“What the hell is going on with me?” she asked her reflection. She waited for a minute, but getting no response, figured she was on her own. Now came the moment of truth. Her nausea and her mother’s comment had sent her scrambling to Duane Reade to get a home pregnancy test. She had peed on the stick before the vomiting started back up, but she was stalling. After getting burned, punched, and dissed, she was deathly afraid of what she mind find out next.

“Suck that shit up, Reese. You can do it,” she told herself. Reese’s hands trembled as she picked up the little white stick and held it to eye level. When she saw how many lines had appeared, she flopped down and placed her forehead on the side of the sink. She tried to scream, but found that she no longer had a voice. All she could do was weep silently.

Groovy came out of the liquor store, cradling a bottle beneath his arm like a football. He and Rel had had the good fortune of meeting two little sack chasers on the ave who were out looking for a good time. They had planned to get the hos high and drunk and fuck their brains out.

No one had seen or heard from Jah and his man in a minute, so Groovy was inclined to believe they were hiding somewhere, licking their wounds. It was like he and Rel had said from the beginning, the two youths didn’t wanna play with the big boys. Slick was still acting funny, but things were business as usual for the two hoods. He had looked up to Slick as sort of a mentor, but his actions of late made him question his faith in the older man. Much like Rel, Groovy wasn’t big on thinking, so he believed in taking a more hands-on approach to everything. Slick and all his strategizing was making him feel soft and he didn’t like it.

Rounding the corner, Groovy literally bumped into someone. The bottle had almost slipped from his hands, but he managed to maintain his grip. He looked up, ready to bark, but paused. Something about the kid wearing the black stocking cap looked familiar, but Groovy couldn’t place him right off. When the young man smiled it all began reaching Groovy’s mind and it clicked. Spooky was quick on the draw, but young Groovy was quicker. Smashing the bottle against Spooky’s face, Groovy took off running in the other direction.

His cheek hurt from where the bottle had struck him and his eyes burned from the liquor running in them, but it didn’t stop Spooky from chasing Groovy. The young man zigzagged through the pedestrians on the sidewalk, making it hard for Spooky to get a shot off, for fear of hitting innocent bystanders. Groovy had no such reservations and proceeded to fire his Glock.