excuse any typos or mistakes.
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𝐊𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒 𝐓𝐀'𝐉𝐀𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐖𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄.
⥊𝘌𝘈𝘚𝘛 𝘕𝘌𝘞 𝘠𝘖𝘙𝘒, 𝘉𝘙𝘖𝘖𝘒𝘓𝘠𝘕, 𝘕𝘠⥊
𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟓, 𝟏𝟎:𝟎𝟗 𝐩.𝐦.
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"Oh my fucking God bro," Kross mumbled, sighing heavily under his breath as he covered his ears with his pillow.
It was one of those nights, where his parents argued and screamed until his father ended up leaving after his mother put his hands on him.
Their household was on the toxic side since Kilan's death, a reason Kross hated being in his house. Some nights, he went to Nas' window and slept on his floor until early in the morning, when he knew the arguing was done.
Nas's mother didn't mind it at all, being she was barely there, but also because Kross was a good friend to Nas.
After a few more seconds, he rolled out of his bed, his wild curls sticking up in every which way, walking to his window and opening it up quietly. He stepped out onto the fire escape, which was wet from the rain, and knocked on Nas's window.
A few seconds later, the window opened, revealing Nas who had a kids' book in his hand.
"Hey Whoopty," Nas spoke softly, moving out of the way to let his best friend in to get out of the rain. "Y-your parents arguing a-again?"
"Yeah, I know they gonna stop soon. Whatchu reading?" Kross asked Nas, pulling his wet socks off of his feet.
Kross knew Nas had trouble reading because whenever he helped him with his homework, he got caught up on the reading part. It was a reason Nas was in the ESL classes.
"Um, this book my t-teacher book wanted me to practice r-reading. Horton hears a Who," Nas said, squinting a little and sounding the title out slowly.
"Valid. You ate dinner?" Kross played in his wild hair and waited for Nas's response, but he only nodded, letting Kross know that he was lying.
He knew when he was lying because Nas never really lied, so he was bad at it.
"C'mon." Kross stood up and walked out of Nas's room, walking down the small, narrow hallway to the small kitchen to help him make something.
He would've walked to the corner store, but he didn't want to leave Nas alone in the apartment.
"M-My mom ain't go food shopping in a while so there's n-nun really in there," Nas said softly, making Kross pause and turn around, furrowing his perfect dark brown eyebrows at the boy's words.
So what the fuck he been eatin' then?
"Whatchu been eating when you get home Nasir?"Kross looked at Nas for a while, who shifted and pulled the sleeves of the sweater, which was slightly too small over his stomach, over his hands.
"I-I eat lunch at school and save s-some of the stuff for w-when I come home. M-my mom been busy at work s-so she forgot to go food s-shopping." Nas looked down at his mix-matched blue and green socks to avoid Kross's gaze and Kross knew he was embarrassed.
"Why you ain't tell me? You coulda been at my house, you know my parents don't really care," Kross said, sighing a little, and Nas shrugged slightly.
"I-I didn't wanna bother you, y-you already do a lot f-for me so," Nas trailed off and Kross sucked his teeth at his best friend.
Kross knew Nas's mother didn't want everyone in their business, and he remembered the time Nas actually got beat for telling the teacher that he didn't eat sometimes at home, which made sense why Nas didn't tell him.
"You my best friend, you 'posed to bother me wit' stuff like that. I told you I gotchu no matter what, so Imma make sure you good, aight?" Kross said, dapping him up and Nas nodded a little, his dark brown eyes lighting up a little. "Imma be back, aight?"
Kross made his way back to Nas's room to go back through his window, 'cause he knew his parents weren't going to be paying him any attention unless the arguing finally stopped. He walked across the fire escape, his feet getting wet from the rain, going back through his window.
The floors felt cold as hell under his feet, but he ignored it, opening his door a little and peeking his head out. It was quiet, meaning either his mom or father left, so he walked down the hall towards the kitchen.
"Kross, why are you up?" He heard his mother, Kacey, say, and he turned around to look at her.
Kross looked like his mother more than he did his father, getting the long eyelashes, dark eyebrows, and wild curls from her, while he inherited his attitude from his father.
In her hand, she held a bottle of Cognac and a wine glass and had tears brimmed at the corner of her glassy light brown eyes with slight bags under them. He knew she drank because of Kilan, but it started getting worse when the arguments got louder.
"I couldn't sleep," Kross said, half lying, as he played in his wild hair
"Well, it's late. Youhave school tomorrow." Kacey smiled a small smile at Kross before walking down the hall, not saying another word.
He heard her room door slam, making him shake his head and walk into the small kitchen, turning the light above the stove on.
Kross grabbed a box of Ramen but started coughing, feeling his chest get tight for some reason. He panicked slightly and reached into his pocket to find his asthma pump before it got worse.
His asthma happened to him at random times, which was a reason his father made him keep his inhaler on him all the time. His mother, however, told him to try to breathe on his own because the medicine was expensive as hell.
Kross put the pump to his mouth and pressed the button on it, inhaling the medicine immediately. His chest began to feel less tight after a minute, and he exhaled a little, closing his eyes slightly.
This asthma is tiring as hell, Ion wanna deal with it anymore.
He ran his tongue over his bottom lip before sighing a little, grabbing two packs of Ramen out of the 12-pack box, putting it in the other pocket of his sweater.
He wasted no time going back to his room and closing the door behind him and locking it before putting a new pair of socks on.
He slipped his slides on and went back out the window, walking back across the fire escape to climb back through Nas's window, who was sitting on his bed quietly and reading the book he had.
"Hm." Kross nudged Nas and pulled the two packs of Ramen out of his pocket and handed them to Nas, who slowly started to smile.
"Thanks, Kross," Nas spoke lowly as he got up, and Kross nodded at him, sitting on the edge of his bed and watching as Nas walked out of his room.
Kross looked at the small clock on Nas's wall and saw it was pushing 10:30 and blinked slowly, feeling sluggish all of a sudden.
Lemme check Nas's homework so Ion gotta do it tomorrow, I'm dumb tired.
He grabbed the beat-up black Jansport backpack from off of the floor near the bed and sat it on his lap, unzipping it and pulling the folders out.
He checked the first folder, seeing Nas needed signatures from a parent or guardian, so Kross grabbed a pencil and signed his name there. He pushed his brown curly hair out of his face while he continued checking over Nas's work, feeling himself get more and more tired by the second.
"Nas, when ya math packet due?" Kross asked loudly, his voice more raspy than usual.
"Ummm, this Friday! I t-think."
"Aight."Kross finished putting his stuff back into the backpack and set it on the floor where it was at before, but paused. "Nas, them niggas fucked witchu at school today?"
"Well, o-only Blick and R-Rome did. E-Everyone else left me alone for the most part. I-I gotta do m-my school project alone c-cause nobody wanna w-wanna work with me." He could tell that Nas wasn't really worried about it, because his speech impediment made it hard for him to communicate with people.
They called him retarded, remedial, slow, and many other names, which was a reason Kross got into trouble a lot.
He hated how people fucked with him because he was a little different from them, and he didn't give a fuck about getting suspended, as long as Nas was straight.
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ᴛʜɪꜱ ɪꜱ ᴋɪɴᴅᴀ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴀ ꜰɪʟʟᴇʀ, ʙᴜᴛ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴀᴍᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ɪᴛ ɢɪᴠᴇꜱ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀ ᴅᴇᴇᴘᴇʀ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ᴀᴛ ɴᴀꜱ'ꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ᴋᴏʀꜱꜱ'ꜱ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅꜱʜɪᴘ, ᴡʜɪᴄʜ ɪ ᴀᴅᴏʀᴇ ᴀʟʀᴇᴀᴅʏ.
ʙɪᴢᴢʏᴋᴛɪʟʟᴍʏʙᴏɴᴇsᴅᴇᴄᴀʏ, ғᴜᴄᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛᴀʟᴋɪɴ' ʙᴏᴜᴛ?
ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛꜱ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇɪʀ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅꜱʜɪᴘ?
20+ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴛꜱ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ɴᴇxᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ.