"Popular Thug II: Beautiful Disaster"

Ch. 3

       (One Week Later)

       "Focus man focus," Oryan Grandberry whispered as he and Druex leaned over a map of the city.

       They were planning the takeover, they were planning their every step, their every move. The planning was a pivotal part of the whole thing and Druex couldn't pay attention. He kept drifting off, he couldn't set his mind on this takeover, and he wasn't being too much help to his second in charge, Oryan.

       Oryan Grandberry, Omari's brother, had been in the game ten years, he had turned to the streets after his brother had left for New York. Oryan had even started taking care of Omari's babymama, Michelle, and their daughter, Natalia, after he got locked up five years ago.

       "It's not easy, young. I can do this shit with my eyes closed but some ish, I'll never understand," Druex sighed, sitting back on the couch throwing his red pen on the table with contempt.

       Oryan, who was still squatting by the table, raised an eyebrow, "Female huh?"

       "Shit yea. Who else could interrupt my business like this? I used to say: 'No one could stop business from moving, only God could, and until he does, business goes on'. But females have this way of always interrupting," Druex replied furrowing his eyebrows, watching a smirk appear on Oryan's face.

       "She playin' hard to get?" Oryan asked as he softly tapped the bottom of his pen on the table.

       Druex looked down at his hands, never one to discuss his feelings openly, "Not really. We uh...used to be together and now she has some issues."

       Oryan laughed softly as he sat on the stool behind him, "You mean ya'll got some issues? 'Cause the only thing I can see is you buggin. See, if she was trippin you would be hot, but she's trippin for a legit reason, and you buggin."

       "She won't forgive me," Druex whispered as he leaned his head back on the couch with a discontent sigh.

       "This may sound like a punk-assed thing to do -- but have you really apologized to her? I mean saying the words and everything," Oryan asked pushing the pen behind his ear with little trouble.

       Druex closed his eyes, envisioning Brittney her black Armani suit, "Not really, I asked her -- to pretend that she forgave me but I never asked for it."

       Oryan shook his head at his associate, you couldn't call them friends and maybe that's why Druex could say so much to him, "Pretending ain't gonna help nigga! Why did you ask her that?"

       Druex sat his head up and turned his eyes to his friend's younger brother, "Sometimes, when you start to pretend, things start to become a reality."

       "That don't mean shit Druex. Her pretending something happened ain't gonna make happen! Not for you or her," Oryan replied as he took a drink of his Cognac.

       Druex raised an eyebrow at the young man, who had just turned twenty-one three weeks ago. It made him nostalgic about his twenty-first year of life and how he'd do anything just to go back. The year he turned twenty-one changed it all, it wasn't just the year he became a legal drinker, it was the year he met the only woman who changed his life. He had met her years before, in school, but this meeting was different. It was a meeting of broken hearts and Druex suspected they rescued each other.

       "When did you get so wise, young?" Druex asked, eyeing Oryan.

       Oryan chuckled softly, sipping from his cup, "It's life lessons nig, you live, and your learn."

       "Haven't you heard? Females ain't that easy to figure out," Druex answered as he lit up a Black, he hadn't smoked in five years and he wasn't sure it would come back so easy.

      

       "So you're saying your pops put him in jail?" Porcha asked as she sat on Brittney's couch.

       Brittney threw a Skittle in her mouth before answering, "We only spent a few months together but those months were...."

       Porcha watched her friends face as she trailed off, "Magical?"

       Brittney smiled up at her sadly, "Yea."

       "So what's wrong with this reunion?" Porcha asked throwing a handful of popcorn in her mouth.

       "I'm tired of being so -- so emotionally charged," Brittney replied with a loud, discontent, sigh.

       "Emotionally charged? You don't seemed to be overcharged about anything, except for your work," Porcha retorted unbelievably.

       Brittney glared at her, "When it comes to me and him, everything is overcharged. Our arguments, our meetings, and everything in between. Nothing between us can be without tension, ya know."

       "What really happened?"

       "I think we both just fell too fast."

       Porcha watched her friend's face fall as she stared at the floor, seemingly, not blinking, "If it's real, it doesn't matter how fast it happened."

       Brittney looked up at her friend with a childlike expression, "He rescued me and I don't think my heart will let me forget that."

       "Rescued you? Isn't that a bit cliché Brit?" Porcha asked as she crossed her legs.

       "Very cliché but true. I was a mess, haunted by the past, going to a Psychiatrist more than three times a week, and not to sure about anything. But one day -- one day I bumped into this piece of my past and he changed everything. He put my heart back together and in the end broke it again," Brittney answered softly as the memories came flooding back, it was a piece of her life that she could never let go.

       "Clichéd life is always the hardest," Porcha remarked drinking the rest of her Pepsi.

       "You're telling me."

       Porcha watched her friend drown in her memories before asking, "Was he your Knight in Shining armor?"

       At that Brittney smirked, "Pretty much, in my eyes though the evil King won. When I found out my father ordered the D. A. to run with all the circumstantial ish he could dig up, I realized that my White Knight had lost and the evil Black King, had won."

       "Cliché, cliché, cliché. But you couldn't escape it huh? It just turned out that way," Porcha laughed.

       "Sure couldn't, he tried to do a noble thing by letting me go...." Brittney trailed off as she played with the necklace that hung off her neck.

       "To have a happy life?" Porcha snorted as she rolled her eyes.

       Brittney raised an eyebrow at the woman, "You know about the so-called noble lover wanting you to be happy?"

       "Steven tried it once but he -- we couldn't do it," Porcha replied as she took some Skittles from Brittney.

       "Really? I'm surprised he even tried," Brittney remarked.

       "Yea, on the bases of professionalism," Porcha answered rolling her eyes.

       "When it comes to you and Steven, it doesn't exist," Brittney replied sarcastically.

       "True."

       "I feel like an idiot Porcha," Brittney sighed as she let her head rest on the table in front of her.

       Porcha looked down at her friend on the floor sympathetically, "Why?"

       "I want him back, even after all of this drama, I honestly want him back," she whispered as she wrapped her arms around her abdomen.

       Porcha smirked at her, "That's not being an idiot, you just want what makes you happy."

       "I want him back but I haven't even forgiven him for the past. And sometimes I feel like I am not even able to forgive him for that," Brittney whispered with a soft sigh.

       "Brit, it's our choices, far more than our abilities, that show who we truly are," Porcha replied softly.

       "I don't even know what choice to make."


      
       "Look why don't we finish this later?" Oryan asked as he stood and folded the map.

       "You're right, I haven't been much help in the past couple hours," Druex replied as he threw two empty bottles of Cognac into the garbage.

       "Why don't you go see her?" Oryan asked as he stuck the notes and the map into an empty drawer by the couch.

       "I don't know where she lives," Druex replied shaking his head.

       "Didn't you say you got her card?" Oryan pushed as Druex opened his wallet to look for the card.

       "Yea I got it," Druex whispered holding the card in his hands, reading her name over and over.

       "I'm sure she wrote her address on the back," Oryan noted as he turned it over, a surprised look covered his face.

       "I didn't even know -- how did you know O?"

       Oryan smirked at the older man, "If she felt the same way you did, why wouldn't she?"

       Druex smiled to himself, he never thought about it, "Why wouldn't she?"

       "Well, D, you need to go. I got a female on her way over and I got time for you to be cockblockin'," Oryan said checking his watch, it was twenty after nine.

       "Yea, I'll holla at ya," Druex said as he made his way out of the house.

       Druex made his way out into the warm August night, determined to make the best of this chance. Not even thinking of the 'what ifs' of the situation. He didn't think she wouldn't let him in, he didn't wonder would she open up, he just decided that he would take the chance. The chance to make it better, to change the present, and win her back.
....
He drowns in his dreams
An exquisite extreme I know