Page 19 of Lyric Squared

“What the fuck are you thinking?” I boasted the second my door closed and I restarted my engine. “Huh?”

Kale said nothing, only stared straight ahead out the front windshield.

“I asked you a question, nigga. What the fuck are you thinking?”

“Nothing man. Just trying to make some extra paper before I’m off to college.”

“Then, get a fucking job!” With emphasis, I pushed out the words. “A nine-to-five! Because otherwise, you won’t make it to college. What the fuck are you selling out here, Kale?”

“A nine-to-five won’t help me stack the money I’m trying to stack, Keanu. I’m not a boy anymore and I’m tired of sticking my hand out to Brandi and Jeff or you each time I need something. Do you know how that shit feels? Reminding Brandi that I need briefs for my ass?” He huffed, obviously frustrated.

“You’re seventeen, bro. You’re far from a man. You’re a kid and you should stay a kid for as long as you can. That shit runs out quickly. Them niggas you call yourself hugging the block with, they are surviving and will do anything it takes to get that dollar – including you if they see you stacking that bread you keep talking about and they’re not. You have no idea what comes with this lifestyle or what it takes to maintain it.”

“It’s simple enough. I haven’t heard you complain once about it.”

I bit a hole in the side of my tongue, drawing blood as my thoughts raced. Kale didn’t have a clue about shit, but swore he knew everything. He didn’t know anything about the streets. His head belonged in the books or between one of them cheerleaders legs but not on the swivel after running across the wrong nigga or the right cop.

Seething, I responded, “What I do is not your fucking business. I bleed so that you’re untouched. I get my hands dirty so that yours can stay clean. I deal so that you can dunk the fucking ball and stay the fuck out of dodge. I’m in the streets sothat you can stay in the gym! My head is in the game so that yours can stay in the books. You feel me, young nigga?”

My chest ached as my eye began to sting from the fire I felt inside. My engine roared as I pressed the pedal, rushing Kale back to his side of the tracks where he belonged. I had every intention of revealing his whereabouts to my aunt and uncle in addition to sharing with them his actions and the reason behind them.

“If you want to stack some money,” I gripped the steering wheel as I barked, “then you tell me you want to stack some fucking money and I see to it that you stack as much as you want. My money is falling out of the fucking safe because I can’t get rid of the shit fast enough and you’re out here taking chances for what I can hand you in the blink of an eye!”

Whoop! The blue and red lights followed by the familiar sound made my aching heart sink into the bottom of my shoes. Kale’s eye bulged from his head as he whipped his neck around to confirm what we both already knew. I contemplated trying my luck and fleeing, but the last thing I wanted to do was get Kale involved in what could end up a deadly pursuit.

Cops didn’t always play fair, but I had a better chance of talking them out of a ticket or search than fleeing on the busy Channing streets. Had we been on the expressway, I would’ve ghosted him the second he hit his lights but running through the streets filled with pedestrians at this hour would only end in tragedy.

“Fuck,” I groaned, “what do you have on you?” The wheels in my head began churning.

Spooked, Kale snapped his neck in two directions without saying a single word. From the front windshield to the back windshield, he continued going back and forth with his eyes.

“Kale. What do you have on you?”

I continued to travel down the street as if the lights weren’t on and the siren wasn’t blaring. Until I made sure Kale was straight, I didn’t intend on pulling over.

“Fuck, man. I can’t go to jail, Keanu.”

The strife and grit that he’d displayed a few seconds earlier had dissolved and the little seventeen-year-old boy that I knew reappeared. This Kale was the one I recognized. This Kale was the one that I refused to let get himself into trouble. This Kale was the one I’d never allow to fall short on my watch.

“You won’t. What do you have on you?”

Whoop! Whoop. Whooooooop! Blue lights shined in front of me, causing me to swerve, nearly hitting the curb as I tried to avoid hitting the police car that had pulled in front of me. There were now two laws on us. One behind us and another in front of us. I had no choice but to decelerate.

“What do you have on you?”

Kale reached into his pocket, hands shaking as he struggled to remove whatever was inside. Before he was able to show me what the plastic I’d heard rattling contained, his door was being pulled open as he was being pulled out.

“Get on the fucking ground!”

Simultaneously, I was pulled from my side of the car and forced to the ground as well. Before I could react or comprehend what was going on, cuffs were being slapped on my wrists and I was being led to the hood of the police car that had been following behind us.

“Don’t fucking move,” I heard behind me.

“Do it look like I’m moving, nigga?” I asked.

“Don’t fucking move.”

“I see this motherfucker likes to hear himself talk,” I concluded, tuning him out completely.