Kyle...

My lids slowly opened and my eyes rested on a mess of hair that was on the pillow next to me. I was about to jump up in fear when the events of the night before came back to me.

Spotting 'Gold Dress', shirt soaked in alcohol, cute girl offering to help, tons of drinks and flirting, and then ending up back here. Let's just say the night ended with a bang.

I pulled myself up from the bed, then put on the random sweats I found on the floor. I looked back at....Norine...I think? Man, I was worse than Pax.

I questioned if I should wake her, but we had a long night, and I decided I should just let her sleep.

I left my bedroom and headed to the kitchen, holding my throbbing head in the process. The leftovers from a few nights before were calling my name. Hopefully I can keep it down. After popping it in the microwave, I looked around for my phone that I had randomly thrown somewhere the night before. Once it was found, I looked through the notifications. Most were congratulatory texts, tweets, and DMs from family, friends, and fans. There were a few missed calls from dad, all a few minutes apart. Something was up.

I checked my messages and opened the one from my dad.

"WARNING! We're on our way, your mom wants to surprise you. That apartment better be clean before we get there or she'll throw a fit. Get rid of whatever needs to be gotten rid of!"

"Shit!" I cursed looking around my apartment.

I spotted cups on the dining room table and quickly grabbed them and threw them in the dishwasher. Any dirty plate or bowl I found went in right behind them.

I looked around again in panic, looking for whatever needed to be cleaned. I guess training for a week straight and barely being home came with some perks.

I heard the vibrating of a phone, and quickly ran to mine on the coffee table. But the screen was black. The vibrating wasn't coming from my phone, but from between the cushions of the couch. I quickly ran my hand through the creases and found an iPhone with a blue sparkly case. "Dad" and a picture of a random black man were on the screen.

"Shit!" I said as it hit me that homegirl was still in my bed and that her father was calling her.

I was about to run off to my room when I heard a knock on my door. My stomach sank.

"Kyle! It's mom and dad!" I heard my mother say.

"And Krissy!" My sister's little voice was heard from behind the door.

I ran my hands through my short curls in panic. What was I going to do? There was no way I could sneak a girl out, there was only one entrance.

A plan ran through my head as I slowly made my way towards the door.

"Kyle?!"

"Coming!" I said, knowing if I didn't say anything she would open the door with her key. Remind me why I gave this woman a key to my apartment?

I arrived at the door and took a deep breath, a somewhat solid plan in mind. Once the door was opened, I was bombarded with a tight hug.

"Oh, baby I'm sooo proud of you!" My mom said before planting a big ole kiss on my cheek.

"Mom," I groaned.

"What?" She said pulling away from me and grabbing my chin, "You're not too old for mommy's kisses. Right, Krissy?"

"Right!" She said in agreement before running to me and jumping onto my arms.

I easily lifted her over my shoulder and she erupted in a fit of giggles.

"What's up stink face?" I asked.

"What's up booger brain?" She replied.

"Stop calling each other that!" My mother scolded before walking into the apartment, my dad following behind.

"Hey son," he said before pulling me into a hug. "Got my text?"

"Yeah," I whispered.

"What text?" Krissy asked from on top of my shoulder.

"Nothing," my dad said quickly, pulling her off me.

"It's actually clean in here this time," my mother said walking through the house, "there's not random cups in every corner."

"See, I listen to you," I grinned and saw my dad roll his eyes. "What are guys even doing here? Thought you'd be busy with the launch."

My mother's career has been nothing but success since we moved to Washington when I was twelve. That article she wrote on the Hawthorne's was the one that set it all on track. She started writing more and more articles that had the masses talking. She started getting sent all over the country by Coopers to cover stories and even got to be a ANN contributor. She's still one to this day. She had a lot of journalist and writer fans, many of which were young women of color. When they started complaining about the lack of spaces for them to showcase their work, she decided to provide that very space for them. She went to the Grant Company with her ideas and was easily given the money. It helped to have your husband and sister-in-law running the company. She is now the owner of Wright Publishing and planning on co-owning a magazine with Auntie Iris. She's very proud of what she's done and has been working on it non-stop. She's now on the hunt for workers and writers and has been scouring the internet looking for hopefuls. I was worried she wouldn't find the time to watch my game.

Her support is something that has always been important to me. For a while her's and my grandmother's, rest her soul, were all I had. I didn't quite appreciate it much in my teens, but I sure did now.

"Eli said I needed a break and I thought I'd use it to come over and celebrate your winning shot with you," she said.

"That sounds great!" I said a little too enthusiastically. "How about we go out for lunch?"

"I'm down for lunch but I thought I should cook all your favorites. Even make Grandma's infamous chocolate cake."

"Cake!" Krissy yelled in excitement as she jumped from dad's arms, the mass of kinks on her head bouncing around.

That was not how it was supposed to go. She was supposed to agree, then I'd go to my room to wake Normani up and tell her what was up. Once I and my family left, she'd be free to leave the apartment.

My mom went into my kitchen. "Let's see what we have in here for me to work with."

As she looked through my cupboards my dad tapped my shoulders. I turned to him and he was holding up a ringing cell phone, the one that wasn't mine.

"Now I'm pretty sure this isn't your phone because this looks nothing like me," he whispered, referring to Nancy's dad on the screen.

I quickly grabbed the phone from him and shoved it in my pocket.

"Is there a girl somewhere in this apartment?" He asked.

"Please don't tell mom," I pleaded.

"Boy, I'm gonna slap you!"

"I was about to get her out but then you guys got here."

His eyes scanned the room as if looking for clues of a girl being here. "Where is she? Are you hiding her?"

"She's in my bedroom, asleep."

"She's still asleep?" His eyes widened.

"Yeah."

"So you're telling me she could wake up and just walk out here any minute now?"

"Yeah," I answered and he grabbed the back of his head in panic. "Can you help me get her out?"

"Help you? Kyle, she's still mad at me for helping you sneak your high school girlfriend out of your room years ago."

"We didn't do anything!" I defended myself, remembering the tongue lashing I got when she found out.

"We both know she doesn't believe that."

"What are you guys whispering about?" Mom asked from the kitchen island, eyes narrowed in on us.

"Nothing," I quickly answered.

Her brows raised in intrigue. She made her way around the island and headed toward us. She was in investigation mode.

"You're on your own buddy," dad said, stepping back.

"What's going on?" She asked, her intense stare boring into me.

I remember getting these as a child and teen, I never lasted long after she started.

I had to come up with a lie, quick. I was not in the mood for yelling and a lecture about teen pregnancy.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to come up with one. My sister's yelling from the hallway to my bedroom gave it all away.

"Mom! There's a girl in Kyle's room!"

"Shit!" I must have said that word a million times today already.

The disappointment on her face was obvious. I instantly felt like a kid again, waiting for whatever scolding I was about to suffer.

"Young lady, can you come out here please!" my mother called out.

Great!

"Mom you don't have to..." she swiftly lifted her hand and I instinctively stopped.

I heard the soft footsteps coming down the hallway and turned to see her frantically fixing the dress that she had probably just put on. I sent her an apologetic look and she looked a bit confused. Poor girl had no idea what she was getting into.

"Uh hi," she said nervously.

Mom said nothing for a few seconds then looked at me. "You're not going to introduce us to your friend?"

"No, I'm not," I was not about to be a part of whatever she was trying to do.

She raised her brow at my challenge.

"My name is Noelle," she answered instead.

I took a mental note of her name. I should be ashamed.

"How do you know my son Noelle?"

"Uh...we met at a bar."

"A bar," she repeated, "Interesting. And when did you meet at this bar?"

I looked at my mom pleading but she did not budge.

"You don't have to answer that."

"Yes she does," she said then looked at Noelle.

"Um...last night," she answered, her face showing that she was a bit confused with the line of questioning

"So you two literally just met," mom said, "And you're already at his apartment, in his bed?" The undertone of disgust and judgment was not missed in her voice.

"Excuse me, ma'am," Noelle said, taking a step forward, "but you don't know me."

"And you don't know my son," she pointed out.

The two women stared at each other, neither wanting to back down.

"Your dress is pretty," Krissy said looking up at Noelle.

Can this child not sense the tension?

"I think you should leave," I said to Noelle.

"I agree," my mother answered.

I walked towards the front door and Noelle slowly followed behind, but not without sending my mom one final stare. Once the door was opened she stepped out.

"I'm so sorry," I said, "That was uncalled for."

She said nothing and held her hand out. "My phone," she simply said.

I quickly got it out of my pocket and handed it to her. She looked at the screen and a flash of worry came over her face. But she quickly hid it before looking back at me.

"Thanks for the fun," she said, "I'll call you."

My brows raised in surprise. "You'll call me?"

Was she not mad at me?

"Bye Kyle," she sent a seductive smile my way before walking down the hall.

I admired her walking off before closing the door. With the relief of her not being mad at me settled in, it was time to deal with mom.

"Are you serious mom?" I said walking back to her. "That was not called for."

"Kyle, you brought some strange girl to your apartment and slept with her!"

"Time for us to go," I heard my dad say as he took Krissy's hand and led her out of the living room. He knew what was about to go down.

"So what mom?"

"So what? Kyle, you don't know who she is. What if she came in here looking for something on you?"

"Why the hell would she do that mom?"

"I don't know, but that doesn't mean it can't happen," she said, "And what if you got a disease, what if you got her pregnant?"

"We used a condom mom!"

"What if she did something to the condom huh? Ever thought of that? You can't take care of a child right now."

"Mom I'm 24, I'm a grown-ass man!"

"First of all, take that base out your voice."

I walked up to her, voice as deep as I could make it. "I can't help it, I'm a man."

With that, I turned and walked off.

"Get back here Kyle," she said but I kept walking. "Are you seeing this Eli?"

"Kendra, calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down when you see how he's talking to me."

"Krissy!" I called, "I got something to show you."

A fight was about to start, and she didn't need to be around for it. I heard her footsteps following behind me as the raised voices of our parents started up in the kitchen.

This was going to be a long family lunch.