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Chapter Sixteen

SEVYN ‘LAW’ CRAWFORD

It was Monday night, and I’d just pulled up to Yaya’s crib, so that I could drop the boys off.

Usually, the boys would be with her by Monday night because once I dropped them off to school Monday morning, it was on her to grab them after school.

We all needed haircuts though, so I picked them up from school after they finished with practice, and Legnd did his thing with the STEM club, and from there, we went to get haircuts, and dinner.

Any other time, I would have just rolled the window down and watched them from a distance as they went inside, but tonight, I was going to get out because I wanted to talk to Yaya about something.

It was regarding Creed. Over the weekend, a recruiter reached out to Creed’s coach, followed by them putting me on a three- way call.

It was going to be a training camp, that would take place the entire summer break in Los Angeles.

It was a damn good opportunity for Creed, and he was right there when the phone call took place, so you know the nigga was hyped about going, and he was willing to sign his name on any dotted line to be a part of the camp.

The shit they were saying over the phone sounded great, but before I gave an answer, I had to learn more about the camp, take a trip out there so that I could see where I was going to be sending my son to, and even talk to Yaya about it.

I knew Yaya’s answer though. She was going to say no.

She would trip when the boys had to go away for a weekend, so I could only imagine the way she would feel about Creed being away for a couple of months.

She wasn’t going to like it, and that was going to be the part where we bumped heads.

“One of ya’ll bring the trash can from the backyard.

Trash go out tomorrow,” I said the second that we pulled up into the driveway.

Creed, not wanting any smoke with me, that nigga damn near broke his fuckin neck to get out of the car, and race to the back, so that he could grab the trash can, and roll it to the front.

Ever since that day I had to come over here, and jack his ass up, I didn’t hear anything else from Yaya about him not following through with his chores.

While he was doing that, I grabbed his bookbag, and everything else up front that he left.

We made it to the front door, and Legend used his key to let us in.

Like I still lived here, I followed behind him, and Creed was walking inside too.

I handed him over his things, and we found Yaya in the family room area.

She had the TV off, and she was sitting on the couch with a bunch of folders open around her, her laptop was out, reading glasses were on, and I could tell that she was deep in work mode.

When she saw me walk in with the boys though, she looked up from her laptop, over at the boys, and she smiled.

“Aww. My boys. Tengo los chicos más guapos del mundo,” (I have the most handsome boys in the world).

Yaya stood up, so that she could walk over to Creed, and Legend and she examined their line ups.

Legend’s waves were sick, and all Creed had to get was a line up because he already had fresh braids in his hair.

Me, and Yaya were the boys personal hype men.

We went out of our way to let them know any chance we could how handsome they were.

God really did His thing when it came to my boys.

You could line any young niggas up, and they weren’t seeing my sons.

“Go ahead, and take your showers, and stuff. Let me talk to your mama,” I let them know. Before the boys walked away from me, each of them slapped it up with me, and then I pulled them into a hug, followed by me kissing them on their foreheads.

They eventually walked out, leaving just me, and Yaya in the room.

She took her seat back down on the couch, and she pulled her legs up, sitting Indian style.

Because she was in the house, she was in her chill clothes, which was just an oversized hoodie, and some sweatpants.

Her long hair was hanging loosely, and it was in light beach curls that were probably still hanging on from when she styled her hair this morning.

I chose to take a seat in the accent chair, giving myself a perfect view of her. It’s like she knew that I needed to talk to her about something heavy because there was a serious look in her eyes, as she looked up at me.

“A recruiter reached out to me over the weekend about Creed. He does a big training camp in Los Angeles in the summer. He saw Creed’s high lights and shit on social media, so he reached out, wanting to know if Creed could be a part of the training camp in the summer.

From the shit that he’s saying, everything sounds good.

I looked him up, did my research, and it’s legit.

I would want to go out and see the shit in person though.

I didn’t decide yet. I wanted to talk to you about it first,” I said, and from the way she rolled her eyes at me, I was already prepared for the bullshit, which is why I went ahead, and sat back in the chair.

“I wasn’t merged onto the call when the recruiter called because….”

Shit was starting off on the wrong foot already.

“Them niggas randomly hit me. Me and the boys were at the gym, getting a workout in, when they hit me. His coach called me, and he had the recruiter on the line. I didn’t merge you onto the call because everything that they said to me, I was going to come back, and repeat it back to you,” I let her know.

“That’s not the point though, Sevyn. I have questions.

You knew that I would have questions, so I could have been merged onto the call, so that I could ask them.

Not some half ass shit that your trying to do right now, and throw it on me, after the shit already happened!

” she snapped, removing her reading glasses from her face, and she tossed them on the couch, as she stood up.

“Man, you going about the shit like I did that intentionally. Since when the fuck I ever go out of my way to leave you out of something that involves the boys? It was a quick, five-minute phone call, and I made sure that I came in the house tonight, so that I could tell you what the fuck happened. If I was a green ass nigga, I would have taken the offer that he was giving Creed right on the spot because Creed is thirsty to go to the camp this summer. I didn’t do that though.

I told Creed that we had to hold off on our decision until we talked to you about it, and until we all went out there to see the camp together.

You be so ready to spazz out over some bullshit, man,” I shot back, standing up as well because I was about to get the fuck on.

I’ll do a lot of things tonight, but I wasn’t about to sit here, and argue with Yaya’s ass about shit, especially not while we had the boys upstairs.

“Okay. Next time something big happens with the boys, whether it’s school, practice, any fuckin thing, I’m going to make sure that I don’t include your ass in shit.

I don’t like that, Sevyn. Then, from the looks of things, it sounds like ya’ll already have your mind made up.

We’re only a couple of months away from summer break.

With everything that I have going on, now I have to wrap my mind around, and accept the fact that our son is getting ready to go away for a training camp for two months.

I don’t like that,” her voice cracked, as if she was about to start crying.

I expected this reaction from her. I expected her to be more emotional than angry.

I said before that Yaya was the kind of parent that didn’t like her kids to be away from her, so I knew that it was going to be heavy on her to have to accept Creed going away for summer break.

“A decision hasn’t been made yet, Ya. We still gotta go to Los Angeles, just to see if we’re even going to like it.

Chill out. You about to do the most when nothing is even set in stone yet.

On some real shit though, if we go out there, and if we all like the camp, the coaches, and if we feel like it’ll be a great benefit for Creed, and his future, Ima be real with you, that’s not going to be up to us to make that decision.

We going to let Creed make it. You know how badly that boy want to make it to the MLB.

He’s been putting in work and practicing his ass off since we put a bat in his hand when he was a little boy.

I know that shit going to hurt you when he goes off but let it be a taste of what it’s going to feel like when both of them go off for college.

You gotta stop babying them. A nigga hate when you do that shit,” I was just a few feet away from her, as I was talking to her.

Yaya had this look in her eyes like she wanted to tackle a nigga, but she wasn’t going to act on it.

Last time her ass jumped on me, feeling herself, I had to jack her lil ass up, and hem her to the front of the car.

I knew that she hated everything about that shit, which is why she’d chosen to keep her hands to herself.

She wasn’t feeling anything that I was saying to her right now because it was the harsh truth.

She ended up just walking away from me, leaving it at that. I stood here, watching her. She went over to the sink, and she walked over to the kitchen cabinet, pulling the door open, and she took out a glass up.

That was my cue to get the fuck up out of here, so after running my hand down my face, sighing, I walked out of the family room, but before walking over to the door, I made a stop at the kitchen.

“Regular schedule this weekend. I’ll get the boys from school on Friday,” I let her know, and like she didn’t even hear a nigga, she ignored me, pulling out a carton of juice from the fridge that she was going to add to her glass.