At 17, Candyce's small worldview is maginifed when her big brother, Ace, invites her into his world as punishment. Ace may have been an overbearing big brother at home, but in the streets he was feared and respected as a young drug dealer, proving h...
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3 Weeks Later
Chapter 10
"Candyce?" Ace questions through the door.
I sit perched on my bed with my knees pulled close to my chest. He insisted on knocking on my door every day for the past two weeks. Not once have I answered. I didn't leave my room until I heard him leave his bedroom door and eventually the front door. I still had nothing to say to him or to Caesar. Caesar had been making his stops every now and then unlike Ace, who was here every day.
"Candyce, talk to me son," Caesar had said through the door one day when he thought no one was around.
Little did he know Paryis was sitting on the opposite end of my bed while I painted her toenails a bubblegum shade of pink.
"What he want?" She asked.
"To get on my nerves," I said.
She scrunched up her tiny little nose and rolled her eyes.
"Well he's doing a good job cause this knocking is blowing me, foreal."
I looked up from adding another layer of clear polish over her big toe. I laughed at her, suddenly all too happy to have a little sister. Sure, she was young now. There were certain things I couldn't do with her just yet, like gossip to her about anything in my life, but I knew once she got older, we would be closer than ever. For now, I could listen to her complain about her elementary teachers and friends she beefed with and got back cool with every other day. Listening to her helped me tune out Caesar that day.
But today, I was alone with my thoughts while Paryis was away at some summer camp thing. For the first time ever, I tried to intervene and ask Mama not to send her away. But she insisted that Paryis kept begging her to go since all of her friends were going. I think it warmed her heart to know that I was going to miss Paryis, but Mama wasn't dumb. She knew for me to be relying on Paryis as heavily as I was, something had to be wrong. Not that she asked me about it. Mama wasn't like that. She worried about us, yeah but she wasn't all in our mix like some other big brothers who shall not be named.
"Candyce, I'm sorry aight? Just talk to me bruh," Ace says.
My silent treatment was eating him up. I could tell by how frequent his visits to my door had become. But I couldn't get the urge to speak to him. I would never forgive him for killing Gecko in front of me. He knew that I was the one to find Daddy the day he killed himself. He was there when the nightmares kept me up at night. Yet, he had no problem making me go through that again, except this time was a million times worse. At least I didn't see Daddy pull the trigger. This time, I had to watch as the life left from poor Gecko's eyes. Not only that, I also had to watch the fire ignite in Ace's eyes as he felt the power of taking yet another life. It wasn't something I wanted to witness again.
"You know what? Fuck it man. Stay mad, I guess. Just stay in the house if you don't wanna be with us."
With that Ace's footsteps sounds away from the door. I let out a deep breathe. It was getting harder and harder to hold my tongue.
