The Chaotic Ones

Chapter 11: Everyone's Best Friend

Ronnie's crew is having a meeting at their hangout in the early afternoon. The hangout is a rundown old apartment in a rundown high rise building. The building is painted a disgustingly colored brown and had obvious signs of destruction with the holes in the wall, broken windows, etc. From above the building is shaped like a big plus sign and has twelve floors. They met on the ninth floor apartment to disgust they're next move. One of the thugs from the street corner fight is addressing the crew. He has a busted lip and a knot on his left cheek.

The thug is shouting, "I know they don't think we just gon let this shit ride yo! I say we hit them bitch ass niggas back today!"

The rest of the crew are seated on surfaces and chairs around the battered apartment.

The crew shouts in agreement, "Hell yeah!"

Ronnie, sitting in a love seat next to Darius, with his head down calmly interrupts, "Shut up."

The thug shouts a response, "Man we lost people out there Ronnie!"

Ronnie raises his head and shouts back, "I know that!" His voice lowers as he demands, "Sit down."

The thug sits down quietly, rocking back and forth as the others turn to Ronnie then listen. Ronnie locks his hand together and puts them under his chin with his elbows rested on his knees.

Ronnie says, "Y'all need to chill... and relax. We gon take care of them but we don't need them to be waitin' for us to hit 'em back so soon. Cool off and get y'all shit straight."

Darius leans over to Ronnie and whispers, "What's the plan man? We gon have to tell 'em somethin' or they might decide to go do somethin' stupid anyway."

Ronnie whispers back, "I got word from somebody on the block sayin' that these niggas got cheese and diamonds floatin' around the streets. Check game."

Ronnie stands up and walks to the center of the room then says, "Alright this what we gon do. We gon hit them niggas up and still make some money in the process and here's how we gonna do it. They got some mad weight about to hit the streets real soon. I'm gon get wit my boy and see what they got poppin'. Everybody just needs to chill 'til then. We talkin' some mad profit here. Diamonds."

The crew starts to chatter amongst each other.

They grow quiet as Ronnie speaks again, "We all gon get paid, just be ready when I need y'all. Straps on the ready. If we do somethin', we gon scare 'em off. No more diamonds. We clear on that?"

Everyone agrees and starts to talk about the money they're going to get. Ronnie walks back to the sofa and sits next to Darius.

Darius asks, "Think that's gon stick?"

Ronnie responds, "It's money. If it don't stick, nothin' will. You just gotta throw the dogs a bone sometimes."

"I hope you right."

"You said it yo'self. They'd need more than that. That's the last trick in my bag. If there was more I could do bro I would but listen to them. Gettin' them back don't even matter no more."

Darius looks at them talking amongst themselves excitedly as Ronnie continues to talk to him, "That's it for them dog. They just want the paper."

Ronnie sits back and watches them. Everyone's excited about getting their hands on a diamond. Ronnie knows this is his last stand. Back then he had a hold on things tighter until his people started doing business for themselves. Now they're putting their own pockets before the gang, which isn't good for morale.

His gang started disbanding little by little with either jail time or death. Those diamonds are going to be his retirement plan. Once he has them, he and Darius will be out of the game; at least he hopes Darius will follow. In front of Rose's house, Lucas is sitting on a power box.