24 Hours to Live · Tupac

❽: childhood reminiscing

❝ I see visions of me dead, Lord, are you there? ❞

[11:04 PM]

LENA WATCHES INTENSELY as Tupac moves his car token across the board. Just as she hoped, he landed on one of her properties. She grinned, "Let's go, run that rent money."

"It's cool, I'mma get it right back," he reaches for his Monopoly cash, counting out $850. "You don't need money anyway since you chillin' in the penitentiary."

"It's just jail, what you talking about?" Lena mumbles, glancing at her token that was settled in the orange corner. "And I better hit doubles."

Sadly, she doesn't roll doubles and her turn is passed over. Lena had began to grow sleepy, only wanting to fall back on her bed. She doesn't have that option since she doesn't know the next time Pac will decide to bring up some random topic.. something like this moment.

"When I was a kid, this was my sister's and I favorite game," he mentions, choosing a Community Chest card.

"I don't really know why-I was lil' boy so it was probably the money. We would take all the money out the bank and only play with these cards," he laughs and then places the car token in my spot. "We companions now. Go to jail, go directly to jail.."

"Do not pass go, do not collect $200," Lena recites, already knowing the rest of the card. "This was my favorite too."

"What else did you do as a kid?" she asks him, deciding to just bail herself out of Monopoly Jail.

He's silent for a couple of moments, "The only memories I got is just with my sister, that's it. I ain't tryna remember all that other mess."

"Well.." Lena ponders for a couple of seconds. "Did you have, like, a dream job that you wanted? I wanted to be a dancer so bad."

He disassociates himself from their ongoing game. "Why ain't you be a dancer?"

"I can't even hold my balance standing on my two feet," Lena snickers. "And I knew that, but I still wanted to do it. I know you had one-what kind of kid never have a dream job or career?"

"Me," he retorts, firmly, but not rudely. "I figured I wasn't gon' be shit. Based on my living conditions and environment, the hell was I gon' be?"

Lena talks, "So.. not a lawyer, judge? Not an ice cream truck driver? That was my sister's."

Tupac slowly shakes his head. "Nah. If I did, I'on remember."

She thought that he didn't want to tell her, so she pushed her money and property cards away to make room for her elbows. She'd just have to keep talking about her dead dream. "Well, I was different then. I grew up in Chicago with my twin brother, other sister, and my momma."

"I always told them that I wanted to be a dancer, and they always told me that I wouldn't be able to. Not only were we too broke to afford classes, Momma said it was a waste of time," Lena sighs.

"Damn, why she say that?" Pac curiously questions, right when the lights flicker back on.

She smiles and jumps from her seat, "The lights back on! Thank Jesus."

While she goes around happily blowing candles out like it's her birthday, Tupac still had an unanswered question, standing up. "Wait, why yo' momma say that it was a waste of time?"

"'Cause.. I don't know," she mumbles. "Other things were more important to her, probably. When my dad paid for me to take classes, the other girls called me Ditzy Dancer. Even my sister called me that. That's probably why I didn't want to do it anymore."

Going by the complexed expression on Pac's face, his must not have guessed that someone as Lena has had her hopes crushed by her so-called family members. Honestly, Lena didn't have any hard feelings over it but Pac seemed so appalled. "Ditzy Dancer?"

A rapid knock comes on the door and Lena checks the wall clock, heading on over. "Yeah, sometimes Dumbbell D. Like, stupid, brainless, all that. I guess it's funny now."

"It ain't funny," Tupac responds lowly, taking his lip between his teeth and furrowing his eyebrows in frustration.

Lena gives him a weird glance, opening the door to face Shay. Her friend was completely drenched in the harsh rain as she pushed her bangs back, sniffling. "M-My momma is a bitch. A true snake in the grass."

"Come in, it's raining," Lena states the upmost obvious, pulling her friend inside by the hand.

If Shay's face weren't red and pained, you wouldn't know if she has been crying or not. "I hate her, I swear, she can die."

"Don't say that," Lena firmly instructs, "It's okay, I know you're mad-"

"She said she been knew!" Shay breaks into tears. "He's been cheating on me for a whole year and a half!"

Lena couldn't relate to that, Anthony had to be the most loyal boyfriend she's ever had. In fact, he was the one always insisting that Lena was cheating.

Hesitantly, Lena wraps her arms around Shay's soaked body, not saying anything and just hugging. With all the drama in Lena's life, she feels as if her job at work is never finished. She felt entitled to helping her friends when they were in a dark position and if she didn't know how to help, they swear she knew how with her having a degree in psychology and all.

Lena saw no surprise there, Shay's mother was always wicked and self-absorbed. She felt more than sorry for her friend. "You can stay here if you want, he's staying here too."

Just as she says that, Shay's eyes goes wide and she pulls out of Lena's grip with a shocked face. The words that came out of her mouth made Lena grit her teeth, knowing that she would overreact.

"Biiiiitch, you fuckin' Tupac? You didn't tell me this!"