Love and Gangs

Protection

 © 2012 All Rights Reserved

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I dropped my backpack on the couch but not before grabbing my cell phone out. I was definitely finding out what all this 'turf' talk was about.Throughout my whole walk home I had a sick feeling in my stomach.What if he was in a Gang? Then what I couldn't stop him. I thought he would know better.

His dad, my Tio,died because of them.Shot in the back of the head and no one ever found the killers.Of course that was because the Leader of the gang made sure to keep the cops quiet.

For that reason alone he should know to keep away.I checked the clock and saw my sister was bound to be home soon,she usually hung out at the teenage bars downtown after school waiting for me to get home.I went next door and left the keys for Mrs.Solis to give to Sonia when she finally came,I also left a note telling her I'd be back before dinner and to tell mi mamá I was with Güero.

I walked across the street to his house.He wasn't usually there, but his mom was and she would tell me if he was down by the junk yard or at his friends house.

"Hola Tia." I said waving to her as soon as I opened the door. I never got why she left the door unlocked. It seemed like she was oblivious to the crime or maybe she was used to it since my Tio. It hit her the hardest when he died.Even if her and my Tio had some problems she still loved him. My cousin,on the other had a rocky relationship with him. He didn't like how my Tio would sometimes beat her when he was drunk.

"Hola mija,estás buscando a Federico?" she asked looking up from the T.V. I nodded and smiled.

"Oh pues, no está aquí.Se fue a la casa de Chris." she said. She stood up and walked to me. She was in her thirty's.She wasn't that much older then my mom,her sister. I sometimes found it funny how her and mi mamá were sisters and my dad and Tio were first cousins.

"You're getting big now,¿Cuántos años tienes ahora? diecisiete?"she asked looking at me up and down.

"Acabo de cumplir los diecisiete años el año pasado." I said smiling back at her. She gasped.

"Ya casi tienes dieciocho años? dime algún muchacho?" she asked smiling happily. I thought of Evan.Yeah there was definitely a guy just not in the sense she was asking about.

"No," I said ",Sólo quiero pasar a la escuela secundaria e ir a la universidad." I said. A boy would only complicate things when I left and never saw him again. She tsked and wiggled her finger.

"Don't lie," she said.What was it with latin moms and aunts always thinking there was a boy?

"No estoy mintiendo." I said while backing away to the door. If I stayed any longer I wouldn't be able to leave."Bye Tia." I called over my shoulder.

"No olvides utilizar protección!" She called laughing. I gaped at her. Dois mío! Did she really just say that? I looked around to see some neighbors,sitting outside their houses, looking at me strangely while whispering.Damn it Tia! I walked hastily away trying not to make eye contact with anyone.

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I looked up at the apartment building in front of me,currently playing corrido music. I walked up the steps to the second floor where Chris, my cousins friend, apartment was at. Chris was eighteen like my cousin,but unlike my cousin he didn't live with his mom.

The main reason why he lived with his mom, I think , was to protect her when my Tio got drunk.Then when he died,he was left in charge of protecting her from neighborhood thugs that broke in to the houses around the block.