Chapter 1

“Beep,Beep,BEEEP: Son, if you listening to this I want you to tell your mom to go under the bed to get my shoebox filled with money and use that to pay the bills. Oh, and one more thing I lo”.

“Bang,Bang.” His voice interrupted by two gunshots ramming into his skull like a bird piercing through water to catch a fish.

“Baller’s getting money b****!” Yells an anonymous voice.

“Beep,Beep,BEEEP. No new voicemails.”the recording on TY’s phone says.

“Damn.” TY thought. “ They ain’t even let em say he loves us.” TY says.

Chapter 2

It had been 5 months since TY’s Father was shot dead in a gang war. He is just starting to get over it.

“Beep.” TY’s phone goes off. He looks down and it’s Durant. TY paces around the room a few times. Obviously still a little unstable but, still picks it up.

“Dummy, you gotta do something. Get a cut, ball do something! We’ll be at the court later today you should come out.” Says TY’s homeboy Durant.

“Ard yo, I might be there.” Says TY. He stares at his phone quizzically for a few seconds before putting on his beat to death air force 1’s, the classics and heads out the door.

Chapter 3

It’s a warm summer night and the whole squad is there: AJ,Tony,Monte,TY,and Ray. The sun is starting to set. Sunflower seed are passed around. Just a group of friends enjoying the last of summer before it ends.

“Stop hogging dem seeds boi.” Ray jokes at Monte.

“Shut ya ugly a** up and lets run some three on threes!” Monte yells back.

Durant whispers to TY if he feels better. TY nods his head yes before picking up the ball. Just as they start up the game 4 other kids show up. They look as if they’re around seventeen years old. Two are buff and big and the other two are medium size. The game starts off regular with Monte driving past everyone. The score is 7 to 2 when Durant started to get on fire. He hit two 3’s in a row tying the score at 7. He pumps his fist in the air like he just won gold in the 2016 olympics. They call isolation for TY. He double crosses over. Drives to the basket but, steps back to the three point line fades away and releases. The ball seems to hang in the air for what seems like an eternity. It bounces off the rim and goes in and out like a fast food restaurant.

“He’s a chokes artist.” Says one of the buffer kids.

“Let’s see if you can bring that talk to the court” Says TY. TY notices that he has a tattoo on his left arm that says BGM.

“Nah bruh I’m chillin.” Says the buff BGM kid with a grin that glows like a light that hurts your eyes.

While this is happening Monte drive for the fast break to pull up at the three to win it. The 4 boys walk away with laughter so loud you could feel it. Monte is basking in his glory. The losers are trash talking about winning tomorrow. TY bends down to pick up his stuff to find that it’s………..gone.

Chapter 4

“Anyofyallseentmyphone” TY is speaking a mile a minute.

“Bro chill out, what happened?”. Says AJ.

TY’s heart races, It’s pumping faster than Usain Bolt in the 100 meter dash. TY starts to slow down a bit and asks anyone if they have seen his phone?

“No” Says everyone.

“I seent da four young bouls have a phone, buh I ain’t think it was yours.” Says Tony. Tony has severe ADHD so, the boys weren’t very surprised that he saw it.

TY stopped where he was. It’s as if if he moves that it will end the world. After five TY says “We gon have to kill em.”

“It’s just a phone what’s the big deal?” says Durant.

“I need to get my voicemail.” Says TY with a look in his eyes that even Durant had not seen before. And Durant has been his friend since they were 4 years old.

“Damn.” Says Durant.

“Hol up, I got an idea and nobody’s finna get hurt.” Says Ray.

Chapter 6

“Ard so they never met Kobe right?” Ray asks.

“Why da f*** does that matter? Why you keep playing around this is serious yo! No one wants to hear another one of your dumb*** ideas.” Durant yells angrily. His ears are red and it seems like steam is coming out of them.

Ray stares calmly at Durant and almost whispers “I am being serious, Kobe is going to call them and ask them if a phone is for sale?”

“How are we going to contact them?” Durant asks.

“Found em on ig” Ray snaps back. Durant is found at a loss. He really wanted to jump those guys because TY is basically a brother to him.

“It could work.” TY says. Still you could tell there was doubt in his eyes.

Chapter 7

“Kobe called me back.” Says Ray.

“And.” Says TY impatiently. He couldn’t sleep at all the night before and chews on a straw profusely now.

“He said that the four kids want to meet him in an alley down on 49th street.” Says Ray.

The boys walk down to Kobe’s house to give him money to buy the phone back. Kobe is a part of their group it’s just that his parents want him working with his tutor 24/7. Luckily, today his parents were out of town. “Wassup Kobe, I hadn’t seen you in a minute and howya doings?” Were going around before they got down to business.

“Before we go out there here’s a headset so that we can hear everything that’s going on and tell you what to do.” Says TY.

On the short walk to 49th street there wasn’t much talk at all. Everyone was just trying to stay loose but, Tony just kept making things worse. “I wonder if they have guns?” He says which caused several punches to his stomach and arms. Tony is the youngest of the group at only 14 years old.

They finally get to the alley and Kobe walks through to the middle of the alley.Somewhere in the alley something is dripping. Garbage cans line each of the walls with just enough room for one person to walk through without getting drenched in trash.

“Yi, Yi.” a noise like a rat is coming from under a dumpster.

Smells of old liquor and rat piss swarms the area.

“Creeeek.” Kobe steps on a piece of glass and looks up to see he’s not alone.

Chapter 8

He sees 4 sets of eyes staring at him just like they said there would be.

“You got the money?” Says one of the buffer one's who looks like he’s 6 ft 1 in. He is white with many tattoos on his arms. He also has black hair and brown eyes. He puts his hands out to collect the money but, Kobe asks for the phone.

“It’s right here.” Says one of the medium build kids. He’s holding up TY’s phone with his right hand.

“Give them the money.” Says TY from the headset. Kobe hands him the money but before he could get the phone the 4 boys are off to the races. Running as fast as they can.

“They still got the phone.” Kobe screams into the headset. As he chases after them.

The squad goes all the way around the block to find them. It’s 4 on 8 and they got nowhere to go. They’re in a close fight. Right in the middle of the day everyone’s watching but, no one dares to break it up. TY then knees one boy in the face and he goes unconscious. TY doesn’t even flinch to him he’s fighting for his Father. After that the 3 other boys are outnumbered and outmatched. TY gets his phone back but, he’s relentless. He won’t stop punching them in the face over and over and over again.

“HaHaHa.” the white boy laughs.

“What the hell is so funny?” TY says.

“You see this tattoo.” Says the white boy back. Pointing at his BGM tattoo.

“What do I care.” Shrieks TY. His patience obviously gone awhile ago.

“Do you recognize it? It says Ballers Getting Money. My brother killed your Father and the only evidence of him is that voicemail. He said if I your phone I could be apart of the gang. But, now that you know he gon have to spray yall like some bugs.” Says the white boy.

After hearing this TY breaks down to the point of no return. While this is happening Tony notices a Silver Acura driving on the sidewalk right towards them. “Drive By!” He screams. There’s three guys sticking their heads out the windows with masks on and waving semi-automatics.

“BANGBANGBANG.” The boys shrieks interrupted by gunfire that seems to go on forever. The boys are too late Their blood sprays the wall like paint on canvas.

The End