TORN: A Contemporary Poetry Collection ✔️

32

My phone rings at 6am, way too early. I sit up and look over to see who's calling. The ID reads: Mike, my DJ. Why? He knows I don't answer the phone before noon. I lift the phone to my ear, with a groggy mumble. "Hey Jay, sorry to call you like this, but Tyler and Jovan got into some trouble."

I sigh. "What kind?" These two boys bounced for my club at night. I told them to lay down drugs for a while, but I knew that wouldn't be a simple thing to debug. "Is it worse than last time?"

"Yeah...they got busted trafficking fifteen grams of heroin from Elgin."

"Damn it!" I shout. I invested so much time into getting those boys to do right, and this is what they give in return? "Ok, thanks for giving me the heads up, I'll figure out something."

The line loses its wire. My mind bangs around, thinking of who I can hire.  Robb? No. He has too much of a bad tick. Also, I don't trust the guys he rides with. They're too reckless. I would have to lay a few of them out. That isn't how I operate...employing them would lead to that, not doubt.

So a gang is out of the picture...maybe that's what I need, despite knowing this'll just lead to the same thing. Paying someone just so they can get locked up and slapped with years.