Chapter sixteen
Dylan
My phone started vibrating as soon as the sun came up. I groaned and rolled over before grabbing it from the coffee table… Rico.
I frowned.
Why the hell is he calling this early?
“Hello.”
“Get dressed,” he ordered.
I blinked hard while trying to focus. I rubbed my eyes and asked, “What?”
“I’m on my way to scoop you up, so get dressed.”
I rubbed my eyes again and sat up. “For what? Where we going?”
“Boy, just get dressed.”
I laughed. “So, you ain’t gon tell me?”
“Nah, you gon find out soon enough,” Rico said.
“Why not just tell me?” I asked.
“Nigga just get dressed. Damn!”
Then the line went dead leaving me staring at my phone. “Crazy ass.”
With a sigh, I pushed myself up and folded my blanket. After stuffing it and my pillow into the hall closet, I headed to the bathroom. The apartment was quiet because nobody was up yet.
If they were, they weren’t bothering me.
Twenty minutes later, my phone buzzed.
Rico: Outside
I grabbed my keys and headed for the door. Aunt Wanda looked up from the kitchen table as I walked by.
“Where you headed?” she asked.
“Somewhere with Rico.”
She frowned. “Where?”
I shrugged and replied, “I don’t know. He didn’t tell me.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “You getting in a car with that man and don’t know where you’re going?” she asked.
She didn’t really care where I went or with who, so why the sudden interest? I laughed before I could stop myself.
“Pretty much,” I responded.
She shook her head. “That don’t sound safe.”
“Rico ain’t finna kidnap me or nothing like that.” I chuckled and rolled my eyes.
“You never know,” she said.
I laughed harder as I opened the door. “I’ll see you later.”
A few seconds later, I slid into the passenger seat of Rico’s Charger. He glanced over with a serious expression on his face.
“You ready?” he asked.
“For what?” I asked.
“Breakfast.”
My stomach immediately growled. “Now ya talking.”
Rico laughed and pulled away from the curb. Thirty minutes later, we were sitting inside a diner. I was halfway through my pancakes when I noticed Rico watching me.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
“Why you looking at me like that?”
He shrugged and said, “You getting old boy.”
I rolled my eyes. “Dude I’m sixteen.”
“Exactly.”
“That ain’t old,” I countered.
“It is compared to the lil snot you were when we met a year ago.”
I couldn’t argue with that. I have grown a lot since a year ago. A lot has changed about me, but one thing hasn’t changed. I still thought about Devyn every single day.
Just thinking about her made me smile. Then I remembered when I first entered the Vaughn estate. That felt like a very long time ago. Back when Devyn still lived in Atlanta. Back when my biggest problem was figuring out how to get to the stables before somebody noticed.
My smile faded and Rico noticed right away.
“You hear from her lately?” he asked.
I nodded and replied, “Yeah. Last night.”
“That’s good. At least she ain’t forgot about you,” he said.
The conversation drifted after that. We started talking about school, work, basketball… the usual. After breakfast, Rico paid for the tab and we headed back outside. I figured we were going to the estate. Maybe run some errands or handle work.
Instead, he drove across town as the two of us rapped to Drake. Ten minutes later he pulled into a parking lot. I looked up and immediately froze when I saw we were at the DMV.
I slowly turned towards him as my mouth dropped open. “What we doing here?” I inquired.
Rico parked the car. “What you think?” he asked.
“Naaaahhh!”
“Yes.”
I stared at the building then at him before I looked back at the building. “I ain’t ready.”
Rico busted out laughing. “You’ve been driving for two months.”
“I’ve been practicing,” I corrected.
“You taking that test.”
My stomach immediately dropped. “You mean today?”
“TO-day?” he clarified.
I looked back at the building. Suddenly, eating breakfast before we came here didn’t feel like such a good idea.
“What if I fail?” I asked nervously.
“You won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I have faith in you.”
I frowned and asked, “How?”
“Because I taught you,” he said confidently.
I laughed in spite of myself. The confidence in his voice was ridiculous.
Rico pointed towards the entrance. “Let’s go,” he said.
I didn’t move. “Dylan.”
I sighed heavily as we exited the vehicle. The next hour felt like torture… paperwork, waiting, then more waiting and even more waiting.
Every time somebody called another name, my stomach tightened. Finally, my name was called.
“Dylan Foster!”
Aw hell.
I stood up as Rico slapped me on the back.
“Go get your license boy.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” I said. “You ain’t the one taking the test.”
“I already got mine.” He laughed.
I rolled my eyes and followed the examiner outside. The entire test felt like five minutes and five years at the same time. Every turn, stop sign and lane change felt important as fuck.
I was so focused on not messing up that I barely remembered to breathe. Finally, we pulled back into the parking lot. The examiner made a few notes while my heart pounded so hard I knew she could hear it too. Then she looked up at me with an expression I couldn’t read.
“Congratulations.”
I blinked hard with my mouth open. “What?”
“You passed.”
For a second I just stared at her. Then a smile spread across my face. A real smile... the kind I couldn’t stop.
I actually passed.
By the time I got back inside, Rico was sitting in a chair scrolling through his phone. The second he saw my face, he smirked.
“Told you,” he said.
I laughed and announced, “I passed.”
He slapped my hand with the secret handshake and laughed. “I know.”
“No, for real.”
“Dylan.” He grabbed my shoulders and stared at me. “I know.”
The grin on his face was almost as big as mine… almost. A short while later we walked back outside. I couldn’t stop looking at the temporary license in my hand. I was sixteen years old and a licensed driver.
It felt crazy and good at the same time. I couldn’t believe that shit. Rico tossed me the keys and I caught them automatically.
I looked up at him with questioning eyes. “What?”
“You driving,” he said.
My eyebrows shot up. “You mean right now?”
“You got a license now boy. You legal.” He started towards the passenger side. “Ain’t nobody gotta drive you around no more.”
For some reason, those words hit me harder than they should have. Because he wasn’t talking about driving... at least not really. He was talking about me growing up and gaining my independence. This was about moving forward.
I climbed behind the wheel and started the engine. The Charger rumbled to life.
Rico settled into the passenger seat then looked over. “I’m proud of you, kid.”
The words caught me off guard because Rico wasn’t really the emotional type. I looked away before he could see how much that meant to me.
“Thanks bro.”
Rico nodded then pointed towards the road.
“Aight nah.”
“What?”
“Let’s see if they made a mistake giving you that license,” he teased.
I laughed so hard I nearly stalled the car.
I couldn’t stop looking at my license. Every time I stopped at a red light, I glanced down at it… every single time. Rico finally got tired of me doing that.
“You gonna stare at that piece of paper all day?” he asked.
I laughed. “Probably.”
He shook his head. “Boy happy as hell.”
“I am.”
“You should be.”
A smile spread across my face. I couldn’t help it. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was actually growing up… not pretending or talking about it. Actually, doing it.
I drove for another few minutes before speaking. “Rico.”
“Hmm?”
“I’ve been thinking about getting a tattoo.”
His eyebrows rose slightly. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“You serious?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“What you was thinking about getting?”
I glanced over briefly. “A crown,” I replied with a smile on my face.
“A crown?” he asked.
“Yeah, with Dreco under it.”
Rico nodded. For a second I thought he was gonna clown me. Instead, he said, “That’s wassup.”
I laughed. “Thanks.”
“You wanna get it today?”
I looked over to see if he was serious. “What?”
“You heard me.”
My eyes widened. “You serious?” I asked.
Rico shrugged. “Yeah. If you want, I got a guy that be hooking all of us up.”
Of course, he knew someone who did tattoos. Rico had a guy for everything.
I started laughing. “Ain’t that your answer for everything?” I clowned.
“Because I know a lot of people and trust me, my people good.”
A few minutes later, Rico directed me down a side street I had never been on before. Then he pointed. “Turn in there.”
I looked up and saw the tattoo shop. My stomach immediately tightened.
“Wait.”
Rico laughed. “What?”
“You literally mean right now?”
“What you thought I meant?” Rico asked.
I parked the car then looked at the building. Suddenly, I wasn’t nearly as confident as I had been five minutes ago.
Rico immediately noticed. “Oh, now you nervous,” he said with a laugh.
“I ain’t nervous,” I lied.
“You lying.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.” I scoffed.
Rico laughed and climbed out. I followed him and the second we stepped inside, a heavily tattooed guy behind the counter smiled.
“Wazzup Rico.”
“What’s happening?” Rico asked as they dapped it up. “This my nephew.”
The word caught me off guard, but Rico had been introducing me that way more and more lately.
The tattoo artist nodded. “What he wanna get done?” he asked.
I cleared my throat. “A crown.”
He smiled and said, “Simple enough. This yo first tattoo?”
Damn.
Was it that obvious?
“Yeah,” I replied.
His smile got bigger. “I figured.”
A short while later, I was sitting in the chair staring at the stencil on my wrist. A simple crown with my street name ‘Dreco’ underneath. Nothing crazy or too big. I looked at it and smiled.
“Yeah.”
The artist nodded. “Let’s do it.”
The machine started buzzing and my stomach immediately tightened. Rico saw my face and busted out laughing.
“What?” I asked, not seeing anything funny.
“You look terrified.”
“I ain’t.”