AMIR

"And drinks for the ladies." Mr. Bianchi puts two drinks down for Sierra and Kehlani.

We used to come here all the time as a kid, even when we had no money Mr.Bianchi would still give us something to eat. I haven't visited in a while and it only felt right to bring Kehlani here.

She has been smiling non-stop every time I interacted with Sierra. I hope she thinks I haven't noticed.

"Thank you." She whispers and Mr. Bianchi gives her a welcoming smile.

"You're family now, you don't have to act shy." He gives her a soft peck on her hand. If that was anybody else- but it's Mr.Bianchi and he doesn't mean any harm.

He looks back to me and gives me a significant look but I understand.

"Bella Ragazza." He smiles at me before walking off. I look at Jayda and her eyes are already on mine.

She really is.

"You remember when you, me and Rico had a fight and Mrs.Bianchi humbled the hell out of us in front of everybody."

"Made us apologise and hug it out." I laugh alongside him.

"How's Rico doing?" He asks. I restrain from showing any emotion about the topic and decide to face my plate.

"Rico is Rico." I reply.

"Right." He replies coldly before stabbing his fork in his steak.

I turn to Kehlani and she was shyly eating her alfredo as if we're going to beat her ass for chewing. Sierra's sipping on her juice rather than eating but I don't mind.

I checked on Sierra every month and sent her mom money. I made sure the money would only be spent on Sierra. Darrel didn't know this though but I know she needed it.

"How's your moms doing?" Darrel turns to me and I scrunch my face up at the question.

"I don't know." I reply nonchalantly and he figures to not ask anymore questions. He takes the hint and decides to switch the conversation.

"You need to go to the bathroom Sierra?" Darrel asks her and she shakes her head.

"Lying ass." I chuckle and so does Darrel.

"Can you take her to the bathroom for me please?" He asks Kehlani and she nods. "You gonna go to the bathroom with Kehlani baby." He tells.

"Ok daddy." Sierra replies before she gets up, holding Lani's hand and they walk off.

"You ever regret having a kid?" I ask him and he shakes his head passionately.

"Fuck no. I just regret not being there for her properly." He replies.

"But are you gonna change that?"

"I need money to change that. But I don't wanna go down the same path as Rico, I ain't built like him." He sighs.

"You want to work for me?" I suggest.

"What will I be doing?"

"You can draw man. You can draw and design and all that shit you've been doing since middle school. You got a talent. I want you to design my next building for my studio. I need a bigger place."

"What?" He shouts out accidentally and I smile.

"I already bought the land, I just want you to design it for me." I tell him and his eyes widen.

Since forever he's always had a thing for making models out of clay and cardboard and his drawing was amazing. I'm surprised he didn't make a career out of it but coming from where we came from, it also wasn't a big deal that he didn't.

"Yeah man, yeah. I want to, i'm interested." He says rapidly and I nod.

"I got you a phone and a laptop."

"Already?"

"One of my spares- unless you want a new one?"

"No man, i'm grateful with whatever."

"I always leave that laptop in the car, you know I always be forgetting shit," I pull out my older Iphone 11 from my pocket and place it down on the table. "This one you can keep. Just reset it. My number is already in it." I slide it over to him and his smile widens.

He raises his hand to dap me up but decides to hug me instead.

"I appreciate you, for everything." He says and I nod. The two of our girls soon walk over and slide into the booth that we were at.

"You barely ate your food." Kehlani frowns, looking at my plate.

I cut up my steak and take a bite in front of her but her frown doesn't drop.

"Always worryin' about me." I huff and she laughs in response.

"Don't flatter yourself, I couldn't care less." She rolls her eyes.

I look over to Darrel who was fiddling with his new phone.

"You good bro?"

"Is this the right time?" He asks me and I nod.

"Yeah, it's 8.30. My watch says the same thing." I chuckle nervously at his panic.

"She told me to drop her back by 9." He sighs.

I look back to Sierra who had finished most of her food anyway.

"You wanna go now?" I ask him and he nods in response. I walk up to the main counter and give Mr.Bianchi 200 dollars. He's used to me giving him large amounts of money and doesn't even try to refuse it anymore.

"I love you my son, be safe out there." He eyes me and I nod. I walk over to Mrs. Bianchi who was cleaning a table and kiss her on the cheek before walking back to my table.

"You want anything else?" I ask Sierra and she shakes her head. She never spoke much so I expected it.

The four us walk out and get into the car. We get to Sierra's house by 9.10 and Sierra is passed out, asleep.

Darrel unstraps her from the car and picks her up over to her house. I hear muffled shouting from outside of the car but I choose to ignore it.

I look over to Kehlani who looked at me nearly straight after. "You okay?" I ask.

"I think so." She replies and I scrunch my face up.

"What do you mean, you think?" I ask and she sighs in response

"I don't know Amir. We never even had a proper talk about the gun thing."

"Is that what's been on your mind?" I ask her and she looks away out of embarrassment.

"So that's what it's about? I told you Jayda-

"No. I'm just scared."

"I told you ma, i'm never gonna hurt you." I reply but she shakes her head.

"No- not that. You haven't stopped checking our area since we drove into the neighbourhood." She expresses

"Look at the neighbourhood. You telling me you feel 100% safe here?" I look at her and she sighs.

"Crimes happen everywhere. I know this place is much more significant, you just don't want to tell me. And you don't have to, I just want to know if i'm safe."

"I wouldn't take you anywhere that jeopardises your safety." I nearly turn to look out the window but I stop considering it won't help the conversation.

"So why do you keep looking around every 10 seconds?  Why do you have a gun on you 24/7?" She asks me. I open my mouth to speak but Darrel enters the car.

"Where should I drop you off?" I ask him as if nothing happened in the last 2 minutes.

"The same place." He replies and I nod.

20 minutes later

"Thank you Amir, so much." He replies before dapping me up.

"Nice to meet you." He turns to Jayda and shakes her hand once more.

"You too." Kehlani smiles before looking back to her phone. Her vibe definitely shifted, it was obvious.

"Call me." I tell Darrel and he nods before walking into his apartment. I wait until I see him get in the door before looking around once more and driving off.

"You wanna finish our conversation now?" I ask her.

"It's not important Amir." She mumbles.

"I don't plan to let you down 'Lani , you know that right?" I turn to her and she smiles.

"Let me down how?" She raises her eyebrow.

"You'll see."

"You've been in this neighbourhood before?" She asks me and I nod.

"I used to live here." I chuckle and she turns to me with widened eyes.

"That's why you kept looking around?" She asks.

"Some niggas in the area think I betrayed them, that's all. If I happened to bump them I would like to be ready, that's why I keep checking where we was at." I explain to her and she nods.

"If we're ever in a situation like that then you should tell me beforehand."

"I don't want to scare you." I reply.

"I'm fucking with you so I know what i'm doing." She replies and I nod.

My fucking ride or die.