Deception

Chapter Fourteen.

C H A P T E R F O U R T E E N

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Jalen.

Today my parents decided to take all of us out to see the city, and I was more than excited to be out with Santo. I held his hand while we walked down the street in our coats, him holding my hand tightly. "Lets take pictures!" My mom squealed, taking out her phone.

"Oh goodness.. honey how do I take pictures on this thing?" She asked, pulling out her iPhone. I giggled and saw Khalil open it up for her. "Thank you baby." She kissed his cheek and my dad took a picture of us. I looked up at Chresanto sweetly, and kissed his lips. He kissed back and pulled away slowly.

I felt like this trip was already so romantic for Chresanto and I, even though we were with my family. I looked deeply into his eyes while he did the same to me, kissing me again. I heard Khalil sigh in annoyance. "Alright you two come on." Alicia sucked her teeth. "Babe be nice, they're in love."

She was right. I felt like I was completely in love with Chresanto at this point in our relationship. It's only been 6 months, but we had such great chemistry things moved quicker than expected.

"Honey, look..." I heard my mom utter, and Chresanto pulled away from my lips. I pouted a little. I wanted to kiss him all day long, I guess you could say I was spoiled with his kisses on the regular. "C'mon let's go baby." He held my hand and looked back at everyone, realizing they were smiling at how cute we were.

I saw his cheeks get red, and he smiled softly. "L-Let's go."

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We spent all day in the city, it was really fun to show Chres around. We went and saw the sights, got lunch and took great pictures. This was why I loved coming here every year.

"Jalen, come here let me talk to you." My mom said, walking me into her and my dad's room. "Yes mama what's up?" She smiled at me. "You and um... Chresanto. You guys seem to be getting serious, have you two talked about marriage?"

I wasn't going to lie, the thought has crossed my mind. But right now we were so young, I still needed to figure out my life plans, and I didn't know about that whole Andre thing yet.

"No mom, we haven't talked about it, but I thought about it to myself. I wouldn't mind marrying him down the line." She smiled widely. "Okay baby.." She kissed my cheek. "And by the way, you two need to keep it down at night.. Last night I heard all this noise." Oh shit, she heard us. Did she know we were having sex? I guess not.

I nodded. "Yes ma."

Chresanto.

I was talking about sports with Jalen's dad again, this time with Khalil sitting with us. I never really spoke to him, but he seemed pretty cool. I guess I could get used to him.

"Pops, the game is starting in a couple minutes." He said, checking his watch. I looked over at his watch, seeing it was a diamond incrusted Rolex. Damn that watch was nice. But right above his watch, I saw a tattoo of a symbol. One that was recognizable to me, but most likely couldn't be recognized by most.

Andre has that same tattoo on his arm.

I remembered when I first met Andre he already had it. We were only 16, but I just assumed he got it done at home or something.

Maybe it was a gang tattoo? I wanted to ask, but I didn't want to sound too weird. I wasn't that close with him. I was staring at the tattoo and was caught by Jalen's dad. "You alright son?" I looked up at Mr. Jenkins and nodded.