Unlikely

5. Family Dynamics 1

[Leon]

A half an hour later Marrisa finished braiding the other side of my head but way too tightly because of her being pissed with Sasha. I was ready to be home but, I was going to have to make it through this 20-minute car ride with Justin first. Justin and I went all the way back to elementary. Despite me always getting him into a bunch of trouble, we became friends. In between the ass whoopings and being grounded we became more like brothers. Our families even clicked. His family stays involved in my life, and my family does the same for him. Yeah, we are family, so I had no bad feelings when I told him to shut the hell up.

"What?"

"You heard me. I'm tired of hearing you complain about some chick."

"Destini has been my girlfriend since the eighth grade!"

"Get over it." I sigh and return my gaze to the passenger's window.

"She lost her virginity to someone else, she cheated on me, and she got pregnant! Not even your nonchalant ass can gloss over this." Justin says excitedly as he merges onto the highway.

"Move on, bruh, you couldn't possibly think she was 'the one'." I chuckled because he probably did. His family was like the modern day Huxtables...of course he did. "Look at it this way, now, you can get all the pussy you want...your left hand will be happy for the break." I cackle at my own joke just to get on his nerves.

Once we get into the flow of traffic, he knocks my phone out of my hand. "You're an asshole, man." He frowns towards the windshield as we cruise through traffic.

"So, you know that, but I'm sick of hearing about Destini's played out ass. She cheated, she's with her baby daddy, just be glad he's not you." I tell him as I fish for my phone.

"Yeah, my parents would have killed me." His frown turns to a grimace as he thinks about that outcome. "And you're right, and I'm six-fucking-teen, I shouldn't be thinking about this kind of shit. I should just do it, lose this shit. We should lose this shit." He knocks me in the shoulder as his worry turns to excitement.

The "lose this shit" he was referring to was his virginity. He had been holding out for Destini for years. She always had some excuse why she wasn't ready. I always had a feeling she was playing him, and my suspicions were confirmed when she told him she was pregnant by this guy from another school.

"Lose what, Just?" I ask calmly and seriously.

"Bruh, you know what I'm talking about."

"I don't have anything to lose."

"Dipping your fingers or getting some head does not count, my nigga."

"And I'm telling you I have nothing to lose." I say with a straight face. We stop as the car in front of him comes to a stop and Justin gives me a hard, questioning look. I shift in my seat, stare at my phone, and then laugh at an imaginary incoming text.

"You're always fucking lying." he says finally. Maybe I was used to lying about the girls that I've hit or in denial that I was still technically a virgin at sixteen, but the words just couldn't leave my mouth. He drops the subject and begins talking about our hopeful summer.

"Yeah." I said simply after his long rant about going on his annual family trip to Florida, in which I was always invited, and hooking up with the finest women we could talk into sleeping with us. The rest of the ride is filled with basic conversation and blaring music. Finally, we pull to my aunt's modest three, bedroom brick house. My grandparents' sleek, black Mercedes-Benz sports wagon is already parked in the driveway along with Devan's, my aunt's boyfriend, gray pick-up truck. "Why is Poindexter here?" I frown as I climb out of the car.