Taking Chances

9 Months

"Wake up" Mike said shaking me, "What do you want" I said turning to him. "It's almost 3 o'clock, you've been sleeping all day" he said taking away my blanket, "so" I snatched my blanket back. "So you need to get up" he said taking the blanket away again, "fine i'm up" I groaned. "Thank you" he sat my blankets at the end of the bed.

I got up and changed into a hoodie and some sweatpants. I went downstairs and sat on the couch. "Vallyk wanted me to give you these" said Aya as she passed me some blueprints. "tell Vallyk I said fuck you" I nodded, "I already told him that twice today" she said as she sat down beside me. "How old are you" I asked her, "13" she nodded. "Really, how'd you get here" I asked, "I don't really know, I ran across Derek and we became friends then I found out about this whole thing and I thought it was cool" she shrugged.

"That's what happened with me and Mike" I said as I looked at the blueprints and the marks that Vallyk must have put on them. We went over all of the papers together, Aya was pretty cool and she was mature for her age. "I'm back" Mike yelled as he came through the back door, "when did you leave" I asked. "Like 15 minutes ago" he said as he collapsed onto the couch, "where'd you go" I rolled blue prints that were on the table.

"Uh, Kendrick's, those cops haven't been back as the house yet so we might be able to go back by next week" he laid his head in my lap. "You look tired" I played in his hair, Aya's phone rang and she got up and left. "Where's she going" Mike asked, "I don't know go ask her" I shrugged.

"You're cranky" Mike said, "no I'm not" I replied. "Now you're getting defensive" he smirked, "shut up" I nudged him. "I'm hungry" I muttered, "all you do is eat sleep and argue" Mike said. He was tryna start something and I was too tired to take part of his bullshit.

I got up and grabbed a couple of cookies from the pantry and went upstairs to take a well deserved nap.

•••

"I hate to tell you this but I think we need to get rid of Starr" Vallyk said, "listen if you get rid of her you're getting rid of some of your best people" I said. I loved Starr to death and she would break her back for the gang so I wasn't gonna just let Vallyk give up on her just because she was having my baby.

If he wanted to drop her that meant he wanted to drop me, which meant he was gonna kill me and I knew he nor anybody else that I knew could do it. We were a family and I refused to let him just give up on my girl like that.

"I-I'm sorry, she had helped us a lot but I think it's time for her to go" he shrugged, "what are you gonna do if you drop her" Riley asked. "Well, she'll have to cut off any contact with us, including Mike. She's have to move, start a new life, get a new identity, and would have to be extremely careful" Khristian said.

"See, he doesn't want us to win this, he wants us to just give up on her and forget her" Arria cried, Arria loved Starr like she was her mamá. We all loved her, even Vallyk and that's why it was taking him so long to drop her.

I remember back when I first joined this gang, there was a girl who was pregnant and she couldn't do her job. She was constantly slacking and half-assing her assignments, so the leader at that time took her to an abandoned ware house and brought me along with him. He did a bunch of fucked up stuff to her and then made her shoot herself, and he made me watch every single thing that he did to her or made her do. The leader at the time wasn't a good man at all.

I still think about the girl, she could have been a mom if he let her live and that's something I could never forget. And I'm scared that Vallyk might have a change in heart and do the same to Starr. If any of the stuff that happened to that girl ever happened to Starr I'd blame myself for it an I'd feel like shit.

I would think that I've failed her as a boyfriend, as her baby daddy, and as the only person who'd ever protect her. I would hate myself. And that's why I couldn't let her get dropped, once you're dropped life becomes so much harder and dangerous.

It's like the worlds out to get you, even though it already was before you were dropped. What I was saying I wouldn't let it happen, if it came down to it I'd kill one of my friends to let her and our baby live.

"How about this we wait s week or two so that we could see how she acts with the baby" Vallyk said. "Fine" Aya pouted, "and if she's good then she stays" Jiggy crossed his arms.

See even the rookies loved her. But I think that was because she cooked for them and order them food and spoiled them.

"C'mon bro, if the rookies like her then she needs to stay" Kendrick said, Vallyk inhaled and then dismissed the meeting. I went upstairs to the room that me and Starr shared and then I took a nap with her.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Do y'all know that feeling when you're tired but you're trying to stay awake and your eyes do that lil crossy thing, Where they cross and you start falling asleep?

That was literally all that was happening to me while I was writing this chapter, and that's why this chapter is technically only about 950- 980 words.

Chile/ anyways goodnight.