Luney Tune
Rico, age 12
“Here, put this on.”
I stood up from double knotting my laces and faced my twin. He slathered vaseline all over my face, and then I took over rubbing it in on my cheeks, chin, and neck.
Fredo liked to wear his hair down, but that day, it was braided down like mine. Six straightbacks that my homie Reem’s mom did for us, in exchange for going to the grocery store for her.
“You sure?” I asked my brother.
He set the jar of vaseline on the dresser and sat on his bed to tie his shoes. “Ma not moving back home, which means we not moving back home. I’m not starting back school and niggas wanna get active, and we unaffiliated.”
“Unaffiliated? Our dad is Pooh Bear,” I spat, folding my arms.
Fredo double knotted his laces, too, before standing up and leveling me with a glare. “You always say he don’t give a fuck about us. You think these niggas give a fuck who our dad is? Peanut got put on in camp. It’s our time now.”
He walked out of the room, knowing I’d follow him. Even if I wasn’t sure. Right or wrong, it was me and Fredo until the end.
We’d been back living in the Birch since the start of the New Year. Our uncle Rone got word to Ma that her sister, Aunt Aree died, and she tried to kill herself again.
Pooh didn’t even bother calling the police this time. Told her if she was that committed to it, then he’d help her.
Nan stepped in, like she always did, and that’s how we ended up back in Tower Two. We took apart the old bunk beds we had since we couldn’t agree on who would take the top bunk, and only brought a few clothes and our video games.
The Birch always felt more like home to me anyway.
It’s just the Birch Babies I wasn’t sold on.
Pooh only ever stayed long enough to check on us. He didn’t hang outside, and when we asked him why, he said all the real niggas were either dead or in jail.
And before we moved away permanently one summer, we didn’t really go outside too much when we’d be at the Birch, either.
Pooh set us up in a modest crib close enough to the Birch to where we could be watched, but then his friends started getting picked off, one by one. He got paranoid, and finally convinced Ma to move us back in with him when we were ten.
And it worked. Especially when Aunt Aree and Uncle Rone took off with Ty-Ty. People were dropping left and right, and Pooh always rambled about an exchange of power in the Birch.
He was sick that we were back here. Even sicker that Ma wasn’t fucking with him. Wasn’t fucking with anyone, really.
Her room door was closed tight, and we knew she’d be in there, like she’d been the last week.
“Don’t worry about me, okay? Just focus on staying up,” Fredo gritted.
I narrowed my eyes. “How I’m supposed to know you can handle yourself if you never wanna slapbox me? You know I’ve never seen you fight, right?”
Fredo grinned as the elevator doors opened on the main floor. “I’m you and you’re me. If you got the thumps, so do I, nigga.”
I grinned back, shaking my head as we left the building and walked into the parking lot.
The Birch Babies always hung out in the parking lot behind Tower Four. Because it was winter break, everyone was outside, but it was all niggas in green in that particular lot.
Fredo cursed under his breath, just as I made eye contact with the one person I didn’t think would come.
Foolish, really.
Why wouldn’t Pooh come see his sons get put on his gang?
He grinned at us from the hood of his Monte Carlo as we walked into the parking lot. There was a half-circle, with three boys and a woman at the head.
Lem, the leader of the BBs at the time. Kilo, his right hand. Gee, his left hand.
And Tiny, who kept everyone’s pockets lined in exchange for unwavering loyalty.
Pooh didn’t fuck with any of them. A bunch of gang politics I didn’t understand at the time, but basically, they were the new guard.
Young, hungry niggas that wanted to be rich and flashy, and led the BBs to be Tiny’s personal bodyguards and corner boys while she flooded the streets with any type of drug she could.
Pooh had been pimping since he was thirteen or fourteen, and even though he was the last real OG alive and out of prison, he had no interest moving back to the Birch and lead a bunch of niggas motivated only by dollar signs.
His friends on the inside couldn’t or wouldn’t say much. The money they generated from selling in the prisons kept their opinions to themselves.
So Pooh stayed away. Paid his taxes to Lem. And complained on his daily phone call to Big X, Reem’s brother.
But I guess this was a proud day for him, so there he was.
Lem folded his arms as we stopped in the middle of the circle. “Yo daddy told you how this works?”
Fredo grunted, while I spat at the disrespectful nigga’s feet.
As soon as I could, I’d murk his ass.
He clenched his jaw. “Set! C’mere.”
This boy our age hopped off the brick wall and strolled up to us, stopping next to Tiny. He cracked his neck, cold gray eyes never leaving mine.
He was Peanut’s little cousin, Uncle Boog’s nephew.
I hadn’t seen him since before Peanut went away, since before we went away. Back then, he was quiet, and always followed Peanut around, looking for his mom.
A square in my eyes. Not anymore, though.
“Aight, Kilo, Gee, Set, and Remy. Get active on these niggas.”
Niggas started cheering, but I blocked that out instantly, and tried like hell not to make sure Fredo was straight.
It had been ingrained in me. Fredo and Ty-Ty, make sure they straight. As the oldest, it was up to me. Even when Ty-Ty latched onto his best friend Reem, that just meant one more person to look after.
I’d never seen Fredo fight because I fought every one of his battles. Happily. He was me, and I was him. Any muthafucka who wanted to get to him had to get through me.
He was the same way, in a way. No one could get through to me without getting through him first. He was just as protective of me as I was with him, taking on the role of our mouthpiece, when I didn’t care to explain shit.
We slipped into our roles effortlessly, but that shit didn’t mean anything on the asphalt.
Especially with Set coming at me like I stole something from him.
We were the same height, but his wingspan was longer, so even though I leaned back to dodge his fist, he still clipped me, right before another hand came flying in front of my face.
Stay standing. Stay standing. I repeated in my head as my knuckles hit faces and their knuckles hit mine. Set and Kilo targeted me, while Gee and Remy targeted Fredo behind me.
Time felt like it had slowed to a grinding halt. I felt like I was dreaming. I’d been in plenty of fights before. I couldn’t say I’d lost any, either, even when I was being tag-teamed, like now.
But something about knowing Pooh was there, watching me. Something about knowing after this fight, no matter the outcome, my life wouldn’t be the same. It had me feeling like I was underwater. My arms felt so heavy. My mind got so sluggish.
And I looked back to find my brother.
He threw a hard right into Remy’s head, dropping him.
Right before a scrawny lil’ fist landed right on my eye.
I stumbled a little and whipped my head back in front of me. Set stood there, grinning as blood clouded half my vision.
“You bitch ass nigga!” I shrieked, rushing him.
Distantly, I heard Pooh call for Fredo, but all I focused on is a nigga who I knew would be a problem.
He squared up again, and I got my second wind as I threw everything I had into hooks and haymakers.
Arms wrapped around me from behind, and I was primed to headbutt whoever it was, until I heard my brother’s harsh voice in my ear.
“Chill the fuck out, Rick.”
I let him back us out of that nigga’s face, but I grinned at him, feeling blood coat my teeth.
He grinned back, backing up until Tiny wrapped her arm around his collarbone.
He was a year younger than me, and was taller than her already. I shifted my gaze to her, and my grin widened.
That look on her face… I’d seen it so many times.
Everyone in the Birch knew how Tiny took him in when no one else could. She was his second mother, and he was her little pitbull puppy, nipping at her feet every time he took down a little bird that was bothering her.
Set was a problem, let Pooh tell it to the OGs. Ma could barely handle raising us, so she couldn’t take in another boy, especially one with a body count. Tiny was his savior.
But she was still just a bitch. A horny bitch, if I went by the way her pupils dilated and her teeth combed her bottom lip.
It would have been almost too easy to turn her freak ass out, and I knew she was a freak. I had a sixth sense about that shit.
“You two Looney Tunes be in Tower Six at six a.m. tomorrow,” she called out as the other BBs began to congregate around Gee and Remy, who was just waking up.
“Which one’s Looney?” I asked, spitting out the excess blood from my mouth.
Her lips twitched before she backed away toward her own car with Set. “The way you think you can go against Set It Off, you fasho Looney, lil’ boy.”
“Ain’t nothin’ about me little,” I called out at her back, before Fredo pulled me back toward our tower. I glanced to my right without thinking and my shoulders slumped, just slightly, when I noticed the Monte Carlo was gone.
“Leave that bitch alone. She ain’t nothing but trouble, Rick.”
I chuckled, wincing when my ribs pinched. The adrenaline was wearing off, and I knew by the time we got back into our crib, we’d both be sore and achy.
“What Pooh always say? Trouble always got the best pussy attached to it.”
That bitch nigga Set gave me a black eye. Nan made me keep a frozen steak on it, but my shit was still bruised when we slipped out of the crib the next morning.
School started the next week, and yeah, we’d be protected now, in a new school, but I was sporting a shiner, and I couldn’t get any get back because now, he was my brother in Birch or some shit.
Bullshit gang politics.