𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 ²

fourteen.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
pet snake

Hakeem

next day

It was Saturday, which meant Hakeem and Royalty had nothing planned for today. They sat on the couch, watching a movie with a bucket of popcorn in between them. What movie? The fucking Avengers.

Royalty was obsessed with the Avengers, and Hakeem would never understand it. "I thought only guys obsessed over superheroes?"

Royalty looked over at her. "Hakeem, have you seen Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and Peter Parker? They are fineeeeee!"

He was disgusted. "I'd appreciate it if you stopped obsessing over white men."

"Oh trust me, you're gonna be obsessing over a white woman when you see Black Widow."

"Black who?"

Royalty pointed at a redhead with an all black suit on. She was doing some crazy ass fighting moves, and Hakeem leaned in closer to watch her. "Daaamn. She bad."

"Isn't she?!" Royalty giggled and ate some popcorn as Jamal came in.

"Morning, y'all."

Oh, yeah. Jamal was there too. He had spent the night for some reason.

Jamal plopped down next to them. "What y'all watching?"

"The Avengers."

"Oh word? Thor's the homie."

Royalty bragged. "See! Even Jamal likes superheroes!"

Hakeem took a jab at Jamal. "I'm surprised because he's a little feminine." Jamal glared at him, and Hakeem laughed. "You know I'm joking!"

"Mhm."

Hakeem changed the topic. "So you wanna tell us why you spent the night?"

"Mateo kicked me out."

"He kicked you out of your own condo?"

"Yup."

Ro didn't agree with that. "That's not acceptable, Jamal. He doesn't pay the bills."

"I don't either. Dad does."

"Which he shouldn't, since he's gonna have to worry about his own bills soon," Royalty mentioned.

"Yeah, medical bills. Because he's dying." Jamal sighed. "Which is a shame because I'm starting to like him."

Royalty was sad now. "That always happens when it's too late."

Hakeem spoke. "Alright, enough with the sad shit. Watch the movie."

Ro leaned in to Jamal. "He likes Black Widow."

And Jamal said, "Who doesn't?"

They continued watching the movie and were having a good ass time until Andre The Giant decided to come in and ruin the vibe. The three of them looked at him as if he was out of his damn mind. He must be, if he came there.

"Hey. I heard about that Blake guy. What's going on?" Andre asked. They just watched the movie. Andre huffed. "You're going to ignore me?"

Royalty spoke with an attitude. "What did you hear, Andre?"

"That he was in your room."

"It's none of your business, Dre," Hakeem said angrily.

"Yes it is. She's my sister, and I want to have her back."

That made Hakeem stand up. "Jamal and I have her back. You don't; you never did."

Andre looked hurt. "What are you talking about, baby brother? I never sabotaged her!"

"Don't call me baby brother because you ain't a brother. You're nothing but this family's pet snake."

Jamal groaned in annoyance. "Does this family ever stop arguing?"

Ro shook her head. "Nope. That's why I wonder how I became a Lyon."

"We wouldn't be arguing if his ass didn't come here," Hakeem told them.

"And we wouldn't be arguing if you three would grow the hell up!" Andre spat.

Now Jamal stood up. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"All of you need to grow up and let your grudge go. Yes, I wanted to be CEO. Who cares?! I made a mistake! I'm human!" He kept going. "You three need to get off your high horses and stop acting like you're perfect. You messed up on your own, Hakeem. I didn't tell you to put a hit out on Jamal. You did that yourself."

Jamal argued back. "You instigated the beef. And you should be the last person talking about high horses because you thought you were better than all three of us combined."

"I don't anymore. I'm sorry for what I did. It won't happen again."

Royalty was tired of him. "You know what? I'm out. I literally can't listen to him."

Andre yelled after her. "Then don't listen to me. And don't forgive me either, because God already forgave me. That's all the acceptance I need."

"That's a damn lie. God don't like ugly," Hakeem retorted.

"Exactly. He doesn't like how you three are treating me."

Jamal rolled his eyes and waved Andre away. "Oh bye, Dre!" Then he left.

"Great. Now we can't finish the movie because of you." Hakeem bumped shoulders with Andre and left too. He was trying to stay civil for Jamal's sake because he said he didn't want any more drama, but Andre had provoked him once again. He had provoked all of them. He needed to get exposed.

Hakeem was going to make sure the diss version of him and Jamal's song, was the version that got released. Fuck Andre.

Andre

Andre drove home while talking to Rhonda. He was trying not to have an outburst, but it was hard. He was angry, he felt like he was about to explode at any second. That was what bipolar disorder did.

Andre was trying to hurry and get home because he couldn't even focus on the road right now. His anger was clouding his thoughts, and he didn't want to crash into one of those cars.

"Andre, you need to calm down."

"I can't calm down, Rhonda! My siblings hate me and I'm sick and tired of it! How many times do I have to say sorry?!"

Rhonda said, "They need to cool down."

"It's been a week, and they still haven't cooled down. They never will. Especially Hakeem and his smart ass mouth. He makes me want to snap his neck."

That startled Rhonda. "Stop talking like that! He's your brother!"

"No he's not! He made it clear I'm nothing but a pet snake!"

Rhonda sighed. "Just please hurry home. I'll have a cold bath waiting for you. That always calms you down."

"Yeah, that sounds nice." They hung up and Andre waited at a red light. It was taking forever to turn green, which made him even more angry. So angry that he honked his horn nonstop. The driver beside him looked at him weirdly, but Andre didn't care. He needed to get home.

He stopped honking the horn and looked around, and guess who he spotted? Blake. He was talking to a familiar man. A real familiar man.

Andre believed that was one of Lucious' security guards that he had hired to watch the mansion. Blake handed him money, which was suspicious because he was just in Royalty's room, and now he was paying one of the security guards?

Andre took a picture of the encounter as evidence. His family didn't want to hear from him right now, so he drove home. He'd tell Lucious later.