Page 28 of This Is Law 3

Chapter Eleven

CREED CRAWFORD

Montego Bay, Jamaica

“How old you think she is?” I asked my twin, as we were laid out in beach chairs, sitting by the water.

There was a glass in my hand that held what was probably my 10 th virgin strawberry daiquiri for the day, and it hadn’t even hit afternoon yet.

Me, and Legend were throwing these drinks back, taking advantage of the fact that they were free, since we were staying in an all-inclusive resort.

I couldn’t believe that my parents thought that they were going to hit up Jamacia, and not take me, and Legend.

Any other time, I probably would have sat back and allowed the two of them to enjoy a trip together, but the same way they were tired, and stressed out from the problems that were happening back home in Miami, was the same way that I was feeling too.

That shit that went down between Vivian, and I took a hard hit on my mental.

For a moment, I really thought that the life, and the name that I was building for myself with sports was over.

The recruiter that reached out to my dad months ago from Cali started acting funny, and he eventually hit us with some vague response, telling us that they’d already filled the spot with someone else.

Me, and my pops called bullshit because I had been hitting that man up for weeks, telling him that I wanted to accept the offer, and his bitch ass wouldn’t answer the phone.

I won’t lie, when he told us that the spot was filled, that shit did hurt me a little bit, but it took my pops pulling me to the side, getting in my ear, telling me to never beg to sit at another nigga’s table. I took that, and I ran with it.

Not even two days after that happened, our baseball coach told the team that we were going to go to a public middle school and speak to the boys that were on the baseball team there.

Man, pulling up to that middle school and seeing those kids run up to me in their jerseys, asking me to sign them, or holding out their pens and pads for an autograph, was a reminder of who I am and what I’m out here building.

These young kids were looking up to me when it came to baseball.

Some of them were damn near in tears when they laid eyes on me and telling me how they wanted to be as good as me when they made it to high school.

The shit with Vivian did put me in a negative light, but as time went on, people were forgetting about that shit and weren’t trying to crucify me because of it.

“She got tattoos, so I’m sure she’s older than us. She probably like nineteen or twenty, so don’t even think about it,” Legend responded, and I laughed.

There was a girl that was standing a little further out into the distance, and she had her feet in the water.

One of her home girls, or a family member had been taking pictures of her, so originally, I had the perfect view of her, but now that the picture taking had come to an end, I could only see her from behind.

She was pretty as hell. She was only like 5 feet, and she had a small, petite frame.

Her bathing suit reflected the Jamaican flag, with its yellow, green, and black.

She had those long, boho knotless braids in her hair, styling them in two ponytails.

I was a sucker for the big baby hairs that surrounded the perimeter of her forehead.

Just like Legend said, there were tattoos that were on her body.

A couple of butterflies were on her flat stomach.

I could see the long, fully detailed one that was on her spine, and one on her neck.

She was so fuckin fine, and I just wanted to know what her name was.

“Man, I bet you I can get her number,” I shot, and when I said that, Legend started laughing.

“If you get it, I’ll wash your clothes when we get back. If you don’t, you gotta wash my clothes,” he bribed. I loved a good challenge, so I quickly finished what was left in my drink, stood up, and slid into my Burberry slides.

I was a cocky ass lil nigga because that’s the way that my pops raised us to be.

She would be a fool to turn me down. I knew I looked good.

My shirt was off, so my frame was out there for everybody to see.

You could see the six pack that I was working with, along with my broad shoulders.

I wore Burberry swim trunks to match the slides that I was wearing too.

My hair was styled in fresh, Pop Smoke braids, and my line up was perfect.

If she turned me down, it wasn’t going to be because of my looks.

It would simply be because she was much older than me, and she didn’t want to get in trouble for fuckin with a minor.

“Aight nigga, I only like my clothes washed with Gain. When you put them in the dryer, make sure you add a few of those dryer sheets because I like when my clothes come out the dryer hot, and soft. Let me show you how you do this shit,” I boasted, and Legend sat up in his chair with a smirk on his face, ready to see how this was going to play out.

I walked with confidence, breezing past all the other people that were out here on the beach.

My eyes were on the beautiful girl that I was getting ready to approach, and no lie, the closer I got to her, I grew a little nervous, but I couldn’t back out now because my brother would have a field day laughing at me if I chickened out.

I swallowed the huge lump in my throat, and I approached her from behind.

My presence caused her to jump, and she quickly turned around to look at me.

At first, she had this stank look on her face, like she was getting ready to curse my ass out for walking up on her the way that I did, but once she looked me up, and down, and she saw how handsome I was, mixed with this hard body, her face softened.

Seeing her up close, and personal, she was prettier than from afar.

You could see the pretty freckles that decorated her face, too.

Even though we were standing outside, right in the middle of the sun, I still was able to get a whiff of her, and she smelled good.

I couldn’t quite tell what the scent was, but it was something fruity.

“My bad. I didn’t mean to scare you. How you doing?” I asked, stepping back a little bit, so that I wouldn’t freak her out by being all up in her personal space.

She was still staring at me, and I didn’t know if she was doing that because she was still caught off guard by the way I walked up on her, or if she was just that mesmerized by how good a nigga looked.

I could feel her girls that she was with staring at us, so I turned in their direction, and it was like three of them.

All of them had smiles on their faces as they stood there, watching this moment unfold.

“I’m good. How old are you?” she asked, about to pop my bubble. She had an accent. The way she talked, it was sharp, having a little edge to it, so I quickly gathered that she might have been from New York.

I thought about the way that I wanted to answer her question.

I could tell that she was older, and that’s why I wanted to lie, but lying never worked out in my favor.

Lying, and being sneaky had just got my ass out of some big trouble, so as bad as I wanted to stand here, even with the baby face that I had, and tell her that I was twenty- one, I knew that it wouldn’t have been the right thing to do.

“I’m fifteen,” I honestly said, and the second I said it, her girls started laughing. She didn’t laugh though, but she did smile.

“Maybe in about five more years if we see each other again, I’ll do it, but right now? No. Your too young,” she admitted, and I nodded my head, respecting it.

“How old are you?” I wanted to know.

“Today’s my birthday. I just turned nineteen,” she let me know.

“Damn. Happy birthday to you. What’s your name?” I inquired.

“Cache,” she replied, and I found myself smiling because that name was pretty, just like her.

“Alright, Cache. Hopefully, I run into you again in five more years. If not, just turn your TV on, and you’ll see me on the field,” I replied, and she laughed.

“What? You play football?” she wanted to know.

“Nah. Baseball. I’m a beast. Look me up. Creed Crawford,” I let her know.

“I’ll look you up in five more years,” she was covering her ass, not trying to flirt with a minor.

“That’s cool. It was nice meeting you, Cache. I hope you enjoy your birthday. You look too good,” I couldn’t help myself with the last part. I just had to tell her how good she looked.

As I was walking back over to where my brother was, I saw that my pops had made his way over, and he was standing there with his arms crossed, and a smirk on his face.

Seeing him standing there, that shit made me speed up, happy to tell him about my exchange with an older girl, even though I didn’t get her number.

“And before you come over here lying, we read her lips. She said that you were too young,” Legend called me out before I could even say anything once I reached them.

“Yeah, but she told me to spin the block in five more years. Damn pops. Why couldn’t you get ma pregnant five years before?

I could have gotten her number. She so fine.

She has an accent like she’s from New York too.

That’s probably my wife, but I can’t get her because she’s older,” I hissed, sitting down on the lounge chair that I had originally been sitting in before getting up, trying to get her number.

“That means she ain’t meant to be your wife, then. I applaud you for not being scary. You took your young ass over there to step to her in front of her girls. You got big balls,” he said, putting his hand out, and slapping it up with me.