The Unusual Suspects Book 2

Iris

After school, I had rushed out to the parking lot because I was determined to holla at Justin. We had a mission we had to go on and we definitely can't handle any slip ups or mistakes. We all know a drunk ain't shit. I stood next to his car and waited for him to make it to the car too. I was standing there for about 5 minutes before I seen him. He walked over slowly and then he stopped short of his door.
"What's up sis?" he said to me. I reached over and took them sunglasses off his face and saw his bloodshot eyes.
"Is it the Henny or the weed?" I asked him. He laughed a little bit.
"I been off that Hen Dog. But I'm good though. What's good with you?" he said all nonchalantly.
"Jay, do you need some time off? It may do you some good conside..." he cut me off real quick.
"No! Iris, I get it, you make sure everyone is good and I respect that so much. But I need to get out here and do something to make myself feel alive again." he said to me and I could relate.
"I get that, but you can't be saucy like this. You could endanger yourself or the rest of us too." He sighed hella hard.
"I'm not trying to. I'm just tired of feeling like this." he said.
"You're not gonna find yourself in the bottom of the bottle though bruh. You have to fight to get the old you back. I see Dom doing just that every single time I see her. You can do the same."
"Yeah...I know." he said as he looked off for a min. "I'll sober up before tonight. I'm about to go shower and take a nap. I'll see you later sis. Thanks." he said before he got in his car and left.
"Ayo!" I heard as I turned and seen Martin walking up to me. "Everything good?" he asked me and I shook my head. "Yeah I know...he's a mess."
"Yeah...it's like I don't wanna ask Chuckie to pull him tonight, but I don't know what to do." I said to him.
"He'll be in the right headspace when it's time to put in work. He's just like you, he lives for this shit. He got some emotional shit he's battling but to a degree, we all are. You feel me?" he said. "Facts!" I said in agreement. "Warehouse 9 o'clock." I said to Mar.
"Fa sho, I gotta go get Chi from daycare and then cook dinner for the fam but I'll be ready." he said walking off. Martin turned out to be so different from what I expected him to be for real. I had a lot of respect for how he ran that household. I went to my car and Chuckie was already there ready to go, I hopped inside.
"Everything good mami?" he asked me.
"Si papi." I told him as we drove to the house in silence. We usually were like this when we knew a mission was coming up. Had to get our minds right for it. Not that we were bad with focusing, but it's just our process. Plus we had to make sure Riek was ready too. When we got to the house, I saw Depth's car there too. Me & Chuckie just looked at each other and laughed. I never thought I would see the day that Depth would have a soft spot for a dude, but here we are. We walked in the house and instantly was thrown off. I looked at him and he looked at me. The house was spotless, dinner was cooked, the table was all set and everything.
"Hey! How was school?" Araya asked as she walked towards us.
"Good. What's going on in here?" I said.
"Well we all were thinking about how hard yall work and you have school and all that and wanted to be more of help to you as you have been to us." she said. We took off our shoes and slipped into the slides before Aries came around the corner smiling.
"Hey! yall hungry?" she said all smiley.
"I'm scared." Charles said and we all started laughing at him.
"Chill, I didn't cook. You gotta thank shorty for that." she said to us. Now we know she meant Depth. Depth had gone to culinary art school, didn't graduate, but she was sure fire in the kitchen. We walked in the dining room and saw the stuffed salmon, rice pilaf, and asparagus. Now this I could absolutely get used to.
"I hope yall like salmon." Depth said.
"You already know sis." Chuckie said as we all took our seats at the table. After we were seated, Riek came through with a pitcher in hand.
"Yall know dinner isn't complete without a bomb ass cup of kool-aid." he said and we all shared a much needed laugh. We all literally came up hood, so we couldn't help but have the kool-aid on deck. We all sat around and had dinner and joked around.
"So let me start off by saying, I respect all of this right here. Most places of employment have that no intermingling clause for its employees and shit. But yall can get a pass." Chuckie said.
"Bruh you the GOAT. Everybody found somebody or somebodies in the studio." Riek said and we all laughed a little.
"Naw bruh you the GOAT. You the one with 3, not me." Chuckie said.
"Right, you got a variety of cold!" I said in agreement with Chuckie.
"I'm blessed and highly favored." Riek said in response. Man...the looks around the table let me know that this was what family looked like for real. It had been a long time since I felt home in a group, true some were missing, but our household felt complete. The family you build is more important than the one you are born into. Granted they're all older than me, but these were like my babies. We built this, pound for pound, Brick by brick. Just then our phones went off and we checked them before me, Chuckie, and Riek all looked at each other. Widow wants us there an hour earlier than expected. Oh boy! God only knows what this is about.