Streetz 2: The Tried

1. New Life

"Ermias, wake up!" Ari had a cheesy grin on her face as she sat on my side of the bed with some breakfast in her hands. She had a plate full of cheese grits, turkey bacon, cheese eggs and a bagel topped with cream cheese and strawberry jelly. She wanted to feed it to me by hand, something I think was rubbing off on her. I laid my head against the pillow and let her feed me.

"You got plans today?" She stuck a fork full of eggs into my mouth.

I chewed and waited a bit, "Not that I know of."

"Well, if you don't have anything to do, I wanted to know if you wanted to ride the ferry with me."

"A ferry?" I frowned, "The fuck kinda shit is that?"

"Okay, so it's not really a ferry but it's a small boat that goes around Detroit showing all the major landmarks and stuff." Before I could even respond she stuffed a piece of bacon into my mouth.

"Could you just give it a thought, please?" She whined, showing off that pretty smile as always whenever she tried to get her way.

"Give me a kiss and I'll think about it,"

"Ew, not with turkey bacon all in your mouth. That unhealthy ass shit."

I pulled her into me causing her to laugh, "Turkey bacon good as fuck I don't care how bad they say it is."

"Yeah right, Ermias," She laughed harder, "Ermias."

"Ermias."

Opening my eyes, I peeled the old dirty Ebony magazine from my eyes and glanced over at my cellmate.

"Damn nigga, you in a deep sleep over there ain't it."

I gave him a death glare, which he ignored, and put the magazine back over my eyes.

"Why are you always so quiet?" He then questioned and I could hear him shuffling around the room. I had many reasons to be quiet. One, because I didn't know this nigga and didn't trust his weird ass, and two, because I was in here for some shit I didn't do. It wasn't shit to talk about until my black ass was on the other side.

"Aye man," He sighed, "I'm just tryna make conversation. It ain't easy being up in here."

"Go make conversation with somebody else, shit," I snapped, "Don't fuckin' talk to me."

"That attitude gon kill yo ass before you know it,"

I sat up in my bed, which was more like a sheet of wood, "I should smack the shit out of you."

"And for what? That ain't gonna do nothing but put you back in solitary." My cellmate walked around, looking bored as ever, "Done been in here for a few months now and you still on the same bullshit. You don't get tired?"

I waved him off and put the magazine back over my eyes. It was the only way I could sleep. It just left room for nothing to enter but darkness and with darkness came my thoughts. My thoughts of being back home with my baby.

The last time I had even talked to Ariana was two months ago. Ohaji was keeping tabs on her and I found out that she indeed go to L.A. to go to school, just like we talked about. She was currently in an apartment through her financial aid, doing lashes every now and then to support herself. I had O go into my account to peel off enough money for her to get a crib and I gave him enough to get me a lawyer.

The thoughts of not being able to see her, hold her, and talk to her drove me insane. The first few weeks we were doing good, we would talk on the phone and she would visit often. However, once she went off to L.A., it was hard to hear from her. The one time she did visit, I couldn't even see her because my ass was in solitary for fighting. It was one thing after another.