Adrian x Chris Brown Avé x Trey Songz August x August Alsina
The door on the far wall opened and the jury filed out. They must have felt his eyes, hot and piercing, on them as they took their seats but they would not meet his gaze, they only stared straight ahead.
"Stupid motherfuckas," August sneered under his breath, finally looking away as he licked his top lip and settled in the wooden seat he'd been confined to for two hours.
Avé sat beside him but remained silent veering straight ahead at the balding white man on the court room floor accusing his younger brother of murder. It was ironic that he was being charged for a crime he didn't commit. Almost laughable that of all the shit Adrian had done that he was being charged for the murder of a man he didn't even know. Adrian stood tall still. He was never one to crumble under pressure and he had learned that from their father. All three had learned. A lineage of Arteaga's existed in this little circle of the world. This little circle that ultimately determined their future.
He rose solemnly, his hands crossed gripping each other behind his back. He was facing a first degree murder conviction. The sentence was life in prison or death. That was enough to shake the foundation from under even the most solid mans' feet. The United States is the only country in the world that will charge a juvenile as an adult and sentence them to life without parole. It was system that had broken many of them and now it was almost impossible to feel anything. He was numb.
August gritted his teeth finding it hard to contain his aggravation. He was the youngest of the three. He and Avè had the same mother. Both had remarkably similar features, so much that it was hard to tell them apart at times.
Dark brown eyes, strong jaw lines and the smoothest brown skin. Good genes had blessed both boys and they even shared similar laughs. The difference between them came in the way Avé handled things. Avé's charismatic personality, when he wasn't working, made him quite likeable. Women went crazy over him. And what was worse, he knew it. August was young and careless. It took a lot more than a pretty face to get his attention and a hell of a lot more to hold it. Avé was a man of few words, this was not just because he barely spoke English. Avé was just too much in the habit of observing everything and everybody around him. August like his father, had higher aspirations. He was a junior and top of the class at his university.
Adrian was completely different. Tattoos covering him from his neck down, dark grey eyes, and full pink lips that fed every females eyes with lusting hunger. Adrian was arrogant with a very short temper. He was always flirting with his boundaries. His mother was white. Obvious from his butterscotch complexion to the sprawl of freckles that covered it. Any portion of his body not covered by his Armani suit was covered in tattoos. He was tall and confident, and it seemed those dark gray eyes wouldn't sparkle in the brightest of light.
"...on evidence that Mr. Arteaga ," the district attorney sneered, "is a known felon, linked to previous murders, and was witnessed less than a block from the victim's home after the murder occurred is reason enough to assume his involvement in this case," he turned sharply on his toes. "we'd like to call Mrs. Housgo to the stand,"
Avé crossed his fingers across each other and relaxed in his seat. Silence consumed the courtrrom as the small lady walked up to the stand taking a seat.
"Ms. Housgo, how good is your eyesight?" asked her austerely.
"My eyesight is good enough to see you and everyone and everything in this courtroom. I wear spectacles because of my long sightedness. To be precise, I can see things farther away better than those nearer to me." replied back Ms. Housgo never breaking eye contact with him.
"So if I were to ask you to identify the man you saw leaving the building where Deaunte Phillips was murdered," he turned sharply on his toes," You could indentify him?"
"Yes...I could," she answered quickly.
"Idenitfy him please Mrs. Housgo,"
She looked around the courtroom, her bulging eyes glossed over with intimidation. Avé caught her eyes, staring straight into them almost as if he was tempting her. She looked away.
"I don't see him," she insisted making the lawyers eyebrows furrow with confusion. The DA had gone through some of his questions with her. She had no reason to panic. She had one job. She just had to get him convicted.
"So you don't see the man that murdered Deaunte Phillips in this courtroom?" he walked closer to her creasing the manila folder over his his grip.
"No." She said sternly, catching Avé's eyes again as he half smiled and nodded at her. A visit to an old lady's home in the middle of the night with a voice of persuasion had seemed to work out for him when it came to exactly what she "witnessed". Avé had a way with words...and intimidation.
"So the man that we have been prosecuting for weeks on the behalf of your testimony is not in this courtroom?"
"No. Can't you hear?!" She repeated a little more sternly than before.
Taking a deep breath before sighing, the tall balding attorney gritted his teeth before mumbling, "No further questions."
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