The Boys

We moved not long after that. It was always a sad day when someone left the hood. I had lived here for sixteen years. I would miss my view of the highway from the living room window. I would miss all the people I cared about here. I would see them again, I was sure of that. The when was the question? We were moving from the modern south to the Deep South. We were moving to the state streets. Mom hadn’t wanted to move, but we needed more room since my baby brother would be needing his own room soon.

So we moved onto the corner of Keokuk and Missouri. It was a large two story red brick building. We had a lot more room with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. We technically had the upstairs apartment but the landlord had said my mom could have the downstairs as well if she needed the space. We didn’t know it at the time but we would need all that space.

The upside to the move was that, Christian was at my house so much, that he may as well have been living here. Officially he lived with some cousins down the street but I think he made that up. We been here two months now and I haven’t seen those cousins. Mama was keeping her word and I had lots more freedom. I wasted no time getting to know the new neighborhood and some of the people. It was much quieter here than the dark was, but there was still a gang of kids and teenagers.

Sometimes Christian stayed the night, but he had to sleep on the couch or in my brother’s room. Which most nights he did. The rules though, didn’t stop him from coming in my room when everyone was sleep. We never took things too far. Just cuddling and kissing. Sometimes the making out got intense but he always pulled back.

We were official now, we were a couple and even in a new hood, everybody knew it. I kept waiting for the time when somebody over here would try me. It was only right, me being new and all but anybody would have been stupid to come tripping at our house. It was pretty much the spot. I did have a cousin that lived in the neighborhood and he had pretty much decided to make the downstairs area the hangout. In turn since it was dark and cold down there, he and his crew were always at my house.

At any given time there would be at least seven guys here, strapped up, braided up, du rags out. They craved taking over these quiet city streets. So did I. I wanted to leave my stamp on it like I did in the Dark. I didn’t really need to though, my goons did it for me. My new crew, full of guys, were a crazy bunch. For whatever reason my brother Charlie and Christian can’t seem to get along, They are driving me nuts, it’s so hard because I love my brother and if it truly came down to it Christian would be history, but it was my bad ass little brother who was always starting shit with him. I knew what it was though, Charlie didn’t think he was good enough for me. He would just have to get used to it.

At the moment we were all sitting in the living room. Goon squad tight. They were watching a movie, but I was busy throwing popcorn at my boys. For the most part they ignored me, which just wasn’t working for me. My aim was precise and I knew eventually someone would get tired of it. Joey was the first the break.

“Anna, on my mama if you don’t stop throwing that popcorn it’s gone be me and you, cuzz.” My home boy joey said, his baby blue eyes flashing to me.

I just smiled and threw another one. When he made a move to come towards me I laughed and snuggled deeper into Christian who had his arms wrapped around me. I knew Joey wouldn’t hurt me, I just liked fucking with him. It always amazed my how my boys all turned cookie when it came to me, I got away with murder with them. They were cool guys, some of them I had known for a while and some were new. I was the adopted baby sister to them all.

There is Joey, by far my favorite and closest friend. He was tall, maybe 6′4, tan white skin, nice brown hair that he kept braided to the back, and sweet forest green eyes. He was cocky, thick shoulders, big hands. As nice as he was to me and respectful to mama, I had seen those hands in work and when he was mad, he was a beast. There was nothing nice about that.

Then there was Dale, he was shorter, heavier, darker, and had brown eyes. He was my cousin, we grew up together but his mom had moved them away for a while. Now he was back and we were reconnecting. It was luck that he happened to be in this area, and he hated his girlfriend. He liked to Rap and him and my brother could go for hours just freestyling, they were awesome. He was the right hand guy aka get err done man bka problem solver. He was a sweetheart to me, and by far my favorite male cousin.

Then there was Reese. Two words... HOT BOY. He was tall like Joey, light skinned cocky. He was fine and between you and me he had been trying to get with me since we had met a few months ago. He was always shooting his shot, just to get shot down. He hated Christian but didn’t say so, but I knew that he seemed to be waiting for Christian to trip, so that he could move in. Oh well, he was going to be waiting cause me and my babies were tight, like links in a chain. But he was fine, with them sexy ass eyes. In another life maybe, but not this one.

Anyways, then there was Todo, not his real name but that’s what I called him. He kind of looked like shaggy from Scooby Doo but that dude was a gun toting monster and he was the strong silent type. He could totally pull off the hit man thing if he wasn’t so lanky and skinny. When he did talk he was funny, but only with us. If we walked to the store, it was like he put on a mask. He was always looking for a threat. I had asked him a few weeks ago if anyone was after him. He had just smiled his lazy smile and replied. “Maybe.”

Next was Montel, He was chocolate skin tones, brown eyes and he had dreads down his back. He was crazy as hell but he was also the ‘let’s save the world’ type. He knew about every conspiracy theory out there as a matter of fact the movie nobody was really watching was his. It was called Hidden Colors. He was also hella smart and into philosophy and art. He could kick your ass quoting Shakespeare.

Montel’s little brother was also with us to. His name was Smalls, just Smalls, and he was the survivor type. He had been shot more times than I had toes and he was still kicking. As a result he was absolutely crazy. It was scary when he got angry. I had seen him loose control, it was never pretty. It could also happen pretty quickly. He had very little chill. From what I knew he was always the first to swing. He even swing on his brother a few time and anyone else who tried to stop him from doing dumb shit when he lost his temper. He was cool though.

I knew Montel and Smalls from a long time ago. They had been our neighbors at one point. Their mom and mine had been best friends. Until their mom had started doing drugs. There were many nights I knew my mom had went looking for her. According to Montel my mom went kicking down doors to crack houses looking for their mom. She would find her and make her detox only for her to go back to the shit holes. She eventually found God and all was well. Her sons however became like brothers to me. My mom had taken them in for a year or two. I had been ten at the time, but I remember her bringing them home. She told me they were my brothers and they would be staying with us for a while. She had cleaned them up and put them in school. Smalls had been a little wilder then, but mama had handled him as best she could. He had gotten a girl pregnant, and eventually left and Montel had went off to Job Corps. We had lost touch for a while, it only felt natural now to be together again. They were my brothers from another mother.

This was my circle and there were more of us but they were the goons and I, well, I was the just the adopted little sister. Everybody knew them as my brothers, and even though some of us were black, some white, and Reese was Latino they dared anybody to question it. Together we had put together our own little family.