Seeds of Tomorrow

The house was packed, and the sounds of the girls running around screaming were getting under his skin. Nothing more irritating than a pack of feral middle school girls. Rocco put his headphones on a turned up the music in an attempt to drown out the sound of his little sister Audrey and their cousins as they freaked out over some boy band in the living room.

It was his dad's fortieth birthday and everyone was there. Grandma Linda and Grandpa Bill. Aunts Holly and Brooke and their kids. Kali and Pat with their rambunctious blue heeler, Cowboy. Fernando and Madi and all their goddamn kids. Along with Marisol and Chris, his half-sister Giana. The only people missing were Lissette and Victor. Lissette was in college and Victor worked construction so he would be there when he could be.

He knew that his dad would be in soon to nag at him to socialize but who wanted to hang out with a bunch of middle school-aged girls or middle-aged people? Rocco was someone may have been an extrovert in most cases but this was not one of them.

The house was always crazy like that. Audrey always had her annoying little friends over and they were loud as hell. A few of them he knew had crushes on him and would bug him as soon as he came out of his bedroom. "Hi, Rocco!" followed by a raucous of giggling. His dad said they sounded like a chicken coop and he had to agree.

And then there was Gabe who was going through an awkward phase. He'd had a thing for one of Audrey's little friends but was too shy to even say anything to her. Rocco told him to just talk to her, wasn't that hard but Gabe wasn't all that confident.

Confidence was something Rocco had never struggled with, he'd always been confident. His dad's side of the family said he got it from him and his mom's side, the bio side, said he was just like Fernando. "You will be trouble for the ladies when you're older!" Grandma Gladys used to say to him, "You are just like your Uncle!"

His dad saw it too and because he and Uncle Fernando were sleazebags, he automatically assumed that Rocco was just like them and Krist "would be goddamned if he was a grandfather in his thirties!" Shit, Fernando was a grandfather before he was even thirty-five and freaking loved it. He had three grandchildren already, two from his oldest son Xavier whom Rocco had only met once before he'd been shot in a drive-by, and then one from Victor. Rocco wasn't exactly sure how old Victor's kid was but he was no older than four.

Which was another thing his dad would use as an example of what not to do. "Your cousin had his kid when he was your age, do you want that to be you?" Rocco had zero intentions of having kids any time in the next decade but he liked riling his father up by telling him he thought he'd make a pretty good dad.

What was crazy was that his dad had been pretty chill and kind of a pushover up until he'd hit his teen years. Krist got a wild hair up his ass and became this strict, noisy, non-stop lecturing parent who assumed Rocco was out there wilding out, spreading his seed, and doing all the drugs. Right. The thought was laughable.

At seventeen, Rocco may have smoked weed on the regular but he was a pretty good kid. He got good grades, excelled in sports, had a little part-time job, and hadn't done more with his girlfriend than finger her and get an awkward blow job. Now, he definitely wanted to have sex with Evie but neither of them was ready for that step and he'd actually talked to his mom about it. Unlike his dad, she listened without lecturing and treated him like his own person, not some repeat of Krist.

His mom let him know if or when they decided to take that step, she would be willing to help get them contraceptions if they needed them and had even told him where they could obtain them for free. She also promised to keep their talk between the two of them because his dad would go off on one of his tangents. She may not have been the woman who gave birth to him but he couldn't have asked for a better mom, she was seriously the best. And when his dad would get on his case, she was the one to interject and point out that he was overreacting. Mom had a way of talking to people.

Rocco's thoughts were interrupted by the feel of someone's eyes burning into him, he startled, opening his eyes and removing his headphones. Gabe stood in front of him, his sandy blond hair tousled. He looked a it like Mom.

"Dad said for you to come downstairs," he said.

Rocco groaned, rolling off the bed, "Tell him I'm sleeping."

Gabriel rolled his brown eyes, "Do you want him coming up here and bitching?"

"Ugh..."

He followed his little brother downstairs to the massive living area where everyone was crowded around eating and drinking, talking loudly. Cousin Nando was first to notice him, giving him a simple nod of greeting before returning his attention to whatever he'd been watching on his phone.

His dad wasn't even inside which meant he must have been out on the porch smoking. Rocco weaved his way through the crowd of cousins to the sliding glass door. As expected, Krist was sitting on the wrap-around porch with Fernando and Jeordie smoking a blunt.

"Aye, let me hit that," Rocco said, taking a seat on a patio chair.

Now despite all the lecturing his dad gave him about drugs, he did allow him to smoke bud under the condition that he maintain his grades and stay out of trouble. Fair enough. He wasn't always a dick.

Krist clicked his tongue against his teeth the way he always did, "You just come out here to mooch off me?" He gave a dopey laugh, eyes low, "I see how it is."

Rocco clicked his tongue in response, reaching his hand for the blunt, "Ah, come on bro," he flashed him what was known as the Rocco grin.

Grumbling, Krist passed the blunt over, "What you got planned for later?"

Rocco took a fat hit, holding it in and passing it to Fernando, "Nothing," he said between coughs, "Just hanging out with Mark later."

Mark was Krist's brother who happened to be the same age as Rocco. See, Grandpa Samson had married a bartender who was a good twenty-something years younger than him, and that resulted in Uncle Mark. The two young men had been close since they met in Headstart as four-year-olds. His dad and Grandpa had some sort of major fallout years prior so they didn't know one another until then.

Krist didn't particularly like the two associating as he saw a lot of himself in Mark but he had no reason, that he knew about, to stop Rocco from kicking it. If he had known the shit Mark did, Krist absolutely would have cut off the friendship. Mark drank heavily, dabbled in drugs, and was a bit of a player.

Despite that, he was good about not pressuring Rocco into doing things and would excuse himself to another room to do drugs and whatnot.

That particular night, Mark had told Rocco about some party out in Castle Rock. Nothing crazy, just a bonfire with a keg and a couple of bottles, the dude throwing it said they could stay out there so they didn't have to drive home so that was cool.

"What you two got planned?" Krist asked, giving his some a scrutinizing look.

Rocco shrugged, "Just some party."

"Don't be doing nothing stupid," he warned his son, resulting in howls of laughter from Jeordie.

"Lighten up," Jeordie said, looking at Rocco with a crooked tooth smile. Krist called them "British Teeth", and "He's a good kid, let him have fun."

Before Krist could respond, Atira, or as Rocco knew her, stepped onto the porch, "The kids are complaining, let's do cake."

As they entered the home, she pulled Rocco aside, "He worried about you, he doesn't want you to make the same mistakes he did," she told him gently.

"I know, Mom, he doesn't need to be so freaking annoying about it though."

"It's his job," she teased.

The sound of exhaust rumbling and bass thumping came from outside. Fernando was already present which meant it had to be Victor.

Rocco stepped outside to greet his cousin at his black-on-black Monte Carlo SS. Just like his father, Victor loved the Monte Carlo of the 80s and as soon as he had money saved, he bought his first one at the age of nineteen.

Victor stepped out of his car, still in work clothes, "Aye, primo," he called out, giving Rocco daps.

Victor had his kid and baby mom, Raquel, with him too. Raquel was a pretty girl, maybe 5'5 and what would be considered thick with full breasts, a slightly tapered waist, and big hips. Victor always told Rocco it was them big ass hips that got him sprung. She had long dark red hair and full lips. Raquel was quite reserved, usually doting on their little boy, Sergio.

Though they weren't yet married, Victor had been putting in double shifts to save up to buy her a nice ass rock for her finger. Now, unlike his father, Raquel was his one and only as in he was completely loyal to her. He had never even had another girlfriend previous to her.

"Uncle Rocco!" Sergio called, squirming out of the backseat of the Monte Carlo and rushing to give fist bumps.

Raquel took a lot of pride in keeping up her little boy's appearance. She had put his thick curly hair into two French braids and had him dressed in a Nike sweatsuit with white Cortez sneakers (obviously purchased by Grandpa) and had gold chains dangling from his wrists and neck.

"Dang, your kid dresses better than me," Rocco said with an approving nod.

"Is my grandpa here?" Sergio asked.

"Yup, he's inside," Rocco told him pointing to the door.

Victor reached into his car, pulled out a six-pack of Corona, and offered him one. Rocco shook his head.

"Good, more for me," Victor said with a yawn, "Anything good in there to eat?"

"Just some white people buffet food," Rocco informed him with an eye roll.

"Shit, better than nothing."Start writing here…