in the ends // jaq

06

The next morning, Jaq and I went to Dushane's yard, she had to drop something off. Dushane got a new place and it was massive. "Wagwan," Jaq said, as we came through the door.

"Nice legs, Dushane," I told him, looking down at the grey gym shorts he was wearing. He kissed his teeth at me and Jaq gave him the bag.

"This yard is nice," Jaq said, looking around.

"Take your shoes off," Dushane instructed.

"What you saying for yours?" Jaq said, looking down and seeing Dushane's shoes were on. We took them off and left them in the kitchen.

"I'm sayin' it's my fuckin' house," Dushane said, as he unzipped the bag and checked the money inside. "Who bust your lip like that, man," He asked, as we followed him into his living room.

"Sparrin' session at the gym, innit," Jaq lied, "Brudda got overexcited." I sighed and folded my arms, she glanced at me as if to tell me 'no'.

"Yo," I exclaimed, looking up and seeing more of his new yard.

"So what, that's what it is now?" Dushane asked, "You let people punch you in the face?" He sat down on his sofa and Jaq took a seat on some cushioned ottoman stool ting and I sat on her knee, her arm snaking around my waist. Dushane looked at us confused but didn't ask any questions.

"It's nothin', man," She lied again, "You should see his face."

"Mhm," I agreed, helping with the lie, "Brudda's eyes proper bulging," I said and Dushane laughed a little.

He scoffed and turned serious again, "Look, I need you to go and see Sully for me," He instructed, "Tell him I need to talk to him."

"I don't know about all of that," Jaq said, "Sully's on, like, some recluse ting right now."

"Do I look like I give a fuck?" Dushane asked, sitting forward. Jaq sighed. "I got big problems goin' on in Spain. I need someone to go out there and fix it."

"A'ight, cool."

"What's happening with this Ats ting?" He asked and Jaq kissed her teeth, "You lot ain't found the girl off the CCTV yet?"

"Nah, bruv," I shook my head, "We got all the youngers checking their socials, sendin' her picture round and that, but no one seems to know who the fuck this bitch is."

"Seriously, this is not looking good for us right now." Dushane said, "We're lookin' weak out there."

"I know," Jaq agreed.

"Can't have people come on the block, stab one of our youngers, and then fuck off, we don't know who they are, where are they," Dushane said, "And this has been draggin' out for time! Listen, seriously, I'm relyin' on you. You need to deal with it, yeah?"

"I'm on it," Jaq reassured him, "Trust me, I'm on it. But today, I gotta take my mum to a hospital appointment. I can miss it if you need me to."

"It's calm," Dushane said, "Family's everything."

We got up to leave and began to walk out and then he spoke again, "Listen," He said and we turned around, "Lay off the boxing ting, man. It's not for you."

Jaq laughed, "Shut up, man," She said. We put our shoes back on and left.

We walked down the road silently and then I spoke, "Are we gonna talk about it?" I asked and she kissed her teeth.

"Why?" She asked me, acting clueless.

I kissed my teeth, "Jaq, come on,"