Singing Through Siren Sounds MxM (Staten Krown

12

And as soon as I think of him being a monster I see something else in Taz. The way his eyes reminded me of my cousin Jamie. They were perfectly almond-shaped. His lips were full like my father's. The shade of his skin was on the light side but still black. Still beautiful. Or maybe it was the way his hair curled and kink. Or the vibrant way his eyes lit up like the midnight sky. Something about him was so real. So pure. So black.

And all of a sudden I feel as though I was somehow in the shoes of someone who had spent so much time with these racist white people that I'd begun to conform to their way of thinking.

Why would I call him a monster?

What made him a monster.

I notice Wren breathing all hard at that moment.

"You gonna kill me?" Wren asks.

The way he looks at Taz is as though Taz is some sort of monster. And perhaps shooting Andrew was a bit dramatic but no one in the world was going to miss the likes of Andrew. But the way he looks at him has this fear. This fear that I'd seen before. Maybe in movies. Maybe in films. But all of a sudden it's clear to me that Wren's solid face that I admired so much was full of fear.

"He ain't gonna kill you," I assure Wren, "Taz, get out of here before the cops show up..."

"You just going to let him leave?"

I look confused, "Yes."

"He killed Andrew," Wren states, "He's a murderer."

The way he says it seems almost shaky to me. He's a murderer was said in one of the harshest tones I could remember.

"How many times I got to warn you about this school, boy?" Taz states, with a laugh, "You better go get your boy? Before he gets nervous. And maybe the truth will come out."

I'm confused at that moment.

I turn to Wren. I'm confused at that moment. The way he is looking at Taz seems a little weird. I don't understand why he's looking at him like that. It's as though there's something Taz knows that Wren also knows.

"What's he talking about?" I ask Wren.

Wren looks over at me, "I don't know what he's talking about. He has a gun to our faces Dijon. What's wrong with you? He's wild..."

"Like an animal, right?" Taz asks.

Wren just gets a little red at that moment. His face has this tense strain to it at that moment that I don't seem to understand.

Normally I would defend Wren. I want to defend Wren, but I remember how it feels to have called Taz a monster. I hadn't even talked to him. I hadn't heard his story. I just assumed I knew why he shot Andrew.

But did I?

"Something ain't right here?"

"You promised me you wouldn't start this rally," I tell Taz, "And then you start it. And then you just shoot someone..."

"What more do you need to see?" Wren asks, "You saw what he did. He just killed someone...."

That's what everyone wants to believe happens in these situations. No reason to reach for the gun. No reason to be afraid. Coin reached up. He tried to defend himself. He was shot. I didn't have to know Taz to know he was too complex for that. He was raw. He was dangerous. But he wasn't some sentimental piece of shit.

"This comes from the person who said I was in love with Coin," he laughs at that moment.

"You admitted to it," Wren responds.