K'wan - Gutter

“Well, I’ll be damned,” she said, noticing Gutter for the first time. “Nigga, I heard you was dead and gone. ’Course I’m not surprised to see you here, being that none of you evil green-eyed muthafuckas know how to lay down and die.”

“Nice to see you again too, Stacia,” he said sarcastically.

“I’ll bet. So, what you doing back out here? Them New York niggaz showed you what a real thug was about?”

Gutter started to bark on her, but remembering Lil Gunn was with him he kept it cordial. “Nah, baby girl, business is business like always. I’m the man on whatever coast I stomp through. You ain’t that drunk to where you don’t recognize this Crip’n.” He flashed Harlem, then Hoover.

“Whatever, nigga. Tariq”-she turned to Lil Gunn-“what the hell happened to your face?”

“Nothing, Ma, I fell riding a bike,” he lied.

“Young nigga, who you think you fooling? I ain’t flew here, I grew here. You probably got your lil ass whipped trying to play gangsta. You better quit while you’re ahead, unless you wanna end up like yo daddy. You see that nigga in there knocking on heaven’s door.” She took a sip of her drink.

Gutter immediately checked her. “Hold that shit down, Stacia. Don’t disrespect my uncle like that, especially in front of his seed.”

“Y’all niggaz just can’t handle it. See, I’m a real bitch. I call it like I see it. Big Gunn is always gonna be my boo, but the truth is the light. This gangster shit got him living between two worlds right now. That’s the reason why I moved Tariq away from this shit. I call myself saving him from the streets.” She looked Lil Gunn up and down. “As you can see, that didn’t pan out too well.”

“You need to go somewhere and sober up,” Gutter said, getting frustrated.

“Sober up? Muthafucka, I ain’t even nice yet. Don’t get me started, lil Kenny,” she taunted him. Stacia sat her drink on the floor and scowled at everyone assembled.

Gutter could feel the fire in his gut expand to his face. Reflexively his hands curled into fists, and he shot daggers at Stacia. Monifa must’ve felt it, because she moved to his side and placed a calming hand on his shoulder. Just like that the anger drained away. She could still work that magic on him.

“I ain’t even trying to hear this shit.” Lil Gunn stormed past her and into the house.

“I’m going for a walk.” Gutter turned and headed down the block.

“Hold on, I’ll go with you,” Monifa called after him.

Snake Eyes already knew what time it was, so he took Danny into the house, leaving Tears alone with Stacia. Tears knew her from back in the days, when she used to kick it around Hoover with Gunn and his lot. She was always a little outspoken, but now she was just plain rude. He didn’t really fuck with her back then, but he absolutely couldn’t stand her now.

“Fuck you looking at, Scarface?” she spat.

Tears sucked his teeth and walked toward the house. As he passed Stacia, he swept his foot out and “accidentally” kicked her drink over. “Bitch,” he mumbled, before disappearing behind the screen door.

AFTER CHANGINGinto a pair of jeans and a black sweatshirt, Lil Gunn came lumbering down the stairs. There were still a few people lounging around the living room and in the backyard. Stacia sat near the kitchen entrance, sipping yet another drink. He scowled at her and went in the opposite direction toward the backyard.

Blue Bird stood off to the side with several other young men and women. The ladies were working the grill and playing cards, while the homeys were gathered around Blue Bird. Though he was a loudmouth, and more often than not a troublemaker, he had his stripes in the hood. Lil Gunn slipped into the crowd, and grabbed a forty ounce from the cooler.

“Look at this lil nigga.” Blue Bird nodded toward the youngster. “Out here trying to drink with the grown folks. Put that forty down, young’n.”

“I got this, cuz,” Lil Gunn said, turning the bottle up and taking a deep swig of the beer.

“You see that boy do that there?” Charlie beamed proudly. He was from Grape Street.

“That boy got it honest.” Blue Bird patted him on the back. “Man, we all rooting for yo daddy. Them Swans disrespected the G, and we got to C them behind that shit.”

“That’s what the fuck I’m talking about.” Lil Gunn took another swig. “I’m ready to ride on these fools!”

“Shut yo lil ass up. You ain’t ’bout no one-eight-seven,” Charlie teased.

“Fuck you. I’ll dump on any Blood or Crip on any set!” Lil Gunn said heatedly. Gaining the respect of the older heads was crucial to him, so he put an extra production on it.

“Quit talking crazy, killing ain’t for children.” Blue Bird nudged him.

“I ain’t been a kid since I joined up. I’m ready,” Lil Gunn declared.

“You serious?”

“As a heart attack.”

Blue Bird studied the young man for a moment. He looked into his eyes and saw no fear. The man-child was ready to make his bones.

“A’ight.” Blue Bird nodded. “We ’gon C.”

GUTTER WALKEDdown the block with his hands tucked firmly in the pockets of his jeans. He was mad, but all of his anger wasn’t directed at Stacia. He knew what kind of woman she was, so he expected her to come out of her face. What really had him uptight was the situation.

His uncle danced on the brink of death, and everything was in total chaos. There were dozens of people visiting him at the house off and on, but they weren’t really helping the situation. Some of them were sincere, while others just talked for the sake of hearing themselves. No one was actually doing anything to make the situation right.

Gunn had love from many sets in California as well as the Midwest, but so far no one had stepped up with a solid plan for retaliation. Even if they had, who would they retaliate against? The word was out that it was the Mad Swans who did the shooting, but no one knew if it was true or exactly who did the shooting. They could ride on the whole set, but that would make things worse. Though Mad Swans and Hoover were from opposite sides there was a mutual respect between their O.G.s and the old-school Hoovers from the seven and the nine. They didn’t have an official truce but had been known to exchange passes. If they went at the whole set without having their facts together it was sure to get real ugly real soon.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Monifa crept up on him. With so many things flooding his mind at one time, he had almost forgotten that she was with him.

“Just thinking how much I miss this place.” He stared up at a palm tree.

“Yeah.” She stood next to him. “There’s something about the West Coast that makes you fall in love with it.”

“True, if you can overlook all the dumb shit that goes on out here. This is the land of the heartless.”

“It ain’t the land, it’s the people that make it this way,” she said, watching a group of young men ride by in a Chevy. “Kenyatta, I’ve been blessed to have seen many different places in my short life, and they all fall short to Cali. This place is both the most beautiful of states, yet the ugliest.”

“Girl, you tripping.” He waved her off.

“I ain’t the one tripping. These niggaz that’s out here terrorizing decent folks and killing off all our young men are the ones that are tripping. Makes you wonder when all this will end.”

“Man, gang-banging ain’t gonna never end.” He stroked his beard. “This shit has been going on since before we were born, and it’s only gonna get bigger. Muthafuckas kill me talking that stop the violence shit. This ain’t gonna end until we wipe them out, or they wipe us out, period.”