Page 12 of Adonis Gates

I started at the side, running the clippers in clean strokes. His dark curls tumbled down into little piles on the cape that I brushed off every so often. I brushed his hair forward with asoft bristled brush to check the grain and switched the guards as needed with practiced ease.

He wiggled a little, and I steadied his head with a firm but gentle hand. “Hold still for me, Champ. If you keep movin’, I can’t make you look good for the ladies. You wanna be fresh, don’t you?”

He cracked a smile and muttered, “yeah.”

“I thought so.” I grinned.

I worked my way around his head, fading the sides neatly into the top. Once I was done, I stepped back, narrowing my eyes, then nodded seeing that I was satisfied before grabbing the edgers.

“This is the most important part right here, so be extra still for me.” I said as I pressed the buzzing blade against his hairline. I carved out a crisp line across his forehead, then arched carefully around his temples and ears. Lil’ homie was stiff as a statue while I worked, only blinking.

Once I was done, I brushed the loose hairs away and checked the blend one more time. Satisfied, I drizzled a touch of moisturizer into my palms and smoothed it over his head, giving the clean cut some sheen before I unfastened the cape, shaking it out in one snap, then spun him around toward the mirror.

“You fuck with it?” We both grinned. His little eyes were lit up at his reflection. “Told you I had you.”

I helped him down and walked him back to his mother.

“Oh, wow.” She beamed. “I love it, Kyrie.”

“Me too.”

She grabbed two dubs from her purse then handed them to me.

“It’s only ten, love.”

“The rest is a tip.” She smiled and stood. “Thank you so much. We’ll definitely be back.”

“Ain’t no thang.” I smiled. “I’ll see you next time.”

As they walked away, my phone rang. I reached inside my pocket to grab it and saw it was the school calling. I answered quickly as I made my way to the back of my shop. I’d only been open for business for a week, and the shit had been jumping already. It was too loud out on the floor for me to answer out there.

“Hello?”

“Is this… Adonis Gates? Guardian for Apollo?”

“Yeah, what’s up? He good?” I frowned.

“Yes, physically he’s fine, but someone will have to come and pick him up.”

“Pick him up?” I repeated, glancing at the G-Shock that I wore to work. “He still got like three hours left.”

“Yes, he does, but Apollo was involved in an incident with a few other students handling a firearm.”

“What?!” I barked, instantly pissed. “Aight, I’m on the way.”

I didn’t even allow them to respond before I disconnected the call and headed out. I let the guys know that I had to dip and would be back later. None of them had keys to the spot because I didn’t trust any of them enough to allow them to open and close my shit, so for the moment, I’d do it on my own.

I sped across town to Atlyn Prep to grab my brother. When I entered the office, I didn’t see him, so I asked the lady up front to get ‘em. Instead of AP coming out, the school resource officer appeared and asked me to follow him to the back where AP was waiting in a small conference room.

As soon as he saw me, he stood and said, “man they bogus, bro.”

“What happened?” I ignored my brother and asked the resource officer.

“There was a report of a child bringing a pellet gun to school this morning and he actually fired the weapon at another student during the fight…”

“Was Apollo one of the ones that was fighting?” I quizzed and the officer shook his head.

“He knew where the weapon was hidden…”