I was happy to see them, without a doubt, but I just couldn’t get over how fucked up his face looked. They damn sure had to be some big little niggas to do his face like that.
I knew I was frowning hard as hell. All types of murderous thoughts flowing through my mind. If my pops only knew who his son really was!
“By the looks of it, he’s been living in a gym,” Kairi kidded, grabbing and squeezing my bicep muscle. “You grew that much in three years?”
When I left, I had the body of a basketball player, but now, I was twice that size.
I felt a wave of sadness rush over me, knowing it truly had been that long since I saw either of their faces.
My head fell.
“I’m sorry y’all. I—I don’t even have an excuse,” I started trying my hardest to find the right words to say, even though I knew it wouldn’t make up for it. I’d done the cowardly thing by walking away when they probably needed me the most. Had I been here that night, my father wouldn’t have had to face those mothafuckers and my sister wouldn’t have had to get involved.
Yeah, Pops was the head of our household, but I always felt like it was my job to protect us now. He’d spent years doing it when I was too young to defend myself, but I was thirty years old now. My turn to look after him. Instead, I left them.
Pops approached me and put his hand on my shoulder. There used to be a time that he was taller than me at five foot eleven, but now I towered over him at six foot four. We still looked alike with the same dark chocolate complexion, pitch black eyes, broad nose, and thick lips. He’d just aged and lost his dark curls that were now almost all gray. I had waves and now a thicker, inked up body, but I looked like my father, which I often appreciated. He was a good fucking dad to us.
“You have nothing to be sorry about, Shakur. I understand that Sony and Viper were trying to recruit you. I was the one who suggested you leave to keep you out of it,” Dad said, which only made me sadder because I should have stood my ground, regardless.
“The most important thing now is that you’re back,” Pops said, looking me in the eyes.
“But Pops—” my voice cracked.
“But nothing. I said what I said.”
He gave me a reassuring smile that enabled me to lift my head.
“Plus, you’ve been away long enough. I know they would have forgotten you by now,” Pops said. I nodded because that was what I was hoping for too. I felt like three years was a long enough time for them to move on and forget about me. Otherwise, I would have come back home when my dad asked me to. As long as I stayed out of the streets, they wouldn’t even know I was back.
“You’re back for good, now? Right?” Kairi asked. Hope shining in her eyes.
I smiled.
“Yeah. I’m not going anywhere.”
And this time, I meant it!
THREE DAYS LATER
I sat back in my car and exhaled the weed smoke. My mind had been on a thousand since the night I came back. I’d been combing the streets, trying to find out what little niggas thought they could touch my father and live to see another day.
I thought my days of violence were behind me, but for my family, I’d murder a whole fucking city. Both Kairi and my pops wanted me to let it go, but how could I?
My dad had replaced the door, but I still saw it. It’d been etched into my mind, and I knew only finding the people responsible would make me feel better.
I hadn’t slept yet, like I was waiting for the mothafuckers to come back. The only clue was a tattoo that Kairi thought she might have seen. A gun and red rose on one of their arms. That was it, and I was stuck.
But since they hadn’t come back, I decided to hit the streets to find them myself.
Sitting behind the seat of my old ass Camaro, I found myself back in the trenches I vowed never to visit again. But I needed answers, and this was the place to get them.
“Once I get what I need, I won’t come back,” I said to myself.
After I left, I made a vow never to be in this part of town again, but for my family, I would happily come out of retirement.
Just as I sat there wondering if I was doing the right thing coming back here or not, I looked up and saw the nigga I’d been waiting on. Sighing, I exited my car, pulled my cap down over my eyes, and pushed my hands in my pockets as I walked up to him.
“Sony,” I called his name, making him turn to look back at me.
