Page 50 of This Is Law 3

Chapter Twenty-One

CREED CRAWFORD

I was fresh out of the shower, walking back into my bedroom with a towel around my waist. My outfit for this evening was resting on the bed.

Today, my parents were having a gender reveal, and they were doing it right outside in the backyard.

Mind you, this was just going to be something small, and intimate.

The only people that were going to be in attendance were me, my brother, my parents, my aunt Shai, my grandma, and Milan.

I’m thinking that since it was just going to be something small like this, all I would have to do was come downstairs in a wife beater, basketball shorts, and some slides, but my mama wasn’t having that shit.

She got on my brother and I, telling us to go upstairs, shower, and put some nice clothes on.

She was five months into her pregnancy, and these days, the smallest things would set her off, so I just got my ass off the game, showered, and I had a nice outfit on my bed from Casablanca.

My mom didn’t want to do anything in this pregnancy that reminded her of the pregnancy with our little sister, Sarai.

Knowing that Sarai passed away in her sleep, I guess she didn’t want to follow the same pattern, having fears of the same outcome happening again.

With Sarai, my parents had a big gender reveal.

I remember they’d rented out a park, and it was done in the evening because it was an entire firework show that went on, having pink fireworks, and pink smoke fill up the air, but this time, she didn’t want to do that.

She didn’t even want a baby shower, but my grandma got on her about that, telling her how her, and my dad needed a day where the baby would get showered.

After all the back and forth, my mom decided that she would have a nesting party.

At first, I had no idea what that was, but then it was explained to me that she would have people come over, and everyone would pretty much have a job around the house to prepare getting ready for the twins.

My phone was resting on the charger, and I picked it up, just to see if I had any missed calls or text messages while I was in the shower.

I unlocked it, and I saw that there was a text message from a number that wasn’t saved to my phone.

The message was long, so I ended up taking a seat on the foot of the bed, reading it.

“Hi, Creed. It’s Vivian. Please don’t be mad at me for texting you from a different number.

Since you have me blocked, I had to go through desperate measures to get to you.

I’ve been wanting to say something to you for months, but I was just too afraid to reach out.

I know what my dad did to your dad. Well, I know what he tried to do.

I want you to know that I don’t agree with it.

My mom doesn’t, either. So much so that after all these years, she finally started the divorce process.

I remember when you and I used to talk, and I would share with you some of the problems that my parents had in their marriage, and how I always felt like my mom would never leave my dad, but she did it.

Well, at least she’s starting the process.

Not sure if you’ve been watching the news, or keeping up with his case, but he’s still locked up, and just waiting to have his day in court.

I’m sure he’ll be found guilty, and he’ll spend plenty of time in prison.

You probably don’t care, but me, my mom, and my brother are no longer living in Miami.

We moved about two weeks ago to San Diego.

My mom has been wanting to move here for years, but my dad would never agree.

Now that they’re no longer together, she finally got her wish.

So far, it’s cool out here. I won’t reach out to you again because I’m sure that I can be a trigger in your life for what you had to go through when dealing with me.

I hope that you enjoy the rest of your summer, and I’m sure you’ll do amazing next school year.

I wish great things for you, and your future. Goodbye, Creed,”.

I sat here, and I read through her text message at least three times.

I won’t lie, after I got to know Vivian, and I saw her for the cool person that she was, she had quickly become someone that I enjoyed talking to.

Shit just didn’t end up working in our favor.

Too many bad things happened after we were caught in her bedroom together.

From the very beginning, she did stand up for me, and she even took to social media to have my back, but the damage had already been done.

I wasn’t going to respond to her message, but I really did wish her the best.

With the phone still in my hand, and the screen still on the text message from her, there was a knock on my door.

“Come in,” I replied, and the door opened. It was my dad that was standing on the other side.

He was dressed up for the backyard party too, so my mama must have snapped on him as well because the last time that I saw him, he was in sweats, and a wife beater.

He’d changed into a short-sleeved denim button down from Prada, and the jeans that he wore matched the top spot on.

A nice, crisp pair of white Prada sneakers were on his feet, which really complimented the outfit.

“You got cursed out too, and were told to put on something presentable?” I asked him, and he laughed.

“Nah. She had already told me this morning to put on something nice. Son, she almost at the end of the road with her pregnancy. The easiest way to not get your ass cursed out by her is to just do whatever the fuck she tells you to do, even if you feel like the shit don’t make sense.

Let me go ahead and prepare you right now that she’s not in the best of moods downstairs.

She anxious, hoping that she’s not carrying two boys again, so just tread lightly, and try to stay on her good side,” he warned me.

All I could do was laugh and shake my head.

He came closer to me, and I was still thinking about the text message that I just received from Vivian.

I didn’t want to be that child anymore that kept big secrets from my parents, so I went ahead, and passed my dad my phone, so that he could see the message that was sent to me.

He stood over me, with my phone in his hands, and I could see the way his eyes were dancing up, and down the screen, as he read the paragraph sentence by sentence.

It took him less than a minute to read it, and once he was done, he handed the phone back to me and looked me in my eyes.

“What you going to do?” he asked me.

“I’m not going to respond,” I let him know, and he nodded his head.

“Good answer, son. Sometimes you just got to leave certain shit in the past. Everything don’t have to always have closure.

I don’t want the overall lesson from this to be that you can’t trust white people, and that all white people are racist because that ain’t the true.

Given the history that I’ve had with Edward Sterling, I just knew the kind of racist asshole that he was, and that’s why that shit pissed me off when I found out that you were messing around with his daughter.

All and all, leave them white girls alone.

Get yourself a sista,” he said, and I laughed.

“You always saying that, but mama not even 100% black,” I talked shit, and he looked at me like I was crazy.

“Man, that little bit of Dominican she got in her. Your mama was raised by a black, strong woman, and to me, she’s fully black. Hurry up and finish getting ready. I’m trying to see if I’m going to be a girl dad again,” he couldn’t even contain the smile on his face.

I was hoping that my mom was carrying one girl, and one boy. I would love to have a little sister again, but then, I would also want a little brother, so that I could teach him everything about baseball.

He reached his hand out, and he slapped it up with me, and then left out my room, closing the door behind him.

That’s when I stood up from the bed, removed my towel, and I threw my briefs on.

I put deodorant up under my arms, lotion on my body, and I slipped on the outfit that I had laid out on the bed for me.

I accessorized the outfit a little bit, throwing on my ‘Creed’ chain, my Cuban link bracelet, and one of my diamond stud earrings in my ear.

I walked over to my chest, where there was a mirror connected to it, and I removed the do- rag that was on my head.

There were fresh, single plaits in my hair, and yesterday, we’d all gone to the barber shop to get line ups.

I picked up the small brush that was on my nightstand, brushed through my line up, and once that was done, I sprayed a little cologne on, slipped on some socks, and I walked out the room, carrying my shoes in my hands, knowing that my mom was going to cut up if she saw that I was walking upstairs with my shoes on.

The little party that we were having was outside, so that’s where I went.

Our family was sitting up under the gazebo, and I spotted my mom, who looked so beautiful this evening, wearing a light pink silk dress, that went down to her ankles.

Because of the fit of the dress, you could see her big, pregnant belly.

She had her curly hair hanging loosely, as she stood there, talking to her mom, sister, and Milan.

Like she could feel my presence, she stopped talking for a second, so that she could look me up and down, smile, and she pulled me to her, so that she could hug me.

She kissed me a couple of times on my cheek, told me how handsome I looked, and then I went around the room, hugging the rest of the women because this was my first time seeing them since they arrived.

They came while I was upstairs, getting ready.

I sat on the arm of my grandma’s chair, leaning back a little bit, and crossing my arms.