Page 86 of Disrespectfully, Relic

A small smile found its way onto his face at that as he stood, retrieving the vices he’d never resort to before tossing them back inside his table drawer that he locked up because Jahleel had no sense of personal or parental space. Relic was growing used to it. After grabbing his football jersey with Jahleel’s number on it from his bed, he slipped it on, swiped up his phone to drop in his pocket, and then opened his door to see his twin standing there with folded arms and thick brows furrowed in irritation.

“I was getting dressed,” Relic fibbed, making his son’s head tip with his lips thinned into a line.

“You’re lying, but we’ll talk about that later. We gotta go before I’m late, and granny said that the team is already there. I told you that we practice a little before the game, and I’m going to miss it.”

“Those few minutes of practice ain’t shit. You don’t need it when you’re the best thing on that field.”

Relic patted Jahleel’s shoulder pads and then took his gym bag and helmet to carry as they headed downstairs. He tried not to laugh when Jahleel darted down the steps like he was being chased before glaring back, urging him to hurry the hell up.

“They’re on our time, Jah. Not the other way around. We don’t rush, they wait.”

“That’s for when you pay them like the people at your jobs who gotta do what you say ‘cause you’re the boss. This is free.”

Relic stalled on the bottom step. “Who the fuck said this was free? All the money I dished out for your uniforms, cleats, and just to join the damn team. Also, remember that your old man is the boss in every capacity. Not just with my businesses.”

“So, I’m like a junior boss,” Jahleel deduced with a grin.

“A boss in training, but you’ll run shit on the football field, right?”

“Yep! Watch, I’m going to get picked up by a D1 school, and they’ll pay for it, so you don’t have to. Then, I’ll get drafted by one of the best football teams. Uncle Shabu been telling me about it. He said we need to work on a game plan early, so I can break our family curses. I asked if he was talking about your eyes, but he said no. How many curses we got?”

“None that you need to worry about,” Relic replied, opening the front door to let him out. He locked it behind them while explaining, “That’s why I work like I do, Jah. To set you up nice, so you won’t want for shit or do shit that’ll land you in jail or killed. You won’t ever know poverty as long as you got me or your uncles.”

“Oh, that’s the curse? Going to jail or dying? My friend on the team daddy just went to jail for having a gun, and my other friend brother just died because the police shot him for no reason when he was riding in the car with his friends.”

Relic hummed and opened the passenger door of his point A to B car instead of informing Jahleel that his friend’s father was probably holding a dirty gun with bodies that he’d taken on it. His friend’s brother was a casualty of wrong place, wrong time or running with niggas who’d done dirt around him when he should’ve been wise enough to take his ass home. He wouldn’t tell Jahleel that either, but he made a mental note to talk to him about the company that he kept.

“You got a lot of guns. Will you get in trouble?” Jahleel buckled up and angled in his seat, waiting for his dad to answer as he climbed into the car. Relic mulled over the best response as he drove off.

“It depends. The gun I carry with me is clean, which means it’s registered so the police can look it up. Some aren’t, but I’m not dumb enough to carry them around like most niggas who think guns are for show. They like the attention or to seem tough just because they can pull a trigger. Most of them don’t have heart.”

“Ohhh! I heard Uncle Shabu say Uncle Titan got more heart than most N-words ‘cause he’ll fight anybody.”

A boastful smile spread on Relic’s face before he replied, “We taught him early to protect himself with his hands, but he still has to be careful. Most men don’t like to lose, so that can end bad.”

“You don’t like to lose. I heard you tell P that before.”

“You’re one nosey ass lil’ boy. That’s why you and P get along well,” he joked, making Jahleel erupt into laughter that melted his fucking heart. “But you’re right, I don’t like to lose. That’s why I carry a gun.”

Relic doubted he should’ve divulged that information to a child, but he’d rather his son knowledgeable than green. He could school Jahleel and save him from having to experience certain situations firsthand. At some point, he’d also teach him that winning wasn’t everything. Winning didn’t solve his issues with Kennedy because it meant she was around but as distant as she’d ever been. It was the first time that Relic wished he’d taken a loss. He wasn’t at a place to accept that frustrating truth, so he continued trying to convince himself that his win was worth losing the queen on his board and fucking up his game plan.

“Did you shoot the guys that killed my momma? Relic!”

Jahleel hollered and braced a hand on the dashboard when Relic hit the brakes, causing his body to jerk forward before they screeched to a stop in the middle of the road. Cars honked and swerved around them, but Relic didn’t pull off as he turned to face Jahleel. His lids blinked in a rapid motion, wrestling with the skeleton of Jessica’s death to keep it in the furthest corner of his mental closet because if it ever came out, Jahleel would see him as the true villain he’d become over the years.

“Some stuff, you don’t ask, Jah. Think before you speak because one wrong word or insinuation could take me away from you. Konprann?”

“Yes, sir.”

Relic removed his foot from the brake and eased back into the flow of traffic while subtly confessing, “If I was the kind of man who’d do that... the kind who’d take a life for a life, then yes, I would’ve had them put in the dirt.”

His eyes cut toward Jahleel, who pulled out his phone like he hadn’t processed the hint. Seconds passed before Relic was proven wrong.

“Heard,” Jahleel mumbled, stealing his lingo.

Relic wasn’t sure whether worry that his son had picked up on his unscrupulous acts, or pride that Jahleel wasn’t as naive as he believed, coursed through him more. He disregarded both after deciding Jahleel having balance was a good thing.

Neither of them spoke on the duration of their drive, and he was fine with that. Relic hadn’t quite figured out how to converse with Jahleel like a true father yet, so he welcomed the silence. Conversations could go left, and his worst fear was saying the wrong thing that’d sever their relationship like their argument about Judith almost had. He frowned at the nerve grating fact; having a child unlocked a fear every day when he had none before finding out about his son.

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