A/N: "iM uPdAtInG oN tUeSdAy"
"Lila, why you lied?"
Well, I updated, so shut y'all asses
Btw, thanks SO much for so much support on the prologue. I really didn't expect it on the first chapter! :D
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It's only good manners that the Freemans welcome their new neighbors to the neighborhood, right?
Although he's reluctant to, Granddad decides to bake (and burn) a bundt cake as a housewarming gift for the new family next door.
Before he and his grandkids take off to say 'hi' to the neighbors, Granddad takes a moment to prepare himself in the bathroom.
He splashes his face with cold water from the sink and looks at himself in the mirror.
"Alright, calm down, Robert," he assuages himself. "Just don't make eye contact with her, and pretend you don't know her."
"Granddad, you comin'?" Huey hollers from the front door.
"Yeah! I'm just grabbin' the cake!" he answers.
Granddad hurries out of the bathroom and into the kitchen to grab a cake tray with the slightly burnt bundt cake inside of it. He then moves towards the front door where the boys are waiting and leaves with them.
Huey leads the Freeman trio to the neighbors' front door. He gives it three light knocks then rings the doorbell.
Robert waits and hides behind the boys, feeling the cake tray wobble in his shaky hands.
Lord, please don't let Cristal answer, he pleads.
His request is promptly granted. The door lightly swings open, revealing the lanky caramel man from before. He wears a goofy grin as he greets the Freemans.
"Hi, I'm Tom Dubois!" His voice is deep and rhythmic, each word resembling a beautifully belted song lyric.
"How are you?" he asks, stretching his open hand out for each Freeman to shake.
Dammit, he looks so nice!
Granddad is overwhelmed with a sudden wave of guilt.
I can't tell him what happened!
Robert releases the breath he was unaware that he was holding in.
"Hi, Tom!" he replies. "I'm Robert Freeman, and these are my two grandsons: Huey and Riley."
The boys both scan the man dressed in a blue polo and white pants.
"We just came to welcome you all to the neighborhood," Granddad continues.
He holds the cake out for Tom, and the kind man takes it.
"Why, thank you, Robert!" Tom nods and gratuitously smiles in return.
"We're also having dinner around 6 and were wondering if you'd like to come over," Granddad offers.
Tom gives a lighthearted chuckle.
"My wife and I would love to!" he replies.
Robert peeks over Tom's shoulder to see a blonde woman scrolling through her phone while walking past the doorway. His heart shoots up to his throat as soon as she looks in their direction and blows him a kiss from her luscious red lips.
Tom notices his neighbor's eyes widening with panic, causing the prim and proper man to glance behind himself, only to see open space.
"Is something wrong?" Tom asks.
"Yo' wife got ass," Riley comments.
If they weren't in a rich, white neighborhood, where ass-whoopings are seen as child abuse, Robert would've worn Riley's out right then and there.
Instead, he just claps his hand over his crude grandson's mouth to keep him quiet.
"I'm so sorry," Robert apologizes. "My grandson's a bit of a dumbass."
Tom seems a bit taken aback, but he continues nonetheless:
"Oh-well, as I was saying, we have a daughter, and I'm sure she and the boys would make great friends."
"That sounds lovely," Robert replies with a nod.
Tom begins to smile and wave to the Freemans.
"Alright, see ya at 6!" he exclaims as they leave.
"See ya then!" Robert shouts back.
...
It's difficult to tell that the Dubois family is new to Woodcrest; they arrive ten minutes early to the Freeman house, just like any of the other suburban inhabitants would to an event.
Ding-Dong!
"Huey, go get that!" Granddad shouts from the kitchen.
Huey hops off the living room couch and goes to answer the door, the Dubois' standing there, as expected.
"Hi, Huey!"
Tom gives the young man a fist bump as he passes by him.
Following her husband, the blonde light skin lady from before coos at Huey, taking a hit at his manhood:
"Hey, little man!" she greets him, adoringly. "You are too cute!"
She leans over to leave an affectionate smooch on his cheek.
"I'm Mariah," she tells him.
"And I'm thirteen," Huey quickly retorts, his stone-cold face demanding respect.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she chuckles.
She extends her hand to shake his.
"I'll treat you like the grown man you are, then," she pledges with an honest smile.
He shakes her hand, and she walks past him into the house, leaving her daughter.
The redhead appears extremely shy, as she's not even able to meet his eyes. She delicately wraps her arms around herself, like a small child would wear a security blanket.
"Uh..." he trails off, looking her up and down.
He's unsure how to greet the timid girl. It seems as if one word would send her sprinting off in the opposite direction.
"Hi?" it comes out as more of a question than a greeting.
She murmurs something inaudible in response, barely looking up from the ground when she does.
An awkward silence forms between them. His eyes dance around as he wonders what he should do next.
"...Come in-"
The girl practically knocks him over on her clumsy rush inside the house. When he regains his balance, he scratches his afro and raises a brow.
What's up with her? he wonders.
He closes and locks the door, walking past the kitchen on his way back to the living room.
He watches Mariah help Granddad prepare the food, while Tom sets the table and blabs on about some old pianist from the 20's.
As Mariah stands next to his grandfather at the counter, Huey notices Granddad is very tense, considering his stiff shoulders and reddened cheeks.
She, on the other hand, seems very comfortable, spotting an impish grin as she slowly devours him with her longing gaze.
He discreetly observes as Mariah slowly lifts her hand and caresses Granddad's ass, earning a sharp help from the old man. She quickly retracts her hand just in time to avoid getting caught by Tom.
"Something wrong, Robert?" he asks.
"He just sliced his finger while cutting the tomatoes," Cristal answers for Granddad, her smirk, now, an innocent smile.
"No biggie," she adds.
She then looks up at Granddad.
"Right, Robert?"
Robert stutters as he forces out a calm (or close to calm, at least) response:
"Um, y-yeah," he agrees.
Tom then continues his boring lecture about the pianist, and Granddad and Cristal continue cooking, as if nothing just happened.
Huey, eyes wide with shock and disgust, almost trips over himself, hurrying out of their sight. He decides to go to the garage to clear his head and—most importantly—work on the cure.
Jazmine watches the mysterious boy with the afro pass through the living room as she and Riley watch TV.
"Ew! Why you starin' at him like that?"
Riley grimaces at the ginger girl.
Her shy demeanor keeps her from responding. She lowers her eyes to her phone and aimlessly scrolls through it.
"So, you still ain't speakin', huh?" he prods at her.
He inches closer to her, allowing her to feel his dark eyes burn into the side of her face.
"Are you a baby or somethin'?" he teases her. "Do you even know how to talk?"
This seems to push Jazmine to her limit. She stands up and wanders off away from the youngest Freeman.
"Ay! Where you goin'?" he shouts after her. "You forgot yo' pacifier!"
Jazmine finds herself lost and holding back tears in the first floor hallway of the house. She hurries further down the hall, until she finds a door at the end of it. Thinking it's a bathroom, she opens it and enters without any second thought.
She holds her head in her hands and sniffles.
Don't do it, Jazmine, she coaches herself. No more crying. This is a new start.
She takes a moment to fight back her tears and wipe them away, until her pity party is interrupted by a familiar voice:
"Yo," someone calls to her.
She lifts her head, revealing her flushed face and puffy eyes. Her breathing comes to an abrupt halt with the realization that she isn't inside a bathroom.
It's a garage, instead.
A little ways from her is the same boy with the afro from before, working at some kind of workstation.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" he asks once he notices he has her attention.