Page 58 of Stay Dangerous

My lips spread as Kilo and Peanut shifted their gazes to me.

My teeth showed as one by one, I felt everyone else’s gazes, even Chyna from behind me, snap to me.

Fredo and I were one, but Peanut was my day one. We’d never so much as had a disagreement, at least not to their knowledge. I let Fredo speak for us, but I was by no means a punk ass nigga.

Not like how Kilo was insinuating.

But usually, when niggas temperature checked like this, you were supposed to go against the nigga lil’ boying you. I was supposed to boss up on Peanut, put the nigga in his place, let everyone know that I was my own man, and didn’t need no one speaking for me.

That’s how niggas like Kilo, Remy, and Gee operated.

Niggas were on top of the Babies, but had no sense of brotherhood. Couldn’t see past their inflated sense of self.

I gave it a year before they got themselves killed like Lem did. Two, maybe three, since I knew they’d be in the Birch while we did all the work. Hiding would buy them time, but they weren’t built to last. Not like my niggas.

“My Ace could never lil’ boy me just by speaking on what he know. You stay dangerous, though. Niggas dropping like flies ‘round here.” I winked at him, before walking out, knowing my niggas were right behind me.

“Stay dangerous? That shit hard as fuck! Couldn’t have come up with that shit on ya own,” Peanut cackled, throwing his arm around my neck as we walked outside the building.

“Come with me to holla at Tiny.”

Fredo sighed, but sped up to walk with Set. “You know I can’t stand that bitch.”

Set chuckled as Peanut led us toward his whip away from them.

“Make a run with me.” He released me as we rounded the back of his car.

The nigga was damn near vibrating as we got in. As the car warmed up, he sparked a blunt, taking long pulls before blowing smoke out of the cracked window.

“You straight, brodie?”

“On my mama if I could get away with it, I would go back up there and kill every one of them niggas, his ho ass sister included.”

He took another long pull. “Nigga just tried youandme, tryna pit us against each other ‘cause he want you under his wing. Only reason he got me as a general was ‘cause Big X said so. Mark ass, scary ass, jealous ass nigga. Grown ass man, envious of some kids, my nigga. On my mama, as soon as I can, I’m taking his ass out. On God, I am.”

I sat there as I watched Peanut spell out meticulously just how he would end Kilo. After he faced one blunt, he was calm enough to peel out, but he kept the music off, opting to speak instead.

When Peanut got too hyped up, talking about the shit he would do to everyone who wronged him helped. He’d name names I didn’t know, different feminine names of bitches who didn't exist in our world, but he’d still carve them up, light them on fire, bring them to the last moment of life and let them sit there.

I didn’t know if he shared these fantasies with our other friends or with Set. When it wasn’t just us, and he’d get like this, he would shut down, listening to music and going mute. We’d leave him be, knowing all too well the bullshit we carried with us, and trying to get back to a place where we could function.

But if it was just me and him, or if he could pull me away, he’d be the opposite. Talking so fast sometimes, I couldn’t hear him. Barely moving his lips as he spelled out each and every thing he wished he could do to niggas if he could get away with it.

I knew he was working on a plan. Talking out loud helped him create it. Peanut was the type of nigga that would always get his on the backend, even if it took years.

Kilo signed his death certificate trying him like that. All over some shit that meant less than nothing, because he knew he never wanted a nigga like me to break his sister down like only I would.

We pulled up to Sammy’s Burgers, where this nigga ordered enough food for two, before asking if I wanted anything. Bewildered, I recited my order, a double cheeseburger and a chocolate shake, before he paid and handed all the food to me.

“You my Ace, right?”

“Duh, nigga. You know that,” I replied as we pulled into a lot next to some apartments.

“I know,” he smirked, before scowling at me. “But if you even sound like you flirting with Tati, I’ll run us both into a fuckin’ wall just so Fredo think it was an accident.”

I grinned as we bounced out. Peanut swore he wasn’t feeling her like that anytime anyone asked about his side job of stalking her.

I wondered when he’d jumped the gun to actually hanging out with her, marveled at how another sign of getting older was really meeting someone who made you feel out of body.