“You can’t just leave me, Sahara! I need you!” He grabs my arm and turns me toward him so I start whacking him with my wallet.
“It’s over, Sin! We lost! It’s over!”
“Just… give me a second… to think! Fuck!” He throws me back toward the couch.
I lose my balance and outstretch my arms to find purchase.
But I miss the couch entirely.
A wet squelch sounds off in my ears, followed by a hot flash of pain at the base of my skull.
The last thing I see is Sincere’s haunted face before my world goes black.
Shad
Ibringthedatedmotel key to my face, making sure I’m at the right door. But I already know that, since I’ve done this at least five times.
Door twelve. Second floor of the South Kenton Inn. Sincere is on the other side of this door, probably waiting on me. I can go in here, finish this once and for all, and that’ll be it.
It’s not like I haven’t killed someone before. Shit, it’s not even that I haven’t killed a nigga I know. Several times, I’ve been right beside my brothers cleaning house in the Birch, administering street justice when a nigga goes against the grain. I may not be a BB, but I’m Foe Dub, and Nut always went harder on me and Sean since we were the youngest.
I’ve been trained for this. Bust in there. Two to the chest. One to the forehead for a confirmed kill. Call Bleach for cleanup.
How many times have I done this?
And yet, my feet are rooted in this spot. Unable to cross the threshold.
There’s so many moments that have switched our timelines. So many moments that proved we could never go back to how things were. Too many to count.
But shit, maybe it’s been me going against the grain. Niggas never liked Sin. Even Sean tolerated him. It was me, thinking niggas was bullies. Wanting to include a nigga that seemed like he wanted to be included. Wanting to bring everybody where everybody can’t go. And look what that has cost?
So why is this so hard?
Movement behind the door catches me off guard, and my instincts finally kick in. I slip the key in, unlocking it quickly before turning the knob and throwing it open.
I fire before I can see all the way inside the darkened room, the silenced gunshot slicing through the stale air. Sin grunts and I hear his back hit the wall, followed by a heavy thunk.
Only then do I step all the way inside and close the door.
He’s holding his shoulder, the same one he got Set in. Blood pours out of the wound, but I swallow all the excess spit trying to get me ready to throw up, and only focus on his grill.
I take a seat at the small table and turn on the lamp. Sincere stumbles onto the bed, sitting up against the headboard. I guess what he dropped was his piece, because his free hand, his right hand is clenched.
“It’s crazy,” he forces out, trying to put more pressure on his shoulder. “I met you when you was defending me. And now you’ll be the one to end me.”
I set my gun down and wipe my face. We got nothing but time anyway.
“I’m not mad at you, Shad,” he rambles on. “This is all me… from jump you been nothing but my bro, and I just… I just didn’t listen, man. I should’ve listened. I wish I could go back. You don’t know how much.”
My hand twitches to just end this. Anger flares deep within me as I snatch my shit up, stand and aim at him.
“You never fucked with me, Sin. You couldn’t have. Yo shit started stinking way before all this, and I was too blind to see it. Everyone else did. Sean did. But I just couldn’t think my bro would ho me out like this. And then to fuck my bitch on top of it… slimy as fuck on Foe.”
There it is.
That pure, unadulterated hatred spewing from him as he finally sheds that fake ass facade. It takes me fifteen years, but I see it. If he could, he would do it over. But he’d stop me from helping him.
We were never supposed to be boys.
