set it off |mbj

26 | S O N D E R S O N

"Of course I did! I beat his a—"

"Boy, don't get too beside yourself." She pointed star him.

"I won the fight mama... can I head up to my room until the food's done? I just wanna lay down for a little bit."

"Go ahead." Donna sighed again, tapping Michael's shoulder. "Your dad's still gonna find out though, Michael. You're not off the hook for fighting."

"I know." He bit his lip before pecked his moms cheek, running out the bathroom and up to his room.

"And stop running in the damn house!"

A sigh of relief left his lips as he closed his bedroom door. Wasting no time, he threw his body to the bed, his back hitting the soft mattress. Michael Hayes lying to his mom, under any circumstance.

Yes, he got into a fight at the basketball court, but it wasn't the typical fights that boys his age had. It wasn't over a game, or over a girl— or even over cracking jokes that went too far.

Michael had friends that were his age, then he had guys in high school who looked after him; the type of guys that ran in gangs. They treated him like family simply because they knew he was a good kid. They didn't want him getting involved in their business, but Michael was always a hardheaded kid, who had underlying anger problems and strong curiosity— and he just so happened to be the cat that curiosity couldn't kill.

A fight broke out at the basketball court that he took part in between the group of guys. He couldn't go into detail with his mom and let her know, because telling her would result in telling his dad, and telling his dad, would ultimately result in them arguing. They didn't have the best relationship, with his dad being a strict former military man.

Michael didn't know what excited him about being with the older guys, but he learned things from them that he typically would get his ass beat over, if his parents found out. He knew some of them messed around with drug dealing, but they never included him in that aspect of it because of his age, and the respect that had for his family... but they couldn't keep him away.

During the fight, they were surprised to see how he was able to hold his own, so well. His only slip up was the fact that someone from the rival side sneaked him, resulting in the cut he had to explain to his mom. But Michael didn't stop fighting until he saw red— metaphorically and realistically. As soon as he felt his body start to relax into his bed, a 'clink' went against his window, making his eyes shoot open for a few seconds. Brushing it off, he closed them and tried to focus on how to perfect the lie he told him mom, for when his dad gets here.

'Clink'. 'Clink'. 'Clink'.

"Nigga, I know you hear me!" a loud hiss came from the outside of his window. A groan escaped from Michael's lips when he walked over to it, seeing his best friend a few feet down from his view.

Anthony and Michael were like brothers. Their moms knew from the time they started school together years ago, that the two of them would be trouble together. Michael was the calm one, Anthony was the jokester; and they balanced each other out perfectly that way.

"I'm sleep!"

"I see your damn head— you're looking right at me!" Ant yelled back after they held eye contact with each other for ten seconds, a laugh following. "What did your mom say?" He asked, referring to the cut— he was with Michael when it happened. He had a bruised jaw from the same incident.