"I mean, it's not that much of a surprise. We always knew Alex was a bitch anyway." A voice said as it took a break from speaking to bite into a slice of pizza. The voice came from a heavyset young African American man who was sitting at the booth with Jamal and one other young male.

The person who just spoke went by the name Trevon, but was mostly known as Trey. He dressed casually in a t-shirt and some jeans with a gold necklace around his neck. The other at the table was a skinnier African American young male who's name was Darius but went by the name DJ. These were Jamal's childhood friends with whom he went to school. They were currently hanging out at a pizza shop they used to frequent after school when they were younger.

Trevon Bakari was the one who was closest to Jamal, due to the fact that he was also on the opposite side of the law just like Jamal was. It was his ambition in life to become a better gangster than his older brother. Trevon certainly had his work cut out for him seeing as his older brother was a former gang leader before being incarcerated for murder and armed robbery. Trevon was currently affiliated with the same gang that his brother used to run but he was not yet fully a member.

Darius however, would be what they considered a good kid. He kept his nose clean of all the crime that Jamal and Trevon were involved in and he stayed off the streets. Most of the time, he was lost in his music. He wanted to compose songs for artists to sing and be a producer. Jamal heavily supported him in his dream as he was quite talented in putting music together. It was also nice to see someone from their neighborhood or childhood not obsessed with dreams of gang banging or drug dealing, or being a criminal in general.

"Yeah even I knew he was an asshole, and I'm not even around him all that much. He was always messed up even when we were back in high school." DJ said.

Jamal took a bite of his own pizza and a sip of his drink before nodding to the two in agreement.

"Yeah, but his pops is the worst one. Mother fucker's just sittin' there, listenin'. He heard the whole thing, had to. He makes it seem like it's a regular occurrence. But that's his fuckin' daughter up there and he ain't gonna lift a finger? Shits not right." Jamal proclaimed, shaking his head and sipping at his drink again. 

"True, shit IS fucked up. But like the man said, it ain't got nothin' to do with you. You go gettin' involved in that, Alex got more than enough reason to send ya ass to the next life." Trevon added.

DJ shook his head at that as he listened to the two talk about their situations with their street lives. He was more than happy that he himself was involved but it was kind of hard for him to not be involved when knew all the parties who were.

"I'd never speak for getting involved with gangs or anything like that, but it would be a bit easier for you if you had someone to watch your back. Beside this big ass dude over here." DJ joked while motioning toward Trevon to show who he was speaking about.

Jamal chuckled as did DJ while Trevon just took a bite of his food and gave a playful glare to DJ.

"Shut up. Ain't nothin' wrong with bangin'. Besides, word on the street is you down with one of the bigger crews in the city anyway. Thought you was always not into those pyramid schemes and shit homie?" Trevon asked while looking at Jamal.

"I'm not, but you heard DJ just say, everyone's gotta have someone watching their back nowadays right. Little prince Alex over there wants to pop a cap in my ass. I ain't just gonna sit around and let him catch me with nothing and no one behind me. I work with this group of people, help em out, run jobs and give em a little bit of cash to protect me. I ain't no formal member or anything yet." Jamal defended.

Trevon shook his head at that like he didn't believe what he was hearing. He had a smile appear on his face as he responded.

"Yeah right. You're totally down with them over there, talkin' about you ain't no damn member. They ain't no little group you workin' with. They call themselves assassins or somethin' like that. You over there workin' with ninjas and shit." At this Trevon began swinging his hand around like he was wielding a sword. "You workin' with killers knowin' you ain't took a damn body in your life. And you better be careful with all that karate and shit you doin' with them over there. If El Bandito over there finds out your payin' someone for shit that ain't him, he's gonna go to daddy and try to get ya ass shot. You can kung-fu all you want but that shit ain't stoppin' no bullet homie."

Jamal had no choice but to laugh at Trey's short little speech even though he was preparing a rebuttal as he was listening. DJ was also laughing quietly.

"I ain't workin' with no ninjas and I ain't gotta catch no bodies either. I'm a money man there, also helpin' out with organizational shit. Plus who says I can't kill somebody anyway?" Jamal asked.

"C'mon Jay, we all know you got too much upstairs to be perfectly fine with just plain ole killing somebody. It's not a bad thing either, it's what keeps you human." DJ answered.

"Plus we know you ain't no good at organizing anything either. Man, you can't even do your laundry how the fuck you gonna organize some shit?" Trevon added.

They all ended up laughing for a minute before things fell silent.

"If it was a mother fucker like Alex, I could kill him." He muttered ominously to himself although everyone at the table could hear him. Yet, nobody wanted to respond to that.

"Well, well! This must be where all the punk asses come to hang out at." A voice that wasn't at their table announced as it entered the shop.

The young man who the voiced belonged to, name was Markus. He was another affiliate to the same gang that Trevon was attempting to get into. Although their circumstances slightly differed from that point. Markus' older brother was the current leader of the gang. The reason why Markus wasn't a member yet was because his brother wanted him to earn it by making a name for himself and not by riding off his or anybody else's name. Markus seemed determined to just coast along off the name and reputation of his older brother though so they had reached in impasse.

Markus was joined by a few other associates and low ranking members of the gang who figured they could earn some points with his brother by hanging out and taking care of him. In a lot of ways, Markus reminded Jamal of Alex, but in some ways he was worse and in other ways he was slightly better.

Markus had finally reached the table grinning all the way and trying to look as confident as he could in his present company. He looked around the table until his eyes reached his intended target.

"Yo Trey, about time for you to be checkin' in isn't it?" Markus asked.

Trevon gave a sigh and looked down at the booth table they were sitting at not meeting Markus in the eyes. This disappointed and upset Jamal because this was the usual type of bullying that Markus would employ, and Trey would have to just take it if he didn't wanna hurt his own dream. There was no way that Trevon would ever be accepted into the gang if he did something to the leader's brother, and just being denied acceptance was the best thing that could happen. There were a lot of other things that could happen to you if you laid hands on a relative of a gang leader.

It was almost like looking into a mirror for Jamal seeing someone in a similar situation as himself. Trevon was unable to do anything about it and for that matter so was Jamal. DJ was a civilian so he had nothing to worry about but he was also a bit angry for his friend.

"I was just about to come find y'all Markus. My bad, I was just finishing up here." Trevon replied meekly. His earlier joking mood and bravado all gone.

"Well come bring your fat ass on. We got shit to do. Hell, today may be the day you actually get a mission. I doubt it though." Maruks joked and earned some laughs from some of his cronies behind him.

Jamal having had about enough at this time stood up from his seat, and glared at Markus.

"Yo he said he was leavin', why don't you lay off Markus." Jamal warned.

Markus looked taken aback for a few seconds before he put a scowl on his face that was similar to Alex's. He then stepped forward and got in Jamal's face. Jamal didn't back down one bit, but he did notice that some of the crowd Markus came in here with took a step toward him too.

"Yo, you better step the fuck off, dope boy. This ain't got shit to do with you. But if you wanna make it about you, then you and your mans here can get it." Markus said and lifted up the front of his shirt to show that he had a gun on him.

Jamal looked down to notice it and then looked right back up to glare in Markus' face. He didn't flinch or look scared in the slightest because he knew at the end of the day Markus was all talk and wouldn't do a damn thing for himself.

"Jamal, it's cool. I'mma just roll with them, alright? I'll meet you tomorrow at the spot." Trevon intervened.

Jamal and Markus continued to stare each other down until Trevon got out the booth and was standing slightly behind Markus. He was being quiet so he didn't add more fuel to this current fire.

"Yo too many eyes on us Markus, we gotta bounce." One of the others behind Markus said.

The way Markus didn't say anything back it must've been one of the members that were actually in the gang already. Markus continued to glare at Jamal until he began grinning.

"You got lucky this time cuz, but next time you get in my shit like that... Civilian or no civilian, that's it for you!" Markus loudly pronounced.

Markus then gave a confident and boastful look around the pizza shop like he owned the place or was some kinda celebrity. Most of the people looking went back to their own business while a few continued to glance back at the scene to see if anything was gonna come of it. Markus gave one more look to Jamal before he turned around and demanded Trevon follow him out of the place.

Jamal shook his head. Trevon was like a brother to him and again here he was powerless to do anything about the situation he was in. He sat back down in the booth feeling defeated again just like he had the other night. He gave a loud sigh as he looked to the ceiling.

"I can't believe he sits there and takes that shit. Ain't no gang or legacy worth taking that amount of shit off a punk like Markus." DJ said not fully being able to understand the situation.

Jamal held back another sigh. He, unfortunately, understood the situation all too well.

"Sometimes you gotta eat some shit in life DJ. I mean if you had the chance at makin' it as the big time music producer you always wanted you wouldn't eat a little shit for it?" Jamal asked without looking at him.

He could tell that DJ was thinking it over. He knew what the answer he would eventually arrive at would be too.

"Anyway D, don't stress yourself out too much about it. You leave the shit eating to low lives like us alright? Let's just get you home so you can get to work on some new music. Artists ain't gonna wait around for you to find your perfect melody or whatever." Jamal tried to joke.

It got a weak chuckle in response as DJ got up and got out of his seat. Jamal followed suit and the two made their way to the door. Jamal left a tip on the counter of the shop before leaving out himself.

His group of three friends called themselves the Dominguez Block Boys or D.B.B for short. They'd called themselves that since they went to high school at Dominguez High. This was their hangout, a place called Billy's Pizza. It was the place where they had all their important talks, where they made their big plans for school and the future, and where they hung out or got together damn near all the time. This was their place, and they always made sure to take care of it.