The Hood Ain't For Everyone

Chapter Six

Carol

After the guys went inside with their bags, Christianna pounced on me like this was a moment she'd been waiting for all her life.

"Girl, what are you wearing!" she asked dramatically.

"I think it's called a dress." I replied sarcastically. Christianna was mostly Liv's friend. We started hanging out more and more when she started dating Ace. Ace was her boyfriend for the last four years and Kevin's cousin. She was a pretty cool chick. Thick in all the right places with big hips to hold onto, she was definitely a keeper.

"Yea, but what are you doing wearing one?" she said in confusion.
"It's way too hot out here for anything else and-."
"She's lying. I was just at her house and she needs to do her laundry badly." Olivia said, interrupting me. She made a big show of rolling her eyes at me then incase I couldn't detect the playful annoyance in her voice.

"Whatever, I'm just here for the food." I said rolling my eyes right back. As we walked towards the back of the house I heard Chris and Olivia snickering.

"Wait a second, Carol. Look what Chris found." I turned around expecting to see money or something shiny. Instead I saw the water gun I had just stepped over sitting in Olivia's hands. She never even gave me the chance to scream before cold jets of water blasted me. I froze with shock and mock horror as I tried to protect myself as best I could.

"You said you were hot right?" Liv asked while trying to hold back her own laughter.

"That would be a big yes, you big bitch." I nearly shrieked at her. It did nothing to stop her laughter and the amusement on Chris's face. I balled my dress up and swung it over my head, baring my skin to the world.

"You better hope Trevor has a dryer I can use." I said while trying to ring my dress dry.

"I'm sure he has a lot of things you can use. Matter of fact lets walk over there now and ask him." She accented the last part of her sentence by spraying my back with the gun. I shot her my best "I will smack you" look and was rewarded with another shot to the chest.

"I'm not going anywhere with you two until I'm the one with the gun. Olivia and Chris shared a look then before Liv tossed me the gun. She should've expected me to shoot her with it next and she did. She practically took off the moment it was in my hands. We ran around the front yard for a while, reminding me of when we were kids, before someone came looking for us.

"I spend all that time away, come home, and you still can't come say hi to me?" The sound of my brother's voice had both of us stopping in our tracks. He was standing just to the side of the house so drenched in water it was clear he'd just finished swimming.
We ran together and nearly tackled Tyrone to the ground.

"Tyrone, I can't believe you're really here!" I hugged my brother to me, needing to feel his arms around me for this to be real. We were never very close before his sentence but I knew my brother on a personal level. As long as I could remember he'd always been involved in something illegal and more often than not, violent. He never lost a fight and I never saw anyone strike fear into his heart.He hugged me back before holding me at arms distance.

"Look at you! You look so different but the same.At least you still got a five head." He said poking Liv in the forehead. She immediately smacked his hand away and it felt like old times. Tyrone wasn't around very much before but whenever he was Oliva was always front and center to flirt with him. We talked for a few minutes before he took in the state of our clothes.

"Did y'all bring anything to change into when you're done swimming? I don't want you out here naked when you get out." I rolled my eyes in Olivia's direction before I explained how I ended up chasing Olivia around the yard. He confirmed that Cane had a dryer inside and offered to take our clothes and meet us around the back of the house. As we were getting ready to part ways I turned my attention to someone walking past us. We made eye contact and I instantly regretted it

"Ugh, why did it have to be Tre'various? Maybe he won't say nothing in front of Tyrone." I thought internally.

"Damn look at you! Damn Carol! Now you know you gotta let me fuck." I stood mortified unsure of what to do or say.

Tre'various and I have known each other for years. His parents were in the same rehab facility as my dad when we were younger. When we would visit the facility we were usually the only children there. One day outside the rehab Tre got hit in the head during a drive-by. He's been a little slower ever since then.

After my "glow-up" in high school Tre started paying more attention to me. He was completely harmless and more of a nuisance than anything else.

"What the fuck did you just say? Aye, you better back the fuck up before you end up missing lil nigga, talking that bullshit to my little sister. Get the fuck from out my face before I fuck you up!"
I was appreciative of my brother but also a little embarrassed. But for once though, Tre actually looked scared. He looked from me to my brother before finally nodding his head and leaving.

We gave our clothes to Tyrone once Tre was gone and walked over to join Chris near where we left her. She was on her phone seeming to occupy herself during our distraction.

"Hey Chris, did you see Tyrone? You should've come over and said hey." She locked her phone and put it up before responding.

"It's okay I'll make sure I speak later. I wasn't about to run anywhere and then I didn't want to step on the moment you were having with him." She shrugged her shoulders and I let it go. I hadn't known her before he went so I wasn't sure how well she knew him.

"I'm ready to eat though, so I'm gonna go find Ace." She didn't give us a chance to respond before she was out of eyesight. Her behavior seemed weird but I didn't put much thought behind it.

"Did you want to wait for Tyrone to come back out?" Olivia asked, snapping me out of my head.

"He knows where the pool is, let's go swimming." She smiled before she followed me around the house and towards the pool.

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