Just Like That

44. "a family dinner"

Grayson Reid Jansen

"Alright, yo," LJ panted, realizing he reached his limits with the weights. I pulled the bar up to give him relief and stepped to the side.

"What's up with'chu?" LJ asked me, removing the water bottle from his hand.

My eyebrows furrowed,"Why?"

"You look confused, it's all in ya face."

Taking a seat on the bench, I shook my head. "It's this camping trip, it's Leila, it's... Brea."

"Camping trip?"

My head nodded at his question. "Every year my family goes on some trip up in the mountains and I invited Brea."

LJ blinked at me, waiting for the rest which I hesitated to spit out.

"And maybe I invited Leila, too."

"Brea's not the jealous type, she'll keep it cool-" LJ shrugged, trying to find a positive.

"She's taking Joey." I murmured, making LJ do a spit-take. Dramatic, as always.

"WHAT?! You gonna let her bring the nigga she fucking on YOUR family vacation?! White people different, bruh."

I laughed off his comments. "For real, L. I thought it would be fair, I wanted to show I'm not jealous."

"But you are?"

"I'm not though," I stood and paced to the locker room,"she said she hadn't slept with anyone else."

"And you believe her?" He quipped, his arm over my shoulder as we walked to our assigned lockers.

Peeling my shirt off, I threw it in my bag and brung out another - one that was fresh and clean.

"Yeah. I do, actually." It sounded funny saying but a weight was lifted once I admitted it. I sat to unlace my shoes and put on a pair of slides

"I thought I raised you better than this." LJ shook his head in playful disappointment.

We were quiet until LJ spoke up again once we were both fully dressed. "You gonna tell Leila about Brea, or?"

"I don't see why not."

LJ scoffed like what I said was appalling. "You are acting totally different right now," he smacked his thick lips.

My head shook and I walked in front of him, out of the locker room.

"All I'm sayin' is this 'bet' is gonna end soon, whatever you think you and Brea got goin' on - this little Utopia y'all livin' in - will end in disaster. I'm tellin' you. I say get out now before it's too late. Tell her the trip's canceled."

I laughed shortly,"I can't uninvite her."

"Shitttt." LJ sounded.

"You're an asshole." I said to LJ, my finger pointed at him.

"I know." He chuckled, popping his collar.

We laughed together and dapped each other up before going our separate ways.

======

"—So this is nice, right? A family dinner just like when mom was here." Holland tried making conversation as everyone else ate their food in silence.

Her baby started to cry so she tended to my niece and that's when dad spoke up, cutting into his grilled chicken.

"So, Lily-"

"It's Leila."

"Leila, excuse me, what is it that you do for a living?"

"I'm a manager at the cinema." Her response made my father shook me a concerned look.
I sank in my seat and stuffed my mouth.

"Ooh, manager? That's great!" Holland was trying her hardest to make my date sound better.

"Give it up, Holland." I mumbled, my fingers pinching the bridge of my nose.

"How old are you?" Colson opened his mouth to ask.

We all leaned in to figure the answer, since I didn't know either.

She giggled and dabbed the crumbs from her mouth with a napkin. "I'm twenty," Leila told us.

Relief washed over me, I thought she was only eighteen.

"I wouldn't have guessed a day over sixteen." Colson spoke, making me choke.

"Yo." I growled in his direction.

"Will you be coming on the trip this weekend, Leila?" Mark questioned her.

She nodded her head and answered,"Yeah, Gray asked me to go the other day, I was surprised."

"Why surprised?" I asked, laughing faintly.

"Thought you'd be taking your ex."

I straightened my face while Holland cackled.

"She's his ex for a reason." My older sister let Leila know.

Colson butt in,", well, I wish Brea was coming instead. She's a lot better than this-"

"Enough!"

"Holland, what is your problem?!" I barked at her.

"Now that Brea's gone, I don't have a problem."

"Holland, now how would you feel if someone talked about Mark like that?" My dad asked. She didn't have an answer so she just sat back, angrily, and folded her arms across her chest.

"Bitch." Colson and I mumbled in unison, making Holland gasp.

Excusing myself, I shot up, ready to take my plate to the kitchen sink.

"Where are you going?" Asked Holland in a nagging tone.

"To smoke," I exclaimed, turning to face her,"or do you not approve of that, either?"

When she didn't say anything, I turned back to walk to the sink and place my plate in it. With Leila following, I had to pass the dining room table again to get to the front door where I stopped to say something else.

"And Brea's going, too, by the way." I let out, forcing the door open and not letting it hit me on the way out.