𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 𝐁𝐄𝐃™

Hh

Isis

"Don't look at 'em, yea," Asa warned, pulling me ahead of him, so the homeless men and women that strolled the streets didn't pull me into their conversations.

These were probably the most scary i've ever seen these street walkers. It was like they were losing their minds, just pulling and tugging at any random, sane, person.

They weren't even begging anymore, just snatching and throwing you off on the side of the road, leaving scrapes and dents marked on your body.

"They on that synthetic shit," He mumbled in my ear, leading me towards a worn down apartment complex, "Its been goin' around fast, and now they tweakin'."

He unlocked the hinges, nodding his head in regards to the entrance so I could walk in, but the moment I stepped a foot into the building, a frail voice called out amongst the group of homeless people.

"Asaad!" A frantic tone appeared close behind us, revealing a small man, whose back was hunched over.

I was the only one who turned around, but Asa ignored it completely. He actually tried to make his way inside, but the man called out his name louder.

"Oh, so you don't hear me now?" The older gentlemen took his hat off and slammed it on the ground, where a puddle sat underneath. "Asaad, I have missed you."

"I said don't look at em'," Asa reminded, seeing that I was stuck in a gaze at this man who locked eyes with me.

He was so familiar, the look on his face, the eyes, and it wasn't the fact that he and Asa shared features, but it was something else.

By the way this man was staring at me, I could tell that he recognized me too, his head tilted a bit, trying to figure out where.

"Asaad, you ain't looked at me since 2013, YEA? Have I failed you so bad that you can't even.. can't even speak to me." He cut his eyes, looking at the back of Asa's head since he refused to turn around and glimpse at the man.

"Man get clean," was all Asa said as he dropped money into this man's hands.

The man stepped back, counting each dollar slowly, and aloud so all the other homeless people could hear.

"Just 250, Asaad? Raising you was worth more than 250." The man licked his lips, strolling through the rest of the bills, a bit unamused. "You got any powder?"

"What you need powder fo' huh? I done sent you to rehab 27 times, pa. Twenty-seven fuckin' times and you got the nerve to come back and ask about some damn powder. I spent over seventy thousand, five hundred A DAY  to get you off that shit and you blew it. Keep the 250 fo' I snatch that shit back."

Asa then shoved me inside, impatient with the fact that I was taking in a whiff of this man's look. He then followed in my footsteps, slamming the door behind me.

The nosey part of me wanted to know more about what just happened, but I decided to stay silent as we traveled along the longest steps of my life.

I was nearly sweating by the time we got to the fifth floor, and there was still three more flights that we had to walk. "Can't we take the elevator?"