Married To The Game

C: 27 | Nine-Fifty

Three weeks later.

Per usual, Snow pranced inside the bar at her scheduled hour-late arrival time. This was the first time I'd seen her since she popped up at my spot. It was a little refreshing to see Snow alive, somebody I could relate to again. I asked Snow to meet me at this joint in the Bronx called J.J.'s. Me and Snow never chilled in my city before; we were always in Florida, so this time it felt different. Finally getting down to the nitty-gritty, I told Snow what was up with Gianni. When Snow fake died, the old Snow had to of died with her, because the bitch asked me why I turned down the pills from Gianni. "Snow, i'm not one of these lil' niggas that need the chump change. That's like us going to sell some dime bags with Joc and them. That shit is out of our tax bracket now. Me selling green and beans would be hustling backwards." "All money is good money, Esther." "I already have good money," I said, taking a sip out of my drink before placing a stack on the table.

"That's unlike you to turn down some money. I'm a little confused, actually. Are you sure that's the only reason you said no?" Rolling my eyes and grunting, I said "Now you sound like Gianni. Snow, the real reason i'm not going to sell pills is because my mom was a pill popper. She's been clean for almost a year now, and I just wouldn't feel right doing no shit like that. Even though I've killed people, I still have a heart. So if you would like to sell his beans and adderall's, be my guest." "Esther, how come you never told me any of this?" "I don't know, Snow. I never had a reason to, I guess." "Even though we work together, Esther, I thought we had somewhat of a friendship, too." Snow had me feeling sentimental. I wasn't big on girlfriends, the only friend I had was Shay. Snow's "death" made me see the bond we had. And, Snow had fake died before I had to chance to tell her anyways. "We do, Snow. But, just so you know, friends don't fake die on each other."

Three drinks later, me and Snow were leaving the bar. With my PTSD kicking in, I snatched Snow, pulling her behind me as we watched a black Toyota speed past the bar. Looking at the driver through the driver's window, it was just a middle aged blonde-haired nobody. Both drunk, me and Snow fell to the curb laughing at my paranoid ass. "You know, Snow, I think its time you met Amanda." "Amanda? Who the hell is Amanda?" She said in between laughs. "My mom. Come on, I want you to meet her." Normally, the chances of Snow meeting my mom are slim to none. Alcohol damn sure meant cloudy judgment. Nevertheless, I considered Snow sort of a friend now, and I figured I might as well put a face to the name. We got to my mom's spot in less then ten minutes. Thankfully she was up the street from the bar so I didn't have to drive drunk far. The house was lit up, indicating that Amanda was still up. I had mixed emotions about Snow meeting my mom for the first time, but overall it was kinda cool I finally had someone to introduce my mom to. I decided I was gonna surprise my mom with my new "friend" so instead of knocking, I unlocked the door with the extra key I had secretly made, and with Snow behind me, we snuck in. She wasn't in the kitchen, so we checked the bathroom. I'm surprised she didn't hear us, Snow's drunk ass was knocking everything over. "Shhh." Doing sneaky shit while you're drunk never goes as planned. I push my mom's room door open a little, to see if she was in there first, before opening it up all the way.

She was sleep, so I went over to her to wake her up. "Amanda," I shook her a little, before saying her name again. Trying not to knock anything over with my drunk ass, I called out to her again, before shaking her a little harder now. Still no response. "She's probably knocked out, Esther. Let's go back to the bar or your crib." Snow said , still standing in the doorframe. But my mom wasn't a heavy sleeper. In fact, she's normally snoring her head off. Now, fully sober and in sync with all the coincidences, I snatch the covers back, and set my eyes on her body. Around the outskirts of her month and trailing down her neck sported white dried up remnant. Her body that was once full of energy and full of life, now laid cold and lifeless. While Staring back at my mothers corpse, I darted my eyes over to her alarm clock, to see what time it was. It was nine fifty. 

             
The time my world stopped. My body went out on me, causing me to collapse to the ground. Snow, now sobering up too, came and held me. "Esther, what's going-" Following my gaze, she instantly put her hand over her mouth, before going to check out the crime scene for herself. "Esther, I thought you said  your mom was clean?" I said nothing, swallowing a dry lump in my throat. My hands were sweaty, my heart was racing, and I really wasn't trying to hear shit Snow was saying about my mom. "She was. Why?" I said in the most sardonic tone. A part of me was praying this wasn't an overdose, a heart attack, or seizure even.  Snow held up three empty plastic baggies, with one percocet left to leave it's "legacy" behind, and residue on the inside lining of the bag.  My heart felt like it was ripped out and crushed in two. Snow came to comfort me, but I raised out of her grasp, to see my mother's body again. This time, I noticed something was wrong. My mother's neck was red and puffy, and in the center there were finger marks embedded in her butter-pecan colored skin. Now, in full investigation mode, I grabbed the empty plastic baggies that Snow held earlier.  I don't know how I could of missed this shit. My mom wasn't addicted to percocets, nor had she took any a day in her life. In fact, Amanda was the most anti-perc person I knew, damn near. Before my dad left, she would come home and talk about all the medicines and shit from work. All the stuff she hated, from medicines to her co workers, and percocets were at the top.  Covering my moms back up, I left the room with Snow behind me, and, in a fucked up way, I was happy that this was homicide instead of an overdose.

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