Y'Lan
"About time nigga." Trevante said dapping me up and pulling me into a brotherly hug.
"My bad man. I missed the first bus." I whispered darting my eyes around the room.
"It's cool. I think I got smarter just by sitting in this muthafucka this long." Trevante joked before striking a scholarly pose. Causing us both to burst into laughter.
"Shush!" The librarian urged from behind her desk which was just a few feet away from us.
"Sorry." I mouthed causing her brows to furrow in a warning manor.
"Man fuck what she talking about." Trevante said rising to his feet and tilting his head toward the back of the library.
As if on cue I rose to my feet and began to follow him. My eyes gazed over the few people who were there. All lost in a book of some sort. Paying us little to no mind. But for some reason it felt as if they all knew we were up to no good.
I could feel myself growing more and more paranoid by the moment. As my heart beat increased and the inside of my palms began to moisten. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Trevante asked slamming the back pack he had been toting into the front of my chest and staring deeply into my eyes.
"Yeah." I said with a gulp. Because to be honest I wasn't sure. Not at all. Not even a little bit.
"Then take it." He growled causing me to wrap my hands around the bag quickly.
"If you gone do this nigga you can't be scared." Trevante warned taking a step away from me.
"I'm not scared." I said hoping to convince not only him but myself.
"Okay." He said in a flat tone.
I was about to throw the bag over my shoulder when Trevante grabbed the collar of my shirt. Yanking me towards him in one swift movement. "Yo!" Was all I managed to get out which quickly caught the attention of a nearby library patron. I forced a smile as Trevante released my collar and followed suit by doing the same.
"You not even gone check the bag to make sure it's all there?" He whispered into the side of my face.
"Right ... right." I said pulling the bag from my shoulder and unzipping it. I looked through it and it was all there. Just as we had dicussed. "It's all here." I said zipping the bag up and once again throwing it over my shoulder.
"Of course it is." He snarled before taking a step away. "Listen to me man. Don't ever let somebody hand you something in this game with out checking to make sure it's all there first. Drugs 1o1." He said in a softer yet serious tone.
"Right." I said allowing his words to sink in.
I was no D Boy. I knew little to nothing about pushing drugs. Nothing more than a hood movie could teach me anyway.
You see I grew up on the other side of town. My mother and I weren't exactly well off but needless to say we were better off than Trevante and his moms.
The side of town I grew up in saw little to no action. Everybody knew everybody. And I was positive some of my neighbors even kept their doors unlocked at night. It was literally that safe.
My mother was a woman of academia just like her parents had been before her. I naturally followed suit. I was a book worm. Which had afforded me the opportunity of attending a private school in a neighboring county on a scholarship.
You see I had nice things. But they had better things of course. I was a smart kid but at times they seemed smarter. And it didn't help that I was one of only three African American students in the entire school.
