Page 25 of Stay Dangerous

High beams flashed in the windshield, showing redness on her cheek for a split second. I narrowed my eyes as she rolled hers.

“What I gotta do to earn your first name, Luney?”

“Tell me what the fuck happened to your face.”

Snow flinched at my tone. I ain’t mean for it to come off too hard, but the redness and my anger both caught me off guard. Her face wasn’t red earlier, so what the fuck happened in the hours we were apart?

She averted her eyes, her gaze landing in her lap as she started twisting her fingers.

“Don’t think about lying to me, Snow,” I gritted.

She sighed like I was being unreasonable. Our eyes were locked, hers stretching, asking me to drop it.

She didn’t know me, I had to remind myself. The seconds ticked by before she gave up trying to wait me out.

“I’m way more patient than you are. Go ahead, Snow.”

“Can you keep a secret?” she whispered. Her fingers grazed the mark on her face, before she faced forward.

My eyebrows dipped as I pondered her question. I didn’t keep shit from my brother. It wasn’t how I was built. And depending on her answer, I knew he’d wanna ride out with me to handle it.

But Snow needed to know she could trust me. So I gave that to her.

“Yup.”

Snow licked her lips. “I wasn’t supposed to exist.”

My head jerked back. That wasn’t nowhere near what the fuck I thought she was gonna say. It threw me off so bad I lost what I was gonna say.

“I had an older sister, but she had cancer. My parents heard that having savior siblings would make her better, so that’s how me and my sister came about. We’re twins, too. I’m oldest.”

We grinned at each other, like she knew I was the older out of me and Fredo.

“She still ended up dying. Not my twin; my older sister. We were born to be spare parts, but God has a sense of humor, Luney. Auty, my sister, was like a blood match. But I look just like her. So yeah, my sister's job is done, since she’s dead. But now my job is to take Summer’s place. And I guess getting hit is a part of the job.”

Snow shrugged it off, smiling to herself as she picked at her hands. My molars hurt from clenching my jaw so hard, and I only took my eyes off of her to silence my phone again.

“I know my sister’s gone, and she loved her a lot, but I couldn’t just keep getting hit. I fought back tonight, Luney. I told her if she put her hands on me again, I’d cut her.”

“Your twin?” My eyes stretched. I didn’t know any other twins, but I couldn’t imagine them not fucking with each other. Fredo and I were one.

“No, my mom, silly,” she simpered. She shook her head like I was the one saying some crazy shit.

Ma had her faults. Depression was beating her down more and more every day. But I could never imagine her raising a hand to either one of us. Even when we’d be on some complete bullshit, Ma was more than gentle with us. Even after we got word my aunt passed, she ain’t let that turn her for the worse. Even when she gave up trying to steer us away from the clutches of the BBs, she didn’t turn bitter or angry.

I just couldn’t imagine it.

And even with a mark on her face, and confiding in a nigga she just met that her mama be hitting her, and even saying some shit like she shouldn’t even be living, Snow still had a smile on her face. She still decided to hop in my whip and spend the last night before school started with a nigga.

I felt the same way I felt when I caught my first body. There was something exhilarating about a girl like Snow trusting a nigga like me. It didn’t matter how easy it seemed, us being atthe view that night, I knew she didn’t give that shit freely. I bet her sister didn’t even know the bullshit her mama was pulling. And if she didn’t know, then nobody knew.

Nobody but me.

That wouldn’t be the only time I pulled up on her. It wouldn’t be the only time she gave me a secret of hers to hold. I needed more, way more from her. And I knew to get that, I had to give her something, too.

“My Ma was on the finest of drugs when she named me and my brother,” I chuckled. When Snow brought her attention back to me, and I saw the curiosity in her eyes, I pushed forward.

“Rico… well, Richard Ayaan Alvarez. And then Fredo is Frederick Asaan Alvarez. We like three different countries in one name.”