Reconnecting

Chapter 7

Cody's POV

School was torture. Trying to pick up where I had left off was near impossible. I sat at the dinning table with my laptop with Wilson in my lap, trying to figure out where I had stopped. It was all a foreign language to me, and it was all written in English! Moments like this I regret dropping out. I can't even remember why I dropped in the first place. I had amazing grades and I was the captain of the basketball team. 

Edgar sat at the other end of the table looking to be in just as much pain as I felt. "Why are letters in math again," Edgar asked me. "Hell if I know," I said with a sigh. We've been trying to do this for the last hour and forty five minutes. I needed a freaking cigarette, but since my parents weren't home to keep an eye on the kids, I wasn't going to leave them in the house alone. The yard was large enough to let them play in, but I wasn't going to risk Mace even coming the slightest bit close to my second hand smoke. He could go into an asthma attack and I didn't want that. I tried vaping a while ago, but I hated it. 

I tried to quit, but I just didn't have the strength. It made me feel less stressed when I felt ready to just pull my hair out. When I heard the front door open, I looked up and saw Spark and my dad come in, leather cuts in his hand. Edgar and I raised an eyebrow at them. "You boys have a choice," Spark said to us. "Join Toxic Smoke, and you boys will be able to earn enough money to not just survive off of, but live comfortably. Cody knows we protect our own, no matter what it is. You'll have to earn your patches like others, as well as your ranks. The jobs you do will depend what you can do." 

"What did mom say," I asked dad. "She was fine with it," he said to it. "Of course she threatened me if anything happens to you though." I looked at Edgar and he seemed to debate it. We've met several bikers over the years, from different MCs and I even told him about what it was like having Toxic Smoke in my life. It had it's ups and downs, but I knew that it anything happened to me, the kids would be taken care of. Toxic Smoke was a family and they really did take care of their own. 

"What do you say brother," I asked Edgar. "I told you a long ass time ago, ride or die," he said with a smirk. They gave us the cuts and told us how it was going to work out. School and the kids came first, then we MC. I was now Ghost and Edgar was Shadow. 

Spark then pulled two different pieces of paper out of his back pockets. "When digging around on you boys, I found something that needed to be fixed." He handed us each a paper. I opened it and I felt my heart stutter. It was my bank statement. The last time I checked it, I was almost four hundred dollars over drafted, and to prevent my checks from going towards the over draft, I had been going to one of those check cashing places so I had the money go straight to my hand to put on a prepaid card to pay my bills. 

Now it was positive with several grand in my pocket. Edgar was staring at it completely speechless. My dad gave him a pat on the back before they left. Edgar then turned his paper to me, a photo was paperclipped in the top right corner. It was a picture of a gravestone, with Bryce's name on it. Edgar's eyes filled with tears. We weren't able to afford a good headstone, just a simple little bullshit thing. There was even a bench beside her grave for him to sit on when visiting. I got up and put Wilson down and went over to him. Edgar was grieving for her everyday, but he was pushing himself to smile everyday because it was a promise he made to her as she took her final breaths. She made him promise to keep smiling, for himself, for the kids, for me, and for her. I didn't care if he smiled for me, because I knew he was hurting. He loved her so much, I don't know if he will ever be able to find another. She was truly one hell of a woman. 

That night I was on the patio smoking a cigarette glancing at the baby monitor every now and then, as the boys slept, when my mom came out. I adjusted so the smoke didn't drift towards her. 

"I see accepted it," she said with a soft smile. I nodded, "Yeah." "I always knew either you or Tyson would join," she said to me. "I honestly thought it would be Tyson with the piercings and black and white tattoos." I chuckled softly, as I flicked the ashes into the ash tray. 

"Did you tell Tyson," she asked me. I nodded, "They roped me and Edgar into their group text and we told them. Apparently Tyson and Vanessa owe Jocelyn forty bucks." She rolled her eyes as she shook her head. She then looked at me. "I just hope you're careful," she said to me. I gave her a soft smile, "As careful as I can be." She kissed my cheek, "That's all I ask." She then went inside and I looked up at the star filled sky. 

I am finally home, and I'm now part of a MC. Had you told this would become my life, and that it really would get easier, I wouldn't have believed you. Nor would I have believed that my parents would have forgiven me. I still can't believe half the things that have happened in my life, the good and the bad. I was grateful for all of the good things that have happened. My kids being the best.