"Yo you feeling alright Seem?" Jalen asked tapping his arm.
"Yea I'm coo." He said and shut his eyes again.
"How can you sleep with all this noise?" Jalen asked.
Kids were running and screaming like something or someone was chasing them.
Kaseem just sighed and ignored Jalen's questions.
"Boy leave yo brother alone and help Aunt Kay with the cakes and stuff." Mom said walking in.
Jalen groaned and got up.
"Daddy your phone is ringing." Mari said hitting his leg.
"Aight Mari." He said opening his eyes.
He picked up his phone without looking and out it up to his ear.
"Hello?" He said.
"Kaseem?" A familiar voice said.
"Who's this?" He said sitting up.
"It's shay."
"Ion got the time for this." He said.
"Wait please stop." She said .
"What you want?" He said.
"It's Zion he's coming." She said.
"Who's Zion?" Kaseem said getting up off the couch.
"He has a sister named Jasmine." She said and his eyes widened.
"Do you know her?" Shay asked.
"She's dating my brother." He said and she got quiet.
"Are you home?" She asked.
"No." He said.
"Go home please and take my baby with you." Shay said.
He got quiet and hung up.
Her baby?
________________
Kaseem's pov
"Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Amari happy birthday to you." Everybody sung in unison.
Mari was dancing while everyone sung.
Everyone had their phones and camera's out.
"Alright Mari you wanna open gifts or eat cake?" Aunt Violet said.
"GIFTS!" She yelled and everyone laughed.
She ran back to the living room and I helped grab all her gifts.
We set all of them on the couch and she opened them one by one.
She opened all the toys and ignored the clothes she got from my mom and grandma.
"Mari look at the clothes." I said and she shook her head no.
I sucked my teeth and just let her be.
After the cake and the gift openings everyone just chilled and watched tv while having small conversations.
I would look around for Mari every once in a while and see her playing with her cousins.
9:30pm
Time passed and everyone was still here. Talking.
But then it got quiet.
"Zion!" Jasmine yelled running towards her brother who was walking in.
Me and Jalen looked at each other and I noticed Zion was looking at me the whole time.
He walked towards us and him and Jasmine took a seat next to us.
"Kaseem this is my brother Zion." Jasmine said with a smile.
"Wassup." I said and he stayed quiet.
Jalen was next to him and would look at me every second.
9:45pm
Everyone was starting to leave including us.
I told Mari to put her shoes back on since she took them off to play.
"Kaseem you gotta go." Jalen said as I ate some more cake.
"Why?" I said.
"Zion got niggas outside wit him." He said and I threw my paper plate away.
I walked into the living room and saw Mari sitting on the couch next to Jasmine.
"Jasmine where yo brother at?" I said and she shrugged.
"Don't act dumb with me where he at?" I said raising my voice.
"He's outside." She said softly.
"Ma watch Mari." I said.
"Where y'all going?" My mom said.
"Jalen keep yo ass In this house." She added.
"Ma just stay here." I said and Jalen ran to his room.
I waited for Jalen and he walked back out with his gun in his pocket.
We walked outside and saw Zion and two other niggas sitting and talking on his car across the street.
"Jalen stay right here." I said.
"No I'm coming witchu." He said.
"Jalen listen to me ion want you getting hurt." I said and he stayed back.
I walked closer to Zion and he smiled looking at me.
"Kaseem." He said standing up with his gun in his hand.
"Zion." I said back.
The two dudes with him pointed their guns at me.
Jalen's pov
While watching Kaseem I saw Jasmine from the corner of my eye.
"What you doing out here." I said.
"Jalen I'm sorry." She said and I sucked my teeth.
"You got me fucked up thinking imma forgive yo ass you lucky ion shoot yo ass right now." I said and a tear went down her face.
"Was this all a joke to you?" I said and she stayed quiet.
"I'm sorry Jalen." She said.
"Fuck this." I said and walked to Kaseem.
Jasmine followed behind me and ran to Zion with tears in her eyes.
"What you do ta ha?" Zion said.
"I ain't do shit." I said.
Zion pointed his gun at me while the other two guys had their guns at Kaseem.
Kaseem's pov
"Jalen I told you to stay back there," I said and he looked at me then looked back at Zion.
"Jalen?" I said and he reached into his pocket.
This nigga..
Jalen pulled out his gun and shot Zion in his chest making the other dudes shoot at us.
"Go!" I yelled and Jalen kept shooting while we ran back to the house.
"Stop Jalen!" I yelled and he kept going shooting both the guys in the chest.
Only person who was left was Jasmine looking down at her brother's lifeless body.
"Dumbass!" I screamed as we walked into the house.
I pushed Jalen and he pushed me back.
"At least they dead now!" He yelled back.
"She got other brothers Jalen!" I yelled and my mom walked out her room.
"What's going on?" She said with Mari behind her.
"Ma we gotta go," I said and Mari ran to me.
I picked her up and walked out the house.
I kept Mari from looking at what was across the street.
I put her in the car and drove off.
