Chapter 22 #2
“Come on, Pops, it’s a celebration,” he said and tapped his chest. Orlando slapped his hand down and kept his eyes on me.
“Exactly, this is a celebration. It’s all about you tonight, son; we don’t need him here.”
I looked away from him and laughed again to keep myself from rocking on him.
This was why I knew I would always hate this man.
Even when I didn’t bother him, he always found a reason to be in my face with some bullshit.
I was starting to think that he didn’t feel well unless he messed with me some way, somehow.
Just then, Kairi stepped back into the section holding a drink.
Her eyes widened at the scene before her.
She looked back and forth between me and Orlando.
The devil inside of me wanted to beat the shit out of him for all the things he’d said and done to me over the years, but Kairi hadn’t seen that side of me before.
I peered around the section to see that everyone still had their eyes on me.
Sighing heavily, I simpered and looked at Orlando.
“You sure you want me to leave?” I asked him one final time.
Orlando’s eyes bounced around, like he was unsure, something I had never seen before. But then he quickly blinked and nodded at me.
“Oh, my days, how would I survive without big, bad Havoc?” Orlando smirked at me. “We’re good over here, without you, young nigga.”
“You got it,” I said.
“No, Makari,” Hell tried to stop me when I stepped around him to leave.
“I’m good, Kelechi. Enjoy your night, I’ll see you tomorrow.
” I made sure to say that part loud enough for that bitch ass nigga Orlando to hear.
Regardless of the shit he did to me, he could never break the bond I had with Hell.
He and I saw each other every fucking day without fail, and tomorrow wasn’t going to be any different.
Sony appeared at my brother’s side.
“Here nigga, chill out and drink this,” he said, shoving a drink in Hell’s hand.
My brother tried to give it back so that he could follow me, but Sony wouldn’t let him.
I kept my eyes on Orlando as I walked out of the section.
Kairi was gone by then. I thought about going to see her until I realized that Orlando was following me.
The nigga was making sure I was leaving! Just fucking pitiful.
I didn’t bother to look for Kairi on my way out because I didn’t want to risk the chance of Orlando seeing me look at her.
By now, I had a crowd following behind me.
“Pops, for real. Why you doing this shit!” Hell was there too, trying to reason with him. But at this point, whatever tiny amount of respect I had for him as the man who helped create me was gone.
“Kelechi, go back inside, let me deal with this.”
“But Pops—” Hell started coughing.
I suddenly stopped walking and turned around.
Sony and his bitch ass friends were now outside, enjoying the mess Orlando was making. It was always his mission to try to embarrass me in front of people. I simpered.
And my mama thought this man cared about me?
I noticed Hell started coughing again.
“Yo, you good?” I asked him, but Orlando put his arm up, blocking my view of my brother.
“He’s good, I got him. We’ll call you when we need you,” he said with a smile on his face.
He started slowly walking toward me, leaving Hell and his friends standing by the club doors. I flicked my eyes up at Orlando and shook my head.
“Whatever makes you feel like a man,” I said. My words hit him—I saw the look of rage flash in his eyes.
Not giving him a chance to say anything else back to me, I turned back around to head for my car.
“Nigga, who the fuck are you?!” I heard someone yell from behind me and then a flash of light…
Pop!
My body jolted when the sound of a gun went off as if the bullet had hit me. I felt my chest cave in, and I grabbed it as I turned around, and then I saw Hell lying on the ground.
The abrupt silence smacked me in the face, as if the world or time stood still, and all I could see was Kelechi on the ground. Then there was movement.
A young nigga was running away. So many things were happening, I didn’t know what to focus on.
“My son!” Orlando screamed. He rushed for my brother, but I beat him to it once my body remembered how to move.
“KELECHI” burst through my lips.
I dropped to my knees. Tears welled up in my eyes at the sight of my brother bleeding from a gunshot wound to his stomach.
“Havoc,” he cried, my name, and then coughed up blood, squirting from his mouth.
“Why you bleeding from the mouth!” I panicked.
“Somebody call 911!” I hollered. Nobody was moving, too busy looking down at my brother. He started to shake like he was cold.
I looked around for Orlando, expecting him to have sprung into action or something, but he was just sitting on the ground with his mouth hanging open. I knew if I didn’t act quickly, I was going to lose Hell.
“I’ll take you in my car, it’s just there!” I heard a voice and looked up to see that it was Kairi. I nodded and then lifted my brother up, placing his arms over my shoulders to help him walk. Blood was still coming out of his mouth, which I didn’t fucking understand.
She ran for her car, and I was right behind her. Didn’t know if Orlando was following me or not, but right now, saving Hell was the only thing on my mind.
Kairi unlocked the car and opened the back door. I helped Hell get in, and then I jumped in next to him. He laid his head in my lap.
Kairi hopped in and sped away.
“Aye, I’m gonna need you to open your eyes for me, big bro,” I said. He was still shaking and muttering something I couldn’t quite make out. I took my jacket off and used it to try to stem the bleeding.
“Hold on. Hold on, we’ll be there soon,” Kairi said from the front. She was driving like her life depended on it.
“Makari,” my brother whispered. Another fit of coughing made more blood seep out of the corners of his mouth.
Why is there blood coming from his mouth though, I thought as I looked down at him.
I used the back of my hand to wipe the blood away.
“Open your eyes for me, okay?” I said. Tears rolling down my face. He nodded and said, “I’m just tired. I want to sleep.”
“Nah, you ain’t allowed to sleep. You hear me?”
Again, he nodded faintly with his eyes still closed. By now, my jacket and the whole front of his white shirt was covered in his blood.
Thankfully, Kairi pulled up at the hospital. She was out of the car and screaming for help.
“Kelechi, we’re here now, bro. Just hold on, okay? Promise me that you will hold on,” I leaned forward to say to him. His eyes were still closed, but I caught his subtle nod.
Hospital staff rushed over and helped me get him out of the car. I helplessly stood back as they wheeled my brother into the back, where I couldn’t follow him. This was the first time he went somewhere I couldn’t go too.
Bro, please don’t go where I can’t follow.
I tried to take a seat, but I couldn’t. My mind was racing, and the guilt was eating me alive. If I’d just put my foot down, that wouldn’t have happened.
A random young nigga walked right up to my brother and shot him. The scene replayed in my mind over and over again. And I realized it was the nigga who shoulder bumped me before we went into the club.
I’d missed him, and he was right in my face.
“My son!”
I turned toward the door when I heard Orlando’s bitch ass voice. Even here, this nigga wanted to make it about himself. Seeing red, I marched his way and grabbed him by his jacket collar.
“Mothafucker, didn’t I tell you something was going to happen! That it was gonna do nothing but make my fucking brother a target!” I gritted in his face.
“I didn’t know, I didn’t know!” Orlando wailed, but I wasn’t trying to hear that shit.
“Nigga, I told you!” I shoved him away from me. “Did you at least catch the nigga?”
When he didn’t answer me, I knew he had let him get away.
I slowly approached and said, “If it wasn’t for my brother, I’d snatch the breath outta you, nigga.”
To be honest, the only reason why I hadn’t dropped this nigga’s body a long time ago was because of Kelechi. As much as I hated this man, I knew my brother loved him and wouldn’t be able to survive without him. Kelechi hung onto every word Orlando spoke.
“He wouldn’t be in this place if he wasn’t listening to you,” I told Orlando.
He looked at me, eyes widened and mouth open in shock, but he didn’t have shit to say to me because he knew that I was right.
For the last few months, Hell had done everything my father asked him to do until it landed him in this fucking hospital.
Kairi walked over and placed a hand on my arm. I looked down at her, sighed, and walked away with her before Orlando ended up in a bed beside my brother fucking around with me.
We took a seat in the far corner, far away enough from Orlando, and I dropped my head in my hands.
How the fuck did that nigga catch my brother like that, and how did he get away?
I lifted my head to look at Orlando. The look on his face told me he knew that I was looking to him for the answers, and he better find them soon, too.
Someone stepped through the doors they brought my brother through, and I stood to my feet.
My body stiffened when I noticed the look of regret on his face. The man couldn’t even look me in the eyes, and I knew why.
“Nah, I don’t want to hear that shit,” I spat. The man’s face dropped, and he looked down at my feet.
“I’m sorry. We tried everything, but he just lost too much blood, and we were unable to save him,” he said lowly.
I froze.
Orlando slowly walked our way.
“Wh-what did you just say?”
“I’m really sorry for your loss,” the doctor said.
I closed my eyes. I’d lost my best friend. The only person in this world who truly loved me and accepted me. The one who saw the best in me and pushed me to be better.
I felt my body start to convulse as a gut-wrenching scream erupted from my mouth. Orlando crashed to the ground and hollered. I slapped my head a few times and pressed my back against the wall because I needed its strength to hold me up.
My ears were ringing. The silence in the room hit me in the chest before I exploded.
“This is your fault!” I yelled at Orlando. I attempted to go over to knock his head off his shoulders, but Kairi stopped me.
“I will never forgive you. You hear me?!”
I screamed until my voice went hoarse.
“I’m sorry!” Orlando hollered, but fuck him. If he just listened to me, my brother wouldn’t be dead. So, fuck him and his weak ass sorry.
I clutched my chest—it was squeezing me.
“I can’t, I can’t breathe,” I cried bitterly. Kairi took me by the hand and led me outside to get some air.
The wind made the tears on my face feel like ice. I looked up into the night sky, wondering how I was gonna navigate this life without my older brother.
“I told you not to go to a place I can’t follow you,” I said to the night air. Tears spilling down the sides of my face. “I told you not to go. Not to leave me.”
I just stood there looking up at the moon and stars, knowing I would reach up and grab them just to have Hell back by my side.
“What do we do?” Orlando staggered over to me. “What do we do?” he asked as if I had all the fucking answers, but I didn’t. I was lost.
I dropped my head to look at him, but I had no words. Without saying anything, I pushed my hands into my pants pockets and walked away.
“Makari, let me go with you.” Kairi tried to stop me, but I just shook my head and kept on walking, embracing the fact that I was now all alone.