Page 62 of Not A Homie, Lover Or Friend
When I turned around, Beans stood over me. He held fangs on his teeth. His locs were wild like his eyes. He wore his leather jacket, no shirt underneath, and black jeans. It was as if hewasn’t a character but his usual self. “Who are you supposed to be?” I asked.
He winked. “Beast,” He growled.
The shit scared me. I cleared my throat as I turned back around. We all gathered to take one big group photo. “On three happy Zooloween!” I squealed.
On Cue, everyone screamed.“Happy Zooloween!”
FOE
The crew had grown bigger and stronger. I watched as everyone mingled around Diamond and Yana’s crib. It was nice to see everyone all dressed up and shit. If you had asked me a year ago, would I have imagined the Zoo would look like the answer would have been ‘fuck no’. Despite the direction Lakia and I were going in, it was nice to see her happy.
I know Monfua, and I had a brief conversation, but I wanted to make it clear that I had nothing against him. I knew the key to being an OG was growing up and setting examples for the newbies. I mean, don’t get me wrong, a shoota I will always be, but I knew it was time to grow the fuck up. I needed to grow up for me, Harvey, and the crew.
Before I could make my way over to Monfua, Streets came up to me. His demeanor said he wanted to get some shit off his chest. “Sup,” he nodded.
“Sup.”
“You cool with Monfua or what? Because to be honest, that’s my nigga and I would hate to—”
I turned to him. “Hate to what? Huh?”
I felt myself getting defensive, but remembered I was trying to be a changed person. Streets was only doing what I would have done if I felt like someone had beef with any of my niggas that I was close to. I dropped my head, then ran my hands through the dry ass Chuckie wig. “No smoke,” I said as I held my hands up. “We’re brothers. Zoo over everything. Just as I need to remember that, so do you. I respect it, though,” I finished.
He held his hand out, and we dapped each other up and came in for a hug. As soon as he walked away, Lakia and Monfua cameup to me. I could see Harvey peeking at me as she held one of the twins in her arms. I pulled my eyes away from her to focus on the two in front of me. “Monfua, nigga, you straight?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m good. Look, I—”
I held my hand out. “Nah, y’all got my blessings. Shit, it’s not like y’all needed it to begin with. We’re brothers, and I’ve got your back. You take care of her,” I said as my eyes shot to my sister.
She swallowed deeply. I hadn’t said that to make amends with her, yet to give her the peace she needed to know I was no longer going to interfere in her life. Lakia and I were still blood, but our relationship was definitely going to be different. The sound of Dio’s voice boomed through the house. “It’s spooky as hell out there. I smell trouble! Let’s party!” he shouted.
Everyone began to leave the house. I almost felt just as Harvey did. My gut feeling was telling me tonight wasn’t going to be as smooth as we hoped. Either way, the Zoo was here to stay, and whatever creepy shit that happened, they had better be ready because although we were men in the process of becoming better, we were still with the shits and would turn one nice of myths and spooky legends into the real thing.
The Zoo terrors of the night.
MONFUA
A nigga was feeling like a million bucks as we rode through the streets in unity. From getting accepted into the academy to my parents getting back together to getting an imperfect woman with whom I could grow old with, it was more than I could ask for.
Sukalati’s arms tightened around my waist as I hit the corner, swerving low on my bike.“Woo!”she shouted.
“Ouu! Ouu!”I howled.
Dio’s laugh came in my headset. “Calm your ass down. Howling in my ear and shit. We get it nigga you got some pussy.”
“Zu, niggas get your brother!” I shouted.
They all started laughing, “Welcome to the Zoo nigga!” Zu yelled.
When stopped at the red light, Diamond pulled up alongside me with Yana holding him tightly. Diamond lifted his visor, then winked and nodded before flipping his visor back down. Although I had my reservations about the Zoo at one point, my feelings toward the crew were much different. I felt accepted. Just as Sukalati had to go through her initiation, so did I, and that was being able to trust a group of niggas I was only starting to get to know.
While we waited for the light to change, I spotted a car pull up behind me with a nigga with a Michael Myers mask on. The feeling that came over me was almost unsettling. When the light turned green, everyone took off. Mali then came in, “I will link up with y’all there in a minute. I need to make a stop.”
“Nigga where are you going?” I asked.
“To mind mines. I will get up with you,” he said as he hit the corner.
I honestly wanted to follow his ass, but I had my wife with me, and the last thing I was going to do was put her in a situation, and knowing Mali, it was some bullshit. Tonight wasn’t the night to be getting into shit. Everybody was dressed in disguise. If something happened, we wouldn’t know what or who the fuck did it. Mali had some shit with him, and it was clear his brothers had no clue. All I know is if we had to save this nigga I was going to beat his ass just off GP.
