𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐲, 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 ¹

forty one.

CHAPTER FORTY ONE
on sight

Hakeem

next day

Guess who got kicked out of the house this morning? Hakeem. It was a good thing he did because he and Cookie would've went right back to hating each other again.

She was mad because he had embarrassed their family in front of Mateo, but Mateo was the one who had started with Hakeem. All Hakeem did was apologize to him, but Mateo had called him a dumbass. Hakeem had every right to defend himself, but now Cookie was really going to be mad because he was at Tiana's house, and she had just told me that there was a video circulating on the internet of him and Jamal fighting after dinner.

It was true. They did fight a second time. He and Jamal had exchanged words after everything settled down, and they ended up going for round two outside of the mansion. Hakeem guessed someone saw and recorded. Now the internet was talking about their beef, and they were choosing sides.

However, the world still thought Jamal was straight, so that was a plus.

Hakeem paced around as he questioned Tiana. "What they saying, bae?"

Tiana read the tweets. "Your name is being dragged through the mud."

"Why?!"

"Have you seen the video? Jamal was fucking you up, and everyone's making fun of you."

Hakeem was ticked off. "So they think I'm weak now?"

"Yeah...everyone's Team Jamal."

"Not for long they're not." Hakeem took out his phone and went on Instagram.

Tiana was lost. "What are you doing?"

"Defending my name."

Tiana snatched the phone. "Give me that, Hakeem!"

"Why'd you do that?!"

"Because you've been doing too much defending your name lately, which is what's causing all of these fights," Tiana exclaimed.

"So I'm supposed to sit here and let the world slander me?"

Tiana said, "I think that's the best thing to do. All of this will blow over eventually, but don't feed the fire, Hakeem."

He objected. "Sorry bae, but I can't do that. That's not what Lyons do. We always fight back."

"So what are you gonna tell the fans?"

"You'll see." He went live and his fans came rushing in again, but there were way more of them than usual. They were in the comments yelling at him for losing the fight.

"Y'all better stop with that. I ain't lose no fight. I was going easy on Jamal. I could've ended him right there if I wanted to," he told them.

Now they were in the comments telling him to end Jamal then. They wanted to see him fight Jamal again, and they wanted him to win this time. Hakeem was down for that.

"Y'all want us to go at it again? Bet." He looked at the camera, speaking directly to Jamal. "It's on sight for you, Jamal. I'mma prove I'm not weak." Hakeem spoke to his thousands of fans that were in there. "And if any of y'all see my brother out on these streets, you have my permission to fuck him up."

Hakeem saw Tiana give him a startled look from the corner of his eye, but he didn't care. Jamal messed with the wrong brother, and he was going to realize that.

So like Hakeem had said, it was on sight for him.

Jamal

Cookie had told Jamal to let Mateo go, but he couldn't. He had tried to call Mateo last night, but he didn't answer. His phone eventually stopped ringing, and Jamal's texts eventually stopped going through. Because Mateo blocked him.

That realization made Jamal break down and cry. He cried all night, but his sadness gave him the inspiration to write another song. He played the melody of the song on the piano, and he had the perfect title for the song. Born To Love U.

Jamal started singing.

Here we go again, fire and emotion
All up in your face, 'bout to walk away
Both our hearts are broken
But the moment you're gone, all my colors fade
The bullets and bombs start to ricochet, oh
I'm defenseless, you need me blown away

I was born to love you, and nobody else will do
I would rather die than live without you, and everybody know it too
Don't know why we go to war, but the one thing that's for sure
I was born to love you

"Wow. That's beautiful, Jamal."

He quickly turned around and saw Tory in the doorway. "Oh, Tory. Hey. Did Lucious give you a key? Or-"

Tory shook her head. "The door was unlocked."

"Oh. Right."

Tory took a step forward. "Wanna tell me why...?"

"Because my dumbass thought Mateo might wanna come back."

"That song's about him, huh?"

"Yeah. It's a shame he'll never hear it."

Tory stayed optimistic. "Sure he will. Just call him, and-"

"He blocked me."

That made her frown. "Oh. I'm so sorry, Jamal. I know Mateo means the world to you."

"He does. But Mateo deserves to be happy, and the truth is that he's not happy with me. So I guess I should let him go."

Tory walked up to him and put her hand on his back. "Well, there's always that one saying. If you're meant to be, you'll find your way back to each other."

Jam scoffed. "Yeah, I don't know how that's going to happen when I have to pretend to be straight. Anyway, what did you need?"

Tory spoke sheepishly now. "Yeah, about that...I think you should start locking your door because..."
She showed him a video of Hakeem on Instagram live, telling all of his fans to fuck Jamal up on sight.

Jamal stared at the video in shock. "What the fuck? Did he just-"

"Put a hit out on you? Yeah..."

Wow. Hakeem lost the fight and it hurt his ego so much that he was now telling his fans to attack Jamal? Who does that to their own brother? That's exactly why Jamal had called him a bitch yesterday. Because he made bitch moves.

Jamal was so fucking pissed now. "I can't believe this shit."

"Me either. Your life is in danger, Jamal. I think Lucious needs to be involved."

Jamal unfortunately thought so too. The last thing he wanted to do was ask his devilish father for help, but he didn't have a choice. His life depended on it. So Jamal called him.