Score: The Catch

Chapter Fourteen

It's been a week since Thanksgiving break, and the shooting. I put my gun in one of the pockets in my pants do I could take it with me. I knew I couldn't carry it to see Chris. I was just going to leave it in the car.

"Where you going now?" Erica asked after she stepped out of the bathroom. I told her I was going to the hospital to see Chris and she shook her head.  I didn't feel like fussing with her, so I left.

"You up, nigga? You good?" I asked Chris when I noticed that he was awake. He wasn't talking about much of anything the days before today. I just came in and sat there, whenever his momma wasn't there.

"Yeah," he replied.

"Who did this shit?"

"That nigga Rock, B. I was in my car that I just got. The windows wasn't tinted or nothing. Anyway, he pulled up at the stoplight and started bussin' while I was going through my bags in the backseat," he told me as he looked up at the ceiling. "That fuck boy didn't even wear a mask or nothing."

"What you tryna do? You want me to pull up on him real quick?"

"Nah, man. I'll figure out what I wanna do. I can't die, yo. Not right now. I got a baby on the way, my cousin big on the East and he looked out for me. You know, i'm making money."

"You having a kid? Ah, man. But real shit, you ain't dying. You tough. You'll be good. Oh yeah, your momma tried to say I did this. She talking about some, I was jealous of you and the car and what you doing. I didn't even know you had a new car. I got mad as hell," I laughed but I was dead serious.

"That was petty. I mean, I know you ain't shit and all, but sheesh! I saw his face and all that, I'll let her know."

"Shut the fuck up." After I said that, a few minutes later, I heard snoring. He was sleep. I got up and walked to my car.

I walked in the house to Erica fussing. "What took you so long? Damn. I can't stand you and you get on my nerves. Get out my face!"

"Look, i'on know where this attitude coming from but you better be cool on that shit. It only been a couple weeks since you been pregnant, so don't blame it on that. Now come give me some. I missed you, boo." She lifted herself up from the couch and came over to give me a kiss and told me, "I missed me, too."

"Brandon, i'm hungry," Erica complained. I walked into the kitchen and pulled out something to cook and laid it out to thaw.

"You going with me to look for this land to purchase, right?" Erica inquired. I nodded my head and went to sit down with her.

"I don't want to sound like I'm trying to spend your money, but I have a question."

"What is it?"

"What if you buy beach houses and rent them out to people?"

"That's not a bad idea at all. I could do that. That way, we could make money in our sleep."

"We? You."

"Are my baby and what's mine is yours. You know that." I kissed her cheek and walked back into the kitchen to watch the food cook. When it was done, I  placed it on a plate and carried it to her.

"Fish?" She asked, raising her eyebrow.

"Fish." 

"Why?"

"It's healthy?"

"Mhm, I guess. Thanks."

"You're welcome. I'm about to go to sleep off a little bit. I got a headache." She shook her head and I walked to our bedroom.

"Brandon!" She yelled while shaking my shoulder.

"Hmm?"

"Get up so we can go, baby." I stood up and stretched before I went in the bathroom to brush my teeth.

We got in my car and drove around until we found land to buy. I saved the number on the sign in my phone and drove off.

We drove to a beach to see if there was a house right on the beach. It wasn't. But, we did find one really close to the beach. I saved the number and we left.

"Where else do you want to go?"

"I want some sour patch kids," she replied.  I laughed and headed to a convenience store.

I pulled up to a gas pump and got out to refill her car. There was this police officer there that kept looking at me, but I didn't know why. "May I help you?"

"Just making sure everything runs smoothly out here." I shrugged it off and got back in the car.  Forgetting about Erica's candy. Rock came out of the store, holding a bag of candy. Our eyes locked. He saw that I opened the car door, so he started running. I was just going to go back in the store to get her candy. But, Rock didn't know that.

Before I could step out, I heard the police officer yell, "Hey, get back here!" He tackled him to the ground, grabbed his neck and started saying something that I couldn't hear because we were too far apart. What I did hear was four gunshots that sounded off. The police officer ran to his car and Rock managed to move where he'd be seen a little more. After he moved as far as he could, he became extremely still.