August

Damarion

"August get the fuck out of here.. I'll be alright." Damarion said. I could see the pain in his face. If I had just been hit by two bullets in the stomach and back I would be the same way. The darkness of night swallowed us as I kneeled Down to try to drag him out of the street and behind a house. He was to heavy. "Damarion get up!" I screamed as tears streamed down my face. I knew it was unrealistic but I couldn't stand to look at him while he was weak like that. I dropped down to my knees and sat there. "I love..you..kid." He mumbled while coughing up thick blood. "I love you too..please!" I screamed trying to lift him up again before dropping back down to my knees sobbing loud and just like that he was gone. "Oh god, oh god, oh god.. please!" I screamed shaking him as my heart beat my chest up from racing so hard. I held him until my arms were numb and soaked in blood shivering. The night was hungry and it swallowed me whole. It swallowed my heart.

My phone had been lost for days so I couldn't call anybody all I could do was scream for help. Soon a car rolled up and a middle aged black woman got out and called 911. "Lord have mercy, what happened?" The lady asked staring in disbelief. "Somebody shot him!" I said crying out. I knew exactly who and why but I wouldn't dare give that information up to the police. That's against street code and if it's one thing I know about the streets is that you only have two options that you have to openly accept and that's jail or death and which one do you think snitching gets the snitch? Exactly. "They're on their way right now." The lady said kneeling down. It was pitch black outside the only thing that brought light to the streets was the stoplight and the streetlights. It fell silent and the woman couldn't even look me in my eyes. 45 minutes had passed, yeah.. 45 minutes. They don't give a fuck about us street muthafuckas or our hoods no more. They want us to just hurry up and die off already. Once I seen the ambulance round the corner I picked up the duffle bag and ran off down the alley with tears flying out of my eyes and wind smacking them back on to my face. "Where are you going?!" The lady screamed but she never followed me. I had to leave. Damarion made this clear before we even left for the run that if something happens to take the bag and go. It hurt.

This is what the whole week led up too. Every miscalculated move got Damarion killed. He's the one that brought me into the game and showed me how to move dope and anything else for that matter. I was young when my father died and eventually his death turned my mom into a base head. I was a problem child always getting into fights with bitches, niggas, getting suspended, expelled, Juvie time, smoking weed, and all other types of stupid shit. I think I'm cursed. My brother died this day 5 years ago. He killed himself when I was 13. I found him... and I haven't been the same since. It was 8:00pm and I had just made it home from hanging out with my friend Nataija. I walked passed my brothers room and went into mines to change and relax. I laid on my back and spread my body out all over my bed to stretch and then onto my stomach to text on my phone. It had been 15 minutes. Why does that matter? Because my brother and I were close, he was all I had and it only took him about 15 minutes before he came in my room to ask me about my day and joked around with me. He never came. I got worried and went to open his door but it was locked. "Jaleel!" I yelled knocking on the door really hard. I did this like 5 times before I went to find something to stick into the lock on his door knob. Once I found something I stuck it into the door and it unlocked after the third try. I slowly pushed the door open as my heart raced and there he was. Sitting in the corner of the room with his brains blown out and the gun in his right hand. I vomited immediately. I'm from the hood, ghetto, trenches, or whatever you want to call it. I've seen a lot of people die, some I was more close to than others and believe it or not even though I was only 13 my brothers dead body wasn't the first dead body I had seen, but this, my brothers death, it rocked me to my core.

I couldn't touch him. I closed the door and walked downstairs to my room to get my phone and call the ambulance. My body went numb and I couldn't cry or speak. I went and unlocked the front door so that the paramedics could get in and then I went back to my room and sat slowly on the corner of my bed staring blankly at a wall. It felt unreal, almost like a bad dream that I would never wake up from. The ambulance arrived about 20-30 minutes after and took him out. I watched them wheel him out on a stretcher with something covering his entire body and after that everything just went black.

I woke up in a hospital bed staring at the ceiling until I looked down and made eye contact with a white lady with bright blonde hair dressed up in the nicest gray suit I had ever seen. She carried a black brief case to mach her black pointed heels and she paced the room back and forth uncomfortably. "The doctors sent me here because they say that your mom is unfit to take care of you and that you don't have anyone who can take care of you." She said braking the silence but never making eye contact with me. She was pretty blunt and unprofessional but if we're being honest, after what I just saw there was no way she could possibly sugar coat anything she said. I paid attention to everything she said and my eyes followed her everywhere she went in the room. By the end of the conversation she had basically told me that I was going to be in a group home with boys and girls. I didn't cry. I had nothing left to lose anyways that is, until I met Damarion.

Everything was already established when I got there.
The teens had already figured out what their social status was in the group home. I on the other hand had never even stepped foot inside of a group home so it was all new to me. I walked into the door with the white lady looking down at my grey shoes and as soon as I looked up I made eye contact with a brown skinned boy with narrow hazel eyes and a low haircut with waves. I looked down again and then back up and this time he had the prettiest smile on his face and two little dimples to match. I walked into a room with six sets of bunkbeds in it. This was the all girls room that I would have to share with 11 other girls. I took my things and started to set up when this heavy set girl approached me. "You have the top." She said. It was more like an order than her telling me. I politely picked my things up and set up the top bunk for myself. I didn't mind much so I didn't make a big scene about it. Later on it was dinner time and everyone went to eat but I couldn't so I laid down staring at the ceiling. "You really should try and eat." I heard a voice say. I turned over to see who was talking to me and there he was. The boy with the hazel eyes. "I'm not hungry." I said turning back over. I hadn't been hungry every since what happened. "You know it's unhealth-" he said before I cut him off. "I'm not hungry." I said closing my eyes. "Well how about I just keep you company." He said. I opened my eyes still staring at the ceiling. I could see his pretty smile out of the corner of my eye. I blew my breath quietly. "Sure." I said as sarcastic as I could. "Is that sarcasm I here?" He said smiling even bigger. "Something like that." I said turning to face him. "Do you ever smile?" He said staring directly into my eyes. "I don't have nothing to smile about." I said disconnecting our eye contact by looking down. "You're alive. So I'd say that's something to smile about. A lot of people didn't wake up today." He said lifting my chin up so we would be face to face again. I ignored his comment. "Do you want to sit on my bed? You shouldn't stand on the ladder for that long." I said sitting up and making room. "I'm really not supposed to but yeah." He said climbing up the ladder the rest of the way and plopping down beside me. "What's your name?" He said looking at the side of my face. I turned to face him. "It's August, Like the month." I said playing with the rip in the knee part of my jeans. "That's different.. my name is Damarion." He said. It got comfortably silent for a moment. "I like that name." I said looking him in his eyes. "Thank you." He said blushing slightly.

That day and everyday after for 5 years me and Damarion were inseparable. He had my back and I had his even if than meant getting in trouble or being in danger.