•𝘽𝙚𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙄𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 •

- 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙞𝙭

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙞𝙭 : 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙖 𝙥𝙤𝙫

The house been real quiet lately. It's times like these where I really wish I had the freedom other teens had. It's never been a big issue for me because my family are my best friends. But when you need other people to talk to and vent to, it got real lonely.

My father, my uncle, and Josiah have been... off. It's like they were busy 24/7. They usually are, but they never make it a habit to not spend time with me. Not in a spoiled way, just in a not too caught up in work way.

I did my morning routine, deciding to put on some gray athletic shorts and a white oversized tee. As always, I made my way downstairs, only stopping when I heard Josiah's voice.

"Nah."

"I don't believe that shit. It's not true, ion know who told you this shit but. Nah nigga."

My father's voice came into frame. "I don't want to believe it either, but come on Siah, from the way things have been movin' lately. I-" his voice came to a halt. I cringed, trying to back peddle my way up the stairs slowly.

"Come in here, Brianna." He sighed.

"Fuck," I muttered.  I should've thought this would happen. Memories flashed through my head of several situations like this. 7-year old me peeking into my father's office, him always somehow knowing I was there. It's like this motherfucker could sense me.

I rounded the corner into the kitchen and immediately defended myself. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I'm sorry. I promise I didn't hear a lot, I was just curious." I had that apology down since I could remember.

As my eyes flashed through the room. I had finally noticed Uncle Mir in the corner of the room, silent. which was always unusual. "It's okay, we were taking in the kitchen and not somewhere closed off." My dad gestured to a seat near him, "you wanna sit."

I walked to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water and my Chinese food from last night. "Not really," I mumbled. A child could take in the energy in the room. Josiah was sitting there like a ticking time bomb, Uncle Mir looked like he just found out his friend killed his dog and my dad was talking way to calm for comfort.

I popped my food in the microwave.

"I been hearing some things. And it's being suspected that you have some kind of relationship or friendship with someone in the Creed family.

And I'm sure you know how significant it is that I make sure that ain't true."

My heart stuttered as I tried hard to keep a straight face. I didn't know whether to lie or not. "Do you think it's true?" I asked. He raised an eyebrow, "I'm praying it's not. But you should be able to understand why I might think it's true."

"I don't," I said, shrugging.

He sighed, seeing I wasn't letting up, "you knew the meeting in Cali was a set up, how?" When I didn't answer he asked again.

"You knew I went to Miami when I had never told you. The only people who knew when Amir and anybody else that would be trying to keep tabs on me, that would be the Creed family."

I looked at him like he was crazy, "You think I'm running with them or something!" I shouted. "Of course not, but I do think you and somebody associated with that family is trying to keep the conflict down so nothing happens."

"We were supposed to make the drop on them, but somehow they knew not to show up. You talked me out of going to Cali, and somehow you knew they were trying to set me up. Explain that, Bri." He waited.

I stayed quiet, "it was a coincidence."

"Brianna, you can't be serious," Siah mumbled. I took in his drained appearance, and he really made me think for a second. "You acting like this is all knew to you. You know we don't fuck with them. For good reason."

"Tuh, what good reason?" I objected.

He looked shocked, even though I asked a simple question. His energy went from dead to angry, "Brianna, be fucking fa' real. Since when is this shit a fucking game-"

"Watch yourself" My father sat up. "You can be angry, but watch ya' language when speaking to her."

I rolled my eyes and went to grab my food. "I'm still speaking to you, Bri." My dad stopped me. I sighed, glancing at him. "Brianna, I don't know if this is about some friend you made or some boy, but I'm telling you it can't be worth you putting your life on the line to associate yourself with that family."

"Whether you think he or she isn't dangerous or untrustworthy or not. You can't believe that the Creed family won't try to take the opportunity they have by using you as a target. Because right now, you an easy ass one."

"Okay," I shrugged. He stared me down, probably trying to read my body language, something he was always good at. "You really don't care?" He genuinely asked.

Josiah shook his head, letting out a laugh, but it came out as more winded than anything. He walked out of the room, giving me one hard glance.

My father continued. "You don't care if this ends with you dead? Or me or one of the men I have with families tryna protect you?" He looked at me in disbelief. "I never said that," I mumbled, swallowing the lump in my throat.

"You're acting like it," he nodded. He tilted his head, "whatchu' think ima do if something happens to you, Bri? Get revenge? Cry? I'm not sure," he said as he stood up, "because I'm going to go insane if I lose another woman I love in my life when I should be protecting them."

Tears formed in my eyes as I watched him get emotional. To anyone else, it was just anger, but I rarely saw him express that. People read sensitivity as sadness, but they forget that anger is a sensitive emotion too.

"So you'n care?" He squinted at me. I wiped under my eyes, of course, causing a few more tears to fall.

"You gon' answer him," Uncle Mir sat up from his corner. He had done nothing but listen and watch this whole time. "I'm just confused, for real. Cause when did all this happen? I don't need to ask you to know that all this is over some lil ass boy, ain't it?"

"I thought you was smarter than that, Bri. I know you are. The same way we found out, what if Elijah Creed found out and saw his opportunity. You are all of our weaknesses. What if he used you to get to us. Don't make a stupid mistake like that." He made his way out, following after Josiah.

It was just me and my father. "Knowledge is power. That's what I go by, you know that. And right now you know exactly what you need to do."