Page 63 of Not A Homie, Lover Or Friend

HARVEY

Bishop’s lounge was packed. There were so many people in costume, I couldn’t tell who the fuck was who. The music was bumping, and the drinks were good. Bishop was a Monster, and his dog was Boo. The way he carried her around in his arms was so funny because who the hell carried around a dog? She looked so cute in her pink top and purple puppy pants. She wore a headband with two ponytails, while he was shirtless, painted purple and blue, with fangs. I watched as he and Navi talked to each other. I wasn’t sure what the hell they were talking about, but it was giving off flirtatious vibes.

I was enjoying myself but mostly keeping an eye on the guys. I truly wanted one night we could have fun without getting into any shit. When the DJ switched to the next song, the crowd went wild. It seemed as if more people came from nowhere, now limiting the space we had to move around. Myles wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed me. “You good?” he said in my ear.

I nodded because the music was too loud to respond. My eyes landed on Beans, who was talking to this pretty ass girl. The way she snickered, I could tell she had a crush on him. Now, was he interested? I couldn’t call it. Beans was hard to read, much like Chevy. I hadn’t seen any of the new guys with women except Monfua, so it was nice to see them interact. It was like a guessing game to see who the next Zoo Baby would be to enter our crazy world.

My eyes continued to bounce over the crowd and landed on Dio and Samara, who were going back and forth aboutsomething. He tried dragging her toward Chevy, but she refused. “Hmm,” I mumbled to myself.

My eyes then landed on Diamond and Yana, who looked like they were practically fucking on the dance floor as Zu and Sasha slow rocked with each other. Preach was in the corner talking to some young boys, probably preaching to them. Things seemed to be going well until I spotted Monfua snatch a bottle out of Mali’s hand. They begin to go back and forth about something. Mali shoved Monfua, and they began tussling until Monfua hit him so hard he flew back.

The crowd surrounding the two focused more on Monfua pulling him back while Mali waved him off, finding himself staggering deeper into the crowd. My eyes followed Mali when I saw him being snatched back toward the far back of the lounge. “Oh shit!” I yelled.

Myles looked at me like I was crazy, “What?”

“Mali! Somebody snatched him.”

Myles laughed. “You tripping, it’s Halloween, you just scared.”

“Baby, I’m serious. Look!” I said as I pointed toward the back of the lounge.

Mali and the person with the Michael Myers costume looked like they were going back and forth; something wasn’t right. When the person’s arm came up with a gun in their hand, my stomach sank. They hit Mali over the head before he disappeared into the back. Foe pushed me out of the way, trying to make his way through the thick crowd. It must have been like a bat signal because all of them nigga started to move at the same time. When the guys got to where Monfua was, they began tossing people off him, causing an entire fucking brawl.

I saw Dio’s body fly in the air and come down on someone, while Myles’ arms swung. These niggas were fighting people they didn’t need to while Mali was being fucking taken. Bishopswooped through the crowd with his puppy in his arms. By the time Monfua pointed toward the area where Mali was pulled, I knew they weren’t going to catch the person fast enough.

Just when I thought things were finally going good for the Zoo, we were back at square one. It reminded me of when we had to save Zaria. It never failed that any event the Zoo was involved in never went well, and Zooloween was no exception.

Now the guys were about to paint the city orange to save Mali.