Hustle Town

Chapter 2: Tripping

"I put my feelings on safety, so I don't go shooting where your heartbeat. 'Cause you'd take the bullet trying to save me. Then I'm left to deal with making you bleed."—Ella Mai "Trip"

"Damn, Jazz! What took you so long to answer the door? I was knocking for like ten minutes before I started pounding on the door." Erik said as he walked into the house. Dre rolled from underneath the bed and was relieved when he noticed Erik at the door and not the police or Tyrone. "Well normal people would've assumed that nobody was home." Jasmine said rolling her eyes but she was actually happy that her big brother came over. Erik laughed as he headed towards the couch. "Girl, please! You know Momma didn't give you that curfew for you. She gave you that curfew so nobody could break in while she was gone." Jasmine knew it was true but she was just aggravated because of everything that was going on with Dre. "That's not the point, E." Jasmine said crossing her arms. "That is the point. If it wasn't for that you'd probably be over at Dre's house. Where he at by the way?"

"I'm right here! What's good, E?" Dre said finally coming out of Jasmine's room and dapping Erik. "What up, dude? Oh, yeah and happy birthday, man." Erik said to him. Trying not to think about what just happened after his party he thanked Erik and sat in the chair across from Erik as Jasmine joined her brother on the couch. "I was tryinna come to the party earlier but I just had got some money from my old dude." Erik explained. Dre shook his head. "It was cool. It wasn't all that." Dre said humbly. "Undres, quit lying!" Jasmine said. "E, not only did he have a water fight with a water slide, he had Nelly there too." Jasmine bragged. "Damn, for real? I'm hella mad I missed it!" Erik said. Jasmine and Dre laughed at Erik as he pouted. "Man, Tyrone won daddy of the year for that!"

Dre instantly started thinking about what Tyrone and India did and frowned to himself. Jasmine instantly picking up on Dre's vibe tried to change the subject. "Anyways, you spending the night?" Jasmine asked Erik. He nodded, "More like a couple of weeks. My daddy been getting on my nerves and I need to hide some shit." He admitted. Throwing his book bag off his shoulder. Jasmine didn't even notice he had brought a bag in with him until now. "Hide what?" Jasmine asked. "Don't worry about it right now. Where Momma?" Jasmine shrugged her shoulders. "You know when she coming back?" Jasmine sighed. "I mean it's almost midnight now. She ain't been coming home 'till like around 4 in the morning lately but ain't no telling if she'll do the same tonight." Erik nodded his head. "Bet. Dre come to my room with me real quick. Jasmine let me know if Momma comes home." Jasmine decided not to question it because she knew Dre and Erik liked to keep certain things from her and headed towards her room.

"Y'all not getting me involved with y'all mess." Jasmine said flipping her long curly hair. Dre chuckled to himself as he watched Jasmine walk to her room. Erik knew that Dre liked his sister and he honestly didn't like it because Jasmine had her own issues that nobody outside the family, not even Dre, knew about and he wanted to protect his sister from everything. That was the only reason why Erik didn't care about Dre liking Jasmine because he protected her as much as he could when Erik wasn't around. Any other nigga that stepped to Jasmine would get their ass beat but Erik was comfortable with Dre since they all ran in the same circle and he knew Dre had good intentions with her. "Undres, you my homie and whatever but unless you gonna ask my sister out you better stop looking at her." Erik laughed. Dre shook his head. "Your sister don't fuck with me, E!" Erik laughed again knowing that that wasn't true. "Whatever, come to my room so I can show you this shit though."

Dre and Erik walked into Erik's room as Erik flipped the light switch. "Lock my door, bro." Erik instructed Dre. Dre locked the door as Erik emptied his book bag that was filled with only one outfit and the rest was a large bag of weed, a couple bags of pills, and some cigarillo packets and joint papers on top of his bed. Erik didn't want to risk his mother coming home and seeing him with drugs and that's why he told Jasmine to keep look out. Dre walked over to the bed and picked up one of the bags of pills. "Where you get this?" Dre asked. This wasn't his first time seeing drugs. Tyrone stayed having them around the house. "My daddy." Erik admitted. "I stole it a couple of days ago and blamed it on his crack head girl friend." Erik laughed as he admitted. He didn't think his plan would've went that smooth. "I had to bring it over here so my daddy wouldn't find out I took it. Ima do the same once we get paid off this shit." Erik said picking up a packet of cigarillos and going into the bag of weed. "What you mean 'once we get paid'?" Dre asked throwing the pills back on the bed. "Pass me something to roll this on." Erik said as he opened the packet of cigarillos. Dre handed him a VCR tape box. "Nigga, you gonna answer me?" Dre asked. Erik laughed. "Oops, my fault. Yeah, we gonna sell this shit. You see those pills you just picked up?" Erik asked. Dre nodded. "Some of those Xanax but most of them date rape drugs. I went through my daddy phone book and found some other pimps numbers and shit that could use these and I wanted to see if you think 'Rone would buy some." Erik said. Dre knew his father was a well known pimp in St. Louis so it didn't bother him when people talked about him. Tyrone was just as respected as he was known so everybody knew not to talk out the side of their necks about him.