Page 53 of Rayzor: Tell Me It’s Mine II

“I know, but I’m tired for real. I had to put the finishing touches on my project overnight. I’m sleepy.”

“Leek, where’s Rayzor?” someone yelled,passing by.

I shrugged. “He ain’t here.”

Courtland comes to my school sometimes to get me. Everybody knew I was his little brother, and that got me by a lot. Even the teachers knew of him, so it worked in my favor. Not all the time, but it works where it’s necessary.

“Dang. Okay. Hopefully next time.”

I threw my head back. “Yeah.”

“Alright, well I’ll hit you up tomorrow or something,” Joey said.

“Bet.”

We dapped up, and they left. I went back to the auditorium to take more pictures of my project. All the hard work and sleepless nights this took. At one point, I thought I wasn’t going to be able to finish it, but I did.

I killed time until I realized my friends were gone then slipped out the side door without the teachers seeing. With my backpack over my shoulder, I stuck one headphone in and started walking. The wind was howling and kicked the leaves across the parking lot. The trees swayed from side to side, but it wasn’t too cold.

I tried pushing Courtland not showing up to the back of my head but couldn’t. Things between us ain’t been right in a minute, and I was starting to feel like it was because he had Eris now. I saw the blogs all talking about how she was wearing an engagement ring, but he never told me he was getting married. Telling Ma wouldn’t even make a difference since she didn’t care.

I heard tires slowly creeping behind me, but I kept my head straight and put my hand in my jacket pocket for mace. I wasn’t trying to stop, so I walked a bit faster. It kept following behind me.

A lot of people knew not to fuck with me because everyone knew who my brother was. But Court has always told me to keep an eye out because everybody doesn’t have good intentions, and they’ll try to get me to get to him. I still wasn’t thinking today would be the day.

Then the truck pulled in front of me.

I jumped out of the way, and snatched my headphone out, ready to fight whoever it was.

“Your cognitive instincts are horrible, nothing like your brother,” Mr. Semaj said from the back passenger seat behind the driver as the window rolled down.

I rolled my shoulder, hiking my bag up. “My instincts ain’t wrong. I’m not my brother. I heard you on the side of me.” I pulled out my mace, dropping my hand by my side.

His eyes dropped on it, and he smirked a little when he saw it.

“Not the first choice, but at least you were willing to protect yourself.”

I didn’t reply.

“Get in, I can take you home.”

Ma’s words about staying away from the person who was leading me down a dark path replayed in my head. I wasn’t tripping, or I thought she was right, because she didn’t even know Mr. Semaj. She wanted to control me, and I felt that since I had something going on outside of what she knew. She didn’t want me doing it because it wasn’t her doing.

“I ain’t going home right now.”

His driver got out and opened the door for me.

“I’ll take you wherever you’re trying to go.”

The door opened, and the streetlight shone through the dark tint.

I dropped my bag into my hand and climbed inside. The seat always felt premium. The ride always smelled new. His driver closed me in and went back around to the front.

Mr. Semaj did something on his phone before slipping it into his suit jacket.

“Congratulations on your first-place win.”

“How do you know about that?”