Rashad "June" Lockhart Jr
Sunday, October 9 | 8:11 a.m.
Wind Quartz Luxury Apartments

-

"Do you have to go so soon?" Karine whines, reaching out to me from underneath the covers as I exit the bathroom. I throw away the freshly used toothbrush and head over to the nightstand.

"Hell yeah, I got shit to do."

Quickly pulling my shirt over my head, I tuck my gun into my waistband before throwing the rest of my stuff into my pockets.

"I can cook breakfast for you before you leave." She yawns deeply, covering her mouth.

"No thank you."

"Aww." Karine runs her hands through her tangled hair and pokes her bottom lip out. "Well, maybe we can get dinner tonight then. This time, just the two of us?"

"Nah, I'm good. 'Preciate it though."

She's starting to do the same thing that most women do when we start fucking — getting too attached. We agreed on just casual sex, nothing more than that and I've been honest from the jump. Never had to lie to get no pussy.

"Okay well — "

I pick up my phone and the screen lights up to reveal two new text message notifications.

Dangerous Dex:
We all at granny house. She cookin.

Otw.

[ Dangerous Dex liked "Otw." ]

"You could at least answer me while you over there staring at yo' phone, nigga." Karine is standing on the other side of the bed with her hands on her hips, glaring at me.

"Aight. I'll see you later or somethin'." I walk towards the front door and she sucks her teeth, still mumbling obscenities.

"That's if  I feel like seeing your ass. The way you actin' now, I'm starting to feel like I'm wasting my time and I never let nobody waste my time."

"Yeah, aight." I chuckle, closing her door softly and her voice becomes muffled. I decide to jog down the stairs, not feeling like waiting on the busy elevator. I end up reaching the parking deck in half the time.

"Oh hey, it's June, right? I didn't know you lived in this building."

A turn my head to see a woman with tan skin and curly hair approaching me. She looks familiar but I don't know from where — hell, I'm around town a lot, she could be anybody.

"Wassup. I ain't get yo' name."

"It's Lira." She giggles, briefly touching my arm. "I love yo' car by the way."

"I appreciate it. Have a nice day." I dismiss her and get into my Hellcat, starting it up immediately. She slowly backs up but doesn't turn around before offering a few more words.

"You too. I'll see you around, neighbor."

I nod, not even bothering to tell her that I don't live here. The less that strangers know about me, the better. I whip out of the parking garage and into the busy city traffic, turning up the volume on my speakers in one swift motion.

"Picture all the possibilities. Picture all the possibilities. Sounds like a love song. Sounds like a love song. The most incredible, baby."

I tap my fingers on the steering wheel, easing my foot on the break as I near a red light. I keep humming along to the tune of Jay Z's "Song Cry," watching a man weave through vehicles holding up a cardboard sign. The person in the SUV next to me waves him off and then he turns to me with pleading eyes.

Job interview on Tuesday. Need food and money for a motel room. Anything helps. God bless you all.

I roll down my window and he gives me a weak smile. "Good morning, sir."

"Mornin.' Where yo' interview at?"

"The Pilliar Hotel. I'm tryna be a bellhop."

The Pilliar is a five star hotel in the city with a Michelin star restaurant attached to it. I've only stayed there once before. No doubt he'll get paid decently. I grab three bills from my pocket just as the light turns green and the cars in front of me start rolling away.

"Here, man. If you tellin' me the truth, then I wish you well for real."

His eyes widen at the $300 before brimming with tears. "Thank you so much, my brother! I'm really gone' put this to good use."

"Hope so. Be safe." I press the gas and he quickly fades from my view. 

"I can't see 'em comin' down my eyes, so I gotta make this song cry. I can't see 'em comin' down my eyes, so I gotta make this song cry."

**********

Sunday, October 9 | 9:01 a.m.
Rosalyn Lockhart's Residence

-

"Juney!" Maya runs up to me and I scoop her up, grunting at her weight.

"My-my, you gettin' big!" I kiss the seven-year-old on the forehead and she giggles, tightly wrapping her small arms around my neck.

"You told me you was gone give me money for my birthday!"

"I got you a dollhouse, remember?"

"You said money and a dollhouse."

"Aight, aight." I put her down and reach into my wallet, handing her a twenty dollar bill and she smiles, revealing two empty spaces where her front teeth should be. "Now get out my face."

"Boy, you a walking lick, ain't it?" Dex smirks from the recliner.

"Shut up. She prolly got yo' ass too."

"Ain't no prolly about it. Niece a hustler." He laughs and we slap hands. "She learned from the best."

"June-bug, I'm glad that decided to make an appearance. I thought I was gone have to send Dex to drag you over hea'." My grandmother pokes her head out of the kitchen, hair tied up and greasy spatula in hand.

"That pretzel stick build boy can't drag me nowhere, granny." I plant a light kiss on her forehead before heading back to the living room to plop down on the sofa across from Dex.

"Aye watcha mouth." He smacks his teeth, earning a chuckle from us both.

"Uncle Dex, look what I can do!" Maya lowers her body into a back bend for a few seconds.

"Good job. All that money you be makin' should be able to put you through gymnastics or somthin'." Dex nods in approval. "Nita make something' shake for her."

"She starts classes next year. That and swimming lessons." His older sister calls from the kitchen, switching one of the burners off. "Aight y'all, everything is ready. Come eat."

We gather around the table and join hands, bowing our heads as my grandmother says grace. There's a huge spread of cheese grits, pancakes with crispy edges, scrambled eggs, chicken sausages, and salmon croquettes.

"Ain't nothin' better than granny's cookin'." I compliment, stuffing a combination of grits, eggs and sausage patty into my mouth.

"Hold up na, cuzzo. I helped." Anita raises an eyebrow as she sets her cup of orange juice on the table.

"Wit' the eggs, right? 'Cause they real over seasoned today. I ain't never tasted them like this until you got into the kitchen."

"On God. I ain't wanna say nothin' but they salty as fu — " Dex laughs and Anita reaches over to swat at the both of us, knocking over Maya's cup of strawberry milk.

"Okay, okay, that's enough! Y'all act like y'all still Maya's age." Granny cuts in, eyebrows pulled together in annoyance. "Hold on, baby. Ya mama finna fix you another cup and wipe off my table."

Anita rises from her chair and does just that, popping Dex and I in the back of the head in the process. Maya snorts with laughter and milk flies out of her mouth, landing in the exact same spot.

"Okay, all y'all finna have to get out my house now." Granny threatens, fighting back a smirk.

**********

Sunday October 9 | 11:57 p.m.
Undisclosed location

-

I push open the heavy metal door with Dex following close behind me. The voices coming from inside sound just as panicked and irritated as they did over the phone and I brace myself, expecting the worst.

Soon as shit start goin' good, sum'n happen.

We bend the corner into the a large empty room that's covered in a thin layer of dust and smells faintly of mildew. There's a dingy light bulb in the center right above a wooden table that Mack and Tyreek are pulled up to.

Kasey is pacing back and fourth, grumbling under his breath and rubbing the hair on his chin. His eyes are wild, darting around feverishly and when he hears our footsteps, he clutches the gun in the back of his pants.

"Woah, boy chill out." Dex throws his hands up in surrender before taking the wooden toothpick out of his mouth. "What's goin' on whichu?"

Kasey let's out an aggressive sigh, rubbing a heavy hand down his face. "My bad. I'm just on edge right now. I want that nigga dead!"

"What? Who?" I walk up to the table and put my hands in the front pocket of my hoodie. Kasey gives me a look and understanding dawns on me.

"Somebody said they seen him recently on this side of town on two separate occasions. Said the nigga was drivin' a new whip wit' my shit and everything. He been livin' it up for over a year while I'm just now gettin' back to my regular life. I gotta get even."

"Damn, he must not know that you out yet. Why else would he be anywhere near this old spot? Shit real bold of him." Tyreek ponders, shaking his head. It's been a minute since I've seen him.

He's no longer the scrawny youngin' with a head full of freeform locs and reckless behavior that I used to know. Now, Tyreek keeps a low fade and he's reached a healthier weight, bulked up a little even. Eating home cooked meals every night and having a family of his own has done him well. I'm happy for him. He so was so deep in this shit that at one point, I didn't think he'd have the heart to leave it behind. He proved me wrong for sure.

"'Cause he fuckin' testin' me! Why else?" Kasey snaps, punctuating his last sentence by halting his step for a moment. "Nigga came out of hiding 'cause he wanna feel that iron to his head."

"Aight, calm down." Mack holds his palms up, sighing heavily. I can see his wheels turning as he thinks of something else to say. To an outsider looking in, we might look like we belong here but I can see just how different and misplaced we are compared to a few years ago, especially Mack. He was the second one to leave.

I was the first.

"Kasey man, you gotta think. You on probation and we ain't really on that type of time no more. You got a second chance at life and the risk might not be worth the reward." He exhales through his nose and begins pacing again at Dex's words.

"Yeah, y'all ain't on that type of time no more. I'm still me, nigga."

Unfortunately, Kasey is right — he is the only one who hasn't quiet made the switch yet. Sitting in a cell for thirteen months has only made him bitter and a huge part of me can't blame him. He got the shitty end of the deal — he was snaked and It was never suppose to happen like that. The rest of us used his situation as a lesson and decided that we wanted more out of life than the possibility of death or jail. So we walked away.

"Sittin' behind bars, staring at the concrete walls ain't do shit but make me relive the whole situation every single day for over a year straight. And now he back showin' his face freely? I ain't goin' for it. The only reason why I didn't get a longer sentence is because of my own quick thinkin', not because he had mercy on me."

Unfortunately, Kasey is right again.

We were just a group of youngin's who needed to get some real money quickly, so we started selling. Mack being the oldest and the most head strong at the time, was in charge of the entire operation. I was his right-hand-man and helped him manage money and run numbers. Dex handled inventory, while Tyreek and Kasey were always on the field. They both were efficient shooters, but nobody was as merciless as Kasey. He had the best aim too. Probably still does.

We got shit done, dabbled in other things that we shouldn't have, and made even more money. So much so, that we ended up adding another person to the team. Unbeknownst to us at the time, that's exactly where we fucked up.

He was around Mack's age, but he had Kasey's temperament so they got along the best. It wasn't too long before he was making runs and earned everybody's trust. Things were going good. We stacked so much cash and improved our lives a lot in such a short amount of time.

We thought we were invincible.

Then, Tyreek got locked up on some unrelated charges for a few months, leaving the newer guy and Kasey working the field without him. One day in particular, they were suppose to make a huge drop together and equally split the profit that they'd made earlier, but when they reached the designated location, it was already swarming with police officers.

Before they could turn around, they were spotted and the officers attempted to approach them for questioning. Each holding a full bag, one with drugs and paraphernalia and the other with illegally acquired cash, they ran. Then it became a chase through the bushes and various neighborhoods. Using the cloak of night as their cover, they were able to put a lot of distance between themselves and the cops, finally spotting the getaway car that was waiting for them.

The new recruit reached it first, threw his bag in the passenger seat before hopping inside and that's when Kasey realized that there was an unfamiliar person behind the wheel. Regardless, there was no time to ask any questions or to be picky since the officers were gaining on them, so Kasey just grabbed the backseat door handle.

Everything happened so fast.

When Kasey opened the door, he threw his bag inside, but before he could actually sit down, the driver pressed the gas, tripping him. The new recruit pushed his bag through the passenger window. It landed on the ground next to Kasey and they drove away.

Kasey scrambled up, grabbed the bag just as the officers came out of the bushes, and ran behind a house, throwing himself over the fence. This bag was different from the one he was originally toting though. It was heavier and it was slowing him down. He looked inside of it and there was no money, only pounds of work and other incriminating equipment — the exact contents that should've been in the other guy's bag.

Since the new recruit wasn't an OG member on the team, he wasn't ever left in charge of handling the money. There was hierarchy in that and he was at the bottom still. We never shorted him or anything of course, but the point is, Kasey was the one who should've have all the money in his bag until it was time to split it.

It didn't make any sense though, the bag in Kasey's hands had his subtle signature markings on it. Meaning, it truly was Kasey's bag, just not the one that he'd be carrying a few moments ago when they were on their way to the spot.

Then it hit him, the content inside the bags had been switched earlier in the day. Kasey was handed the recruit's bag after being told that they were in a rush to get to the spot because the time had been moved up while the recruit held onto Kasey's brick filled bag. He knew that Kasey wouldn't think anything of it since they were in a hurry and the weight felt accurate. He knew that he had earned at least that much trust and he was right. Kasey didn't notice that it wasn't his bag because they had identical black totes, albeit a few tell-tale paint streaks.

When Kasey had put his bag in the backseat — the bag filled with all of the money, he'd actually returned the recruits bag back to him and the recruit had pushed Kasey's bag outside, leaving him to be caught with a large amount of illegal substance and drug paraphernalia.

It was all a set up. Even the police officers being at the location wasn't just a coincidence.

He could've left the bag in the vacant backyard but there was too many fingerprints from us all, things that could tie everybody to the crime so he ran to the light — a burning barrel a few yards over in the middle of some family gathering. He threw the whole bag in there and kept running.

He still got caught but shit, if they'd caught him with everything that was in that bag, they woulda tried to throw away the key. Kasey's mind had damned him by not checking his bag in the first place on the way to the spot but it saved his ass somewhat with quick thinking in that moment.

You win some, you lose some.

"I feel you, bruh and I'm here for you always. I just want you remind you that you gotta be smart about this shit and that you got bigger and better things waiting for you." Dex explains further, extending a hand out to Kasey. "I know you can make the transition. I see it in you."

I scan the room again, grimacing at the thick cobwebs in every corner and the paint peeling off of the wall. I imagine that all of our old spots look like this now, indicative of how far we've come as a whole. Mack and I are into real estate. Owning popular clubs and various businesses has made him more well known, earning the nickname Money Makin' Mack. Dex is a tattoo artist which didn't come as a surprise to any of us — he's always loved art. Tyreek has an office job that comes with a decent amount of benefits and he's the first to actually settle down.

I'm proud of us.

The only trace of our past is the huge lump some of cash that we walked away with and I'm cool with that. Anything else is dead weight.

"Oh, I'ma make the transition." Kasey's mouth widens into a grin as he laughs bitterly at the words of encouragement that have echoed across the barren room. Six months out and he's still just as fiery as the day he went in.

He slaps hands with Dex before removing the blunt from behind his ear and sparking his lighter. "I'ma join y'all niggas as soon as Farad is in the dirt. I promise."

He lights it and takes a long drag, nodding his head in satisfaction. Silence falls over us as we think about the grim inevitable.

Too bad Kasey always means what he says.
Well, too bad for that nigga.