above me I see nobody

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"Mama you what?"

"Dinner. I invited them over I have plenty of food for 10." she said going off into the kitchen to check the oven.

The door bell rang before they could leave and she went to open the door. "Hey bestfriend!" squealed Aniyah.

"Stop shouting." mumbled Tamari .

"Say it out loud or shush." mugged Aniyah.

"Come in" she simply said hugging Aniyah and dapping Tamari. Tamari looked all over the house his eyes wandered at every corner and then there eyes met.

"Hey yall, how you doing?" asked Kasiyah's mom Latisha.

"We good ma how are you." said Tamari hugging her while his eyes set on Tremani.

Tremani was chilled he lay slightly slouched on the couch drinking his drink playing with Kamiyah on his phone, he was hardly phased by Tamari's appearance.

"Hey Tremani." said Aniyah.

Tremani nodded his head as Kamiyah jumps off his lap to go greet Aniyah. "Tamari I'm sure you haven't met Tremani, Tremani that's Tamari." said Latisha.

"Oh I know- and before Tremani could finish his sentence Kasiyah slapped his thigh and motioned for him to follow her.

"Sorry he had a fat bug on his thigh." she said excusing them.

"What." Tremani was confused but had an idea about what she would say.

"Please let this dinner be normal deal with whatever else whenever else. Ok?" she said.

"Kasiyah this nigga probably put cocaine in your house and he knows you got kids and your really defending him."

"I'm not defending him I'm defending my mama and the rest of us who aren't involved."

Tremani smacked his lip as his hands ran over his face. "Ok I'll leave it."

"Tremani."

"I said I'll leave it." he reassured kissing her cheek.

Kasiyah let out a sigh of relief, the dinner was about to be awkward as hell but she had a plan up her sleeve, of course she still wanted to find out who hid the drugs in her house but she already had an idea about who it was and it was completely different to Tremani's idea.

"Yall good?" asked Latisha.

"Yeah Ma we good." replied Tremani.

"So why's everybody quiet, how's life and shit?" asked Aniyah.

"Two weeks off work is treating me good but I go back next week." said Kasiyah.

"I thought you was off for only three days?" said Tamari.

"She said two weeks." replied Tremani with a stale face.

"Oh cool."

"How's the shop been treating yall?"

"It's good, more customers than usual but we thank God." replied Aniyah.

"Where yall get your shop from?." quizzed Tremani, he wanted to know how his store fell in the hands of Aniyah and most of all Tamari.

"I actually found Tamari in the store and wanted to open my own one, I usually say I had it first because I just do, but he let me have my side in it." she said.

"The food's ready." They all got up and assembled at the table with Tremani and Tamari sitting opposite eachother sending glares non stop.

"Yall got beef or sum, because I haven't watched a fight since high school." said Aniyah raising her eyebrows.

"You were in the fight gurl." said Kasiyah.

"Oooo you had a fight, I had one too but I can't disclose any details about that right now with Kasiyah listening." said Kamiyah getting quieter as she reached the end of her sentence. Kasiyah shot her a look that let Kamiyah know they'd be talking about this and Kamiyah most certainly got the message.

"We'll talk about it later." whispered Aniyah.

"You can give me tips, right?" whispered back Kamiyah.

It then struck Kasiyah that they hadn't had the feelings chat in a long time so that was a must do immediately.

"Yall let's say grace, Tremani would you do the honours."said Latisha.

It caught him off guard but he knew how to pray because every night him and Kasiyah would pray for what they are thankful for and to talk to God, she helped him to have a relationship with the Lord.

"Dear Lord, we humble ourselves in your presence, we ask that this meal we eat will be blessed and that any plans that the devil has for us won't prosper as your word says any weapon formed against us won't prosper.

"We ask that you remove the snakes out of our life, and that what you say in your word "what is done in the dark will come to light." applies to our everyday lives. May you reveal to us those or the man that hides from their fate but we ask that you help us to understand that revenge will not come from us. Amen."

"Amen." they all said a bit weary of what they were saying amen to.

"Well Tremani that was a rather lengthy prayer you got a ton load of things you ask of the lord eh?" said Latisha.

"I don't know about yall but that sounded a bit personal to me." instigated Aniyah.

"That prayer longer than my life." sighed Sekani.

"Food is probably cold." continued Oablo.

"Cut the chit chat and tuck in yall." said Latisha. A wave of silence rushed into the room as they all ate, they could all feel tension rising in the room.

"Since this "i just got out of jail" nigga wants to get personal we can go there." spoke Tamari breaking the silence.

"Go on then." said Tremani unbothered, he remembered he was trying to stay cool because Kasiyah asked him to.

"I'm so sorry ma but this nigga been-

"Been what Tamari, been what? You know what you did, none of what you'll ever say will make any sense." mugged Tremani.

"So this is why you no longer wanna go Kasiyah's house." recognised Aniyah.

"So you block a bitch's enjoyment for this shit." laughed Kasiyah. "Pardon my french ma."

"I wanna have a say I want to say something." said Kamiyah.

"My daddy always told me to never run from the opps, because somebody gonna die so.."

"Why you run from the opp Tamari." Kamiyah and Sekani questioned

"Yeah why did you run?" added Pablo.

"Since this shit gonna come out anyway, let's talk about it." said Tremani rising up from his seat.

"Tremani eat while your saying it because I ain't cook for no reason this shit took time." said Latisha ushering them to eat.

Kasiyah couldn't believe the scene, everybody was engaged in the beef including the kids and her mother, she decided to just let it all play out for the time being.

"This nigga stole my shit, I'm so sorry kids but if you don't want to be bad like me cover your ears. That lil store yall own ain't yours." he said.

"Excuse me but whose names are on those bills, uh yeah mine?", interrupted Aniyah.

"He's not joking." Kasiyah finally spoke.

"and neither are those bills so next." replied aniyah smartly.

"Can y'all speed this up I gotta take the kids to the park." hurried Latisha munching on her yams.

"The park can wait memaw." smiled Pablo.

"For you not for me I got some people I want to play ball with." said Sekani.

"And we are in the middle of a family meeting." said Kamiyah. "You need to be present."

"To be fair yall need to leave, this is for the adults."

"Fine but your gonna need me and I won't come back." hollered Kamiyah leaving the room with the boys behind her.

"Tell this nigga to leave before he turn into one of these fried chickens." said Tremani.

"I'm good here Tremani." smiled Tamari.

"I'll show you where you'd be good at." he said getting out of his chair and pulling Tamari out of the house.

"Nigga get the fuck off me." he said throwing punches in his stomach but Tremani never let go of him he punched him in his eye numerous times and left him with a bloody nose before he decided to get off him.

"Stop, stop fighting!" said Kasiyah clearly agitated.

"Hey yall, this live popping, don't be screen recording shit this shit original." Aniyah yelled into her phone will going live filming the fight at every angle.

Within two minutes, Latisha snatched her phone out of her hand and powered it off. "Kids and these damn phones." she mumbled.

"Ma I'm an adult." Aniyah corrected.

"Tell this nigga to give me my fucking business back and then we can go." Tremani said with his gun at Tamari's temple.

"Tremani, is it really that deep." asked Aniyah.

"Yes it is for him." replied Kasiyah.

"You have half my business so give my half back." remembered Tremani.

"If I help you get Tamari out I get to keep my half?" asked Aniyah.

Tremani thought for a second moving his gun in a swinging motion, and he finally nodded.

"Tamariiiii, get out of the shop you need to leave."

"Snake." Tamari hissed.

"I'm just playing brodie imma run that store from home, you did some bad things but it don't mean I got to snake you like that."

It just wasn't in Aniyah's nature to not be friends with somebody because they weren't friends with her friend, besides she didn't really consider Tremani her friend just yet.

"I'm still confused as to what Tamari did?" she continued.

"We had a business a very good one ok. We both ended it on good terms but he continued to recieve money from it."

"Right." nodded Latisha.

"He's the reason for my arrest ma, I went to go pick up one of the packages because his dumbass forgot that my number is who the plug directly contacts when it comes to our business."

"Police caught me with it and that's that."

"You what!" yelled Aniyah.

"And i'd do it again." hollered Tamari

"Fuck you talm bout you'd do it again." Said Kasiyah slapping him in between every word.

"Ma Kasiyah's swearing look at this shit bruh." laughed Aniyah trying to make Latisha pay attention to Kasiyah.

"You'd do what again. This nigga said he'd do what?" asked Tremani he was livid the gun sat comfortably in his hand ready to be used.

"I'd do it again ugly ass nigga." he said.

POW! Tremani confidently shot Tamari's leg making him collapse onto the floor screaming in pain.

"TREMANI!" yelled Kasiyah

"And then you go put cocaine in the house with kids in it, you down bad my nigga." said Tremani shooting him in his other leg so he was completely down.

"KASIYAHHHHH!!" yelled Kamiyah.

"Stay in the room until I tell you to come out I'll be up in a minute." she said running up stairs and back down in time to sort what was going on.

"Stop shooting Tremani, there's a shooting range for a reason, damn we got kids in here." said Aniyah taking the gun out of his hand.

Tamari was falling in and out of consciousness, "We got to take him to the hospital now." said Aniyah trying to pick him up. Tamari was still her brother.

"Tamari stay awake ok." she said kissing his cheek.

"I can't believe you Tremani, I can't believe you did this shit." Kasiyah said in a serious tone with tears building in her eye.

"You can't blame that man your daddy was the same, if you instigate it he sure as hell was gonna shoot." reasoned Latisha.

"MA he could have did it else where, at Wendy's or something, not here." she said turning to her mom.

"And ruin everyone's meal?" said her mom.

"He's alive be thankful for that." she continued.

"Ma he shot somebody in your house." Kasiyah said trying to stay calm and composed.

"He's not dead, Kasiyah you do realise I've seen worse." she said looking at her.

"Yall ridiculous, while your at it keep him at your house, because I don't want him around me."

"Kasiyah you really gonna do that." said Tremani trying to hold her hand.

"Get off me." she said withdrawing her hand from his grip.

"Come on man I really didn't mean to fuck this up girl, I was trying to keep my cool and remember what you said."

"Tremani please shut up."

"She'll hear you out soon, I got a spare room if you ain't got nowhere to stay." said Latisha reassuring him.

Aniyah had already sped off to the hospital frantically alone, she just couldn't believe how Tamari could do such a thing and get shot, he couldn't even hold his ground, it was as if he was waiting to get shot and that was against everything he taught her when they'd have conversations.

"Come on baby let's go." said Kasiyah ushering Sekani out of the house with Kamiyah and Pablo.

"What about Tremani?" asked Kamiyah.

"He's staying here, let's go." she simply responded.

"No he's not." said Kamiyah with her eyebrows raised.

"Kamiyah why were there gun shots?" asked Pablo.

"I already told you bruh, this is the hood." whispered Sekani.

"Come on yall we are leaving."

"Bye Tremani." said Kamiyah running to hug him tight while he hugged her back.

"Imma be back soon."

"No your not, you can stay away till further notice."

"I'll tell you when you can come back." whispered Kamiyah.

POW POW POW!

Kasiyah, her mom and Pablo and Sekani fell to the ground. Bullets flew into the house as it riddled through the door.

Tremani held Kamiyah in his arms but something wasn't right, she felt lifeless as her chest heaved up and down yearning for breathe.