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Chapter One - Hard Knock Life
As I sat in the passenger seat, the world outside was a blur of street lights and darkness. The orange glow of the highway lights looked like stars in the night sky, and I found myself lost in thought. The music from my beat headphones helped me tune out Chantelle's watchful gaze, but I could feel her eyes on me every time she took them off the road.
I just played with my mother's locket that was around my neck and looked out the window.
After a while of her just staring at me, I felt the left side of my headphones get pulled off, forcing me to look at her with a confused look. She returned it with a smile. "Don't you want to know how your brothers are doing?"
No calls or texts from them while I was inside proved that they didn't want to know how I was doing, So why should I care?
Well, that is an exaggeration. They did call but those started to become rare as the weeks went by.
They were not my brothers. They were my friends. But, once upon a time, It felt like we were brothers.
All four of us, dropping out of high school to chase a dream. We went from living in our parents houses without having to pay a bill to crowding into a two bedroom apartment, scraping for quarters and nickels just to get food. Sometimes, we went to bed hungry for food, but our hearts were hungry for our dream.
Just like the rest of my boys, I had a dream to make it in the music industry. I thought if I made it big, just like my mom was at one point, then everything would be okay. That my dad would actually be proud of me and would want me to be his son again. But he didn't support me. None of our parents supported us, and we had to work harder than most to achieve our goals.
To become superstars.
Still, Manu, Omari, and Santana would make sure they all had the luxury of enjoying their twenties. I didn't go out as much. The only fun I had was playing around with beats and writing lyrics.
Sometimes, While they were out partying, I spent my days in the apartment, headphones on, and my notebook open. Crumpled up pieces of paper littered the floor around me, but I didn't care. I was too focused on making music.
Wasted the prime years of my life? Fuck it. I'll party when I live up to my name.
I pulled my headphone back onto my ear but Chantelle pulled it right back off.
"You know Manu won his first horse race?" She grinned. "That boy, I swear. You couldn't tell him nothing."
"That's wassup." I simply said, once again pulling my left headphone onto my ear.
But, like before, Chantelle wouldn't let me. She was still trying to make small talk with me.
"The boys are adjusting nicely." She flicked on her blinkers and merged to the next lane. "It took some time getting used to having just some random guys in my house, but they've been helping me with the salon and been taking care of the stables."
