Raheem was scared, but it was too late to turn back now. His body still ached from the blows earlier, but at least he was alive. The nerve of that nigga Demarcus for bringing extra niggas to jump somebody over a female that everybody in the neighborhood knew had been with half the block. At best, Nay-Nay was a strong six in a big city. But she was thick, and her momma worked the night shift. In The Gardens, that made her top tier. Worth a fight, though? Hell no. It was the cold air slicing across his busted lip that woke him up and killed any ideas of him changing his mind. With every step down the block, the anger grew heavier in his chest. Nay-Nay’s head wasn’t good enough to be on First 48 over. He had already got his and was on his way out the door, texting Sunni for a linkup, when them niggaz kicked the door in. Naturally, his first instinct was to make sure Nay-Nay was straight, but once she called out homie by name about her momma door, he knew he was food.
“Fuck this nigga want?” he looked at his phone. He couldn’t ignore it; the caller knew he wouldn’t, so after the phone stopped ringing, he took a deep breath and called back.
“Heard they dragged you out of Nay-Nay's bedroom in yo drawers and beat that ass,” the caller laughed in his ear.
He was on the hunt and couldn’t risk loudmouth on the phone blowing his spot up, so he looked around and ducked beside an abandoned car before he responded. “Please tell me you have better shit to do than get on my nerves, Brandon.”
“Save that aggression for the little niggaz that stomped you out,” Brandon laughed louder.
“Demarcus is your age,” he reminded him.
“Still a little nigga if he putting his hands on my little brother!” Brandon stopped laughing. “Why I have to hear from a nigga not named Raheem that somebody put they hands on you, Raheem?” he barked on the phone.
“Does pops know?”
“Your momma told him.”
“She’s your momma too nigga!” he checked him. Though his brother and momz weren’t on the best of terms before she went to prison, he refused to let big bro talk about her. Kima went hard for them on the outside when she was free and took her years like a man when the judge sentenced her like a man for playing a man’s game, and Raheem was not about to let anybody speak on her name, not even her firstborn.
“You got it, gangsta,” Brandon conceded. “Why didn’t you tell me the moment them niggaz caught you lacking?”
“I got it under control!”
“Did you remember all of their faces, like I taught you?”
“Whatchu think?” Raheem let out a similar laugh to his brother’s. “Besides, that funny-looking nigga Krank was there.”
“Oh shit,” Brandon sat up.
He knew his brother well and knew all Raheem needed was a reason to crash out, and Krank just gave him one. Krank violated the one woman his brother didn’t play about other than their momma, and it took their momma crying over the phone to stop him from killing him the last time; a phone call wouldn’t save him now.
“I’m finna collect this money lil bro, be safe,” Brandon got ready to end the call. He wasn’t too far from one of Krank’s stash spots, and if little bro was on demon time like he assumed, he knew it was an easy lick. “And I handled that static with them Blood niggaz, it shouldn’t be an issue anymore. You can bet that shit!” he hung up.
That was one situation Raheem was grateful Brandon stepped in on. He was greenlit by his big homies for warning the new kid in “The Gardens” about their decision to “welcome” him to the neighborhood. Little did he and everybody else know that not only wasn’t the blue-eyed kid afraid to fight, but he also had two younger brothers who liked to fight as much as he did. Knowingly or unknowingly, Raheem had found himself standing amongst the trio against his set, and if that wasn’t bad enough, nobody was ready for what was to come: the boy’s mother and her willingness to shoot a man in the head in the middle of a playground over her boys. From then on until her untimely death, the Gardens was under a new regime, and Raheem had new enemies. Nobody moved until now because they felt safe, and he knew if he didn’t make a move, more would follow. He’d spin back on Nay-Nay’s grimy ass later, but in the meantime, he was about to put an end to all that other shit.
“Too late to turn around now,” he checked the gun he stole from Brandon’s shoebox. Krank and Demarcus were both loaded and stumbling out of Bigg Cinn’s party. Had either boy looked up, they would’ve noticed Raheem walking towards them…and had Raheem not had tunnel vision, he would’ve seen he wasn’t alone amongst the shadows.