Page 5

“I’m coming from with Kharti, but I’m on my way inside. I see you, on the other hand, are just hanging out here like niggas not wilding. Do you know how bad the southwest side has gotten the past few years? Well, exhibit A.” I pointed at the sling on his arm.

“Here you go.” He laughed, shaking his head, showing the dimples girls his age loved, but only made him adorable to me.

“You talking about me, big sis, but know Damon would’ve gotten on your ass too about walking around here this late at night. Shit him and my boy B-nice,” he called Brice by that corny ass nickname he gave himself.

“Brice was one to talk; he never listened.”

“Yeah, rebel ass nigga. Man, I miss my dawg.” Michael shook his head, then dropped his chin to his chest.

Michael, like me, had taken plenty of losses but he hadn’t learned from any of them. Him and my brother were close from 3rd grade up, and he was with him before he got shot at the park that day. Now his arm was in a sling from getting shot too recently, which you would think would have sat his ass down. I know for sure when I do have a child that I plan to keep, I want a daughter. One I won’t have to worry about getting caught up in the streets.

“I miss my brother too, Michael, but when are you going to learn that standing out on this block at night is one of the reasons Brice is gone? I been telling you and Brice this shit for how long? Shit, I told your brother about the streets too and look where he is. Locked up for God knows how long.”

Michael sucked his teeth, looking in another direction, to keep from facing the facts.

“Nothing to say, Michael?”

“Damon coming home soon, so I’m not even sweating that shit.”

“Okay, but is Brice?”

I folded my arms and looked him in the eye.

“Toya, I hate where my brother is, and I especially hate what happened to my boy, but niggas not running me off my block, big sis. We all have to eat some way or another.”

“I guess, Michael.”

I shook my head because I didn’t have time tonight for a long ass rebuttal. That’s for another time, because my body and mind is tired.

“Do you want me to walk you up to your door?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s fine.”

I replied, before the loud roaring in the distance, sounding like three motorcycles racing into the complex made both of us turn our heads. The sound got louder and louder until the gate to our right was knocked off the hinges by a loud ass truck barreling through at about 60 miles per hour. It got everyone’s attention, especially the people it almost hit standing in the middle of the parking lot.

"What the fuck?”

“Yo, he tripping!”

Michael’s homeboys Justice and Aaron both stood up from the green box.

When the driver slammed on his brakes, his car stopped so fast his body rocked forward. Michael smacked his lips and mumbled under his breath.

"Man, I told him I would come outside the gate and talk with him. This nigga always tripping."

He started walking towards the truck so fast, he didn’t acknowledge anyone else out here.

“Michael!" I called his name.

"Who the hell is that coming in here like that? Are they dumb? You know them?"

Before he could answer, the truck window rolled down, and the driver's audacity made sense. It was Duke, Caine’s older brother, sitting in the driver's seat with his deep, dark skin and no shirt, exposing his big ass arms and chest.

When Kharti first hooked up with Caine, she joked that I should get with Duke, but I never saw Duke around, just like I never saw Caine. They were just as many strangers to me now as they were back then even with Kharti marrying Caine. The only reason I was familiar with how any one of them looked was mostly because of social media.

"Hurry the fuck up! I thought you were going to be outside the gate nigga?"

He barked through the window. Duke’s face was twisted up with a scowl that scared me from where I was, and he wasn’t even talking to me.