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

Part Tredici

“Who the f*ck is this, calling at me at 5:46 in the morning, crack of dawn and…”

Bump, bump, bump, bump.

Three or four cars rolled down the street, real slow and cool. They were blasting a Biggie Smalls song with their windows down, not caring who they were disturbing. The dealers usually do stuff like that, but late at night. Not at this time of the day.

I haven’t seen these guys around here, anyway. They might not be dealers. They could just be random thugs, too coward to sell. The driver of the second car in the row kept sticking his head out the window as if he was looking for something. Then finally, all four cars left the block. I had more time to think.

Rakim went to the food stamp office to deal with an issue about his grandmother’s food stamps. The rest of the mob went with him. It was only 12:00, but school was released due to a ‘possible threat’ that was nearing the building. We were on lockdown for a few minutes, but the principal just let us all go home before something bad happened.

So I sat on my doorstep, since Momma wasn’t going to be here any time soon, and watched the neighborhood function.

Suddenly, the four cars rolled back onto the block.

“Go DJ, ‘cause that’s my DJ.”

Their music was even louder now. The second car stopped, and so did the ones behind and in front of it. The driver of car numbed two got out the car and approached my building. Soon I found out, though, that it wasn’t the building he was approaching. It was me.

“What it do, lil’ mama?” He said, holding out his hand for a shake. I ignored him. “Aren’t you supposed to be in school right now?”

I shook my head. “School was closed because of some threat.” The guy laughed. He looked back at his boys and laughed some more.

“Guess what?”

I looked up at him.

“We’re the threat.”

                                                                * * *

I was kidnapped.

They took me into the second car and drove me out of town. The music in the second car was lowed to a minimum, but the rest of the cars were still blasting their songs. Little was said, but the men in the car were talking low. Were they discussing me?

“Where are you taking me?” I asked. Right after I did, though, we got onto a familiar-looking block. The same block that Rakim and I walked to when he was searching for Mango. The project building he took me into was up ahead. “Don’t take me in there,” I said quickly. I was scared that somebody would tell one of the guys that I was there before, with Rakim.

Then it occurred to me…could one of these guys be Mango?

“What’s your name, sweetie?” One of them asked.

“I’ll tell you mine when you tell me yours.” I quickly replied. They all chuckled.

“Well, I’m King, the driver is LJ, the one to your right is Chase, and the one to your left is Vick.” He explained. I looked at them as their names were listed, and was relieved to learn that none of them were Mango. Still, it didn’t mean that Mango wasn’t in one of the other cars.

“Well…my name is Tre.”

“Trey? Like pie tray?” Vick asked. I nodded.

“Your mother give you that name?” Chase cooed. I shook my head.