The DownFall of Jermaine Lewis

Chapter 3 "The Action"

Malcolm and Jermaine are in a predicament. They don't know what to do. Even though they know that they are only seniors in high school and have promising futures, they feel the need to do something right now so they aren't living on the streets or house-hopping. Jermaine, his mind is still set on selling drugs. Malcolm, not so sure about it but he is on go and will back up anything Jermaine is doing or saying. Jermaine has his mind focusing on how to at the least, a few bills back. Malcolm's chum change from foot locker isn't going to do anything because he spent it on a new shoe that came out. Finally, they come to a decision, their decision is to sell drugs secretly to help out. They only plan to sell drugs for a small short period of time then stop selling so they can move on with their promising careers and futures.

Nia has to pay back 5 months in rent and bills or else they are evicted. Malcolm and Jermaine start selling drugs after school to help out with paying bills and rent to avoid being evicted. They are selling weed, meth, vapes and lean. Things people in Detroit on 6 mile would have some type of interest in. They are working the blocks late at night trying to make some money to pay rent. They are selling weed and lean when they are approached by the local dealers. The dealers tell Malcolm and Jermaine that they need to stop selling on their block and stealing their customers or they gon be toe tagged. Now in the hood when somebody says you are going to be toe-tagged, best believe you will be toe-tagged. Malcolm and Jermaine are panicking on what they are going to do. I mean they figure they only have two options. A, stop selling and focus on school and let Nia figure out how to avoid getting evicted. Or B, keep selling drugs and fuck them local dealers. Knowing Jermaine and his Virgo ego, he doesn't let anybody push him around. They continue to sell drugs, Jermaine's mind was already set on it, the local dealers should've figured it was not stopping them.

One week goes by of Jermaine and Malcolm selling drugs, put together they made an estimate of 4,000 bands their first week. Now two teenagers who are breaking into adulthood, $4,000 off your first week is a lot of money. Nia has to pay back 5 months in rent which comes out to $6,150. Included with regular monthly bills that comes out to a total of $8,320 she has to pay within a month without being evicted. Nia never had to worry about stuff like this because when Johnathan was around doing fraud, he made enough to support the family and then some. He still had a butt-load of money even after being sent to prison. From the time of 2013, when he was sent to prison to now, 2016, they had money. That's how much he made from Fraud, but now it's all run out and Nia is struggling. Jermaine and Malcolm decide to get back into the streets for another week to see how much they could make. A second week goes by and they made $5,000 this time. Now they have $9,000, now they have enough to not get evicted and pay Nia's bills. They get excited and as they are leaving the block from where they just got done selling at, they see a black car that's creeping and went around the block three times and had their headlights on, they then flickered off, Malcolm and Jermaine look at each other and both shout "DRIVE-BY!" and they both run off behind a house. Next thing they hear is "BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!" There were approximately 15 shots that were fired. They heard tires skirt off so they figured the people who shot were gone. They then RUN home quickly.

The next morning, they gave all 9 grand to Nia and she cries and cries and thanks them both. Weirdly, she never questioned where the money came from. She pays the bills and rent and now everything is back on track. Now you would think Malcolm and Jermaine would stop selling right? No. They didn't. They were both getting to cocky and wanted to continue to sell drugs because they felt that they were the hottest niggas on the block now. They made a total of $9,000, they wanted to see how far they could test their limits. They also wanted the local dealers to know that they were not scared of them. Once again, that was Jermaine's ego talking.

Jermaine is starting to slip on school work, getting into the street life not really caring about picking a college. Malcolm mentioned to Jermaine about what college he was considering and to see if they both had an interest in the same college so they could attend together. Jermaine looks at Malcolm and says "We don't need college, nigga do you see how much money we are making from selling drugs?" Malcolm rolls his eyes and says "That lifestyle aint for everybody my nigga but alright we gon see how it turns out."

As Jermaine slips and grades fall, he continues to sell drugs, sometimes with Malcolm and something without Malcolm. Malcolm stuck to the original plan of selling quickly then getting back on track. Malcolm has a college in mind, an HBCU, Morehouse in Atlanta. One night, a month after the shooting, Malcolm agrees to sell drugs with Jermaine and they are once again greeted by the local drug dealers. The dealer mysteriously laughs and says "Why yall niggas run?" Malcolm confused on what they are talking about because the shooting slipped his memory, Jermaine turns around and said "Fuck yall, this our block now nigga." The local dealers pull out a pistol-handgun and points it at Jermaine and says "What you just say nigga?" Jermaine pulls out a semi-SMG and says "You heard me lil nigga, get off my block for I blow yo ass." Malcolm just stood there in shock. After the local dealers left, Malcolm says to Jermaine "WHERE YOU GET THAT TOOLIE FROM NIGGA ARE YOU SERIOUS?" Malcolm was upset Jermaine had that on him but also kinda amazed. Jermaine says "You know i run these streets, can't leave out my toolie."

Malcolm and Jermaine both go home and put together the pieces that the local dealers were the one who did the drive-by. They didn't really care cause they miss everytime they shoot. Jermaine is slipping off the map and entering the street life and slowly getting away from school and the scholarships.