From the Jump | A YNW Melly Story / Novella

The Begining

My name is Lilyana Taylor. My milk chocolate skin is smooth like butter and I'm thicker than a bowl of oatmeal. I gotta little stomach but who cares. More cushion for the pushin'. Right. I stand about 5'3, which is pretty short compared to every on else I know.
Anyways. I was born in Jacksonville Florida but I moved to Gifford at the age of five, after my dad was murdered. He was a big time blood in Jax with a lot of enemies, so my mom wanted us out of the danger zone. Gifford was a poverty stricken town and being that my mom was now a single parent, we struggled. I had like 6 outfits to wear, so people picked on me constantly. I got into a lot of fights.

I met Juvy before everyone else. Back when he called himself Sosa. He was my next door neighbor. He would always make fun of me. I didn't have any friends so I would play by myself a lot.
"You weird jit," he teased one day as we walked home from school. Our mom's made us stay together, once they realized we went to the same school. "No I'm not. Shut up," I replied angrily. I was already being made fun of because I was new. "Yeah huh. You be talking to yo' self outside," he continued. "Shut the fuck up," I yelled. He looked at me and started laughing. "I thought you was a good girl, always being a teacher's pet. I guess not huh," Juvy chucked. I rolled my eyes and started speed walking. That boy was getting on my last nerves. I wanted to get far away from him. "Wait up," Juvy called out as he ran to catch up with me. He introduced himself and asked if we could be friends. The rest was history. From that day forth, Juvy was my best friend.
That's how I ended up meeting Melly. "Who's that skinny big headed boy, you're always with," I asked Juvy. "That's my other best friend. Jamell. We call him Melly, though," Juvy explained, one afternoon while we were hanging out at my house. My mom loved Juvy like he was her own son, so she never complained when he was there. "Oh," I said quietly biting my lip. "You think he cute. Don't you," Juvy asked, reading my mind. It was crazy how good he was at doing that. It was like we had telepathy or something. "No," I lied. Juvy gave me a "bitch please" look. "He has a girlfriend Lily. But I guess y'all can be friends," Juvy shrugged. He was the only person who called me "Lily", everyone else just used my whole name or "Yana."
The first time I met Melly I was shitting bricks. Juvy invited us both to hang out at his house. Even though we all went to the same middle school, this was my first time formally meeting him. Juvy initiated a small conversation, then made up some bullshit excuse for why he had to leave the room I was nervous as hell. My hands were clammy and the butterflies in my stomach were going crazy. "Yo name Lilyana, right. That's a pretty name," Melly complimented. I blushed. "Thank you. You're really cute," I blurted out. I covered my mouth quickly. I couldn't believe I let that slip out. Melly just laughed. "Thank you. How you know Chris though," he pondered. "I live next door. Our mommas became friends and made us walk to elementary school together before he transferred," I expressed. We continued asking each other questions and things got more interesting. We had a lot in common. We both liked to sing and he was really good at it too. The more we got to know each other, the less space there was between us We were both drawn to each other. By the time Juvy came back we were sitting right next to each other. "Sorry to interrupt y'all lil puppy love but yo mama said you gotta come home Lily," Juvy informed me. My damn mama always ruining my damn fun. I got up and got my things together. "It was nice meeting you Melly. Hopefully we can chill again," I concluded. He smiled and looked me up and down. "Oh you will. Fo sho," he said licking his lips. He reached out for a hug and I gave him one. He leaned in and whispered, "you cute too ." I damn near fainted. Juvy rolled his eyes at me as I walked out. I gave him a hug and cheesed the whole way home. "Melly thinks I'm cute! Melly thinks I'm cute," I sang as I walked in the house. "What the hell you say," my mom screamed from the living room. My mom did not play. She was overprotective. She would've killed me if she found I was hanging out with a boy who wasn't her precious Juvy. "Nothing. I'm going to start on my homework. I'll be in my room," I said as I ran to my room. I knew that would get her off my back. I was an honor roll student and I was projected to graduate early when I got to high school.
I eventually got Melly's number after hanging out with him a couple times. We texted like everyday non stop. We got pretty close. It was always me, Juvy, and Melly. We were inseparable. Like three peas in a pod. If you saw me then you better believe Juvy and Melly were close by, and vice versa. Jalen came along some time after. Then Sak and eventually Bortlen. They met Terrence one summer when I was gone away to Atlanta. That's where I met my other set of friends, Symere and Jordan. But I'll get into that later.
Terrence was cool but it wasn't the same with him. I had no problem with dude but I just didn't vibe with him like that. He was grimy. Terrence liked to pass around the girls he dated and I thought it was weird. Nevertheless I was always with them. They tried to keep me out of their street business but I was always front and center. When they got jumped in with the bloods I was right there getting my ass beat too. There were times I helped them finesse dumb niggas in the neighborhood. They'd use me as a decoy to rob niggas. Shit. I was there when they came up with Young Nigga World. I even got that shit tattooed on me. I rode for them nigga.
Some where in the midst of all that, Melly and I started dating. Juvy said it was long over due. Everyone could tell we liked each other. Even my crazy ass mama. He didn't ask me on a date or nothing fancy like that. He just asked me straight and I was over the moon. It wasn't an easy relationship in the beginning. We were always on and off, but we made it work. Between his infidelity and him going back and forth to the juvenile facility, it was a lot to handle but we always pulled through. I tried to be there and encourage him every step of the way. When he stopped going to high school I convinced him to get his GED. When he got Baker acted I picked him up and stayed with him all day, both times. I bought him gifts every single birthday, Christmas and Valentine's Day and Melly did the same for me, even when he was locked up. They were never big because we didn't have much. And anything we made hustling went to paying for studio time. But it didn't matter to me. I was head over heels for that boy. He was my first kiss. My first boyfriend. He took my virginity. He was my everything and Juvy, JGreen, Sak, and Bortlen even Terrence were my brothers.

Everything was all good until that day. It changed everything

These first chapters are for setting up the story and the timeline so they're a little. There's more to come. COMMENT WHAT YOU THINK SO FAR.
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