A Slum Love Crime. (A$AP Rocky Story)

Part Otto

You know how much it pisses you off when you’re trying to find out something from someone, and when they finally promise to tell you, they don’t?

That’s exactly what I was going through with Rakim.

I was trying to be patient, though. From the look on his face yesterday when we went to the projects, I can tell he’s under a lot of pressure. I just need to know who this ‘Mango’ is, and how he’s involved with Arnold Danielson.

Besides that though, today has been pretty rough in school. Shandy has been avoiding me all day. I’m not used to that—we usually walk into and out of every class together. I could tell it was easier on her than me, though. While I have no friends to fall back on, she does. It’s sickening.

During the last class of the day, Global, I could barely pay attention. I kept looking over at Shandy, just to see if she was willing to make eye contact with me. And when she did, she just rolled her eyes and looked back at Ms. Munroe.

I sighed and continued writing. We were doing Draft 2 of our essays today. It wasn’t so hard to focus on the Great Depression this time, since I, along with everyone around me, seemed to be going through one.

Even my Momma was sad these days. Last night when Rakim dropped me off at home, I caught her at the kitchen table on the phone. She was crying, and I heard her use the name ‘Steven’.

That’s my Daddy’s name.

“Take those essays home and finish ‘em.” Ms. Munroe said as the bell rang. We gathered our bags and walked out the class, relieved that this day was over. Well, I know I was.

Shandy left the class before me. I walked out into the hallway and looked for her. I saw Ashley, one of her friends, but she wasn’t with Ashley. She was with other people. She was with people I thought I’d never see her with. I guess she finally gathered up the courage, just to show off on me.

Shandy was standing next to Justin and Kevon, who were relaxing and leaning against the wall, smoking weed like it was no big deal. I guess they cut Kevon’s suspension short. They seemed to be ignoring her, but it was still a big deal that she was next to them.

As soon as she saw me coming, she started speaking loudly for the whole hallway. I walked closer to hear what she was saying.

“Guys, remember that girl coming down the hallway, Tremaine? She was the girl that was finna’ come to your party but ended up getting dragged away by some mobber.” She yelled. She got a few laughs from passing kids in the hallway, too. Everyone was staring at me.

I tried to walk past quickly. Shandy wasn’t going to steal my dignity.

“Yeah, I remember her. A girl like that is hard to forget.” Kevon said. As I walked by, I could swear I saw him wink at me.

I almost died.

When I got home, Momma wasn’t even there. She left me a note saying that Rakim offered to watch me for free for a few hours while she went out after work to tend to some business. She was just getting busier and busier these days.

“Thank you,” Rakim said as I handed him the glass of water he asked for. He still seemed jittery from yesterday. He was watching the TV. I walked over to it and slammed the off button. “What’d you do that for?”

“We need to talk.” I said sternly. I walked back to the couch and plopped down next to him. “Start talking, Rakim.”

He sighed and rubbed his left eye. He knew he had to explain. There was no way around it. He looked over to the curtains and then at the door, as if to make sure no one could hear or see us.

He sighed one last time.

“I know you remember.” He started. “I remember, too. I remember that first day when I saw you. I remember that day specifically. It was scary for me. A$AP Mob had been safe and innocent before about two weeks before that day. But at some point, when I got involved in some mess, it was bad.”

“I used to sell my own mix tapes out of Twelvy’s car trunk. One day these drug dealers rode up to the car and bought a tape. A few days later, they came back to me. The one in the passenger seat was like, ‘You pretty gangsta, aren’t you?’ I told him, ‘I guess’. He told me he could tell from the stuff I was talking about on my mix tape. He told me he needed someone like me to do him a favor. He told me to get in his car, so I did.”

Rakim paused. He was either trying to remember or trying not to remember. “The guy told me to call him Mango. He was pretty smart. He saw me selling mix tapes, so he figured I could use some cash. He heard me talking about killing people in my songs, so he figured I was a bad boy. That made me a perfect catch for him. This is where Arnold Danielson comes in. Everyone calls him Danny. He was a dealer, too. He was the baddest dealer around. People like Mango hated him, but feared him too. Danny and Mango got into some beef, and…”

“And what, Rocky?” I urged him on.

“And Mango wanted Danny dead. But of course, he was too scared to do it. So he went around looking for a goon. He went around looking for someone to do his dirty work. And he found me.”

Rakim paused for a long while there, leaving chills to run through my body. I didn’t want to assume things, but the information he was giving me was scary. I waited for him to continue.

“Tremaine…Mango is a pretty rich guy. He’s a dealer, most of them are. He had a lot of money to offer me. Mango…Mango offered me $25 million to kill Danny.”

My body went limp then, and I dropped the glass of water I was about to take a sip from.

That couldn’t be true. What I was hearing had to be a lie.

“I was desperate back then, so I took the money. And even if I wasn’t desperate, I had to. If I didn’t, he would probably send some of his boys to kick my ass. Anyway, that day in the alley…that was where I did it. That was where I took that glock, caught Danny off guard, and…”

Rakim seemed like he couldn’t speak then, like he had mucus filling his throat and he couldn’t utter a word. I didn’t want him to say anything else, because I knew what he was going to say. He killed Arnold Danielson in that alley, and he could 25 million dollars for it.

“Do you still have it?” I whispered, my voice not able to go much higher.

“Have what?” He forced to say.

“The money.”

“Yeah. I haven’t spent a dime.”

I was shocked. So Rakim was…a millionaire?

Not only a millionaire, but a killer?

“So you mean to tell me that you took a 25-million-dollar bribe from someone to kill a guy, killed the guy, and now you’re just the regular Rakim?”

“Yeah, Tre. None of the guys even know about it. Only Ferg. And I think Ferg might’ve told Twelvy some of the details, but that’s it.” He confessed. I could barely breathe. All of this was overwhelming.

“There’s still something that doesn’t make sense…why did all those people say Mango is looking for you?” I asked.

Rakim’s jaw tightened. “Because he found out that I didn’t get the job done. I thought I killed Danny, but I didn’t. He’s been in a coma all these years, and he woke up. So since I didn’t kill him, Mango wants his money back. But I’m not giving it back. Not over my dead body.”