Malik answered with a low, “Cuh?”
Zaire came in loud like always. “I was gon’ wait till the morning, but nah—I had to call. You got people askin’ ‘bout Plugged In, cuh.”
Malik blinked, still half in his own head. “Who?”
“Some exec from Tech Tank, Caleb. He was at the club with me tonight—saw the app when I was ‘bout to place a re-up. Said the encryption had him shook. Like, in a good way.”
Malik leaned back on his hands, lips pressed in a line. “What he want?”
“He tryna fly you out. Talkin’ licensing, scale-up, maybe a collab app. Cuh this the type of opportunity that don’t come ‘round twice.”
Malik let the silence stretch before answering. “White?”
Zaire sighed. “Come on, cuh.”
“White?” he repeated.
“Yea. But he different?—”
“They always different ‘til they not. They like how gritty the shit look ‘til they try to polish it with Starbucks and ‘urban’ fonts. Next thing you know, Crescent Park ain’t even in the damn app no more, just white boys with faded haircuts and Black trauma in a slide deck.”
Zaire paused. “I knew you was gon’ say that.”
Malik laughed bitterly. “Course you did. Then why you call fuckin’ up my peace?”
“But let me say this. Caleb asked if he could keep the name. Said‘it’s already perfect.’He ain’t even flinch when I told him the app was built in a Crip neighborhood. Said he respects the fact that it was real, raw, and already saving lives.”
Malik rubbed his thumb over the bridge of his nose. “He say anything about compensation? Ownership?”
“He said he don’t move without equity deals – wants you in on it, a full seat at the table.”
Malik’s stomach twisted like it always did when something big hovered nearby. He looked back at the pill bottle.
“I don’t even know if I want them in it, Z,” he muttered. “I made that app with pain in my chest. I ain’t sleep for two days when that little girl got shot walkin’ to the damn bus stop.Pharaoh helped code the alert feature with his damn nose tube in…that shit sacred to me.”
“And it still can be. But only if you the one makin’ the moves. Cuh, you can’t be scared to scale just ‘cause the idea started in the hood. You made somethin’ powerful. Don’t let guilt or grief trap it here.”
Malik went quiet again. The weight of it all sat heavy in his gut. “I remember sittin’ on Pharaoh’s porch with him sayin’ he wish he had a way to track where not to go. From seein’ kids post up not knowin’ the next street over got beef. This ain’t no damn app to make money. This for Crescent, for The View…for them blue neighborhoods they don’t even put on no damn maps.”
“Facts,” Zaire agreed, ‘cause he knew what colors really meant. “But…what if itcouldbe all that and more? What if us in those rooms made sure the shit stayed ours?”
“You sound like her,” he mumbled.
Zaire dropped his voice. “This about Aku too?”
Malik’s head jerked like the word hit him.
Zaire didn’t wait for confirmation. “What you do?”
“Who said I did anything?”
Zaire laughed. “’Cause I know how scared hood niggas get when something good land in their lap, like an extended clip when it’s time to slide on niggas.”
“Mannn…”
“Heard what happened after I left too. I know she was still out there. That shit scared her off?”
Malik scoffed. “Hell, nah. She got my ass up out of there.”
