Rakim spends ten minutes staring at his laptop screen in shock. He can't believe what he just saw. Well, heard.
A knock makes him snap back out of his thoughts. Jarad is sticking his head through the door.
"Can I come in?" the lightskin boy asks.
Because his throat is closing up, Rakim can only shake his head in response. His eyes are burning painfully but he's not going to cry. Especially not in front of someone else.
The last time he cried was in fifth grade when he broke his leg. He's not a softie. Not even the funeral of his grandpa last year made him shed a tear.
Jarad is looking at him oddly but they're not friends and Jarad doesn't want to invade Rakim's privacy by asking him if everything's okay so he keeps standing awkwardly in the doorframe. "Do you want me to-"
"Can't you tell I'm busy? Get the fuck outta here!" Rakim snaps and glares at Jarad, who is pissed off now too.
"I spent a lot of hours doing this for you. Don't ask me for help again" he huffs and closes the door loudly behind himself when he leaves.
"Fuck you, bitch" Rakim mutters and slams his laptop shut.
After two seconds he regrets what he just said. Maybe the IT-guy found something helpful to get Carter locked up forever so he stands up quickly to run after him.
He grabs the boys arm and makes him
turn around. "I'm sorry, I was rude for no reason" Rakim apologizes shamefully.
Jarad sighs. "Alright. You wanna see it now?"
"Please" Rakim nods.
They go back into his room, Jarad sits down on the couch across of Rakim and places his MacBook between them so they both have a good view on the screen.
"So. Like I told you, Bourne and McCollum have shared over ten thousand messages between April and September 2019. A lot of it wasn't important, mostly them talking about series and games like Infamous and- nevermind." Jarad stops himself when he sees Rakim's confused stare.
"But they also write about having depression, self harm and other very dark stuff. McCollum seems to have gotten molested by his stepdad and Bourne suffered severe abuse through Carter. So much that he..."
Jarad scrolls down until he finds the part of the conversation he's searching for. "Look."
Pierre Bourne: he beat me up again yesterday
Pierre Bourne: i can't do this anymore
Pierre Bourne: close 2 kms.
Pierre Bourne: logging off think i heard him coming back
"What does that mean?" Rakim asks and points at the screen.
"Killing myself. It's internet slang" Jarad explains with a smirk.
"Oh." Despite being just 23, Rakim feels very old.
"Carter is really a monster." Jarad shakes his head in disgust.
Rakim couldn't agree more. And to think that this creep and Symere...he feels his breakfast making its way up his stomach.
"We can use that as evidence, right?" he asks contentedly.
"Of course."
"Great!" Rakim smiles while clapping his hands together. This just made his day ten times better.
A few minutes later after Jarad left, he grabs his phone.
"Hello?"
"Hi, it's Rakim."
"I know."
"Yeah. Listen, my shift is actually ending sooner than I thought." He clears his throat. "So if you still want to go out tonight..."
"Oh my god, yes!" Tyler exclaims happily. "Uhm, I mean sure, why not" he says, trying to sound much more casual this time.
"Cool." Rakim couldn't sound more unenthusiastic.
"I'm so excited! To be honest, I already planned my Netflix movie night alone when you cancelled" Tyler chuckles. "Just me and my chihuahua Frank. Oh, you two would love each other!"
Rakim rolls his eyes. He hates chihuahuas. They look like rats and are annoying as hell.
"Actually, he's sitting next to me right now. Aww, he's trying to lick his tail. He's so cute!"
This boy talks way too much. Rakim already regrets his call.
"Wait, let me send you-"
"Yo, my boss is calling me" Rakim lies "See you later!" he hangs up quickly.
____________________________
Tyler is nervous. It's already 7.34 pm but Rakim is still not here. The waiter came two times and asked if he's ready to order and it's slowly getting embarrassing. But he's not gonna complain. Rakim is so out of his league and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
The doors to the italian restaurant swing open and there he finally is. Looking better than ever in his simple denim outfit. Closing his mouth to stop himself from literally drooling, Tyler waves to get his attention. Rakim spots him immediately and flashes a big smile that shows off his pearly white teeth.
"Hey, sorry for making you wait so long." Rakim hugs Tyler and gives him a quick kiss on the cheek that leaves the other one blushing. He smells heavenly.
"It's all good" Tyler assures and returns the smile when Rakim sits down across of him.
"The reason I'm so late is actually because I wanted to bring you this." He takes his hand from behind his back and reveals a bouquet of beautiful red roses that he hands Tyler, who is speechless.
_____________________________
Even though the date started out good, it turns bad pretty fast.
Rakim ordered a huge bottle of red wine and instead of sharing it, he downed it all alone. Straight out of the bottle. People are already looking and making Tyler feel highly uncomfortable.
"Hey, waiter!" Rakim yells.
The poor man hurries to their table. "Si?"
"I want another bottle. Or no, bring me something better. This shit tastes like ass" Rakim slurs.
Tyler is so embarrassed by his behavior. "I'm sorry" he apologizes directed at the waiter, his face completely red.
The man grimaces. "Un minuto, signore." He leaves their table and heads into the kitchen. Tyler feels like their gonna throw them out soon.
"Don't you think you drank enough already?" he mutters because Rakim is now trying to empty the bottle until he gets the last drop out of it by holding it over his tongue and shaking it.
"Nope."
Out of the corner of his eye, Tyler sees the waiter returning to their table, accompanied by a tall and muscular man that looks like he's the main bodyguard of some mafia boss in New Jersey.
"Fuck..." he sighs.
"I'm sorry but we'll have to ask you to leave. You are disturbing our other costumers."
Rakim places the bottle down loudly and stands up with crossed arms. "How are we disturbing your other costumers, huh?!"
He looks around. "Hey! Everyone listen for a second! Am I disturbing you?" Rakim blurts.
Tyler wants to vanish. This is so not how he imagined their date to go. Every single person in the restaurant is staring at the four men.
"See! No one has a problem, except for you! Fucking spaghetti eating racist" Rakim drills his finger into the security mans chest.
The man is not amused at all. He grabs Rakim's arm, drags him to the door like a little child and throws him on the street. Then he turns to Tyler, who doesn't need any other signal. He's already running outside.
"Don't come back or I'll call the police!" the man screams after them.
"BITCH, I AM THE POLICE! SUCK MY FUCKING DICK!"
"Oh my god" Tyler covers his eyes. He helps Rakim up and pulls him by his sleeve until they're far away from the restaurant.
"I'm gonna drive home." Disappointed, he reaches for his key.
Rakim nods. "Yeah, can't believe these Klu Klux Klan niggas threw us out" he rants and kicks the curb. "I'm driving home too."
Tyler raises an eyebrow skeptically. "Drive? You? You're drunk."
"I had one glass."
"You drank a whole bottle by yourself. I'm not letting you drive. God, you're such an idiot. How did they even let you become a cop?"
Rakim just got so much less attractive to him during the last hour. Good looks don't do shit if you're an asshole.
"Don't insult me again or I'll arrest you, nigga" Rakim threatens.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever..." Tyler rolls his eyes and watches as Rakim sits down on the passenger seat of his car.
_____________________________
"Where do you live?"
"You want to check out my bed?" Rakim places his hand on Tyler's thigh seductively.
"No, nigga" Tyler gulps. "I have to drop you off somewhere."
Rakim giggles and thinks for a minute. He tells him an address and leans back satisfied.
The night is not over yet. He still has to have a little word with someone.
Tyler pulls up in front of Symere's house. He refuses Rakim's kiss and only gives him a quick hug before speeding off.
Instead of ringing the doorbell, Rakim picks up a little stone from the ground and throws it at the window that he knows is leading to Symere's bedroom.
The sound makes Symere wake up from his sleep. He brushes it off first, thinking it was only part of his dream or something but it doesn't stop.
Not only that, he now also hears someone yelling his name from outside.
"SYMEREEEEE"
The small boy stands up and quickly runs over to his window. Rakim is standing on his street and screaming his lungs out, staggering from left to right. He's obviously drunk.
"SYMERE MOTHERFUCKING WOODS"
He opens his window. "What the hell are you doing? Stop screaming, you're waking my whole neighborhood up!" Symere hisses down at him.
"SYMERE MURDER-FUCKING WOODS" Rakim breaks out in loud laughter, bending over and holding his stomach, which makes him fall and laugh even louder.
Symere's mouth falls agape. His heart stops beating for a second and he feels his cheeks turning red. He must have seen their kiss somehow.
Throwing on a pair of pants real quick, Symere runs down the stairs and opens the door so Rakim can come inside, praying that none of his neighbors heard his friend.
Rakim's alcohol smelling breath already hits him from a few metres away.
"Are you drunk?" he asks him rhetorically.
"No." Rakim stretches out his tongue.
Symere closes the door and leads him over to the sofa, where he makes him sit down before he goes to bring him a glass of water.
"Here."
"Thanks." Rakim takes a sip while Symere watches him in silence, trying to come up with the right words to explain the situation with Jordan.
"I guess you saw the kiss" he starts and fumbles his hands nervously while staring at the floor.
"Kiss?" Rakim spits out the water. "I listened to the whole fucking porn video" he laughs. "You should upload that on BangBro's. Fucking in prison. That's gonna land on the front page, for sure."
Symere can't believe his ears. "What?" he whispers shocked.