Chapter 18 – Kaia #2
“Shit has been around for a long time, too. Does that make it smell better? I say stuffs that make sense to me. I don’t got to say nothing else to make sense to nobody else. If you understand me and get the point, you don’t got a fucking thing to say. Understand?”
“Perfectly.”
“Now, do a poem for me.”
“Are you setting me up?”
“Do it and you’ll see.”
“My poetry is special to me.”
“Would you just think of something?”
Kaia thought for a moment. “You’re a dude. It feels strange—”
Axel growled.
“Fuck, fine. Can we go to sleep afterwards?”
“Yeah, cuz I got to be rested for when Mom and Reb get back from seeing Rule. They’ll be really sad. They have to leave him too and that’s not good. Rule’s chair is empty and everything. It hurts a man.”
“Emotional scars are hardest to heal, but Rule will be back.”
Axel sidled a glance at him. “Unlike your cousin, huh?”
Kaia flinched. “I don’t want to talk about that.”
“It’s okay. How old were you?”
Kaia debated on answering him, but Axel seemed to have heard almost the entire conversation. He must’ve followed Kaia out of the room. “Ten.”
“Your family blames you?”
“Yeah.”
“How old was he?”
“Ten, too.”
“Did he know how to swim?”
“Not as good as me.”
Axel frowned.
“It was my idea. He was the cool one. I was the weird one. I wanted to do something cool, too.”
“You were the weird one, he was the stupid one. He didn’t have to go, especially if he wasn’t a good swimmer. What is wrong with growed people? First, Diesel’s parents. Now yours.”
“Not them. Just the entirety of the rest of my family. All my aunts, uncles, and cousins. I couldn’t even go with Mom, Dad, and Kayce during family get-togethers.”
“Then they shouldn’t have gone either.”
“That’s their family.”
“Don’t care. They are your family. If any motherfucker told my mom and dad one of us couldn’t go somewhere, they wouldn’t go and Dad might shoot them for the disrespect. Your Mom and Dad wasn’t loyal to you.”
“Don’t talk about my parents.”
“Who else can I talk about? Not you this time cuz you were ten and weird. As little as you know now, I’m sure you didn’t know nothing then.” Axel sighed heavily. “I see the problem now.”
“Really? ‘Cause I sure the fuck don’t. I apologized and begged their forgiveness. They said nothing’s bringing their son back and I should’ve died.”
“And your mom and dad let that slide without a punch to their fucking mouths at the least?”
“Fights and violence isn’t the answer to everything.”
“Nope, but when words don’t slice it, then you find other stuffs to get your point across.
But I wasn’t talking about them, although I will say this.
Unless you held that motherfucker under the water, it wasn’t your fault.
When I’m in the pool, I don’t pay attention to a lot of stuffs neither.
You probably started having fun and thought he knew to stay in the part where he could stand the fuck up if he got in trouble with the water. ”
“It was dark. We jumped into the deep end.”
“Cuz he was stupid,” Axel insisted.
“It’s disrespectful to talk about the dead.”
“Not when that motherfucker’s dead cuz he made himself that way.
Do you really think I wouldn’t know not to jump in a fucking pool if I couldn’t swim?
He was ten. That man was old enough to use his fucking brain…
” Axel considered Kaia. “Never mind. He was your cousin. That explains it. It wasn’t your fault,” he reiterated without missing a beat.
“If I thought it was, I’d tell you cuz I still don’t like you for what you did with Fia.
By the way, I’m still waiting for my poem. ”
“I’m thinking.”
“I guess I’ll be waiting forever then.”
“Just for that, I’m not wracking my brain.”
“I probably saved it from injury, but you always say your poetry is so good, I’d think you’d want to make up one for me. Anyway, back to your problem.”
Kaia had almost forgotten Axel said that. “You already said what the issue was. My cousin’s death was on him and I should stop blaming myself.”
“I’m glad that sank in. Just remember it. That wasn’t the problem I meant.”
“I don’t remember us talking about another one.”
“How old are you again?” Axel asked suspiciously.
“Twenty in August.”
“Hmmm. Can senileness set in that early?”
“I’m not senile!”
“You must be, cuz, motherfucker, we been talking about my sister for a fucking hour. If you don’t know that’s the problem I was talking about, you’re either senile, stupid, or dumb.
Senileness can’t be helped. Stupidness can be undone if you learn stuffs.
So you got to be dumb cuz I’ve been trying to educate you and it didn’t get in your brain. ”
Kaia yawned, suddenly exhausted. As much as he tried, he couldn’t win any argument against Axel or get him to back down.
“If I make up the poem, will you let me go to sleep?”
“That tug has sailed. I don’t want the stupid poem now.”
“Your eyes are so green, every time I see them I think I’m looking at limes.”
Axel folded his arms and Kaia smirked.
“Your hair is so black I swear a raven splatted on your head and gifted you with its color.”
“Okay, that’s enough. Still stupid. Just as I suspected. And I think you’re trolling me. I’ll give you that one, though. I’m actually impressed.”
Kaia clamped his jaw to hide his smile.
“Now, if a raven splatted on my head, my hair would be red cuz that motherfucker would be dead and bloody. I have no words to even say how fucked up you were thinking about limes to talk about my eyes. Leave the poetry alone and look at everything else.”
“Poetry is all I have. I used to have football.”
“Poetry isn’t all you have. And that’s your fucking problem right there, dickface.
You think cuz Fia and Rebel pay attention to you that you’re cool now.
I don’t even want to talk about the money Mom gives you.
I know it’s a lot cuz she gives all of us a lot and all we got to do is clean our rooms, brush our teeth, and make good grades.
Dad says to wash our balls, cuz smelly, itchy balls suck. ”
Kaia laughed.
“So you get a lot of money. You got two girls who like you. By the way, Fia wants a biker, so unless you’re getting a fucking Harley, all she’s doing is using you.”
“I’ve been used before.”
“For pay. This time it’ll be for free.”
“Not exactly.”
“The sex thing. That don’t matter. My sister is the prize.
She makes lights come on in a room. You got money, so you got choices.
Rebel got her own money. All she’ll expect is for you to pay for dates.
Dad always does with Mom or when we go out as a family.
That’s what men do. Take care of their women even if they got a lot of stuffs and a lot of money.
Stop letting that money give you a swolled head. You will get Fia and you killed.”
“I didn’t give Fia any money.”
“Not yet. Another thing the club girls want? Especially the ones who’re trying to belong only to the Dwellers?
Money. I know that cuz I always hear how they try to get Diesel to give them money and he asks if they are out their fucking minds.
He said it’s cuz they’ll think they have a hold on him.
I guess that means that they’ll think he likes them more. ”
“Basically.”
“The club gives the club girls who belong to us money when they need it. Some of them are on the payroll to clean up, but it still smells mostly like ass and sweaty balls now.”
The club didn’t smell that bad. Sometimes, his old apartment smelled worse. “How do you know what ass and sweaty balls smell like? You’re just a kid.”
Axel scowled. “Man to man? I’ll ignore that fucking insult. I’m giving you a lot of passes. Stop testing my fucking patience. Besides, I got those motherfuckers, don’t I? What do you mean how I know how they smell?”
“You’re eleven. You don’t even have all your fucking adult teeth. How sweaty can your balls get?”
“I didn’t mention ass and sweaty balls to have a fucking conversation about them.
I was making a fucking point. Can you keep up already?
Wait. Never mind. Explaining will help. See, I got balls.
Dad calls them nuts sometimes, but whatever.
I just want you to know the different names since you don’t know much.
Anyway, I don’t think you’re being pervy.
You didn’t ask to see them or nothing. Dad said that would be an automatic death sentence right now and always tell an adult if a perv asks to see my cock and balls or show me theirs or touch me or have me touch them.
He wouldn’t have to worry. Me and my men would blow that motherfucker up ourselves. ”
They probably would. “You’re getting off-topic.”
“Nope. I’m right on topic. I’m telling you to help your brain go from flea size to bee size. We got to do this in baby steps. Now, since I got balls and an ass and I’m a dude and I run and jump and do a lot of stuffs, they get smelly. Understand now?”
Kaia nodded.
“That only took an hour,” Axel grumbled.
“More like five minutes.”
“You sure? It felt like a fucking hour.”
“Positive.”
“Okay, we got to wrap this up. So back to what I was first saying and how we got to talking about my sweaty balls. Mom knew how to make it smell good, but those motherfuckers didn’t appreciate that, so let their noses fall off.
The club girls can’t cook either. Me? If I was Prez.
I get rid of all those girls cuz they’re nothing but fucking trouble.
You know how they feel about Mom blocking them from Dad?
Look at how some of the brothers look at Mom.
Since they can’t have her, they let those other stupid girls talk them into being mean to Mom.
” He sighed again. “And Dad’s dad. I don’t know what to do about that motherfucker.
Mom probably wants to see Rule. Dad probably does too, but she didn’t bring him because he is still fucking with her.
But we got another problem that I’m trying to figure out what to do, so listen good.
This is your last fucking chance to show me you got a fucking brain. ”
“I’m listening.”
“Dad’s miserable without mom. I mean the mopey, Eeyore, sloth-like kind.
He’s old like Eeyore, so it tracks. Mom’s young and fun.
He won’t even dance unless it’s with her.
Anyway, ever since I was a little kid, the first fucking thing Dad thinks about doing is leaving his fucking club.
He probably wants to, but he loves his club a lot.
When those motherfuckers voted against him cuz of Uncle Johnnie and Uncle Cash, he felt upset.
Mom doesn’t go to the club that much anymore.
Now, she took Rebel away again. It doesn’t take a genius to know that Dad’ll crash out.
Even though Mom kept calling him, she still isn’t there.
He should fucking behave but I didn’t ask advice for that issue.
Dad has a whole plan in place for CJ. I think Mom’ll want him to follow that cuz she’s his ride-or-die.
She’s just so amazing and special. All he has to do is kill the motherfuckers who upset Mom, but a man feels it in his tired bones that he’s going to take the lazy route.
Say he’s resigning. After Mom gave him CJ, too. So what do I do?”
How was Kaia supposed to answer that, especially since he felt as if he failed this test, Axel would be disappointed in him. It really shouldn’t matter because the kid was scary, but it did. Whether Axel liked him didn’t matter either. Kaia liked Axel.
“Tick-tock, tick-tock. You’re running out of time.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Kaia admitted. “It sounds like it’s a very delicate situation. Your Mom is great, quite gorgeous and very smart. She’ll know what to do. Trust her.”
“First, her looks don’t got nothing to do with her brain. Do not get pervy like Diesel. Dad’ll kill you anyway, but that would be an awful way to go cuz you flirted with your girlfriend’s mom.”
“I didn’t mean anything.”
“Yeah, no. Mom didn’t like what you said earlier, so you meant something, motherfucker. You don’t got to mention Mom’s face when you talk about all her other stuffs. You can say she’s smart, nice, kind, or whatever. That still don’t mean you get to comment on how she looks.”
“Axel—”
“Hush! I need to call my men and I’ve spent enough time trying to make your brain smart. They have a mission and I need to go through a checklist. That’s your final test since you failed all the other ones.”
“Can I at least know what it is you’re doing.”
“They got a suitcase of supplies cuz they’re telling Dad and Uncle Val, whose the driver of the week, that they have a big presentation. It’ll explain the bees. The ants are in the suitcase.”
Alarm rushed through Kaia.
Axel gave him an under-eyed look. “It involves Devon and Rory for what they did to Rebel. They got to pay. I don’t think I got to say more.” With one last glance, he slid from beside Kaia and went to his bed, grabbed his phone and dialed.
Whatever the Triplets had planned for their cousins, Kaia decided they more than deserved.