Loving A Gangsta

Chapter 10 (Friday)

After about twenty minutes of road rage driving, Marcus soon slows down and parks the car. I look out the window to see we're in front of an old, busted trap house, and I can't even begin to understand why he would bring me here. "Go home," he says, getting out.

I try to stop him, but he's not paying me any attention, so I take the keys out of the ignition and jump out of the truck to follow him. "Wait, Marcus!"

He turns around and storms up to me. "Get in the truck, and drive home!" he snaps.

His voice makes me jump back a little. "But I can't-"

He interrupts me by grabbing my shoulders. "Get the hell in the truck, and go home!" he yells, shaking me.

I yank out of his grasp and slap him hard across the face. Then I throw his keys at him. "Why do you think I don't have a car? I can't drive, dumb ass!" I yell.

I don't wait to hear what he's going to say next. I just start running down the street, not even caring that I don't know where I'm going. As long as I'm getting far away from him, I'm fine. Or at least that's how I feel until I realize that all the houses look like traps and bandos. I think I'm in the old projects, and if so, I really don't know where I'm going because I've never walked around here. It's dangerous, almost twenty minutes away from the city, and Michael always tells me to stay away from it.

I start running faster and faster until I finally get to a bench under a street light. I let out a sigh of relief as I sit down and take my phone out. Before I know it, it starts pouring down raining, and I'm trying to protect it from getting wet while scanning through my contacts. I stop when I see Jessie's and quickly call it.

"Hello?"

I try to control my breathing, but it seems impossible. All that running and now me crying is making it harder."J-Jessie, can you come g-get me please?" I stutter into the phone, just hoping he's not still mad at me.

"Where are you, mami?"

"I-I don't know. I think it's the abandoned projects. I'm sitting on a bench."

"Alright. Just stay there. I'm on my way."

I hang up and pull my knees to my chest. I'm soaking wet, freezing, and don't know how to feel. How could he pull something like this? He just flipped out when everything was going great. Maybe everything he was saying was just to make me feel good. Filling my head up with everything I wanted to here so that he could win me over. Maybe Michael and Jessie were right about him. He's no good for me.

I don't know how long I've been sitting here, but a car soon pulls up in front of me, and I'm relieved to see that it's Jessie's. I don't move because my body feels fully numb from the rain and cold air. I feel his arms wrap themselves around me, lifting me up. Once we're both in the car, he turns the heat on high,grabs a blanket out the backseat, and lays it across my body. He starts the car and drives off, soothing me by rubbing his hand up and down my leg.

I'm even more relieved when I realize we're in front of his house instead of mine. The last thing I want is to have to face Michael right now. Jessie walks around and gets me out of the car. He carries me all the way inside and puts me down once we make it in his room. I go to his drawers and grab a pair of his sweat pants and a t-shirt, quickly changing out of these wet clothes. When I'm done, I turn around to see Jessie sitting at the edge of the bed, watching me intently. I slowly walk over to him and sit in his lap, taking in his warmness. He sets his hands on the small of my back and looks me in the eyes.

"Thank you, Jes," I whisper.

"What are best friends for?"

Seeing the pained expression on his face damn near breaks my heart. I'm hurting him by acting like I can't see how much he wants to be with me. He's always been here for me. He's always been my ride or die, my everything. The way I'm treating him is not close to being right, and I know it.