Page 8 of Rayzor: Tell Me It’s Mine II

My trainer barked instructions, but I wasn’t hearing none of that shit. Tunnel vision. I had to find every weakness, mistake and make the corrections– something I wasn’t giving up on.

I jabbed too hard, pushing him back into the ropes. He barked in surrender, backing off.

“Aiight, we need a ten. You been going strong for over two hours,” he told me.

I nodded, leaning against the ropes. My phone buzzed in the chair. I glanced back before swinging over the ropes and grabbing it.

Maleek.

I tossed the phone back down.

He’s been hitting me up, but with that shit mystery dude in the suit said about everything, I didn’t even wanna have a reason to go to the crib and deal with Ma. I was trying to sort everything out to make sense of it.

The intercom alerted.

“Who the fuck?” I said, grabbing the remote to turn TV to see the monitors.

It was Leek.

“That’s Maleek. Everything aiight?” my coach asked.

I stared off at the screen, feeling something deep within that I couldn’t tell was anger or some more shit.

“That’s what…” my words trailed off as I unraveled one glove. “I’m ‘bout to find out.”

Taking in the background, I spotted a bag with Maleek, and he was alone. It felt like I was waiting on something else in the rear, but when it didn’t appear, I unraveled the other one, dropping them on the seat.

Maleek was standing at the gate. I wasn’t in a rush. He came for a reason.

The neighborhood moved in the distance. Most mothafuckas around this way had careers or were housewives, so everybody did their own thing. I tend to stay out the way, but I know they’re watching.

I threw my head back, arms crossed. “How you get that?”

He fixed the strap of his bookbag. My eyes landed where his hand went, then back to his face. He had a steady glare in his eyes.

He sniffed. “Something light,” he replied with his chest out.

I could’ve pushed it, but I already knew how it got there. I did this shit for a living. The question wasn’t how it got there, but why it was there to begin with.

“How you get here?”

“Uber.”

A car passed along the street behind us, catching both our attention. I guess we were both waiting on something; we wouldn’t say what it was, but we knew.

“You gon’ let me in?”

I hit the button. The gate slowly slid back. Maleek’s eyes traced the bars as it rolled along. The chain buckled as it did so. The further it went back it opened the space between us.

“I figured this the only way to get you to say something to me. I been hitting you up. You mad at me or something?”

I slipped my hands in my pockets.

“Nah, man,” I exhaled, shaking my head. “I just been tryin’ to get my shit right after Vegas.”

“You sure ‘cause it feels like you’re ducking me.”

I put him in a playful chokehold. “You the older brother or me, lil’ nigga?” I chuckled.