Page 40 of June: When Gangstas Collide

It took hours for Sage to get her momma to leave my church. I had been calling Chevy, and he hadn’t answered. I didn’t want to disrupt his house in the middle of the night, so I waited. Now that it was morning, I needed to talk to him. When I came outside, Foe was walking down toward Chevy’s house. “Foe!”

I called out.

He turned to look at me and nodded. I jogged up to him, “What’s up nigga?”

“Shit, you missed it last night. That nigga Chevy was out here wild as hell. Nigga shooting his shit in the middle of the street, drunk as hell, shit was crazy.”

I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, but I was about to find out. When we got to his door, I noticed it was cracked open. Foe and I looked at each other. He pulled out his gun, and I pulled out mine. Foe pushed the door in slowly, “If somebody in here that ain’t supposed to be here yo ass about to die!” he sang.

“Lord, help me,”

I muttered.

As we stepped inside, low, mellow R&B music played. Foe’s head snapped my way, “This nigga in here on some Brandy brokenhearted type shit, Chevy!”

he yelled.

I saw Chevy sitting on the couch, his elbow to his knees, with his head down.

“Where is Zaria?”

I whispered.

“She left his ass, I guess.”

Now I began to feel bad because I didn’t want Zaria to think that God had failed her. She sat before him and prayed for her family, and now this. I knew things happened for a reason, but I hoped it was something that could be fixed. I walked over toward Chevy and sat next to him.

“You good, my nigga?”

He didn’t say anything.

“Nigga he said, are you good?”

Foe shouted.

Chevy’s head slowly raised.

“I’m not deaf nigga. I’m straight. I need to find Zaria. She’s not answering the fucking phone.”

I wasn’t sure the first place to even look for her, but I needed Chevy to have some faith. I knew speaking to him in my language wasn’t going to work.

“Give her some time, I’m sure she will be—”

“Crybaby ass nigga you good?”

Diamond said, stepping into the house.

Chevy’s head swung that way as Diamond and Zu came to where we were.

“And before you say it. I cried too. It is what it is.”

“You good, Chev?” Zu asked.

We all knew he was down bad because him not responding to Diamond’s joke said it all.

“I don’t know where Z is. I’m about to lose my fucking mind.”

Diamond folded his arms over his chest.

“What happened?”

Chevy stood up and glanced at all of us.

“The day I got served with that paperwork. I found out that June Calloway doesn’t exist.”

A gasp came from Diamond, “Say fucking word!”

Zu ran his hand through his locs.

“Wait a minute. You’ve been walking around here doing shit with your name and—”

Foe turned to Zu and pointed.

“And basically, the nigga’s a fraud.”

We all cut our eyes at Foe. Diamond threw his hands up, “Nigga!”

Foe shrugged.

“Too soon?”

Chevy slammed his fist into his palm, “Fuck!”

“We can figure it out nigga chill,”

I said to him.

He spun my way and pointed at me, “Preach, I’m a muhfuckin John Doe. I’ve been moving, hustling, and doing all this shit to stand on who I am to find out I’m a nobody. You said God—”

I held my hand out. I was about to correct him before he started. What I didn’t like was every single time something went wrong niggas wanted to blame God instead of themselves.

“No God has nothing to do with this. Your name is your name. It doesn’t matter if it’s written on a piece of paper or not, Chevy. You are June, June Calloway. You gave your sweat, blood, and tears to that name, so stand on it. But God, he has nothing to do with it, so don’t go blaming him. Your grandad, blame that nigga. He may be the reason because the nigga is shady.”

Chevy’s anger came out of nowhere, “Fuck that nigga. He is the reason, and I really want to kill his bitch ass, but right now I can’t even focus on any of it because Z is gone with my babies and I—”

Diamond turned to all of us with surprised eyes.

“Babies? As in two? Dos, Deux?”

Chevy gritted.

“Yes, nigga twins.”

I smiled.

“Congratulations, man.”

Zu clapped.

“That’s what’s up, my nigga. Are they girls?”

“No, two little niggas.”

Foe sat down and sparked a blunt.

“Ok, so what’s the plan. We’re going to help you find Z, but what are you going to do with this whole name thing?”

The look on Chevy’s face was one I had never seen before. The nigga didn’t have an answer. The effect Zaria had on him was a strong one. He couldn’t focus on anything outside of her. If they didn’t find their way back to each other, Chevy was going to feed his soul with the world, and there would be nothing we could do because a man with a broken heart is a dangerous one.