"Someone like you having both of your parents… how could you ever understand me? At least you know who you look like…" Jayden finally answered after giving it some thought.
"What?" Avery asked a little dumbstruck by his response. "Is this what that is about?" He asked sucking in air between his teeth. Suddenly Avery stopped turning to his friend facing him square in the eye.
"Yea, I wanna know what the old man looks like. I want to hear what his voice sound like. What color are his eyes. Am I as tall as he?" Jayden said with more honesty than he had anticipated. To Jayden's own ears he sounded pathetic and even felt ashamed for having those feelings. He was thankful to have a friend like Avery; someone who listened without judging him. Despite knowing that, he looked away. He didn't want his friend to see his eyes misting up. He didn't want his friend to know that he still cared that much about who his father was.
"Got an address?" Avery asked as if it was the only logical question to ask.
"Address?" Jayden asked. He was a little lost at his question however he couldn't hide his curiosity. He thought about that long time ago when his mom had given him a strip of paper with a couple of numbers and addresses scribbled onto it.
"Man let's squash this shit for once and all." He heard Avery saying with a little annoyance. Jayden knew he still had the paper. He didn't know why he had saved it all of these years but nevertheless he had it tucked away in a safe place in his room. Why had he kept the paper, he couldn't help but wondering.
"If all you wanna do is see the man's face, then I can make it happen." Avery was saying.
"What?" Jayden responded snapping back to attention. His friend's assertion surprised him. His right eyebrow arched upwardly as he listened to more of what Avery had to say.
"As a matter of fact, consider it your birthday and eight grade graduation presents all rolled up into one. That's what I'm going to give you; a trip to your daddy's crib so you can stop all that whining and crying shit about 'where's my daddy'." Avery announced unsympathetically.
* * * * * * * * * * *
"Do we have enough?" Louise asked her husband as they sat in his study going over the bills. When Jacob had returned home from work he was greeted with the wonderful news that Markus had been accepted to Stanford University on a partial scholarship. However even with that scholarship they would have to come up with a substantial large sum of money each semester for books, fees, lodging and the rest of the tuition.