Chris
Kiyan and I left out the hospital and headed to Ray's house in Inglewood after stopping to get some food. I haven't told him where we were going, as far as he knew we were just going for a drive. I was fully prepared to do what needed to be done, both physically and mentally, I just needed to figure out the right way to tell him. At the end of the day, that is his father.
"Sooo... who's house is this?" Kiyan asked me as we were parked in front of Ray's place.
"A friend." I answered mysteriously.
"Does he know my mom or something?"
"Naw... He's cool with your dad."
His eyes widened, "What?! Why did you bring me here?! If he's friends with my dad then that means he's just like him, maybe even worse! Why are you even friends with him?!"
"Chill man, chill." I said, trying to calm him down. "They ain't as close as you think. He's actually been doing me a favor and keeping a close eye on your father's moves."
"Well my mom is in a hospital bed fighting for her life because of him, so I guess your homeboy hasn't really been doing a good job."
"What if I told you, your dad's in there hiding out right now?"
"...You're serious?"
"Dead. This friend of ours is the one who called me when we were in the waiting room. He said the nigga came to him asking to stay there until he could figure out what to do next."
"Coward."
"Exactly. So—"
"Let's go."
"Wait a minute, I was just gon leave you in the car."
"No, I wanna come too."
"Kiyan are you sure about that? This is not a game. You'd be seeing some shit that you wouldn't wanna see, nor should you be seeing."
"I don't care. He needs to pay for what he did. For everything he's done."
"I don't know man..."
"Chris, I can handle it." he said determinedly. "I'm coming with you."
I sighed, "Alright man, don't say I didn't warn you."
I reached over towards the glove compartment and pulled out my Glock 19 that I always kept in there in case of, ya know, emergencies.
I looked him square in the eye, "I'm giving you one last chance to change your mind."
"Give me the gun."
"Aight, now you really wylin' for real. No way in hell." I laughed.
"Chris, I may be young but I'm not dumb. Just let me hold it. I'll be careful."
I looked at him skeptically before slowly handing it over to him, and he tucked it inside of his jacket.
"Guard that shit with your life." I said sternly.
"Heard you. We out?"
"Yeah. Real quick though... before you left the house this morning, was Casandra there?"
"She's like a housefly that just can't seem to disappear no matter how much you try to swat it away. She's always there. Why do you ask?"
I smirked, "Oh, no reason really. Just out of curiosity."
I made a mental note of that piece of information because it was going to be useful later.
We left out the car and walked up to Ray's front door, where he was already standing waiting for us. I had already texted him to let him know we were outside because knocking would've caught Carmelo's attention which is not what we want.
"What's going on bruh." I greeted, dapping him up.
"Nothing, yet." he joked. He turned to Kiyan, "What you doing in this neck of the woods lil man?"
"I felt like it was important for him to come." I answered for him.
"My nigga do you really think that's a good idea, knowing what you're about to do?" Ray said.
"Man if you knew what went down earlier you wouldn't even be asking me that."
"Tell me what happened."
"Later. Just direct me to where dude is at so I can get this over with."
He guided us to a set of stairs leading to what I assumed was a basement.
"When you're finished, check the closet in the far right corner. Everything you need in terms of clean up should be in there." he instructed.
I nodded then turned my attention to Kiyan as Ray walked away. "If you're gonna do this with me, you're gonna do it right. I don't want to use the gun until I absolutely have to, so I'll let you continue to hold it as a way of self control."
"What do you mean until you absolutely have to? You're not gonna kill him?" he asked.
"It's a last resort type of thing. I wanna try to see if I can scare him into turning himself in first. It's less blood on my hands that way. But if he gets me heated enough, which I'm sure he will, I can't tell you how long my temper will hold me over until I off the nigga."
"Well damn."
I shrugged, "Sorry you had to hear it that way, but I did warn you. If you wanna back out or you don't want me to do it, just say the word and—"
"Nah, you gotta do what you gotta do. This is for my mom."
"Shit, maybe I underestimated you." I laughed. "Now listen, it's very important for you to stay close behind me at all times. If things get to a certain point, you're gonna hear me say 'Plan B' and sneak my hand behind my back. That's when I need you to hand me the gun and steer clear. This will most likely happen real fast, but I think you can handle it. You following me?"
"Yeah, but there's just one problem... What if he has a weapon?"
"Trust me, that nigga ain't strapped. He wouldn't be so scared to be found right now if he was."
We slowly headed the down the stairs, finding Carmelo sitting there with his back turned to us watching TV. Casandra was nowhere in sight, which wasn't surprising to me in the slightest cause I always knew she was a weakling, pretending to be part of a life she could never live.
This was gonna be too easy, so easy that I wanted to spend extra time than needed to mess with him, just for fun.
"You have many titles to your name Melo, but I never thought 'fugitive' would be one of them." I spoke, causing him to jump up.
"How the fuck did y'all find me?"
"Next time you wanna play hide and seek, maybe it would make sense not to pick the place of someone who knows the people you're tryna hide from."
"So what, you came here to fight me? You think you can scare me?"
"I mean you look like a deer caught in headlights just by me standing here, so I think we all know the answer to that question."
"You are truly something else, dawg. And then you gon bring my son here, tryna turn him against me and shit? As if his bitch ass mother hasn't already done that enough."
"Watch your fucking mouth." I snapped, already feeling my blood start to boil. I really could just skip all this talking shit and put a bullet in this nigga's brain but the aftermath of it would be too annoying to deal with. I'd rather him choose his fate on his own.
"What do you really want? Cause if you came here to kill me, you would've done it by now."
"You need to go to the police and confess to what you did."
He laughed, "And if I don't?"
"You're gonna get caught up regardless, it's just a matter of how easy or difficult you choose to make it for yourself. The longer you avoid doing it, the worse it will be for you."
"Cute how you tryna act like my father. I don't have to listen to shit you say to me."
"If that's the position you wanna take then cool, just be prepared to face the consequences for your actions."
"I'll do just that. I think you're forgetting the fact that she broke into my house. She wanted to go beyond her boundaries so I had to let her know what was up. Simple. Y'all mad at me when her dumb ass couldn't stay in her place. That's supposed to be my fault? Fuck outta here. I hope I fucking killed her."
"Keep talking man, just keep fucking going." I said lowly, stepping closer to him.
He grinned in my face, "You wanna know the funniest part? You coming up in here tryna dog me as if you're some kind of saint. Yeah I beat a female's ass, but it ain't nothing you haven't done before. We could really take it there if you want. It don't even matter whether or not she makes it out alive cause it would only be a matter of time before you lose your temper on her and do the same—"
The sound of two gunshots filled the room and stopped me dead in my tracks before I could even make a move.
Carmelo's body dropped to the floor, one hole through his chest and another through the skull. I didn't want to look behind me, I didn't want to believe this was done by who I thought it was. I even went as far as convincing myself that Ray came out the cut to do the job for me.
But as I turned around to see Kiyan standing there, right hand clenched tight around the glock, finger on the trigger, it finally registered what actually just happened.
"NO, FUUUCK!" I finally managed to yell. "What the hell happened to Plan B?!?!"
"He was talking too much and it was making me angry. I couldn't stand to hear him say all those foul things about my mother and about you, so I decided to just shut him up once and for all." he said coldly.
"Kiyan this is crazy! Do you realize what you just did?!"
"Do I realize it? Yes. Do I regret it? Not really." he shrugged.
"This isn't a joke man!" I shouted. I knew I shouldn't have let this boy hold the damn gun. Not only did I expose him to danger by bringing him into the hood but he done caught a fucking body at the tender age of 16 and I basically enabled it. La's gonna hate me for this.
"You need to get out of here, now. I'll take care of everything, just give me the damn gun." I gestured for him to hand it over.
"Now," I continued, "I need you to go upstairs and ask Ray to call you an Uber back to the hospital. DON'T SAY SHIT ABOUT SHIT, to ANYONE. Lie as much as you need to. You just gotta get out of here. Are you listening to me?"
He silently nodded.
"Kiyan!"
"Yes I hear you, I hear you." he said quickly heading up the stairs, finally realizing how serious this was.
I frantically looked around, taking in the scene — the blood, the dead body, this gun now covered in fingerprints — thinking about how exactly I was gonna get rid of all this shit and how long it would take.
"Damn it!"
Kelly
Several hours have passed since La has been in the ICU and things weren't getting any better. Her parents had arrived not too long ago and they've just been sitting at her bedside crying their eyes out ever since we explained the incident to them. It was heartbreaking for them to have to see their daughter like this, and it was even more heartbreaking that no one could say anything to console them because we had no idea how things were gonna turn out. We're supposed to be hoping for the best but we were honestly preparing for the worst.
I was also worried about Kiyan because ever since he got back from wherever he went with Chris, he's been awfully quiet. I mean I know he's shaken up about his mother but the type of vibe he was giving off was different. Something was off, but I wasn't gonna ask because he's already going through enough as is, I'm sure he doesn't need me jumping down his throat.
"I just don't understand why this man would do such a thing to my baby." Lala's mom, Ms. Carmen said softly while crying. "This was the love of his life! They share a child together! They were such a happy family, how did it come to this?"
"Well I don't know how much La has told you Mama C, but they've been on bad terms for a hot minute. Their issues didn't end with the divorce. Things have gotten pretty nasty between them in recent months." I replied.
"She barely tells us anything. What happened between them for him to resort to such violence?" Lala's father chimed in.
"It's really not my place to say..."
"Kelly, you have to tell us!" Mama C pleaded.
"I just feel like I shouldn't disclose any information without Chris being in the room, ya know? He's with her more than I am so he could fill in the blanks in case I leave anything out."
"Well if he's always with her then where the hell is he right now?" Lala's father asked with a hint of anger in his voice. "He supposedly loves this girl but he's out in the streets while she's laying here lifeless."
"I'm sure he'll be back soon, he's just overwhelmed and needs some time alone to cool off." I said as confidently as I could. Truth be told, I was this close to hunting the nigga down myself.
"Yeah right. Why would he send Kiyan back here by himself? Who in their right mind would do that? He's clearly not responsible, but I don't really expect much from a man who's eight whole years younger than Alani anyway."
"That's enough Pops." Kiyan interjected. "How you tryna to come at his maturity while being immature yourself?"
He gave Kiyan a look, "Son, I suggest you stay out of this."
"No. You barely even know him to be talking like that. I'm the one who volunteered to take an Uber back here because I realized he needed to clear his head. He wasn't going to let me but I convinced him otherwise."
"Well I think it's selfish for him to want to be by himself when there are people here who can help him through what he's feeling."
"And I think it's selfish for you to speak so negatively about someone who makes your daughter happy." Kiyan retorted.
"You two stop it, now." Mama C demanded. "At the end of the day Chris has been doing the best he can. At least that's what I assume. I just wish we didn't live so far away... Maybe if we were here in LA with her we could've protected her better. Something like this would've never happened."
"What's up with everyone trying to blame themselves for something they didn't do?" Trey said out of nowhere. "Y'all focusing your energy on the wrong things."
"I'll gladly focus my foot up Carmelo's ass, as soon as I find out where he is." La's father fumed.
"He's on the run. We have no clue where he might be but a detective came by earlier to ask questions so we're hoping he might come up with something." I explained.
"I don't trust no damn cop or anybody that works for 'em. Those pigs don't care about us, they won't come up with shit. We have no choice but to deal with this ourselves."
"Okay look, we need to think about La before making any rash decisions." I said. "She needs our support more than anything right now. I hate that I have to say this but we don't know how much time we have left with her," I paused to recollect myself because I started to get choked up, "so we should be present with her as much as we can instead of steering our minds in the wrong direction. These moments with her cannot be wasted."
"Very well said, Kelly." Mama C smiled, wiping her tearful eyes. "She was always so lucky to have such a great friend like you."
As sweet as that statement was, I just couldn't bring myself to agree to it because I knew deep in my heart that I could've been better.
Trey
The day was starting to come to an end and ain't nothing change except for the color of the sky. That same gloomy aura filled the room as we all waited for something, anything new. Everyone was now asleep, including Kelly who I literally had to force to get some rest because she insisted on staying up all night so she wouldn't miss anything.
I was about to doze off myself when my phone started ringing. I looked to see that it was Chris calling me. I stepped outside the room to take the call so I wouldn't disturb anyone.
"Where the fuck are you?" was the first thing that came out of my mouth when I answered.
"Calm down, that's exactly why I'm calling you. I need you to meet me somewhere."
"Nigga Lala's parents are at the hospital waiting for your ass and you playing Where's Waldo. I'm not meeting you anywhere, bring ya ass here."
"Bro this is serious, I really need your help. Please." he replied urgently.
I sighed deeply, "Send me the location. This better be good too."
We hung up and I crept back into the room as quietly as I could to get my jacket and car keys. I didn't want to risk catching anyone's attention, especially Ke-
"Where you going?"
Damn.
"Why you up?" I asked her.
"Boy don't answer my question with a question."
"Chris asked me to go meet up with him. I think he needs some comfort."
"So why can't he just come here? Is he avoiding us?"
"I really don't know what he's doing Kelz, but I'ma find out. I'll bring him back."
"Lemme come with you then." she said, gathering her things and standing up.
"That won't be necessary babe."
She gave me the illest glare, "Why not?"
"I just think it'd be better for you to stay here. They need you."
"But I need you."
"Baby I won't be long, I promise."
"Don't make promises you can't keep, Tremaine. You just said yourself you don't even know what he's up to."
"Okay, well whatever it is, I promise it ain't nothing you need to worry about. Just get some sleep and I'll try to be back before morning. Fair?"
She just looked at me with puppy dog eyes while tears threatened to fall down her face.
I frowned, "Kelly don't do that."
"Don't leave. I can't handle all this without you here, I'll fall apart." she whispered.
"You gotta try. They're counting on you to be the strong one right now."
"I'm definitely not the person they should be looking to for that."
"You are though. When you talk, people listen. Look at how you were able to calm everyone down when things got out of hand earlier. Like you said, we need to spend as much time in La's presence as we can. I'ma get Chris to come to his senses and realize this as well. You just stay here and try to relax, okay?"
I could tell she still wasn't completely satisfied but she eventually nodded. I leaned forward towards her face and she tried to act like she ain't wanna kiss me.
"Girl stop playing." I chuckled. I held her chin and gave her a soft kiss. "Lay your fine ass down and get some rest. Call me if you need me."
**
I wasn't exactly sure what type of sketchy shit Chris was on, and my confusion only increased when I pulled up to the location he texted me. I hopped out my car and walked over to where he was standing.
"This should be fun hearing you explain to me why we're on a runway standing in front of a jet right now."
"I'ma tell you, but you gotta be cool about it."
"Okay, sure. Hit me with it."
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "Carmelo is dead."
"Nigga what?! Did you really have to go out and kill him that fast—"
"Aye, what happened to being cool?"
"Fuck that! Ain't nobody tell you to be trigger-happy and go shoot this man without a concrete plan. This is gonna blow back on you so fucking quick!"
"Bro, you got it all wrong. I'm not the one who killed him."
"Then who did, and how do you know? Where was this nigga even at? How did you find him?"
"One word: Ray."
I sighed of relief, "Ohhh... So he went to Ray asking for help and Ray clapped him. Got it."
"Not exactly..." he cringed. "See what had happened was, Ray hit me up and told me he was there, so I took Kiyan with me and uh, things got hectic. Long story short, Kiyan shot him."
I looked at him like he just offered me crack then bursted out into laughter. "Yeah, iight. With what gun would 16 year old Kiyan shoot his father with?"
"...The one I let him hold."
My eyes bucked out of my head when I realized he wasn't joking. "Are you fucking- No. No way." I shook my head and started to walk back towards my car. I couldn't believe this shit.
"Bro if I knew he actually had it in him to do something like that, I would've never gave it to him!" he shouted while following me.
"Out of all the dumb shit you be doing, this really takes the cake."
"I know, I know."
"No, I don't think you do! Do you understand how serious this shit is? Did you think about what would happen if this traces back to him?!"
"Fucking obviously! That's why I need your help making this all disappear. I can't have him going to prison for some shit I dragged him into."
"What did you do with the body?" I asked him slowly.
"It's- it's in the jet but—"
"Chris what the fuck!"
"It's being preserved, it'll be fine."
"You couldn't have just threw him in a lake or burned him like a regular murderer?!"
"I ain't a fucking murderer nigga, I just told you I didn't do it." he groaned. "There's an explanation behind this and I'll give it to you soon. But I need you to do me a favor."
"Which is..."
"I need you to come to Virginia with me."
"...I know you not talking about right now."
"Yes right now, why else you think we standing in front of the jet?"
"Dawg I deadass wanna fight you."
"Listen. I just gotta handle one last thing and I think it would be beneficial for you if you came too. We'd be back by tomorrow afternoon, no big deal."
"You're literally asking me to fly across the country with a dead body and it's no big deal?"
"I told you it's being preserved, you won't even notice it's there."
"Yeah cause that makes it less creepy." I replied sarcastically.
"Look, I know nothing makes sense at the moment but it will. You're the only person I trust, now I just need you to trust me for once."
"And you expect me to do this without telling my wife?"
"You can tell her everything once it's done. Is you coming with me or what?"
I shook my head, ashamed that I'm actually about to go along with this.
"You fucking owe me."