Forbidden Fruit (Completed) [Short Story]

Chapter 3 : Confessions & Danger

Justice in MM

I woke up the next morning with a throbbing headache and a pain in my shoulder. I sat up in Justice's guest room bed slowly, as the pain ached. I heard the tv in the living room and I knew Justice was awake. I sighed, getting out of bed, ready to hear his mouth about last night.

I walked out the room and he was sitting in his favorite chair watching a basketball game. He turned to me when he saw me.

"Good morning, Ava," He said, as I poured orange juice in a glass.

"Morning," I mumbled, taking a pain killer out the cabinet. I threw two in my mouth and swallowed them with the orange juice I poured.

"Com'ere," He demanded. I silently sighed, dragging myself to him and taking a seat on the couch across from him. I looked at him, not saying a word, waiting for him to speak.

"What happened last night?" He asked.

"Justice, I was just in the club, its no big deal," I said, rolling my eyes.

"No big deal? Ava you're only 18!" He said, like I had no clue what age I was. "And Eli told me you been drinking too? Do ever stop to think before you do shit like this? You coulda got hurt and ya drunk friends wasn't gonna be able to help you."

I sighed, bracing back against the couch with my arms folded. I hated when he yelled at me. I was use to it but I hated when he got mad at me.

He sighed, dropping his angry expression and calming down.

"Look, Ava, I'm just tryna make sure you okay. I love you too much to see you get hurt," He said gently. "You being my little sister, that carries a lot of weight around here."

I raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Forget about it-"

"No, Justice, tell me," I insisted.

"Alright but you can't tell no one, iight?" He said like a little kid who did something bad and didn't want to get caught. I nodded. "Look Ava, I'm in the game."

"The game?" I repeated with confusion.

"Yeah, the drug game. I been in it for a while now, me and Eli. We on top of things around here and the money flow is good but wherever a nigga is getting money, theres enemies lurking around too. So I got niggas plotting against me. Thats why I try to keep you safe. If them niggas knew you were my sister, they might hurt you too."

I was appalled. I never knew Justice was a drug dealer, let alone a large one. It all started to make sense though. My parents disowning him, this fancy condo, and his red Mitsubishi parked outside.

"Eli was just trying to look out for you last night," He continued. "Thats all."

"Oh my god," I mumbled. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Because you were young and you wouldn't have understood," He said. "Now you're older and tryna go to clubs and shit, I think its best if you knew the truth now."

"How long have you been in?"

"After the night of that party I had 5 years ago. The one you tried to sneak in, remember?" He chuckled, shaking his head. "Yeah, a few guys got us in that night and after I made my first grand, I never left. This lifestyle is easy, Av. I ain't smart enough to go to college and become a doctor or a lawyer. This is the only shit I'm good at. Elijah is the smart one though. He don't belong in this drug shit. He's the one that should be a doctor or lawyer. And I'm hoping one day he'd leave and use his college degree to get a better, safer, and legal job, you feel me? I don't want him to be nothing like me."