Free Game On by Calvin Slater

he’d immediately tried to convert Xavier into being a devout Christian. The junk hadn’t flown with Xavier, though. Homeboy was not about that life and wouldn’t allow himself to be transformed into an altar boy. Thankfully the two had been able to put aside their differences and arrive at an understanding.
    â€œPops, what’s up with the sour face?” Xavier asked.
    Noah let out a frustrated sigh. “Why don’t you ask your little brother?”
    Xavier said, “Uh-huh, this can’t be good.” Alfonso looked like he was trying to bust a serious move to his bedroom before he got interrogated by his brother. “’Fonso, freeze. Don’t go running to that room. Hop yourself on back here, you feel me?”
    The boy was geared up in jeans and an orange short-sleeve Polo shirt with the huge royal blue horse logo featured on the chest. The kid’s Florida Gators baseball hat matched his white Air Force 1s with the orange trim.
    Noah went into the kitchen.
    Xavier could hear the refrigerator door open and close. When Noah emerged he was holding a bottle of Sprite. A twist of the cap released a hissing sound. “Go ahead, Alfonso, and tell your brother why I had to leave work today,” Noah ordered his youngest son.
    Xavier copped a squat on a sofa arm and folded his arms across his chest in anticipation. There was a more serious look on his face now.
    Alfonso muttered, “I-I-I—”
    â€œNo need of you trying to sing, homeboy,” said Xavier. “Out with it.”
    The kid was sweating it and had an embarrassed look on his face. “See, there is this girl at school and . . .”
    Xavier’s face became animated and he started cracking up. “Oh shoot! My little brother has his nose open!”
    Noah calmly took a swallow of soda. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph—don’t encourage the boy, Xavier.”
    â€œCome on, Pop, Alfonso has his first crush. How old were you when you started diggin’ on the girlies?”
    â€œI’ve long since confessed my sins and we don’t need to go there,” said Noah. “Alfonso hasn’t told you everything. His little jug-headed butt almost got suspended for fighting.”
    â€œOver a girl?” Xavier asked, shocked. He looked at Alfonso. “You’re about to lose a few stripes over this one, homeboy.”
    â€œGot into it with some little boy named Kevin in the lunchroom over a girl named Molly—”
    Alfonso corrected his father. “That’s Myla, Dad.”
    Xavier was almost coughing up a lung laughing. “ ’Fonso, you pieced up somebody? What was the beef about?” he asked, holding his stomach from laughing so hard and trying to keep his composure.
    Alfonso cast his eyes to the floor. “Well, Kevin was calling her names and pulling her hair. She told him to stop but he just kept on. I was only doing what I knew you would’ve done.”
    Alfonso was right. Xavier was known for smacking respect into bullies. Those who considered themselves beast always fell hard to monsters like him.
    Noah pushed, “Go on. Finish telling him.”
    Xavier rubbed his hands together in anticipation of drama. “You mean there’s more to the story?”
    Alfonso kept his eyes glued to the floor. “Myla kissed me after I beat up Kevin. She said I was her hero.”
    â€œI don’t get it,” said Xavier. “Why did you get in trouble for defending the little girl?”
    Noah stepped in. “Xavier, he should’ve gone and told a teacher. Not taken things into his hands.”
    â€œI guess you’re right.”
    â€œI knew I shouldn’t have given in and bought him those name-brand clothes—nothing but Satan.”
    Xavier couldn’t do anything but shake his head. “Pop, no disrespect, but please don’t go there. Clothes don’t have anything to do with bullies.”
    Noah had been on that trip tip