Straight Mobbing

Spooky-Blood and an Essay

            The next morning, Cuchillos told me that they had me on a few runs now that Mikey was in the hospital. Mama Patty had Stassie doing the same thing. When I was done, I sat out front. I forgot how nice it was to just sit in the front yard with the boys. 

Then I noticed Mario's hermano, Ruby, Cesar's friend who got shot at Cesar's girlfriend's birthday party walking past. I told Cesar that I would check on his amigos when he was in hiding.

"Hey." The kid just crossed the street trying to avoid me.

"HEY! I'M TALKING TO YOU!" I saw his face when he turned around and looked at me. Anger filled his once innocent face.

"What?"

"Just wanted to check up on you. You good?

"No, I'm not good!"

"Yo, chill out."

"Chill out? That's all you got as you sit there on your damn throne? I got shot! And my friend, who's the most amazing person I ever know, died because of you, and for what? Nothing! Nothing but some bullshit beef that means nothing! And that night won't stop playing on auto repeat in my head, and every time I move my arm which is often because I'm a gesticulator, it kills, further reminding me of that night, thanks to you, so don't tell me to chill out!"

"You must be in the anger stage." Ruby didn't know what to say but I've been shot, a lot of the homies have been shot, Stassie even, so I thought it should be my responsibility to show him it's okay to move on. I stood up, stomped out my cigarette and started walking to Martina.

"Get in." I say to him. I know that a lot of people are scared of me. But that kid just walked over, yelled me about how he felt and still got in my car.

On the car ride to get beer, Ruby kept moving in his seat.

"How's Cesar?" He finally asked.

"Good, I think. My ruca's mom has him hiding out far away."

"Can you get him a message?" I looked at him.

"Doesn't he have his phone?" Stassie called him for me the day she got back but I hadn't reached out any further.

"No, I don't think so. He's smart, he probably ditched it before he left so no one could trace his location."

"Probably, he was always the smarter of the two of us." I pulled into the bodega down the street.

"So, where are you going?"

"Jamal's we're doing Christmas early." I nodded.

"What does that mean?"

"Jamal's parents do a present exchange party. Monse, Jamal, Cesar and I usually do our own in Jamal's room. This year it's obviously just three of us." I nodded.

"What do you usually do for a gift?"

"Something small nothing too big." I got out of the car and walked into the bodega.

Ruby followed me in, and he started grabbing snacks. I picked up a bunch of things I thought they'd want and two forties for me. When we got up to the cashier, I gestured for Ruby to put his things with mine. "Let me pay for everything." I say to him.

After I paid, I grabbed all the snacks and the beers and walked out after Ruby.

"Here, this is Cesar's gift to y'all. Where's Jamal's house? I'll drop you there." He gave me the directions to Jamal's. Mr. Turner's front yard was lush and full of plants.

"Thanks, Spooky." Ruby grabbed the bags filled with snacks and opened the door.

"Come to the crib with the crew, I'll get Stassie to call Cesar on Christmas." He nodded and walked into the house.

I did a U-turn to turn around and came face-to-face with a Prophet.

"This is Santo's block, what the hell you doing here?" I yelled out the window.

"Just came to check and see how Evie was doing. She's a wild one if you know what I mean, ese." I got mad but also realized that I didn't have a gun with me. I revved the engine and took off. If I could have, I would have killed the guy where he was. I drove past him, I flipped him off the entire time.

I pulled back into the driveway and Stassie's Jeep was there. Thank God I thought. I grabbed the two forties and walked into the house.

"Did you see a Prophet today?" She asked without having to turn around.

"Yeah, why?" She turned around and she had a cut right above her eye.

"Because I saw a lot of Prophets today." I almost dropped the beers, but I set them down on the table.

"What the fuck happened?" Her hands were bloody, clothing dripping in blood.

"I need to burn my clothes." Stassie said in a moto tuned voice.

"I'll grab the lighter fluid, go outside." I reached up in a cabinet and grabbed the lighter fluid and checked my pocket for a Zippo.

The front door opened and Sad Eyes rushed in. "Yo the tripwire worked. Where's Stassie?"

"Get out." I said.

"What?"

"GET OUT!" He jumped and turned around running out the door he just came through.

"Everyone get out!" I yelled through the door. Everyone stood up and walked away from the front lawn.

I walked in the back and motioned for Stassie to remove the bloody clothes. "You gonna tell me what happened."

"Prophets tried stealing one of our shipping containers, Nicky and I were there on security to make sure nothing went wrong. I told Nicky to let them steal something to set off the bombs. They stole one crate of cash and then we attacked. I blacked out at some point and then I saw.... I saw this." She looked down at her bloody hands.

"Alright I'll burn everything go shower." 

She covered her naked body as best she could and ran back into the house. I picked up the bloody clothes and put them in the fire pit. I finished off the fire with her sneakers and walked back into the house.

Stassie came out of the bathroom twenty minutes later all clean. "My eye won't stop bleeding." I got up and looked at it. "I'll get the glue it doesn't look that bad." I grabbed the first aid kit and fixed her pretty face right up.

"We have a little over a week before your test. Grab the study material."

"Don't you think you should nap?"

"No, just get the book, let me go get my glasses." She stood up cutting me off and went into her room.

I picked the book up from the other side of the table and cracked it open.

"Let's start with English, write me a thousand word essay in an hour."

"That's not enough time."

"I can write almost an entire five page paper in an hour. You can handle a thousand words."

"Okay." I say with a sigh. "What's the topic?"

"Whatever you want." I looked at her. I hated having no topic to talk about but something finally clicked and I began writing.