IF ROSES BLED INK

CHAPTER 17: "ALL PART OF THE HUSTLE"

After everything that had happened over the past few weeks I was actually kind of glad I had a chance to kick back and do my own thing for a while.

Since the year had begun, I barely had any time for myself and my own issues.

One of the more prominent problems being that I barely have enough money to keep myself alive here. I needed to come up with something that could put some cash in my pocket but wouldn’t consume my life completely.

All my life I had only known two ways to make fast money. Either you steal it or you make it selling something short term. Now I was pretty sure jail isn’t for the friendly neighborhood type, so I chose to stay away from the petty theft.

This is where I met Allen.

He came into varsity poor and now pays for his own studies.

How? You may ask. He does the one thing people knew best back in Mountain View.

Deals Drugs.

Mainly small time stuff, still enough to get regular attention from authorities. He was clever enough to consistently keep himself out of trouble. I made an agreement with him to help him move some of his product to new areas on campus if I get 20% of what he makes in these new areas. I wasn't aware of how big this really was.

The first week was a little slow, but after 3 weeks or so, I was getting about $200 a day.

I was living a lot more comfortably now and things also became a little easier for my mom at home. I would send her some money every weekend just to spoil her and my siblings and make sure she was above water.

This made me realize that It might be selfish of me to stop.

So by the end of the month, when Rose got back, I was officially making drug money on a regular basis. This wasn’t just temporary anymore. It was now how I made a living.

A large part of me knew that this was the reason my dad was arrested in the first place.

The last thing I’d want is to be like him but something felt natural about the whole process. I was comfortable now, focused on Rose getting back so that I could finally make things happen. Little did I know that at the same time things were looking up for me, they were taking a down turn back home. I’d only find out about that much later on.

On the bright side, at least Rose was doing good, right?