The Games You Play : A Hood Love Story

Loren (1)

July 20th

"I hate this." I looked up at my brother. My twin. I never understood how it was possible for me to even have a twin brother. What are the odds?

"I know ma. We'll be good. Daddy never let us down. We just gotta trust." Angelo hovered over me. I swear it felt like he was 10 feet taller than me. Im 5'3 and he's 6'5.

"Yeah but..." I started, "you're doing so good on your basketball team. It's the beginning of a new school year. What if the scouts don't come? You know they don't come to cities like that. We're moving to the hood, Angelo."

"I know, ma." He called me "ma" because our mom called me "little mama" and he shortened it. Although I kind of hated the nickname, it was what he called me. My brother was the closest thing to me. He was all I had.

"You seem overly calm. Why?" I asked. He hugged me and kissed me on my forhead. That always made me feel safe.

"Because." He said to me hugging me tighter. "I have faith."

"Come on!" My daddy yelled at Angelo and I walking to the car. I came out with my last bag, put it in back of the pickup truck and stared at daddy. Then, I stares at the ground and tears welled up in my eyes.

"Daddy-"

"I know, baby. I know you don't want to move."

"Don't worry, pops." My brother slipped behind me and have me a bear hug, turned me around and kissed me on my forehead. "I got her."

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We pulled up to our new house and I had to admit, for moving back to our old and run down neighborhood, it was pretty nice. It had been renovated since we moved.  I still wasn't happy about moving back here, but I could make do for my family. Anything for them.

Strangely enough, I remember almost everything from our old block. "Mr. Lenny's BBQ" was still across the street, Miss Netta was still baking cakes and selling them out of her home, and the Cambridge drugs dealers on the corner. They wouldn't mess with us, though. Even though Daddy had turned his life around, he would always be Big Doug to everybody in Cambridge. And Big Doug plays no games about his kids.

After moving everything into the house, I went out for my last bag. I looked to the porch next door and there were two people. One male and one female. They were just as shocked to see me as I was them. After seeing me staring for a good ten seconds the girl started to make her way down the porch. I made my way down our porch to meet her. Let's just hope she's as nice as she looks. My brother saw me from the window and came outside to watch me. After all, the neighborhood isn't safe after 10 o'clock.

"Hey, I'm Kenya." She said. She was beautiful. She had dark shiny skin, beautiful, long curly hair, and she was immaculately dressed for it to be 10 at night.

"Hey, I'm Loren. And that's my twin brother Angelo. Nice to meet you." She reached out and gave me a hug.

"You're mad bougie. I can tell." We both laughed.

"I definitely am not!" I said.

"Girl I can definitely tell! You going to McKinley?" McKinley was the school in Cambridge where everybody went. Don't matter what background you come from, McKinley is where all paths cross. Everybody goes to McKinley.

"Yeah. I'm going."

"The boys are gonna have a field day with you."

"What does that mean?"

"Oh girl come on.. you're short, stunning. Every hood nigga's dream."

"Girl don't nobody want me. But who's that?" I pointed to my finger to a boy standing on her front porch. He was just as tall as my brother, but he was a bit darker. His hair had been freshly cut. There was only one barbershop in the neighborhood. "Kyle's Klips." Mr. Kyle still owned that shop, huh? I swear he's been alive for so long.

"That's my cousin, Bryson. Long story short my auntie died. We took him in and he's been living with us ever since. He's one of the best basketball players in school and I hope that can get him the hell out of here."

"Wow. My mom died too. She was murdered. My
brother's playing basketball too."

"How good is he."

"He's a beast."

"How much older is he than you?"

"Actually he's the younger one. By 2 minutes and 38 seconds to be exact." We both let out a chuckle.

"Wow. Twins. What's it like?"

"It's kinda like we're psychic. He's my best friend. Always looking out for me and shit. I'm sure you can relate."

"Hell yeah. Overprotective for no reason." She looked at him and she could tell he was giving her the look to come inside. It was dangerous to be out this late. "Listen, I'm gonna head over to one of my friends' house tomorrow. You wanna come?"

"Yeah, I'm down."

"Cool, I'll see you at one." She smiled and walked back into the house. Normally I wasn't good at making friends, but Kenya was cool. I could only hope it would be a long lasting friendship.

I walked back into the house with my brother. We made some hot chocolate and watched a movie. We fell asleep. Even though I didn't wanna be here, it wasn't starting off as bad as I'd thought.