There was no dramatic beginning, no big catalyst to turn things to this, just a conscious decision. A boy who watched his mother struggle to raise and provide for two kids on her own. A promise and a desire to help. An absent father and positive male role model. The wonder of how things could've been different if maybe one or two things might have been changed. None of that crossed the young man's mind as he stood there in a gray hoodie trying and failing to look as normal as possible. It wasn't uncommon to see people standing on the streets looking kinda shady and just hanging out in the inner city area of Los Angeles. Just another typical day in this part of town.

There wasn't too much worry about police activity in the area, the cops didn't care to police this area too much other than to make sure that the types who came from this area stayed in this area. Jamal didn't really give a fuck about that, he kept his eyes looking out for the next customer. He couldn't say he had too much of a conscience but he wasn't completely soulless. A curse of being somewhere in the middle but right now he needed to hustle to put food on the table.

A man began to approach Jamal, his clothes were beaten and torn. The man looked like he hadn't showered in days and was a bit jumpy and on edge. Jamal knew exactly what it was, the man was jonesing. He had it bad for his next taste of drugs and he could see it in the mans eyes when he actually was able to hold them steady and the way the man couldn't stand still at all Jamal was able to tell that this was how he really was and it wasn't an act. Not that he was too worried about cops anyway but you could never be too sure.

"Whatchu need man?" Jamal asked, knowing exactly what he wanted but not knowing how much he wanted.

"Let me get two charlies, and a horse." The man replied shakily.

He was talking in code, it was code to let Jamal know that he was a regular. Anybody who wasn't talking in this kind of code he would know right away that they were no good to do business with. If they were new then they needed a referral and that was another code and they would need another set of words. Jamal was careful, some would call him paranoid but he saw himself as being smart. There was no room on these streets for a dumbass and the fact that he was dealing with drugs would make it all that much worse if he were to get caught. He had no intention on getting caught.

He looked the man up and down before going to the back of the car and pulling out three small bags. two of them with a white substance in them and one of them with a brown substance in it. He handed it over to the man while the man handed him a few bills of cash at the same time.

This was what most of his days looked like. Standing on the corner with his car. He had his trunk open with bags full of oranges in them not all of them were full seeing as he had sold some of them too. To the common onlooker it would seem like he sold fruit out the back of his car on the street but that wasn't the main source of his income at all. Again, he would call this him being smart while others saw it as him doing too much but in his eyes you could never do enough to stay out of prison.

The man took what he came to pay for and walked away seemingly satisfied and much more relaxed than he was when he first approached. Jamal put the cash in his pocket and walked back to the front of his car. He took a careful look around and noticed that there were still some kids playing in the park. Stickball he believed they called it. A version of baseball but with a piece of wood and a lighter ball. They still seemed to be having fun. He let a light smile grace his face as he remembered the days when he played freely. He quickly shook those thoughts out his head. This was his life now, the only thing he needed to think about was how to keep making money or ways to make more.

He took another look around before he walked to the drivers side door of his car and opened it and hopped inside. He counted the money in his pocket and made sure the amount of money matched the amount of drugs he'd sold for the day. Once it was all there he opened his glovebox and stuck it in there. At the same time he pulled the gun he had hidden in his waistband and placed it under the drivers seat. He looked in his rearview to make sure no one was looking at him or paying him too much attention than they should have before starting it up and driving home.

He'd completed his sales for the week here. Next time he'd be here he would have more inventory to sell but in order to do that he'd have to kick his cut up and resupply first. Looks like he'd have to truly head back to the place where it all began for him, with the person who got him started.

Jamal was very careful, it was in his nature but it's human nature to not be able to catch everything. If Jamal was a bit more careful, if he had paid just a bit more attention than normal even for him, he would've noticed that he had a pair of eyes watching him as he finished his business and pulled off, a pair of eyes that he would have no idea what they had in store for him.