Carnegie park was always lit on a friday and that was that. The crackheads was out begging, lil kids was out way passed their bedtime, and the whores was out whoring. Me and my boys Kareem and Ahmet were playing basketball like we always did on Friday afternoons. As usual Kareem was being a ball-hog.
"Kareem damn! Pass that bitch!" Ahmet huffed. Ahmet had a short temper and didn't deal with the bullshit. If you didn't know him you'd think he was the nicest person ever, but that nigga was the devil reincarnated.
"Can't get mad cause you ass!" Kareem joked, pushing his buttons as he passed the ball to me. I shot a lay up, and missed. "Both y'all ass bro." I shrugged at his diss. Basketball wasn't my thing anyway, I was more so a football guy.
"Whatever, I'm ready to go anyway. I'm hungry." We grabbed our towels and book bags, and walked off the court. It was nearing dark time and I was ready to leave. Nothing ever good happened in the hood at night. Kareem nudged me and pointed to the pretty posse. The pretty posse consisted of three of carnegies baddest girls. Brooke, hazel, and safire.
"YO BROOKE!" Kareem called out. She looked up from her iPhone and smiled at him, waving him over. We followed Kareem to the group. She hugged him and then they fell into a deep conversation. Kareem grew up with Brooke, and since the pretty posse go to Carnegie High and we now go to Carnegie prep, he barely seen her.
Me and Ahmet hugged hazel and safire and walked to the bleachers to give them some privacy. "What do you think they're talking about?" Safire asked, staring at the two from where we were sitting.
"I don't know but mind your business." I said, giving her a look. She sighed hopelessly and it was almost sad to watch. We've all known each other since diapers and she's loved him every since she's first known what love is.
"So how's C-Prep?" Safire asked, trying to change the subject and diffuse the awkward silence.
"Lame as fuck. Them preppy white boys make it hard sometimes but you know we can handle our own." Ahmet smirked.
"We do miss C-High though. It's not the same." I sighed.
Hazel moved to speak, but the commotion to our right caused all of us to look towards Brooke and Kareem. The loud slapped sounded off, and Kareem was bright red in the face. He resembled those angry cartoons with steam coming out of their ears.
Kareem was livid. He was light skin so that slap was already starting to form, and it didn't look good. "Brooke it's taking everything in me not to—"
"Not to what? Hit me! Hit me back!" She pushes him. "Hit me back!" He wrapped his arms around her to stop her from breaking down even further.
We walked over to them, thanking god we were the only ones out here tonight. Which honestly was pure luck. "Girl are you okay?" Hazel asked but was met with silence. Safire tried to console her but she shrugged her off rudely.
"Brooke—" I started.
"Nah let her go be a bitch somewhere else. I'm done with her." Kareem snarled and stormed off.
We all looked at each other awkwardly and went our separate ways to talk to our friends. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and I pulled it out to see the notification.
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I sighed to myself and locked my phone up after reading the message. I definitely didn't want to spend my Friday night watching my bad ass siblings but this has become the norm, so I wasn't surprised just tired.
I ran to catch up with Kareem and Ahmet, only to see Ahmet consoling Kareem in a brotherly way. When Kareem was mad, you knew it. The energy he spewed was dangerous and lethal. "So what she say back?" Ahmet asked in a concerned toned.
"She said he keeps doing it and her mother does nothing. She won't go to the police. I can't go because I don't want to lose her trust and if I go, she told me herself, she's just gonna deny the allegations." Kareem said. "I will kill this fucking nigga bro!"
I walked up to them and we all hugged each other, like we'd die if we let go. Something we always did when one of us was in pain. I hated hearing things like this because who could live with this information and not do anything?
"We'll think of something." I said to Kareem. "We always do."
He gave me a knowing look and we dapped and went our separate ways. All our minds heavy in thoughts.
•••
The front door to my families 4 bedroom brownstone house was wide open and I already knew the culprit. I walked up the steps and closed the door behind me. I put my house keys on the counter and walked past my little sister, on the phone talking loudly to her best friend ren, on the couch.
"He was really bugging the fuck out." Syx laughed. "He was all like, bitch ill kill you if you ever leave me and I was like whew okay." she said laughing loudly. I did a U-turn and snatched her phone out of her hand and hung up. I looked at her like she had two heads.
It really disgusted me to hear when women glorified abuse. Hearing my little sister talk like that only disgusted me more. "You're not getting this phone back." I says as I walked away from her.
She followed me to my room, trying to justify her conversation but I wasn't hearing it.
"Rich I was joking damn! You can't just take my phone away!" She yelled.
"Stop cursing syx before these hands hit you upside the head. You're sixteen and that shit ain't cute. The last thing you need to be worried about is some nigga, when your grades so bad community college won't even accept you. I pay the bill, I can take it. When you get a job and start paying some shit, then holla at me. McDonald's always hiring." I said while slamming the door in her face. As soon as I did it, I instantly regretted it because the loud crying of my six month old brother lukiz started sounding around the house.
I facepalmed and sighed loudly. This was gonna be a long night.
Hiiii, I'm back lol. Hope y'all like this new story and I'm working on EAST 2 if y'all still care. thank you.
