By Any Means

Somethings Gotta Give.

"Ma!" I called into the house.

Although I was standing at the front door I knew she could hear me because our 3 bedroom apartment was the size of a shoe box.

"I got food" I shouted again, in hopes of her responding.

Still nothing. My youngest sister, Candice, ran up to me hugging me and snatched the food from my hand.

"Thank you Chanel this is my favorite" she said already with a mouth full of fried chicken from Krispies.

Not too far behind Candice was my baby girl jasmine running up to me hugging my leg, I threw her up in the air and filled her face with joy.

"Hey baby girl" I said as I tickled her.

"Damn finally something to fuckin eat a nigga starving" my 16 year old brother Charles snarled as he shoved his hands in the box of chicken.

"Boy watch yo fuckin mouth in my mama house before I knock yo ass out"

I don't know what the hell happened to my little brother but he was spiraling.

"How you gone tell somebody to stop cussin while you cussin Cee?" I heard from down the hall.

"Just like that" I snapped at my 15 year old sister Cali.

She was just as bad with the attitude and thinking no one controls her. Ever since ma got sick these kids was out of control, but now that I'm here shit is getting back in order. I'm the law round this muthafucka.

I walked down the hall and poked my head in my moms room just to see her with her head under the covers,

"ma you gotta get up, it's 2 in the afternoon" I said as I walked towards her blinds and opened them wide up.

I snatched the covers off her head and she snapped

"Chanel get yo ass outta here with that bullshit!"

I knew my mom was depressed with the news we just got but I just wanted her to get up and get out of the bed maybe she would feel better. After a couple minutes of trying to motivate her, I realized it was getting no where and decided to leave her alone. Feeling disappointed I walked back towards the kitchen and heard my phone on the counter.

"Hello" I answered without even reading the caller ID.

"Cheer up hoe! Me and Jamier are at the park. Meet us up here" I agreed, hoping I could get my mind off of how shitty everything is here.

I've only been here about 6 months but I started work at a low key motel and I'm cleaning nasty ass rooms up there, but hey a jobs a job and my family needs me so by any means Ima get it. I packed Jassie's bag and we headed towards the park to meet up with Destiny.

We walked in the park and Jas ran to that big red slide she loved so much. Jamier ran right behind her.

"What's up girl" I greeted Destiny.

She nudged me "what's up cee the beast?!"

She was enthusiastic as hell for some reason. She started telling me how every body in the hood still stuck on me beating that hoe ass last week. I put that shit to the back of my mind I didn't give a fuck about popularity or getting attention because of that nasty trick. She just disrespected me and I never took lightly of disrespect. I shrugged it off letting Destiny know I didn't give a damn about the hype and we went on to venting to each other. I told her about my financial situation and she told me about hers. I didn't really know this girl but for some reason it felt like I could trust her. She seemed genuine, but I wont trust this bitch too soon. After our session of girl talk I felt a little better and I'm assuming she did too, we were both fucked up bad and didn't know what the fuck to do but one thing we knew for sure was something had to give.