Hip Hop Affairs (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 2

A$AP Rocky above and the song Rock Box by Run DMC

Groaning, I sat up straight in one of the bunk beds I was sleeping in. I didn't know what time it was since there was no clock in here. I look around and see there were about ten people in here out of about at least fifty beds. I look over at the bunk bed to my left and see Shaine not in the top or bottom one. I wanted to call out her name, but I didn't want to wake the others.

I got up from the bed to see I was still in the same clothes from last night. I know I was too tired to change. I was about to walk out the door that led to the front until someone else opened it. It was Ms. Bessie. Oh hell no.

"Hi Ms. Bessie, have you seen Shaine?" I asked her.

"Good morning, Rakim, and she's out there eating breakfast. She said she would've brought you along, but she didn't want to wake you."

"Oh okay. Thank you Ms. Bessie," I said wanting to end this conversation fast.

"You're welcome. And just call me Bessie."

I really didn't want to call her anything but what I was thinking and it wasn't very nice. "Okay, Bessie," I say putting emphasis on her name. I was about to go see Shaine until she blocked the door.

"You know Rakim, you're a very handsome young man for your age and you seem very smart, too," she says and starts caressing my cheek. "Young boys I see come in here your age act so rowdy and uneducated. But at least you're not like them, I see potential in you." She grabs my shoulders and pulls me into her, or really my face in her chest despite me being taller than her. Usually I would say this is nice, but on her it's scary as hell.

"Thank you, Bessie, but can I go see Shaine now?" I ask nearly about to choke and fall out on the floor. Okay I'm exaggerating but I'm serious, I need to get away from this woman.

"Oh I'm sorry, sweetie. Go ahead," Bessie said and unblocked the door. "Have a nice day, Rakim." She winked at me and then walked off further into the room.

I shook my head trying to shake off what just happened. I walked to the front to see Shaine at one of the tables eating a plate with eggs, bacon, and toast on it along with a cup of OJ on the side.

She looked up and saw me when I was walking over. "Hi Rakim, go get you a plate and come sit with me." Shaine seems to be in a good mood. I went to the line with the other people and got me a plate. By the time I was out the line, Shaine was done, but she still stayed in the same spot. I sat down next to her and started eating. The food was good, but not like mom's home-cooking though. Back at home, Moms always cooked, but it would be like only once a week due to her working two jobs, but she did make enough to last the whole week.

"This is better than what I expected. I mean I got a home-cooked meal, but it would be once a week," I admitted to Shaine.

"Aww well I'm glad you're enjoying it," said Shaine. We sat in silence between us as I kept on eating until Shaine spoke again. "So Rakim, do you want to go out on the town with me for the day? I'm going to 52nd Street?"

I thought hard about it, but then this would be an opportunity to get out of here for a few hours. And being from New York City and all, I've never been outside of Harlem until last night. "Yeah, I'll go with you," I said chewing on a piece of bacon

"Great! We can go freshen up and then hit the city," she said in a happy tone. There were bathrooms in here, so lucky for us we could go shower and be clean.

After I was finished eating, Shaine and I showered up and changed into some decent enough looking clothes.

We left out the shelter and went to hit up 52nd Street where according to Shaine all the cool clubs were. Too bad we couldn't afford to go inside, or in my case not old enough and too broke. We were walking down the street and it was filled with nothing but music and people dancing. Jazz, rap, R&B, Blues, any kind of music. This kind of stuff I heard goes down like this in New Orleans.