Page 78 of 10,000 Hours With A Rich Menace

They all gasped and looked away, remembering the last time that I picked a nigga’s eyes out his head while forcing them to watch. Ryan was in the front row, so I don’t know why he wanted to betray me like this.

“Sick ass nigga,” I heard the one in the back mumble.

A fun fact about me is that my ears were sensitive. I could hear every fucking thing, even when somebody mumbled some shit in a warehouse that echoed. It was the reason my room was on the third floor. I originally had it on the second floor, but I could hear the humming from the fridge’s downstairs. Jeffie thought I was crazy because the distance from the kitchen to the second floor was vast, and she couldn’t hear what I was talking about.

I could.

Ryan knew how I got down and decided that he was going to stick his neck out on the line for somebody who wouldn’t do the same for him. He knew when I got to the edge, there was no pulling me back. The only thing that made sense to me was crazy.

“Yo, Mens?” I heard Core’s voice and had come back to reality, realizing that I was now in front of homie, and my gun was lodged in his throat.

I looked at my phone and then called Wonder. “Yes?”

She was painting. I could hear “Fire and Desire” playing softly in the background and her voice sounded far away, which meant she had me on speaker. “Do me a favor, Wonder?”

“Sure, one sec’.”

“Nah, baby, you don’t have to stop what you’re doing… give me a number.”

“A number?”

“Yeah… any number, Wonder.”

“Why would you want me to give you a random number, Mavie? Unless this is like a surprise, and you need the number to confirm… um…”

“Wonder, baby, this ain’t rocket science. Give me a number, Beloved.” I continued to hold this gun in his mouth, drool spilling from his mouth, pissing me off.

“Four.”

“Bet.”

I ended the call and pulled that trigger four times while everyone around him scattered, even homie holding his leg. “Don’t fucking call me a sick nigga ever in your life.”

“You’re fucking sick for killing your family…. A fucking Menace,”I heard my uncle’s last words before I took his life ringing in my head. I opened and closed my eyes a few times to get that shit out of my head.

Nobody said shit as I looked at the gun and then commenced to beating the fuck out his dead body, blood splattering everywhere. When I was done and had enough, I tossed the gun on the floor beside him, and Duke handed me a towel to wipe my hands.

“You straight… breathe… your point was proven, Boss,” Duke whispered to me, and I nodded my head. “Change of clothes in the back and we keep pushing… need to go pick that up for Steve-o.”

I looked at the back and headed to change, while Corleon kicked a dead Ryan in the head. “Big Mens… handled business.”

Stevie

I listenedto my favorite Tems song as I painted with no direction. All I was doing was stroking the brush on the canvas while soaking up the energy of this studio. I’ve never had a studio, a dedicated space for my art. Maverick had housekeeping put my finished Lego sets up on display on the other side of the studio.

My favorite Caposcents incense burned in the distance as I hummed the song, feeling the words with my entire soul. Every time I listened to this song I related to it on a deeper level. The hair on my arms stood at attention, and my heart became tight because I had never related to a song so much.

With my eyes closed, I sang the song with my heart, sounding horrible, but feeling good. There were days when I sang this song and sounded horrible while feeling the same exact way. As I sat on the stool, crooning the words to Interference, my soul felt happy.

The sun was shining down on me from the glass roof, and I smiled when I looked up. Was this a sign from my mother? I’ve been asking her for a sign, something that told me that she was watching me, and I never got one.

As the sun was shining down on me, not blinding me, I felt this warmness, like a hug. “I feel you, Mommy,” I whispered, as I stuck the paint brush into my messy bun and continued to sing. In a way, I felt like she was telling me that I was going to be alright. The circumstances that landed me on Maverick’s radar may have started out bad, however, there was a reason I was here.

God had a reason for putting me in his path. It felt crazy even saying a man like Maverick needed me because he didn’t need anyone.

Except, I felt like he really did need me.

My phone pulled me from my thoughts, and I saw my grandmother’s name come across the screen. Sucking my teeth, I put the phone on speaker and pulled the brush back out of my hair to continue fucking around on this canvas.

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