⠀ˢᵗᵃᵗᵉ ᵒᶠ ᵐⁱⁿᵈ.

002.

The young woman's blessing went into full force for him and in less than six weeks under her care every now and then, his knee was fully healed. Now home with his family for the time being.

Lakeith received two days leave since the holiday, Thanksgiving was only a day away and although his family didn't celebrate the holiday, they couldn't wait until Christmas to see him, so he ended up visiting. They all missed him immensely and were glad he came back the same way as they remembered.

So in lieu of viewing his return like another usual day, they all whip up a special dinner. Subsequently, Lakeith sinks into the couch, scrolling through his phone before hearing a commotion of laughter and screams.

He moves his surveillance to the kitchen where his baby sister (Tammy), was sneaking pictures of everyone, soon making her way around him. "Don't come over here, TamTam. I ain't in the mood to take any pictures." He waves her off, paying her no mind.

"This is for the new family book, dummy. Work with me or you get an ugly looking picture..." She smirks, as he mugs her in annoyance.

"Fine." He replies.

Lakeith then poses for the picture, making her eagerly snap it within a blink of an eye. "Always trying to take somebody picture." He mumbles under his breath.

"Please stop whining. You just came home and I missed you. Dang sue me. Besides, I did learn from the best."

Lakeith always had a flair for photography and due to Tammy being so close with her brother, she followed along. Of course like any other younger sibling, they wanted to do everything their older sibling was doing. And normally the need to do this sizzles out when they become older, but she genuinely came to love everything about it. Probably even more than him.

"Yeah, yeah." He dismisses, ruffling up her hair as she cleans her lenses.

"Dinner is ready. Come on and eat." Their mother, (Victoria) shouts, making them all rush into the kitchen to wash their hands.

While hands are being washed his big brother, (Dimitri) and father, (Lenny) properly set up the dining room table. And once everything and everyone was settled, they eat. To stir up small talk Victoria speaks, "So how's everything been?"

"Been real okay. The usual... I got a bad hit on my knee though. But thanks to one of the nurses I'm all good now."

"Well, thank the lord for that."

"Yeah ... I'm actually going back tomorrow to thank her for what she did for me." He slowly says, trying to get a good look at everyone's facial expressions to see if they were feeling his plan or otherwise. Which ends up being sour looks.

"You're leaving us for a woman.. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving man. Who's to say she's even going to be there?" Dimitri questions.

"You all are welcome to come so no I'm not ' leaving ' you guys. If she's not there, too bad, but I'm willing to take the chance. Plus none of you even celebrate Thanksgiving so don't be drama queens. She wasn't my assigned nurse, but she still helped me whenever I needed anything and y'all know I'm not the easiest man to get along with so.."

"So what if she helped you.. She gets paid for doing her job. She don't need you coming all the way over there to thank her for doing something she was supposed to do." His father adds.

"It's a simple sign of gratitude. I can do that."

"Well send that gratitude in a letter."

"No.. I'd rather go physically see her like I said before.-"

"You're a fool if you think I'm going with you to see a woman I know nothing about. You on your own with this one, brother." Dimitri declines, along with their father who agreed as well.

"Well.. you wanna waste your time. Go ahead." Lenny adds, shrugging his shoulders.

"Yeah.. my time." Lakeith corrects, hoping he would only be quiet.

Lakeith could care less about his brother, Dimitri always had a quick mouth and though Lakeith loathed people with quick mouths, they were brothers. Their father was completely different though...

Every word that came out of their father's mouth was pessimistic and belittling. He was just a miserable man who had nothing good to say unless it was about himself.

Never does he ever behave like this with anyone else, just him... it was like he was his bullseye or something. And this has been going on ever since he went into in the military.

"I'll go with you." Tammy says, causing him to reciprocate her response with a small smile.

"Anyway.. how many more years do you plan to stay in your line of work? We'd love to have you back home for good." Victoria questions.

"Four more years." He responds, sipping on his cool water.

"Hm. I see you trying to be me as always. You need to go off and do something else with your life." Lenny chimes in again with hate.

Lakeith slams his hands onto the table, rising up. "Like you? Why do you always think somebody wanna be like you? Why hasn't it ever crossed your mind that I only want to make the world a better place? Not everything is about you so shut your conceited ass up. You kill me with this shit all of the time. Tell me how does it feel to continuously kill your son every time you have something bad to say? You never happy!...-"

"Okay.. okay baby you made your point." Victoria grabs a hold of her son's hand.

"You need to watch your damn mouth, boy. Now I'll give you seven seconds to apologize or I'll-"

"Apologize? Man fuck you." He shouts, quickly storming off outside.

He had a few minutes to himself before he feels a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay honey? Don't worry about your father. " Victoria speaks, Tammy by her side.

"Momma you know, dad is only being dad. Of all people you should know.. I mean you staying with him.. I don't know why.-"

"Only because I know he means none of you any harm. You only need to talk with him. Then you'll see.-"

"There is no talking with him. The man is crazy. All he sees is his side, I'm not gonna waste my breath on him. Especially if all its going to do is turn into an argument."

"Baby he just doesn't want you going through what he has gone through when he was in the war. He's only having a hard time coming to terms with this."

"Well he needs to tell me that. Not be passive aggressive because it comes off to me as if he's jealous and just mean-spirited. I have no time for people like that in my life. And until he gets his shit together, I'm not coming back over here."

His mother sighs. "I- okay. Don't make decisions when your mind is everywhere. You two will figure something out soon. You two have always been great communicators."

Lakeith shrugs his shoulders and looks down. To change the conversation around, Tammy speaks, "So ... How was the woman? Was she that good of a nurse?"

"Yeah. She was beautiful. I almost forgot I was even in pain." He fortunately chuckles, glowing when he spoke about her as if he wasn't angered a few moments ago.

"Really? Well I can't wait to see her then." Victoria chimes in.

Tammy agrees, "Me too."

"Stay in the car though. You two can be real embarrassing." He jokes, making both of their faces fall on deadpan mode as he smiles.

At least they ended the day on good times. Lakeith thinks...