Loving A Gangsta

Chapter 4 (Monday-August 10th)

Korrine's POV

It's been two days since that little altercation at the mall with Marcus, and he's still texting me. I would be kind of cool with it, but the things he says gets on my nerves. He talks like he's running something and presses me like I'm his girl. If I don't reply within five minutes, then he wants to catch an attitude even though he replies hours later. We just met, and he's already tripping, so I stopped replying all together. I'm just happy I haven't run into him lately.

My momma had kept me on lock down in the house for the rest of the weekend. She said I needed to transition out of a summer break mindset and get ready for school. I wasn't complaining. I just chilled and got a lot of extra sleep in, and even came up with a few more cheers, but that was about it. Now it's the first day of school, and I know Marcus isn't going to let me slide past him without talking to him.

"Ren, get up?" Michael yells from the other side of my door.

"I am up!" I shout, jumping out of bed and heading towards my closet.

"You up, but you ain't ready. Be ready in the next thirty minutes or I'm leaving you!"

"Good morning to you, too," I mumble. He knows the last thing he's going to do is ever leave me. He needs to sit down and patient.

After mixing and matching, I decide on a good outfit, which is a pair of light blue boyfriend jeans, a white laced Hollister cardigan, and the all-white Jordan Futures.

I head to the bathroom and jump in the shower, automatically starting to wash my hair, and then cleanse my body. I stay in for about fifteen minutes and get out. In a hurry, I get dressed so that I can have enough time to do exactly what I want to do to my hair. I part it down the middle and use the wand to make millions of deep curls all around. When I finish, I put on my gold name plate earrings, Rolex watch, Rolex chain, and gold belly button piercing. I don't even want to walk out of the bathroom because my reflection in the mirror is just too sexy, but instead of admiring myself for hours, I grab my phone and Louis Vuitton bag and head into the living room.

The smell of bacon, eggs, and toast fills my nose. It all smells so good that I practically run to the kitchen. My momma is setting the table and Angel is already sitting down. "Good morning, momma. Good morning, sissy." I give them both a kiss on the cheek and then sit down next to Angel. There are eggs, bacon strips, toast, biscuits, potatoes, and waffles scattered around the table. I'm just looking at it, imaging how it's going to taste in my mouth. My momma must know how important it is to get a good meal before school because she rarely cooked breakfast like this during summer break.

"Close yo' mouth or just eat already. Stop all that drooling," Michael jokes, making Angel laugh.

"Shut up. I'm going to eat, and I wasn't drooling."

Our momma comes and sits down right after Michael does. "Y'all know we don't eat until we pray, so grab each other's hands." We all do as she says and bow our heads. "Dear, Lord, we thank you for this wonderful meal we're about to receive. We thank you for watching over us and waking us up this morning. I pray that you will still be watching over my family when we walk out this door because God knows some of us need to be watched-" The last part refers mostly to Michael, but I don't look up to see his facial expression because that would be rude during a prayer. "-But, Lord, we thank you for everything you've done. In Jesus's name, Amen!"

"Amen!"

After breakfast, I'm completely stuffed. I had eaten everything she cooked, and it was all delicious. My momma had left to take Angel to school after they finished eating, and Michael and I are now in his 2014 Ford Mustang GT on our way to pick up Dejah. He bought this car himself doing only God knows what. That leads me to think about what my momma said in her prayer. I glance at Michael, and it looks like he's in deep thought. "Brother, you straight?"

He nods. "I'm straight. At least she praying for me."

With the stuff he does, he needs prayer. Not even just him, but his whole gang. They all do way too much. They're out here selling drugs, flocking, and everything in between. I've even seen Mike stash a couple guns and drugs in secret spots around the house. Of course I didn't tell Momma, but ain't no telling what will happen one of these days if the feds catch up with them. He just doesn't understand. My momma never actually told us specifics about what our dad was doing in the streets or about his street life period, but she has told us several stories about when he used to get caught up with the police, but he still just does what he claims he has to do.

It doesn't take long for us to make it to Dejah's house, since she doesn't live too far. Michael always gives her a ride to school and home. "Hey, sis," she says, getting in the backseat.

"Hi, sissy," I say, using my phone to get on Twitter. I haven't been on in a while, and I know that everybody is on it talking about how summer went by too fast and how they don't want to be at school this morning. Not only that, but I know I can get a quick preview of some people's outfits. I should've taken a selfie myself, but it'll have to wait.

Michael fixes the rear view mirror so that he's looking dead at her. "I know damn well she ain't the only person in this car that you see 'cause ain't no ghost driving," he says.

"Hi, Mike," she mutters.

"Baby, you need to fix yo' attitude."

She scoffs. "Oh, now I'm baby?"

"You damn right, and don't forget that shit. You know yo' role, so you better play it. You been mine, girl."

I look back to see her trying to hide the smile tugging the corners of her lips, and start dying laughing. I swear they're the funniest. They've had this little thing going on for years now, but they're not official yet. Michael acts like he can't slow down, and Dejah doesn't want to be running after him, which I don't blame her for. I can't sit and wait for one boy to be ready for me when I know there's always going to be somebody next in line. I know that no matter what, they're going to be together though. What they're going through is what people have to go through to grow stronger. Shit, it's life.

Michael parks in his new senior parking spot right in front of the school entrance where everybody can see. In seconds people are crowding around, admiring his car, and coming to make conversation. As soon as we get out, we're bombarded in hugs and hearing the word hey from every angle. Dejah and I try to say hi to everyone, but we really just push past them. Our main focus is finding Jada. "There she is," I say, seeing her leaning against the wall, typing on her phone.

"Hey, girl," Dejah says, getting her attention.

She looks up from her phone and grins widely. "Okay, we're looking real good. Y'all ready?" she asks.

"Yes! I'm dying to see my schedule."