ODDS OF LOVE SEASON TWELVE

Episode 174

Jimmy Klein hit the streets of Hyattsville for what seemed like hours. He was determined to go out and find him a job. A legitimate job as his silly step father would say. He didn't care what he found. As long as it was a job. One that would get him out of his mother's strange house and into a place of his own. Apartment. Room. Something. Then when he turned eighteen next year he was going to get his half of that trust from MeeMaw and get the hell out of Maryland. Do a little traveling. See the country. Maybe even the world. After all , who would miss him when he was gone? Not many. Definitely not the mother or brother who hadn't even visited him when he was locked up. Then again he hadn't wanted to go to the funeral for MeeMaw. He couldn't bring himself to watch his grandmother be dropped in the ground. And probably not the man next door who he had seen earlier getting into a fancy car with a baby. He had been surprised. He didn't think people like Spencer Norland - Lane could drive. But the man was supposed to be some type of genuis or something so maybe that was it. What the hell did he know about shit ? , he thought as he went from each store or restaurant he saw asking for applications and getting nowhere fast. After all it wasn't just Sol who everyone called dumb. Sol didn't seem to realize they had started that crap on him first.

The job search was not going as good as he had hoped when he left the house. Everyone looked at him like he was slime that just crawled out from under a rock or something. Especially when he said he didn't have a high school diploma or GED. What the fuck did that shit matter ? He was strong, young and not afraid of hard work. He never had been really. He hadn't been robbing stores and shit with Phil and Sammy because he was too lazy to work. He had just been bored. And he wanted to impress Phil who had been a few years older than him and Sammy. Had a place of his own and a car and everything. Yeah , he could be kinda moody and shit but he was still cool. He couldn't believe they were both gone now. Sammy killed in some housing project in DC he hadn't even lived in and Phil shot down by the pigs for the hospital thing. He really couldn't believe the newspaper kept calling Phil crazy. He never thought Phil was crazy but maybe he really hadn't known the man as good as he thought.

He was lost in thought as he continued walking down the sidewalk. His feet hurt but he didn't have money for metro and he wasn't about to ask his mother or stepfather for shit. He was tempted to ask the man next door for a little money from the trust but that would mean actually going over to talk to him, look at him , so probably not. He was so lost in thought that he accidentally bumped into another boy on the sidewalk.

A short skinny kid with bronzed skin and messy black curly hair that fell into his dark brown eyes.

A kid he knew from school before he got shot and busted by that female pig cop.

Jamal Duncan. He remembered him as just another quiet geek kid who always had his nose in a book when he wasn't writing poetry and playing video games. Just a loser really who his friends like Sammy had picked on constantly. Jimmy never picked on him. Not really. He laughed when Sammy did it though. Cause Sammy could be funny sometimes and probably because he was a dick who wanted to fit in. Who knew? He couldn't even figure it out with the dogooder minister Reverend Jones who used to come around the kid prison to save souls like she had a quota or something.

Jamal looked at him with big wide almost scared eyes. " Oh , wow , I'm sorry," he stammered out softly as he pushed back the black framed glasses on his long attractive face. " Oh my gosh. Wow. You're Jimmy Klein......"

Jimmy smiled with a tired edge to it. Yeah. He was just Jimmy Klein. For better or worse.

" Yeah. And , you're Jamal Duncan whose as clumsy as ever. "

Jamal snapped at him ," Actually you bumped into me. Jerk. "

Then , without another word to him , Jamal kept walking down the street with his head lowered down.

Jimmy sighed. Always making friends he was , he thought as he entered a small cozy cafe that specialized in tea , coffee and light meals. On the front door it said the place was owned by Keisha Duncan.