Tales of the Underground: Blinded - 40. Resistance

| Riley |

I’ve never seen Carter as concerned as he was handing me off to my mom and brother. It was like he didn’t want to leave my side. Like he just wanted to quickly run through his project with Aaron then return to my side. There’s no doubt my episode had him scared. For the first time since I started dating him he didn’t know how to help me, and I know that’ll keep him up tonight.

“Mrs. James.” Carter forced out as we entered the kitchen. “Can you stay with Riley while I work with Aaron?”

“Of course.” She smiled, looking up from tutoring Tak. “Maybe Riley can work on his reading.”

“Or I could not.” I muttered looking over Tak’s shoulder at the worksheet he was doing.

“He’ll be okay.” Mom reassured Carter as she saw the concern in his eyes. “He just messed up and watched something he shouldn’t’ve, isn’t that right Riley?”

“Yeah.” I forced out, as my eyes fell to the ground. Carter nodded his head, but I could still see concern sitting in his eyes. “I’ll be okay.” I nodded. He forced a smile, before gently grasping my hand and letting it go. “Go do your project.” I waived as he finally began to walk away.

“You’ve got a good boyfriend.” She observed, gesturing for me to sit next to her. “You should be very grateful for that.”

“Yeah.” I forced out, looking at the table in front of me.

“So what do you want to read? Aaron has most of the Harry Potter books but if those are too long for you then we have some shorter books down in the basement.” She began, patiently waiting for my answer. I kept my silence and laid my head down on the table. “I don’t know where you think you are,” She began, throwing on a strict tone. “but if you think I’m going to keep putting up with this you’re in for a rude awakening.”

“Just tutor Tak.” I mumbled, keeping my head down.

“Phone.” She demanded, sticking out her hand. “Now you’ve lost it for the rest of today, and all of tomorrow. I expected you to push me your first day back, but you’re being down right disrespectful right now.”

“How?” I asked in frustration, reaching into my pocket and slamming it down on the table.

“You’ve been fighting with your brothers nonstop. Cursing your head off. You haven’t listened to a single word I said.” She began, trying to keep her anger in check. “You put on an R rated movie. I mean are you kidding me?”

“I thought I could handle it.” I groaned, not in the mood for a lecture.

“It’s not about that right now. It’s about me telling you to put on a PG movie all day.” She nagged, making sure to stay on my case. “We’re already getting you a behavior therapist. Do we have to get a family therapist too?”

“Why would I need that?” I clicked, finally picking my head back up.

“Because it’s clear you don’t respect me.” Guilt slowly began to pour into me as I saw the look on her face. “I get that you want your space, and I can try and respect that as much as possible, but I can’t have you running around this house doing whatever you want.”

“Sorry,” I forced out, still refusing to make eye contact. “I’ll start listening.”

“How do I know you mean it this time?” She asked, not believing a word of the apology. “You said you know your limits, but you’ve already broken them. I can’t trust you right now Riley.”

I kept silent as Tak subtly tried to get our mom to help him with one of his math problems. I watched her diligently work with him; trying her hardest to make sure he understood how to solve it. How can I ever think about my birth mother when I’m so lucky to have Nancy? “I’m sorry.” I repeated as he filled in the answer. “But I-it’s hard for me to be home.” I confessed, keeping my eyes down. “And I-I don’t know why I’m takin it out on you. You don’t deserve that.”

“No?” She asked, seeing where this would go.

“No.” I shook my head, and finally looked back at her. “But I got other stuff on my mind, and it just makes me, I just wanna, I feel like,”

“Pushing me away?” She asked, connecting the pattern of my bad behavior. I stayed silent as she hit the nail on the head. “Just like when you first got here.” She forced out, resting her hand on my back. My eyes fell away once more but she refused to pull her hand away. “What other stuff is on your mind?”

“Nothin.” I shook my head , worried I had let her in too much.

“You’re thinking about your biological parents, aren’t you?” She asked, but once more I stayed quiet. “It’s okay, I’m not mad.”

“I-I don’t wanna talk about this.” I exhaled, hoping Tak wasn’t listening in too much.

“Another day.” She nodded, backing off just enough to give me some breathing room. “But I’m serious Riley, I want you to read now.”

“Fine.” I groaned going downstairs and grabbing a book off of one of the storage shelves. As I walked back up I saw Tak peering at me out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head a little bit more but the second our eyes connected he turned away. “What?” I asked, taking a seat on the other side of our mother.

“Nothin.” He replied, acting as though he was focusing on his homework.

“You got something to say, just say it.” I grumbled, slowly opening the book.

“Don’t distract him.” Mom reprimanded, unimpressed by our back and forth.

A minute or two of silence passed before Tak finally looked up from his homework. “I’m sorry.” He forced out before dropping his head again. “I shoulda just put on cars, then you’d be okay.”

“It was my fault,” I shook my head. “Besides, you didn’t screw me up anymore than I am. Don’t even trip.”

“Oh.” He exhaled, slightly looking up. “Is-is that gonna happen to me?”

“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “Probably not, but some of the stuff we saw out there,”

“That’s enough.” Mom interrupted, seeing where the conversation was going. “You’re going to be fine Tak, I promise. And Riley, he’ll be okay soon.” She reached out and grabbed onto each of our arms. “Just no more scary movies, and no more talk about the streets. I mean it.”

Tak quickly nodded his head, and looked back down to his homework. “Okay.” I exhaled, seeing where she was coming from. Tak has to face his past sooner or later; I just hope it wasn’t as bad as mine.

Silence filled the air for the next thirty to forty minutes. Every now and then my mom would give Tak help, but for the most part things were peaceful. Tak would look up and see what I was doing, but did a good job at keeping his focus on his work.

“Alright,” Carter exclaimed, hurrying down the stairs. “We are officially done.”

“Is it worth an A?” Mom asked, turning back towards him.

“Eh.” He let out swaying his head. “You can say that.”

She let out a long sigh and shook her head. “What has gotten into you boys today?”

“The prodigal son returned.” He giggled, walking up behind my chair and wrapping his arms around me.

“Carter!” I yelped. “I was readin!”

“I’m sorry.” He smiled, still not letting me go. “Aww you’re even wearing your glasses.”

I sighed and dropped the book to the table. “You the worst.”

“I know.” He nodded, finally stepping back. “Let’s go shoot around.”

“Yeah!” Tak exclaimed, dropping his pencil to the table.

“Oh, uh,” Carter let out, realizing what a big distraction he was. “Sorry Mrs. James, I figured,”

“Go,” she waived in a sigh. “I’m lucky they even paid attention for five minutes.”

*************************************************************************************

Carter gripped my hand and bumped shoulders with me as the garage door slowly opened. “You’re so cute when you wear glasses.” I turned and snarled as I heard Tak let out muffled laughter. “Don’t worry, he’s all bark and no bite.” Carter smiled dropping my hand and scooping up a basketball.

“I wouldn put money on that.” I muttered, stealing the basketball from Carter’s hands and taking a shot. “But I’d put money on that!” I shouted as the ball caught nothing but net.

“Lucky shot.” Carter teased, catching the ball and dishing it back to me.

“And this?” I asked, tossing it up and turning to him. “I don’t get lucky.” I smirked as the ball went right back through the hoop.

“How do you do that?” Tak gasped in amazement.

“Talent.” I shrugged.

“Hard work.” Carter reprimanded. “Do you know how many hours your older brother practices?”

“None.” I shrugged, quickly taking the ball back before Tak could grab it. “God took my left eye cause my right eye is so damn accurate.”

“Riley.” Carter sighed beginning to stare me down, but I simply shrugged and took another shot. “He practices for hours and hours. He would spend all gym class working on ball handling, then all practice on shots and passing. How many shots would you say you take a day?”

“I don’t count.” I shook my head. “I just take em until I feel good.”

“Well I take two hundred shots every day.” Carter nodded, trying his hardest to be a good role model for Tak.

“Aren you special.” I exhaled as the ball hit the rim and bounced out.

“He’s the better player.” Tak shrugged, quickly grabbing the ball and trying his hardest to get flashy.

“What?!” I exclaimed as he missed a shot. “What kind of whack shit are you sayin?”

“He’s better.” Tak shrugged tossing his rebound to Carter. “See!” He exclaimed as Carter pulled up and hit nothing but net.

“Man! I jus did that from the garage!” I defended. “When the hell you even see us both play?”

“At states before you left, and then we kept going to games for the national tournament.” He shrugged. “Carter’s jus more complete.”

“Your defense is sloppy.” Carter shrugged, swishing another shot.

“Boy!” I shouted turning to him. “I dominated that states game. I had a triple double, and they was flowin through me.”

“Yeah but you kept movin the ball to Carter.” He argued. “And he was catchin you on the fast breaks!”

“Ohhh!” Carter giggled as his smile grew wider. “Tak might just know basketball better than you do.”

“Okay.” I rolled my eyes. “You wanna play a game of twenty-one?”

“No.” Carter laughed. “Because one of two things is going to happen. You’re going to play dirty and keep elbowing me, or I’ll beat you and you’ll get all upset.”

“You ain’t gonna beat me, and I ain’t gonna elbow you.” I insisted. “Now play me.”

“No.” He giggled once more. “You’re my boyfriend, I’m not getting into these dumb competitions with you.”

“You jus scared.” I grumbled, as Tak carefully watched us.

“How come you’re not scared of him?” He finally asked, switching his gaze to Carter.

“Scared of him?” Carter repeated.

“Yeah.” Tak nodded his head. “You don’t back down when he get mad. You jus keep with him.”

“Because he’s not scary.” Carter shrugged. “He’s like a dog, you show him love and he gives love back. You get nasty with him, and well, you’ve seen how that goes.”

“You two sayin all types of dumb shit today.” I rolled my eyes. Tak stared me down waiting for a better answer than what Carter had given him. “He’s southside.” I finally answered.

“Where?” Tak quickly asked. “From near us?”

“No.” Carter couldn’t help but laugh at his excitement. “I’m not actually from the Southside either, that’s just what Riley wants to believe.”

“Bruh your mom’s lived there since you was like thirteen.” I shrugged. “And you go visit her all the time. That’s close enough for me.”

“I only started really visiting her when you came along.” He corrected. “Look Tak.” Carter began. “You can’t let Riley push you around or he’ll never stop. You have to stick with him, and earn his respect, or else you’ll never get it from him.”

“Man that’s some of the dumbest,”

“That’s what your mom did.” Carter interrupted. “It’s what Aaron eventually started doing, and what I did to get so close to you.”

“You wanna know what you did to get so close to me?” I asked with a shake of my head.

“I know what I did.” He dismissed not caring what I had to say. “You want to spew some B.S. to make yourself look tougher be our guest.” I sucked my teeth at his words as a smile grew on his face. “See, stick with him.” Carter instructed making another shot.

I couldn’t even think of anything to say, Carter really does just know me. “I nail you?” Carter whispered walking by me. “You don’t need to answer, I already know I did.” He smirked with a wink.

I had to turn to hide how much my smile was growing as he passed the ball to Tak. “Yo! Riley!” He shouted. “Teach me your move.”

“Watch how you talk to me.” I warned, dropping the smile and turning back to him.

“Please.” He pleaded as his eyes began to work me over.

“Yeah, whatever.” I groaned as Carter grabbed another two basketballs from the garage. “But you ain’t ready yet. Practice dribbling on both hands first, gotta do like a hundred each hand a day.”

“So you do count?” Carter teased as he heard my instructions.

I shook my head and ignored his words. “Your dribbling gotta look like this.” I displayed effortlessly bouncing the ball without looking at it.

He nodded but struggled handling it without losing control. “Can’t you jus teach me?”

“Nope.” I shook my head. “You gotta get that down.”

“Sorry Tak,” Carter shrugged as he looked to him. “Riley’s right.”

Tak grunted but kept working over and over. “Don’t slap it man, it ain’t a ho-, it ain’t a, a, baby.”

“Nice.” Carter sighed. “Really nice.”

“I caught it, didn’t I?.” I shrugged, hiding behind Tak. “Watch me.” I instructed, trying to ignore Carter’s angry stare. “Knees slightly bent, and your back kind of over, then you just go.” Tak followed my instructions but still ran into issues. “Sorry man, you gotta practice. Only way to get better.”

“He admits it!” Carter shouted. “Holy hell! I think pigs have taken flight!”

“Shut up.” I sneered, dribbling around him. “You such a fool.”

“Then maybe I’ll go home.” He shrugged, shooting me a serious look.

“No!” I quickly let out. “You don’t,”

A smile broke through his face as he saw my desperation. “You totally love me.” He giggled.

“Course I do.” I nodded my head.

Carter shot me a confused look as he heard my words. “Out of all the stuff you deny, you just admit that?”

“Got a lotta stuff I’m ashamed for.” I nodded my head. “But this ain’t one of them.”

“Since when?” Carter smiled.

“Roommate in rehab put it into perspective.” I shrugged, not daring to go much further.

“And when do I get to meet this roommate?” He asked in a laugh.

“Rule one, keep your side chick away from your main hoe.” I couldn’t help but tease, drawing a laugh from Tak.

“For your sake you better have just called me a side chick.” He warned. “Or I swear to god, I, it’ll be a dry homecoming.” He shrugged trying to keep it as PG as possible.

“He sayin you ain’t gonna get it in!” Tak shouted in laughter.

“Tak!” Carter shouted with a blush.

“He’s from the streets, of course he knows what you mean.” I couldn’t help but laugh along.

“He’s eleven!” Carter yelped. “I don’t care where he’s from he,”

“He saw prostitutes daily.” I rolled my eyes. “This kid prolly saw more tits than you’ll ever seen.”

“I’m gay.” Carter shrugged. “It’s not a competition.”

“What’s not a competition?” Aaron asked as he stepped into the garage.

“Nothin.” I shook my head with a smile.

“Riley got in trouble,” Tak quickly began.

“Tak! No!” Carter shouted, worried where he was going to take it.

“And now Carter’s sayin he won’t sleep with him!” Tak couldn’t help but laugh.

“That’s not what happened.” Carter tried to quickly recover as disgust entered Aaron’s face.

“I don’t want to know.” Aaron groaned. “Just please, until Riley get’s his own room again, keep it at your place.”

“Bro why you gonna,”

“Nope!” Carter yelped, reaching out and covering my mouth. “You two can work this out without me and Tak around!”

I side stepped his hand and turned towards him. “Man you know you should be just as concerned,”

“Riley!” Carter reprimanded shooting me a serious look.

“Sorry.” I backed down in a sigh.

“You seein this?” Tak asked looking to Aaron.

“I told you he’s head over heels for him.” Aaron sighed. “Carter’s got him wrapped around his finger.”

“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes, trying my hardest to play nice. “What you even coming out here for anyway?”

“I don’t know, maybe because my two best friends are out here.” He rolled his eyes.

“He means you.” Carter happily nudged me with his elbow. I shook my head and put my focus back onto basketball. “Riley loves you too.”

“I only love Carter.” I muttered, throwing a ball up.

“Not mom?” Aaron provoked, seeing what he could draw.

“Why you gotta complicate things?” I asked as a car slowly pulled down the driveway.

“I have dinner!” Dad announced as he stepped out of the car. “You’re eating with us right Carter?”

“If it’s not,”

“Of course it’s not a problem.” Dad dismissed, grabbing boxes of pizza out of the car. “Now everyone go wash up.”

We all nodded and made our way inside. It took a few minutes for us all to get sorted out but as I entered the kitchen I saw my mom whispering something to my dad.

With a heavy sigh he waived me over. “You learn a lesson today?” He asked as Nancy made her way to the dinner table.

“Yeah.” I grumbled looking down.

“Look me in the eyes when I’m talking to you son.” He ordered as I quickly picked my head up. “I really don’t want to send you back Riley, but I-I’m going to do right by you.”

“I don’t needa go back.” I denied, trying my hardest to keep eye contact with him.

“Then prove it to me.” He demanded in a strict voice. “Because watching a horror movie on your first day back, it isn’t reckless, it’s just plain stupid.”

“Sorry.” I tried to apologize.

“I don’t want to hear it.” He shook his head. “I want to see it. Understood?”

“Yeah.” I nodded my head.

“Go eat and have fun, I love you.” He exhaled, giving me a pat on the back. I nodded my head but didn’t say anything.

As I made it back to the table Aaron went to tease me but the second he connected eyes with our dad he froze.

“Ready for basketball again?” Mom asked, trying to break the tension.

“What?” I asked turning to Carter.

“We have spring season.” Carter giggled seeing the surprise on my face. “We’re three and six so far, we need our point guard back.”

“Really?” I excitedly asked.

“Yeah.” Carter nodded. “The new kid we have is pretty good, but he’s not very creative.”

“Least he could’ve done was keep my throne warm.” I rolled my eyes.

“You’re so cocky.” Carter smiled, giving me a light nudge.

I couldn’t help but nudge him back as we slowly entered a small battle. Walter gave us both a confused look until finally it clicked in his head. “I, uh, so Carter,” He began. “It must be nice having Riley home.”

“Of course.” Carter nodded. “I’ve been waiting for this day for months.”

“Yeah and it, it must be exciting for you too Riley.” He said, trying to fill the air the best he could.

“Yeah.” I nodded, shooting him a wary look.

Nancy drew his eyes contact as a silent conversation took place. “You know, you never did tell us how you two started dating.”

“We just did.” I shrugged, answering before Carter could.

“Well said.” Carter teased, but grew quiet knowing I would share what I was comfortable with.

“Oh come on.” She encouraged. “I bet it’s such a nice story.”

“Then you would lose money.” I snickered, putting my focus on my food.

“I think it’s a nice story.” Carter tried to encourage but dropped it as I looked over to him.

“Can you at least tell me how long you two have been dating?” She tried to pry.

“Please.” Carter whispered with a smile.

“Since what? September?” Carter asked as I nodded my head. “So like, eight months?”

“If you wanna include time away.” I shrugged as he nodded his head. “Then eight months.”

“That’s right after you got here!” Aaron pieced together. “You kept it from me for that long?”

“Can we jus change the subject?” I asked, fed up with the interrogation that was taking place.

“You know I had a gay friend in college, he,” Dad began but froze as he saw my stare.

“I ain’t gay.” I corrected, looking back down at my food.

“Oh, well bisexual is,”

“I ain’t bisexual either.” I snarled, standing up. “I need some air.” I grumbled, shoving my chair into the table and quickly making my way to the door before slamming it behind me.

“Just go eat Carter.” I shook my head as I heard the door open. “We can talk bout it later if you really want.”

“It’s me.” Dad let out, taking a seat next to me. “I’m sorry if I was making you uncomfortable.”

“I just needed air.” I lied, looking away from him.

“You don’t have to lie.” He sighed. “I overstepped, and that’s on me.”

“You don’t like that I’m dating a guy, do you?” I forced out, hiding my hand as it began to shake.

“Why do you think that?” He quickly asked. “I love that you’re dating Carter.”

“Then why you bein so weird about it right now?” I probed. “You forcin questions, and what was that I had a gay friend bull shit?”

“I don’t know. I’m just trying to help you feel comfortable.” He shook his head. “You’ve been through so much lately, and I just, I want to make sure you know your sexuality won’t be a problem. No matter what it is.”

I nodded my head but stayed quiet. “I know in the past we haven’t always been the closest we could be.” He began once more. “I was trying to give you time and space to adjust, but this time around it’s going to be different. This time around I’m going to be more involved. Sound good?”

“Yah.” I forced out through a nod.

He let a few seconds of silence fill the air before turning back to me. “You’re holding something back.” He pressured, seeing what I would share.

Once more I nodded my head before finally turning to him. “What if this time, what if I came back worse than before?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” He exhaled, taking a long look at me. “But for the record, I’m not worried about that at all. You’re a smart kid Riley. You’ll figure it out.”

All I could do was stare out at the mansions around me as I thought it over. Am I really gonna risk throwing this all away? I’m I really gonna risk getting sent back because I do stupid shit? I let out a deep breath as it all swarmed my mind. Nah, that ain’t how this is gonna go. And if it is, well I’m not getting caught. After all, I’m Cy Walker. I never get caught.