The Clique

    Josh walked inside his house and looked for his mother. He reached in to his pocket under his big white shirt and brought out a big roll of money which only contained 20’s and 100’s. His sweaty tan hands counted the bills slowly. He handed $400 to his mom, for the rent and other utilities. He knew it was more than she needed but he wanted her to be more than just “comfortable.” His mom took the money without saying a word but in her mind she always wondered where he got it all but never asked. So she looked up to her 6 foot son and said, “Thank you, baby.” He just nodded and gave his mom a little innocent smirk.
    Josh always gave his mom money. He did not have a job but he would get money any way he could: mainly selling drugs and robbing. Ever since his freshman year in high school he helped his mom to pay they were not on the streets because his mom did not make enough money for two kids..
    He never caused problems with anybody but he did not like people messing with him or messing up his business. Josh and his crew were the most envied by girls and the most dangerous and intimidating to guys. He was not the main leader of the clique but he was the one that handled all the money and products for the them. This clique was like his second family, always there for him no matter what. He knew if it was not for them he would probably be living on the streets with his mom and little brother. Him and his best friend Angel has been in the clique since both of their freshman year.
    Josh and Angel had been like brothers since they were around two. They had been living in South Richmond all of their lives, so they shared many memories: good ones and bad ones. Them and their crew were usually always together, even before and after school. They took their business very seriously. Josh and Angel were the only two doing well in school and looked forward to a higher education. They saved their spare money for their own personal college funds. They both wanted to study business because they were good with money and liked how it worked and moves the world.
    Everyday after school, Josh and Angel would go to the park a block behind their high school and take care of their business and clients. They sold marijuana, ecstasy and coke. They had very loyal clients that would always come for them but they also had a few clients that would just come once or come every once and while. Josh and Anthony did not rob a lot of people, only if business was doing bad which was hardly never and they were also good at that. But they did not like it as much because it was easier for them to get caught or end up robbing the wrong person and being in a lot of more danger. Their life motto “In the short-run we are screwed, but in the long-run it’s all good” pushed them everyday to make as much money as they could to help them in the “long-run”.
    One day after school they were both at the park as usual and one of their clique brothers, Ricky, called Josh. Ricky told Josh that an ex-click member, AJ, was taking clients away from their clique. Josh now knew why business was going very slow and a lot of his regular clients were not coming anymore. When AJ was in the clique he spent most of his time selling with Josh and Angel, which enabled him to have a lot of contacts and street wisdom after he got kicked out the clique for bossing everybody around and doing everything for himself and not for the clique.
    Josh realized that AJ was trying to put the clique out of business and put himself on the map. Josh knew he had to stop AJ somehow. But he was not sure how. He decided to have a meeting with all his clique brothers. They decided to have the meeting at Angel’s house with all the members of the clique.
    The meeting was always at Angel’s garage, it big empty and nobody could see them or hear what they were saying. The walls were smoke grey, and im font of them were a few steel shelves with a few tools and boxes. In the middle of the garage was a few couches and seats in font of a TV. Everybody arrived at his garage a few hours after school, even Tony, the leader of the clique.
    “Look. We seem to have a little competition problem here, right Josh?” said the leader, Tony.
    “Yes we do. Lil’AJ thinks that he can take our clients away and put us out of business. But we need to put that muthafucka out of our way. But we need to know how we gonna do it,” Josh replied.
    All the click members started screaming and shouting “kill dat b****, f*** that wannabe.”
    “All of ya’ll be quiet. Josh, you are the one whose gonna put him out for sure but we all are going to play a little part and this how we are going to do it……” Tony told them the plan to get rid of AJ. Tony gave Josh a 9mm pistol. Josh stared at it for a long time. The coldness of the gun spread through allover him, and caused him to get the chills. It was all chrome with a wooden handle. It felt expensive to him. He had never shot anyone, nor held a gun before but he knew this was all going to change. He was not the type of person that would be known for shooting somebody, but he was well known for street fighting with his fist instead of using guns.
    He took the gun and put it in between his jeans and shorts. After the gun was in his jeans, his hands started to tremble rapidly and release gallons of sweat. Josh knew he had to do this, but in the back of his mind he knew that if he went through with the plan it would have serous repercussions. He knew if he just used his fist  then AJ would keep on taking their business away no matter how badly Josh would punch his face in.
    Everybody knew what they had to do, so they all left Angel’s house. Josh and Angel were both lost in their thoughts about the doing the plan and the consequences of doing either. Angel was Josh’s wingman of the operation. He was the one who had to be with Josh the whole time of the plan. Both of them had never done something this big before . No matter what, they knew they had to do it whether they liked it or not.
    “Damn Angel, this is going to be some real shit that is going to go down tomorrow,” Josh said.   
    “I know, bruh. This shit is going to either make us or break us, either way if we do it or not. So I think we might as well just do it, cuz we will suffer the consequences anyways,” Angel said.
    “You right. Fuck it. We gotta do it. Remember, in the short-run we’re screwed but in the long-run it’s all good,” he said with a little doubt in his mind because he knew that if he caught it would also be bad in the long-run and not just in the short-run.
    “Yeah! And that’s what we have to follow, always!” Angel said semi-enthusiastically.
    “Yeah, bruh. I gotta home right now to check up on my little bro and get some rest, so I’ll see you tomorrow, one love.”
    “One love ,” Angel said.
    Josh got home looking at his brother and his mom with more emotion than usual. One could say it was doubt. He knew the next could affect him from seeing his mom and brother everyday. But he decided to take that risk, because if everything came out right than their future could be affected positively.
    The next day came way too fast and with each second that passed, the more Josh thought about what was going to go down that night. Josh and Angel were both acting different than they usually did. Too many thoughts ran through their heads--is this the right thing to do, what would happen if  we don’t go through this, should I really do this, is their another way out--their young immature minds that they did not know how to control all the thoughts that were rushing through their heads.
    They went through the day doing what they always did-- go to school, handle some clients at school, hang out a little bit with females at school, go to the park and meet up with most of their clients--but mentally they were different. They felt that everybody was watching them, and they grew more paranoid and anxious by the second.
    This was it. Josh and Angel went to the park as usual. Their friends used girls to set AJ up to go to the park. Josh stood where he and Angel always stood in the park, a few clients passed and came, but the night grew darker. They received the call that AJ was going to be on his way soon, and to stay put and be ready.
    The moon was full. The park was dark and quiet. All you could here was their hearts rushing. Josh knew it was ready to ignite, but it was not in position. He felt the cold metal in his underbelly. He kept moving his jeans around to find a comfortable position, which he never found. He remembered when AJ first started to hang out with the clique. AJ seemed like a guy that would be committed to the group but greed took over him, and caused him to only care about himself.
    He was anxious to get it over with but he did not want to show Angel any weakness or insecurity. They both sat in the middle of the walkway of the park. They looked around the park and saw huge oak trees with big shadows on each side of them.
    It was a little past 8 o’clock. The walkway was empty. Josh felt the big oak trees closing him in, dialing him from leaving the park. The time was not helping his nerves, so he decided to light up a little joint with Angel to release some stress. But it hardly had any effect. In his head he kept thinking, it’s going to happen no matter what and there is nothing that is going top stop me. It is for the best and I  will never suffer any consequences. He knew that was most likely not true but he kept repeating this to himself, so he would e able to go with the plan. He knew that he could stop himself, so he would not suffer the repercussions but something in his head kept pushing, forcing him to stay at the park and go with the plan. Josh felt the big oak trees closing him in, dialing him from leaving the park.
    Angel’s phone rang. They both looked at each other and knew this was it, the moment of truth. Angel picked up the phone but Josh could not understand what he was saying to the person on the other end. Angel nodded his head signaling to Josh that AJ was on his way.
    Josh looked passed the walkway and saw a dark car park by the park. A guy with a black and yellow Pittsburgh hat hopped out of the car. They knew it was him .AJ wore that hat everyday.
    They both stood up. Josh takes out the gun and puts it behind his back.
    “Ay!” Angel shouted at the top of his lungs. They were not afraid of him because he was always the wimp of the whole clique.
    “What the f*** do you guys want!” AJ said with rage.
    “You, b****. You been taking our business and that aint right. And you talking mess about the whole crew so me and Angel got to but an end to this now!” Josh said while gripping the pistol harder moving slowly to the front of his body.
    “Shut up. You guys aint shit! And neva goin to be nothen either!” AJ said with animosity, and whipped out a 9mm handgun as fast as possible, and shot Angel in the head. He fell down on the floor like a doll.
    Josh was surprised, he never would have expected for AJ to have a gun. Know he knew in an instant he had to pull the trigger,  for his friend that he loved like a brother. A tear dipped down his right eye and  quickly aims the gun at AJ and shoots him four times in the chest.