CORINNE WAS YOUR DEFINITION OF A HOMEBODY. All she did go to school, work, practice, and spend time with Demon and her family. She had a social battery that was strictly virtual with about two public outings a month and this was one of them.
It was the first Saturday night of Fright Fest and Corinne had gotten the biggest ticket package so a lot of people could come. The more people made the experience better.
It was Corinne, Tamia, Lizeth, Kennedy, Isaiah, Paris, Kelis, Lollie, Five, Demon, Meech, and then Corinne's niece Mariah, and her nephews LJ & Damarion.
"Rin," Mariah says, getting her attention. "Hmm?" She hums, looking.
"There go yo friend." LJ starts teasing.
"Hi." Corinne smiles as the small group join the larger group. "Wassup bae?" Five says accepting her hug. "Why you don't ever wear clothes?" Meech asks hugging her. "I do wear clothes." She tells him, before hugging Paris. "I promise you I'mma beat that hoe ass tonight if she says some to me," Paris whispers. "Wait who?" Corinne asks, confused. "Lollie. I'mma fuck her up." She says. "What happened?"
"I'mma tell you later." Paris shakes her head letting her go to give Kelis a small hug before waving at Lollie. "Hi stink." She says smiling at Demon. "Stop calling me that shit in public." He tells her while her arms wrap around his waist. "You my stink. Everybody knows that." She says feeling him, hug her back.
"But you'on like it when I call you Cece." He tells her, leaving his arm around her shoulders. "You bet not tell me that's me, not you." He continues. "And if I do?" She asks. "I'mma scratch yo tattoo off." He tells her.
She had tricked Kenneth into taking her to get a tattoo the day before. It was simple, her birthday in roman numerals and a 2D orange butterfly.
"You hit me and we gone fight." She says. "Fight or fuck?" He asks. "I'm on what you on" She banters. "You already know." He tells her, making her roll her eyes. "Y'all gone introduce y'all selves or do y'all want me to do it? " Corinne asks. "Nah, you gone head."
"So y'all this my stink but y'all supposed to call him Demon, this Meech, Five. Paris, y'all know Kelis and this Lollie. And this Tamia, Isaiah, Lizeth, and Kennedy. And before you, yes you. Before you start she is twelve. And these are my nephews and niece-" She says. "You know you, my cousin," Mariah tells her. "No, I'm not. Anyways, that's my niece, Mariah, and my nephews LJ and D-man." She finishes.
"Wait a minute. Is that mine?" Demon asks looking at the Amiri flannel she had on over the black bralette. "No." She says before saying, "You gave it to me."
"I gave it to you but I didn't give it to you." He tells her.
One morning during the second week of school, she had met up with him and Five by the school only for her iced coffee to be spilled on her light pink shirt zip-up hoodie and Demon being the gentleman he was, he gave her the shirt so that she could put it on over the white bandeau crop top that she would be dress coded for.
"You my bestie so it's okay." She says, pinching his cheek making him pop her hand resulting in her popping his hand. "They always like this?" Tamia asks Paris watching them go lick for lick.
"Awe yeah. They fight like five times a day." She tells her. "Fuck that like fifteen." Five shakes his head. "What y'all tryna get on first?" Mariah asks. "Superman." Corinne and her own group of friends say.
"We does this. Trust us." Kennedy tells them before they go to get in line.
$ $ $
"I'm cold," Corinne mutters. "I would give you my hoodie but Liz took it," Tamia says while they waited for their pizza. "D-man, gimme yo hoodie," Corinne says making him look up from his phone. "No, been told yo ass to start wearing clothes." He shakes his head. Her outfit was cute, the mid-rise Fashion Nova blue jeans with a black bralette from Pretty Little Thing under the Amiri flannel. "I do have on clothes." She tells him.
"Second favorite nephew..." Corinne starts. "Second?" LJ asks. "Yeah, gimme yo hoodie. I'm cold." She whines. "Nah, who your first favorite?" He asks. "Jacobi. Duh." She says. "He only been here for a month and he took my spot. This shit not fair." He complains.
"I hate it here. Don't nobody-" Her sentence gets cut off by one of the actors tapping her shoulder making her jump when she turned around.
"I don't like that." She says, looking at the "zombie" walk away making them laugh at her. "I hate it here." She mutters.
"27!" The waiter from the window yells causing Paris and Meech to go get the food. "I'm finna go wash my hands," Kennedy announces making nearly everybody stand up.
"I'll wait till y'all come back," Corinne tells them to leave her at the table with Demon.
"What you do today?" She asks him. "You really wanna know?" He questions. "Why else would I ask?" He rolls his eyes at her response.
"I went to see my OG then I got a haircut." He tells her, simply leaving out all of the illegal parts. "So that's why you came? You got a lil haircut and now you wanna be outside?" She asks laughing.
"Nah, yo lil ass woulda cried if I ain't come." He says making her roll her eyes. "You ain't have to come if you ain't want to. You just wanted to see me." She tells him. "I saw you the other day." He shakes his head. "You said you can't live without me?" She asks laughing.
"Come on, lil ugly." He mutters standing up as people start coming to the table. "This lil hand washing station so ghetto. Why only one work?" Corinne asks herself moving to the left to stand in from of the working sink.
"Just hurry up." He tells her. "No, I'm finna take my time." She says getting soap. "Stop being a pervert." She says feeling his hands on her hips under the shirt.
"But when I stop, you be like why you stop?" He attempts to mock her voice, moving his hands up squeezing her breasts.
"Leave me alone." She says, making him smack her ass. She rolls her eyes grabbing the paper towel while he washed his hands. "You should give me your hoodie." She says. "Why?"
"Cause I'm cold and I'll give you this shirt back." She tells him. "I want this back too." He mutters taking his phone and wallet out of the giant pocket. "I'mma give it back." She tells him, unbuttoning the two buttons to take off the flannel. She instinctively pulls up her pants before looking up at him. "My eyes are up here." She says making him look at her making her look away. "I like looking down there too." He starts.
"Shut up." She says, looking down crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm tryna see all of you. You know this. Ion knows why you tryna cover-up now." He tells her before taking off the Givenchy hoodie. "I can make that happen for you." She tells him taking the hoodie. "We gone make it work." He says while she puts in the hoodie.
"I lied. You not getting this back." She says once she had the hoodie on. She puts all of their things in her pocket. "I'mma just get you one." He shakes his head. "So we can match? Okay so we can wear our GD 12's and-" She starts. "You really wanna match with me?" He asks making her nod.
"You got me doing gay shit. I don't like it."
$ $ $
Corinne woke up early Sunday morning for a nine o'clock lash appointment walking out of her father's house to see the boys standing outside.
"Hey, bae." Five says.
"Hi." She smiles.
"Why you up?" Meech asks her while she hugs Five. They stayed out all night, up to no good. After yesterday, they wasn't a doubt in anyone's mind that Demon and Corinne were more than just friends.
"I gotta go to work." She tells him, hugging him too.
"What time yo first appointment?" Demon asks while she hugs him. "Nine." She says rubbing her eye with one arm still around his waist.
"Why you leaving now?" Five asks. "Cause I don't remember if I cleaned up or not yesterday." She says.
"You did." Demon mutters. They had FaceTime'd yesterday for hours without talking. "I did?" She asks. "Yeah, you said that you needed more barbicide." He tells her.
"Awe, I'm finna go back to sleep then." She says. "What y'all finna do?" Corinne questions. "Make a couple runs." Meech says.
"Awe, well Imma see y'all later then." She tells them, making him let her go so she could stand on her own. "Imma walk you back." He says, before they start walking back to stone two flat.
"Be careful, okay?" She asks when they make it on the porch. "I'm always careful." He says, pulling her into a hug. "Whatever you say." She mumbles making him tilt her head up. "Nothing gone happen to me." He tells her. "Okay." She says, puckering her lips, making him kiss her a couple times before going back down the street.
"But y'all just friends." Five says as Demon approached them. "Whatever." He brushes off the comment. They continue talking before leaving about ten minutes later.
"Wassup?" Demon greets the man in the front of his father's club Masquerade. "You straight, D?" He asks.
"I'm cool, Ace. My pops in the back?" The man nods his head sending Demon towards the back. "Hey Demon." A girl in just a thong says walking out of the bathroom. He nods his head at her continuing to walk towards his father's office while Meech and Five occupy themselves with getting the work they had to distribute for the day.
"Adonis!" The older man exclaims at the sight of his son. "What you need?" Demon asks his father Victor. "Your birthday is coming up." He starts, making the younger boy nod his head signaling for him to continue. "It about time, that you start making plans" He finishes telling his son.
"I think you already got plans." Demon says. "Have a party here." Victor smiles brightly. "I don't want a party." He shakes his head. "Don't worry son. I'll have everything sorted out."
Demon takes a deep breath saying, "Okay." He knew Vic had already made plans for his birthday and it was no point in going back and forth with him.
"Great, and your mother said call her." Vic tells him. "I talked her yesterday." Demon says. "You know I'm not talking about your mom. I'm talking about your step-mother." Victor clarifies. "That's not my mother. What she want?" Demon asks.
"I don't know. Just call her." He says while Demon stands up. "Yeah, I guess." Demon shrugs knowing he wasn't calling her. "See you kid." Victor says going back to writing checks. "I'mma fuck witchu, pops."
"Come on." Demon says, walking out dapping Ace up. They get in car driving on Madison and Springfield. Marquis gets out with a duffle coming back with a different one. The three boys alternate every stop until they go to the trap to count the money. "We gone slide to the game Tuesday?" Five asks putting the rubber band back around a stack.
"The volleyball game?" Meech asks. "Yeah." Demon says counting off another stack. "How much this week?" Five questions. "Five hundred thousand, two hundred and ten." says Demon mentally calculating the different numbers they had told him.
He was a numbers guy. He was good at math. "Pause. Wasn't it four hundred, sixty thousand some last week?" Five asks. "Four hundred sixty five thousand, two hundred ten." Demon mutters.
"So what's the difference?" Meech asks. "Thirty five racks." Demon says thinking about who seemed like a snake. "It's probably J-Rock nem. You know them niggas grimy." Five says.
"He need to stay his ass on the court." Meech says. "So what we gone do?" Five asks. "Count the bags again. It should be almost thirty racks in each bag." He says.
The three of them had seventeen blocks that they sold on in the West Side of Chicago. They had specific bags for each block so they knew who provided what and who they provide what to.
It didn't take them long to realize that they were wrong and that J-Rock and his boys weren't the reason they can up short.
"I want my money." Demon says, getting up to go handle the problem. "Hold up. You ain't going by yourself." Meech says. "No witnesses." He says. "We'll wait in the car then." Meech tells him.
Despite Demon being older than Meech and Five. Meech was still the one that looked out for him. Demon was a different person when he was angry and he knew they felt comfortable holding the money because he spared niggas constantly. Corinne was making him look at them as more than drug dealers.