Chapter 196

We stepped into the restaurant and told them we had made a reservation under Johnson.
A waiter led us to a table where a man in a collared shirt sat, talking into his phone.
When he saw us approaching, he waved and said a few words into the phone before hanging up and stashing the device away, smiling widely at my parents.
"I thought you stood me up!" He joked, standing from his seat to warmly greet my parents with hugs.
Dad slightly turned his body to let the man see Casey and I clearly.
"This is Bryant, my oldest." I smiled as Dad made the introductions, stepping forward and offering my hand.
He took my hand and shook it firmly. He gave Dad a look of surprise, "Strong grip your kid has there." He sounded impressed.
I gave him another smile before letting go and taking a step back to let Casey shake his hand.
"This is Cassandra. She's only a couple of years younger than Bryant."
The man gave Casey a kind smile and shook her hand.
"Kids, this is General Reeves." Brief introduction, which is good, since I wouldn't understand much if he started going into the details of his rank and position or where he was stationed.
I doubt Dad even knew or remembered those details. Our family was very much business-oriented. Our lives basically revolve around the business world and I guess you could say we don't really know much outside of that. An example would be military stuff.
One thing I know about military, though, a general is a pretty high rank.
I know it might sound silly for this to come from an 18 year old boy but I honestly have always thought generals were old intimidating men. Not like my parents old. More like grandparents old.
Since I assume that it'll take a person quite some time to climb up the ranks to get to a general position. He must have done something great to be acknowledged as a general.
I didn't have any prior experience that caused a trauma for me to have the bias that generals are intimidating. I just simply assumed that the intimidating vibes and looks came with the job description. I mean it makes sense, doesn't it?
It makes sense in my head, at least.
Might sound dumb if I said that aloud.
But General Reeves was anything but intimidating. He had warm hazel eyes that were crinkled at the edges with marks of happiness.
Aside from his buzz cut, nothing about him screamed 'military dude'. Maybe it was because of the fact that he wasn't in uniform, but I wouldn't have pegged him as a general.
I mean, sure, he has a big build and he was really fit. But so is every other gym addict.
You should really never judge a person by their looks. You never know who you're messing with.
My heart genuinely goes out for the guy that decides to pick a fight with this man.
This is why you should always be nice to people, kids. Don't take your chances. Next thing you know, the people you're offending might be a high ranking officer that can whoop your ass before you can even say "oh shit."
We took our seats once the introductions have been made. The adults sat at one side while Casey and I sat opposite of them.
A waiter stopped at our table to take our orders and once he walked away to pass it to the kitchen, the general turned to look at Casey and I.
"So how old are you guys?"
I answered for the both of us. "I'm turning 18 soon and she's 16."
"18," the General hummed, acting as if he was sizing me up before grinning, "I hope you haven't been doing anything that'll get you into trouble since you're no longer considered a minor."
I smiled without missing a beat and shook my head, "No, sir." I answered curtly, lying through my teeth flawlessly.
I think something that reflects what being in a gang for a year has done to me would probably be my coverup skills. Over a year of playing undercover and getting into the habit of covering up my tracks while I'm in the gang, I've managed to perfect my facade and lying skills.
You could basically say that I'm a pro now.
Of course, it's not something that I'm particularly proud of but it did get me through so far.
I no longer had to try to cover up for myself. I can lie on the spot for just about anything effortlessly without having to pause to think or hesitate about what the next words coming out of my mouth are. It comes to me so naturally to me at this point that even I was beginning to worry that I was becoming a pathological liar at this rate.
I do try to turn it down a notch with family, though. I didn't want to lie to them if I didn't need to and thankfully, my family gets very easily distracted so it wasn't difficult to avert their attention elsewhere whenever it conveniences me.
When I said I could more or less be a pro at this whole lying thing, I wasn't bragging. Just to prove my point, I'll tell you now that the General seems very much convinced by my assurance that I've been living a peaceful, trouble-free life.
The fact that I can lead a general to believe my lies without even trying to only just validates my statement even further.
"Bryant has got to be the best kid. He has never let us down. His grades are always stellar and I've heard he's pretty popular, and not only with the girls." My dad basically boasted. His chest was starting to puff out.
Mom slapped his arm and nodded to Casey. "What about your daughter."
Casey, too busy munching at the loaf of bread she picked up from the basket placed in the middle of the table, sat beside me obliviously.
Dad chuckled, shaking his head at the sight. "She's definitely something else, alright. Always eating.." He trailed off as she held her half-eaten bread in one hand while the other reached out to grab some more.
I slapped her hand lightly and she yelped in surprise, snapping her hand back, away from the basket, to her chest.
She looked at me with a small frown, rubbing her hand that I slapped.
I rolled my eyes, "I didn't slap it that hard."
Casey stuck her tongue out at me, "You did!"
"And always a child." Dad sighed.
Luckily, the General thought it was funny and simply started laughing.
His burst of laughter caught Casey's attention and it seemed like she has finally came back to her senses as her face started to flush bright red.
She ducked her head and muttered under her breath only for me to hear. "You should've reminded me sooner."
I rolled my eyes, "You should've known better." I shot back at her.
She glared at me and I shrugged in response to her laser eyes.
The General finally sobered up from his laughing fit and the food came soon after.
The adults started to catch up over their dinner while Casey and I sat in silence and chose to focus on devouring our dinner instead. But through listening in to their conversation, I managed to gather a few things.
They were all high school classmates that lost touch with each other and has only recently found one another again through a mutual friend.
From how my parents are talking to him, I'd say they were pretty close back then.
I've never seen Mom and Dad laugh so hard while talking to anyone who wasn't their work colleague who they spend most of their time with.
The fact that they even spared some of our family quality time to meet up with this guy says a lot about their friendship. Our family quality time was everything to my parents since they spend enough time with their friends and colleagues and not necessarily as much with Casey and I. Family quality time was somewhat their way of making it up to Casey and I.
If this guy was able to make my parents give up a portion of our "family only" moment to meet him, he must be special. They must've been really tight back in high school.
"It's great to actually see you doing good." Dad commented, patting General Reeves back.
"Yeah, who would've believed that I, of all people, would join the military and become a general of all people, right?" General Reeves shook his head as he took a sip of his drink.
Mom laughed at that. "Right. You're now everything you're not then."
Dad smirked. "You certainly lacked discipline among a lot of other things." He shook his head, "What the hell made you think that joining military was a good idea for you? Did you just wake up one day and suddenly thought that you needed some ass whooping and decided to sign up for military service?"
General Reeves chuckled, shaking his head. "It was actually my dad who woke up one day and thought I needed my ass whooped. He signed me up for military school, where I got a lot of shit for not being disciplined," he looked pointedly at Mom, "and I learnt a lot about it afterwards."
Mom snorted the most unladylike snort I've ever heard her done. "Yeah, you'd think being a general in the military would require some discipline from you."
General Reeves laughed, "Still so sarcastic." He looked at Dad who sat right beside him, nodding his head to Mom, "How did you even manage?"
"With a lot of patience," Dad began to say before Mom gave him a good whack. He closed his eyes and nodded, as if he was expecting that to happen. "Because that happens when you're not patient."
General Reeves bent his body forward and started laughing wildly again.
I looked around our table and hoped that we weren't disturbing anyone because if there's one thing that I know for sure, we were currently the loudest party in the room.
General Reeves finally calmed down with a few deep breaths, his face having turned red from laughing so much, and he had to wipe a few tears from his eyes from how hard he laughed.
We continued dinner with some dessert to let our parents talk some more with their old friend before we leave.
I was messing around with Casey, having a mini spoon war to try and steal some of her dessert because I finished mine in two bites, when my phone started vibrating in my pocket.
I fished it out and looked at the caller ID. While I was checking my phone, I saw Casey duck her head to practically inhale the rest of her dessert before I could take anymore from her plate from my peripheral vision.
I looked at my parents who were still talking to the General and decided to tap my mom on her shoulder while my dad talked.
"I gotta pick up a call, I'll be right back." I whispered to her, to which she nodded to, patting my hand that was holding her shoulder.
I stepped out to answer Dom's call.
"What's up?" I asked him.
"We've got a problem." He said, gaining my full attention.
"It might be my paranoia but I think they're starting to sniff us out. I think I have a tail. Just watch your six too."
I frowned. Now? All of a sudden? I don't think we've done anything to trigger this uncalled for suspicions. It's been a whole year of sneaking around and gathering evidence without getting caught and when we deemed what we've got might be sufficient proof to send to the authorities, they start sniffing around? I don't know what anyone else might think of that but that's hella fishy to me.
"Alright, be careful." I told him, hanging up the call and turning around to go back inside.
As I walked back to our table, I could feel my face automatically relaxing, all signs of distress gone. I got back to my seat and wore a smile for everyone to see to let them know that nothing was wrong.
I sat through the rest of dinner with Dom's words swirling in my head. I was still trying to wrap my head around what he said. It just didn't add up. The timing was just too convenient. Could they have bugged us?
I wouldn't put it pass them.
We'll have to be more careful.
When dinner was over, we walked the General back to his car.
"Thanks for the meal, Johnson. It'll be my treat next time." He said, giving Dad a pat on his back before giving Mom a side hug.
"It's been great to be able to catch up with you, Reeves. You should come to the house some day, I'll cook for you." Mom told him.
"I might just take you up on that offer." General Reeves chuckled before looking at Casey and I.
"Well, it's nice to have met you two. You certainly look like your mom and dad when they were your age. It's kind of giving me nostalgia." General Reeves chuckled.
"Ah, and before I forget." He said, reaching to his back pocket and taking out his wallet as he stepped closer to Casey and I.
"Here's my name card. That's my private number. Of course, your parents already have it but just in case you need Uncle Reeves for anything, you can give me a call, kids." He winked at us. "But by all means, stay out of trouble," he said in a mock stern tone.
Casey and I smiled, thanking him. I slipped the card into my own wallet after looking at it briefly.
"Well, that was fun. Let's get together more often." Dad smiled, nodding in agreement. "Don't be a stranger, Johnson, we've spent too much time being out of touch."
"I guess I'll see you next time. Bye, kids!" He said as he got in his car.
We waved as he drove away before walking back to the car.
Mom continued to gush about how good it was to see an old friend again and Dad nodded in agreement, a pleased smile plastered on his face the entire time. Anyone would've known that he was happy.
Meanwhile, I was too occupied with trying to figure out what I was missing to actually tune in to their conversation.
I was sure that I was missing something important. It kept bugging me and I didn't stop thinking about it even as we reached our house and I got in bed.
I laid awake just thinking, turning the situation over and over in my head, trying to look at it in different perspectives to try and see what I was missing until I finally couldn't anymore and fell asleep.