A Slum Love Crime. (A$AP Rocky Story)

Part Undici

The air was colder than usual today. With so much going on, it was easy to forget that winter was on its way. Well, at least it was easy to forget for me.

I wore a warm jacket and a hat, but I still felt cold on the inside. It wasn’t the air that was giving me this feeling. It was everything else—from what I did to the anxiety I feel as to what’s going to happen next.

As I approach my school’s building, I’m stopped by two white men with boxes filled with orange pamphlets. They probably asked our principal for permission to stand out here and harass all the students.

“Read the word of God daily, my child. May He bless you.” One of the men said, handing me a pocket-bible from the box. I took it and stuffed it into my pocket without even looking at it. That just made the cold feeling worse, because I knew what was in that bible. It was rules upon rules upon rules that I was breaking.

When I got into school, I was the only one with a jacket and hat on. One of the security guards ordered me to remove my hat, but I ignored him. It was too cold. I was too cold.

Our programs changed, so the first class of the day for me was Cooperative Skills (a class that I’d never heard of). I made it into the class exactly thirteen minutes late.

“What’s your last name?” The teacher, Ms. Wahlberg, asked. She was a white lady, teaching a white kids’ class. Nothing unusual.

“Aldo.”

“Well, hello Tremaine. Take a seat toward the window.” She pointed over to one of the many groups of four desks in the room. The class was loud. There was obviously some group assignment that they were working on, causing them to talk up a storm.

I wanted to run away immediately when I saw Kevon, his brother, Jordan, and Shandy sitting at four joined desks in the corner. The fourth desk was empty and waiting for me.

“Hey, Tre.” Kevon said. He was the only one that greeted me, too. I sat down at the desk, directly across from him and right beside Shandy.

“Hi.” I said with a smile. But all I could keep thinking is, Why does this white lady want to torture me?

“Okay, well the assignment is to write a five-page report about a major issue in current events right now. For our topic, we chose gun violence.” Jordan explained.

“We were just talking about Trayvon Martin…” Kevon added. So, officially, everyone in the group had spoken to me besides Shandy.

“But we were also taking a break.” Jordan said.

“We were?” Kevon asked.

“As of now. So how come you so late?” Jordan asked me.

“I overslept.” I lied. It was somewhat true. I pretended to oversleep this morning. Whenever Momma sees me oversleeping, she feels sorry for me and lets me sleep until I’m only a little bit late. So she did that this morning. But I wasn’t sleeping. I was lying in bed with my ears against my wall, trying hard to hear who and what Mom was talking about on the phone.

“Oh…we saw you out this window walking in the building,” Kevon said, pointing to the window next to our group. “I didn’t know you walk to school by yourself.”

“I don’t. Only lately I’ve been walking by myself…” I said, aiming my statement at Shandy. We always used to walk together, up until our little altercation.

“Who do you usually walk with?” Kevon continued.

“Since she hangs out with Rakim so often, I’d think he would be walking her to school…” Shandy muttered under her breath. I could’ve slapped her right there and then. Why does she always have to start something?