Crooked

Thirteen

Crooked

Thirteen

             "Shit, shit!" Leroy panicked as he paced back and forth in front of Travante, who was sitting on a park bench with his head down in shame. Leroy knew that once his sister found out, that it would be over for him. Ty Ty was Epiphany's friend first before he was either Travante or Leroy's, so he knew Ty Ty's loyalty was to her. There was no doubt that he would tell.

"You think he saw us?" Travante spoke feeling guilty, asking an obvious question.

"Duh, he saw us Travante! I told your dumb ass to lay low but you ain't wanna listen! Now we gonna go to jail!"

Travante's eyes widened open in shock. "W-wait, you think Ty Ty actually gon tell on us? Like to the Feds or sum shit?"

"No, I don't! But who's to say that he was the only one that saw your face? We're fucked!"

Travante sat there, slowly realizing the truth of what Leroy was saying. He hopped up from the bench once he saw Leroy starting to walk rapidly down the block. "Yo my nigga, chill," Travante said as he walked next to Leroy trying to keep up with his pace. "Everybody was runnin' down the block! I guarantee nobody saw us! Besides why you worried anyway? You had a mask on, it was my face that was showing!"

"You're right—but I'm always with you," Leroy retorted.

"Look Leroy, we not gonna get caught, aight? You worry too damn much, just calm down, ok?" Travante calmly said as they neared Leroy's project building.

Leroy sighed, still unsure but he nodded. "Aight."

"Aight nigga I'll see you later," Travante spoke as him and Leroy did their handshake. "You coming to school tomorrow, right?"

Epiphany had let Leroy stay home for a week and a half because he didn't want to go to school with the cut on his face. Now that it healed into a scar, Epiphany told him that he had to go or else his middle school would call ACS on them.

"Yea I have to." Leroy replied. The boys said their goodbyes before Leroy rushed upstairs. When Leroy entered, he saw that his own sister wasn't even home. He looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was 9:02 p.m., he made it just on time.

He was about to call Epiphany's phone, but he saw the small Android on the coffee table. He decided to just go to sleep on his bed which was the couch, knowing that Epiphany was probably with Aaliyah or something.

                                                                    •••

One week later...

Epiphany looked at the time on the cable box, and it read 7:17 a.m. She was up doing her hair for school. She couldn't decide if she wanted to put her jumbo knotless box braids up into a ponytail, half up and half down or just a plain bun.

She just decided to do a high ponytail since the news said it was going to be 80 degrees today. When she was finished with slicking her edges down, she threw on a burgundy short sleeved graphic tee and some high waisted denim shorts.

"Since when do you care about your looks?" Leroy asked Epiphany as he watched her take her braids out of the high ponytail she had just done and leave them down. The braids stopped around her thigh. She figured that having her braids out matched better with her outfit. Leroy was appalled. He never saw Epiphany wear shorts before.

She bent down to tie the laces of the all-white Air Force 1s, Leroy had bought for her with his "basketball money." They were getting a little dirty because she had worn them every time, she didn't feel like wearing slides or the other pair of sneakers Leroy had bought her. The Air Forces were still noticeably white though.

"What you mean?" Epiphany questioned in confusion as she looked at herself in the mirror for the fifth time.

"Like—forget it." Leroy said, feeling like his question was stupid. He went into the living room to go wait on her until she was done. Usually, his sister would throw anything on and go outside, but nowadays it was different. She took long now just to find an outfit and took extra time to make sure her baby hairs were laid properly. She never used to do that nor care about her outfits. Leroy wondered what made that change now.

"You ready?" Epiphany asked, walking into the living room, when she was finally done with everything. She saw Leroy looking at his scar in the mirror.

"Do you want me to put some makeup on it?" Epiphany frowned as she looked at her younger brother. She tried to convince her brother that it wasn't as bad as it seemed, but it was. It was a permanent mark that would never leave from his face.