Set It Up

3SIU

"And niggas tryin' to take my life away
I put a hole in nigga for fuckin' with me"

"You ready to learn how to make food?" Remel asked handing me a metal spoon.

"Been ready my g." I responded staring at the Pyrex jug with intense concentration. I mean how hard could this shit be if Remel could practically do it in his sleep.

"You put too much water in there, tip it out ever so slightly - ease up Ria. Okay put it back on the stove cause it needs to boil for a bit longer and turn up the gas." He instructed observing me with an smug grin plastered on his face. "Two seconds longer yeah. Are you sure you weighed everything up correctly?"

I nodded pointing to each ingredient as I made a mental checklist.

"Cool - I didn't give you the mouth mask for decoration, put it on."

I rolled my eyes but did as I was told. "Anything else daddy?"

He wasn't even watching me, he was so absorbed in the process. It sounded mad but watching him right now in his element was so endearing. His normal renk nonchalant approach to everything in life had disappeared and he was showing signs of the amazing passionate legit businessman I knew he could be one day.

"Yeah the baking soda in first - slowly. Okay then get the foil and tip in the coke."

I sighed continuing to follow his instructions wondering how something I had casually said as a joke has lead to me here right now, beyond my depth in an abandoned bando. It was funny because Remel hated any of his boys bringing their girls round when discussing business but when it came to me, he told everyone to shut up and deal with it. Most of his boys knew about me hiding his stuff the first time we met anyway so I was just seen as one of the mandem which had its positives and negatives. Negatives being too many people had the assumption I was doing it for the gang and I had to learn quickly to keep my mouth shut about everything I saw, I had seen what had happened to snitches first hand and I knew anyone could get it. Then on top of that, Rion got on to me the first time he found out I was hanging out with Remel but because that was his boy and he was involved too he couldn't really talk but I still had to constantly lie about how much I really knew.

Contrary to what most people believed, I really didn't try and do shit like this to be Remel's "ride or die" or "certi chick". This lifestyle just intrigued me because it was different to anything I had ever known. It was everything my mother had tried her hardest to shield me from. That and Remel was just honestly always so busy that seeing him outside school before night was becoming a rarity and I knew as we got older it was only going to get worse so I was taking advantage of any opportunity I had with him. This was just another way of getting to know him and I could often get him to open up more because he was so distracted. The drugs side of his life didn't scare me, it was the potential violence associated with it that sent shivers up my spine at night.

"Do you not feel bad mixing the product down?" I asked curiously as I watched him do his thing.
He shrugged as he considered how to respond. "I don't think about it. It's just business. More time people know they ain't getting the pure ting. It's like any business. Do you really think Louboutin are making there shoes for even a third of the price that they sell it for. It's all about maximising profit without cheapening the product too much that no one wants to buy it."

We finished the process and then made a few sales on our way back before we jumped in an Uber back to his.

"You hungry?" Remel muttered into my ear playing with my thighs which were casually draped on his lap.