Not Ready

≈Chapter III :

~Los Angeles,

06/03 {Wednesday, 7:48 P.M }

~*~ Dorian ~*~

"Lani ? I'm back ! " I heard as I was cutting the vegetables for my lunch, that I was taking kind of late. Actually, it was more like my dinner. 

"I'm in the living room. Hey, Kavon ! " I furrowed my eyebrows when I heard Laylani calling my little cousin's name. It's been awhile since I saw him for the last time. He came to visit me in prison once a month every year, for my birthday too and sometimes I was calling him to know how he was doing and he was always answering. But other than that, we didn't really have the occasion to see the other one and really catch up on each other's life since I finished high school and got immediately sent in jail.

"Hey, Lani ! How are you ? "

"Good and what about you ? "

"I'm fine. RJ, can I take a drink from your fridge ? "

"Of course. Lani, where is Do ? " He asked as I heard footsteps behind me.

"Dorian ! " I turned around to see my little cousin, who had grown and wasn't that little anymore. Even if Kavon wasn't related to us by blood, he was family no matter what. His father was -and still is- Richard's best friend and since I was most of the time at RJ's house, the three of us grew up together. We went apart in high school because we weren't the exact same age, him being three years younger than us, but it didn't prevent us to still stay in contact as much as possible. 

"Hey ! " I smiled wiping my hands.

"It's good to see you." He hugged me in a brotherly way for one minute before to pull away, "How are you doing ? "

I shrugged, "Oh...Like a man out of jail..."

"Okay..." He sighed, "You should've never gone there in the first place. You were just protecting your mother." 

I nodded my head, "Yeah...I know. So, how is life for you ? " I asked to change the subject of conversation. I didn't like to talk about the reason of my incarceration. It was still painful and...shaming. I was ashamed of myself and my dad also. We both ruined our little family and because of us, my mother had to live the worst years of her life by seeing her only child killing her husband and going to jail. I wished all of this happened otherwise, but I had no power over it. 

It was life.

"I'm working in this restaurant as a chief and soon I hope that I'll be able to open my own."

I chuckled still not believing that he was into this, "Can you tell me when exactly you started taking interested in cooking ? "

He let escape a chuckle also, "I don't really know." He shrugged, "It just kind of came to me. But I love what I'm doing and it's the most important."

"Exactly." Another voice said getting our attention. 

RJ was standing there, leaning against the doorway, staring at us attentively with his dark brown eyes that were telling a lot of things, but I couldn't put my finger on a specific emotion. He cleared his throat and walked towards us, "Uh...Kavon, can you let us, please ? We need to talk." He placed his hand on Kavon's shoulder and motioned for him to leave the kitchen, with his head. Kavon got the message and walked out, but not before to grab himself a bottle of water. 

"Hey, dear lil' cousin." I greeted and then rolled my eyes. I went to the oven to check on my chicken. It wasn't ready yet. I checked the rice also and it still had minutes to go by. I looked at him and narrowed my eyes. Since two days, he was observing my every moves without letting a word come out of his mouth. He was just staring and it was getting on my nerves. If he had a problem, I preferred him telling me instead of looking at me like that, "What ? Talk. Express yourself ! "