"Popular Thug"

Chapter 3

       "Yo where you been D?" Druex's long time friend Omari asked as he stepped into the old house just five minutes away from town.

       "Been out. Whatup cuzzo?" Druex replied standing in front of Omari, his two-way had gone off just as he was on his way to dinner, but the whole time his mind had been on his lunch date earlier.

       "You ain't heard? Well, 5-0 got a lead on that hit Debo Watkins took last month." Omari whispered looking around, like he suspected someone was watching.

       "How? Where?" Druex replied suddenly becoming aware, once more, of the life he lived and of the risks he took.

       "Some nigga off Rynes RD. thought they had somethin for him and he spoke on everything the 5-0 asked. Not knowing they were undercover, not really caring either, all he wanted was that base." Omari replied moving his hands and trying to keep his voice to a low yet normal tone.

       "Some gotdamn crackhead! Shit! Does J know?" Druex replied banging his hand on the table beside him. His boy Jarell had pulled that trigger that killed Debo Watkins in a club not more than a month ago.

       "Yea, he's ridin low, I paged ya to let ya know Kelt wants you to do the runs Rell set for tonight." Omari said plopping on the couch, he and Druex had come up in the game together. They had known each other since the 6th grade and had been so successful and talented, so to say, at what they did the Police called them 'Popular Thugs'. Which wasn't a lie, on the streets customers preferred them 10 to 1 to other pusha's, even some of their boys.

       Druex sat next to Omari as he lit up a Black & Mild, Omari was his best friend so to say, he was the only one who saw him cry that night he found Cornell Anderson dead, "I told him 'bout messin with them niggas."

       "He don't listen, you know that," Omari replied taking a pull of his Black, "just like someone else I know."

       "Who you talkin' bout? Me?" Druex asked looking at him like he had no idea what he was talking about.

       "Yea you nigga. Who's that female you been with D?" Omari asked like he already knew but just wanted Druex to confirm his suspicions.

       "Brittney Anderson." Druex replied like it was nothing, he was right, he thought someone was watching him when they had went to lunch.

       "That's right, Chief Anderson's only daughter. Or did you forget? She's a HUGE liability dog." Omari replied turning toward his friend trying his best not to pass the fine lines that Druex had erected years earlier.

       "You act like I don't know this." Druex said looking at the TV like the conversation held little meaning to him.

       "You're takin a huge risk nigga! That ain't like you, at all. Does she know what you are? What you do?" Omari almost yelled making the porcelain vase beside him shake.

       Druex looked at him for the first time since the conversation started, "She knows, I know what I'm doin O, I promise. You know I wouldn't take a risk if I wasn't sure I could handle it. And I can handle this."

       Omari nodded his head while taking another puff of his Black, "Does her daddy know who his precious little girl is with?"

       "I don't think so," Druex replied quietly, after a moment of silence he stood up, "look I gotta bounce, I'll holla at you lata."

       "Aiight," Omari sighed as he followed him to the door, "aye Druex, dog I ain't mean to get on you like that I just don't want you endin up like Antoneo."

       "Yea, holla." Druex replied walking back to his car, he wanted her and he believed she wanted him, she was all he ever wanted even when they were in high school. She was the kind of girl that always looked away from him, they kind of girl that never wanted to associate themselves with him, but Brittney always proved different, even then. She was surrounded by people like him and she didn't look down at him for what he did or who he was, she honestly seemed to understand.

      

       "Daddy stop this, you need to rest." Brittney said closing the file that he father had been looking at for the last ten hours, trying find an error or a missed message.

       "Oh girl I'll be fine."  Joe Anderson replied smiling up at his daughter, she looked so much like her mother that it almost hurt him whenever he looked up at her smiling face. Being the only girl she was mother's play toy to dress up and show off and her daddy's pride and joy.

       Brittney shook her head still clutching the file close to her, "No, you need to relax get your mind of that case! I mean daddy, it's not even your case! Why are stressin yourself out over it?"

       "Because my little girl", Joe replied leaning back in his chair pulling off his reading glasses, "no mother or father deserves to have to go through the pain of a dead child and not receiving any kind of justice."

       She was proud of father in every way possible, he had to be the best Police Chief the town had ever seen, just because he truly believed in justice and the system that supported it, unlike most black people, "OK, I'm going to negotiate with you on this. If I bring you something to eat you will eat it?"

       Joe smiled at the girl with the eyes just like the woman he fell in love with years ago, big black eyes that were a deep chocolate brown, if the light was just right, "It's a deal."

       "OK hold on." Brittney replied going back into the kitchen and returning not 5 minutes later with a plate full of food.

       Joe took the plate and stared down at it with wide eyes, "Baby Girl, I can't eat all that!"

       "Yes, you can. " She replied sitting on the stool next to the desk and watched her father devour the plate quickly.

       Joe wiped his mouth and looked at Brittney, "Where were you around lunch Baby Girl, I was gonna treat you to Red Lobster?"

       Brittney bit her lip nervously, she definitely knew she couldn't tell her dad EXACTLY who she had been at lunch with, it was hard enough for him to deal with Antoneo & Cornell doing what they did, "I was out, I had -- uh-- a couple things to do before I went to see Dr. Alderson."

       Joe shook his head biting a piece of chicken off, drowning it in hot sauce, "How is that going?"

       "Good, as always." She replied looking away from his prying eyes, he always could see through her and now wasn't the time. She wasn't even completely sure what she could call Druex. Her friend?

       "Baby girl you wouldn't believe this case," Joe replied sitting the fork back on the plate and opening the file again, "a witness-less shooting of a greatly disliked gangster on the East Side in broad daylight. His body was found, still warm, around 4 PM about a month ago."

       Brittney looked back at her father, she thought about Druex, she thought about some of the things she knew he brother did, that's why so many called him Killa, "So who do you think it is?"

       "Those damn so called 'Popular Thugs', it meets their profile. Clean, printless, in secluded area but not after nightfall. It's too perfect." Joe replied sitting his plate to the side, looking back at his daughter.

       Her breath got caught in her throat, she knew who the so-called 'Popular Thugs' were, her brother and boyfriend used to be one of them. Thankfully the phone saved her from trying to produce an adequate reply, she didn't glance at her father as she raced out the room to answer the phone, in a way, she felt like she had betrayed her father by spending a second in Druex's presence.

       "Hello, Anderson residence?" Brittney said breathlessly as she answered the phone.

       "Brittney?" The voice on the other line questioned cautiously, it sounded like a cell phone call.

       "Yea." She replied leaning on the wall.

       "This is Druex."

       "Hey." Brittney replied looking into the other room to see her father chewing on the back on his pen looking out the window.

       Druex sounded as if he shifted the phone to his other shoulder, "I was on my way out and I just decided to call and check up on ya."

       "Nice to know I'm on your mind." Brittney smiled turning her back to the other room, she honestly enjoyed their lunch today, why was the question.

       "Yea, it's just nice to be in the company of a real lady sometimes. " Druex smiled as he stopped at a red light making the cell phone's connection a tad bit clearer.

       "Thanks Druex," She replied bringing the first moment of silence and also ending it, "so you on a 'business trip' huh?"

       Druex laughed as he tried to hold the phone up and switch lanes, "Yea, I guess you could say that, we just came up on some ish, ya know the normal shit."

       She knew he was talking about that shooting that her father was investigating personally, even though he didn't have to, "Yea, well be careful."

       Druex took that comment seriously, she had lost two people to the game and she knew what she was talking about, "I will."

       "Don't just be sayin that Druex, for real be careful, don't trust everybody. Ya know?" Brittney replied looking at her father who was opening the file again searching for anything, anything to give probable cause.

       "I know, I know, aiight then Ima holla at ya aiight." Druex said as he pulled up to the place his Jarell's first run was supposed to be.

       "Yea, bye." Brittney replied hanging up the phone, she watched her father for a moment before shaking her head. It was Antoneo and Cornell all over again, they didn't listen, and neither did Druex. She just hoped another life wouldn't be lost again. They were living the saying that her grandmother used to say about their old neighborhood, 'If these little boys 'round here make it to 18 it's a shock, if they make it to 21 it's a miracle, but they surely won't make it to 25.' And how right was her grandma, most of those mothers on the Eastside and everywhere wished that wasn't so but it was, she was just happy her mother wasn't around to see her very own son live up to that.
......
I can't help if I'm a thug and I'm popular I think that come along with driving a shock car