Another Lifetime

Chapter 65:

Cesar's POV:
"You're not taking him to school! It's not safe!" Monse yells. "He's my son, it's not up to you." I say. She takes a step back and looks me up and down. "What?" I laugh. "Nothing. I'm just trying to remember when I said he was mine." She raises her eyebrows. "I just mean it's up to me." I explain. "Obviously but I'm saying it's not a good idea." Monse shakes her head. I leave our room and go to the kitchen. Odessa and Ray share a look then they both turn to me. "What?" I ask them. "I know you did not just tell her that Ky isn't her kid." She glares at me. "It's true." I roll my eyes. "You don't think she knows that?" Ray asks me. "She was just trying to help you." Odessa throws a frozen waffle at me. "He's my kid, I don't need help." I throw in back at her. "Where's Ky?" I ask Monse. "I thought you didn't need help?" Odessa tilts her head. "Shut up." I mumble and she laughs. "Oh since he's not my son I didn't think I should wake him up. I didn't want it to look like I was trying to take over." She smiles.

I speed all the way to Ky's school and rush him in. "Where's the kid who's picking on you?" I ask and Ky points. "Hey, you know your kid's being a dick?" I ask and his mom turns around. I recognize her but try not to show it. "Marcus!" She yells and he comes running. "You still picking on that little boy?" She glares at him and he nods. "Damn it!" She starts yelling at him in Spanish. "Apologize." Paula tells Marcus and he just stands next to her. "Now!" She demands. "I swear I thought I handled it. Marcus is just going through a hard time. If I new Kyrie's dad was a... you I would've checked in more." She panics. "So you only take care of your brother when he's coming for Santos' kids?" I ask. "That's not what I meant! You know how it is growing up in Freeridge. He's trying so hard to be like the cholos he sees around here and I don't know what to do." Paula starts getting nervous. "Maybe stop dating them and he'll chill out." I'm about to walk away and she laughs. "Sure, I'll give Monse the same advice." She rolls her eyes. "Tell Sapo I said hi. Bye, Paula." I walk away and I can tell I freaked her out. "Ok homito, I gotta go." I kneel in front of my son. "I don't wanna go to school." Ky looks at the floor. "If that kid pulls some shit again, you hit him right back. I promise you'll like school a lot more after that." I smile. "School's boring." He whines. "Nah, school's gonna take you places mijo." I swear but Ky doesn't look convinced. "How about this, if you have a bad day we can skip tomorrow and go to the beach?" I offer. "Ok!" He gives me a hug and runs into his class.

Monse's POV:
I pull up at my dad's place and I brought Mona with me. "Be honest, am I dying?" He asks when he opens his front door. "What?" I laugh. "I've seen you twice this week, something's gotta be wrong." He lets me in. "Actually, something kinda is." I sit on the couch. "Monse!" Maverick comes over to me. "And Mona." I laugh and kiss my little brother. "Baby." He never calls her by her name. "I saw you and Ray last night when I left work." I tell my dad. "Listen, I-" he starts but I don't let him finish. "Don't lie to me. I won't tell Cesar but you need to tell me the truth." I say. "Look!" Mav brings over his toys one by one and asks me to look at all of them. "Show Mona." I sit my daughter on the ground next to me. "So?" I cross my arms. "I've known him my whole life. We weren't always cool but in high school shit changed. Back then so many teenagers were having babies that the school made us all take parenting classes. Me and Dwayne just found out we were gonna be dads, but Ray already had both his kids." He starts explaining. "Since Ray just got outta jail, he had to take the class too. We used to fight everyday in that damn class but eventually we started talking about becoming dads and life outside the gangs and shit changed. Me, Ray, and Dwayne would sneak out and just act like teenagers everyday for months. You don't get to be a kid in Freeridge so, once we could, everything didn't look as serious." He smiles but I can tell he doesn't wanna finish the story. "What happened next?" I ask. "Ray got arrested a few months later and then me and Dwayne fell out. Now we're older and we get to be friends without our gangs killing us for it." My dad says. "So why wouldn't you just tell us?" I don't get it. "Only way I'd get more money from the Santos was if we made a deal." He sighs and sits with me on the couch. "I'm too old to be running around taking orders from a twenty-year-old. I'm gonna take the money and get out. I swear I was gonna tell you once I had enough." He admits. "Ok." I say and he looks confused. "Ok?" My dad repeats. "I won't tell Cesar." I can't tell if I'm doing the right thing.

Cesar's POV:
I get back to the house after getting my money from the other Santos and Monse's pulling up. "Where'd you guys go?" I ask. "I just wanted to go for a drive." She lifts Mona out of her car seat. "I wanna talk about what happened." I say when I realize she's still mad. "It's fine, I was doing too much." Monse never gives in that easy. "It's not." I pull out the folder with art work his teacher handed me when I was about to leave. "What?" Monse's confused when I hand it to her and take Mona. "Just look at it." I laugh. Monse looks over the picture with 'my family' scribbled at the top. "Wow." She smiles. "This kid has too many damn parents." Monse adds. He drew Lola and Jamal, me and Monse, and Oscar with a bunch of kids that I think are supposed to be Oscar's kids. "I don't know what Ky sees you as, but he knows you're family." I tell her and she smiles. Monse looks up from the drawing and kisses me. My phone wrings so it only lasts half a second. "Everything ok?" I ask. I talk for a few minutes and Monse looks worried. "Ky beat up a kid. They wanna talk to me and Lola."