"You know that girl outta your league right?",Romeo said taking a sip out of his drink. Romeo and I squashed our lil argument this morning and we were somewhat cool. But with him, there could be another one headed my way.

"Khia?"

"Yeah."

"How she outta my league?"

"She's too tough for you."

"Tough?",i said nearly spitting out my drink.

"Khia not tough."

"She is. You don't see it in her? She got backbone if she still standing up to ya mom like that. Them other girls woulda left you by now."

"Them other girls ain't had to experience what Khia is experiencing now cause they were Dominican."

"Yeah True. But you lucky tho. She look like the type that will put up with anything even if you cheat on her she'll stay."

"I don't plan on cheatin on her",I said taking a sip of my drink.

"Really? So if I call Marisol right now, you won't think about smashing her?"

"Nah. I see Marisol every day at school. She annoy the crap outta me."

"What if I tell you she here now?"

"Ain't no way",I said laughing nearly spitting my drink out.

"She in town."

"Why? And how you know? Y'all talk?"

"Yea ever since I smashed her she comes here occasionally to say hi to the fam."

"Leaving her is the best decision I'd ever made in my life",I said feeling my jaw get tight.

"I don't want her nowhere near Khia."

"If she shows up that ain't got nothing to do with me."

"Yea ok."

"What's the update on the papers?",he asked me.

"They said I'm not making enough to fill for you guys so I'm trying to get another job and see if I can try to fill again."

"Man why it's taking so long? When your dad filled for you, I don't remember it taking so long for you to get into the U.S."

"Well there's other factors that play a role. As the year passes, laws change and with the president we got now it makes it a lil harder cause he not with the immigrant policy. He actually tryna get rid of that."

"Damn",he said.

"But I got y'all. I'm doing my best to get y'all outta here."

"Thanks. We appreciate it. Even though you get on my nerves, I really appreciate you and you know you like a bro to me."

I looked at his eyes and they were alert and not droopy so I knew he wasn't high.

That was surprising.

"I always got y'all. But once you get to the U.S you gotta do better man. The smoking and drinkin gotta stop."

"Yeah Yeah Yeah i know",he said waving me off.

"I'm serious Rome. You gotta do somethin with your life",I said seriously looking at him.

"Ight."

We finished our drinks and made our way back to the house. Khia was having a conversation with my mom out on the porch which really caught me off guard. I kissed her on the cheek and continued to enter the house. I didn't want to interrupt their conversation but I was happy that they were getting along, mostly my mom. I knew she's a tough cookie to crack but she'll break if you keep persisting.

"You see ya momma out there, hijo?",my dad asked laying on the couch.

"Yeah she's outside talkin to Khia",I said sitting in a chair across from him.

"Oh really? You ain't hear no arguing did you?",he said with a raised eyebrow.

"Nah pops",I chuckled.

"That's a good sign."

"Yeah. I know mom is a lil biased towards her cause she not Dominican."

"Yeah but I think she always liked Khia. She's just different, not your typical Latina."

"Well she might as well be. She spend more time with the girls than with me now. Only time I really see and talk to her is when we go back to the hotel."

"Are y'all in here talking about me?",Khia said entering the living room.

"Tiago here being jealous cause you spend more of your time with the family than with him",Rome said causing her to laugh.

"Aww that's not true. He brought me here to meet the family right?",she said sitting on my lap.

"I did but I thought you'd spend some time with me too babe."

"So when we be in the room we don't be spending time together?",she asked me.

"Keep it pg please",my pops said laughing.

"Nah not really we be asleep by the time we get home."

"No you be asleep. Y'all, he falls asleep as soon as he's done taking a shower. I don't even get a 'goodnight'",she said trying to make her point. They laughed and side with her.

"You fall asleep when she wanna play. So that ain't her fault",Jennifer said joining in on the conversation sitting next to Dad.

"Trust me. We haven't been playin",I said.

"You sound upset about that tiago",Rome said.

"I'm not but I thought I was gone get a lil somethin",I said chuckling. Khia hit me on my arm signaling me not to say anything about our sexual business in front of the family.

"I sure hope y'all ain't fornicatin",my dad said. I looked at Romeo and he looked at me and we both laughed.

"What was y'all out there talkin about?",i asked Khia puttin her on the spot.

"You and my background like where exactly I'm from and stuff."

"Yea where are you from? I know you told me you was haitian but are you from Haiti ?",Jennifer asked her.

"No I was born in the states but my parents were born in Haiti."

"So can you speak french?"

"Only a little bit. I speak more creole than french."

"Oh okay so you have a culture too."

"Yeah. It's similar to yours and the language is similar to Spanish that's how I pick it up easily",she said.

"Like in the things we eat, we have rice as our main dish and pair it with oxtails or chicken as our meat and Mac and cheese but not that nasty type of mac & cheese. And we have the same faith in God depending on religion of course. The standards for school is the same. Education is always important",she explained.

"What are you going to school for?",Rome asked.

"Dentistry. Right now I'm a dental assistant at my job."

"Why did you choose dentist?"

"It's my passion. Everything about cleaning teeth is important to me for some reason."

"What about you Santiago? Don't you like teeth?",Romeo said causing everyone to laugh cause the way he said it.

"I like a girl with pearly whites but cleaning teeth, repairing teeth is not my thing. She's better at that than I am, I'll freak out cause of the drilling alone. I'm in school for business and criminal justice."

"I knew you was gonna be something in justice cause ever since we was kids, you liked to snitch",Romeo said making everyone laugh including me.

"If you was ever doin the right thing, I wouldn't have to",i said.

"So there's a degree in both?",Jennifer asked me.

"Nah its like taking two different programs at the same time and graduating with 2 degrees instead of focusing on one program and getting one degree."

"Oh so you gone be making big bucks", Romeo said.

"He already makes big bucks. That's why we gave him bills in the house to pay",my pops said laughing.

"Santiago was always a brainiac. He knew everything. I thought he was gonna be a Doctor",Jennifer said.

"I could but I don't have a passion for that either. She could",I said referring to Khia.

"I can't. That's too much studying I'll go insane."

"Babe you sayin that like you wasn't just going insane a couple days ago about your grades online",I said with a chuckle.

"Yea I guess your right. But doctor is just a lot. That's a whole other level",she said laughing. It's not like she couldn't handle it cause I believe she could if she wanted it bad enough.