Chopped and Screwed Part 2

Chapter 34: 10 Toes Down

Today I was scheduled to teach a yoga session and I'm beyond thankful for this opportunity. The teenage girls in my class are so sweet and eager to learn. I'm able to mentor and teach them something I'm passionate about. I hate that we only meet twice a week though. Not saying that I wasn't happy when I was with Trae, but things are so much better for me right now.

"See you next week, Jay!" One of the girls hugged me as we wrapped up the session.

I smiled as I gave a her a tight hug in return. I then rolled up my mat and put my socks back on. I dabbed the sweat off my face while checking my phone to see I had three missed calls from Quez. Mind you, I haven't talked to him since the accident. I called him back though because it must be important.

Jakiyah?

Yeah, you called?

We need to meet up.

For what?

You talked to, Trae?

Not since his birthday. What's up?

Can we link? It's about, Trae. I need your help.

Is he okay?

He straight, we just need to talk.

We can meet at that one burger place by your house.

Bet.

I hung up the phone and tried calling Trae. His birthday was three days ago and I figured he would still be partying so I hadn't called him since. And plus if it isn't about Derrick, we don't have anything to talk about. He didn't answer the phone which made me kind of worry. I packed up the rest of my belongings and made sure all the girls left the building before I left.

Once I got to the small burger joint, Quez was sitting outside with his hands folded. I slowly walked up to him and he stood up to give me a hug. Quez is nothing but trouble so I denied his greeting. He then opened the door for me and we took a seat in the diner.

"What's going on?" I looked over the menu.

"D Man, good?" He asked about Derrick.

"He's with his grandma. Now what's wrong with Trae, because I know something has to be up?"

"That's good. Aye, I just wanna say that if you still mad about what happened, then Trae isn't the one you should be mad at. You should be mad at me because it was my fault." His hands were all over the place as he talked to me.

"This what we met here for? You got me nervous thinking something happened to him." I'm not trying to hear that.

"Listen to me, mane! When Trae was trying to tell you what happened you wasn't hearing it, but you gone listen to me." He was demanding.

"Now look, I know it looked bad when you came to the hospital. It wasn't even like that though." He ran his fingers over his short curly hair.

"How was it then?" I folded my arms.

"Long story short, Trae found out that Crystal was related to the lil dude that set Trae up. Ole dude was her cousin, crazy right? I been saying something was off with her and then Jermaine randomly got shot. The only person who still had ties with Crystal was Trae mama, so we figured she told ole girl where we would be. We was heated because she tried to set Trae up. I had the brilliant idea of setting her ass up too, I was gone kill her ass. But she caught on and grabbed the wheel, making us get into a car accident. Trae was acting all scary and shit, saying how he ain't wanna do it. I talked him into picking her up that day." He explained.