Page 5 of The Legend

My eyesdrifted toSway’sass as she leaned over the table topull the steaks closer.

Damn Iwished we wouldn’t have been interrupted earlier.Maybe no one would notice if I took herinside the bathroom. Who was I kidding? Everyone would notice. They alwaysnoticed which was precisely why we were always being interrupted.

“You twonever listen toallthe directions I give you. If you would, youwouldn’t get caught so often.” Spencer pointed to the boys as though he wasgiving a lecture. “You need to get good at coming up with lies to protectyourself.”

“Don’ttell them that!” My mom scolded him, “they are good nice boys. Don’t teach themto lie.”

“Clearlyyou’re not talking about these two,” my dad, Jimi snorted pouring sauce overhis steak. “They lie worse than politicians.”

“Back to thepoint,” gaining focus, I spoke up before I drug my wife upstairs. “What did youguys do that backfired?”

Castenraised his hand again and then broke out into giggles. With his flushed cheeks,bright green eyes and contagious smile, it was hard not to find him funny.

“Stopraising your hand and answer me.”

“In mydefense, I didn’t know it was illegal.”

Colecoughed appearing to choke on hisPepsihe’d taken a drink from, “That’sbullshit.”

My momgasped covering her mouth at their language.

“Allright,” Casten threw his arms in the air, “I spray painted the mascot at schooltoday.”

“How isthat illegal?” Sway asked knowing we’d done that a time or two back in school.

“Well,”Casten took on a formal upright posture folding his hands on the table. “This dumbassbeside me,” he tipped his head to Spence, “...alsoknown as my uncle Spencer,” Spencer’s eyes widened, his fork falling to hisplate, “...told me that if I managed to paint the horsetoo, he’d give me fifty bucks. I needed some extra cash.”

Spencergrabbed a handful of grapes from the middle of the table and tossed them atCasten’s face. “I’m not helping you anymore.”

“Spencer!”My mom balked, “what were you thinking?”

“Wait,” Iwaved my hands around trying to grasp what happened. “How is that illegal?”

“Uh, well,apparently that horse at school is a police horse.”

“Jesus,were you arrested?” Sway asked.

“No, I’m aminor but I do have detention until the end of school.” He looked up at Swayusing his pouty face that he had perfected for her. “Can I be home schooled?I’m clearly not suitable for public schools.”

Castenconstantly argued that he needed to be home schooled. We weren’t buying it nordid either of us have time to home school him.

“No, youcan’t be home schooled. How come the school didn’t call me today?”

“I’mpretty sure they did.” Casten’s eyebrows rose in amusement. “You can’t findyour phone again, remember?”

He wasballsy, I’ll give him that, but I wasn’t convinced and he wasn’t getting offthe hook that easy.

“Listen,”I pointed to Casten taking on my own fatherly tone to which Spencer chuckled,“you’re thirteen...or fourteen...whatever...you’re still a child and shouldn’t be doingshit like this.”

“Jameson,”Spencer interrupted. “Take it easy on him. It was a crap shot to begin with andthat little shit Devin told on him. If it wasn’t for him he would have nevergot caught painting the horse. Which I might add wasn’t in uniform. How were weto know it was a police horse?”

“You werethere too?” I gasped.

Castenclapped slowly with a smirk. “Well played jackass,” he said throwing the grapesback at him, “you nearly had him convinced.”

Sittingbeside Casten, Arie, who’d remained glued to her phone, glared at him. “Stopthrowing shit around the table.”

Ariedidn’t eat meat. She wasn’t a vegetarian but didn’t actively eat meat. SoCasten knowing how to fluster his older sister took a steak from the plate andthrew it onto her plate over her salad.

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