Page 51 of This Is Law 3

“I really feel like if you don’t get the gender that you want, your ass is going to boo- hoo cry, and get on my nerves too,” my auntie Shai said, looking up at my mom.

My mom and aunt literally had the same face.

Just like Legend and I, they were identical twins.

If my mom wasn’t pregnant, you would even see that they had the same shape, and everything.

My mom was just an inch or two shorter than my aunt.

While my mom had light brown highlights throughout her hair, my auntie Shai’s hair was just light brown all over.

Even though they looked so much alike, as little boys, Legend and I have always been able to tell the difference.

There was never any confusion with that.

It’s like, you just always know who your mom is, even if she was walking around here with someone that had the same face as her.

“I am, and I’m going to take my frustrations out on you because I feel like you keep jinxing me.

Stop saying that,” my mom really didn’t want boys, and I couldn’t fault her.

I know that me, and Legend, but more so me didn’t make it easy for her.

She was getting ready to cut up and start getting in her feelings about what my aunt just said to her, but my dad walked out, with Legend in tow, so whatever tantrum she was getting ready to throw, she stopped it.

My pops and brother went around the room, speaking to the ladies, and giving hugs.

Legend motioned with his hand for me to come with him, and I did that.

We let the adults stay up under the gazebo, while we walked the large backyard, going where the basketball court was.

There were two balls that sat on the court, and we each grabbed one, and we sat down on them.

“I ain’t want to talk about nothing serious.

I just wanted to get away from the adults because it was only a matter of time before they told us to move anyways.

As I was upstairs in my room, getting ready, man, all I could think about was how it’s been a wild fuckin year.

This was probably one of the worst years our family ever had,” Legend started out, and all I could do was nod my head in agreeance.

“Man, I feel like the second ma, and dad divorced, that’s when shit started going downhill.

Not long after that, that’s when I got into that bullshit with Vivian, and her pops.

I think my top two ‘wow’ moments are finding out that Dutch killed our grandad, and then Quay’s ass trying to kill me.

The shit with Quay shook me up though. It makes it where a nigga don’t ever want to make new friends.

I don’t know who has real intentions or not,” I voiced, and he nodded.

“That’s why ma, and dad are always preaching to us about having each other and being our brother’s keeper.

I never really understood the severity of that, but after that shit with you, and Quay, it really made me aware of that statement.

We can have our little friends from school, but in a way, me, and you are all we really got,” he said.

“What we going to do when it’s time for us to go to college, man?

You know how I am when it comes to expressing my feelings.

I ain’t that good at it, but lately, I been thinking about college a lot.

School is going to start back next month, and after that, we just got our senior year left, and that’s it.

I’m chasing a life after high school, trying to go to the best college with the best baseball team, so that I can show off my talents, and make it to the MLB.

I know how much your STEM, and science stuff means to you, so you’re going to want to go to the best university for that too.

We spent nine months in the same womb, and once we were brought into this world, we were always stuck together.

This gone be the first time in our lives where we can’t just turn to the other side, and one of us will be right there,” my voice cracked a little bit because it pained me to even have to say it.

Legend stood up for a second, so that he could move the ball closer to me that he had been sitting on, and he sat back down on it. He sighed, and he gave it about a minute before he responded.

“No matter where we end up going to school for college, I’m going to always be my brother’s keeper.

We got phones, man. If you start missing me, and if I start missing you, it ain’t nothing to hop on a facetime call real quick.

Not even that, but our parents got money.

They’ll book a flight for one of us in a second to go, and pull up on the other,” he joked, making light of the situation.

As I was laughing, a tear fell, but I was able to play it off, as if my laughs were the reason I started crying.

I didn’t have the kind of brother that would fuck with me for getting emotional, so he didn’t do it.

“We gotta do our thing in college, and after college though, Creed. We gotta make ma and pops proud. They gave us a lifestyle that most kids don’t have.

Look around at our backyard, man. We look like we vacationing somewhere on a resort.

They had us in private school since kindergarten, and they’ve always poured into us, making sure that we had whatever we needed to be great.

I think about the times that pops would be dead ass tired, and he would still come to your baseball games, still in his work clothes to watch you play.

Ma, too. Remember after she had Sarai, she came to your game that next week, bags and shit up under her eyes because she was so tired, dealing with a newborn baby, but nothing in the world was going to have her miss your game.

Even with me. I know ma, and pops don’t understand half the geeky shit that I’m into, but they love it, and they support it.

Neither one of them misses a beat. We can’t let them give us all these years of love, support, and showing up, and we don’t do our part.

We gotta finish out high school strong, and then go off to college, do our thing, and do something with our lives.

I want our parents to feel good years from now, knowing that all the sacrifices and shit that they made for us had paid off,” Legend finished, and I couldn’t agree with him more.

“I feel you. We going to make them proud,” I assured him.

“I love you, man,” he let me know.

“I love you too,” and like that, we dropped it.

Twenty minutes later, our pops was calling us over, so that we could eat.

Like this was my first time eating in years, I told my mom to put everything on my plate for me.

There was baked chicken, yellow rice, mixed vegetables, baked macaroni and cheese, collard greens, and some homemade blueberry cornbread.

My grandma had done all the cooking at her house, and she’d come over with the food.

I went through my food so fast, and once I was finished, I ended up fixing another plate.

We ate together, played a couple of family games, and now, it was the moment when my mom and dad were both standing up front, right behind the patio table, and there was a medium-shaped cake in front of both of them.

The cake was white, but once they cut it, you would see what was inside.

My grandma was the only one that knew the gender.

She was the one that decorated these beautiful cakes.

You could see all the nervousness on my mom’s face as she stood right next to my dad, who was smiling, jumping up and down, like he was getting ready to run a race.

“We going to count down? How we doing this?” Milan wanted to know, her phone already in her hand, prepared to start recording.

“We going to countdown from ten,” auntie Shai replied.

“Wait… wait… I’m nervous,” my mom released.

My dad reached his hand out, pulled her to him, and he placed kisses all over her face.

Seeing my parents back together again, and in love like this, it made me happy.

I won’t lie, at times, that shit got on my fuckin nerves when I would walk into a room, and see them hugged up, and trying to shove their tongues down each other’s throat, but I would choose this over them being divorced and living under different roofs.

“Girl, come onnnnn! I’m trying to find out what tee- tee babies are,” auntie Shai was eager. She was a good auntie to us, so I knew that she would only continue with that great role once the new set of twins were here.

“Okay. Let’s starts. 10…9…8…”

“7…6….5…”

“4…3…2…1...”

My mom cut into her cake with her eyes closed, and my dad had his eyes wide open.

From where we stood, we could all see the inside of my dad’s cake, and it was pink.

I started jumping up, and down, screaming, just like everyone else.

My mom glanced over at my dad’s, seeing that his was pink, and she screamed as well, instantly started crying, and that’s what made her finish with her slice, and there it was…

a pink interior again, and my mom dropped the knife, put her hands over her mouth, and she sat her ass on the ground, and she cried happy tears that she’d gotten her girls that she wanted.

My dad had to pick her up and carry her because she was so happy to see that she was going to be a girl mom all over again.

To know that we lost Sarai so suddenly, only getting four months with her, to now God blessing her with two more girls, that was truly a blessing.

I couldn’t even try and thug it out because seeing my mom break down and cry like that, I had tears of my own sliding down my face.

My auntie Shai ran over to me, and Legend, and she hugged both of us, kissing us on our cheeks.

Milan and my grandma came over doing the same thing.

That’s when Legend and I walked over to our dad, who pulled us both into him, and we went for the crybaby next, which was our mom, who pulled both my brother, and I to her, hugging us.

This moment was so beautiful. Now, I just wanted these next four months to speed by because I couldn’t wait to meet my little sisters. It was going to be their world, and I was just going to be living in it.