King of Queens (a Nas Story)

TWENTY SIX

Nasir | 4:34pm

"Yeah, we got to work soon, yo. I heard your demo. Shits tight." I said to my man Chris. He goes by Biggie on the block. A real street nigga from Brooklyn that's on the come up and has Puffy behind him, a Harlem nigga with weight in the game.

"No doubt, baby. We got to set something up. I need you on the album." Biggie said as he inhaled the Chocolate Thai strain into his chest and blew it out from the lungs.

"Just say the word, you know I'm down."

Jungle ran around the corner holding his phone to his ear. "Yo, Nas!" He said in a panic.

"That's your man?" Biggie laughed at how he ran around the corner to where we were standing. Biggie passed his blunt to me. I took a few tokes of the perfectly pearled blunt before I passed it back to him.

"Yeah, man. My baby brother." I said as I laughed at how breathless he was.

"What's the deal, Jung?" I asked him as I stared at him. "It's Gia on the phone for you. It's important, yo." He extended his hand out to me.

"It's my girl." I said to Biggie. "Handle yours." He said as he adjusted his Raiders headband around his temples. I took the phone from my baby brother and spoke.

"What's going on, baby?" I said into the phone as I watched the cars drive past us.

"Nasir. Ron's been shot." Gia said with a somber voice. I could hear my baby boy on the other end of the line.

"What the fuck!" I said out loud. "You down there right now?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I'm in Harlem. I'm here with Stacy and Tionne. His mom's here, too. He's critical, babe." Gia said into the phone. I could hear Destined cooing in the background as I imagined her holding him close by.

"When I'm finished here, I'll meet you at the hospital, aight?"

"Okay. I love you, alright? Be safe." Gia said close into the phone.

"I love you too, shorty. One." I ended the call and handed Jungle his phone back.

"Everything good?" Biggie stepped to me with his shoulder brushing against mine.

"Nah, man. You know Gia's boy, Ron?" I said no to Biggie before turning to Jungle to ask him if he remembered Ron.

"Yeah, that nigga we ran up on in his mom's crib?" Jungle snapped his fingers as he remembered the encounter.

"Yeah, him. He's in critical condition." I said as I rubbed the back of my neck. "Gia's down there in Harlem right now. I told her we'd be over there."

"Damn, yo. I'll definitely ride with you." Jungle said as he placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Harlem ain't no joke, son." Biggie said as he exhaled the weed smoke. "One of my guys got stuck up in the borough. It's trife out here." He said as he shook his head.

"Tell me about it." I said as I took the blunt from Biggie's hand and hit that motherfucker as hard as I could.

Gia | 5:06pm

"Family of Ronjae Harris?" A doctor walked out of the double metal doors. Ronjae's mother and Tionne stood up to address the doctor.

"I'm his mother, this is the mother of his son." Ronjae's mother, Melissa, pointed to Tionne who was holding onto a sleeping RJ.

I bounced Destined in my lap as I listened closely to what the doctor had to say. Stacy sat next to me as Destined grabbed her index finger with his small hand.