25

The next morning, I woke up antsy and paranoid. I hadn’t slept much all night and when I did, all I had were weird dreams. I dreamt Kalvin’s dad was teaching me how to fight. After he showed me a thing or two, he wanted me to prove myself by knocking out Kalvin. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. “It’s okay,” he said. “He deserves it.” When his dad yelled at me to do it, I jumped off the roof and landed in the park where the Metal Detector Man saw me and started chasing me, yelling, “You did it! I know it was you!”

I sat on my bed feeling like they were on to me. Who they were, I wasn’t sure. Jamison? Kalvin? Rodney Graves said arrests would be made. Did they already know everything? I was about to call Destiny, but what if they tapped the phone? That was followed by, How would they know to tap my phone?

I was already late for school, but I got on to my Facebook page. First thing I did was delete any video that had anyone from the TKO club in it. I kept refreshing and logging on and off until I was sure they were gone.

Then I remembered Destiny had shared them and who knows who else shared hers. I panicked. Jumped on Google and luckily figured out that deleting got rid of the shared videos too.

After they were deleted, I grabbed my camera and deleted everything on that as well. And then I thought about my computer. Everything was on there too. Should I delete my hard drive? Yes.

I was losing my mind.

In that moment I thought of Destiny. I couldn’t lose her. I needed to talk to someone and the only someone who might understand was royally pissed off at me.

I texted anyway.

Me: R we ok?

I sent it off. I waited. And waited. No response.

She was normally quick to answer. That was it. I could take a hint. I didn’t want to go back to having no friends. I’d let her chill twenty-four hours, then try talking to her again.

I could call up Mom. She’d be at work, all stressing as she usually does. What was I gonna say? I know what Dad would say: Your problem, you deal with it.

And that’s when somebody pounded on my door. “Open up, police.”

My heart stopped. I looked out my second-story window. I could jump. Maybe onto a car so I didn’t break an ankle. I pictured my mom getting a phone call about how either I broke both my legs from the jump or I was in jail or—

Then I heard someone snickering.

Jesus. I walked closer to the door and now the person was laughing pretty hard.

I peered through the peephole. Prince was standing there, his head shaved.

I flung the door open and smacked him in the shoulder. “You scared the shit outta me!” I hissed.

He held up his hands. “’Spensa—my bad, Fish. I couldn’t help myself. It was too easy.”

I gawked at his pale skull. It made his whole head seem smaller. “Nice look, by the way.”

“Gotta adapt,” is all he said as he walked past me. His eyes scanned the room. He was not impressed. “I really had you scared, didn’t I?”

Why was he here? “How come you’re not in jail?”

“How come you’re not in school?”

I tried not to look panicky. “I wasn’t feeling good.”

He shrugged. “They couldn’t pin anything on me. It was dark. They showed my picture to a couple of witnesses, but they were old and didn’t see so well, so they couldn’t pin it on me. Besides, Destiny was my alibi. We were ‘studying’ together that night.”

I didn’t want to know what that meant. “But it was you, right?”

He smirked. “Got any beer?”

I crossed my arms. “It’s morning.”

“Doritos?”

I shook my head. “What. Do. You. Want?”

He crashed on our couch, spreading out. “K sent me.”

“K sent you? Aren’t you on his shit list?”

He glared at me. “We had a talk.” He grunted painfully as he sank into my couch. “He’s seeing things more my way now.”

“Really.” I said. “What’s he want, then? He can’t text anymore?”

He shrugged. “Just being safe. Don’t know when the cops’re listening.” Prince cleared his throat. He didn’t act so cocky. “Our idea is not to pull back.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means, we go out again on Saturday.” He leaned forward. “Play Knockout. BAM!” He performed an epic knockout punch for me.

I stared at him for a good ten seconds. “Are you. . . as stupid as I think you are? Didn’t you just get questioned by Jamison and that cop?”

He was annoyed by my questions. “Yeah, and what happened? Nada. K said what you said. At first. Then I reminded him that the Knockout King don’t run from nobody. See, they expect their little threat will be enough to scare off the Tokers. But not K and not me. Are you kidding? We thrive on that shit.”

“Yeah, well you can count me out. I’m done.”

He was trying to see if I was bluffing. “Destiny’s coming,” he said.

“Bullshit.”

He leaned back again, shaking his head. “You got huevos, I’ll give you that. If I had my own crew, I’d want you on my side too. Though I hear things are not so good for you at the moment.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, I personally could give a shit one way or the other. But if you’re not there, I’m sure Destiny will step up and take your spot.”

I narrowed my gaze at him. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

He stood and moved toward the door, stopping just short. “Tell me. What did you feel when I pounded on the door and yelled ‘Police’? You probably thought of all kinds of crazy shit. Should I grab a knife? Hide? Jump out the window?”

He saw my reaction to that last one and smiled. “Uh-huh. At that moment, anything coulda gone down. One minute you was just sitting there, the next—you were a chola thinking of becoming a fugitive, right?”

“That doesn’t mean I like it.”

He didn’t believe me. “I seen that look in your eye, when you hit that metal detector guy. The way you stayed behind with K on the roof.”

“So?”

“So you like it. Don’t lie.”

He opened the front door. “I’ll tell ya something else: chinga la juda—fuck the police. They don’t scare me. They want to change the rules? Fine. We can change too.” He poked me in the chest. “We’re making a statement on Saturday, so you better show up next to the library on Grand Avenue. Eleven a.m. Otherwise, those who don’t play, get played.”

“Is that a threat?”

“You’re smart. Figure it out,” he said, walking away.