance to make amends.”
“Yeah, you’ve said that. And I’ve told you to go fuck yourself.”
“Javi—”
That was when Javi lost it.
“Do you have any fuckin’ clue what our lives were like?” he roared.
The man winced.
I moved.
Fast.
“It kills me—” the man started but cut himself off when he caught sight of my approach.
“It kills you?” Javi asked. He then drawled sarcastically, “I feel bad for you, man, since I get you, seeing as we barely survived day-to-day.”
Javi’s body jerked when I made it to him and put my hand on his back, and I knew then how mad he was, because no way did anyone approach Javier Montoya and take him by surprise.
His head tipped down to look at me.
“I’m intruding,” the man muttered.
I turned my attention to Javi’s dad.
“Yes,” I replied. “You are.”
“I’m his father,” the man told me.
“I got that,” I returned. “I also read loud and clear Javi doesn’t wish to speak to you.”
“We have things—” Javi’s father began.
I didn’t let him get further.
“If Javi wishes to discuss them with you, I sense he knows how to get hold of you, and he’ll do that. Right now, this isn’t happening.”
This dude was not getting it, I knew, when he asserted, “A man should have his father.”
“A boy should too,” I retorted, muscling in front of Javi and pushing him back with my body (or trying to, he didn’t budge much). “But Javi didn’t. And now I see you’ve realized the error of your ways, considering he’s grown up to be all he’s become, without your help. But it isn’t on Javi to make you feel better about it. If he makes that decision, he’ll contact you. Until then, you wait. And if he never calls, you deal.”
With that, I put all my weight into pushing Javi back and I slammed the door in his dad’s face.
I then locked it.
“The pizza guy was standing behind him,” Javi said.
Dang!
Okay, my (kinda?) man was hungry so I needed to feed him, but his father might still be out there.
I had to deal with this, so I pointed across the room.