⠀⠀⠀⩩𝗥𝗨𝗧𝗛𝗟𝗘𝗦𝗦？༉‧₊⋆.*ೃ·˚

One · Past, Present, and Future

Compton, California · May 1986

Alexandria "Alex" Wright

I sat in the rocking chair on the porch of my home, crafting plastic lace and watching over my nine year old baby sister, Lesley as she chased her friends around the yard in a game of tag.

This was the usual after school routine. I'd either hit the local library with my friends (in which, I didn't have any) or come straight home, get my homework done at the dining table (if I hadn't finished it in school already), and take Lesley out to play in the front yard while I craft plastic lace and patiently wait for my mother to call us in to get washed up for dinner. Around this time a day, all you saw was kids chasing the ice cream truck or tossing footballs, playing hopscotch, or jumping rope in the middle of the street, base heads scratching their necks for another fix, gang bangers and drug dealers holding up almost every corner, and police circling the block every 5 minutes lookin' for trouble. I'm sure you get the 'perfect' picture. My life isn't that interesting as you can tell.

"Aye Alex! Long time, no see, huh?" I heard a familiar female voice call out to me.

I looked up to see my ex-best friend and also my ex-boyfriend's sister, Linda Avery, smirking at me while leaning against the metal gates with a black, plastic store bag in hand. Not to mention her second to oldest brother, Ché was standing behind her doing the exact same thing!

I gave them an effortless wave and went back to crafting my lace, in hopes that they would just leave me the fuck alone! I'm aware that I seem bitter but I have my reasons.

Their oldest brother, Lloyd and I hooked up back in 88'. He was 19 and I was 15. I was mighty grown for my age rink, huh? To make a long story short, about a year ago, I had snuck out of the house to go see "A Nightmare on Elm Street" with Lloyd. After the movie, Lloyd let me borrow his windbreaker since it was chilly out. Out of nowhere, the police stopped us and began interrogating us. When Lloyd started bad-mouthing them, they frisked us only to find cocaine in the pocket of Lloyd's windbreaker. They handcuffed the both of us and took us down to the station only to interrogate us more. After hearing my side of the story and discovering that I was just a minor, they called my mother and ooh, did she raise hell! I got my ass beat and was grounded for about three whole months. When it came down to the case trial, Lloyd took the blame for the drugs in HIS windbreaker and admitted that he dealt em'. I was acquitted and he was sentenced to a year in jail. My mother banned me from seeing Lloyd or any of his family members that I was tight with after that. Now you probably have a better understanding of the current situation I'm in.

"Aw, don't be like that girl! You know, Lloyd just got out of jail today? Maybe things will go back to the way that they use to be."

"Yeah...maybe." I said, glancing up at them.

They both walked off cackling.

I sighed heavily and stood up from where I was sitting. I wasn't in the mood to be outside anymore, especially knowing that Lloyd was finally out of jail.

"Lesley, tell your friends goodnight, we're going inside."

"But we're not finished our game of tag yet!" she whined.

"Girl, that game is neverending! You'll continue tomorrow. Now tell them goodnight."

"Goodnight guys..." I heard her mumble before they pulled each other into a group hug.

When her friends left the gate and locked it back, we both entered the house and Lesley immediately ran into the kitchen to go find our mother.

"What are you doing inside so early?" I heard my mother ask Lesley.