ATL Hoe

Chapter 14: Secret Life of Streeter

I walked out of my class exhausted from the week that I just had. If I had to think about anything else my brain would explode. I reached the end of the block and prepared to turn and walk towards my dorm when I heard a honk and a familiar voice followed.

"Hey shawty, you fine as hell," Derek said. I turned around smiling and saw him in his Charger with the window down grinning back at me. I hadn't seen him in a few days because we both were busy. I recently started working part time at Nike and he had a lot of studying to do.

"What are you doing?" I asked leaning into the window, pecking his lips.

"I wanted to come see you once you got out of class. I missed you," he said and I walked around to the other side, climbing in and hugging him tightly.

"I missed you, too. Now can you take me to get ice cream?" I asked, giving my best smile to convince him. He shook his head, laughing.

"How bout fro-yo?" he asked, surprising me. Derek Streeter asking for fro-yo? I wonder what Gelo, Mario, and Bash would have to say about this. I agreed and he pulled off, heading towards the closest fro-yo place. I got cake batter with a lot of fruit and a few gummy worms. He got original with a mountain high pile of every candy they had.

"It's supposed to be healthier than ice cream but yours might be worse," I laughed, grabbing a piece of chocolate off the top of his.

"You wanted all that fruit shit on yours, don't be taking the candy off of mine," he said, swatting at my hand. He paid for it and we sat in the car, talking, laughing, and enjoying each other's company and our frozen yogurt. "Hold on, I gotta take this," he said, pulling the ringing phone out of his pocket. "What's up?" he said into the phone. "I mean I'm with my girl right now. Do they need it right now? Aight, I'll come get it and drop it off," he said before hanging up. He sat for a moment staring off into space then turned to me. "You know I try to keep you out of this shit," he started.

"Yeah, a little harder than you should," I rolled my eyes.

"I just don't want you around it. I gotta do a drop though, are you ok to come along?" I perked up in my seat before he could even get it all the way out.

"Yes! I've been waiting for some shit like this!" I said excitedly. "What is it? Drugs? Weed? Crack?" I began asking and he looked at me from the corner of his eye before pulling off.

"Guns," he responded and I sunk into my seat some. Guns didn't sound as exciting as crack. He noticed my disappointment and laughed at me. I was still happy I'd get to see a little of what he did.

20 minutes later we were at someone's house. He honked twice and a man I'd never seen before came out.

"Rod sent you?" he asked Derek when he got up to the car. Derek just nodded and the man went back into the house, coming out with a crate a second later. Derek got out and helped him lift it into the back of the car before pulling off.

"Who was he?" I asked, curiously.

"His name's Kingston," Derek said nonchalantly.

"He had a nice house," I spoke, innocently. Derek laughed.

"He doesn't live there baby, that was a trap house," he said, kissing my forehead when we stopped at a red light.

"Oh," I said quietly and he kept laughing at me. I turned the volume up on the radio, ignoring him until we pulled up to a warehouse looking building.

"Stay in here," he said, getting out. I nodded and looked around. There were people standing guard in front in all black. "Watch her," Derek said pointing to me. "And bring that cart inside," he ordered someone else and they both moved quickly, following his demands. When he opened the doors to go inside I spotted Gelo inside along with a bunch of other people. The door closed too quickly for me to notice anything else, unfortunately. The man by the car typed aimlessly away at his phone and my curiosity was nagging at me. I had to see what was inside. I quietly opened the door and walked towards the warehouse.

"Ay, come back here," he said, running to catch up to me. Why did the gravel under my feet have to be so loud?

"Derek just called, he asked me to come inside," I lied, holding my phone up trying to make it believable. He looked at me like he wasn't sure what to do. I could tell he was younger and probably not as experienced as D or his friends. I let him sit there looking stupid and continued walking towards the door. The men out front put both arms up when I reached it.

"Business in progress. You can't go in," he said.

"Derek asked me to come in, he needs me," I lied again. One of the men raised a confused eyebrow at me.

"Derek?" he repeated. I remembered Mia saying Bash always referred to him as 'Streeter'.

"Streeter," I said, and he nodded. He opened the door for me and walked in behind me.

"You wasted my time nigga! This isn't the amount we agreed on!" Derek screamed in a man's face. The man was on his knees hunched over as Derek grabbed the back of his head, pulling his face into Derek's knee. The door closed loudly behind us, causing the attention to turn to me. When Derek saw me he dropped the hold he had on the man and wiped his mouth looking around awkwardly. He quickly regained composure.

"Handle him, and Bryce, take the product back to King's trap," he said and walked towards me, grabbing my arm and pulling me out the door. He opened the car door for me and helped me in. I didn't want him to see me cry but I couldn't help it. I'd never seen Derek like that before. I knew he'd have to be tough at some point but I didn't think that's what I'd see when I walked in. We rode in silence for a long time. His jaw was clenched the whole time and I could tell he was upset.

"I know you're not mad at me," I finally spoke up, with some attitude.

"I told your ass to stay in the car," he said quietly, but angrily. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms like a kid. "You don't fucking listen," he continued.

"Well, how was I supposed to know you'd be torturing someone in there. I thought it was a simple drop," I said, looking out the window.

"I knew. That's not the first time he's come short. I knew what to expect, that's why I didn't want you to go in. And even if it was a simple drop, I don't need our business partners knowing who you are. I don't even want the niggas I work with to know who you are," he partially explained.

"Why?"

"Because you could be used against me if anything ever went down. I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you because of me," he said, grabbing my hand and kissing my palm. I finally turned back and looked at him, tears still slowly sliding down my cheeks.

"I've just never seen you like that before," I sniffled.

"I know baby girl, I didn't want you to ever see me like that but now you know. It's not all fun and games, sell some dope and make money. I gotta handle business," he said. I looked up noticing we were at his house already. "I love you," he said and I locked eyes with him. That was the first time he'd ever said that. I knew for a long time I loved him, I mean, we were a few months in but I didn't want to rush anything.

"I love you, too," I said, crying all over again. For a different reason this time around though. I reached over, hugging him tightly.

"Next time listen when I tell you something?" he said leaning his forehead onto mine. I rubbed my nose onto his which made him pull away and laugh. "Don't be doing that gay shit with me," he laughed.

"I will listen next time and that's not gay it's an eskimo kiss," I laughed with him.

"Well, don't do that shit again. We're black not eskimos, the fuck," he mumbled while getting out of the car. We joked around some more on the short walk towards his apartment until he suddenly grew quiet when he noticed a man sitting on his front steps.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, his jaw clenching again. I looked at the man and noticed how much they resembled each other.

"Really nigga, that's how you're gonna greet your brother?"

*************************************************Amora's perfect image of Derek was finally shattered. And why do you think Derek's brother popped up like that? Don't forget to comment and vote!