"And then I asked her to go on a date with me." I say finishing up telling Rue what happened.

"No way." She whisper yells.

I was only explaining it to her. Everyone was still here just hanging around. Rue and I stood in the kitchen, just eyeing everyone that was in the living room.

"Yes way. I don't know, she's actually cool. Guess you shouldn't judge a book by its cover." I'll shrug.

"What about Maddy? Ya know I heard from a little birdie that she's thinking about cutting ties with the douche bag." Rue replies.

"Little birdie? You mean Kat?" I ask.

"Yeah but you ain't hear it from me. Seriously though, what's up with Maddy?" She responds.

"Alright look, yesterday she came up to me and asked if we could talk privately. She told me that she wants me but I kind of told her that I couldn't be with her." I answer.

Rue looks at me as if I was crazy. "And why the hell would you say that? The girl you've had a crush on for like two years now basically says she likes you back and you blow it."

"Because everything is a game to her. It's always that lame ass cat and mouse game. That shit might work with Nate but it won't with me. Besides, I don't think she can handle the pressure of an actual relationship." I say.

"And you can?" Rue says a little too loudly, gaining everyone's attention. "You let what happened with Alexa fuck with you everyday. It's like you seem to forget how damaged you were when the relationship ended. I don't think that's a fair reason as to why you keep pushing her away. Especially when she's the one you really want."

I sigh deeply knowing that she's right. It's not a justified reason for me to continuously push Maddy away. At the same time, I'm not always going to be the one to chase her. If she wants me then she has to prove it. Otherwise, I'd like to see how this thing with Cassie is gonna work out.

I look back at everyone to see that their attention was on us. Great, Rue just had to open her big ass mouth.

"Who the hell is Alexa?" Cassie asks.

"Her ex-girlfriend clearly." Maddy answers like it's obvious.

"Why don't you see if getting the situation off your chest makes you feel better about it. I mean I'm like the only one that knows. Me and Bobby, anyways." Rue says.

"And it's gonna stay that way. Alexa is not that important to me anymore to keep talking about the situation." I reply.

"You're lying. It's okay to say that you're still upset. Just talk about it." She says.

I don't say anything. Instead I just look at Rue trying to figure out when the fuck she became some type of therapist. I don't like to talk about Lex for many reasons. But I guess I will today.

I exit the kitchen and sit on the couch with Rue following closely. "If I ever see Alexa again, I just might kill her."

I see everyone's eyes widen in shock, some in fear. "I don't think you should've started it like that." Rue says.

"I'm just telling the truth. She tried to kill me in the first place." I add.

"Tried to kill you how?" Jules asks.

"By setting me up. Turns out she was a member of Mob Piru. That's a blood gang. I represent South Side Compton Crips. Everyone knows the beef between bloods and crips." I pause and take a deep breath before continuing.

"We ain't meet by accident. She purposely ran into me and inserted herself into my life. I just had to be the idiot that fell for her and her plan. This shit went on for two years. I met her when I was 15. Last year, a few days after my 17th birthday, was when her and her gang tried to take me out. I thank God everyday that I realized it was a set up in enough time. If not, I wouldn't be here right now."

"Alexa is a pathological liar. She made me believe that she cared about me, that she loved me. That was a rare feeling for me. I come from the hood, majority of us don't even know what the fuck love is. We don't experience that shit with our parents so it tends to fuck us up for future relationships. I just don't know what happened or what it was but the moment I seen Alexa, I immediately fell in love with her. We did everything together. I used to love her so much we did sales together. I used to bring her to my block, I introduced her to my boys. She was basically my lil gangsta."

"But that meant nothing to her. Her job was to kill me and she almost succeeded. I still remember the feeling when I seen that red bandana hanging out her pocket. That cold look in her eye. She played the shit out of me. But I'll never let that shit happen again." I finish.

Rue knows this story already. She was actually the first person I confided in. Despite her own problems, she's a terrific cousin and helped me through a very dark time.

Maddy looks to be deep in thought. I know I've said I liked Maddy for like the last two years or summers, however you wanna put it. The first year I was still with Alexa so I never acted on anything nor did I ever plan to. At first I just thought she was pretty, hell she still is. I also liked her attitude.

I didn't care that her attitude wasn't the best. It's what attracted me towards her. Well that but I was also in love with Alexa. Maddy and Alexa look so much alike it's crazy. But no, I don't like Maddy just because she looks like Alexa. If anything that would give me a reason not to like her.

Something about her is captivating. It wasn't until a few months ago that I realized the way I first felt about Lex is what I currently feel towards Maddy. Love. I'm in love with Maddy Perez.

But for many reasons I'm scared. It could just be another set up all over again. Or I could just get my feelings played with because she won't let Nate go. Either way, I don't want that to happen which is why I refuse to get so close to her.

Now Cassie, well she's Cassie. I don't have to worry about any of those problems. She doesn't have what it takes to be in a gang and set someone up, unlike Alexa. She had no problem letting go of McKay and moving on, unlike Maddy with Nate.

To put it simply, I'd rather go the easy route.

Cassie looks sympathetic as she climbs into my lap. "I'm sorry you had to go through that." She whispers into my chest.

Yeah, so am I. Alexa fucked up my ability to trust someone for the rest of my life.

________________

Maddy's P.O.V

I sat in Cassie's room along with her, Kat, and Lexi. Y/N had dropped us off about thirty minutes ago. She was stuck on my mind.

It now makes sense why she keeps pushing me away. Nate isn't her biggest problem. That's a cover up. The way she pointed her gun at Nate when he was choking me tells me that she doesn't give a fuck about him.

She's just afraid that I'm gonna be Alexa 2.0. But why isn't she afraid with Cassie? Actually never mind, that's self-explanatory.

It's not the gang related part. I'm not even in a damn gang nor do I think I could handle the shit they go through. It's the lying and deceiving part.

She believes I'll just play with her feelings for my own amusement. That's not what I wanna do. I've experienced a feeling with Y/N that I never felt with Nate.

But this is also different for me. Nate is all I've ever known. There was a few other dudes along the way but those were just hookups.

I don't want Y/N to be a hookup. I don't want to keep this shitty so called 'relationship' that I have with Nate. I want Y/N. She's not him. She's different.

And I want different. In order for me to get that I'm gonna have to do something that I don't ever do. I'm gonna have to chase her. Normally, all the guys and even some girls just chase me. But Y/N isn't going to.

At least not anymore she isn't. She once did but I never showed any interest back. Now I feel fucking stupid.

"Damn, I gotta get ready." Cassie says running to her closet.

"For what?" Lexi asks.

"A date with Y/N. She asked me last night. Then we like made out for like an hour. Best sleep of my life." Cassie answers.

A date? They're going on a fucking date? You gotta be kidding me. Ugh, that is so supposed to be me.

"Bitch are you serious?" I ask.

"Dead serious." She asks.

Lexi looks at me with a knowing look. She was the first and only person I told about my crush on Y/N. Why? Because she can keep a secret and is good at giving advice.

"How did you manage to get with Y/N?" Lexi asks.

"I don't know. I just did. You think I'm not capable of getting an extremely good looking person to go out with me?" Cassie responds defensively.

Damn bitch calm your tits. It's not even that deep. She shouldn't be going out with you though anyway.

"T-that's not what I was saying." Lexi answers stumbling over her words.

I hated that she could never stand up for herself. Especially when it comes to Cassie. Like girl she is not scary or intimidating in the slightest bit. And for someone like Cassie to be such a bitch to someone sweet like Lexi, it pisses me off.

"Where is she taking you?" I ask curiously.

"I don't know. It's a surprise. She just told me to dress casual." Cas answers.

Casual. That means it's nothing fancy. Then again it is their first date so I wouldn't expect nothing too fancy. Hopefully it's their last one.

This is actually killing me to watch Cassie get ready for something that I should be going to instead. I gotta try again with Y/N.

And I know exactly how to start.

__________

Y/N's P.O.V

I stared at myself in the full body mirror. I put on my signature jewelry. Diamond chains, rings, watches, and my grillz. I checked myself out one more time before deciding that it was okay. It's casual attire after all.

I made sure to spray my best smelling cologne. I grabbed everything I needed and made my way out the door. Cassie's house was ten minutes away from mine.

I pulled up on the side of the curb. I knocked on the door with my right hand with a bouquet of flowers in my left.

Cassie opens up the door with a smile already on her face. My breathing skips a little at the fact that she actually looks good. I was hit with a little wave of nervousness at the moment. I'm not sure why.

"These are for you." I say handing her the assortment of roses.

"Thank you these are so beautiful." Cassie says.

"Pretty flowers for a pretty girl." I reply.

I stepped inside the nicely decorated Howard residence. She walks away to put the roses in a vase I'm assuming. In her absence, I was met with Suze.

"Y/N? You've gotten more attractive since the last time I seen you." She says with a wine glass in her hand.

"I could say the same about you." I respond returning the light hug.

"What are you doing here?" Suze asks.

"I'm taking your daughter on a date." I answer, nervous about what she's going to say.

"I always knew you had a thing for Lexi. You've always treated her better than anyone else." She replies as if she's just sure that it's Lexi.

The latter of that sentence is true. I was always and still am nice to Lexi. Like extremely nice. She's a sweetheart that many people seem to overlook. But I'm not into Lexi like that.

She always hung out with Rue and since I was with Rue a lot, we tended to be around each other a lot. But Rue began to treat her poorly so I kinda stepped in. We got pretty close but nothing on that level.

"Uh actually I'm taking out Cassie." I chuckle.

"Oh. Why would you wanna do that?" She questions.

I let out a small laugh. That's a good question. Why the fuck would I wanna do that?

"Mom you better not be embarrassing me." Cassie says.

"Honey you do that all on your own." Suze replies.

"You ready?" I ask.

She nods her head and I respectfully say goodbye to Suze before we head out the door.

__________

"Where are we?" Cassie asks for the millionth time.

"Let's find out." I respond.

I opened up the door for her and helped her out my truck. I looked around and thanked God that there was barely any people here.

"Okay, enough of being mysterious. What is this place?" She asked.

"An ice skating rink. The best ice skating rink in my city. Actually the best in the area including East Highland." I answer.

"We're in Compton?" Cassie says worriedly.

"Don't worry. Nothing bad is gonna happen. You with me." I say.

She looks less scared but honestly she shouldn't have been in the first place. I don't go anywhere without my Glock anyway.

"Why here? Is it because of what I told you?" Cassie asks.

"Kind of, yeah. You should be able to do what you love. Which is why I have one of my good friends here. She's a gold medalist in figure skating. She also taught me how to skate, decently at least, within the time that I dropped you off to before I picked you back up." I say.

Cassie looks at me with her smile never leaving her face. A light blush came on my face as she stared at me. She got a nigga blushing. I can't tell the boys this or they gon roast my ass.

"That's so sweet of you. That's like the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. Thank you." She says hugging me.

I return the hug and kiss her on her forehead. "Ready to go inside?"

"Let's go."

__________

I sat down on the side, semi exhausted. Who knew ice skating is this tiring?

"You're a lot better than I thought. It's actually impressive." Cassie says.

"Nah you are what's impressive. You really good at this shit." I respond.

"Think I surprised myself too. Wasn't sure if I still had it." She chuckles.

"Still had it? Shawty you never lost it." I reply.

I definitely judged her too soon. Getting to know her opened up hella doors for me. There's a lot more to her than what people think.

"Come with me to the restroom." She says.

I look at her with an amusing facial expression. I'm just fucking with her. I know she ain't mean it like that.

"Not like that. I mean I don't want go alone and Compton scares me." She says trying to correct herself.

"Cas, I got you. I was joking." I laugh and she soon laughs along.

We took off our skates and returned them, putting on our original shoes. When we get to the public restrooms she goes inside while I sit on the bench that was outside of the door.

There was a few other women in there from what I could tell so I knew that it was probably gonna take her some time. I looked around my surroundings making sure everything is straight. Just because I'm in my city don't mean I'm safe. I got opps everywhere.

"Y/N." I hear.

Say it ain't so. I know that's not who I think it is. My ears gotta be playing some type of game on me.

"Y/N, is that you?" I hear again.

Because of past situations and protection for myself, I stand up quickly and place my hand on my Glock that was in the waistband of my pants.

"Chill. I'm not here to kill you." She says.

"Probably not this time. What the fuck do you want Alexa?" I ask.

I could feel myself getting mad. Just looking at her pissed me off. Crazy to believe I was once madly in love with her.

"Don't be so hostile. It's just good to see you. You look good." Alexa responds chewing on her bottom lip.

"Good to see me? The last time I seen you, you and your pussy ass gang tried to kill me. Don't lie to me more than you already did." I reply, clearly mad.

"Y/N we come from two different blocks. I bleed red, you bleed blue. We're raised to kill each other. That's just how it is." She says like that makes it better.

"And I wish I would've known that you was an opp. If you wanted to kill me then that's cool. I probably would've tried to shoot yo ass if I would've known you was apart of Mob Piru. But lying to me and making me believed that you cared for me and loved me knowing how I felt about you is fucked up. We from the hood, love don't come to us like that. You know that. You was wrong Lex." I respond.

She sighs deeply before looking me in the eyes. "I've never lied to you about how I felt. When I first met you, yeah that was the plan. To take you the fuck out. You was killing too many damn people from my hood. Everyone talks about getting active and being about it but you really are. Mob Piru wanted to end you so bad. Hell, they still do. But when I told you that I loved you and you said it back. Shit changed. I meant it."

"I really did fall in love with you. I loved being around you. For you to bring me to your block, introduce me to your people, show me off to everyone, that meant everything to me. They embraced me like family until the found out I was for the other team. But Y/N I'm serious. I really loved you and I still do. You were my first love."

I ain't say shit back. What am I even supposed to say? She could be lying right now. And as much as I want to put a bullet in her for what she did, I can't. I can't get myself to do that.

We ain't even supposed to be communicating. If any other Mob Piru or South Side member seen this, we'd both be fucked.

"Oh my God, that line was so long. Who is this?" Cassie says when she finally notices Alexa.

"Cas, this is Alexa. Alexa, this is Cassie. She's my girlfriend." I say quickly.

"Girlfriend?" They both say at the same time.

__________________

Over 3K words, be grateful. I've actually spent the past three nights trying to put this together.

Not Proofread.

Until Next Time.