FLEX
I watched as Kareem rolled a blunt while sitting on my couch. I knew that following Mison wouldn’t go well. However, I was curious about what he and Mison had taken that had him on this downward spiral. “What was it?”
He stopped mid-roll as his head eased my way. “Fuck are you talking about?”
I smacked my lips. “Nigga it’s clear you're around here acting manic as fuck for a reason. So, what the fuck is it that is so important you can’t let this shit go! Isn’t Keith supposed to go to college? He is straight. If you ask me, this is bigger than Keith.”
Kareem gritted his teeth. “Yeah, the nigga just started at TSU. How do you think he got in? It sure wasn’t Bishop.
Look, when you've got some power on your back and you somehow owe money, the stakes are high. That nigga Mison has something that could at least get me and my brother out of here. I will figure everything else out later.”
He owed someone money, and it started to make sense now. “Who do you owe, and why would you owe money?”
Kareem slammed his hand on the table. “Goddamn Flex Cochran. What’s with the fucking questions!” he snapped.
I let him finish rolling his blunt and take a pull before I started again. “Because I’m trying to help you, and before I can do what I need to, I want to know everything.”
He took a few more pulls before he relaxed his body on the couch. “Come give a nigga some pussy.”
I rolled my eyes. “No!”
He waved his hand, “Fuck you too, then. Anyways, before I landed my ass in jail. I was approached by these rich niggas. They prey on broken niggas like me. One I could tell had some street in him, and the other was some uppity nigga. The offer, or rather sacrifice, was for the sake of Keith. I was told that they would give Keith enough money to survive on his own if something happened to me while doing this job. If not, the money would go to me to care for him,” he paused as he flicked the ashes in the tray.
“It sounded good at the time. All they wanted me to do was beat a niggas ass who they said bought his way into a position at TSU as the dean. Cool, so I countered when the uppity nigga grinned. I knew he wanted that position right then and there, so I told him fuck the money Once my brother graduated high school, he got an automatic place in the school. Shit, he agreed.”
I sat back on the couch, listening like I was watching a movie. I had become so invested. “Keep going,” I muttered as I took the blunt from his hand and pulled on it.
He lowered his eyes to me. “I don’t know if you ask me, them niggas are part of a cult or some shit. I called the only person I knew who was willing to do something for practically nothing, and that was Mison. The nigga was the driver for a fucking bottle.” He laughed.
I shook my head because the shit was crazy.
“I went in and the nigga was sitting on the couch like he knew I was coming. Then,” he paused.
“He said something to me that pissed me off. Only a person who knew my mother would say what he said. I snapped and beat his ass, and I would have killed him had Symphony not come in. When I looked at her and saw that shiny ass Sapphire around her neck, I snatched that shit off. I gave it to Mison to cash it in if I needed the money. Somehow, I was arrested. Boom, years later, Keith is living with Bishop, who I later found out was his daddy, who approached me, and the uppity nigga was Clark, who had become dean of TSU. Yeah, Keith is in school, but I’m broke and Clark has another request, and if I don’t do what the nigga asks, Keith, man, Keith. ” He finished.
The look in his eyes screamed that he was defeated.
I felt bad for Kareem, but if he was entangled with the rich, I wasn’t sure how he was going to get out of this.
His phone lit up. He picked it up from the table, glaring at it.
I finished up the blunt. I stood from the couch to stretch when I felt his hands squeezing the back of my neck.
“Fuck did you do!” he barked, scaring me.
I tried reaching for his hand, but couldn’t. Kareem swung me, slamming me against the wall as his hand moved to my throat. “You out this bitch snitching Flex? Huh? Because of you, I got fired, and those Zoo bitches know what it is. I should kill your simple ass.”
I tried to take a breath because his grip was cutting off my circulation. “I-I,” I gasped.
“You what?” he said as he slammed me back again.
“Ayo Flex, you really been showing your ass like you never been down for a nigga. I thought that if anybody, you would be there for me, but it’s clear you’re like everyone else.
Just as your daddy was in prison. A grimy ass nigga, I see where you get it from,” he finished, letting me go.
My body dropped to the ground as I sucked in air. My plan to help had backfired on me. Kareem stood over me. He grilled me so cold I could feel it in my bones. “I was trying to help!” I yelled.
“Yeah, well, your help is not needed. Fuck you!” he barked before he stepped over me and out the door.
I knew that I needed to get the fuck out of here before it was me who ended up dead trying to save a nigga that didn’t want to be saved. Kareem wasn’t worth the sacrifice.