Gangland.

Chapter 29 - "Lay Low."

Once Tyler left, Isaiah went back up to his room and finished playing Halo 3 with Stacey for an extra hour. Once he was finished, he laid down in his bed, cut of the lights, and prepared for bed. However, Isaiah wasn't sleepy nor tired. He turned to his iPhone and texted Tyler, trying to see what she was up to. His screensaver was a picture of him and Kayson.

"What u doin?" Isaiah sent to her.

Isaiah placed his phone down, waiting for a response. 5 minutes passed.

Then 10.

Then 15.

After waiting for a while, Isaiah figured that she was asleep and headed off to bed. Soon after, his phone vibrated.

"In bed for class tomorrow." Tyler texted back. "Stop texting me."

Isaiah grinned and called Tyler, listening to her pick up her phone.

"What?" Tyler said in a sleepy and irritated tone.

"You text me with that attitude again girl and daddy gone put you in yo' place." Isaiah grinned, tucking his bottom lip in.

"It is almost 1:00am, Isaiah!" Tyler whispered. "Go to sleep!"

"I think i'd rather talk." Isaiah smiled. "So why yo' unk pull off like that. Was he mad?"

Tyler sighed, laying on her back.

"He knows about you." Tyler groaned. "He said that everyone in Schaefer is afraid of you and that you're dangerous."

"That's nothing new." Isaiah scoffed.

"Yeah but he told me not to talk to you no more so I'm going to listen to what he said, which was my first plan anyway." Tyler scoffed back.

"Oh really?"

"Really."

"So why you on the phone with me nah, then?" Isaiah grinned.

"Because you called me you idiot!" Tyler snarled.

"But you ain't have to answer." Isaiah smiled. "You could've simply pressed ignore."

Tyler didn't say anything. Isaiah had a point. She placed an angry grin on her face, thinking of something else to say.

"Because I knew that you would be texting me all ni-"

"Ah ah ah ah, girl. Admit it." Isaiah said, cutting her off. "You wanna talk to me, don't you?"

"No."

But what was supposed to be a short conversation, turned into a long one.

For two hours, Isaiah and Tyler spent that time talking about plenty of random things. First about schools, then old people, then children, then foods. They were talking about foods that everyone else liked a lot, but they didn't like.

"I'm not a big fan of fried chicken, though." Isaiah said, placing his right leg on top of his left one in his bed and playing with a rubber band. "Like its good and shit, but I ain't "black people crazy" as them racist fucks make us out to be."

"Hm, I can eat pickles a lot." Tyler nodded. "Pickles taste pretty juicy and stuff."

"How do fried pickles taste?" Isaiah asked.

"Pretty good!" Tyler nodded. "They taste like fried string beans almost."

"Yeah my mama been tryin' to get me to try them and I never do it." Isaiah said. "Maybe I'll try that nasty shit someday."

There was a small pause in the conversation. Then, Isaiah heard the sink run in Tyler's bathroom. He heard her whine a little, sucking in her teeth as if something was hurting her.