Sonny, Malik, and Shana. Sirens wail nearby, and the chants behind us are replaced with screams and shouts.
We run until we can’t hear them. When we do stop, it’s so we can catch our breath.
“This is bad,” Sonny says, bent over. “Holy shit, this is bad.”
Malik marches up to Curtis and shoves him so hard, Curtis’s hat flies off. “What the hell were you thinking?”
Curtis catches himself midstumble and shoves Malik right back. “Man, get your hands off me!”
“You started a riot!” Malik screams in his face. “You realize what you’ve done?”
“Hey!” I push Malik away from Curtis. “Stop it!”
“Oh, you’re on his side now?” Malik yells.
“Side? What the hell are you talking about?”
“I guess it’s fine ’cause he was chanting your song! Forget the fact he incited a riot!”
“It’s not his fault somebody threw a punch!”
“Why the fuck are you sticking up for him?”
“Malik!” Shana says.
Sonny snatches him back. “Bruh, what the hell? Chill!”
A patrol car zooms by.
“If we don’t get outta here, the next cop might stop and question us,” Sonny says.
Malik’s glare is set on Curtis. “We can go to my house. My mom should be at work by now.”
Another patrol car races toward the school, lights flashing.
“C’mon,” Sonny says.
Shana tugs at Malik’s hand. That’s the only thing that makes him stop glaring at Curtis. He lets her pull him down the sidewalk.
In less than an hour, almost every black and Latinx student from Midtown shows up at Malik’s.
He and Shana got word out to their coalition to come over for an emergency meeting. One after another, they bring details of what happened after we ran off. At least ten cop cars arrived, a news van showed up, and the boys who jumped Long and Tate were arrested. One of them was Zane.
Curtis glances at me when we’re told that. I just mouth, You’re welcome.
Long and Tate were both loaded into ambulances. Nobody knows how bad either of them are.
Parents and guardians received a recorded message from the school saying that there was an emergency and that they must come get their children. Jay thought there was a shooting and immediately called me. She calmed down once I told her I’m fine. I gave her a quick rundown of what really happened, specifically the part about Long and Tate being back. She was pissed but not surprised.
Everyone sits and stands around Malik’s living room, eating sandwiches and chips and drinking just about every soda Aunt ’Chelle has. Sonny, Curtis, and I made room on the couch for three other people. Shana’s on Aunt ’Chelle’s recliner with a girl sitting on each arm.
Malik won’t stay still. He paces the living room, the way he used to do when a mission on a video game wasn’t going his way.
“This will not help us with any of the concerns we had,” he says. “In fact, this is gonna make shit worse.”
He eyes Curtis. Curtis eats his sandwich as if Malik said nothing.
“You don’t know that,” says Sonny.
“No, he’s right,” says Shana. “They’re probably about to go the Garden High route. Have actual cops acting as security.”
“What?” I say, and other people in the room basically say the same thing.
“I guarantee those two are back because so many parents bought that ‘drug dealer’ narrative about Bri,” Malik says. “They’ve got reason to believe we’re all threats now. I bet there will be armed cops at the doors.”
Ever since that boy got killed, my heart races whenever I see a cop. I could’ve been him, he could’ve been me. Luck’s the only thing that separated us.
Now my heart may be racing for most of the day.
Curtis sits forward, his arms folded on his knees. “Look, all I know is we were tired of Long and Tate treating us like shit and getting away with it, so we whooped their asses. Plain and simple.”
Malik pounds his fist into his palm. “There’s a way to go about it! You think you’re the only one tired? You think I wanted to see my best friend thrown onto the ground?”
Wow. Malik and I haven’t been great lately. Hell, that’s an understatement, honestly. But he basically just told me all that doesn’t matter—he still cares about me.
I catch Shana staring at me. She quickly looks away.
“We finally got Dr. Rhodes to agree to a meeting with us and this happens?” Malik says. “She won’t hear shit we have to say. Nah. We gotta go above her now.”