Another Man's Treasure (Joey Bada$$ Story)

Part Sei

The show ended too soon, but I think if it had ended four hours later I would’ve still said the same thing. Leaving the auditorium was difficult, given the amount of people there and how slowly they piled out. Finally, when we were outside and got a taste of the fresh air, someone tapped my shoulder.

“Hey, I remember you two.” The tall boy said.

“Yeah, and we remember you,” Abigail smiled.

“You walking?”

“Yes.”

“We’re about to leave now, me and the boys. Do you want a ride home?”

“Of course!”

“Follow me.”

He led us around the concert building and toward the back.

“Rokamouth,” Abigail whispered his name into my ear. I nodded. We went  through a door that led to a basement full of weed smoke and boys. Some girls were hugging Joey and another Pro Era boy (it’s hard to remember all their names). I guessed this was where the fans came to meet them after the show. The girls left the room, and now it was only us and them.

“Yo, you remember them?” Rokamouth asked.

“Oh, yeah, y’all are the waitresses!” Dessy Hinds exclaimed. I could see the slight disappointment on Abigail’s face, and I felt the same; being called ‘waitresses’ wasn’t something we were proud of, and we were hoping that this was a place we could come to not be labeled as such.

“Y’all wanna burn?” Kirk offered, flicking a lighter.

“No, thanks.” I said before Abigail could accept.

“We just said we were leaving.” Chuck said to Kirk.

“I know, that’s why I brought them back here,” Rokamouth said. “I thought we could give ‘em a ride home.”

“Aight, cool. Wouldn’t want to see two young ladies walking home at night by themselves, anyway.” Joey smiled at us. We only laughed. The boys gathered their things and led us out of the basement and into the night sky once again. There were two SUVs parked right in front of the building, which I should have known belonged to the boys. Some of them went into the black Escalade, but we were ushered into the silver Tahoe. A boy named Kwon got into the driver’s seat, with Joey next to him in the passenger. The ones in the back with us were Dirty Sanchez, Chuck, Dessy, and A La Sole.

“You alright?” Abby asked me.

“Yeah, I’m just sleepy.”

I had no chance to fall asleep in the car, though, due to Kwon’s way-over-the-speed-limit driving. They reached to Abby’s house in about twenty minutes—it would have been ten if they didn’t get lost due to being high and not paying enough attention to Abby’s directions—and dropped her off safely. I got out the car with her to get Latara and my clothes, and told the guys that I could walk to my house, but they insisted that they’d wait for me to come back out. So I went in her house briefly, paid Sam and had Abigail help me bring my two bags of clothing into their trunk.

“That’s the cutest baby I’ve ever seen,” Chuck said. “Can I hold her?”

Reluctantly, I handed Latara over to him. She didn’t fuss like I expected her to, only stared at him and played with his nose. We got to my house in just five minutes.

“This is it?” Kwon asked, pointing to the last house.

“Yeah, that’s it.” I unbuckled my seatbelt. “Thank you so much for driving me, you guys are really too sweet.”