Prologue
When It All Fell Apart
October 2009
Baby you're my everything, you're all I ever wanted,
We could do it real big, bigger than you ever done it
You be up on everything, other hoes ain't never on it
“Nigga, that was the lick of the fuckin’ century. We for sure ‘bout to come up off them birds we just copped. This may could be the last time we have to hit a lick tho, for real,” my bae Rue said, as he yelled over Drake’s Best I Ever Had as it blasted over the radio.
I was sure he thought that my sister and I would be too busy jamming to the music and couldn’t hear him, but my ass was always eavesdropping. Shit, I knew what my nigga did for a living, and he kept it dirty. Anytime he talked about his business in front of me, I was sure to keep my ears open. I never knew when some shit he did would come back on him, and if and when it did, I wanted to be ready. That nigga wasn’t about shit and was always taking somebody’s stuff for a come up, but I loved that nigga. He was my nigga. We had been together for four years, since I was fourteen years old, and since then, Rue had become my everything. I couldn’t imagine my life without him.
My parents had tried everything to keep him and I apart, but you know love ain’t never steered a bitch clear from danger and only lured her right in. I was addicted to Rue and everything about him screamed that he was a bad boy, and my parents knew that, but I just had to have him. His thug persona was what made it so easy for him to talk me out my drawers at such a young age and have me going against everything my parents told me. I would sneak out at night, skip school, lie, and steal just to be with Rue. It was only right because if I didn’t, another bitch would, and that I wasn’t having.
Everything was cool though, now that I had turned eighteen. My parents told me I could no longer stay with them being that I was grown, and I understood and wasn’t going to dare fight them over it. Rue quickly opened up his two-bedroom apartment to me and life was grand for us. No matter how he got his money, he made sure we didn’t struggle or want for anything, and I couldn’t do nothing but respect him for that.
“Cuba, bitch, I have something to tell you,” my sister Alaska said, as she whispered into my ear, only loud enough for me to hear her over the music. I looked over at her light brown skin, and even in the night light, I could see that she was flushed. Whenever she was nervous or stressed about something, her cheeks would turn red, and right about now, they looked like they were burning with fire.
Alaska was a year older than me, and even though she was old enough to make her own damn decisions, my parents blamed me for her dating Bry, which was Rue’s best friend. True, if it hadn’t been for me dating Rue, Alaska and Bry wouldn’t have met, but Alaska did what the fuck she wanted to do. Shit, to be honest, she was nowhere near as innocent as my parents believed her to be. She was a bad girl and had always been that way. I was the good girl that fucked around and fell in love with a thug, and it fucked me up how they were always in my shit about turning Alaska and making her become rebellious. How the fuck is that my fault; I thought as my face involuntary scrunched up into a frown. I quickly shook that shit off. No matter how hard they tried to make me out to be the villain and tear my sister and I apart, we wasn’t having that. I loved her to the death of me, and I knew she felt the same.
I brought my attention back to Alaska. She was looking as if she was struggling to get whatever it was off her mind. She looked ahead to make sure Bry couldn’t hear her, and then, brought her attention back to me. We had just left the State Fair of Texas on some double date type shit and were now cruising through the South. Everything had been good between all of us, so I couldn’t imagine what could be wrong with Alaska. It was around ten or eleven at night and the streets were wet from the light drizzle that fell from the sky. I had a bad feeling in my gut, but I couldn’t tell if it was because I felt like Alaska was about to deliver me some bad news or something else. I guess, maybe Alaska felt the tension radiating off my skin, because she reached in her purse and pulled out a fat ass blunt. Just looking at how much weed Alaska had packed into that ‘rillo had me rolling my eyes. That bitch loved to get high. If my parents only knew that it was Alaska that got me started on smoking that purple, they would have a fit.
“Alaska,” I said, as I scooted across the backseat, practically leaving her with no room to breathe. “What bitch? Tell me what the fuck is up already. You looking all nervous and got me scared over here.”
She swallowed hard, before she took a pull off the hay and handed it over to me. I did the same, but only I didn’t take in as much. It was some good, too, because it had me in a coughing fit the minute it penetrated my lungs.