Treyvon's POV
The ride to Ren's house is quiet and the tension is thick. It ain't really no tension between us, even though I did put her in a bad predicament a minute ago, but the hostile vibes that came from Jessie yard found their way in the car before the doors could close.
My reflexes and anger just took over me before I could control myself after seeing that nigga getting crazy with her. I ain't never gonna sit back and just watch somebody going wild on a female that I got some type of love and respect for. Ever since I met Ren she been cordial and cool, plus she my brother's girl, so the first thing I got to do when he not around is protect her for him.
"You sure you good?" I ask after parking outside her house.
She let's out a sigh and nods. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for taking me," she says. "I apologize for getting you wrapped up in that gang bullshit. I know how dangerous that could've gotten."
"Don't even worry about all that. I got something for them, and don't never hesitate to ask me for any kind of favor. I got you," I tell her.
Even though she's telling me she good, I can see it all in her eyes that this shit between her little best friend and that Mexican mafia got her going crazy inside. She look like she about to break into tears any minute now, and I want to hold her for a minute to let her know I'm here for her just like any of her other friends would be, but I got business to handle with the gang, and I'll just knock some sense into Marcus ass so he can come take care of her like he supposed to. Whatever they into over ain't worth her not being able to have somebody when she feeling like how she feeling now.
"I really appreciate it, Trey," she says, leaning over and giving me a small hug. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Stay out of trouble."
That's something that I can't promise her. I watch her until she gets all the way into her house so I know she made in safe, but as soon as that door closes, I pull my phone out to call Ant. I find it real funny how Ren boy just went and crossed over to the other side after all this time and after knowing Mike for years. All I got to ask is where the hell is the loyalty? Whether they his kind of people or not, this shit he just did ain't cool.
"Ain't you supposed to be in yo' class? What's going on?" Ant asks, answering after two rings.
"We need to have a hood meeting as soon as possible. It's going down with the rivals tonight!"
"You sure about this?" he asks.
"Hundred percent positive. You got to get everybody to the spot now."
Marcus's POV
Ren just don't understand how foul she is for choosing that nigga over me. I mean, I know I was wrong for yelling at her and being involved with causing the scene, but that's just 'cause I was pissed off. Here I am dropping hoes and tryna get shit together so that I can be with her, and she still acting like she don't know what she wants. That shit got me hurt, and I don't like the feeling. A nigga like me don't get his feelings hurt. She got my head all messed up.
I need to get back on track, and getting back with my niggas will help out, but it's nutrition, and Trey's still nowhere to be found. I called his phone damn near three times, but it kept going to voice mail. He acting like I'm one of his hoes that he's tryna avoid, and that shit ain't cool either.
I walk into the lunchroom and see Xavier, Chris, Davante, and Dereck at our usual spot, but the funny thing is, Mike and his boys, Andre and Joseph over there too. They usually sitting with all the jocks and shit, so that alone lets me know that something is up.
"Where my sister, young player?" Mike asks, stepping up to me as soon as I get to the table.
I smack my lips. "You need to be asking her little punk ass friend where she at 'cause I don't know."
"Last time I checked, everybody said y'all had a little altercation in the hallway. What's up with that?"
"Man, whoever you checked with need to mind they damn business!" I yell so that whoever lurking can hear me too. Now everybody in the cafeteria quiet and watching us like we a movie. Even the security watching and ain't doing nothing. That just goes to show how nosy and messy people are up here.
"I ain't got time for this bullshit. What was y'all arguing for?" he asks, stepping closer.
I push him back. "Don't be stepping up to me like you my daddy or something. If you want to know, ask yo' sister 'cause you ain't getting shit out of me!" Dismissing him, I sit down at the table.
Now I already know that whenever something happens to Ren, he's gonna automatically run up on me like I'm always gonna be the one responsible. She didn't run out of here 'cause of me. She ran out of here following after ole boy. That was her choice, but they didn't run that shit back to him. Only that little miss princess was arguing with the big bad thug that's tryna snatch her away from prince charming.
Mike let's out a dry laugh. "This nigga think I'm playing with him or something, don't he?"
"What? My bad, but I didn't hear you right," I say, getting back up.
"I said, you must think I'm playing with you. You got a problem 'cause we can go there again, my nigga. What's up?"
Everybody just sitting and waiting for the next move 'cause he basically just called out my hands, and they all know that I don't turn nothing down. I run all mines whether we in the same gang or not. I had to fight him to get in, so shit, what's another fight gonna do? I tried to respect him for Ren, but it look like she ain't my girl no more, and he keep getting beside himself. I don't tolerate disrespect. Michael ain't no different than nobody else to me. He can get touched too, and it's that simple. "It is what is, so what you gonna do?" I ask him, straight up.
"Let's handle this shit then," he says, looking like he's about to rush me as soon as I say alright.
I'm all about a head up, but I square up to rush him 'cause I know it ain't no fair ones in street fighting no matter where you at, and I can see that the security about ready to come charge us. Just as I'm about to fire on this nigga, all our phones beep at the same time. I know that it must mean we got an important meeting 'cause every time it is one, we all get the texts at the same time like an Amber Alert.
A fade can wait 'cause Ant don't play when it come to business, so we all reach into our pockets and check the message.
Ant: meet at the trap house ASAP
It's most definitely serious since we meeting out the city. He telling us to go to where I went when Ren ran off. After reading it, we all exchange a look before running out the cafeteria and out the school exit doors, ignoring threats from the principals, security, and teachers about suspension and being expelled. They just talking, and we don't have time to care about whether they serious or not.
Korrine's POV
I slam my front door behind me since no one is home and I have a lot of anger to unleash. I don't know who I can take my anger out on or who I'm angrier at the most out of Marcus and Jessie. My momma was so right when she said a lot can happen in the first month of school. These past weeks have just been hell after hell dealing with the both of them, and I don't know how much longer I can take it.
"Is that you, Michael!" my momma yells, shocking me. She must have gotten off work early, and she must have parked in the garage because I did not see her car outside. If I did, Lord knows I would've went right back to school.
"It's me, momma," I say. There's no way I can get out of this now. I shouldn't have slammed the damn door. Not two seconds after that comes out of my mouth, she's storming out of her room and into the living room with her hands on her hips. She's still in her uniform too. "What are you doing here?"
"Don't ask me no damn questions. I'm the parent up in this house!" she yells. "What the hell are you doing home from school? Think before you speak because I want the truth."
I don't know if the truth will get me out of this one. I mean, trying to stop Jessie from making one of the biggest mistakes of his life should be a good reason, but maybe I should lie and say I'm not feeling good. That won't be a good idea because then she's going to try and run me up to the doctor to see what's going on. I don't even have the energy to put up a fake facade all day and probably for the rest of the week.
"I was trying to stop Jessie from joining that Mexican mafia, but it didn't even work," I say, lowering my head. Tears are starting to sting my eyes already. "As we speak, he's probably already apart of it."
My mom walks up to me and wipes all the tears falling from my eyes and hugs me. I wrap my arms around her and hug her ever tighter. This is exactly what I need right now, and who better to give it to me than my own mom. "It's going to be okay, baby. I don't know why these boys think the streets are the only way to go nowadays. Even the smart ones are being misled," she says, rubbing circles into my back.
"But it's my own fault. He did this because he feels like it's what I want."
"Now why in the world would he think that?" she asks, pulling me to the couch and grabbing the box of Kleenex off the end table.
I take four sheets and wipe my face and nose. Here I am, crying my eyes out again. "Because I like this boy named Marcus, and I should've told you about him before, but I didn't even realize the feelings that I have for him are more than what I thought until recently. He's so good to me and almost everything I want, but he's apart of Mike's gang, and that made everything start out bad. I know you taught me better than to deal with some thug, but Marcus is-"
She puts her fingers to my lips, stopping me from going any further. "I'm not here to tell you who you can and can't fall for. I told you all that because I didn't want you to make the same decisions I made, but to go a different route. I just didn't want you going through what I went through," she says.
"Momma, what do you mean?"
"I think it's time I finally tell you about me and your daddy," she says, getting my full and undivided attention. "When I was seventeen and your daddy was nineteen, he worked for one of the biggest drug dealers in the game, which is the same gang your brother is in now. We had met on various occasions, but one night, he had upset me, and I ran off. I ended up getting snatched up by some drug lord, and thank God your daddy followed after me because he saved my life," she explains.
"Daddy saved your life once?" I ask, growing more and more intrigued.
She smiles widely. "Baby, your daddy saved me more than once. He was my superman. After that, he was by my side nonstop.He would take me to school, work, home, and wherever else I needed to go because from that moment, he decided he was going to do whatever it took to keep me safe. Sooner or later, I started falling head over heels for that man without even knowing about his second life in the streets even though I did have suspicions. But when I found out, of course I was afraid and hurt that he kept it from me, but eventually, I didn't even care. All I wanted was him-" she grabs some tissues from the box to wipe her face, and I grab her hand and squeeze it gently, giving her a little comfort. I've never heard this story from neither of my parents, but I'm happy I'm hearing it now. It's making me look at my situation completely differently.
"-I hated my parents for abandoning me and not showing me any love that when I finally started receiving love from your daddy, I got a little fast with him. That's when I got pregnant with your brother. My dad was so upset, he kicked me out of my own house."
"How did you fend for yourself?"
"I moved in with your daddy. He had his own place, and all he cared about was taking care of me and our baby from that point on. We fell in love more deeply, and a few years after Mike was born, I got pregnant with you, so we decided to take our love to another level and get married. Years after that, I got pregnant with Angel, and you know your daddy died before her second birthday."
I shake my head. "It's not fair that he's gone."
"I know, baby. That's why I didn't want you getting involved with a gang member. Even though your daddy and I loved each other more than anything, we almost ended so many times because of his street life. I didn't want you to have to pray and be scared for your boyfriend's life everyday just because he's in a gang. I didn't want you to have to see him being put six feet under after dying in a gunfight or anything like that and then have to raise your kids on your own and not know how to let go of that. Your daddy was all I knew for those thirteen years of life we spent together," she cries.
There's nothing like seeing my mother cry, but seeing her cry over the lost of my daddy is even worse. The pain that she's still going through is something that I don't know if I'll ever be able to deal with in life.
"Your daddy's friend that was in the gang with him is Anthony Burns. Everybody called him Ant back then, and I think they still do now. Y'all knew Ant when y'all were young and babies, but he and your dad had a huge fall out and never got to mend it before your dad died, so y'all were too young to even remember what he looks like. He still comes around every now and again to know how y'all are doing. He's a really good friend of mine, and he was your dad's best friend," she says, getting up and grabbing a photo book. She flips through some pages before showing me a picture of my dad standing with a tall, dark skin man. "This is them."
I pull her into a hug and we both start crying again. All this talk about my dad has made me even more emotional. "Dad and Anthony would want to see you happy now, momma. I know dad would want you to get back out there and love somebody again. You can't be lonely for the rest of your life. It's been three years," I remind her. She can't be my daddy's widow all her life. She's still young and amazingly gorgeous. No woman like her deserves to be lonely. I know my daddy would understand.
"I know, baby, but that's another story, and this isn't about me. If you love this Marcus boy, no matter if he's in a gang or not, be with him. You can't help who you love, and Jessie can't put you at fault for that. If he does, then maybe he isn't the friend you thought he was," she explains.
I nod, completely agreeing with her. I have to push everyone's feelings aside and do what makes me happy. Trying to please everybody else is never going to work. I know who I want, and I hope I didn't mess up what we had trying to make other people happy.
"Look at the time. I have to get back to work because I only had an hour break," she says, standing up. "And you leaving school for Jessie is not a good reason. You know better, and you know that your education comes first. Don't make the same mistake again."
"I won't, momma. I promise," I say.
"Alright. I love you, baby. See you later," she says, walking out of the front door.