Trevon was right, the block emptied out, just like that day Francis bro got shot. Trisha and I were in school till 7 pm, studying for the last set of tests to end off our senior year with a bang. Especially the AP courses. We sat in the empty library, our books sprawled out across the green carpet. Both of us were on the ground focusing on separate things, till my phone went off only temporarily distracting Trisha who got right back to reading her textbook.

Trevon: I love you.

I smiled and quickly glanced at Trisha to see if she caught me as she often did.

Me: I luv u 2

Trevon: You playin games

Me: Lol love you too

Trevon: who love me?

Me: I do

Trevon: Full sentence. Now

Me: I love you Trevon

Trevon: Mm ...what you doin?

Me: Don't ask me that.

Just don't.

End of argument.

Trevon: Lol you too smart for ya own good

Me: I get it from you lol

We at the library studying.

I hadn't looked back at my books once since our conversation began. Trisha caught me now.

"Oh, I know that look. Tell him I said hi." I passed the message.

Trevon: Tell her what up. Y'all been stayin off the block like I told you?

Me: Yea. Are you ok?

Trevon: I'm good. Don't worry bout me.

Me: That's hard.

Trevon: I know baby, ima come see you tonight before you go to bed. Iight?

Me: Okay. Be safe.

Trevon: Always am. Call me when y'all walkin home.

At least another hour goes by before Trisha calls it quits.

"Man whatever happens on this test happens. I done studied the textbook word for word, there cant be more than 3 questions on there that I don't know." She says closing up all her books.

"If you tryna get 3 questions wrong out of 35, I think you good." I comment.

She smiles cocky. " Yea, I know."

I call Mom to let her know that we were about to leave school and then Trish and I gather our stuff and exit the building into the depth of the night. Warm summer air greets us and I suddenly miss the AC of the library. The streets are empty and eerie, it gives me goosebumps along my arm. We walk swiftly and close to each other, saying little, just wanting to get out of the darkness and into safety. Trisha gave me a quick hug and then turns off on her block. I am only a block from my house after I turn the corner. I see no one around but I try to keep my pace. I stick my hands into my baggy sweats and feel my cellphone rub against my fingers.

Dammit.

I forgot to call Trev.

With only half a block left before my house, I decide to call him anyway. As I begin to withdraw my cellphone, I feel something hard hit my face and soon notice that it is a large brown hand pressed against my mouth, disabling my voice. His hand smells like weed and iron.

He stands behind me and I can feel that he is taller and strong. He presses something cold and metallic into my back.

"Don't scream." He orders, coldly. I recognize the voice but I can't put a face to it as hard as my panic brain tries to.

My jagged breathing turns into hyperventilation which turns into complete shock and all that keeps running through my mind is

I should have called him.

I should have called.

I should have called him as soon as Trisha left my side. I'm so stupid. It was stupid to be coming home this late when we knew how high the tension was. Just a realm of stupid mistakes. As I struggle to breathe or scream, I feel warm tears sliding down my face.

The hard steel feels like a knife sinking into my back and killing me slowly. But I know that it is a gun, I can feel the shape of it pressed into me like a brand. I hear the hammer pull back. I squeal and the man behind me tightens his grip on my mouth.

"Don't do it to yourself." He says.

"You're gonna walk with me. Come on." He demands as he uses the hand he has on my mouth to pull my body, turning me in the opposite direction of my house and back down the block. I begin crying, full on tears in this moment. Pleading though he can't hear me.

I shake my head as I walk where he wants me to. My entire body shaking. The whole time thinking this is my last time walking these streets. It angers me how empty the streets were, how everyone was inside so safe, and here I was going through the worst thing I could imagine. It angers me that this would happen after I have so beautifully set up my future. That I might be the next body on the block.

"Walk faster, bitch. This ain't no all night shit." The voice was hard and rusty. I was dizzy with fear. Fear that my legs might stop moving and he would have to kill me anyway.

"You're going to tell me where Francis lives. Nice, simple and easy. Right?" He says in a soft voice. My soul sinks into my feet. How had I been the one caught up? I was so separated from this beef. It has nothing to do with me. Why was I the one being held at gun point?

Out of everyone else involved, how could it have been me that they found?

We walk pass Livonia street when the gun man stops at the corner of the block. "Is it down this block or the other? What street is it?"

I don't answer him. I pray so many prayers in my head. So many I couldn't keep track of what prayers were for what or even if they make sense.

He removes his hand from my mouth and pokes the gun more firmly into my back.

"You don't want to make this harder for yourself. Talk! Is he on this block, or nah?" He snaps.

I shake my head tears streaming down my face. I shake my head continuously. I lie.

He did live on that block. He was King of that block, he owned it. He was so loved on that block, I hoped with everything in me there wasn't some kind of sign of him.

"You lyin, lil bitch. I know he lives down this block. You must really wanna die tonight to save your bitch ass lil friend, huh?"

"Please." I manage to get out, my voice is barely audible through the tears and sniffling.

"Please, please,please, sir. I had nothing to do with this. Please." I say again and again.

"Shut up and walk me to his house or i'm killing you right on this corner." He spat.

I close my eyes and stand still, for a moment as my legs refused to move. I couldn't take him to Francis. I couldn't lead someone to my friend so they could take their life. The gun man pushes me and I lazily begin to walk down the block in the direction of Francis's house.

I walk slowly as even as he shoves me, keeping the gun pinned to my back. Suddenly my sweats begin to vibrate. A new mass of fear rushes through my body. It had to be Trevon or Mom calling. I say my last prayer now, knowing this was it. He would panic and shoot me and that would be all.

"Oh God." I mumble between tears.

"Give it to me." He says, holding his hand out. I reach for the device, take it out to see Trevon's name and hand it over.

"See, now you pulling attention to everything, because ya lil boyfriend worried. Now you and ya friend dead forreal. Trevon dumbass bout to be laid out too. You could have made it out but all y'all niggas wanna be in the park spittin like you the hardest niggas on the-"

Two bullets ring out and I hit the floor and slam my head into the sidewalk. I stay there unable to move until I realize I can feel absolutely no pain aside from my bloody forehead. As I turn I can see someone on top of the man I assume was behind me, they were beating him senseless. Within seconds the gun was across the street and there was so much blood splattered on the gun mans face that I still didn't know who it was.

I sit up and use my hands to crawl backwards away from the fight, not noticing my face drenched in new tears. People begin to exit their homes. Someone pulls me into an embrace and without knowledge of who it is, I scream and push. Only to notice it's Pookie.

"It's me! It's me. Relax." He stresses. I turn into him and embrace him crying, my eyes still pinned on the fight happening in front of me.

I realize that the man on top of the gun man is Trevon and that he was about to kill him. Other people from the block struggle to pull Trevon from the gun man's unconscious body, but he keeps on punching, blood splattering onto the sidewalk and his clothes.

I know Trevon was completely gone in the head now because he would never fight someone who was no longer fighting back. The unconscious gun man had absolutely no fight in him. Two older men from the block pull Trevon off the unconscious body but are not able to hold him back and Trevon brakes lose and runs straight back to the gun man and begins kicking him multiple times in the face and ribs. Pookie lets me go and runs to Trevon, roughly pulling him away from the man. He pins him to the fence. Everyone was gathered around us now, watching what was going on. No one touches the man laying in the street. Muffled voices all down the block echo through my head as I realize I was almost killed. It was long before Trisha was holding me and wiping my forehead with a wet cloth. I don't know when she got there.

I don't know when Francis was by Trevon's side holding him back, attempting to help Pookie control him. I don't know when my mother, or the police got there. All I know was that I had almost been killed and Trevon had saved me.

I remember seeing Trevon being put in handcuffs.

I remember seeing the gun man put on a stretcher by the men coming out the ambulance.

I remember every cracking sound the gun man's face and body made with Trevon's blows.

I remember all the things I wanted to forget.

I relive them in my dreams.