The Players Club

seventeen.

"I know. That shit was wrong of me to do. But you know that I got you."

"You're good."

Benji nodded with approval as he took a sip of his water. "Now that you guys are done acting like little girls."

"I oughta throw you out the damn window," Drake scoffed.

"I'd love to see you try."

"Enough with that...How did this shit happen?"

Drake leaned further into the bed and sighed tiredly. Thinking about what he had been going through wasn't the easiest for him. It wasn't that he owed it to his friends to share that information, but he felt and knowing that he'd gone through so much and left his friends concerned.

"When my mom brought him home I was cool with him. Seeing my mom being single for so long after my pops left and then finally settling with someone, it made me feel good. Soon after, a bit shit started to change. He started getting a bit aggressive in arguments and that made me a bit iffy, cause everyone gets mad, but he looked like he was trying to control himself, but he was having a really hard time doing so, ya know?"

"Yeah," The boys nodded simultaneously.

"It didn't take long before he couldn't control himself. There was this one day he slapped my mom, because she had planned a trip for me to see my godfather across the country. He was pissed that she was even in contact with another man. From there it just continued. We had a routine and expectations to live by, and if we didn't succeed he'd be hell bent. But, he'd never hit me...just my mom." Drake shook his head, his lips turned up with disgust at the thought of the man. "Until one day my mom wasn't home."

"He couldn't get ahold of her. She was with Ms. Jackson and he flipped. Destroyed the whole living room, the kitchen, fucked up my moms belongings. Then he came to my room. He didn't say anything, you know? Just yanked me off the bed and started punching me anywhere he could. Imagine someone just beating on you for no reason- just cause they wanted to- for the fun of it?"

Sean and Benji could barely even keep themselves straight as they sat in their chairs with their legs shaking.

What Octavia's boyfriend was doing was a different type of evilness that they didn't want to experience. They couldn't even imagine what else Drake had been going through.

"I don't trust nobody cause these men that be wanting my ma... they don't fuck with me," He scoffed. "They just want my mom. The only thing they see is some kid that doesn't have his dad around and they wanna act and play that role just to get her. And when they get her they treat her like shit. She falls for it everytime." His voice broke.

He apologized for the tears that cascaded down his light brown cheeks. Quickly, he wiped them away.

"You got nothing to apologize for," Benji tapped his knee.

"I hope that this makes her see how serious it is. That it's not only hurting her by being with him."

Sean couldn't control the anger bubbling inside of him. He couldn't just sit there and listen to all of the things that his friend had put him through. Something had to be done.

"Look, just know that we got you. We're always going to be here, regardless if you have too much pride to accept it," Benji explained.

"I'm fine. I just need to get out of here, but I might need a place to stay for a bit. I don't think I could look at my mom right now."

"Why?"

"Part of me feels embarrassed. I'm not even gonna lie."

"There's nothing to feel embarrassed about. You were the child in the situation and you didn't deserve that."