Gritting my teeth, I looked down. I had once been a young boy facing the same fight. For those reasons, I had always wanted my son to grow up differently—in a different neighborhood in private schools. Unfortunately, as two teenage parents, we had been raising Jeremy as we grew up, so Stephanie and I hadn’t made the best decisions with the little that we had. And, now that I had the finances to make his life different, Jeremy was nearly old enough to make his own decisions and had already formed bonds with the wrong crowd.
“Find some new friends,” I suggested.
As I expected, he immediately sucked his teeth, rolling his eyes up to the sky.
“Why can’t you hang out with your cousins?”
“They’re lames, Dad.”
“They are lames that won’t end up in jail or dead.”
“Dad,” he said, groaning.
No matter how much he grew up, he was still a little boy. I could see the tantrum brewing in his scowl, so I gently squeezed his shoulder. “Okay, okay. We’ll spin the block on this later. Let’s finish the game.”
As I resumed the one-on-one basketball game, I got more worried for him. My bond with my son was incredibly strong; we practically grew up together since I became a father at a young age. Growing up in the tough neighborhood where I saw too manyyoung boys lose their lives to violence, the thought of anything happening to my son was unbearable.
“All right, Pops. See you later.” As we stood in the doorway of his mother’s home, Jeremy gave me a quick bro hug before attempting to pull away, but I brought him in, holding him a bit longer. I felt defeated, not having gotten through to him earlier.
“I’ll talk to you later. Love you.”
“Bet. Love you too.”
He peeled out of my arms and scurried into the house. A knot formed in my stomach knowing that he was rushing, eager to be around trouble.
Standing in the foyer, Stephanie sighed, looking at my expression. We had already talked about the things I’d heard, so she knew that I was going to try to talk to him that day.
“Well?” she pressed softly.
Frustrated, I leaned against the doorframe and stuffed my hands into the pockets of my basketball shorts. “He wasn’t trying to hear anything I said.”
She scoffed with a light chuckle. “I’m not surprised. He’s a teenager. He doesn’t think we know anything.”
“Maybe we should consider transferring him to a different school.”
Her expression turned into disapproval. “And make him start over in his junior year?”
“Yes. That’s an inconvenience worth saving his life.”
“I’m assuming you want him to go to a school outside of this area. Who is supposed to take him to school every morning andpick him up? Considering the schedule you have, you won’t be able to, which leaves me to do it.”
“Or he can live with me and Aviana, as I’ve been suggesting for the last year.”
Immediately, she started to shake her head. “No. Not going to happen. I have nothing against Aviana, but this is my child, and he will be living with me.”
Before I could express the protest on the tip of my tongue, my phone started to blare in my pocket. Through my earpiece, my phone announced that Aviana was calling.
Growing frustration made me groan. “I’ll talk to you about this later.”
I turned my back on Stephanie’s defiant smirk and answered Aviana’s call while jogging down the porch steps.
“What’s up, baby?”
“Hey,” she returned with an annoyed sigh.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked as I heard Stephanie’s front door close.
She whimpered a bit, which let me know she was pouting. “I didn’t get the job.”
