Page 41 of June: When Gangstas Collide

We had just gotten back to my place after the long night with Chevy’s girl. Shorty was so torn up. I began to wonder if it had anything to do with what I had done. The shit was fucked up, but the nigga didn’t give two fucks about what he did and how that affected me. However, the way Shorty cried, I could only imagine if it were Indigo, I would want to know so that I could fix it.

Indigo’s bomb she dropped on me had been sitting on me all night. At first, I was upset and broken, but then I thought about it. With all that we had been through, was this to teach us some lesson? I had never thought about happiness outside of Indigo. It had only been her since the day we met. I’ve gone through hell and back to make sure that we were together, and in the end, Khas still somehow won. A nigga was tired. I had so much going on that I simply couldn’t take any more. If this rehab thing is what she wanted to do, I didn’t want to stop her. I knew that if we were meant to be, then we would find our way back to each other.

When I pulled up to my house, we got out and went inside. Before Indigo could say anything, I began to speak.

“I support you. If rehab is what you want to do, Indigo, I support you. We both have lives to live. A nigga loves you the long way, there is no question about it, but if happiness is what we’re both after, no matter where mine lies, I think we need to do this.”

Her face remained neutral, and I didn’t know what she was thinking. I didn’t know if she wanted to take back what she said at the cabin or if she was still feeling the same way. She reached out and caressed my face, “If it’s meant to be, Bishop, we will find each other again, and if we do, and you’ve found a new love, and you see me just see me and live your life.”

I wasn’t going to find a new love. I was going sailing for a while. I wanted to get back to what I was doing before, traveling during the summer. A nigga’s heart was hurting, and I didn’t want to sit around the Cove. I was going to handle some things first, and then it was me and London for the remainder of the summer. Indigo grabbed my hands, “I want you to go to church with me on Sunday.”

Church? The last time a nigga like me stepped in church, I was attending a funeral. Speaking of funerals, I needed to visit Naheem. If I agreed to step into a church, I needed to do all my evil so I could ask God for forgiveness. London’s bark caught Indigo’s and my attention as we saw Keith coming down the steps.

“What’s up Indi?”

“Hey Keith.”

Keith came closer to me with a goofy ass look on his face.

“Ayo Bop, I thought about what you said and a little bit of what my friends said too, but a while back I applied for TSU and a nigga got in!”

he said excitedly.

I smiled hard because I felt like a proud father. Keith needed this because trying to go at Dionysus wasn’t it. I pulled him in for a hug.

“I’m proud of you, man,”

I whispered in his ear.

“Thanks, pops.”

It was that. That shit began to make me feel soft inside. To hear that he felt that way about me was a sign that I was doing something right. He pulled away from me and hugged Indigo.

“I’m proud of you, Keith,”

she said to him.

Watching him and Indigo interact began to make me emotional because if he looked at me like his pops, I could only imagine how he looked at her, and that shit hurt.

The doorbell rang and I prayed it wasn’t Chevy. I was in a good mood and didn’t feel like dealing with the bullshit. I swung the door and could not fucking believe it. Naheem had come through. Only now I wish I had held off.

“Kareem!”

Keith shouted.

Kareem held his chin up as his eyes sat low. He slowly grinned, showing his golds.

“Sup Bop, sup shorty.”

I hoped that with Kareem being out, it wouldn’t jeopardize what Keith had going on.