Tidal [HIATUS]

five

October 20th
Long Beach

I watched the two man count money, another cutting up a powder of white but this became nothing new to me. It's crazy how the first time I walked into this house, I was shook up by everything I was seeing. Now? Now it became part of the life.

"I got stuff to do, can we hurry up," I questioned while tossing a tennis ball against the wall and catching it before it flew over my head.

"Don't forget yo place, lil nigga." An OG said while eyeing me, then taking a stack of money and wrapping a rubber band around it. "Tone said this your cut for the past month." As soon as he handed it to me, I took the rubber band off and started counting. "Oh what, you don't trust me?"

"Precisely." I retorted and glanced up with a smirk when he glared, thinking I was genuinely disrespecting him. "I'm kidding, cuh, relax. I'm just tryna see how much I gotta put away right now."

I thumbed through the cash and made my own separate piles, my head instantly shaking once I finished. "Three thousand, two hundred and fourteen." I muttered with a slow nod. Hell fucking yeah. I took two thousand and put that into a separate rubber band, then wrapping the last band and keeping that for myself. The other two would be for the house.

"Nice doing business with you, fellas." I said and grabbed the new bag of pills from the other guy.

"Liu Kang, come here." I glanced over my shoulder and saw Tone nodding his head to the side. That goddamn nickname got to him too..

I put my stuff up before walking with him out to the front of the house where he leaned against the pillar and lit a blunt. "How you feeling out there, having any problems?" He asked and I shook my head. "Diablo and them?"

"Haven't seen them. Paolo not even in school no more so.. I don't know." He nodded and looked out at the streets. I still had one question pondering on my mind and I figured there wouldn't been too much harm in asking. "What's up with Abe, Tone? Is there beef there?"

He looked at me for a moment before glancing away. "Your boys fine. Who he report to got a lil mouthy and we ride for who we with so I know he's no different." He looked at me again. "You know what I'm saying?"

I nodded slightly and looked down with a sigh. "I'm not gonna.. have to kill him, am I?"

He chuckled deeply and flicked the ash of his blunt to the ground. "You got a reason to kill him?" I instantly shook my head. "Then we solid. Don't worry, Y/n. 'long as Abe ain't doing nothing, I know he's just a little nigga."

I breathed out in relief as I nodded. "Okay cool. I'll be back in a few days, kids at school eating this shit up like candy." He barely cracked a smile as he gave me a nod while I jogged down the porch.

Today was Wednesday which meant study day. Over the last few weeks, I didn't only invest my time on getting money but also spending time with Jhené.

We studied twice a week and occasionally hung out on the weekends when she would volunteer at the library for over time. I could still be flustered as hell over her but I managed to ease my goofiness down a notch. Especially with the assertive 'I'll never date anyone in a gang' responses I got.

She didn't literally know I was in a gang but she had her suspicions. According to her, I dress like a watered down version of Charles. I'm not sure exactly what that means but it was her reasoning apparently.

"What you got going on today?" Maru asked while I walked into the apartment, him on his way out.

"Studying." I said and he titled his head with raised eyebrows. "With Jhené?"