A Slum Love Crime. (A$AP Rocky Story)

Part Trentacinque

My apology to Danny right after we spoke didn’t appear to matter to him, since he barely even answered me. But I brushed it off as him being in deep thought. It was really considerate of me to apologize to him for arguing with him, so at least I knew he appreciated that.

But Danny’s feelings were the least of my worries right now.

Have you ever been on a stage in front of a fairly large audience, maybe for school? Sometimes you think you’re going to be excited to be on stage, to wave at your parents and smile while performing your unimportant part of the play. But then when you’re actually there, you get butterflies in your stomach and a wobbly feeling in your knees.

That’s pretty much the sensation I was feeling now as I stood in Danny’s backyard, sitting on the hammock. I didn’t feel like lying down; I couldn’t, not with my thoughts buzzing and my nerves jumping. There was no calming this nervousness down.

It was crazy how anxious I could get just from the thought of meeting my father. The feeling it gave me, picturing him standing before me, was unexplainable. But I could barely even imagine it, since that one sacred photograph I have of him isn’t enough to give me an idea of how he looks now.

The picture was in my hands now, wrinkled yet holding more value than it did when it was hanging on our fridge back home. It has been through as much as I have.

I gazed out into the backyard, remembering the day the guys stood out here for a pep talk from Danny. I remembered feeling disappointed and wanting to go home as I lie in the hammock. Now, I just want my mother back.

I didn’t even flinch as my tear dripped onto the picture. I could cry myself a river and drown in it for all I cared.

Light laughter suddenly sounded. I turned in the direction of the joyful noise and saw Dom and Nicole strolling through the backyard, not even close to approaching the hammock. I peered at them while they walked, and noticed Dom tripping a little over Nicole’s feet. He seemed to be doing it on purpose, just to playfully annoy her. She laughed and pushed him, he pushed her back, and they went like this until finally getting tired.

“Hi Tre!” Nicole waved to me, almost drunkenly. Nicole had warmed up to me and all, but there was no explanation for her being this nice to me besides her being drunk. I waved back, more lugubriously than I intended. Nicole didn’t seem to notice, but Dom gave me a slight sideways look before leaning against the tree beside the hammock. Nicole stood in front of him. I didn’t say a word to either of them.

Danny stepped out of the house, which was far away, and began to wave toward Nicole, his figure small in the distance.

“Your dad’s calling you,” I said to her. She turned around and immediately ran across the yard to him, leaving me and Dom alone. Surprisingly, I was relieved. I wanted to talk to Dom alone without even realizing it.

“Has Danny spoken to you yet?” I asked as soon as Nicole disappeared.

“About what?” He asked, sitting down next to me.

“He’s never just called you down to his office to have a long talk about our…situation?”

Dom shook his head honestly. This made me suspect Danny of being unfair—how come only I got the strict treatment and Dom got to roam around in the prairie with Nicole? Then I remembered the talk Danny and I shared, and I remembered that Dom wasn’t involved in this at all. That’s just how it is.

“Well he did that to me yesterday. And the talk we had wasn’t that pretty. We kind of argued a little. We’re cool with each other now of course, but the things he told me are still kind of disturbing my mind.” I informed Dom. He nodded understandingly, and motioned for me to continue. “He told me that he and his militia can’t fight Mango because he doesn’t want to be involved, since he can’t take any more risks. He told me you can’t do anything because you should be in jail with the guys and can’t take any risks either. So that leaves me…I’m the only one that can do something about this.”