The Diamond Syndicate
Page 10
Scared Straight
1997
A week later Trey got out of the hospital and was at home recovering from the gunshot wound to his shoulder. As Dante walked to Trey’s house to visit him, he thought about the past couple days’ events. Al-Malik was now down at the Extra Supermarket working as a grocery bagger. Their math teacher had gotten Dante and Al-Malik jobs there. This was Dante’s day off, so he decided to visit Trey.
One of Dante’s old classmates ran to catch up to him from behind. He shouted, “Ay, yo! Tae, what up, man?”
Dante looked back and waited for Mike to catch up. He’d dropped out of school in the eighth grade.
“What up?”
“What up?” Mike gave Dante a pound. “Where you headed, kid?”
“I’m gonna go check out Trey. Why? What’s up?”
The two of them began to walk together.
“Oh, naw, I’m saying, I thought maybe you wanted to get down with me on a package.”
“You crazy as fuck, man! What made you think I wanted to get down with you?”
“I’m saying, you don’t usually come through here, and I know you heard I’m getting paper. I thought maybe you came through looking for me to get put on.”
“You know Trey got shot, right?”
“Yeah, I heard. He a soldier, man.”
“How is that shit being a soldier? He coulda lost his life messing around with the same shit you doing! Naw, man, I ain’t with that bullshit, so please don’t step to me with that shit again!”
Mike stood there in shock for a moment, and then he shrugged his shoulders and went back to his corner to sell drugs.
Dante was furious. The nerve of that nigga, he thought.
***
Dante walked into Trey’s house after his younger sister opened the door. The smell of month-old dirty clothes immediately assaulted his nose. “Where Trey?” he asked.
“He in his room.” She pointed and walked away.
Dante walked through the dirty apartment. He stepped over several bags of laundry that littered the path down the hall. He knocked on the closed door of the bedroom.
“Yo!” Trey yelled from the other side of the door.
“It’s Tae.”
“Tae! What up, nigga? Come in.”
Dante opened the door and stepped inside the room, closing the door behind him. He stepped over the clothes that littered the floor.
Trey shared the small room with two of his younger brothers, and there was barely enough space to walk around. His twin bed sat against one wall, and a bunk bed sat on the other wall. A six-drawer dresser with a 19-inch color TV on top stood on the wall by the door.
“Damn, man! You need to clean up this room.” Dante sat down at the foot of the twin bed Trey lay in.
Trey was happy to see his friend. “What’s up, Tae?”
“It’s all good. How you feeling, man?”
“I’m a’ight. It’s sore, but I’m a soldier.” Trey rubbed his heavily wrapped shoulder.