Ganja on Fourth Street

Chapter One

I fell in love with the plug ...

. . .

Laken Rivera

I was exhausted by the time we got to Denver's neighborhood. It was thirty minutes passed midnight but this neighborhood was live like it was mid day. I definitely didn't feel like I fit in to this place. I've been so used to the high-end life that I forgot what lower life even looked like.

"Welcome to the projects."

I looked around and saw tall brown buildings in a cluster that each looked about six stories high. Outside of these buildings were mostly men, some young some old. A few had females under their arms who looked cheap, but had pretty faces. Denver led me to the first building on the block---Building 232. He looked at the pad with over a hundred buttons. He scanned the pad before pressing a button, releasing a loud buzzing. We waited a few moments before someone spoke through.

"Hello?"

"Jojo, Xae there?" Denver asked.

"He with his girl, why?"

"I got someone who needs to talk to him." He replied.

"Xae, get your strap real quick," He yelled in the distance. I looked at Denver, worried. He grabbed my hand and smiled, waiting for Jojo to come back to the intercom.

"Come up."

Another loud buzzing rang through as Denver opened the doors that led into the building. We walked to the steps and traveled up about five flights. We walked through a dull hallway with flickering lights. The hallway had a greenish ambiance. The doors were red and old looking. Some had chipped paint, some had welcome signs, and some had graffiti sprayed onto them. Denver tugged at my arm, telling me to hurry up. I didn't realize he was practically dragging me as I observed everything. He brought me to a door at a dead end hall. He knocked on the door and waited for an answer. Inside I could hear faint trap music.

"I haven't seen him in so long, D."

"I'm sure he'll be happy to see you." He assured me, waiting for someone to answer.

After waiting a good minute, the door swung open. The smell of weed and something sweet lingered out of the apartment. I stared at Jojo who was holding a gun in his right hand. He looked at the both of us confused.

"Denver, who's this?" He asked D.

"This my girlfriend. Put that shit away." He pushed the door further open and pulled me in. Jojo closed the door behind us and continued to examine me as if I was some type of blob that was shitting all over his apartment.

"Who this boujie ass female?" He said, looking back at Denver.

"Chill, yo. This is Xae's sister."

His mouth dropped open, "YO XAE!"

I jumped a little at the loud boom of his voice. We all stood there waiting for my brother to show himself. I heard a door open and a couple coughs before Xavier finally came. "Yo?"

"Look who came to visit." Jojo pointed at me with the gun, immediately increasing my heart rate. Xae looked at me for a couple of moments before cracking a small smile. He came over to me and held out his arms. I embraced him a long hug, similar to the one we had before he left the nest for good.

"Denver why you bring my sister to this neighborhood? You know females will jump her as soon as they see this big ole' bag you lugging around." He pulled away from the hug.