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“Aye, fuck all that though. Since when did y’all get all high and mighty about being in the streets? And let me find out that’s the reason y’all feel like I’m not ready for a kid.”
“Imagine us judging you, Kai,” Quan gave him a look.
“Right,” I agreed with laughter. “But because we come from the same world we know the ins and outs. A opp caught my daddy lacking and it left me and my sisters fatherless at a young age. You wouldn’t want that for your kid, would you?”
He smacked his teeth. “I’m not even in beef with nobody right now.”
“Right now is crazy,” Vance laughed.
“Fuck the opps…the feds caught me lacking,” Uncle Quincy said, garnering laughter from everyone.
“It’s better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6,” I stated. “But if you have kids then they’ll suffer if you die or go to jail.”
“Anybody can die at any given time for any reason,” Vance said.
“That’s true, but we all know the chances increase when you’re in the streets. So yea, I think it’s selfish to have kids if you’re in the streets and have no intentions of slowing down.”
“Man, let’s dead this conversation,” Kai snapped.
“We must be hitting the nail on the head,” Uncle KG grinned. “Dream be on you about getting out the streets, huh?”
“No, not really. I mean, she has brought it up but only when I say something about her bartending at the strip club. She’ll be like I’ll stop serving drinks when you stop serving fiends,” he mocked her raspy, New Orleans accent like a pro. My stomach ached from laughing so hard. “But when it comes to kids she’ll just say she’s not ready and that she thinks that’s too serious of a step for us right now. I don’t know what she means by that though. She damn near lives with me.”
“That sleepover shit don’t count as living together,” Kyree said. “Y’all relationship is not even a year old yet. Maybe she just wants to see how y’all progress over time and maybe she does want to see you take life more seriously. I get it though…you love her so you want to have a kid with her, but having kids is so much deeper than that.”
“And most niggas don’t even care about the love aspect when they skeeting in a bitch. They just be thinking with they dicks and the long term consequences be the last thing on their brains,” Uncle Quincy said.
“Yea, you would know, huh?” Qaylo asked sarcastically.
Quan laughed. “ Unc not lying, though. Cause I definitely wasn’t thinking when I got Quan Junior’s mama pregnant when I was 16. I was just getting my rocks off and ended up with a baby by someone I didn’t even want to call my girlfriend. I don’t regret my son, but that baby mama shit gave a nigga grey hair before I even graduated high school. My daughter taught me the importance of being intentional when bringing kids into the world.”
“Nigga not bouta wait until they married to have kids,” Vance huffed.
“Alright, now that’s ass backwards,” Uncle KG declared. “You want a woman to risk her life by carrying and delivering a baby, but you can’t give her a real commitment before doing so? Man, these young girls better protect they wombs with niggas like you on the loose.”
“You wasn’t married when you had Kyree, KG,” Uncle Quincy pointed out.
“Thanks for the reminder. I forgot,” he replied sarcastically. “I’m not saying being married before having kids is the ultimate sin or the worst thing you can do. Cause we’ve all done it…everybody except Quinton.”
“Actually, that nigga was almost a teen dad, too,” Qaylo smirked.
“Nigga, why would you bring some shit up like that?” Quinton hissed. I had no idea what they were talking about but clearly Q didn’t appreciate it. But just like a brother, Qaylo found his reaction funny.
“Look, all I’m saying is if you got the balls to bring a life into this world then you should have the balls to get married. You can undo marriage…you can’t undo a human being,” Uncle KG said.
“Preach,” I nodded.
“Nigga, you not married and you got a whole baby on the way. I know you not talking,” Kai grumbled.
“This not about me, though,” I replied, making everyone laugh. “For real though, Lourdes came out of no where and changed my mindset about a lot of shit. I ain’t never had a pregnancy scare with nobody in my life because I went out of my way to be safe.”
“I don’t blame you. You was already taking care of too many kids,” Quan shook his head.
“Man, anyway…I never thought about having kids. But Lourdes made me think about everything I never thought about. After a month with her I was thinking about marriage, kids, and the white picket fence. Now…the kid is coming first because a nigga was being reckless and I didn’t give a fuck about the outcome.”
“So you got her pregnant on purpose?” Uncle Quincy asked.
“Yea, I guess,” I shrugged.
