Page 7 of About the Green

Each time it takes a toll, though I haven't acknowledged exactly what that toll comes out to be.

I don't have time to.

I have to keep work and my personal life very separate, so when I'm not clocked in for this, I am not clocked in for this.

I don't care what happens while I'm off duty. It keeps a roof over my head and more money than I could possibly need to keep both my daughter and her mother taken care of.

Dupont might be my family, but only during business hours. I'm not doing anything otherwise to hurt the family when I'm not working, so it's been fine up until this point.

But I'm supposed to be going to a completely different state with this woman as my partner while I'm there? Had it been Lidia, somebody I’ve work with closely before she revealed that she was just there to protect Racquelle… Or fuck, if I had been there to work with Redd, I'd feel much more comfortable.

But what kind of situation am I going to be in with this woman?

Am I about to be an accomplice to this murder spree she’s on?

God, I cannot imagine what reason she would have to be doing any of this.

What could have possibly happened to her?

Chapter 4

Shit, someone is following me.

Who the fuck is following me?

Before I make it to my street, I do my best to obscure my path by taking side streets that I know on the way to my apartment, which here isn't actually a place that I use for sleeping more than just storage and occasionally clean up.

I much prefer to be in Blue’s estate. This apartment was once Racquelle’s before she moved in. It’s very stale and empty here. I’m not going to add to the decor because I have zero intentions of making this my permanent residence.

I’ve just come back from getting rid of a man who absolutely deserved what came to him.

Look, I'm twenty-three—not underage by any means—but I know his type. Not only do I know his type, but I've seen him try to prey on younger girls, especially at the club I was just at.

That little tip off led me right to his secret activities with the young girls he prefers.

Yea, that’s all I needed to go after him.

Now, Clayton Terrace doesn't have many things, but what it does have is somewhat of a night scene. Is it bustling and vast, and you could literally go to a different club every single day of the month and still not run out of places to go, like it is in Atlanta?

No.

But there is one club that allows kids, and I'm talking sixteen to eighteen, to come in because they show a lot of small bands there, live music, and it's a very, very safe place for kids to go.

Usually.

I went because they don't serve liquor in the establishment, which I prefer. Liquor is gross, so I like going there because I'm not at risk of anyone offering to buy me something I'm never gonna drink, and it's fine. Plus, the music's okay, and most of the people there are not at all opposed to how brightly I dress.

It’s not a conversation starter, which I think is the lamest way to start a conversation with somebody you're trying to hit on.

My god, yes, I know my clothes are bright and fun. I picked them to look this way. I didn't just, like, trip and fall into this wardrobe.

It was carefully curated.

My god, men actually suck.

But that's not the point.

The point is that I saw him this night. After seeing him approach these girls there that very clearly had on minor bracelets, I made up my mind. There are people like me who get the minor bracelet just because I don't want anyone to try to give me any alcohol—you know, traumatic past and all that—but when she was appropriately weirded out, I decided I would step in.