The Siren (18+)

Chapter 12

"What happened between you and Eric?" Ray Mond asked as she barged into Ramee's apartment. There was a city wide blackout and Ramee had allowed the girls to stay at his place. The man was a major shareholder in Alex Ron's power company and had access to generators for all of his apartments as well as the apartments in the cubby. April had urgently needed to respond to some of her potential sponsors so she accepted his offer of staying over while he stayed at the house he owned with Carmella.

"What about Eric?" She responded without looking up.
"He gives you money."
"Yeah?"
"But you guys aren't dating."
"Yeah?"
"I just realized that you have such a long list of guys paying your bills but you aren't dating any of them."

"Yes. It's kinda what I do." She hadn't meant to sound so short with her friend. She had been so busy with photo shoots, filming and recording music that she hadn't had any downtime over the past two weeks. She had a few emails to send before she could be free.

"But what about love?"
April sighed. She really loved her girl but it was during conversations like these that made their age difference apparent. The raven haired girl had a very two dimensional outlook on most things and didn't realize that their lives didn't work like that. She looked up from her laptop and at the girl sitting across her.

"Love is for those who can afford to be selfish. Being in this family means you cannot be distracted. You know how K feels about people neglecting their duties because of relationships." April had seen how Ray looked at Randy. She, and everyone else with a pair of eyes, could see her affection for the man. But Randy had Violet. Even then he couldn't be with her the way she had wanted. Being the second in command meant that he had far more responsibilities than anyone else in the gang and Violet had accepted whatever parts of himself he could give her. April also knew how Randy felt about Ray. She knew her brother well enough to know he kept pushing away his feelings to prevent anything from happening.

"But what about Ramee?" April stiffened.
"What about Ramee?"

"I mean he's part of the OG's but he's getting married. Why does he get to be in love?"

"Like I said, love is for those who can afford to be selfish. Ramee is rich and he is selfish. He doesn't count." The man had to be credited for his ability to focus on gang business. K must have approved the relationship because despite having a fiancée and not living in the compound as much he was still an active contributor.

"Then I'll just get rich and become selfish." Ray said with a determined expression.

April wanted to support her friend, she really did, but the grey eyed girl sounded delusional. The 22 year old was too caught up in a fantasy that would remain just that. A fantasy. She kept her thoughts to herself and instead asked Ray if she wanted to come along with her to Wuchang.
Ray declined the offer and let her know that she had to sell some weed. Randy had pulled a few strings and asked Chodie to give the hang around some bags to sell and she had been ecstatic. April was glad her friend was being given more responsibility and more tasks. This was good if her goal was receiving the chain.

Ray walked out, presumably to sell said weed, and April was left alone. She finished up with her emails, got dressed for her trip to the studio and headed out the door.

"Taco I'm actually going to stab you!" Ray threatened the large man. He had been giving her trouble with selling weed by carrying his favorite gun around her. Customers were too scared to come up to her and she would miss her deadline if he kept it up. Along with the bags of weed Ray was given a time limit to sell them all and the boys made it harder for her whenever they could. They kept emphasizing the importance of rat strats to her and how she would have to learn to outsmart the most annoying of obstacles. Ignoring their antics she got into her car and drove to Wuchang where she would meet with Liz Anya.