Free Thicker Than Water by Takerra Allen

few times, shit it’ll probably help you,” Kim joked. Tatum laughed and then added.
    “Yeah, maybe they knocked some sense into ya dumb ass.” The doctor looked at the girls like they were the worst thing since Bin Laden but Tatum knew that’s what Sasha needed to hear, or she would panic. Sasha got serious for a minute.
    “They didn’t, you know?” She asked, scared. She had seen too many Lifetime movies about girls getting raped catching diseases and getting pregnant.
    “No. No,” the doctor reassured her. “They didn’t do anything sexual. They just knocked you unconscious and then fled. A neighbor called the police when he heard one of them say that they thought they had killed you.”
    She was a nice doctor Sasha thought to herself. Not just trying to act like there was a bunch of things wrong with her to get a bigger bill.
    Sasha told Tatum and Kim what happened after she gave her statement to the police of basically nothing. Questioning her more than likely they were just trying to get to Chauncey and being that Sasha remembered the guys looking for money that they thought Sasha had, she knew if they did an investigation, it would lead to Chauncey one way or another. The doctors monitored her all night and the next day Tatum and Kim came to pick her up. Chauncey. Chauncey. The name played in her head like her favorite song.
    What does he have to say about this? Why isn’t he here?
    They climbed into Tatum’s truck and headed to Sasha’s apartment. In the middle of the silence Sasha asked the inevitable.
    “Did anybody tell Chauncey?”
    Tatum and Kim looked at each other and knew that one of them would have to be the one to give the news that would set that crazy mothafucka off. But neither one of them wanted that position, so they just kept on driving.
     
    E drove through the Holland Tunnel bumping the new D-Block Super Mario CD. He was feeling good. Him and Chaunc had just dropped a hell of a load off in Brooklyn and were happy to make it back trouble free.
    Chauncey sat in the passenger seat, smoking a cigarette staring out of the window, thinking of Sasha. She was his focus. Whenever he did something wrong, whenever he harmed someone, he just thought of her. He knew that God could never punish him too much because he loved something so pure, so precious. She was his angel.
    Chauncey turned the radio down.
    “Yo E, remember when we went to Miami last summer and we was downtown, you know the day that whole set up shit happened with papi?” Chauncey asked, taking another pull of his cigarette.
    “Yeah, yeah. Papi thought shit was sweet, I had to put that nigga’s brains on the wall. Remember you caught the big nigga right between the eyes and his shit was hanging out the socket!” E got excited, recalling the whole scenario.
    “Yeah man, but remember when we were downtown and we passed that jewelry spot and I said I was gonna come back for that fly ass engagement ring for Sash. You know the 6 karat joint?”
    E nodded his head yes and Chauncey continued.
    “I should’ve just done that shit, man. For real. We’d probably have a seed by now and everything.”
    E sat in silence and kept his eyes on the road. He knew this was real for Chaunc. He knew his man was a cut throat, arrogant, hard headed nigga, so for him to be coming to him like this must mean he really missed her.
    “Yo Chaunc, you ever thought about just telling her about Neli? Telling her the truth?”
    There was a silence and just when Chauncey was about to respond, his cell phone rang loudly. It was a blocked number. Chauncey ignored the call but ten seconds later it called right back.
    “Who dis?” He asked, better yet demanded.
    “Chauncey.”
    Click. He hung up at the sound of Neli’s voice. Two seconds later it rang again.
    “Stop fucking calling,” he warned her through clenched teeth, frustrated.
    “Wait, I got to tell you something,” she pleaded.
    “What?” He asked annoyed.
    “I can’t tell you over the