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Chapter Nineteen

CREED CRAWFORD

“Let’s run it back, nigga,” I said to my brother, as we were at my pops condo, sitting in the living room, playing Madden.

We’d been on the game for a little over two hours, and so far, I’d beat Legend’s ass three times, and he just beat me once, and because I was the kind of person that didn’t like to lose, here I was, wanting to run another game back, just so I didn’t have to end the night off, knowing that I lost to my brother in one of my favorite games to play.

“Man, no. Accept the fact that you lost. It’s damn near one in the morning.

I’m not trying to sit up here, playing the game with you all night,” Legend spat, dropping the controller down on the couch, and he reached over, where there was a small table in front of us, that housed two boxes of pizzas, wings, and the ultimate chocolate chip cookie from Pizza hut.

There was only about three slices of pizza left, maybe two wings, and half the big ass chocolate chip cookie was already gone.

It was just the two of us at my pops condo right now.

Our parents had to fly to New York for a funeral in the morning.

They were supposed to come back tomorrow evening sometime.

Legend and I ordered food to the house, and had just been on the game, chilling.

My brother sat there, eating pizza, and I dropped the controller on the table in front of me, kicking my feet out, putting them on the table as well, and the second I got comfortable, my phone started ringing.

My phone was resting on the arm of the couch, so I quickly picked it up, seeing that it was a facetime call from Vivian.

Me and Vivian were cool. Ever since that night we talked on the phone for the first time, we started talking a little bit more after that, but it wasn’t anything too serious.

In school now, she’ll walk over to me and give me a hug now.

I didn’t mind talking to her. I made her out to be this bougie, racist white girl, but she was cool.

She found some kind of comfort in me for whatever reason, so she would often confide in me about shit that she was going through at home.

Mainly just talking to me about the toxic environment that she was growing up in with her parents.

I went ahead, and slid the bar across the screen, so that I could answer the phone for her. The second the call connected, I could hear loud music, and people talking in her background. Her beautiful face appeared on the screen, and she was smiling, once she saw me.

“What’s good?” I asked her, and she giggled at my question.

“Nothing. What are you doing?” she wanted to know.

“Shit, chilling. Me, and Legend just finished playing the game. What’s up?” I blurted.

“I’m having a little get together at my house right now.

My parents went out of town. Some kind of convention that they both had to attend.

I have a few friends over. We ordered food.

I have drinks, and we’re just having a good time.

It’s a few card games going on, dance contests, but everyone is just chilling for the most part.

Do you and Legend want to come?” she asked, and Legend overheard the question, which caused him to suck his teeth, and shake his head.

Because this was my twin brother, I damn near told this nigga everything.

He knew that I was talking to Vivian. He knew it wasn’t anything serious though.

He didn’t agree with it and was always telling me that I needed to be careful, and watch her, and I understood that.

“It’s black girls over there? My brother don’t like white girls,” I truthfully said, which made her laugh.

“It’s black girls here. Almost all of my cheer mates are here.

Are ya’ll going to come?” she asked again, and I turned my head to look at Legend, just to see what he was going to say.

His ass was already shaking his head no.

I’ve done some shit to land myself in hot water over the years with my parents, but I’ve never been the type of kid to sneak out and shit.

I didn’t have to. My parents were cool, and if we asked to go to a party or something, they would let us.

It was after one in the morning though, so if they were here, then the answer would have been hell no if we were to ask to attend Vivian’s party.

“Hold on,” I said to Vivian. I muted the phone, and turned my camera screen off, so that she wouldn’t be able to hear or see the conversation that I was getting ready to have with my brother.

“If you about to try and convince me to go to that girls house, then the answer is no,” Legend was quick with his response.

“Damn nigga, at least let me ask you first. We don’t even have to stay long.

Let’s just stay for an hour max, and then we can get the fuck on.

Me, and Vivian been talking to each other for a little minute, but we haven’t kicked it or anything outside of school.

It’s going to be all kinds of girls out there.

You can slide on one of them,” I was trying to convince Legend.

“Creed, you don’t see what time it is nigga?

You act like pops not the kind of person that won’t roll over in the middle of the night, just to check our location, and see where the fuck we at.

If him, and ma find out that we left the house this late to go to a white bitch house, and party with her, and all her white friends, man it’s going to take the whole Miami to get them off us.

If you want to see her so bad, go out with her tomorrow morning or in the afternoon sometime.

Why you gotta see her now?” Legend wanted to know.

“Man, we do everything right. We go to school, I play sports, you do your shit with STEM, nigga we can sneak out once to go to a fuckin party. Fuck is you being scary for?” I snapped, standing up from the couch, looking down at my brother.

I could tell that I was moving him with my words because the hard look on his face was softening up a little bit.

“How we going to even get out there?” he asked after maybe two minutes of silence.

“I’ll call us an UBER. Leave your phone here though.

That way if pops does wake up in the middle of the night, he can check your location and see that we’re still here.

Ima just turn my location off. Act like my phone died or some shit because if my phone died, and it’s turned off, they won’t be able to see my location.

I swear we don’t have to stay long. Let’s just pull up, see what the vibes looking like, stick around for a little bit, and we can come back over here.

Pops don’t have his condo swamped in cameras like ma does, so we can easily walk out without getting caught,” I bribed.

“Whatever man. If shit goes wrong, I’m putting the blame on your ass,” he told me, and I nodded, letting him know that was cool. I picked my phone up, un- muted the call, and allowed myself to be visible on the screen again.

“Text me your address. We going to slide. You stay in a gated community? What are we supposed to tell the guard at the gate?” I asked her.

“Okay. I’m going to text it over now. I called the gate already, telling them that I’m having a little get together, so they know to just let anyone in that gives them my address. You going to take an Uber out here?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I responded.

“Okay. Let me know when you’re on the way,” she said, and I told her that I would, and then we hung up.

“If shit go left, this is on you,” Legend reminded me one last time.

“Nigga, stop saying that. You jinxing this shit!” I snapped on him.

He didn’t say anything else after that. I went ahead and headed for my bedroom that I had over here.

We’d already showered for the night, so I just went inside my closet, looking for something to wear.

I had a brand new, all- black Amiri outfit, so I pulled that out, with the matching Amiri sneakers.

I tossed the outfit on the bed, and I went back into my closet, so that I could pull out my chain, bracelet, and one of my rings.

Once the outfit was put together, I headed to the bathroom, so that I could brush my teeth, and wash my face.

I removed the do- rag that I had over my head, that was protecting my straight back braids.

My braids were nice and fresh. I had a fresh line up too, but I still took a small brush, just to brush down the front, where my line up was, and once I was satisfied with how I looked, I headed to my bedroom, so that I could get ready.

I threw my outfit on, the sneakers, and I made sure to spray my cologne because my pops taught my brother and I at a young age that a nigga should never leave the house smelling musty.

By the time I finished getting dressed, Legend was already out in the kitchen area, waiting for me.

My brother was fly too, rocking a Burberry fit.

Just like my fit was brand new, so was his.

The kitchen had good lighting, so before we left out, we flicked it up, having him take a few pictures of me, and I did the same for him.

Now, all that was left for us to do was order the Uber.

I saw an option for an electric car to be here in five minutes, so that’s what I selected.

“Let’s head downstairs. You left your phone, right?” I asked him, just to clarify.

“Yeah. It’s in my room. You already turned your location off?” he wanted to know.

“Yeah. Come on. We good,” I assured him.

I grabbed my set of house keys that I had, and just like that, we were walking out of the door.

Outside, we walked the hallway, going over to the elevator, where we stepped on, and we took it down all the way to the lobby.

By the time we got off the elevator, and outside of the building, the white tesla model X was already pulling up.

It was a Spanish dude that was pulling up.

He unlocked the doors for us, spoke, and after that, he stayed quite.