Page 90 of Adonis Gates

“I appreciate you, sis,” he said, pulling her into another hug.

When he released her, he stepped to me, dapping me up then pulling me into a brotherly hug.

“I’m proud of you, boy,” I confessed. “It was a long, hard road, but you did it and I’m proud of you.”

“I appreciate you, bro, for real.” He smiled, glancing down at his diploma. “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”

“Yeah, you would. Maybe not as fly as you are right now, but you’d still be here.” I smirked.

His school colors were red and black, so he was wearing an Armani dress shirt and fitted pants with some black Gucci sneakers. He cried and complained because he wanted to wear his Jordan 4s, but once the compliments started rolling in, his lil’ ass was eating it up.

“I was gon’ be fly regardless, my guy.”

“Yeah, aight.” I playfully pushed him back.

I was proud of the man that he’d grown into. It was a journey, but he finally got his act together at school. He joined the basketball team after he stopped bullshitting, got his grades up, and found some new friends to hang with. He and Bre were still going strong too. I fucked with her because she actually reminded me a lot of Jru when we were their age. She pushed him to do better and didn’t take the niggas shit when he tried to trip.

“Okay, let me get pictures of you three,” Jru requested of AP and his two homeboys. “I know you have to go find your families.”

She snapped an ass of pictures of them by themselves, with her and her family, Vado, Rhea, and me, then she made me take pictures with them too. After that she freed them but made us keep going until we all had a million pictures with AP. I thought we were in the clear until Bre came over and we had to do it all over again.

Bre’s parents came too, so that was even more pictures. I finally drew the line and took her phone, letting her know we had reservations to eat. She wanted to throw a party, but I declined. We’d just bought our new house after we eloped six months ago, and I wasn’t feeling having a bunch of people over. I’d rather just pay for everyone to have dinner together then let them all go to their own respective homes.

The decision to elope was Jru’s. I wanted to give her the wedding of her dreams because not only did she deserve it, but she’d also been in a low place after three failed attempts at getting pregnant. We succeeded once, but we experienced a miscarriage. The shit had us both fucked up, so I tried to give her free reign to do her thing with the wedding. It wasn’t going to replace what we’d lost, but I was hoping it would be something to keep her busy so that she wasn’t thinking about it.

That wasn’t what she wanted though. She just wanted us to get married, without all the bells and whistles, in front of the people that meant the most to us, so I made that happen for her.

We finally made it outside of the arena where AP graduated and started for the car. I hit he automatic start on the remote in my hand, bringing the engine to life. I stopped at the trunk, but AP kept going toward my truck. He hadn’t even realized that everyone else had stopped.

“Ay, fool,” I called out to him. He paused and looked back at me holding up a set of keys.

It took a minute for it to register, but when realization set in, his eyes stretched, and he started in my direction.

“Say word,” he said in disbelief.

“Word.” I grinned.

“This mine?” he examined the silver Charger.

“Yep.” I tossed him the keys.

He caught them and immediately walked over to the car, opening the passenger door for his girl first—because he knewI would have been on his ass otherwise—then he went to the driver’s side and opened the door. He leaned in and took a look around before popping back out.

“This mine, bro?”

“Yeah, nigga.” I laughed.

He walked over and hugged me tight as shit. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jru recording the exchange with her little corny ass. She was crying while she did.

“Thank you, Donny,” he said into my shirt. “I appreciate you so much.”

“You cryin’?” I smirked, hugging him back.

“No, man.” He laughed but wiped some tears with his lying ass. “I can drive it now?”

“I don’t know how else it would get out of here,” I chuckled. He nodded and headed back to the car, but I stopped him. “We goin’ to eat as a family, so go straight to The Chophouse.”

“Aight.”