The Stick Up Kid

Get Yo Mind Right

The next day I was at the A-1 store with Raquan waiting to meet Tymark. Apparently Ajax had a plan that he wanted us to hear, and we were going to head over there to see what it was. But in the mean time, I was struggling to convince Raquan about the problems we faced with the Amp, Davontae, and the rest of their gang.

            “Yo dog, them niggas know we did that shit bruh,” I fussed. “What do you not understand about that?” Raquan looked at me with a face so full of unconcern that it pissed me off. “You think this a game dog? Them boys the ones who killed Johnny nigga!”

            “Aye check this out man,” Raquan interrupted me. “Like I said before. Fuck, them, niggas, dog. Man we packin’ too homie, I aint worried bout no fuckin’ three-five.”

            I shook my head. I must have forgot there was no telling Raquan anything. He was too much of a hardheaded fool. “Ight yo. What eva,” I said, giving up. “All I can say is, ‘get on yo P’s and Q’s dog’. Cause imma be on mine.”

            “Aye don’t worry bout me ‘cousin’,” Raquan mocked. “I got slugs for anybody who run up on this nigga.”

            I couldn’t hold my tongue any longer. “Man that’s yo problem nigga. You caught up in that untouchable mentally. That shit will get you killed nigga,” I explained. Sometimes I wondered if Raquan was just acting hard, or if he truly didn’t care about dying. At one time in my life I didn’t care about death, but I grew out of that. And not that I’m going to be a parent, I had more to live for than ever.

            “Aye man, chill out dog,” Raquan stated. “Look, if them boys come after us, I got yo back and you got mine. We’ll be Aight.”

            I really wasn’t feeling what my best friend said, but I was going to have his back regardless. I was just upset that things turned out the way they did.

            “Man I’m good dog,” I said, calming down. “I just got a lot on my mind that’s all.”

            “Aye me too man. But we need to get this bullshit off our mind, so we get back to gettin’ this money,” Raquan added.

            “Yea,” I agreed. “Where Tymark at anyway?”

            Raquan shrugged his shoulders. “Said he been on the way, but that don’t mean shit.”

            “Oh so you think Imma liar?” Tymark exclaimed, walking out of nowhere. Raquan and I spun around confused. I never understood how Tymark did it; he could be slier than a fox.

            “Man where the fuck you came from nigga?” Raquan snapped, looking his cousin up and down.

            “Aye man, ya’ll ready or what?” Tymark asked, disregarding Raquan’s question. We both nodded our heads and followed Tymark to his car.

            I sat in the back seat while Raquan went in the front and Tymark got behind the wheel. He started the car and hit the gas, heading up the street. Tymark pulled a bent blunt from his pocket and stuck it in his mouth. Raquan rolled the window down as the blunt was lit.

            “Aye man… me and K.T gotta tell you somethin’,” Raquan said, sounding serious. Tymark glanced at his cousin, wondering what he was going to say. “Man them boys know we did it.”

            Tymark raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Them boys? Yo who the fuck you talkin’ bout son?”

            “Davontae and them niggas man,” Raquan explained. “K.T said they know we robbed em.” I turned to Tymark who mouthed a cursed word.

            “Got damn son,” Tymark muttered. “You know, I thought some shit like this might happen.” He rubbed his facial hair as he continued up the road. “They gon try and burn our ass too…”

            “So what you had in mind?” I wondered, eager to hear any idea that could keep the Three-five off our tail.

            Tymark looked at me through the rear view mirror as he exhaled smoke from his lungs. “Watch yo motha fuckin’ back…” He said.

            By the time we got to Ajax’s tattoo parlor it was going on 5:00pm. The ride to North Tera was abnormally silent. When you know somebody’s wants to kill you, it can kind of ruins the mood to talk. Tymark parked his car in front of the Tattoo shop and hopped out first. Raquan and I followed shortly after.

            We entered the building, seeing Ajax leaning back in a chair watching TV in the front room. “My dudes!” Ajax joked. He got up from the seat and dapped us up. “What it do man?”

            “Chillin’,” we all replied around the same time. Ajax looked at us kind of funny.

            “Somethin’ up?” he wondered, trying to figure out what our problem was.

            “Nothin’ dog. Just the day to day bull shit,” Tymark answered, belittling the life threatening situation that hung over our heads.

            “K.T!” I heard some one call out. It was Zora. She was on the side of the room in a booth giving some guy a tattoo. I walked over to her and gave her a hug.

            “What up Z?” I asked.

            “Work,” Zora sighed. She sat back down and continued drawing on the man’s back. “What brings ya’ll ova’ here?”

            “I heard Ajax got somethin’ big planned,” I told her.

            “Oh yea? It’s probably that Casino robbery he’s been yappin’ bout,” Zora replied.

            “Huh? … Robbery? Man what you talkin’ bout girl?” I played dumb because she just spoke of our plans in front of a customer.

            “Relax K.T, Jim’s one of us,” Zora explained, referring to the guy she was tattooing.

            I sighed in relief. For a second, I thought she did something real stupid. “Word,” Zora paused her work and briefly stared at my face.

            “You okay? You looked majorly stressed,” Zora said, returning her focus on the art she drew.

            “Man I don’t look that bad,” I implied.

            “No… but you do seem like you got a lot on yo mind,”

            I thought about Jaliesha, my soon to be baby, and my problems with the Three-Five. All those things worried me in different ways, but I couldn’t let them stress me out. We had big plans to get money in the future, and I needed a clear head for it get done.