Page 46 of Stay Dangerous

“So, since he was fourteen,” Peanut mused, standing to his full height. He took a bigger swig, before handing the bottle to me.

“And how old you is?”

She turned to me, but I wanted to see where this would go, so I shrugged.

“Twenty-two,” she said, rolling her eyes to Peanut.

Peanut nodded his head like she said some profound shit. Neither one of us seen his hand flying toward her cheek.

He slapped her ass better than any pimp.

“You a sick ass bitch,” he seethed, getting in her face.

“What the–RICO!” Kisha yelled, holding her cheek.

I took a swig of the Hennessy and shrugged again.

“You a nasty ass duck bitch, fucking on a kid with that ran-through pussy.”

Kisha tried to push Peanut out of her face, but he grabbed her hands and pushed her onto the ground.

His hand reached behind him and he pulled out his piece. Only then did I stand up.

“On my mama, if my Ace tell me you even breathe around him, I’ma do the world a favor and put a hot one in ya gut, so you feel me, foreal.”

“Go on, Kish,” I sighed, trying to keep a straight face as she crab walked to the other side of the courts.

We both sat down then, and Peanut scowled until she was inside her building.

“Now why you do that, witcho Nutty ass?”

“I told you, these old bitches is fucking weirdos. She was proud to be fucking you when you was in fucking middle school. A fuckin’ duck. You ain’t finna get tied to one of these pedophiles ‘cause you got Mommy issues now.Fuck that. And if that bitch fuck witcha after that, she’s not only a duck, but a dumb duck, and that’s worse.”

He punctuated it with another shot, before passing it back to me to kill.

“I’m glad you came back, brodie,” I said, long after the bottle was dead, and people started trickling back through the courts. Our time alone was ending soon, but I needed him to know that.

He wrapped a heavy arm around me, lowkey putting me in a headlock before releasing me. “I’m already knowing.”

Lady Luney

Wyn, age 15

Tothisday,Idon’t know where my parents went.

They just showed up a week after our eighth grade culmination, like nothing ever happened.

We were back to our scheduled programming. Dad being gone all the time, out gambling. Mom ignoring Auty, and mistaking me for Summer. And Auty ignoring me, too, getting more and more into dance… and rock music.

Mom never asked me about the money she left, and I never gave it back to her.

It was like those seven months didn’t happen.

Sometimes, it felt like I’d been hallucinating. I’d wake up sweating, or check the mail to make sure the bills were paid. Most nights, I couldn’t go to sleep without taking a double shot of whiskey, or smoking some of Turkey’s sisters’ weed they let me buy off them.

I was a mess my whole freshman year of high school.

My only saving grace was Rico.