BANGIN' (Urban)

SEVENTEEN

Coming home to an empty house was still unusual for Braxton. It had only been less than three weeks since he last saw Nadine. He found himself missing her so bad, and it scared him.

To be dependent on someone else's presence was to be weak.

When he was with Lorena, his business wasn't this strong. No one was looking out for him enough to be making hits at his pickups. But being with her did make him weak, and he found himself too wrapped up in his issues with her rather than focusing on moving up in the game. Perhaps that's why after they broke things off he started getting closer and closer to the top.

Now he was there. And as people say, it's very lonely at the top.

He returned his focus to the task at hand: figuring out who set him up.

There was no way that the police just knew where and when to show up. It didn't make sense how they came in, right on cue. No one else knew about the drop except him and Darius, and it wasn't Darius. Braxton wouldn't even entertain the thought of his best friend being the one to rat him out. Nah, the two of them came up the hard way. Plus, Darius himself could have gotten hit by a stray bullet. The police were shooting in the dark, and bullets don't discriminate. Why would he set the both of them up if that meant he could get caught in the crossfire?

One of them called Braxton by his last name, though, so it had to be personal. This wasn't accidental, it was planned.

He remembered how Chuy was on the verge of giving him the information he needed, just as LAPD burst through the doors. Who exactly was looking for Nadine? And were they the ones who planned the set up?

He had a lot to think about, but for now he was done turning it over in his mind. He had more important things to take care of today.

Nadine never liked her birthday, not since she was younger at least. The last time she enjoyed her special day was when she was nine years old, and it was just her, Nadia, and their mother. They went to McDonald's for breakfast, something Nadine absolutely loved at the time. That night, she and her sister stayed up watching her favorite movies as their mom baked Nadine a birthday cake. They didn't have much, but at least they were happy.

That memory coming back to her made her eyes water. She missed her mom so much, despite everything that people would say about her. Their father's side of the family hated her, and eventually that rubbed off on little Nadia. She didn't have the same memories of her as Nadine did, and she quickly became a daddy's girl. So if daddy said that mommy was a bitch, Nadia believed it completely.

Today, on her 25th birthday, Nadine wished she could go back to when she was just 9 and all that mattered was the homemade cake she was going to eat.

She quickly wiped the stray tears from her eyes upon hearing footsteps coming towards her room. Raegan burst through the doors, carrying a bottle of champagne and a glass with a small amount of orange juice in it.

"Girl you messed up telling me it was your birthday today! I would throw your ass a party but you ain't got no friends... but turn this shit up!" She began pouring the champagne into the glass. The drink was about 90% champagne and 10% orange juice.

"Uh, your mimosa ratio is way off. But gimme dat," Nadine almost snatched up the bottle but midway she changed her mind. She felt wrong drinking alcohol. Braxton had pushed her so hard to get off drugs but he also made it to where she couldn't get a drink, either. Alcohol was one of her triggers, and even though it was her birthday, she wasn't gonna have any.

Braxton wasn't there watching, but she wanted to be truthful in her whole promise to get clean. She never really swore that she wouldn't do drugs anymore, but after seeing everything he had done to try and help her through withdrawals and whatnot, she didn't want to betray his trust.