Page 19 of Stay Dangerous

He was clearly in a gang.

I shifted my focus back to Tyree, who was grinning as he got off the table and shuffled in front of everyone.

“Fancy seeing you here, Tyree,” I smirked. He’d grown since I saw him last, towering over me, which was crazy, considering he was a year younger than me.

“You the only one who call me that,Wynnie,” he said, returning my side hug.

I socked his stomach, making him cackle more. Porscha cleared her throat behind me, and I rolled my eyes before locking onto Luney.

“You remember Porscha, Brianna, and Ronnisha?”

“Hell, naw,” Tyree said, wrapping a heavy arm over my shoulder.

“Introduce us to yo homegirl, KO.”

Tyree backed us to the side of the semicircle, so we could see everyone. “Kilo. Remy. Lem. Luney, and Tune.”

“We was finna hit the skate park after we got some food. Y’all welcome to come,” Lem said, licking his lips.

“We’re welcome to lunch, too?” Porscha asked, fluttering her damn lashes.

“Fasho, come on, slim.”

Tyree walked me toward the twins as my friends left toward one of the fast food restaurants with the others.

“I’m hungry, too,” I whined.

“Trust me, you don’t want that nigga buying you food,” Ty chuckled.

“What you want, Red?” Tune asked, pulling out a knot of money from his jeans.

“Cheeseburger and fries?”

“Get us all that, Ty-Ty.” Tune handed him way more money than he needed, and then he left me with them to get our food.

“So how you know my cousin?” Tune asked when Tyree was far enough away.

“From Roosevelt. Hey, were y’all the guys that came up there with Casey to fight him?”

“Set know you out here calling him his government?” he volleyed, folding his arms.

I smiled, whipping my cornrows to my back. “Set, huh? Y’all be saying ‘on baby,’ too?”

“Who is this girl?” Tune cackled, glancing at Luney. But he just sat there, leaning on the back of the food court chair, gazing up at me.

“That’s the Ice Princess,” he drawled.

“We leaving, girl. Heyyy, Luney,” Porscha sang, walking up to us with Ty. He handed me and Tune our food, and Tune pulled me away from them toward the exit.

“So how old are you, Ice Princess?”

I took a bite of my cheeseburger as we walked into the summer sun. “Do not start calling me that,” I said with a full mouth.

“How come? My brother can call you that but I can’t?” He bit off half of his cheeseburger, smiling around it as we made the trek to the skate park around the corner from the mall.

“He only calls me that ‘cause of my MyRoom page. My name is Wynter Snow, so it’s kind of a play on that.”

He inhaled the rest of his burger as he ruminated on that. “Wynter Snow’s a fire name though. Lowkey better than Ice Princess. Most people get nicknames to mask lame first names.”