Chevy glanced at Bishop, Beans, then me. “He a’ight. Keep his ass close because if they’re after Bishop or me, they’ll find him, and I won’t be too far behind.”
“Honestly, they haven’t told me anything, but they’re up to something. All I care about is protecting my brother. So as long as that little nigga safe, we can go to war,” I said to all of them.
Chevy nodded. “I fuck with it. You sound like someone I know,” he said as he looked at Zu. “We don’t have anything against you, but Dio, that’s something you niggas need to sort out. Smoke up, nigga, thanks for the info,” he finished as he and Bishop walked into the house.
I wasn’t sure what would happen from here, but to me, the Zoo was straight. I just needed to figure out what the fuck happened between Keith and Dio so we could all move on.
Summer was finally coming to an end, and I wanted to link up with Leek. A nigga on campus had put me on to him after finding out I made beats and produced. Leek and I chopped it up and had been in a local studio working on his mixtape. Tonight, however, there was a battle rap session I wanted him to go to. When I pulled up to his crib, I honked the horn a few times to let him know I was outside.
It took him a minute, but when he came out, he wasn’t alone. For a minute, I thought the nigga was a twin because he and the nigga who came outside looked almost identical. Leek came off the porch, jogged up to the car, and got in. “Damn, is your window tinted enough?” he asked.
“Don’t worry about it, are you ready?” I asked.
He pulled a blunt from his ear, “Shit, always.”
Before I sped off, I saw a pretty ass girl come outside the same house. I nodded that way, “Who is that?”
He glanced at her and chuckled. “Nigga, that’s my baby sister, Paige. She’s actually about to start at TSU in the fall. You teach up there, right?”
“Yeah,” I said as I drove off.
When I pulled up to the spot, the parking lot was already packed. Leek pulled his gun from his hip and cocked it back, then slid it back on his hip. I held my hand out, “We’re not on that type of time tonight.”
He turned to look at me. “Yeah, but if you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready. Let’s go, nigga,” he said to me.
I shook my head, and I got out. The vibe was cool, and the rappers were straight. My eyes stayed on Leek, however, because the nigga having a loaded gun on his hip didn’t sit right with me. We stood in the back watching the crowd go crazy over the two niggas on the mic. Leek pulled on his blunt as his eyes were fixated on the rappers. I knew he was studying them like a book. The thing that made Leek one of the greats was that his wordplay came off the top.
“I’ll be right back,” he leaned over and said to me.
I gave him a quick head nod as my eyes searched for my boy. I wanted to see about putting Leek on the small tour they had for one of the local rappers. The host and I chopped it up for a bit before commotion started at the other end of the building. Something in me said it had to do with Leek. I moved quickly to get to the other side when, just as I thought, Leek was fighting. I had never been in a situation in which I needed to fight, but the moment I was shoved in the middle, shit started to change.
I tried helping by pulling Leek back when someone did something that triggered me. The feeling of someone striking me across my back made my head snap. The guy standing there wore a grin of pride. “Nigga, are you crazy?” I gritted.
Leek tapped my shoulder, “We’ve got to go, Beans, fuck him.”
“You heard him, leave. Go run and tell mommy, bitch nigga!” he barked in my face.
My fists slowly closed. Wrinkles formed on my forehead, and my mind went blank. It was like a shell being removed, and something new was being reborn from it. I knew Leekwas talking, but all that went out the window when this nigga challenged me. I drew my fists back and hit his ass.
Whap!
“Fuck you say to me!” I barked.
The big nigga tried lifting me to slam me, but in the moment, all I cared about was landing blows to his fucking face.
Whap! Whap! Whap!
Before I knew it, my fists were bleeding, my mouth was sizzling, and I felt like I had the ultimate power. It took three niggas to get me off him because the next thing I was ready to do was rip his face off like a fucking beast. By the time they had gotten me outside, Leek was being put in the back of a police car. I rushed over toward the window. “I’m going to bail you out, my nigga.”
“Shit, they’ve been trying to catch me for a minute. It’s cool, I’ll be out in no time. Shits, minor.” A smile crept on Leek’s face. “I see you, my nigga. Yo ass was in beast mode. Aye! Make to—”
His words trailed off as the cop car sped off. I rushed to my car, hopped in, and took off.I knew I should have gone home, but the idea that popped into my head spoke louder; I drove until I reached my destination. I sat in the car for a minute, closing my eyes as I fought with myself about what I was about to do. I quickly got out of the car and jogged around back.
I stood at the back door as I dug into my pocket. I stuck the key halfway in, along with a pocket-sized flat-head screwdriver. I wiggled it once, shifted it up, then down, and turned the key and screwdriver at the same time. When I heard the lock click, I slowly eased the door open. The smell of settled food filled the air as late-night infomercials played on the TV in the living room.
I crept toward the hall, bypassing a lady sleeping as if she had been waiting for someone to come home. When I entered the hall, I wasn’t sure which was the right one until I spotted the large Purple P letter on the door. My hand slowly gripped the knob and turned it until the door barely cracked open, and I saw a sleeping Paige. There she was, as beautiful as she had been when I saw her earlier. When I stepped further into the room, I was sure to close the door behind me. I stood over her, watching her, wondering what she was dreaming about. My hand slowly lifted and barely stroked her cheeks. I walked over to the plush chair she had sitting in the corner and made myself comfortable as I watched a girl, whom I prayed would be the love I had been waiting for, fast asleep.
Seeing Paige unlocked something in me, and if I thought this would be the first and only time, I did some crazy shit like this. I knew I was kidding myself. Paige was going to be a nigga’s sick obsession.
