"Watch your step babe it's kinda dark out here",I said letting her into the house. I'm sure she was nervous and truth is, I am too. It's past midnight at this point and we both had class in the morning.

We found my mom in the living room in her pajamas yawning.

"Hi honey",she said to Khia and hugged her.

Khia and my mom was fairly cool but it was just my dad acting up. Tonight better not be the night cause I'm already on the fence with him. We only speak if he tells me to do something.

"Call Dad out here cause I gotta take Khia home. We both got class in the morning",I told my mom. Khia looked at me and leaned up on me.

"I'm tired",she said to me.

"I know baby I am too. He got 5 minutes I swear",I said rubbing my eyes.

Suddenly, he finally came out and greeted Khia in particular and not me. It's all good though cause I already made my bed.

"I won't keep you long. I just wanted you to stop by so I can apologize to you for kicking you out the house that night. I shouldn't have done that",he said. I yawned and got on my phone because what he really need to apologize for isn't what he's apologizing for. He basically sorry for Khia hearing all he said about her.

"Also, I just want to explain to you why I've been unreasonable. Santiago is my only child and my son. I raised him in a certain path for a reason not to be out here killing people because he's madly in love with a girl."

"I understand that Mr. Rodriguez but Santiago is grown, he has a mind of his own. He can make decisions on his own and he's smart enough to know not to make a decision based off of me. I know he loves me but that's just it. He loves me. That doesn't make him stupid or crazy. With all due respect sir, when I met Santiago, I didn't know he even owned a gun until we went to D.R. There's still things I'm still figuring out about him myself but his decisions are never based off of me",Khia said cutting him off and respectfully pausing to let him speak now.

"His actions aren't actions of a man. Certain things he's doing, he never used to do. In and out of jail? That's not the man I raised. He never used to be like that until he met you."

"Honestly, I know you don't like me sir. And that's fine but don't put his actions a blame on me because what you don't know behind closed doors is that I talk to him as well. I even told him to get rid of his gun, told him I miss the old tiago because the person I'm seeing now isn't him. We've had a conversation already. I could deal with you not liking me but please don't place the blame on me as if I'm the one corrupting tiago because I'm not. I love him I want the best for him too",Khia said and he didn't even know what to say after that.

"We done here?",I said looking up from my phone.

"Tiago stop it",my mom said. I was getting tired of this family drama and just wanted to call it a night.

"How about after church we have dinner",my dad offered to Khia.

"That'll be fine. I'd like that."

I wouldn't cause it could be a part 2 to this.

Driving home to eb's house, we didn't say anything to each other cause I'm guessing we both just drained out and tired.

"I'll get rid of my gun",I told her while turning the car off.

"Is that somethin you want to do or your just doing it cause I told you to?"

"Little bit of both. I just feel like I gotta always protect you all the time. You really meant what you said back there?"

"Which part?"

"You still feel like I'm a different person?"

"To be honest, I do. I got a black eye and your ready to go on a killing spree without knowing who exactly did it. Maybe you wasn't thinking clearly but that's not how you should've went about it. I shouldn't have to block you at the door to stop you. It's not a perfect world out here and you can't protect me from anything. It's my fault cause I didn't look for other options to get home."

"Nah babe don't put that burden on you. It ain't your fault. You ain't asked to get beat up like that."

"I know but til this day idk who it is so until then, I'll just be more careful. But as for you, I want the old tiago back. And this is like the second time I'm telling you that because the new you that your becoming, is scaring me. It's bringing memories of my dad back and I don't want to see my dad in you."

She reached in my glove department and got the gun.

"This doesn't make you powerful, safe, or a man. It makes you a coward babe",she said handing it to me.

"I'll see you tomorrow. I love you",she said and kissed me on the lips. She left me there with my thoughts and I watched as she went in the house safely. I didn't even leave the parking lot until a couple minutes later because I was just in deep thought. I've always had a gun but for the purposes I intended in using for wasn't the right reason. I had a license to carry, but I guess having it made me feel like I gotta always have it to protect myself snd most importantly the woman I love. I'm a bit of a hothead so I don't do well with people telling me what to do. But this about the second time Khia brought it to my attention. She says I'm scaring her, I ain't the same and I wasn't about to let something like this jeopardize our relationship. I fear the next time she mentions it, it's gonna be a factor of why we gonna break up and I don't want that to happen cause I plan on spending forever with her. I guess this just another thing ima have to sacrifice at the cost of my relationship. We almost a year in and I wanna continue with Khia.