BELIEVE {BxB}

ELEVEN

Maurice

I stared at my neck in the mirror in this small two stall bathroom. Red bruises were all over my neck 'cus of Angel. That was the best few minutes of my life-that is until he pushed me away.

Now he isn't talking to me.

This nigga is so confusing.

On top of that, I nutted all in my boxers just from a simple kiss. That shit was embarrassing as hell. It's been a while since I done anything, aight?

So that took a good five minutes to clean.

Groaning, I just put some toothpaste on my toothbrush and began to brush my teeth like what I was supposed to do.

I start to feel myself get angry the mo' I thought about Angel ignoring me fa' no reason at all and he's the one who kissed me. I ain't neva' came onto him-it was him.

His words played in my head.

"I told you I don't roll that way, Maurice."

Either he's gay or not. If he was really straight then he woulda neva' have kissed me or gave me some fucking hickeys. So he must really liked me then.

Afta' a while of brushing my teeth, I spit out the toothpaste and rinsed my mouth and toothbrush.

I threw on a hat and unlocked the bathroom door, keeping my head low, entering back into the dollar store.

When I was just about to walk out the store to go back to the car, I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard the tv talm 'bout the incident.

What looks to be Jackson's mom was crying on the television as his dad rubbed her shoulders. "My son didn't deserve to die the way he did. He didn't do anything to anyone-he was never a harm. All he wanted to do was go to school and play football, hoping one day to go to the NFL. He got murdered because of someone's selfishness."

She then looks up from the podium to stare into the camera. "I want justice for my son's death. Our family is deeply hurt that his murderers are still on the loose."

I felt bad, not going to lie.

But it's not like we did it. The real murderer is on the loose and nobody is after him—let alone, know who really killed him. There's three sides to every story.

Angel and I are innocent, period. If only people can really know that. They don't know anything about us except labeling us as killers.

Growing up, my mama always told me about how some white people can be so racist, ignorant, especially the cops. Do as they say no matter what.

For years, Angel and I listened to our parents, but that's neva' enough. You see what situation we are in right na'.

• • • • • • • • • • •

I walked outside and a white guy was posted up beside the building with shades and a hat on, cigarette in his mouth. I tried to avoid his stare as I hurried to make it to the car.

"Finally yo ass came. Took forever and a day," Angel huffed.

This is the most he has spoken to me in the past few hours. Obviously he was frustrated and I wasn't even gone for that long. If anything, I was waiting for about ten-fifteen minutes for him to come out so I can go handle my hygiene.

I didn't say anything as I went to go buckle up my seatbelt. I took the red hat off that said 'Kansas' on the front in big, black bold letters that we got from our last stop and also these shades.