1993
Queens, New York
[Queensbridge]
JAHKAI
It was now the morning after the party. Jahkai got out of Carmen's bed to get dressed and head home. He managed to get her to calm down last night and finally got the chance to explain who Zara was. She let it slide but still mentally noted to keep an eye on Zara until she went back to California.
Jahkai bent down to give Carmen a kiss on her cheek as she still laid in bed half asleep. "I'll call you later." He whispered softly in her ear.
Carmen nodded in response and drifted back into a deep slumber. Jahkai quietly tip toed out of her apartment, not wanting to wake up Carmen's mother and grandmother so he wouldn't get caught for being snuck into the house last night, and locked the door with a spare key Carmen gave to him.
Luckily, by the time he got home, Jahkai's mother was still asleep. "Thank the Lord." He silently thanked the man above for not having to hear his mother yell at him for coming home at this time.
After taking a shower and completing the rest of his morning hygiene, Jahkai got into more comfortable clothing and turned on the TV in his bedroom to start playing video games but was interrupted when his phone started ringing. He kissed his teeth before grabbing it off his nightstand.
"Yo."
"Kai, it's me. I'm outside." Omari responded on the other end.
"Mari... You gotta learn to let me know you comin' here before you actually show up." Jahkai stressed.
"Man, shut up and come downstairs."
"Fuck you, man."
"What?! Nigga get the fuck downstairs before I come up there and start bangin' on the mothafuckin' door!"
Jahkai released a frustrated sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Aight bruh." He responded blandly and hung up.
He rushed out of his apartment and down to where Omari's car was parked. "What you want, man?" Jahkai questioned his friend as he approached the vehicle.
Omari, who was leaned up against the trunk, just dry chuckled and turned around to pop the trunk open. He grabbed a duffle bag and closed it shut. "Here." He shoved the bag into Jahkai's chest.
Jahkai unzipped the bag half way and released a frustrating sigh. "I'm not selling this." He said as he zipped the bag back up.
"You already said you would." Omari responded.
"No. I said I would sell weed, not this shit."
"And that's what the fuck you got. Weed plus a lil somethin' extra." Omari spat. He deeply sighed as he briefly examined Jahkai's uneasiness. "Look, stop worrying. You'll be fine. And you'll be getting paid more than the last time. You really about to stand here and reject all this money you could have?!"
At this point, Jahkai just wanted Omari to stop talking. He kissed his teeth and took the bag without saying anything else and was about to walk back to his apartment, but spotted Dominique, Zara, and Janae walking towards them.
"Wassup?" Jahkai asked, giving Dominique a side hug.
"Nothing. Just out here being a tour guide for these two today." She responded and pointed at Zara and Janae.
"Word." Jahkai chuckled. "Where y'all headin'?"
"Well, no offence to your hood or anything but we're tired of being stuck here and seeing the same shit." Janae replied as she chimed into the conversation. "We wanna see more places... and more men!" She exclaimed, sticking her tongue out at the side of her mouth while doing a little dance.
Zara snickered and rolled her eyes. "What? Antwan's not enough for you?"
"Girl, please." Janae waved her off. "He cute and everything but I want more options. New York got some fine ass men."
Jahkai and Omari shared a laugh at Janae. "I like this girl, yo." Omari stated. "But where y'all off to? I can give y'all a ride if you want."
"They wanna go to Harlem first." Dominique answered.
Jahkai raised an eyebrow and gave the girls a strange look. "For what? There ain't nothin' over there." Jahkai was obviously confused at the girls' fascination with wanting to site-see in areas other than Manhattan.
"To you." Janae emphasized. "But to us, there's something new to see... like boys. So can we can go now?"
Jahkai shook his head. "I'm out, y'all have fun." He said and dapped up Omari.
"You're not coming?" Zara blurted out.
"I didn't know you wanted me to, shorty." Jahkai smirked at her.
"Oh uh- I don't. I mean, I do but-" Zara blushed in embarrassment. She sucked her teeth out of frustration and shrugged. "It was just a question."
Jahkai licked his lips, eyeing her up and down. Before he could answer, he was thrown off by Dominique's voice. "What's in the bag?" She questioned, pointing at the duffle bag filled with drugs he forgot he was even holding.
"Huh?" He looked at her. Just like Malik, Dominique knew about the weed Jahkai sold for Omari. She understood why he did it but she hoped he wouldn't do it again. She hoped he wouldn't sell any other type of drug for that matter.
"Oh, it's just some more weed. And before you cuss me out, talk to this fool right here." Jahkai nodded his head at Omari. "He don't ever shut the fuck up."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah.." Omari rolled his eyes and walked over to the driver's side of his vehicle. "Y'all get yo simple asses in the car."
Dominique gave Jahkai an unimpressed look but decided to remain silent and got in the car along with the girls. Jahkai decided to go with them since he didn't have anything planned for the day.
Once the group arrived in Harlem, they stopped at a corner store to get some snacks and drinks. The girls spotted a building with some graffiti art on it, and obviously Janae was the one to drag them towards it to take pictures.
As Jahkai exited the store with a bag of chips and was heading back to Omari's car, he was stopped by a male who looked around the same age as him. "Yo, wassup? You got anything on you?"
Jahkai drew his eyebrows together as he chewed on his salty flavoured snack . "Whatchu talkin' about?"
"C'mon b, I ain't the feds. You ain't gotta do all that." The male chuckled. "You got anything or what?"
Jahkai stood there, genuinely confused for a moment but soon caught on to what he meant. "Yeah, man. What you want?" Jahkai gestured for the male to follow him to Omari's car.
"You got that candy?" He replied.
Jahkai nodded 'yes' and opened the passenger's door to retrieve the drug out of the duffle bag.
"What's goin' on?" Omari asked Jahkai as he moved his cellphone away from his ear.
"This nigga want some."
Omari moved his head to look at the male standing behind Jahkai and carefully examined his demeanour. After mentally confirming that he wasn't the police, Omari nodded at Jahkai and went back to his phone conversation.
"How much?" Jahkai asked the male.
"Just one."
The two made their exchange and the male thanked him before walking off. Jahkai looked down at the one hundred dollar bill in his hand and a smirk grew on his face. He never liked the idea of getting money this way, but he'd be lying to himself if he said getting this amount of money off of that little piece of crack didn't make him feel a tad bit excited on the inside.
"Ayo, my mans!"
Jahkai was snapped out of his thoughts when a caramel skinned man about the same height as him, dressed in some fly ass gear angrily approached him.
Jahkai stuffed the money into his back pocket and quickly turned the grin on his face into a mean mug once the male stepped to him.
"Who the fuck are you comin' over here sellin' shit on my block, b?"
"Nigga, who the fuck is you to be questionin' me?" Jahkai harshly spat back.
CAM'RON as RICO
"Nigga, I'm Rico. R.I.C.O! And you need to get the fuck off my block 'fore I-"
"Yo, chill the fuck out with that shit!" Omari quickly got out of his car and slammed the door shut. "What seems to be the problem?" Omari sternly questioned Rico, standing in between him and Jahkai.
"This nigga out here stealin' my customers, b. I ain't ever seen this cat around here before so ima let this one slide. But if I see him around here again, I ain't gonna be this nice." Rico responded and gave Jahkai a death glare.
Jahkai just chuckled and shook his head. "This nigga's buggin', yo."
"The fuck you laughin' for?" Rico mean mugged him. "Niggas die everyday, b. I have no problem smokin' yo stupid ass-"
"Yo, listen. I fear no man but God, aight? If you wanna do some shit, then do it!"
"Kai, shut the fuck up, man!" Omari shouted at Jahkai.
"Aye, what's goin' on here?" Another male approached the trio with another man following behind.
WOOD HARRIS & MEKHI PHIFER
as
ACE & MITCH
"Yo, Mitch. These niggas is really testin' me, b." Rico spoke angrily to his friend as his nose began to flare up.
"It ain't my fault you wasn't around to give your customer what he needed." Jahkai taunted.
"Aight, aight. Y'all just calm down." The more taller, slimmer male spoke. "Y'all from around here?" He asked Jahkai and Omari.
"Nah, we from Queens." Omari answered.
"Word." The male nodded and held up his fist to dap Omari. "I'm Ace and this is Mitch. Y'all probably already know Rico over here cause he don't let anyone ever forget his stupid ass name. But yo, we all out here tryna get money, b. Ain't no beef or anything but this not yo side of town, see what I'm sayin'? Can't just come over here sellin' shit and takin' niggas customers." Ace explained.
"Yeah, we know that." Omari chuckled. "It wasn't intentional. We just stopped over here to buy a few things at the store and that crackhead came up to my mans."
Ace snickered and glanced over at Jahkai then back at Omari. "That's cool, b."
The girls finally arrived back at the car, joking and giggling amongst one another. But when they looked up at the boys and noticed the slight tension, they quickly went silent.
"Everything good?" Dominique asked as the girls walked towards guys.
"Yeah, we straight." Omari answered, glancing over at her. "Y'all ready?"
"Wassup, shorty?" Rico brought his attention to Zara with lust filling up his eyes.
Zara scrunched up her face and hid behind Jahkai. "Get in the car." Jahkai looked over his shoulder and spoke quietly to her.
Rico jerked his head back and laughed obnoxiously. "Awww, that must be his little girlfriend!"
Mitch kissed his teeth and placed his hand on Rico's shoulder, roughly pulling him backwards. "That's enough, Rico."
"Let's go." Jahkai said to Omari and walked off. The group of friends followed his actions and proceeded to enter the car.
"Yo, my mans!" Rico called out for Jahkai one last time. Jahkai released a deep sigh and looked at Rico.
"Remember what I said." Rico warned him.
Jahkai rolled his eyes and got in the car without saying anything back to Rico. He closed the door shut and glanced at Omari next to him. Omari just gave him a look, indicating that he shouldn't worry about anything Rico said. Jahkai looked back out his window as Omari started the car and began to pull off.
Rico stood outside giving Jahkai a menacing smirk and Jahkai just flicked him the middle finger in return.
"NiGgAs dIe EvERyDaY, B."
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