"You gonna smoke a blunt with us?",Rico asked me. We was at a nearby beach and the weather was real nice out. The waves were calm and the palm trees were swaying back and forth. I watched as Khia walked in the water with her flowy dress with my aunt and cousins, Jennifer and Ana. Khia wasn't paying me any mind so I knew smoking a blunt wouldn't be obvious to her.

"Yea you got one?"

"Yea",he said. I pulled out my lighter and took a pipe.

"So what's up with you man? You don't know nobody no more?",i said to Romeo my other cousin. There's not a time where his eyes never hung low and he was itching under his nose.

"Your mr. Hollywood. We can't relate."

"What do you mean man? Always got jokes",Rico and I laughed.

"You came in here your Louis Vuitton bag and nice shoes on ya feet and a hot girl on ya hip. Must be nice",Romeo said. I looked at him closely and dude was serious.

"You go to the states and forget about us. You don't even call",he said. Rico, romeo and I were close in age and we usually fight over some dumb sh.t and I'm thinking that's bout to happen now.

"I come every year to see y'all. I send money for yall whenever I can. So, miss me with that bull, Rome",I said taking another puff.

"All you do is take the money and snort it so don't talk to me about me forgetting about y'all. Go to school, get some education and stop messin with that stuff man",i continued.

"Easier said than done. I'm out here struggling and don't nobody give me money",he complained.

"Because all you do is buy coke with it. And once you out, you go steal money",Rico said. I'm glad he was here to testify what I was tryna say.

"Shut up",Romeo said mean muggin Rico.

Ion know what Rome was talkin about but as usual I don't never know what he talkin about Cause he be high majority of the time. I looked out in the ocean and saw Khia sitting on a big rock near it.

"How'd You meet her?",Romeo said passing the blunt to me.

"School. Saw her sitting at the cafeteria by herself, thought she was cute so I invited her to a party at my crib and we hit it off."

"It was that easy huh",Rico said.

"Nah it wasn't. Let's just say she was going through a situation before she met me."

"Had a boyfriend huh",Romeo said.

"Somethin like that."

"You taught her Spanish?"

"Yea just a little bit. Had to. You know how our fam is."

"Yeah. Tía don't like her though",Rico said laughing.

"How you know?"

"You could tell by her facial expressions",Romeo said.

"Well she's just gonna have to get over it."

"So how's life in the states?",Romeo said.

"Life is good. It's different from here. The styles are different. Here, you could wear whatever you want and no one cares as long as your not naked. In the states, it's all about the latest sneakers, latest phone, latest everything",I explained.

"Yea that explains the Louis Vuitton bag you was carrying from the airport",Rico said.

"Yeah it's just real different over there. Not much communication. Everybody spends their time on their phones a lot to the point where we can't have conversations",I said passing the blunt.

"Khia does that too."

"Nah. I don't really see her on her phone while we having a conversation unless she has to show me something."

"That's respect",Romeo said in a monotone voice.

"Yea got to man. You got a lady?"

"Ladies, man I got one for every day of the week."

Some things never changed with Romeo.

"What about you Rico?",i asked.

"Nah the right one hasn't come yet. Let me ask you this, what made you pick an American girl?"

"To be completely honest with ya, I was tired of the latinas. They are beautiful and have gorgeous bodies but every Latina I've dated are fast and aren't faithful. They talk to their man however they want to like a dog",I explained.

"So you date a black woman?"

"She's haitian."

"Oh okay that makes sense. I can pick it up her accent sometimes when she talk",Romeo said.

"So your lady don't talk back to you?",Rico asked.

"She do sometimes but we have a mutual respect for each other. She doesn't belittle me like my ex did",I said referring to Marisol.

"Marisol was sexy as f...",Romeo said.

"Her personality wasn't."

"She ever told you we f...ed?",romeo said rolling another blunt.

"Nah. While we was together?"

"Yeah",he said with a stupid grin on his face. I could punch him in the face right now but knowing the type a hoe Marisol was, i didn't even bother. If that girl could cheat on me with my best friend, who wouldn't she have sex with behind my back?

Khia

Getting to know tiago's cousins was really cool. I knew he was the only child so they could pass for his sisters. Jennifer had curly shoulder-length black hair and a few freckles on her face. She looked more mixed than Dominican and resembled tiago a little. Ana looked more Latina with her dyed-blonde long straight hair.

"I've always wanted to go up there?", Jennifer said taking a bite out of her fresco. We stopped by what looked like a ice cream truck and we bought slushies but they call it granizados in Spanish. Back in my country they would call it frescos.

"America is not all it's cracked up to be",i said.

"I want to taste the American food the pizza with the pepperoni and cheese",ana said with a thick accent. Jennifer and I laughed.

"I'm not a big fan of pizza. It's fattening and I have to watch my waistline",I said.

There was a reason why I was what they would call 'slim thick'. It took a lot of work to get this body. They laughed.

"Shes right. That's why she look like a supermodel",Jennifer said.

"I wish",I said biting into my slushie.

"I Do wish I could go to the states though",Jennifer said.

"You can if you can get a visa or something",I said.

"It's not as easy as you think. Santiago has been trying for years to get us to move out of here."

"Yea he told us he can't just yet because he's not making enough money to be able to do the papers and file for us to go to the U.S",ana added. My heart broke the fact that Santiago is trying to get them to come to the U.S. he really was such a good man and loved his family. He didn't want to see them struggling and living in a third world country.

"Wow. I didn't know that",i said.

"Yeah but aside from that, he's really been helping. He comes to visit every year, he sends money for us, he even paid for me and my sister to go to college through a loan. He pays the bank their money back every month. That's more of a reason for us to graduate to thank him. Without my cousin, I don't know where I'd be. I thought about going out on the streets sleeping with men just for me to have money",Jennifer said while tears ran down her cheek.

"Gosh jen your such a baby",she said wiping her sister's tears. I could feel Ana's embarrassment as she wiped her sister's face with her hand.

"We owe him a lot."

"Im So sorry You guys had to go through this",I said feeling their pain.

"We're fine now. Santiago is doing more than enough for this family that's why we appreciate him so much."

It was getting late and Santiago and I just reached our hotel room. His eyes were red and low so I figured he was really tired. He swiped the room key in and opened the door for me. I sat on the bed and took my black gladiator sandals off. During the whole time while we was about to get here, I just kept thinking about their family situation and my heart just aches for them.

"What's wrong? Why you look like that babe?",he asked me.

"Nothing",I lied.

"You didn't have a good time at the beach?"

"I did. I really got to know your cousins. They're really cool and great people to be around. I think we got pretty close. It's just that you.."

"What about me?",he said taking his shirt off.

"It's a lot I didn't know about. I didn't know you was your family's biggest support system babe."

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't know you was helping financially. I didn't know you really made sacrifices for your family to have food on the table , to have a place to stay, like you put both your cousins in school",I explained. He looked at me surprised and said , "they told you all that?". He raised a eyebrow. I didn't know if he was about to get mad or what.

"Yea. It just happened. I swear I didn't ask them questions or anything",I said trying to defend myself in case he did get mad.

"Nah it's cool babe. I just didn't think they would've opened up to you like that. What else did they tell you?"

"I don't wanna say too much cause you look like your in attack mode like you bout to grill them for telling me."

He chuckled and said, "Nah I'm not mad I swear. I'm just shocked because my cousins are both guarded people. Your like a stranger to them and they feel comfortable enough to share that with you."

"Really? I didn't get that vibe from them. They were real chill and Jennifer broke down saying if it wasn't for you, she would've been sleeping around for money."

"Yeah the thought did cross her mind. Soon as I found out about it, I was pissed and did whatever I had to do to keep her from doing that. They my cousins but I treat them like my sisters",he said sitting on the sofa across from me.

"Why didn't you tell me?",I asked.

"I'm real sensitive when it comes to my family. After God, they were my priority and still are. I was born here and I'm familiar with my country. The dirt roads, the houses made from tin, the houses made from rocks, the weather, sleeping in the heat, walking miles to search for food, I was raised in this & I promised that if I made it out of here, I will get them out too. I didn't tell you because I didn't want to hear any negativity about me helping out my fam. Also, I didn't know they would tell you so I didn't bother to tell you ."

"That's understandable & I respect it. But let me just clear this out right now and tell you since we're on this topic. I'm not a woman that's gonna stop you from giving back to your family, I think that's a great thing and it makes me appreciate you more. I knew that when I kept sayin that your mom doesn't like me and stuff, you tried to shrug it off but I knew it bothered you because your a family man and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. But now I will work harder to try to get your mom to accept me",I said.

"Khia listen to me. If you want my mom to accept you, stick around. That's it."

"I plan to unless you had other plans."

"Trust me babe, I don't. Just ride this ride with me. Loyalty means everything to me. Give me that and I'll be more than satisfied."